Claim profile
2000–1001 BC

The 2nd millennium BC

Whose working lives fell in the 2nd millennium BC. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 2nd millennium BC, ranked where Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇪🇬 Egypt🇨🇳 China🇮🇱 Israel🇬🇧 United Kingdom
FieldAllHistorical FiguresPoliticiansReligious FiguresWritersModelsArtistsAcademicsArchitectsScientistsMusicians
  1. 1Amenhotep IIIAmenhotep III1400 BC–1351 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures15 decades
  2. 2Ramesses IIIRamesses III1217 BC–1155 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures7 decades
  3. 3NefertariNefertari1290 BC–1255 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figuresnot measured—
  4. 4Ramesses IRamesses I1300 BC–1290 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures0 decades
  5. 5AyAy1400 BC–1400 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figuresnot measured—
  6. 6TiyeTiye1398 BC–1338 BC · 🇪🇬 Egypt · Historical Figures5 decades

How this is measured

  • Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
  • Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
  • Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
  • What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.