32nd century BC

Millennium:	4th millennium BC
Centuries:	33rd century BC 32nd century BC 31st century BC
Decades:	3190s BC 3180s BC 3170s BC 3160s BC 3150s BC 3140s BC 3130s BC 3120s BC 3110s BC 3100s BC
Categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments

The 32nd century BC is a century which lasted from the year 3200 BC to 3101 BC.

Events

Excavated dwellings at Skara Brae, Europe's most complete Neolithic village.

• c. 3200 BC King Iry-Hor reigns from Abydos over most of Egypt.^[1]
• c. 3200-3150 BC reign of King Ka in Ancient Egypt.
• c. 3150 BC beginning of the reign of Narmer, first pharaoh to unify Ancient Egypt and founder of the 1st Dynasty
• c. 3138 BC Ljubljana Marshes Wheel is a wooden wheel that was found in the Ljubljana Marshes in Slovenia.^[2] Radiocarbon dating showed that it is approximately 5,150 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered.
• c. 3100 BC start of the reign of Hor-Aha, second pharaoh of the 1st Dynasty
• Varna Necropolis: what have been claimed to be the earliest-known worked gold artifacts are manufactured.
• Malta: Construction of the Ħaġar Qim megalithic temples, featuring both solar and lunar alignments. "Tarxien period" of megalithic temple construction reaches its apex.
• Ancient Egypt: Earliest known Egyptian hieroglyphs, beginning of the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt.
• Crete: Rise of Minoan civilization.
• Neolithic settlement built at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. (pictured)
• Earliest buildings at the Ness of Brodgar in the Orkney Islands constructed.
• New Stone Age people in Ireland build the 250,000 ton (226,796.2 tonne) Newgrange solar oriented passage tomb.
• c. 3100 BC: The earliest phase of Stonehenge construction begins.

Significant people

• Iry-Hor, earliest ruler of Egypt known by name.^[3]
• Narmer, founder of the First dynasty of Egypt.

Calendar epochs

• 3114 BC: According to the most widely accepted correlations between the Western calendar and the calendar systems of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the mythical starting point of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar cycle occurs in this year.^[4] The Long Count calendar, used and refined most notably by the Maya civilization but also attested in some other (earlier) Mesoamerican cultures, consisted of a series of interlocked cycles or periods of day-counts, which mapped out a linear sequence of days from a notional starting point. The system originated sometime in the Mid- to Late Preclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, during the latter half of the 1st millennium BC.^[5] The starting point of the most commonly used highest-order cycle^[6]—the b'ak'tun-cycle consisting of thirteen b'ak'tuns of 144,000 days each—was projected back to an earlier, mythical date. This date is equivalent to 11 August 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar (or 6 September in the proleptic Julian calendar), using the correlation known as the "Goodman-Martínez-Thompson (GMT) correlation". The GMT-correlation is worked out with the Long Count starting date equivalent to the Julian Day Number (JDN) equal to 584283, and is accepted by most Mayanist scholars as providing the best fit with the ethnohistorical data.^[7] Two succeeding dates, the 12th and 13 August (Gregorian) have also been supported, with the 13th (JDN = 584285, the "astronomical" or "Lounsbury" correlation) attracting significant support as according better with astronomical observational data.^[8] Although it is still contended which of these three dates forms the actual starting base of the Long Count, the correlation to one of this triad of dates is definitively accepted by almost all contemporary Mayanists. All other earlier or later correlation proposals are now discounted.^[7] The end of the thirteenth baktun was either on December 21 or 23 of 2012 (supposed end of the world).
• 3102 BC: The beginning of Kali Yuga as per Hindu calendar.

Notes

1. P. Tallet, D. Laisnay: Iry-Hor et Narmer au Sud-Sinaï (Ouadi 'Ameyra), un complément à la chronologie des expéditios minière égyptiene, in: BIFAO 112 (2012), 381-395, available online
2. Gasser, Aleksander (March 2003). "World's Oldest Wheel Found in Slovenia". Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia.
3. Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6, available online see p. 36
4. See Finley (2002), Houston (1989, pp.49–51), Miller and Taube (1993, pp.50–52), Schele and Freidel (1990, pp.430 et seq.), Voss (2006, p.138), Wagner (2006, pp.281–283). Note that Houston 1989 mistakenly writes "3113 BC" (when "-3113" is meant), and Miller and Taube 1993's mention of "2 August" is a (presumed) erratum.
5. Miller and Taube (1993, p.50), Schele and Freidel (1990)
6. Most commonly used in the Classic period Maya inscriptions; some other Maya calendar inscriptions of this period note even longer cycles, while later Postclassic-era inscriptions in Maya cities of northern Yucatán generally used an abbreviated form known as the Short Count. See Miller and Taube (1993, p.50); Voss (2006, p.138).
7. See survey by Finley (2002).
8. After a modified proposal championed by Floyd Lounsbury; sources that have used this 584285 correlation include Houston (1989, p.51), and in particular Schele and Freidel (1990, pp.430 et seq.). See also commentary by Finley (2002), who although making an assessment that the "[584285 correlation] is now more popular with Mayanists", expresses a personal preference for the 584283 correlation.

References

Finley, Michael (2002). "The Correlation Question". The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices. Maya Astronomy. Archived from the original on 2007-05-30. Retrieved 2007-06-04.

Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6.

Schele, Linda; and David Freidel (1990). A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-07456-1.

Voss, Alexander (2006). "Astronomy and Mathematics". In Nikolai Grube (Ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant eds.). Cologne: Könemann Press. pp. 130–143. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439.

Wagner, Elizabeth (2006). "Maya Creation Myths and Cosmography". In Nikolai Grube (ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (Assistant Eds.). Cologne: Könemann Press. pp. 280–293. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439.