The Chronology of the Bible and related ancient history

The Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament give a rough estimate of the passage of time and thus allows us to create a general chronological calibration to biblical history by means of various genealogies, reign-periods, and other means.  The biblical chronology largely uses numbers which were significant to the authors: the basic numbers are 12, 40 (a “generation”), and 480 (12 generations of 40 years); other significant numbers include 10, 20, 60, and 100.  Other non-biblical historic dates are generally accepted dates but may be approximates or traditional.  This is particularly true of the events before Greece and Rome, but even with Greece and Rome, the early years may be in doubt.