Scotland's History - Timeline

5 0 0 0 Ye a r s of S cot l a nd ’s H i s tor y

PREHISTORIC

ANCIENT

MEDIEVAL

EARLY MODERN

2900 BC

MODERN

c. 3000 BC

Neolithic Age begins 3100 BC

Stones of Stenness 1638

c. 3000 BC

Orkney Venus c. 3000 - 2200BC

Tomb of the Eagles 3100 BC

3000 BC

c. 3100 BC

c. 3000 BC

Stonehenge is begun.

Single graves replace communal burials in Britain.

2900 BC

Flint Tools The earliest prehistoric tools surviving in Scotland date from around 3000 BC.

c. 2800 BC

Maes Howe 2800 BC

2700 BC

2600 BC

2589 - 2565 BC Great Pyramid of Giza built

3100 – 2500 BC

Skara Brae

Bone awls Possibly decorative rather than functional, from Skara Brae

c. 2500 - 2000BC

Ring of Brodgar Carved stone ball From Skara Brae, Orkney

2500 BC

2400 BC

2500 - 800 BC Early Bronze Age in Britain

2400 BC Decorated beaker pottery is made in Britain

2300 BC

2000 BC

Bronze Age begins

Hair ornament of gold Found at Orbliston, Moray

Gold lunula or collar Found at Auchentaggart, Dumfriesshire

2200 BC

2100 BC

2000 BC

2049 BC Seahenge is constructed on the Norfolk Coast.

c. 2000 - 1500 BC

Calanais standing stones c. 1800 BC

Timber roundhouses 1900 BC

1800 BC

1800 BC

First industrial-sized copper mines are built in Britain

1700 BC

c. 1500 BC

Middle Bronze Age

Ceramic accessory cup From Kirkpark, Musselburgh - Dated between 2050 and 1500 BC. Bronze spearhead Used as a throwing spear sometime between 1750 and 1450 BC.

1600 BC

1500 BC

1500 - 1200 BC Middle Bronze Age in Britain

1400 BC

1333 - 1324 BC Tutankhamun is Pharaoh of Egypt

1300 BC - 1100 BC

Dirk

Bracelets

1200 BC - 950 BC

Braes of Gight hoard

Cast of a Middle Bronze Age dirk from Seggie, Kinross

1300 BC

Bronze penannular necklet

1200 BC

1200 - 800 BC

Late Bronze Age. production of metals increases

1100 BC

c. 800 BC

Finavon hill fort, Angus.

c. 1000 BC

Cladh Hallan Bronze Age settlement

1000 BC

Bronze Age ‘fancy’ barbed and tanged flint arrowheads From Kincardineshire, perhaps used for sport hunting sometime between 2500 and 900 BC.

900 BC

800 BC

753 BC

Rome is founded

750 BC Homer writes the ‘The Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’

c. 700- 500 BC

Iron Age

c. 700 - 300 BC

Crannogs

c. 700- 500 BC

Ballachulish Goddess 700 BC

600 BC

500 BC

480 BC

Spartans face Persians at Battle of Thermopylae

508 BC

Democracy in Greek city of Athens

Saddle quern and rubbing stone from Orkney A saddle quern was used for grinding grains and seeds. This saddle quern could date any time between 4000 and 0 BC.

c. 180 BC

Rotary querns

Saddle quern and rubbing stone from Orkney Querns are stone handmills used mostly for grinding cereals. This quern was used sometime between 80 and 180 AD.

300 BC

400 BC

330 BC Pytheas of Massilia circumnavigates the British Isles

356 - 323 BC Alexander the Great

200 BC

83 AD

Battle of Mons Graupius c. 142 AD

Antonine Wall

c. 100 BC- 100 AD

Brochs

c.50 AD/ 80-200 AD

Deskford Carnyx

122 AD

Hadrian’s Wall 1 AD

100 BC

100 AD

100 AD

44BC 55 BC

Julius Caesar is assassinated.

Romans invade England.

69 - 30 BC

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt

79 AD

Coins are produced and used for the first time in Britain

Mount Vesuvius volcano destroys Pompeii

97–103 AD

Vindolanda letters

c. 400 AD

Traprain treasure

310 AD

‘Caledones and Picts’ in Roman source

c. 400 AD

Kingdom of Dál Riata c. 400 AD

Ninian 367 AD

Barbarian conspiracy 200 AD

300 AD

400 AD

314 AD

434 AD

Edict of Milan ceases the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire

Angles and Saxons arrive in Britain.

410 AD Sack of Rome

434 AD Attila becomes king of the Huns

563 AD

Columba founds church on Iona c. 600 AD

Gododdin defeated

c. 800 AD

Book of Kells 697 AD

Law of the Innocents

685 AD

Pictish symbol stones

Battle of Dunnichen

500 AD

700 AD

600 AD

597 AD

789 AD

Augustine begins the conversion of Britain to Christianity

742-814

Charlemagne

First Viking attack on the British Isles

763-809 AD Hārūn al-Rashīd

937

1098

Battle of Brunanburh

Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret

Sueno Stone

c. 800

Vikings raid and settle

1040

Macbeth becomes king Silver gilt brooch Found at Croy in Inverness-shire

Beowulf

c. 900 - 1286

Scar Dragon Plaque 900 AD

800 AD

c. 800

c. 875 - 950

841

Dublin founded by Vikings

Kingdom of Alba 1000 AD

c. 1001

Leif Ericson founds Viking settlement in Vinland

1054

The Great Schism

c. 1099

First Crusade capture of Jerusalem

868

Woodblock printing in China

1066

Battle of Hastings

1320

Declaration of Arbroath d. 1164

Somerled of the Isles

1274 - 1329

Robert the Bruce 1286

Death of Alexander III 12th Century

1272 - 1305

Lewis chessmen

William Wallace 1200 AD

1100 AD

early 12th Century Angkor Wat

1314

Battle of Bannockburn 1300 AD

c. 1347 - 51

1162-1227

Black Death

Genghis Khan

1187

Saladin captures Jerusalem

1190

Massacre of Jews in York

c. 1308 - 21

Dante’s DivineComedy

1368

Ming Dynasty begins in China

1450

1638

Renaissance in Scotland

National Covenant 1603

Union of the Crowns 1691

Massacre of Glencoe

1442-1587 1450

Rosslyn Chapel Built 1400 AD

Mary Queen of Scots

1500 AD

c. 1400

Gawain and the Green Knight

1412-1431 Joan of Arc

1452-1519

Leonardo DaVinci

1492

Colombus lands in the ‘New World’

1600 AD

1564–1616

Queen Elizabeth I

1564–1616

William Shakespeare

18th century

1999

Scottish Parliament Reconvenes

Scottish Enlightenment

1707

Union of Parliaments 1759 - 96

Robert Burns

1883

Votes for Women 1745

Jacobite Rising

1997

1800

Dolly the Sheep

Industrial and Urban Scotland 1700 AD

1800 AD

1776

United States of America declare independence

1755 Great Lisbon Earthquake

1900 AD

1914-18 The Great War

1939 - 45 World War II

1969

Moon Landing