Naram-Sin, King of Akkad, dies in 2135…

Shar-Kali-Sharri, who had ascended the throne of Akkad around 2155 BCE, reigns for twenty-five years, after which there seems to have been a short period of chaos: The Sumerian list of kings states:
“Then who was king? Who was the king? Igigi, Imi, Nanum, Ilulu: four of them ruled for only three years.”

The Akkadian Empire had began to crumble during the reign of Shar-kali-sharri from the invasion of mountain tribesmen called the Guti, who infiltrate Akkad from the region between the Tigris and the Zagros Mountains to the east.

The Guti may be an Indo-European speaking people, possibly related linguistically to the Tocharians or to the modern Kurdish people, or may be speakers of a Caucasian tongue.

Dudu, becoming king in about 2130, ends the period of relative anarchy.

A second separate Egyptian kingdom is established in Wasat (Thebes), in competition with the Ninth dynasty.

In the meantime, the rival Thebes line, known as the Eleventh dynasty, reunites Upper Egypt; a clash between the two rival dynasties is inevitable.

Zawy, or Syut (modern Asyut), is established on the west bank of the Nile as the capital of the Thirteenth Nome of Upper Egypt.

During the First Intermediate Period—comprising the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh (Thebes only) dynasties—that follows the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the rulers of Zawty— Khety I, Itefibi, and Khety II—are supporters of the Herakleopolitan kings, of whose domain the nome forms the southern limits.

The conflict between this nome and the southern nomes under the rule of the Eleventh Dynasty ends with the victory of Thebes in 2125 and the decline of the city's importance.

The Eighth dynasty had succeeded the Seventh, and with its end in 2130, the Old Kingdom state collapses utterly.

Famine and violence are widespread; sharply increased numbers of burials in cemeteries bear witness to the consequent rise in the death rate.

The desiccation of northeastern Africa reaches a peak, producing conditions similar to those of modern times.

The Sumerians regain control of Sumer in about 2112, conquer Akkad, and thus unite all of the region later called Babylonia under a single rule.

Mentuhotep, the local Egyptian ruler at Thebes, and the first member of the Eleventh dynasty during the First Intermediate Period, is succeeded by Intef, who is the first of his dynasty to assume the title of Pharaoh, with the Horus name Sehertawy, He Who Calms The Two Lands.

This is contested by the other nomarchs of Egypt, chief among them the Tenth dynasty at Herakleopolis Magna, and Intef probably rules little more than the surrounding areas of his capital.

He is succeeded in 2112 by Intef II.

Intef II is able to unite all the southern nomes down to the First Cataract after the death of the nomarch Ankhtifi.

After uniting the southern nomes, Intef clashes with his main rivals, Herakleopolitan kings, for the possession of Abydos.

The city changes hands several times, but Intef is eventually victorious, extending his rule north to the thirteenth nome.

The Thebans establish more friendly relations with the Herakleopolitan kings after the Eleventh Dynasty’s wars of reunification, and the remainder of the reign of Intef II is peaceful.

The legendary Chinese leader Shun, among the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors that precede the semi-legendary Xia dynasty, had made the ingenious Yu, the Tamer of the Flood, his successor, passing over his own son.

(Later Chinese traditions will honor the legendary culture hero as shaper of the country’s waterways and the originator of bronze technology.)

The Daoist (Taoist) ritual known as Yu's Step, a dance in which one foot is dragged behind the other, commemorates the limp Yu supposedly developed as a result of his exhausting labors.)

The Si clan, from which Da Yu (Ta Yü), "Yu the Great," springs, inaugurates China’s Xia (Hsia) dynasty about 2070: this is the first dynasty to be described in Chinese historical records.

According to other Chinese literary sources, this earliest Chinese dynasty is derived from a leading member of the village agricultural units that cooperated in valley defense against perennial intrusions of mounted nomad bowmen from Mongolia and Manchuria to the north.