1500s BC
Centuries: 17th century BC - 16th century BC - 15th century BC
Decades: 1550s BC 1540s BC 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC - 1500s BC - 1490s BC 1480s BC 1470s BC 1460s BC 1450s BC
Events and trends
- Stonehenge built in Wiltshire, England
- The element Mercury has been discovered in Egyptian tombs dating from this decade
- Settlers from Crete, Greece move to Miletus, Turkey
- Early traces of Maya civilization developing in Belize
- The Phoenicians develop an alphabet - see Timeline of communication technology
- 1506 BC - Cecrops, legendary King of Athens, dies after a reign of 50 years. Having survived his own son, he is succeeded by Cranaus.
- Egypt conquers Nubia and the Levant (1504 BC - 1492 BC)
- Earliest evidence (from archaeological excavations) of a settlement at Aylesbury, England.
- 1500 BC - 100 BC - Indus valley civilization - series of raids or small scale migrations by the Aryans from the North-West of Indian subcontinent.
Significant people
- Thutmose II of Egypt, Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1518 - 1504 BC).
- Thutmose III of Egypt, Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (1503 BC - 1426 BC).