600 (DC) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 600 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Dominicalendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Chaturanga is played in its current form in India (approximate date).
Yangdi, a Sui emperor, extends the Grand Canal. He reportedly assumes power by poisoning his father. Ma Shu-mou, aka Mahu, was one of the canal overseers and was said to have eaten a steamed 2-year-old child each day he worked on the canal. On completion the canal extended for 1,100 miles. 5.5 million people were pressed into service to complete the 1,550 mile canal.
Quill pens, made from the outer feathers of crows and other large birds, became popular. The first books are printed in China.
The oldest inscription in Mon language dated from 600 AD. later found at Wat Phorang, Thailand.
Mu becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Baekje.[7]
The city of Teotihuacan (Central Mexico) begins to grow unstable, as they exhaust their resources until their inevitable collapse (possibly caused by the Toltec) circa 700.
Early settlers from the Marquesas build the Alakoko fishpond and taro fields on Kauai, Hawaii.
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The Germanic peoples, due to the more abundant food supply available, use the "moldboard" plow, introduced by the Slavs in Eastern Europe. The plow works the land with horses and oxen.[8]
Possibly the first reference to chess is made in the Persian work Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan.
The Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbott) recounts a 7-year trip to a land across the sea by the Irish saint and a band of acolytes about this time.