27th Century B.C.E. | Spark of Genius

Egyptian physician Imhotep diagnoses cancer, perhaps for the first time in history

Imhotep was an Egyptian chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser, possible architect of Djoser’s step pyramid, and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. Very little is known of Imhotep as a historical figure, but in the 3,000 years following his death, he was gradually glorified and deified. In his Pulitzer-prize winning “biography” of cancer – The Emperor of All Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee cites the oldest identified written diagnosis of cancer to Imhotep.

Maya culture emerges in the Yucatan

By Peter Schulte / January 30, 1002

The Maya Long Count Calendar gives a Maya creation date of 11 August, 3114 B.C.E., and traces of Maya habitation at Cuello, in Belize, were recently carbon dated to around 2600 B.C.E.

Ancient Sumerian cylinder seal impression showing Dumuzid being tortured in the Underworld

Humanity’s first monarch, perhaps Dumuzid, comes to power in Sumeria

By Peter Schulte / January 30, 1002

Sumeria was the first civilization, created the first writing system, and had the first monarch.

The Old Kingdom of Egypt begins

By Peter Schulte / January 18, 1002

The Old Kingdom, in ancient Egyptian history, is the period in the third millennium (c. 2686-2181 B.C.E.) also known as the ‘Age of the Pyramids’ or ‘Age of the Pyramid Builders’.