History/Origins of Energy, Matter, Space, Time, and Life (3 of 3)
Dan Fake
*** From ~40,000 Years Ago to the Present Day ***
Years Ago
Event
------------------------------------------
~40,000 .........
Anatomically modern humans begin to colonize
Europe: they live alongside the indigenous
Neanderthals.
~37,000 .........
Baradostian cultures as revealed in Kebara
(layer D) in Israel and Zarzi, Iraq.
~35,000 .........
Cave bears, cave lions, wooly rhino extinct; Homo
sapiens sapiens migrate in large numbers to Europe;
first evidence of round huts and mortars in Ain Gev,
Israel.
~34,000 .........
Modern human site, in Malaya Siya, Russia.
~32,000 .........
Period of cave art traditions commence in Europe,
lasting for 18,000 years.
Anatomically modern humans in Okinawa (Japan).
~28,000 .........
Cave art in Central France; Neanderthals lasted
at least until this time and some evidence indicates
some inter-species mating may have occurred with
Homo sapiens sapiens:
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F486000/486041.stm
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F323000/323657.stm
~25,000 .........
Bow and arrow.
~20,000 .........
Earliest settlement of northeast Asia.
~19,000 .........
Wild cereal gathering - western Asia.
~18,000 .........
Height of the last glaciation, reaching deep
into North America; sea levels are 100 to
130 meters lower than today.
~15,000 .........
Fish hooks; huts made of mammoth bones;
beginning of widespread colonization of North
America.
~14,000 .........
Jomon hunter-gatherers make the first pottery
in Japan.
~13,000 .........
Rope; beginning of widespread colonization of
South America; ice sheet from most recent ice age
begins to retreat northward; dogs domesticated
from wolves in the Near East; farming in Syria:
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F489000/489449.stm
~12,000 .........
Saber-toothed tiger extinct; end of most recent
ice age; ice land bridge connecting Asia to North
America melted/inundated by water.
~11,000 .........
Extinction of mammoth, perhaps due to
overhunting; farming widespread and sun-dried
mud bricks used - western Asia; incipient
agriculture (cultivation of wild cereals) begins
in the Fertile Crescent (Middle East).
~10,500 .........
Goats domesticated from bezoar goats in the
Near East; high altitude Andean grasses of South
America were initially cultivated into crops of
quinoa, arwi, and canihua, along with squash,
peppers, and beans in the area of Ayacucho,
Peru.
~10,000 .........
Walled towns; organized agriculture; domesticated
animals; people of Jericho decorated human skulls
for use in religious rituals; sheep domesticated from
Asiatic moufflon in the Near East; manos and metates
(grinding stones) used for milling grain provide
evidence of the domestication of food plants in
Mexico and Peru.
Earliest evidence of pottery in southern China.
~9,500 ..........
Pigs domesticated from wild boars in the Near East.
~9,000 ..........
Main crafts in Catal Huyuk, Turkey - pottery and
obsidian tools; main craft in Jarmo, Iraq - textiles;
stone spade first used - China; animal carvings
made in bone, antler, and amber - Denmark and
southern Sweden.
Cattle domesticated from aurochs and cats
domesticated from wild cats in the Near East.
Earliest evidence of pottery in the central Sahara
and in Persia.
~8,500 ..........
Evidence people learned how to extract metals
from rock.
~8,300 ..........
Potatoes, manioc, oca, and ulloco all domesticated
in South America; rice cultivation in the Yangtze
valley, China.
~8,000 ..........
Earliest European agriculturists settled in
farming villages on the plains of Thessaly and
Crete; crops of millet raised on terraces of river
valleys and chickens domesticated from red jungle
fowl in China; crops developed on Indus river plain.
Wheat, barley, and sheep farming begins in Egypt;
earliest evidence for farming in the Indian sub-
continent.
Several cultures leave evidence of their existence
in Iran.
Earliest evidence of pottery in east Africa.
~7,000 ..........
First ziggurats built - Sumer; rice first cultivated
in China; copper and irrigation used in Mesopotamia;
llama domesticated from guanaco in the Andes; the
wild grass teosinte was gradually modified by
selection of bigger ears of corn until it was at
this time recognized as a domesticated type of
maize (corn) in Mesoamerica; metal objects made
by hammering, pure gold and copper, produced in
the Balkans.
~6,500 ..........
Southeast Europe becomes an important center of
gold and copper-working; farming begins around
Ganges river in India; cave art flourishes in
northern Africa; first megalithic tombs in Britain
and Portugal and passage graves in France; farming
adopted in western Europe and within 1,000 years,
larger areas of forest had been cleared.
~6,400 ..........
Horses domesticated from tarpans in southern
Russia.
~6,000 ..........
Large-scale settlement of fertile Indus river plain;
pyramid temples in Peru; donkeys domesticated
from wild asses in the Near East; Sumerians
begin use of clay tablets to keep records.
In northwest China, the Yangshao people produce
painted pottery and live in settlements that are partially
underground; in east and northeast China, the Longshan
produce jade carvings and black pottery and practice
divination by a practice called scapulimancy.
Earliest evidence of pottery in the Americas, north of
the Amazon in South America (Guyana).
~5,500 ..........
Cities and city-states distinguished by size,
planning, architecture, and fortifications first
appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia; sailing
boats used on the Nile in Egypt; earliest Chinese
city founded, Liang-ch'eng-chen.
Evidence of plows and pottery in Britain.
~5,250 ..........
Development of cuneiform in Mesopotamia.
~5,200 ..........
Rise of Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia,
said civilization lasting for 840 years; people
of Britain and northwestern France start erecting
stone monuments and henges - circular ditch and
bank enclosures - a practice which continues for
1,700 years.
~5,100 ..........
Menes unite upper and lower Egypt.
~5,000 ..........
24 hour day devised in Babylon; hieroglyphic
script developed in Egypt; camels domesticated
from wild camels in south central Asia and southern
Arabia; rise of Indus Valley civilization in Pakistan
& Northwest India, said civilization lasting for
1,500 years.
An advanced Longshun culture migrates from
eastern China westward, using burial practices
showing signs of a hierarchy which becomes
widespread.
Permanent settlements of 5 to 10 houses established
in the Tehaucan Valley in Mexico.
~4,850 ..........
Rise of Egyptian civilization in the Nile valley,
said civilization lasting for 2,135 years.
~4,800 ..........
Great Pyramid in Egypt; beginning of the building
of Stonehenge in Britain.
~4,600 ..........
Clay female figurines, temple platforms, and
shrines in various places on the central coast
of Peru.
~4,500 ..........
It becomes common to alloy copper with tin to
produce bronze, initiating the Bronze Age; Sahara
region begins to dry out; complex ceremonial
centers, small towns built of mud brick and
stone, sunken courts, ritual pits, ceremonial
centers, and irrigable river valleys on the
Peruvian coast.
~4,350 ..........
Rise of Akkadian civilization in Mesopotamia,
said civilization lasting for 120 years.
~4,200 ..........
Rise of Minoan civilization in Crete, said
civilization lasting for 750 years.
~4,112 ..........
Ur-Nammu of Ur, a Mesopotamian King, writes the
first known law code in the world.
~4,000 ..........
Chariots first used and end of Sumerian power
in Mesopotamia; guinea pigs domesticated from
cavies in Peru; settlements fortified in eastern and
central Europe, a phenomenon that spreads west-
ward within 800 years.
~3,900 ..........
Iron smelting developed in Mesopotamia.
~3,800 ..........
Rise of first Chinese civilization along the
Huang He (Yellow River); rise of Assyrian civili-
zation in Mesopotamia & Syria, said civilization
lasting for 911 years.
~3,790 ..........
Hammurabi becomes King of Babylon.
~3,760 ..........
The stele of Hammurabi's law code - the upper
part of the basalt pillar shows the king in prayer
before the seated Shamash, the sun god and god
of justice - Shamash is winged and is also wearing
the divine horned crown - he is holding in his
right hand a sun's ray - the lower part of the stele
is inscribed in cuneiform and Hammurabi's 282
laws carved in 49 vertical columns - the opening
words describe the king's wish "to cause justice
to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and
the evil, that the strong may not oppress the weak."
The idea of punishment found in the Old Testament
of the Bible - "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Deuteronomy
chapter 19, verse 21) - also occurs in Hammurabi's
code.
~3,728 ..........
Rise of old Babylonian civilization in Mesopotamia,
Syria, & Palestine, said civilization lasting for
42 years.
~3,700 ..........
Early alphabetic script developed in Phoenicia.
~3,640 ..........
Rise of Hittite civilization in Asia Minor & Syria,
said civilization lasting for 440 years.
~3,633 ..........
The Hyksos, an Asiatic people, take control of much
of Egypt until driven out by Ahmosis 63 years later.
~3,600 ..........
Mycenean citadels built in Greece; rise of Mycenean
civilization in Greece, said civilization lasting
for 500 years.
Development of Chinese pictographs; development
of Proto-Canaanite alphabet, eventually branching
into Phoenician, Sabean, Nabatean, Aramaic, Brahmin,
and other written languages.
~3,523 ..........
Rise of Shang Dynasty in China, said dynasty
lasting 496 years; China consisted of a vast
system of kingdoms which acknowledged a loose
allegiance to an emperor called the "Son of
Heaven", encompassing the belief that Heaven
had granted rule over earth to the emperor.
~3,500 ..........
Development of Greek city-states; rapid expansion
of Mesoamerica and central Andes populations due
to maize farming; silk fabric first made in China;
Aryan invasion of northwest India, establishing
a civilization lasting for 1,000 years and which
encompassed the growth of the caste system and
the religion of Hinduism followed (towards the
end of the period) by Jainism and Buddhism.
~3,450 ..........
First shadow clocks in Egypt.
~3,379 ..........
Egypt historical tidbit of interest: Amenophis IV
abandons the worship of Amun in favor of the
Aten, the sun-disk - he changes his name to
Akhenaten and moves his capital from Thebes.
~3,362 ..........
Egypt historical tidbit of interest: Tutankhaten,
who is advised to give up Aten worship, returns
to Thebes and changes his name to Tutankhamun
(his burial treasures, discovered in 1922, have
made him one of the most famous of pharaohs).
~3,300 ..........
Rise of Olmec civilization in Mexico; the central
fortress in Athens, Greece (later known as the
Acropolis) is enclosed by massive walls.
~3,200 ..........
Jews settle in Palestine; complex large-scale
societies with works of Chavin style flourish
in the Andes for 1,000 years.
~3,120 ..........
Mycenae destroyed.
~3,100 ..........
Rise of Phoenician civilization in eastern
Mediterranean (Palestine: colonies Gilbratar,
Carthage, Sardinia), said civilization lasting
for 768 years; decline of Mycenaean civilization
(Greek dark ages), said decline lasting 400 years.
~3,000 ..........
Rabbits domesticated from wild rabbits in
Spain.
For details on the last 3,000 years of history,
see HyperHistory Online:
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
---
Of course, science is ever making new discoveries
and all of the details are not as yet settled. Credit
to the following sources for material used in this
post (with a disclaimer that when source information
was in conflict, a decision was made as to which
material to use, said decision based on the most
recent or most reliable/substantiated data available
from the sources listed below):
Universe is 12 billion years old (May 26, 1999)
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F352000/352563.stm
The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2000
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0886878470
Time Almanac 1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1883013461
Washington State University - The Long Foreground - Human
Prehistory
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/lfopen-index.html
A Walk Through Time - From Stardust to Us - The Evolution
of Life on Earth, by Sidney Liebis, Elisabet Sahtouris, and
Brian Swimme
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471317004
Atlas of the Prehistoric World, by Douglas Palmer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1563318296
Imagining the Universe - A Visual Journey
by Edward Packard
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399521240
Hammond Concise Atlas of World History,
by Geoffrey Barraclough (Editor)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0843711213
DK Pockets: World History, by Philip Wilkinson
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789406039
First Civilizations (Cultural Atlas for Young People),
by Erica C.D., Ph.D. Hunter
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0816029768
The Atlas of the Ancient World: Charting the
Great Civilizations of the Past, by Margaret Oliphant
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1571450378
Historical Atlas of the Ancient World,
4,000,000 to 500 B.C., by John Haywood
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0760719713
______________________________________________
Further book references/resources:
Science/Biology-Genetics
http://x46.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=555121784
Science/Cosmology
http://x46.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=555124641
Science/General
http://x46.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=555124649
Science/Origins
http://x46.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=555124660
History
http://x46.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=555124644
______________________________________________
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Dan Fake, Atheist #1468 + Freethinker #2b + Humanist #2b2
(Atheist+ who cares deeply about truth and freedom
and maxing out this one and only experience we all
know and share on this earth, at this time, in this life)