1600s BC (decade)

The 1600s BC was a decade lasting from January 1, 1609 BC to December 31, 1600 BC.

Events and trends

• Egypt—End of Fourteenth Dynasty.
• The creation of one of the oldest surviving astronomical documents, a copy of which was found in the Babylonian library of Ashurbanipal: a 21-year record of the appearances of Venus (which the early Babylonians called Nindaranna).
• The end of the Indus Valley civilization.
• The overthrow of the ruling Amorite dynasty in Aleppo, Syria.
• The date of the earliest discovered rubber balls.
• Egypt conquered by Asian tribes known as the Hyksos—see History of ancient Israel and Judah.
• 1600 BC—Shang dynasty instituted in China.
• 1600 BC—Tumulus culture started.
• c. 1600 BC—Nebra skydisk created in what is now Germany.
• c. 1600 BC—The foundations of the Olmec civilization in southern Mexico.
• c. 1600 BC—Cycladic civilization ends.
• c. 1600 BC–1550 BC—"Mask of Agamemnon" Funerary mask, from the royal tombs at Mycenae, Greece, is made. Grave Circle A. It is now at National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
• c. 1600 BC–1200 BC—Hittite (Anatolia) iron tools and weapons.
• c. 1600 BC – 1200 BC—Tiryns, Ancient Greece, is inhabited.
• c. 1600 BC—Kings and princes on the mainland Greece have begun building large aboveground burial places commonly referred to as beehive tombs because of their rounded, conical shape.
• c. 1600 BC—Hittites establish capital at Hattusa (near modern Boğazkale, Turkey).

Significant people

• 1602 BC—Death of Shem, son of Noah, according to the Hebrew Calendar