A · c. 2000 — 1550 BCE

Middle Bronze Age

Urban civilizations rise across the Levant; Amorite migrations reshape the Near East. The world Abraham was born into.

B · c. 1550 — 1200 BCE

Late Bronze Age

Egyptian dominance over Canaan; the cosmopolitan Amarna world; collapse of palace civilizations around 1200 BCE.

C · c. 1200 — 1000 BCE

Iron Age I

Highland villages multiply across Canaan; the emergence of Israel as a distinct people in the archaeological record.

D · c. 1000 — 586 BCE

Iron Age II

The age of kingdoms — the United Monarchy, the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with Babylonian destruction.

E · 586 BCE — 324 CE

Classical Antiquity

Persian, Hellenistic, Hasmonean, and Roman rule. Two temples destroyed; rabbinic Judaism takes shape.

F · 324 — 1500 CE

Medieval Period

Talmudic academies; Islamic and Christian rule; Sephardi golden age; Ashkenazi heartlands; the Spanish expulsion.

G · 1500 — Present

Modern Era

Mysticism and Hasidism, emancipation, Zionism, the Holocaust, the founding of Israel, and the ingathering of exiles.