Sargon defeats Lugal-Zage-Si in about 2330 BCE…

High officials during Teti's reign, from around 2345 to 2333 BCE, are beginning to build funerary monuments that rival that of the Pharaoh.

For example, his chancellor builds a large mastaba consisting of thirty-two rooms, all richly carved.

This is considered a sign that wealth is being transferred from the central court to the officials, a slow process that will culminate in the end to the Old Kingdom.

Teti is murdered by the usurper Userkare and buried in the royal necropolis at Saqqara.

Userkare ("The Soul of Ra is Strong") may have been a royal claimant from the Fifth dynasty but he was certainly a rival to Teti for the throne.

Since Manetho claims that Teti was killed by his bodyguards, theories of conspiracy have been put forward that Userkare was the leader of this conspiracy who then proceeded to seize the throne.

The recently discovered South Saqqara Stone document from Pepi II's reign confirms his existence and assigns him a reign of two to four years.

Teti's son, Pepi I, eventually managed to oust Userkare and succeed his murdered father.

In the Turin King List, there is a lacuna between Teti and Pepi I Meryre, large enough to have fit an entry for Userkare.

Userkare is apparently mentioned in several king-lists.

Userkare started work on some larger building projects, as shown by an inscription mentioning his workforce.

However, no pyramid-complex has been identified for him, presumably because of the brevity of his reign.

Pepi would have needed the support of powerful individuals in Upper Egypt in order to overthrow a usurper and win back his rightful throne.

These individuals would remain a strong presence in his court thereafter, and two of his queens were daughters of his Upper Egyptian vizier.

Pepi I's reign is marked by aggressive expansion into Nubia, the spread of trade to far-flung areas such as Lebanon and the Somalian coast, but also the growing power of the nobility.

One of the king's officials named Weni fights in Asia on his behalf.

His mortuary complex gives name to Memphis.

Ptahhotep, city administrator and vizier (first minister) during the reign of Djedkare Isesi in Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty, is credited as the author of The Instruction of Ptahhotep, an early piece of Egyptian "wisdom literature" meant to instruct young men in appropriate behavior.

He, his son Akhethotep (who is also a vizier), and other of his descendants will be buried at Saqqara.

Their tomb is famous today for its outstanding depictions.

Ptahhotep's grandson, Ptahhotep Tshefi, is traditionally credited with being the author of the collection of conformist wise sayings known as The Maxims of Ptahhotep, which extol the virtues of truthfulness, self-control and kindness towards one's fellow beings, and indicate how to behave properly before greatness, how to choose the right master, and how to serve him.

To learn by listening to every voice.

To accept that human knowledge is imperfect.

To recognize strength in avoiding open conflict wherever possible.

To seek justice and know that divine will prevails.

To lead correctly, through openness and kindness.

To praise generosity towards family and friends and to guard against greed, the base of all evil.

To recognize social elevation as a godly gift, and to preserve it by accepting the precedence of one's superior.

Lugal-Zage-Si of Umma, who reigned from about 2296 BCE to 2271 BCE (short chronology), fated to be the last Sumerian king before the conquest of Sumer by Sargon of Akkad and the rise of the Akkadian Empire, is considered as the only king of the third dynasty of Uruk, and is arguably the first king to unite Sumer as a single kingdom.

Having begun his career as King of Umma, whence he conquered several of the Sumerian city-states including Uruk, where he established his capital, he overthrew king Urukagina of Lagash and apparently establishes a coalition of cities, thereby creating a unified Mesopotamian Empire that he will rule over for twenty-five years.

Lugal-Zage-Si claims in his inscription that Enlil had given to him "all the lands between the upper and the lower seas", that is, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Although his incursion to the Mediterranean is likely not much more than "a successful raiding party", the inscription "marks the first time that a Sumerian prince claimed to have reached what was, for them, the western edge of the world".

Merenre Nemtyemsaf I (2283 - 2278 BCE), the fourth king of Egypt’s Sixth dynasty, shares his father's fascination with Nubia and continues to explore deep into the region.

He also begins a process of royal consolidation, appointing Weni as the first governor of all of Upper Egypt and expanding the power of several other governors.

While he was once assumed to have died at an early age, recent archaeological discoveries discount this theory.

Two contemporary objects show that his reign lasted more than a decade.

Lugal-Zage-Si of Umma eventually takes over Kish and Lagash as well as Ur and Uruk and apparently establishes a coalition of cities.

Pepi II Neferkare, who succeeds Merenre Nemtyemsaf I, was once thought to be the son of Pepi I and Queen Ankhesenpepy II but it is now believed Pepi II was rather the son of Merenre, who married Ankhesenpepy after Pepi I's death—based on an inscription from a block of white limestone from her mortuary temple, according to Audran Labrousse, director of the French Archaeological Mission.

Pepi II would, hence, be the grandson of Pepi I instead.

He succeeded to the throne at age six, after the premature death of his father.

His mother Ankhsenpepy II most likely ruled as regent in the early years of his reign.

An alabaster statuette in the Brooklyn Museum depicts a young Pepi II, in full kingly regalia, sitting on the lap of his mother.

Despite his long reign, this piece is one of only three three-dimensional representations (i.e., statuary) in existence of this particular king.

She may have been helped in turn by her brother Djau, who was a vizier under the previous king.

Some scholars have taken the relative paucity of royal statuary to suggest that the royal court was losing the ability to retain skilled artisans.

Harkhuf, a governor of Aswan and the head of one of the expeditions sent into Nubia to trade and collect ivory, ebony and other precious items, captured a pygmy.

News of this reached the royal court, and the excited young king sent word back to Harkhuf that he would be greatly rewarded if the pygmy were brought back alive, likely to serve as an entertainer for the court.

This letter, preserved as a lengthy inscription on Harkhuf's tomb, has been called the first travelogue.

Over his long life, Pepi II had several wives, thought to include Neith (A), Iput II, Ankhenespepy III, Ankhenespepy IV, and Udjebten.

Following a long tradition of royal incestuous marriage, Neith was Pepi II's half-sister (daughter of Ankhnesmerire I) and Iput was his niece (a daughter of his father Merenre).

Of these queens, Neith, Iput, and Udjebten each had their own minor pyramids and mortuary templates as part of the king's own pyramid complex in Saqqara.

It is thought that Pepi II carried on in the tradition of his predecessors and continued with existing foreign relations, and possibly expanding further trade links into southern Africa.

Copper and turquoise mining were undertaken at Wadi Maghara, and alabaster was quarried from Hatnub, both in the Sinai.

There is at least one trade expedition to Punt recorded.

Diplomatic records also exist of missions to Byblos in ancient Canaan.

The king is thought to have taken a policy of pacification in Nubia, with Harkhuf making at least two further expeditions into the area.

Over time it appears as though relations grew strained, for while Harkhuf managed to return safely from each of his expeditions, one of his successors was not so lucky.

There were also military forays into adjacent lands, but it is noted that there was an increasing reliance upon Libyan and Nubian mercenaries.

Further possible evidence of a relative lack of success in these ventures comes from the fact that a scene from the king's pyramid, depicting him as a Sphinx trampling his enemies—including a Libyan chieftain and his family—is wholly derivative from the mortuary complex of previous pharaoh Sahure, which calls into question the veracity of the events supposedly being depicted.

Chinese tradition honors the legendary culture hero Da Yu as the shaper of the country's waterways and the originator of bronze technology.

As Da Yu (Yu the Great) he supposedly inaugurates China's Xia dynasty, named for the Si clan from which Yu springs, in about 2205, One of many legends about Da Yu recounts his extraordinary birth.

A man called Kun is placed in charge of controlling a great inundation, accompanied by unusual terrestrial events.

To dam the water, he steals from heaven what is apparently a piece of magic soil.

Angered by the theft, the Lord on High issues a decree for his execution.

After three years, Kun's miraculously preserved body is slit open and a son brought forth.

This is Yu, who resorts to natural methods, dredging outlets to the sea after years of mighty effort, (perhaps aided in this endeavor by dragons).

By another account, Yu employs hidden channels in the earth to successfully drain away the waters, thus making the world suitable for human habitation.

Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon, priestess, and the first author known by name, is well-known from archaeological and textual sources.

Two seals bearing her name, belonging to her servants and dating to the Sargonic period, have been excavated at the Royal Cemetery at Ur.

In addition an Alabaster disc bearing her name and likeness was excavated in the Gipar at Ur, which was the main residence of the En Priestess.

The statue was found in the Isin-Larsa (from around 2000 BCE to 1800 BCE) levels of the Giparu alongside a statue of the En Priestess Enannatumma.

Enheduanna composed forty-two hymns addressed to temples across Sumer and Akkad including Eridu, Sippar and Esnunna.

The texts are reconstructed from thirty-seven tablets tablets from Ur and Nippur, most of which date to the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods (Sjöberg and Bergman 1969:6-7).

This collection is known generally as 'The Sumerian Temple Hymns'.

The temple hymns were the first collection of their kind, in them Enheduanna states: “My king, something has been created that no one has created before.”

The copying of the hymns indicates the temple hymns were in use long after Enheduanna's death and were held in high esteem.

Her other famous work is 'The Exaltation of Inanna' or 'Nin-Me-Sar-Ra' which is a personal devotion to the goddess Inanna and also details Enheduanna's expulsion from Ur.

Copies of Enheduanna’s work, many dating to hundreds of years after her death, were made and kept in Nippur, Ur and possibly Lagash alongside Royal inscriptions which indicates that they were of high value, perhaps equal to the inscriptions of Kings (Westenholz 1989:540).

Enheduanna's authorship raises the issue of female literacy in ancient Mesopotamia; in addition to Enheduanna, royal wives are known to have commissioned or perhaps composed poetry and the goddess Nindaba acted as a scribe.

Sargon imposes a bureaucracy on his empire and institutes centralized control.

Sargon reigns fifty-six years before dying in 2215 either of old age or in a revolt of the people he has conquered.

His entire empire immediately revolts upon hearing of the king's death.

Most of the revolts are put down by his son and successor Rimush, who reigns for nine years, followed by another of Sargon's sons, Manishtushu.

Soon after the death of Sargon, it begins to be said that he had been found, as an infant, floating in a small boat on the river.

The woolly mammoth, the last species of mammoth, becomes extinct on Wrangel Island between 2500–2000 BCE, the most recent survival of all known mammoth populations.

Much smaller in size than typical mammoths due to limited food supply, and isolated from the mainland for six thousand years, five hundred to one thousand mammoths lived on the island at a time.