Axial age 800 to 200 bce

“the silk route

The Axis of the Axial Age

THE PHRASES “AXIAL AGE” OR “AXIAL PERIOD” ARE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE GERMAN Achsenzeit, “axis time,” a term coined in the twentieth century by philosopher Karl Jaspers. He originally used the term to describe the wider period from 800 to 200 BCE, during which, according to Jaspers, comparable transformative thinking appeared in Persia, India, China, Israel, and Greece.”