20th century BC

"2000 B.C." redirects here. For the music album, see 2000 B.C. (Before Can-I-Bus).

Millennium:	2nd millennium BC
Centuries:	21st century BC 20th century BC 19th century BC
Decades:	1990s BC 1980s BC 1970s BC 1960s BC 1950s BC 1940s BC 1930s BC 1920s BC 1910s BC 1900s BC
Categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments

The 20th century BC is a century which lasted from the year 2000 BC to 1901 BC.

Events

The pyramid ruin of Amenemhet I at Lisht. He was the founder of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt

• 2000 BC: Arrival of the ancestors of the Latins in Italy.
• 2000 BC: Town of Mantua was presumably founded.
• 2000 BC: Stonehenge is believed to have been completed.
• 2000 BC: Farmers and herders traveled south from Ethiopia and settled in Kenya.
• 2000 BC: Horses were tamed and used for transport.
• c. 2000 BC: First of the Minoan palaces on Crete.
• c. 2000 BC: Site of palace complex Knossos started to become occupied.
• c. 2000 BC: Decline of Harappan civilization began.
• c. 2000 BC: Bronze Age began in north Ancient China.
• c. 2000 BC: the Harappa Torso was sculpted by a member of the Indus Valley culture.
• 2000 BC: suggested date when, according to religious scriptures, Abraham founded Judaism.
• c. 2000 BC: Middle Jōmon period ended in Japan.
• c. 2000 BC: Vessel, from Asahi Mound, Toyama Prefecture, was made. Jōmon period. It is now kept at Collection of Tokyo University.
• c. 2000 BC: Dogū, from Kurokoma, Yamanashi Prefecture, was made. Jōmon period. It is now kept at Tokyo National Museum.
• c. 2000 BC - 1900 BC: the "Priest-king torso" was sculpted at Mohenjo-Daro, part of the Indus Valley civilization.
• c. 1995 BC: Pharaoh Mentuhotep II, Eleventh dynasty of Egypt dies.
• 1991 BC: Egypt: Pharaoh Mentuhotep IV died. End of Eleventh Dynasty. Pharaoh Amenemhat I started to rule. Start of Twelfth Dynasty.
• c. 1985 BC: Political authority became less centralized in Ancient Egypt.
• c. 1985 BC – 1795 BC: Rock-cut tombs at Beni Hasan were made. Twelfth Dynasty.
• c. 1985 BC – 1795 BC: "Hippopotamus", from the tomb of Senbi (governor) (Tomb B.3) at Meir was made. Twelfth Dynasty. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• February 27, 1953 BC: A very close alignment of the naked-eye planets took place in which these planets are together in a span of 4.3 degrees.
• c. 1942 BC: The so-called king of Leubingen (today part of Sömmerda) was buried in a large barrow within a 66-foot-wide (20 m) stone cairn inside a ring ditch.
• 1932 BC: Amorite conquest of Ur.
• c. 1928 BC – 1895 BC: "Harvest scene", tempera facsimile by Nina de Garis Davies of wall painting in the tomb of Khnumhotep II, Beni Hasan. Twelfth Dynasty.
• 1913 BC – 1903 BC: Egyptian-Nubian war.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• c. 2000 BC – Glass appears.
• 1950 BC—The copper bar cubit of Nippur defines the Sumerian cubit as 51.72 cm.

• c. 1900 BC - Cacao is domesticated by the Mokaya in Guatemala.

Sovereign States

See: List of sovereign states in the 20th century BC.