Decades: 1550s BC 1540s BC 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC - 1500s BC - 1490s BC 1480s BC 1470s BC 1460s BC 1450s BC

• 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)