Late Antiquity is a narrative of notable events from 244 to 676. (3974 records)

We begin in the easternmost subregions and move westwardly around the globe, crossing the equator as many as six times to explore ever shorter time periods as we continue to circle the planet. The maps of the regions and subregions change to reflect the appropriate time period.

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Okvik Culture (244–387 CE)

St. Lawrence Island’s Distinctive Style and the Dialogues of OBS

The Okvik culture, named for the northern Punuk Islands southeast of St. Lawrence Island, flourished in the mid-3rd to 4th centuries CE. Archaeologists see it as a contemporary counterpart to the developed Old Bering Sea traditionaround 300 CE — its communities inhabiting the same Bering Strait world, but expressing it with distinctive material and social emphases.

Okvik sites are especially renowned for their ivory carving style, marked by bold incisions, spirals, and figurative forms that set them apart from the more geometric OBS patterns. Harpoon heads, snow goggles, and ornaments recovered at Okvik display both artistry and practical refinement. Some depict stylized human or animal faces, perhaps embodying spiritual guardianship.

Subsistence paralleled that of OBS communities: marine hunting of walrus, seals, and whales, complemented by fishing and foraging. Okvik groups also engaged in long-distance exchange — their materials show ties to Siberia, Alaska, and neighboring island groups.

What distinguishes Okvik in the archaeological record is less subsistence and more identity of style. Many specialists treat Okvik as a regional expression of OBS, while others view it as a separate but allied tradition that coexisted and interacted with OBS communities. Either way, the Okvik horizon reveals a world of dialogue between island and mainland, where artistry was as much about signaling belonging and prestige as about decorating tools.

By the later 4th century, the Okvik tradition began to fade, merging into the broader Punuk trajectory that would reshape Bering Strait societies by the early medieval period.

 

Funan's population during this early period in its history is probably concentrated in villages along the Mekong River and along the Tonle Sab River below the Tonle Sap.

Traffic and communications are mostly waterborne on the rivers and their delta tributaries.

The area is a natural region for the development of an economy based on fishing and rice cultivation.

There is considerable evidence that the Funanese economy depends on rice surpluses produced by an extensive inland irrigation system.

Maritime trade also plays an extremely important role in the development of Funan.

The remains of what is believed to have been the kingdom's main port, Óc Eo (now part of Vietnam), contain Roman as well as Persian, Indian, and Greek artifacts.

A time of turbulence in China follows the demise of the Han dynasty, with six different dynasties in succession coming to power from the third to the sixth century.

The periods between dynasties or the periods when dynasties are weak in China are usually the most peaceful in Vietnam.

When dynasties are strong and interfere with local rule, the Vietnamese aristocracy engages in a series of violent revolts that weaken China's control over its southern territory.

A rebellion led by the noblewoman Trieu Au (Lady Trieu) in 248 is suppressed after about six months, but its leader earns a place in the hearts and history of the Vietnamese people.

Despite pressure to accept Chinese patriarchal values, Vietnamese women continue to play an important role and to enjoy considerably more freedom than their northern counterparts.

The Jin court is forced to flee from Luoyang in 317 and reestablishes itself at Nanjing to the south.

The transfer of the capital coincides with China's political fragmentation into a succession of dynasties that is to last from 304 to 589.

During this period the process of sinicization accelerates among the non-Chinese arrivals in the north and among the aboriginal tribesmen in the south.

This process is also accompanied by the increasing popularity of Buddhism (introduced into China in the first century CE) in both north and south China.

Despite the political disunity of the times, there are notable technological advances.

The invention of gunpowder (at this time for use only in fireworks) and the wheelbarrow is believed to date from the sixth or seventh century.

Advances in medicine, astronomy, and cartography are also noted by historians.

Jinhan is situated in the middle part of the southern peninsula, Mahan in the southwest, and Byeonhan in the southeast.

The state of Baekje, which will soon come to exercise great influence on Korean history, emerges first in the Mahan area; it is not certain when this happened, but Baekje certainly exists by CE 246 because Lelang mounts a large attack on it in this year.

That Baekche is a centralized, aristocratic state melding Chinese and indigenous influence is not in doubt, nor is its growing power: within a century, Baekje has demolished Mahan and continues expanding northward into what today is the core area of Korea, around Seoul.

It is thought that the Korean custom of father-to-son royal succession began with King Kun Ch'ogo (reigned ca. 346-75) of Baekje.

His grandson inaugurates another long tradition by adopting Buddhism as the state religion in 384.

Peninsular geography shapes the political space of Baekje and Goguryeo, and a third kingdom, Silla.

In the central part of Korea, the main mountain range, the T'aebaek, runs north to south along the edge of the Sea of Japan (or, as Koreans prefer, the East Sea).

Approximately three-quarters of the way down the peninsula, however, roughly at the thirty-seventh parallel, the mountain range veers to the southwest, dividing the peninsula almost in the middle. This southwest extension, the Sobaek Range, shields peoples to the east of it from the Chinese-occupied portion of the peninsula but places no serious barrier in the way of expansion into or out of the southwestern portion of the peninsula.

This is Baekje's historical territory.

The Kofun period is a critical stage in Japan's evolution toward a more cohesive and recognized state.

This society is most developed in the easternmost part of the Inland Sea (Seto Naikai), and its armies establish a foothold on the southern tip of Korea.

Japan's rulers of the time even petition the Chinese court for confirmation of royal titles; the Chinese, in turn, recognize Japanese military control over parts of the Korean Peninsula

The earliest written records about Japan are from Chinese sources from this period.

Wa (the Japanese pronunciation of an early Chinese name for Japan) was first mentioned in CE 57.

Early Chinese historians described Wa as a land of hundreds of scattered tribal communities, not the unified land with a seven hundred-year tradition as laid out in the Nihongi, which puts the foundation of Japan at 660 BCE.

Third-century Chinese sources report that the Wa people live on raw vegetables, rice, and fish served on bamboo and wooden trays, have vassal-master relations, collect taxes, have provincial granaries and markets, clap their hands in worship (something still done in Shinto shrines), have violent succession struggles, build earthen grave mounds, and observe mourning.

Himiko, a female ruler of an early political federation known as Yamatai, flourishes during the third century.

While Himiko reigns as spiritual leader, her younger brother carries out affairs of state, which included diplomatic relations with the court of the Chinese Wei Dynasty (CE 220-65).

The collapse of the Han dynasty had been followed by nearly four centuries of rule by warlords.

The age of civil wars and disunity had begun with the era of the Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu, and Wu, which had overlapping reigns during the period CE 220-80).

In later times, fiction and drama greatly romanticize the reputed chivalry of this period.

Unity is restored briefly in the early years of the Jin dynasty (CE 265-420), but the Jin cannot long contain the invasions of the nomadic peoples.

According to South Korean historiography, however, it is the glories of a third kingdom that are most important in founding the nation.

Silla eventually becomes the repository of a rich and cultured ruling elite, with its capital at Kyongju in the southeast, north of the modern port of Pusan.

The military men who will rule South Korea, either as dictators or elected leaders beginning in 1961, will all come from this region, and most South Korean historians will consider Silla's historical lineage as predominant.

It is the Baekje legacy that will suffer in divided Korea, as Koreans of other regions and historians in both North Korea and South Korea discriminate against the people of the Cholla provinces in the southwest of the peninsula, but taken together, the Three Kingdoms will continue to influence Korean history and political culture.

Koreans will often assume that regional traits that they like or dislike have their origins in the Three Kingdoms period.