33rd century BC

Millennium:	4th millennium BC
Centuries:	34th century BC 33rd century BC 32nd century BC
Decades:	3290s BC 3280s BC 3270s BC 3260s BC 3250s BC 3240s BC 3230s BC 3220s BC 3210s BC 3200s BC
Categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments

The 33rd century BC is a century which lasted from the year 3300 BC to 3201 BC.

Events

The sun shines over Saharan dunes

• Major climate shift possibly due to shift in solar activity. Glaciers expand, covering plants. Atmospheric temperatures fall.
• Sahara changes from a habitable region into a barren desert
• Ancient Egypt begins using clay, bone and ivory tags to label boxes, possibly an example of proto-writing
• Indus Valley Civilization (also known as Harappan civilization or Sindu-Sarasvati civilization) begins in Harappa
• c. 3300 BC, Harappan script is discovered in Indus Valley (present day Pakistan)
• c. 3300 BC—Pictographs in Uruk
• 3300 BC to 3000 BC: Face of a woman, from Uruk (modern Warka, Iraq) is made. It is now in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad (stolen and recovered in 2003).
• c. 3300 BC The Red Temple, the first phase of the Monte d'Accoddi sanctuary in Northwest Sardinia, is built.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• The Bronze Age begins in the Fertile Crescent (Roux, 1980)
• Cattle introduced to the Nile valley
• Egyptians domesticate the wild ass of North Africa (Clutton-Brock)
• c. 3250 BC – Potter's wheel in use in Ancient Near East

Significant people

Ötzi the Iceman memorial

• Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy discovered in the Austrian/Italian Alps in 1991