Timeline of prehistory

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This timeline of prehistory covers the time from the appearance of Homo sapiens approximately 315,000 years ago in Africa to the invention of writing, over 5,000 years ago, with the earliest records going back to 3,200 BC. Prehistory covers the time from the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) to the beginning of ancient history.

All dates are approximate and subject to revision based on new discoveries or analyses.

Middle Paleolithic

~320,000 to 305,000 years ago: Populations at Olorgesailie in Southern Kenya undergo technological improvements in tool making and engage in long-distance trade.
315,000 years ago: approximate date of appearance of Homo sapiens (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco).
270,000 years ago: age of Y-DNA haplogroup A00 ("Y-chromosomal Adam").
250,000 years ago: first appearance of Homo neanderthalensis (Saccopastore skulls).
230,000 years ago: Latest proposed date for the Terra Amata site, home of the first confirmed purpose-built structure and probably made by Homo heidelbergensis.

230,000–150,000 years ago: age of mt-DNA haplogroup L ("Mitochondrial Eve").
210,000 years ago: modern human presence in southeast Europe (Apidima, Greece).
200,000 years ago: oldest known grass bedding, including insect-repellent plants and ash layers beneath (possibly for a dirt-free, insulated base and to keep away arthropods).
195,000 years ago: Omo remains (Ethiopia).
194,000–177,000 years ago: modern human presence in West Asia (Misliya cave in Israel).
170,000 years ago: humans are wearing clothing by this date.
~164,000 years ago: humans diet expands to include marine resources
160,000 years ago: Homo sapiens idaltu.
150,000 years ago: Peopling of Africa: Khoisanid separation, age of mtDNA haplogroup L0.
130,000 years ago: oldest evidence of ancient seafaring, from Crete (an island isolated from land for millions of years prior to human arrival).
125,000 years ago: the peak of the Eemian interglacial period.
~120,000 years ago: possibly the earliest evidence of use of symbols etched onto bone.
~120,000 years ago: use of marine shells for personal decoration by humans, including Neandertals.
120,000–90,000 years ago: Abbassia Pluvial in North Africa—the Sahara desert region is wet and fertile.
120,000–75,000 years ago: Khoisanid back-migration from Southern Africa to East Africa.
100,000 years ago: Earliest structures in the world (sandstone blocks set in a semi-circle with an oval foundation) built in Egypt close to Wadi Halfa near the modern border with Sudan.
82,000 years ago: small perforated seashell beads from Taforalt in Morocco are the earliest evidence of personal adornment found anywhere in the world.
80,000–70,000 years ago: Recent African origin: separation of sub-Saharan Africans and non-Africans.
75,000 years ago: Toba Volcano supereruption that may have contributed to human populations being lowered to about 15,000 people.
70,000 years ago: earliest example of abstract art or symbolic art from Blombos Cave, South Africa—stones engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns.

Upper Paleolithic

"Epipaleolithic" or "Mesolithic" are terms for a transitional period between the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution in Old World (Eurasian) cultures.
80,000–40,000: Evidence of Australian Aboriginal Culture.
67,000–40,000 years ago: Neanderthal admixture to Eurasians.
50,000 years ago: earliest evidence of a sewing needle. Made and used by Denisovans.
50,000–30,000 years ago: Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa. The Sahara desert region is wet and fertile. Late Stone Age begins in Africa.
45,000 years ago: The earliest known representational art: a painting of three Celebes warty pigs in Leang Tedongnge cave, Sulawesi.
45,000–43,000 years ago: The first waves of Homo sapiens arrive in Europe, comprising the Early European modern humans.
45,000–40,000 years ago: Châtelperronian cultures in France.
42,000 years ago: Time frame of the Laschamps event, the first geomagnetic excursion studied and one of the few full global magnetic field reversals known. Although many effects upon life on Earth and human evolution from the increase in cosmic rays have been tentatively proposed, the effects are not considered to have been strong enough (further refuted by paleoecological evidence) to have significantly affected natural or human history.
42,000 years ago: Paleolithic flutes in Germany.
42,000 years ago: earliest evidence of advanced deep sea fishing technology at the Jerimalai cave site in East Timor—demonstrates high-level maritime skills and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large numbers of big deep sea fish such as tuna.
41,000 years ago: Denisova hominin lives in the Altai Mountains.
40,000 years ago: extinction of Homo neanderthalensis.

40,000 years ago: Aurignacian culture begins in Europe.
40,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art the zoomorphic Löwenmensch figurine.

40,000–30,000 years ago: First human settlements formed by Aboriginal Australians in several areas that are today the cities of Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.
40,000–20,000 years ago: oldest known ritual cremation, the Mungo Lady, in Lake Mungo, Australia.
37,000 years ago: A population of Basal Eurasians migrate to Europe. Unlike the Early European modern humans that inhabited Europe earlier, these populations form part of the ancestry of modern Europe.
35,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art of a human figure as opposed to a zoomorphic figure (Venus of Hohle Fels).
33,000 years ago: earliest evidence of humanoids in Ireland.
31,000–16,000 years ago: Last Glacial Maximum (peak at 26,500 years ago).
30,000 years ago: rock paintings tradition begins in Bhimbetka rock shelters in India, which presently as a collection is the densest known concentration of rock art. In an area about 10 km2, there are about 800 rock shelters of which 500 contain paintings.
29,000 years ago: The earliest ovens found.
28,500 years ago: New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia.
28,000 years ago: oldest known twisted rope.
28,000–24,000 years ago: oldest known pottery—used to make figurines rather than cooking or storage vessels (Venus of Dolní Věstonice).
28,000–20,000 years ago: Gravettian period in Europe. Harpoons and saws invented.
26,000 years ago: people around the world use fibers to make baby carriers, clothes, bags, baskets, and nets.
25,000 years ago: a hamlet consisting of huts built of rocks and of mammoth bones is founded in what is now Dolní Věstonice in Moravia in the Czech Republic. Dolní Věstonice (archaeological site) is the oldest human permanent settlement that has yet been found by archaeologists.
25,000 years ago: Ancient North Eurasians migrate into eastern Siberia, intermixing with the local Ancient East Asian populations. Their descendants migrated into Beringia, where they became (or helped form) the Ancestral Native Americans.
24,000–15,000 years ago: General time frame for the Mal'ta-Buret' culture near Lake Baikal, the archaeological culture whose human remains serve as the type for the Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) population which appeared some time prior. Mal'ta-Buret' sites consisted of temporary mammoth-bone huts for reindeer hunters, yet their art is among the most sophisticated of their time, having many parallels with carvings elsewhere in Eurasia (for example, their Venus figurines), indicative of long-distance exchange of ideas. Both Europeans and American Indians share significant ANE ancestry.
24,000 years ago: The cave bear is thought to have become extinct.
24,000 years ago: Evidence suggests humans living in Alaska and Yukon North America.
23,000 years ago: A population of wolves are hypothesized to have begun cohabiting with Ancient North Eurasians for shared food, protection, and (possibly later) hunting success. This commensal relationship is thought to have lead to the domestication of the dog, which genetic studies show their ancestry diverging from wolves at this time along with an increase in population. At the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site, smaller wolf-like canids with neotenous features and signs of being cared for have been observed.
23,000–21,000 years ago: The earliest known human footprints in North America are left at what is now White Sands National Park, New Mexico.
21,000 years ago: artifacts suggest early human activity occurred in Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
20,000 years ago: Kebaran culture in the Levant: beginning of the Epipalaeolithic in the Levant.
20,000 years ago: theorized earliest date of development of traditional Arctic clothing like those used by Arctic Eurasians and Inuit.
20,000–10,000 years ago: Khoisanid expansion to Central Africa.
20,000–19,000 years ago: earliest pottery use, in Xianren Cave, China.
18,000–12,000 years ago: Though estimations vary widely, it is believed by scholars that Afro-Asiatic was spoken as a single language around this time period.
18,000 years ago: The Magdalenian culture appears in Europe. They are responsible for some of the most complex and famous artistic traditions of Ice Age Europe, creating the cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira, as well as numerous carvings in ivory and stone.
17,000 years ago: The earliest gene for blond hair is found among Ancient North Eurasians at the Afontova Gora site in Siberia.

16,000–14,000 years ago: Minatogawa Man (Proto-Mongoloid phenotype) in Okinawa, Japan.
16,000–11,000 years ago: Caucasus hunter-gatherer expansion to Europe.
16,000 years ago: Wisent (European bison) sculpted in clay deep inside the cave now known as Le Tuc d'Audoubert in the French Pyrenees near what is now the border of Spain.
15,000–14,700 years ago (13,000 BC to 12,700 BC): Earliest supposed date for the domestication of the pig.
14,200 years ago: The oldest agreed domestic dog remains belongs to the Bonn-Oberkassel dog that was buried with two humans.
14,000 years ago: Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b, normally associated with the Near East at this time, appears in Italy.
14,000 years ago: Western Hunter Gatherers (descended from Ancient North Eurasians) of the Epigravettian culture expand into Europe and replace the Magdalenian culture.
14,000–12,000 years ago: Oldest evidence for prehistoric warfare (Jebel Sahaba, Natufian culture).
13,000–10,000 years ago: Last Glacial Maximum, end of the Last Glacial Period, climate warms, glaciers recede.
13,000 years ago: A major water outbreak occurs on Lake Agassiz in central North America, which at the time could have been the size of the current Black Sea and the largest lake on Earth. Much of the lake is drained in the Arctic Ocean through the Mackenzie River.
13,000–11,000 years ago: Earliest dates suggested for the domestication of the sheep.
12,900–11,700 years ago: The Younger Dryas, a period of sudden cooling and return to glacial conditions.
c. 12,000 years ago: Volcanic eruptions in the Virunga Mountains blocked Lake Kivu outflow into Lake Edward and the Nile system, diverting the water to Lake Tanganyika. Nile's total length is shortened and Lake Tanganyika's surface is increased.
12,000 years ago: Earliest dates suggested for the domestication of the goat.

Holocene

The terms "Neolithic" and "Bronze Age" are culture-specific and are mostly limited to cultures of select parts of the Old World, namely Europe, Western and South Asia. Chronological periodizations typically base their periods on one or more identifiable and unique markers associated with a culturally distinct era (within a given interaction sphere), but these markers are not necessarily intrinsic to the cultural evolution of the era's people.

As such, the terms become less applicable when their markers correlate less with cultural evolution. Therefore, the Neolithic and the Neolithic Revolution have little to do with the Americas, where several different chronologies are used instead depending on the area (e.g. the Andean Preceramic, the North American Archaic and Formative periods). Similarly, since there is no appreciable cultural shift between the use of stone, bronze, and iron in East and Southeast Asia, the term "Bronze Age" is not considered to apply to this region the same as western Eurasia, and "Iron Age" is essentially never used. In sub-Saharan Africa, iron metallurgy was developed prior to any knowledge of bronze and possibly before iron's adoption in Eurasia and despite Postclassic Mesoamerica developing and using bronze, it did not have a significant bearing on its continued cultural evolution in the same way as western Eurasia.

11,600 years ago (9,600 BC): An abrupt period of global warming accelerates the glacial retreat; taken as the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch.
11,600 years ago: Jericho has evidence of settlement dating back to 9,600 BC. Jericho was a popular camping ground for Natufian hunter-gatherer groups, who left a scattering of crescent microlith tools behind them.
11,200–11,000 years ago: Meltwater pulse 1B, a sudden rise of sea level by within about 160 years.
11,000 years ago (9,000 BC): Earliest date recorded for construction of temenoi ceremonial structures at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey, as possibly the oldest surviving proto-religious site on Earth.
11,000 years ago (9,000 BC): Giant short-faced bears and giant ground sloths go extinct. Equidae goes extinct in North America.
10,900–10,300 years ago (8900 BC to 8300 BC): The Indigenous peoples of the southwestern Amazon basin domesticate cassava, the first domestic crop in the New World, followed by squash and dozens of tree species. They also begin intensively modifying the Amazonian landscape, foresting open savannahs and permanently increasing the biomass and biodiversity of the modern Amazon rainforest.
10,500 years ago (8,500 BC): Earliest supposed date for the domestication of cattle.
10,000 years ago (8,000 BC): The Quaternary extinction event, which has been ongoing since the mid-Pleistocene, concludes. Many of the ice age megafauna go extinct, including the megatherium, woolly rhinoceros, Irish elk, cave bear, cave lion, and the last of the sabre-toothed cats. The mammoth goes extinct in Eurasia and North America, but is preserved in small island populations until ~1650 BC.
10,800–9,000 years ago: Byblos appears to have been settled during the PPNB period, approximately 8800 to 7000 BC. Neolithic remains of some buildings can be observed at the site.
10,000–9,000 years ago (8000 BC to 7000 BC): In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq, cultivation of barley and wheat begins. At first they are used for beer, gruel, and soup, eventually for bread. In early agriculture at this time, the planting stick is used, but it is replaced by a primitive plow in subsequent centuries. Around this time, a round stone tower, now preserved to about high and in diameter is built in Jericho.
10,000–8,000 years ago (8000 BC to 6000 BC): The post-glacial sea level rise decelerates, slowing the submersion of landmasses that had taken place over the previous 10,000 years.
10,000–5,000 years ago (8,000–3,000 BC) Identical ancestors point: sometime in this period lived the latest subgroup of human population consisting of those that were all common ancestors of all present day humans, the rest having no present day descendants.
9,500–5,500 years ago: Neolithic Subpluvial in North Africa. The Sahara desert region supports a savanna-like environment. Lake Chad is larger than the current Caspian Sea. An African culture develops across the current Sahel region.
9,500 years ago (7500 BC): Çatalhöyük urban settlement founded in Anatolia. Earliest supposed date for the domestication of the cat.
9,200 years ago (7176 BC): Earliest confirmed Miyake event, an extreme peak of solar activity which showers the solar system with cosmic rays and radiation.
9,200 years ago: First human settlement in Amman, Jordan; ʿAin Ghazal Neolithic settlement was built spanning over an area of .
9,000–8,000 years ago (7,000–6000 BC: Early European Farmers arrive in Europe through Anatolia. They replace Western Hunter Gatherer populations in many areas, intermix in others, and introduce agriculture into Europe.
9,000 years ago (7000 BC): Maize is domesticated in southern Mexico from the wild (and significantly different) teosinte and quickly becomes the dominant staple of Mesoamerica, heralding the beginning of agriculture and further domestications in the region.
9,000 years ago (7000 BC): The Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea becomes a cradle of agriculture. Early farmers dig canals that transform the swamp into arable land. They domesticate bananas, sugarcane, taro, lesser yam, and raise cassowaries from captured eggs (which had been done as early as 18,000 years ago).
9,000 years ago (7000 BC): Jiahu culture begins in China.
9,000 years ago: First large-scale fish fermentation in southern Sweden.
9,000 years ago: Human settlement of Mehrgarh, one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia. In April 2006, Nature note that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e. in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh.
8,200–8,000 years ago: 8.2-kiloyear event: a sudden decrease of global temperatures, probably caused by the final collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which leads to drier conditions in East Africa and Mesopotamia.

8,200–7,600 years ago (6200–5600 BC): sudden rise in sea level (Meltwater pulse 1C) by in less than 140 years; this concludes the early Holocene sea level rise and sea level remains largely stable throughout the Neolithic.
8,000–5,000 years ago: (6000 BC–3000 BC) development of proto-writing in China, Southeast Europe (Vinca symbols) and West Asia (proto-literate cuneiform).
8,000 years ago (6000 BC):: Evidence of habitation at the current site of Aleppo dates to about c. 8,000 years ago, although excavations at Tell Qaramel, north of the city show the area was inhabited about 13,000 years ago, Carbon-14 dating at Tell Ramad, on the outskirts of Damascus, suggests that the site may have been occupied since the second half of the seventh millennium BC, possibly around 6300 BC. However, evidence of settlement in the wider Barada basin dating back to 9000 BC exists.
8,000–7,000 years ago (6000 - 5000 BC):: The earliest New World ceramics are created in the Amazon basin.
7,500 years ago (5500 BC): Copper smelting in evidence in Pločnik and other locations.
7,700–6,500 years ago (5700–4500 BC): Vinča culture.
7,300 years ago (5259 BC): Confirmed Miyake event, with high amount of cosmic radiation from the Sun hitting the Earth.
7,200–6,000 years ago: 5200–4000 BC:Għar Dalam phase on Malta. First farming settlements on the island.
6300 or 6350 years ago: Akahoya eruption creates the Kikai Caldera and ends the earliest homogeneous Jomon culture in Japan. When the Jomon culture recovers, it shows regional differences.
6,100–5,800 years ago: 4100–3800 BC: Żebbuġ phase, Malta.
6,070–6,000 years ago (4050–4000 BC): Trypillian build in Nebelivka (Ukraine) settlement which reached 15,000–18,000 inhabitants.
6,500 years ago: The oldest known gold hoard deposited at Varna Necropolis, Bulgaria.
6,080 years ago (4130 BC): Toggling harpoons are invented somewhere in eastern Siberia, spreading south into Japan and east into North America, where they are ancestral to the sophisticated designs of the Inuit and later European whalers.
6,000 years ago (4000 BC): Civilizations develop in the Mesopotamia/Fertile Crescent region (around the location of modern-day Iraq). Earliest supposed dates for the domestication of the horse and for the domestication of the chicken, invention of the potter's wheel.

4th millennium BC

6,000 to 4,000 years ago (4000 BC–2000 BC): The Dene-Yeniseian languages split into Na-Dene in North America and Yeniseian languages in Siberia. The connection is commonly thought to have been the result of a back-migration of early American Indians in Beringia back into Siberia, forming the Yeniseian peoples that were once widespread throughout Eurasia. However, recent studies indicating the existence of a linguistic and technological continuum extending into the Common Era make the directionality of migration and the homeland of Dene-Yeniseian more difficult to determine.
5,840–5,800 years ago (3840–3800 BC): The Post Track and Sweet Track causeways are constructed in the Somerset Levels.
5,800 years ago (3800 BC): Trypillian build in Talianki (Ukraine) settlement which reached 15,600–21,000 inhabitants.
5,800–5,600 years ago: (3800–3600 BC): Mġarr phase A short transitional period in Malta's prehistory. It is characterized by pottery consisting of mainly curved lines.
5,700 years ago (3700 BC): mass graves at Tell Brak in Syria.
5,700 years ago (3700 BC): Trypillian build in Maidanets (Ukraine) settlement which reached 12,000–46,000 inhabitants, and built three-story building.
5,600–5,200 years ago (3600–3200 BC): Ġgantija phase on Malta. Characterized by a change in the way the prehistoric inhabitants of Malta lived.
5,600 years ago (3600 BC): The first monumental buildings are constructed in Sechin Bajo, an urban center in what is now coastal Peru. It belonged to the Casma–Sechin culture, possibly the oldest civilization in the Americas.
5,500 years ago (3500 BC): Uruk period in Sumer. First evidence of mummification in Egypt.
5,500 years ago (3500 BC): oldest known depiction of a wheeled vehicle (Bronocice pot, Funnelbeaker culture).
5,500 years ago (3500 BC): Earliest conjectured date for the still-undeciphered Indus script.
5,500 years ago (3500 BC): End of the African humid period possibly linked to the Piora Oscillation: a rapid and intense aridification event, which probably started the current Sahara Desert dry phase and a population increase in the Nile Valley due to migrations from nearby regions. It is also believed this event contributed to the end of the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia.
5,400 years ago (3400 BC): Waun Mawn is built in West Wales.
5,300 years ago (3300 BC): Bronze Age begins in the Near East Newgrange is built in Ireland. Ness of Brodgar is built in Orkney Hakra Phase of the Indus Valley civilisation begins in the Indian subcontinent.
5,300–5,000 years ago (3300–3000 BC): Saflieni phase in Maltese prehistory.
5,200 years ago (3200 BC): - 2500 BC): The Norte Chico or Caral-Supe civilization begins on the coast of Peru with a wave of monumental construction and founding of the first cities in the Americas. It is generally considered the oldest civilization in the Americas.
5,200 years ago (3200 BC): The Yamnaya culture appears on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. They most likely spoke the Proto-Indo-European language and may have been responsible for domesticating the horse, initiating the Indo-European migrations after a period of European population decline opened up areas for settlement, and both evolving and spreading the European alleles for lactase persistence.
5,100 years ago (3100 BC): The Bronze Age begins on Crete, signaling the beginning of the Early Minoan Period.

3rd millennium BC

5,000 years ago (3000 BC): Settlement of Skara Brae built in Orkney.
5,000 - 4,500 years ago (3000 - 2500 BC): Iron metallurgy is developed by the people of sub-Saharan West Africa, without any prior copper metallurgy and possibly predating iron smelting in Eurasia.
4,600 years ago (2600 BC): Writing is developed in Sumer and Egypt, triggering the beginning of recorded history.

Research
Researchers deduced in a scientific review that "no specific point in time can currently be identified at which modern human ancestry was confined to a limited birthplace" and that current knowledge about long, continuous and complex – e.g. often non-singular, parallel, nonsimultaneous and/or gradual – emergences of characteristics is consistent with a range of evolutionary histories. A timeline dating first occurrences and earliest evidence may therefore be an often inadequate approach for describing humanity's (pre-)history.

Post-historical prehistories

3,800 years ago (1800 BC): Currently undeciphered Minoan script (Linear A) and Cypro-Minoan script developed on Crete and Cyprus.
3,450 years ago (1450 BC): Mycenaean Greece, first deciphered writing in Europe
3,200 years ago (1200 BC): Oracle bone script, first written records in Old Chinese
3,050–2,800 years ago (1050–800 BC): Alphabetic writing; the Phoenician alphabet spreads around the Mediterranean
2,300 years ago (300 BC): Maya script, the only known full writing system developed in the Americas, emerges.
2,260 years ago (260 BC): Earliest deciphered written records in South Asia (Middle Indo-Aryan)
1800s AD: Undeciphered Rongorongo script on Easter Island may mark the latest independent development of writing.