·Shared with PublicTIMELINE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION— Milestones in Evolution and History — Years ago Event⇑ BCE CE ⇓ discs fill with colour as time passes towards the present (further explanation below ⇓)I. COSMOLOGICAL ANTECEDENTS13,800,000,000 Big Bang singularity, creation of all particles of matter and counterpart antimatter, and the laws of physics governing their interactions; expansion and cooling of space → formation of the observable Universe, its galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets, moons, asteroids and comets13,550,000,000 ignition of hydrogen stars, bathing the Universe in first light of cosmic dawn → earliest galaxies of stars forming 400 million years after the Big Bang; helium in stars fusing into carbon, leading to stellar nucleosynthesis of all elements12,200,000,000 earliest water: an interstellar vapour, and repository for oxygen12,000,000,000 formation of the Milky Way galaxy, a warped disc of 100 billion stars, now one of 2 trillion galaxies in the observable Universe4,570,000,000 formation of the Sun and Solar System within the Milky Way, orbiting a supermassive black hole at its Galactic Centre every 240 million years4,510,000,000 formation of the Moon from a giant impact with proto-Earth4,500,000,000 formation of planet Earth with 510 million km² of surface area, orbiting the Sun on a yearly cycle, rotating eastward on a daily cycle around a tilted axis that perpetuates opposing polar seasons4,400,000,000 formation of Earth’s oceans and moist atmosphere, protected from solar wind and cosmic rays by Earth’s magnetosphere generated by its iron core4,400,000,000 earliest subduction of Earth’s crust → continental plate tectonics by 3 billion years ago, unique to Earth in the Solar SystemII. HUMAN ANCESTRY AND EVOLUTION1. Evolution of life on Earth4,100,000,000 earliest life on Earth: single-celled prokaryotic Archaea (Hadean Eon, 3.8-4.2 billion years ago)3,500,000,000 photosynthesising bacteria amongst the Archaea (Archean Eon)3,400,000,000 earliest atmospheric oxygen, present at low levels (Archean Eon)2,330,000,000 the Great Oxygenation Event: 1-10 million years of rapidly accumulating atmospheric oxygen (Proterozoic Eon), a product of photosynthesis2,100,000,000 earliest multicellular life, with cell-to-cell signalling and coordinated responses (Proterozoic Eon)1,450,000,000 earliest Eukaryotes amongst the Prokaryotes, arising from the merger of an archaeon with a bacterium: sexual reproduction with meiosis and recombination (Proterozoic Eon)890,000,000 earliest Metazoa – animals – amongst the Eukaryotes: sponges, then worms and jellyfish (Proterozoic Eon), prior to Snowball Earth episodes of worldwide glaciation700,000,000 Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event: 100 million years of rising photosynthesis with lengthening days as Earth’s rotational speed slows, improving conditions for complex life540,000,000 explosion in animal diversification (earliest Cambrian Period), including Deuterostomia appearing amongst the metazoans: tiny bag-like body with multiple openings535,000,000 earliest chordates amongst the deuterostomes (Early Cambrian Period): notochord and pharyngeal gill slits500,000,000 first colonisation of land, by algal plants of the Middle Cambrian, probably facilitated by fungi480,000,000 radiation of vertebrates amongst the chordates (Ordovician Period): aquatic with a mineralised skeleton, armour and scales445,000,000 mass extinction in two pulses across 1 million years, eliminating more than three-quarters of all species (Late Ordovician), linked to volcanic activity407,000,000 earliest woody stems of vascular plants (Early Devonian) → evolution driven by hydraulic constraints, pre-adapting plants for taller morphologies394,000,000 earliest tetrapods amongst the vertebrates (Devonian Period): limbs replacing paired fins; still fully aquatic385,000,000 earliest forests (Devonian Period, Cairo, New York, North America) → three-dimensional terrestrial habitat; rising atmospheric O₂ and diminishing CO₂375,000,000 mass extinction in a series of pulses across 20 million years, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Late Devonian), linked to climatic cooling350,000,000 earliest land vertebrates (Carboniferous Period): semi-aquatic amphibian tetrapods340,000,000 earliest fully terrestrial tetrapod vertebrates, laying amniote eggs (Early Carboniferous Period)251,900,000 Earth’s largest mass extinction, eliminating nine tenths of all species during 61 thousand years (Permian-Triassic transition), caused by hot and acidifying volcanic CO₂ emissions233,000,000 dawn of the modern world: major biological turnover linked to volcanism (Late Triassic) → rapid diversifications and originations of conifers, insects, dinosaurs, reptiles and stem mammals201,300,000 mass extinction event, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Triassic-Jurassic transition), linked to volcanic CO₂ equivalent to projections for CE 21ˢᵗ century anthropogenic emissions178,000,000 earliest true mammals amongst the terrestrial vertebrates (Jurassic Period): fur and endothermy135,000,000 major radiations of flowering plants and their insect pollinators in the Early Cretaceous: an “abominable mystery” (Charles Darwin, 1879)66,000,000 abrupt mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of all species, following a 9-km wide asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico (Cretaceous-Paleogene transition) → rapid diversification of flowering plants and mammals55,000,000 earliest primates amongst the mammals (Eocene Epoch): brachiation44,000,000 divergence of Old World from New World primates (Eocene Epoch): colour vision, opposable thumbs, sociality25,200,000 earliest hominoids (apes) amongst the Old World primates (Tanzania, Oligocene Epoch): tailless, enlarged brain; dawn of speech in contrasting vowel sounds – no language without vowels16,800,000 earliest hominids (great apes) amongst the hominoid gibbons in Asia: larger body size and sexual dimorphism; nest-making, play, empathy13,000,000 hominids Pierolapithecus catalaunicus in Spain, and Nyanzapithecus alesi in Kenya, possible ancestors of hominins and modern apes respectively, the former with upright posture7,000,000 earliest hominins Sahelanthropus, then Orrorin and Ardipithecus, amongst the hominids in Africa: reduced canines, arboreal habit, bipedal capability4,200,000 replacement of the earliest hominins by Australopithecus spp. in Africa: fully upright, bipedal and free-striding gait3,300,000 earliest knapped stone artefacts (Kenya): Lomekwian tools → hominin technological behaviour2. Human evolution2,800,000 earliest human, Homo sp., amongst the hominins (Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia): rounded chin as Australopithecus afarensis, but smaller and slimmer molars as the later Homo habilis2,700,000 rise of co-existing hominin genus Paranthropus (East Africa)2,600,000 incorporation of meat and marrow into generalist diets of hominins (Africa)2,600,000 earliest stone tools produced by humans (Gona, Ethiopia): Oldowan tools, chopping through flesh, bone, bark2,588,000 start of the current geological period of Quaternary glaciation, possibly initiated by a supernova blast 150-300 light-years away, luminous as the full Moon2,400,000 Homo habilis in Africa, using stone tools for cleaving meat from bone2,120,000 earliest evidence of human ancestors outside of Africa: tool-using hominins in Shangchen, southern China2,000,000 early Homo erectus, direct ancestor of modern humans, coexisting with Australopithecus – soon extinct, and Paranthropus (South Africa): enlarged brain and smaller teeth1,800,000 migrations of Homo erectus from Africa to Eurasia (Georgia; to Lantian in northern China by 1.63 million years ago; to Java by 1.5 million years ago)1,700,000 earliest stone hand axes (Tanzania): Acheulean tools, standardised for butchering, cutting, stripping, hammering, drilling → population mobility1,400,000 earliest organic tools: a hand axe made from hippopotamus bone (Ethiopia) → conscious symbolism?1,400,000 replacement of Homo habilis by Homo erectus in Africa1,000,000 extinction of Paranthropus (South Africa), our last remaining sibling genus1,000,000 earliest control of fire, by Homo erectus (South Africa) → uniquely human capability, extending the day by firelight, raising the nutritive value of food with cooking900,000 Homo antecessor in western Europe (Atapuerca, Spain), closely related to the last common ancestor of Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans900,000 flint scrapers associated with Homo antecessor (Atapuerca, Spain), suitable for preparing animal hides → clothing?800,000 earliest cannibalism, in Homo antecessor (Gran Dolina, Spain), practised throughout human history; social motivation?700,000 diminutive Homo floresiensis on the Indonesian island of Flores, probable descendent of Homo erectus600,000 rise of Homo heidelbergensis in Africa and Europe, possible ancestor of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis; cooking meat and starchy plants500,000 earliest abstract markings: a zigzag engraving on shell by Homo erectus (Indonesia) → uniquely human capacity for abstraction500,000 earliest use of stone-tipped spears, by Homo heidelbergensis (South Africa) for hunting large game450,000 rise of Neanderthals Homo neanderthalensis across Europe430,000 Denisovans diverge from Neanderthals (southern Siberia) → Tibetan Plateau by 160,000 years ago; subsequent interbreeding, possibly also with Homo erectus400,000 earliest evidence of food storage for later consumption: bone marrow (Qesem Cave, Israel) → food economy, anticipating future need320,000 long-distance transport of obsidian for fine blades and points, and ochre for pigments (Kenya) → technological transition to Middle Stone Age during intensifying climate swings315,000 earliest representatives of our species, Homo sapiens (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco): facial and dental structure similar to modern humans, yet still archaic elongation of the braincase300,000 wooden spears and lances used by Homo heidelbergensis for hunting large herbivores (Schöningen, Germany)250,000 replacement of Homo heidelbergensis by Homo neanderthalensis in Europe, and by Homo sapiens in Africa over the subsequent 100,000 years210,000 Homo sapiens enter Eurasia (Greece): first of multiple dispersals out of Africa by humans with early modern traits, including globular braincase and descended larynx facilitating spoken language200,000 earliest adhesive: birch tar used by Neanderthals for hafting stone tools (Campitello, Italy) → pyrotechnologyIII. CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT3. Hunter-gatherer nomads176,000 earliest built constructions: underground edifices made from broken stalagmites by Neanderthals (Bruniquel Cave, France) → material culture171,000 earliest record of fire technology, by Neanderthals: boxwood digging sticks with shafts worked smooth by controlled burning (Poggetti Vecchi, Italy)170,000 widespread use of clothing, setting humans apart from all other animals, evidenced in the divergence of clothing lice from head lice (Africa)160,000 coastal shellfish harvested by Homo sapiens in southern Africa, and by Neanderthals in the Mediterranean → fatty acids boosting cognitive development126,000 Homo with mix of archaic-human and Neanderthal traits (Nesher Ramla, Israel): stone-tool industry, cooking meat; cultural exchange with humans?120,000 burial of dead, by anatomically modern humans in Qafzeh Cave, Israel, and by Neanderthals in Tabun Cave, Israel: mortuary practices115,000 earliest symbolic art: marine shells painted with mineral pigments by Neanderthals in Spain, and shell beads made by modern humans in the Levant110,000 last appearance of Homo erectus (Ngandong, Java), 1.89 million years after its first appearance → the longest enduring species of human105,000 hording of non-utilitarian objects by Homo sapiens: crystals and ostrich eggshell fragments (Kalahari, southern Africa)100,000 interbreeding of Homo sapiens with Homo neanderthalensis (Siberia) → accumulation of modern traits through gene flow100,000 toolkit for mixing and storing pigments: ochre, charcoal, bone, hammerstones, grindstones and abalone-shell containers (Blombos Cave, South Africa) → complex human cognition100,000 earliest human etchings on rock: cross-hash decorations or symbols (Blombos Cave, South Africa) → conceptual imagination90,000 manufacture of bone harpoons, for hunting catfish (Semliki river, DR Congo)90,000 fisher-hunter-gatherer Neanderthals eating mussels, crab, eels, sea bream and shark, dolphins and seals, hoofed game and waterfowl; pine-nut economy (Figueira Brava, Portugal)78,000 earliest symbolic human burial, a 3-year old Homo sapiens (Panga ya Saidi Cave, Kenya): funerary practices by our ancestors77,000 construction of bedding from sedges, topped with aromatic leaves containing insecticidal and larvicidal chemicals (Sibudu rock shelter, South Africa)75,000 earliest jewellery fashions: shifts in styles of threaded shell beads (Blombos Cave, South Africa)73,000 earliest drawing by humans: criss-crossed lines on a grindstone drawn with red-ochre crayon (Blombos Cave, South Africa)71,000 earliest heat-treatment of bladelets, for atlatl darts or arrows (South Africa): communication of complex technology → emergence of the modern mind65,000 rapid colonisation of Australia by humans during 5,000 years, transecting the continent along superhighways (ancient Sahul): maritime exploration64,800 earliest symbolic cave paintings by Neanderthals (La Pasiega Cave, Spain)?60,000 earliest notation, with notched-bone tally marks by Neanderthals (Les Pradelles, France) → uniquely human number culture and record keeping60,000 symbolic burial of dead by Neanderthals (La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France): funerary practices60,000 range expansion of modern humans out of Africa into Eurasia, beginning 60,000 years ago and enduring 10,000 years51,000 a giant deer’s phalanx bone becomes a Neanderthal artist’s canvas, prepared by scraping and boiling before etching (Harz Mountains, Germany)50,000 earliest use of cord: three-plied bark fibres (Abri du Maras, France) → clothing, mats, baskets, nets, rope, snares, fishing lines, watercraft50,000 earliest eyed needle, made from bone by Denisovans (Denisova Cave, Siberia), suitable for tailoring garments50,000 Neanderthal fire-lighting technology (France): striking flint axes with mineral pyrite → wood the predominant fuel for cooking and heating until the CE 19ᵗʰ century50,000 Eurasian Homo sapiens co-existing with Homo floresiensis (soon extinct) and Homo luzonensis, interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans48,000 self-medication by Neanderthals, with pain-killing salicylic acid in poplar leaves, and antibiotic-producing Penicillium mould (El Sidrón, Spain)46,000 earliest anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, established in Europe (Bacho Kiro, Bulgaria), mating with Neanderthals, spreading eastwards.45,500 earliest representational art, a red-ochre composition of Sulawesi warty pigs (Leang Tedongnge, Sulawesi): narrative stories44,000 earliest figurative painting (Sulawesi Island, Indonesia), of therianthropes hunting anoa and pigs: mythological stories42,000 earliest musical instruments: bone and ivory flutes (Swabian Jura, Germany) → concepts of harmony, melody, rhythm, timbre; no human society without music42,000 earliest record of fish-hooks, manufactured from broken shell (East Timor): deep-sea fishing for pelagic tuna and parrotfish, sharks and marine turtles41,500 most recent reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles, lasting 500 years, decreasing stratospheric ozone, driving global climate shifts and extinction events40,000 anatomically modern humans replace Neanderthals, our last remaining sibling species. Full language → currently about 7,000 extant languages40,000 earliest figurative sculpture, an ivory figurine of a therianthrope with lion’s head and human torso (Hohlenstein, Germany)40,000 earliest image of human form: a hand stencil (Maros karsts, Sulawesi)40,000 earliest habitual use of solid footwear (Sunghir, Russia), opening permafrost regions to occupancy → hay socks by 5,000 years ago37,000 earliest artistic representation of human form: engravings of vulvas (Abri Castanet, France): fertility symbol?35,000 earliest animation in cave art (Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, France): breaking down animal movement, prefiguring cinema35,000 earliest fully human sculpture and female imagery: a mammoth-ivory ‘Venus’ figurine (Hohle Fels, Germany): fertility totem?35,000 a giant virus freezes into Siberian permafrost, melting back to virulent activity 35,000 years later32,600 food-plant processing, of dried wild oats with grindstones (Grotta Paglicci, Italy; soon appearing across Europe, Australia) → flour for storage and cooking32,000 fruits of the campion Silene stenophylla freeze in Siberian tundra, regenerating from cryobiosis 32,000 years later into fertile plants32,000 earliest migration of humans into the Americas (Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico), along the coast from Siberia?30,000 earliest woven fabrics, made from dyed fibres of wild flax (Georgia) → baskets, textile clothing29,500 earliest stone statuette: ochre-tinted oolitic limestone ‘Venus of Willendorf’ (Austria)29,000 earliest fishing-net sinkers (South Korea) → modern industrial fishing currently in 55% of ocean area, covering 4× agricultural area25,000 a coronavirus epidemic sweeps through East Asia, driving genetic adaptations still present in modern humans24,000 use of poison arrows, with wooden ricin applicator (Lebombo mountains, South Africa)24,000 a bdelloid rotifer freezes into ice in the Alayeza river (Russian Arctic), reviving 24,000 years later to full vigour23,000 fisher-hunter-gatherer brush huts (Sea of Galilee, Israel): sealed floor, hearth, berry and seed stockpiles, grindstones, sleeping area with grass bedding23,000 first domestication: dogs from grey wolves Canis lupus (Siberia), providing companionship, pulling sledges → 700 million dogs by CE 21ˢᵗ century20,000 earliest pottery vessels (Xianrendong Cave, China), cooking food in pots during the Last Glacial Maximum19,000 replacement of early modern humans across Eurasia by the ancestors of today’s populations15,000 introgression of last remaining Denisovans into the modern human genome? Anatomically modern humans henceforth the only hominin15,000 colonisation and occupation of North America by humans and their dogs, from northeastern Siberia over the Bering land bridge15,000 colonisation of South America (Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru); humans henceforth occupying every continental landmass on Earth, except Antarctica15,000 semi-permanent forager settlements of Natufians (Levant), evidenced by presence of house mice15,000 earliest record of a string instrument: the musical bow (cave painting at Trois Frères, France) → music initiated outside the body15,000 earliest thaumatrope (Laugerie-Basse, France): an optical toy, creating movement by juxtaposition of images14,400 evidence of baking bread: unleavened flatbread from wild einkorn and club-rush tubers (Shubayqa, Jordan) → caries from consumption of starchy foods14,000 earliest lime plaster, used as an adhesive for hafting (Kebaran, Levant) → mortar by 3,000 years ago13,400 earliest evidence of inter-communal violence on a large scale, with projectile impacts and blunt-force trauma (Jebel Sahaba, northern Sudan): competition for food?12,000 extinction of megafauna including woolly mammoths from continental Eurasia and North America, caused by human hunting or climate warming11,700 start of the Holocene Epoch within the Quaternary Period, characterised by warm and stable climate until the late CE 20ᵗʰ century11,700 in the Mojave desert a seed germinates and grows into a deadly creosote bush, which segments to sprout new stems, sprouting and segmenting for 11,700 years11,600 earliest monumental ritual art (Shigir, Siberia): 5-m tall larchwood plank carved with human forms and signs → complex ideas expressed by hunter-gatherers4. Agricultural farming and settlementsBCE 9500 11,500 cultivation of wild barley and oats around village settlements (Fertile Crescent) → beginnings of agriculture; storable grains sustaining population growth9500 11,500 earliest monumental temple (Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia): carved stone stelae up to 4-m tall serving ritualistic purposes; associated skull cult; ceremonial porridge and beer9000 11,000 earliest continuous settlements (southern Levant), including Jericho: stone and mud architecture developing into a walled city of up to 3,000 people → modern cities of 30 million people8200 10,200 domestication of sheep and goats (Fertile Crescent and Turkey) → milk, meat, wool, hide and capital from 1.2 billion sheep and 1.1 billion goats by CE 2019, rising trend8100 10,100 global population of humans passes 5 million; annual energy use per person averages 1,700 kWh, 2.4× the resting metabolism8000 10,000 continental ice-sheets withdraw from Europe and North America8000 10,000 domestication of cattle, from aurochs (Near East and Indus Valley) → haulage, milk, meat, hide and capital from 1.5 billion head of cattle by CE 2019, rising trend8000 10,000 domestication of cats, from Near Eastern wildcats Felis silvestris lybica (Middle East) → 400 million domestic cats by CE 20ᵗʰ century, a substantial threat to wildlife8000 10,000 domestication of wheat (Mesopotamia): hybrid vigour efficiently converting solar energy into food energy → 772 million tonnes per year by CE 2017, using 218 million ha of land: peak production?8000 10,000 domestication of the bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria, indigenous to Africa, in the Americas from Asian stock → global diffusion for containers, musical instruments, fishing floats8000 10,000 earliest record of artistic expression through dance, as rite of passage (engravings in Addaura II Cave, Sicily) → collective desire for cosmic order7500 9,500 earliest use of bricks: adobe earth and reeds (Tell Aswad, Tigris) → fired bricks by 3000 BCE (China)7500 9,500 domestication of chickens from red junglefowl (Southeast Asia) → meat and eggs from 25.9 billion chickens by CE 2019 and rising, 5× the biomass of all wild birds7200 9,200 earliest large-scale representations of complete human forms: lime plaster statues 1-m tall (Ain Ghazal, Jordan)7000 9,000 domestication of the potato (Andes, southern Peru) → 370 million tonnes per year by CE 2019, using 17 million ha of land; a food-security crop worldwide, not a globally traded commodity7000 9,000 domestication of pigs (Anatolia and China) → meat, hide, bristles, medical research and capital from 1.0 billion pigs by CE 2015: peak production?7000 9,000 big-game hunting practised by females and males (Wilamaya Patjxa, Andean highlands) → strong male bias across recent hunter-gatherer societies6500 8,500 earliest mining of metal, to heat, hammer and grind into tools: copper for projectile points (Great Lakes, North America)6500 8,500 earliest cattle dairying (north-western Anatolia), for milk and its products of cheese and ghee: protein and fat obtained without killing the capital asset6500 8,500 beginning of a wave of migrations from the Middle East northwest through Anatolia, spreading farming practices into Europe6000 8,000 domestication of rice (Asia) → 763 million tonnes per year by CE 2018, using 166 million ha of land6000 8,000 foraging for honey (Mesolithic painting in the Araña Caves, Spain) → 90 million beehives by CE 20195900 7,900 earliest grape wine and viniculture (South Caucasus) → wine as a social lubricant, medicine and commodity throughout western civilisation5900 7,900 start of the Copper Age (Fertile Crescent), spread of copper smelting for weapons and tools5800 7,800 cultivation of cotton Gossypium barbadense (north Peru); G. arboreum cultivated in Pakistan by 5500 BCE → clothes, fishing nets, sheets, towels, rugs, wadding5600 7,600 cultivation of poppies for opium (western Mediterranean), widespread by 4500 BCE, domestication by 3100 BCE → psychoactive, medicinal and alimentary uses5500 7,500 flooding of the Black Sea from the Mediterranean Sea: perhaps the great flood of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the biblical flood of Noah’s Ark5480 7,500 extraordinarily large influx of cosmic rays from an abnormal Sun, possibly caused by solar proton events → potential for DNA damage on a global scale5200 7,200 earliest use of bitumen, for waterproofing reed-bundle boats (As-Sabiyah, Kuwait) → 65 billion tons of asphalt in roads and pavements by CE 20205200 7,200 earliest seaborne trading networks (Aegean for obsidian, Persian Gulf for Ubaid pottery), with mast and sail technology: the earliest harnessing of natural forces to replace human labour5100 7,100 ritual landscape of large-scale mustatil monuments (northern Saudi Arabia): entranceways to courtyards, chambers, orthostats; associated cattle cult5000 7,000 rise of languages with subject-verb-object syntax – as in English – from the root syntax of subject-object-verb (proto-Indo-European), and expansion westward; other combinations arise later5000 7,000 domestication of tobacco (Andean Highlands, South America), spreading to North America by 1520 BCE → smoking kills 100 million people worldwide in CE 20ᵗʰ century, the worst preventable killer4200 6,200 domestication of maize (Mexico) → 1.15 billion tonnes per year by CE 2019 using 197 million ha; with wheat and rice accounting for 43% of all human calorie supply, using 4% of global land area4000 6,000 domestication of chili peppers (Tehuacán Valley, Mexico), spreading rapidly into South America; brought to Europe by Columbus CE 1492 → now used daily by a quarter of the global population4000 6,000 earliest extraction of salt (Lake Yuncheng, China; Cardona salt mountain, Spain): enhancing flavour, preserving food → high consumption in Western societies, with no evolutionary precedent4000 6,000 earliest use of indigo blue, from Indigofera species, for dyeing cotton fabric (Huaca Prieta, Peru); use in Egypt by 2400 BCE, China by 1000 BCE4000 6,000 earliest board games (Egypt), moving pieces on a track according to outcomes determined by a throw stick → computers outperform humans in all board games by CE 20163600 5,500 earliest engineering of water delivery and storage, for people, animals and irrigation (Jawa, Jordan) → landscape engineering of dams, levees, ditches in China by 3100 BCE3500 5,500 earliest ploughs for tilling soil (Italy) → expansion of arable farming3500 5,500 rising human fertility, enabled by earlier weaning of babies fed with milk of domestic ruminants (southern Britain)3500 5,500 domestication of horses (Central Asian steppes), revolutionising mobility, economy, warfare → transport, haulage, meat and capital from 59 million horses by CE 20193400 5,400 earliest wheeled wagons (Germany, Slovenia, Near East) → breakthrough in haulage and locomotion: mechanical advantage equalling ratio of wheel to axle radii, moderated by friction; nanoscale wheel and axle by CE 20073300 5,300 start of the Bronze Age (Near East), bronze replacing copper for weapons, tools, nails, utensils; mixing of Eurasian peoples → rapid westward spread of farming, conversion of forest to pasture3300 5,300 cultivation of cocoa trees for chocolate (upper Amazon) → domestication in Mesoamerica by 1600 BCE, sacrificing productivity for stimulant and disease-resistance genes3300 5,300 earliest numeral systems: pictograms of economic units (Uruk, Mesopotamia) → cuneiform sexagesimals in Mesopotamia by c. 3200 BCE, and hieroglyph decimals in Egypt by 3100 BCE3200 5,200 full writing (cuneiform in Mesopotamia, hieroglyphics in Egypt) using the rebus principle → bookkeeping, instruction, commemoration, scripture, prayer, historical records3150 5,150 organic medicinal remedies from herbal wines (Egypt)3100 5,100 earliest evidence of the plague (Latvia), possibly driving 3ʳᵈ millenium BCE migrations across Europe and Asia3100 5,100 development of systems of governance with the rise of Uruk, city of 30,000 residents (Sumer civilisation, Mesopotamia), and cities of the Indus valley (India and Pakistan)3050 5,050 earliest standard weights for balance scales, and cubit length (Mesopotamia and Egypt): objective frames of reference for valuing commodities → integration of markets across Western Eurasia within 2 millennia3000 5,000 cultivation of oil palm (west and central Africa) → 411 million tonnes of oil-palm fruit per year by CE 2019 using 28 million ha, largely converted tropical forest3000 5,000 global agricultural land use per person peaks at 2.72 ha → 0.66 ha by CE 2016 with improvements in yield3000 5,000 synthetic glass (Phoenicia) for beads → ingots, vessels by 1600 BCE; CE 1ˢᵗ century mirrors; 7ᵗʰ century stained-glass windows; 13ᵗʰ century eyeglasses; late-20ᵗʰ century float-glass skyscrapers3000 5,000 earliest swords, for combat and prestige (Arslantepe, Turkey) → essential battle weapons through most of 5 millennia to CE 1918 and the end of World War I3000 5,000 earliest Solar calendar year of 365 days, anchored by spring and autumn equinox dates (Egypt and old Sumer)2800 4,800 global population of humans passes 50 million; annual energy use per person averages 2,100 kWh, 3× the resting metabolism2720 4,750 in the North American White Mountains a seedling grows into a bristlecone pine tree, which sustains production of viable seeds over a lifespan extending beyond 4,700 years2650 4,650 earliest lunar calendar year of 12 months, and each hour as one-twelfth part of the day or night (Shulgi, King of Ur, Mesopotamia)2650 4,650 magnetic compass, used to orient chariots (Emperor Hoang-Ti, China, recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian CE 1084, Thoung Kian Kang Mou edition) → navigation at sea by CE 300, Tsin dynasty, China2650 4,650 earliest regulation of wildlife exploitation: every fisher and hunter taxed one-tenth of their take (pharaoh Djoser, Egypt, recorded in the Famine Stela)2650 4,650 earliest massive stone monuments: step pyramid tomb of pharaoh Djoser in Saqqara, Egypt; contemporaneous pyramidal architecture in Caral-Supe, Peru; megalith at Stonehenge, Britain2550 4,550 earliest dictionary: cuneiform tablets translating between Sumerian and Eblaic (Ebla, Syria)2550 4,550 earliest writing on papyrus: Diary of Merer, recounting construction of the Great Pyramid (Wadi al-Jarf, Egypt) → parchment by 200 BCE, Greece; paper from pulp by 100 BCE, China2550 4,550 architectural precision: the Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt), taller than any other building in the world for 3,800 years2500 4,500 earliest locks (Egypt): door bolts → emergence of private ownership and privacy; lock and key by 1500 BCE2350 4,350 earliest government reforms, addressing taxes and corruption (Uru-KA-gina, King of Lagash and Girsu, Mesopotamia)2100 4,100 earliest code of law, applying general principles to particular cases (Code of Ur-Nammu, Sumerian King of Ur, Mesopotamia)2030 4,050 earliest recorded poetry, expressing an emotional truth about the human spirit: a Sumerian love poem (Nippur, Iraq)2000 4,000 extinction of last remnant population of woolly mammoths, on Wrangle Island, Arctic Sea2000 4,000 decline of Bronze-Age civilisations in Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia, and terminal decline of Indus Valley civilisation, caused by 200 years of drought beginning c. 2000 BCE2000 4,000 earliest use of coal as fuel (Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, China), for smelting copper, cooking, heating → peak global coal production of 8.2 billion tonnes/year in CE 20132000 4,000 earliest abacus, replacing tables of multiplication, reciprocals, powers (Old Babylonians, Mesopotamia c. 2000-1600 BCE) → nanoscale abacus storing numerical information in individual molecules by CE 19961900 3,900 earliest map of a territory: 3-dimensional topography covering 30 km of the Odet river valley, sculpted to scale on a schist rock slab (Saint-Bélec, France)1900 3,900 establishment of a 7-day week (Assyria and Babylonia)1850 3,850 earliest alphabetic script (Proto-Sinaitic, Sinai and Egypt) → economy of signs1850 3,850 earliest architectural arch, a Canaanite gate (Ashkelon, Israel) → breakthrough in construction of gateways, vaults, doors, windows, bridges: converting tensile stress into compressive stress1825 3,850 earliest record of contraception: Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus (Lehun, Egypt)5. Empires and conquestsBCE 1800 3,800 beginnings of complex societies: Babylonian civilisation in Mesopotamia, 1800 BCE; Olmec civilisation in Mesoamerica, 1800 BCE; Shang dynasty in China, 1600 BCE; New Kingdom in Egypt, 1600 BCE1800 3,800 earliest extraction and working of iron (Anatolia) → alloying with carbon to make steel in Cyprus by 1100 BCE1800 3,800 earliest prose fiction: Epic of Gilgamesh (in cuneiform, Ur, Mesopotamia), on the nature of life, love, comedy, tragedy, and inevitable death1750 3,750 earliest principles of insurance against loss or damage, for maritime shipments (Code of Hammurabi, Babylon)1750 3,750 earliest cultivation of the tea plant Camellia sinensis (China, early 2ⁿᵈ millennium BCE) → now the most frequently consumed beverage worldwide, with many health benefits1650 3,650 harvesting of latex from the Castilla elastica tree to make rubber for balls and figurines (Mexico): the first plastic polymer → unsurpassed sliding friction and durable elasticity1650 3,650 earliest team sport: rubber-ball game played in an architectural ballcourt (Paso de la Amada, Mexico) → social compacts; decapitation rituals by CE 5001650 3,650 earliest porcelaneous high-fired ceramics (Piaoshan kiln, China): fragile when whole, indestructible as broken shards → true porcelain by early CE, China1650 3,650 earliest use of stencils, of hyperbolae, ellipses and spirals, for the Gathering of Crocus wall painting (Thera, Aegean Sea): knowledge of the foundations of geometry1630 3,650 earliest planetary observations, of the motions of Venus (reign of Ammisaduqa, king of Babylon)1550 3,550 reckoning with fractions and geometry (Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, Egypt)1520 3,550 first accurate timepiece: an outflow water-clock (Amenemhet, court of Amenhotep I, Egypt) measuring night-time; shadow clocks and sundials regulating daytime worker shifts1300 3,300 earliest notated music: Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal (in cuneiform, Ugarit, Syria); the singing voice carrying further than the spoken voice, conveying feeling1200 3,200 sea-going trade in silver and dyes by Phoenicians, connecting the Levant with western Europe across the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean1050 3,050 start of the Iron Age (Aegean; Britain by 800 BCE), iron replacing bronze for tools and weapons1000 3,000 use of hydraulic plaster, mixing lime with silicates (Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel) → concrete in Ancient Rome by CE 70, the dominant building material of modern times1000 3,000 earliest depiction of the cosmos: a bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols of the Sun, Moon, and stars including the Pleiades cluster (Nebra, Germany)950 2,950 first Jewish temple (King Solomon, Jerusalem) → rise of Judaism for a chosen people900 2,900 earliest centre of higher learning (Taxila University, India) → Plato’s Academy in Greece by 387 BCE; Taixue University in China by CE 3; Al-Karaouine University in Morocco by CE 859; European medieval universities900 2,900 accurate prediction of lunar eclipses (Germany)850 2,850 earliest professional army (Lacedaemonians of Sparta, Greece, described in Xenophon’s Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 388 BCE)776 2,800 first Olympic games (Olympia, Peloponnesus, 776 BCE)700 2,700 first book of European literature: The Iliad (Homer, Greece), an epic poem on the suffering and loss of war700 2,700 Archimedes’ Screw, used to irrigate Sennacherib’s elevated garden (river Tigris, Mesopotamia), described by Archimedes 4 centuries later650 2,650 earliest use of metallic money (Lydians of Anatolia): stamped gold and silver coins650 2,650 earliest collection of scholarly texts, on 32,000 cuneiform tablets: the Library of Ashurbanipal (Nineveh, Iraq)600 2,600 first circumnavigation of the African continent (Phoenicians from Arwād, reported by Herodotus in The Histories 430 BCE)600 2,600 peak of Greek civilisation (Greece), foundations of ethics, poetry, drama, philosophy; first democracy 508 BCE550 2,550 earliest cartography: a map of the known world, by Anaximander (Greece, c. 550 BCE, reported in Strabo’s Geographica 7 BCE)550 2,550 first Persian Empire (Cyrus the Great, Persia), connecting the Mediterranean to the Indus valley → code of just rule that respects others’ faiths550 2,550 training in surgery and anatomy, described in the Susruta Samhita (northern India, 6ᵗʰ century BCE)550 2,550 professional policing, investigating criminal cases, addressing injustices (the paqūdu of Babylonia c. 550 BCE)500 2,550 construction of a navigable canal from the Nile to the Red Sea (Darius I of Persia) → Suez Canal by 1869, the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia500 2,500 earliest use of cannabis as a psychoactive substance (Jirzankal Cemetery, China) → modern narco-trafficking spread by counter-drug interdiction450 2,450 collection of the sayings of Confucius (551-479 BCE, China) into the Analects, founding Confucianism, with a role for every person in society and universal education450 2,450 earliest cast iron artefacts (Jiangsu, China)450 2,450 collection of the Torah and other scriptures into the Hebrew Bible → Christian Old Testament 500 years later, including the divine authority of the Ten Commandments400 2,400 Siddhārtha Gautama (Buddha, c. 480-400 BCE, Ancient India) lays the foundations of Buddhism, with joy as a calling towards the path of nirvana; rebirth in hell for misconduct400 2,400 earliest in-patient hospitals (King Paṇḍukābhaya, Sri Lanka) → professional care for the sick375 2,400 idea that justice and virtue are inherent qualities of inner harmony (Plato’s Republic, Greece): limits to the liability of external forces for conduct → moral conscience of Christianity364 2,400 first sighting of another moon: Jupiter’s Ganymede, discovered with the naked eye (Gan De, China) → rediscovery by Galileo Galilei in CE 1610, using a 20× telescope350 2,350 concept of time-velocity space applied to the motions of Jupiter (Babylonia)350 2,350 development of formal systems of reasoning, by logical deduction from axioms and postulates (Aristotle, Greece) → scientific disciplines320 2,350 compilation of the Tao Te Ching (China) on peace and war, founding Taoism in ritual cultivation of life’s inherent natural and spiritual forces, benefitting all300 2,300 earliest economic exploitation of chicken outside East Asia (Southern Levant); now the world’s most ubiquitous species of livestock, a principle source of protein300 2,300 postulation of Euclidean geometry of flat surfaces (Euclid of Alexandria, Greece) → first printed edition of Euclid’s Elements, CE 1482280 2,300 first hypothesis that Earth revolves around the Sun (Aristarchus of Samos, Greece, reported in Archimedes’ The Sand Reckoner, c. 260 BCE)250 2,250 first estimation of π within known limits (Archimedes, Greece), describing circles, discs, spheres, cones, orbits, loops, spirals, waves → method of calculus250 2,250 earliest accurate estimates of the circumference, diameter and tilt of a spherical Earth (Eratosthenes, Greece, c. 250 BCE, reported by Pliny CE 77)250 2,250 earliest watermills (Egypt; Anatolia by 50 BCE, reported in Strabo’s Geographica 7 BCE), milling grain, processing ore; the first machines to harness a natural force for mechanical work250 2,250 construction of the Great Wall, stretching 1,900 km (Emperor Qin Shi Huang, China) → 21,196 km by the Ming dynasty to CE 1644200 2,200 fusion of Indian cultures and traditions into Hinduism, with worship posthumously rewarded by favourable rebirth → third most populous religion of the modern era, after Christianity and Islam200 2,200 widespread adoption of seed drills (Han dynasty, northern China); reinvention by Jethro Tull in 1701, Britain → production efficiency heralding the dawn of modern agriculture100 2,100 first analogue computer: Antikythera Mechanism of bronze gears, mechanising solar and lunar epicycles and eclipses, and motions of the planets in the known cosmos (Antikythera, Greece); unsurpassed for 1,400 years100 2,100 earliest positional system of decimal fractions, for algorithmic calculations with positive and negative numbers using counting rods (China)100 2,100 establishment of the Silk Roads, for overland trade between East Asia and southern Europe → China’s 2013 Belt and Road Initiative, opening routes to trade and investment in 70 economiesBCE 50 2,050 rise of the Roman Empire (Europe), enduring 500 years → efficient road and aqueduct systems, self-strengthening concrete, lead-pipe plumbing networks, sanitation; 4-yearly leap dayCE 50 1,950 death of Jesus of Nazareth and transcribing of his life in the New Testament → rise of Christianity, with salvation for the righteous and heaven as reward; otherwise fear hell77 1,950 earliest encyclopaedia (Pliny the Elder, Italy, Naturalis Historia books 1-5, 6-10, 11-17, 18-23, 24-31, 32-37 CE 77)100 1,900 maritime trade routes between Africa, India, China, for spices, medicines, fabrics; connecting to Ancient Rome through Alexandria100 1,900 use of paper for writing and painting begins to supplant bamboo and silk in China (Emperor He, Eastern Han dynasty, c. 100)132 1,900 invention of the seismoscope (Zhang Heng, Eastern Han dynasty, China, 132), detecting earthquakes at a distance of 600 km150 1,850 development of the astrolabe from celestial globes, locating Sun and stars in relation to the equator (Ptolemy, Alexandria, c. 150) → determination of latitude150 1,850 earliest industrial complex: watermills of Barbegal (France, 2ⁿᵈ century), producing 25 tons/day of hardtack for local harbours290 1,750 firing of natural gas in southwest China, to boil brine for salt (Bowu zhi c. 290), and to pipe into homes for lighting (Huayang Guo Zhi c. 340) → 3.9 trillion m³/year of global gas extraction by 2018 and rising290 1,750 use of mineral oil in central China, to lubricate axles and to seal water tanks (Bowu zhi c. 290, reported in Shui Jing Zhu c. 500) → 5.0 billion tonnes/year of global oil extraction by 2018: peak production?300 1,700 beginning of central Europe’s 300-year Migration Period: cultural and socioeconomic turmoil coinciding with climatic variability; eastern tribes overwhelming the Roman Empire357 1,650 earliest explicit use of zero, in the Maya Classic Period (Uaxactun, Guatemala, 357)400 1,550 rise of urbanisation, with administrative cities of over 100,000 people (Teotihuacan, Mexico, covering 18 km² c. 400) → specialisation of trades and occupations532 1,500 creation of anno Domini, or AD (Dionysius Exiguus, Romania, 532); called anno aerae nostrae vulgaris by Johannes Kepler in 1615, now Common Era, or CE → no calendar year zero536 1,500 crop failures across the northern hemisphere caused by volcanic eruptions in Iceland; then bubonic plague (536-547) → century of economic stagnation550 1,450 earliest block printing on paper (China, c. 550) → widespread use of printed books in 11ᵗʰ century Song dynasty China620 1,400 discovery of Antarctica by Polynesian Māoris (Hui Te Rangiora on the vessel Te Ivi o Atea, from New Zealand, early 7ᵗʰ century) → numerous visits over subsequent centuries628 1,400 introduction of rules governing the use of zero in number systems (Brahmagupta, India, Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta 628)650 1,350 death of the prophet Muhammad (Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 632) and transcribing of his revelations in the Qur'an → rise of Islam, with prayer guiding righteous deeds and paradise as reward; hell for disbelievers700 1,300 Islamic Golden Age, from 8ᵗʰ to 14ᵗʰ centuries: flourishing art, design, architecture, and scientific innovation754 1,250 establishment of the Papal States (Pope Stephen II, central Italy, 754) → global reach of the Catholic Church headed by a pope; 900 years of European art and architecture in the service of Christianity841 1,200 earliest use of statistical inference (Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, Iraq, Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu'amma 841) → cryptography; analysis of distributed variables874 1,150 Norse colonisation of Iceland, 874; deforestation and sheep grazing erode soils, driving down the island’s vegetation irretrievably to a half, and forests to 4%, of original extent900 1,100 earliest windmills (Khorasan, Iran-Afghanistan, c. 900, recorded by Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad Iṣṭakhrī)985 1,050 Norse colonisation of Greenland by Erik Thorvaldsson, 985; Newfoundland by his son Leif, c. 1010 → harvesting North American stockfish and eiderdown for a century1000 1,000 sexagesimal subdivision of the hour into 60 minutes, and the minute into 60 seconds (Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, Iran, c. 1000)1044 977 formula for gunpowder, used for fire arrows, incendiary projectiles, smoke bombs (Northern Song dynasty, Chin