prehistory: a timeline

THE PLEISTOCENE EPOCH


The Middle Paleolithic

200,000 BP (Before Present) - first appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa

170,000 BP - humans begin wearing clothing

120,000-90,000 BP - the Sahara Desert is wet and fertile

82,000 BP - first appearance of jewelry

70,000 BP - first example of abstract art in South Africa

64,000 BP - the bow and arrow replaces throwing spears in Africa


The Upper Paleolithic

50,000-30,000 BP - Late Stone Age begins in Africa

45,000-43,000 BP - Cro-Magnon colonization of Europe

42,000 BP - earliest evidence of advanced deep sea fishing technology in the Pacific

40,000 BP - extinction of Homo neanderthalensis

40,000 BP - earliest example of figurative art in Germany

40,000 BP - earliest known cave paintings in Spain

40,000-30,000 BP - first human settlements

40,000-20,000 BP - earliest known ritual cremation

33,000 BP - earliest known domesticated dog skulls in Europe and Siberia

28,500 BP - New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia

28,000 BP - oldest known twisted rope

28,000 - 24,000 BP - oldest known pottery

28,000 - 20,000 BP - harpoons and saws invented in Europe

26,000 BP - people begin using fibers to make baby carriers, clothes, bags, baskets, and nets

26,000-20,000 BP - the height of the last Ice Age

25,000 - oldest known permanent human settlement in Czech Republic


The Mesolithic 

20,000 BP - oldest pottery for cooking found in China

16,500-13,000 BP - first colonization of North America

15,000 BP - the woolly rhinoceros goes extinct

15,000-14,700 BP - earliest supposed dates for the domestication of pigs

13,000-10,000 BP - Ice Age comes to an end, and the climate warms as glaciers recede

13,000-11,000 BP - earliest supposed dates for the domestication of sheep

12,000 BP - earliest evidence for Jericho as a settlement

12,000 BP - earliest supposed date for the domestication of the goat



THE HOLOCENE EPOCH
   *dates now in BC


The Mesolithic, continued

10,000 BC - land ice leaves Denmark and southern Sweden

9,000 BC - earliest date for the oldest surviving proto-religious site, in Turkey

9,000 BC - giant short-faced bears and giant ground sloths go extinct

8,500 BC - earliest supposed date for the domestication of cattle

8,000 BC - the end of the Quaternary Extinction Event, which has been underway since the mid-Pleistocene. Casualties of the Quaternary extinction include many of the Ice Age megafauna (e.g. megatherium, Irish elk, and sabre-toothed cats). Mammoths dies out in Eurasia and North America but continue in isolation on islands until around 1650 BC.

The Neolithic

9500-5900 BC - the Sahara Desert becomes a savanna

9500 BC - earliest supposed date for the domestication of the cat

8000-7000 BC - the cultivation of wheat and barley begins in modern-day northern Iraq

6200 BC - first copper smelting appears in Anatolia

6000 BC - East Africa and Mesopotamia begin to dry out

5500 BC - evidence of copper smelting in modern Serbia

5200-4000 BC - first farming settlements show up on Malta

5000 BC - the wheel is invented

5000 BC - the invention of proto-writing

4000 BC - earliest supposed dates for the domestication of horses and chickens

3900 BC - the Sahara dries out, and Africans migrate towards the Nile to survive

3800 BC - earliest evidence for bronze working (mixing copper and tin)

3700 BC - Minoan civilization emerges in Crete

3500 BC - first evidence of mummification in Egypt

3500 BC - farming has spread across Europe

The Bronze Age

3500 BC - bronze tools and weapons are made in the Near and Middle East

3500 BC - bronze craftsmanship spreads through the Mediterranean

3400 BC - priests become the rulers of Mesopotamian cities

3000 BC - first evidence of habitation at Thebes, Egypt

3000 BC - first bronze age settlements in Jerusalem

2800-1900 BC - the Bell Beaker culture sweeps through Europe

2500 BC - the Indus Valley civilization employs bronze craftsmanship

2400 BC - bronze begins to be used in China

2300 BC - the Bronze Age begins in Europe

2100 BC - first ziggurats in Ur, Eridu, Uruk, and Nippur

2000 BC - bronze craftsmanship spreads to the British Isles

2000 BC - the pottery wheel is introduced to Minoan civilization on Crete

2000 BC - early Greeks settle on the Pelopponesian peninsula

1795-1750 BC - the reign of Hammurabi, king of Babylon

1772 BC - the Code of Hammurabi is written, one of the world's earliest law codes

1650 BC - volcanic eruption of Thera in the Mediterranean

1640 BC - the Egyptians embrace bronze tools and weapons in the wake of the Hyksos

1595 BC - the Hittites sack Babylon

1500 BC - Egyptian empire reaches its greatest extent under Thutmose I

1500 BC - pastoral farming spreads across the Eurasian steppes

1380 BC - first evidence of iron-working 

1100 BC - hill forts emerge in western Europe

The Iron Age

1100-600 BC - public buildings erected at the Agora in Athens

750 BC - iron-working is introduced to Egypt

700 BC - iron is in wide use throughout Europe

prehistoric britain

Prehistoric Britain stretches from 42,000 BP (before present) to AD 43, when Roman armies under Emperor Claudius invaded to turn the island into a Roman province. That the end of “prehistoric” Britain has arrived so recently may seem odd, but it’s because prior to the Romans, Britons didn’t leave behind any written histories (or written languages at all).

Britain in the Stone Age

Early Britons on the hunt

Human beings first reached Britain around 42,000 years before the present, and they roamed the island as hunters and gatherers until about 25,000 years ago, when they were forced to leave Britain because of the last Ice Age. Ice sheets drenched northern Britain, turning the climate into a cold-blasted and uninhabitable tundra. The sea levels dropped so much that an ancient land bridge, known as Doggerland, stretched across the modern North Sea to connect Britain to the continent. The last Ice Age ended around 15,000 years ago, and people began crossing Doggerland to retake Britain. Major food sources included wild horses, red deer, and hares, along with rhinos, hyena, and the last vestiges of the mammoths. Another brief cold spell drained Britain of most of its inhabitants, but the climate began to warm around 11,600 years ago (marking the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene).

The population of Britain began to steadily rise. As the sea levels rose, Doggerland turned into a string of islands before being completely submerged around 5600 BC. Britain thus became an island again, and has remained an island ever since. As the climate continued, the open spaces of the arctic environment were replaced with forests of pine, birch, and alder. The open spaces had given room for large herds of reindeer and wild horse, but as woodlands spread across the island, the peoples’ diets consisted primarily of boar (wild pig) and less social animals (who didn’t need large tracts of roaming land) such as elk, red deer, roe deer, and aurochs (wild cattle). Around this time the dog was domesticated to help in the woodland hunts.

Britain in the Stone Age

The inhabitants of this time were highly mobile, roaming over wide tracts of land and carrying toolkits. Stone Age sites of this period reveal tools made of flint, bone, and antler; and jewelry made of amber, animal teeth, and mammoth ivory. There’s ample evidence that the tribes of eastern Britain traded with the tribes across the Channel, and people began to move into modern-day Scotland. Archaeology implies that nomadic hunter-gatherers, forced by the changing environment to adapt their lifestyles, began building semi-permanent settlements between which they alternated during the seasons.

By 4000 BC these semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers were embracing farming; though older historians interpreted this as an invasion of Neolithic farmers from the continent, archaeology tells us that Britain’s “Neolithic Revolution” came about not due to an invasion of foreigners but to a gradual embracing of Neolithic ideas. As farming and husbandry were further embraced, woodland was cut down and grassland increased.

Around this time (ca 4400 BC), British peoples began building their infamous earthworks: they started with long barrows and causewayed enclosures; around 3300-2900 BC they embraced cursus monuments, chamber tombs, and stone circles; and around 2900-2200 BC, new enclosures called “henges” were built, including the infamous Stonehenge, Avebury, and Silbury Hill. About this time industrial flint making took off, and trade between Britain and continent increased.

Britain in the Bronze Age

The beginning of the Bronze Age in Europe facilitated a need for tin (which was mixed with copper to make bronze), and because southern Britain had lots of tin, that part of the island experienced a trade boom around 1600 BC. The Bronze Age in Britain is known for the “Beaker Invasion,” referring to a type of culture characterized by “beakers” (a type of pottery) among other things. Though old historians believed the Beaker Invasion was an invasion of foreigners who swept through Britain, archaeology implies that this, like the emergence of farming and husbandry, was an invasion of ideas. The Beaker Phenomenon was a cultural fad that swept the continent and reached into Britain, and it was embraced by elites who wished to make their status known.

Britain in the Iron Age

The Bronze Age in Britain came to an end around 750 BC when iron working techniques arrived from southern Europe. Iron was stronger and more plentiful than bronze, so it was widely embraced. The advent of iron revolutionized not just warfare but agriculture: iron tipped ploughs could churn up soil quicker and deeper than wooden or bronze ones, and iron axes could clear woodlands far more efficiently. It’s speculated that around 500 BC most Britons were speaking what’s known as “Common Brythonic.”

Iron Age Britons lived in organized tribal groups ruled by a chieftain. As people became more numerous (due to increasing birth rates, migration from the continent, and the ability to feed more people because of farming), wars broke out between opposing tribes. Hill forts were built throughout the land; nearly 2000 have been discovered, but most hill forts fell out of use around 350 BC while the remaining ones were strengthened. By this time the Britons were known as excellent wheat farmers, and their trade with the continent was dominated by hunting dogs, animal skins, and slaves (from the numerous wars between themselves). Prior to the Punic Wars (264 to 146 BC), the Carthaginian Empire dominated Mediterranean trade; in the wake of the Punic Wars, Rome took over this trade, and she carried her goods into the Atlantic. Trade with Rome brought about changes in British life and society: around 100 BC iron bars began to be used as currency, coinage was developed, and consumers warmed up to Roman products. This has been called the “first” Roman invasion.As the Roman Empire pressed west from Italy, Germanic refugees from Gaul (modern-day France and Belgium) fled to safety across the Channel. These Gauls were known as the Belgae, and their migrations to Britain reached their zenith around 50 BC as Caesar was subduing the future Roman province. The Belgae settled along the eastern coast of Britain between 200 BC and AD 43; a Gallic tribe known as the Parisi, who had cultural links to the area around Paris, settled in northern England. By AD 43, the major tribal power-players of Britain included the Durotriges, the Atrebates, the Dumnonii, the Ordovices, the Silures, the Iceni, the Catuvellauni, and the Trinovantes. The Romans would use these tribes, often at variance with one another, to their own advantage—Roman Britain would be won not merely by force but largely by diplomacy.