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
1542-1587
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