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Hermit
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FAQ: Timeline
« on: 2003-07-04 14:58:14 »

Consensus Prehistoric Time-line

URL: http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=31;action=display;threadid=28793

Authors: Hermit

Revision: 0.95B

Comment, criticism and suggestions welcomed.
Author’s notes for revision: 0.91B
2003-07-21 : Age of the Earth updated.
Author’s notes for revision: 0.92B
2005-11-30 Minor formatting changes. Rechecked PBB timeline. See bibliography.
Author’s notes for revision: 0.93B
2006-03-16 Added Initial Stars at 400MYPBB. Rechecked PBB timeline. See bibliography. Minor change to Australopithecus garhi and Afarensis date and positioning. Homo Georgicus inserted.
Author’s notes for revision: 0.94B
2006-10-11 Added Loss of Bering Straits land-bridge in 11kY BCE
Author’s notes for revision: 0.95B
2009-02-14
Neanderthal genome will unlock secrets of human evolution
Noted but not mapped - early separation of Neanderthal and Modern man at 830kY BCE. If valid, and it may be, the separation has to be driven by an earlier separation of Neanderthal from Homo ergaster or Homo heidelbergensis
Modern man enters Europe at 40kY BCE
Extinction of Neanderthal at 30 kY BCE

Status
Continuing

Abbreviated Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Church of Virus, 2002. All rights reserved. Unlimited distribution permitted in accordance with the terms of the Full copyright notice below.

Abstract
A timeline reflecting universally significant prehistoric dates

Intended Audience
Those needing to refer to prehistoric and cosmic events.

Table of Contents

Consensus Prehistoric Time-Line

Material dated relative to the Big Bang (BB) at 13.7 billion (10⁹) years before present (i.e. 13.7 GYBP)

NB PBB = Post Big Bang. One GeV is equivalent to about 10,000 GK.

BB (Big Bang): The Quantum Gravity Barrier when Gravity separates from other forces. Beginning of space and time. T=10¹⁹ GeV.
10^-43 seconds PBB: Planck Epoch Transition, marking the end of Plank time.
10^-35 seconds PBB: Grand Unification Transition. Strong Force separates from other forces. Baryiogenesis, inflation, "monopoles" and "cosmic strings" have explanatory value. T=10¹⁵ GeV.
10^-24 seconds PBB: Inflation begins, Universe increases in size by 10²⁰ to 10³⁰ times. The "particle desert". Axions and supersymmetry compete.
10^-12 seconds PBB: Weak and Electromagnetic Forces begin to separate.
10^-11 seconds PBB: Electroweak Phase Transition. Electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces are differentiated. T=10³ GeV.
10^-6 seconds PBB: Quark-Hadron Transition. Confinement of Quarks (Quarks could stick together to form protons and neutrons). T=10¹ GeV.
10⁰ (i.e. 1 second) seconds PBB to 180 seconds (3 minutes) PBB: Nucleosynthesis. Primordial Helium and other light elements (D, Li) are produced. T=1 MeV.
180 seconds (3 minutes) PBB: Matter Domination Era. Nuclear Synthesis Ends, onset of gravitational instability.
380 kYPBB: Recombination: Relic radiation decouples. Universe became transparent to photons. These are the photons we see as the 3-K Microwave Background Radiation (aka CBR Cosmic Background Radiation). T = 1 eV (3000K).
400 MYPBB: Initial stars form and ignite.
1 GYPBB: Epoch of Gravitational Collapse. Quasars at the center of the first galaxies formed. T=1 meV.
6.7 GYPBB: Our Solar System formed.

Material Dated Relative to the Common Era i.e. BCE = Before Common Era

11000 BCE: wheat and rye cultivated in Syria
11000 BCE: Bering Straits landbridge submerged. America again isolated.
9000 BCE: pigs domesticated in Turkey
8000 BCE: goats domesticated in Iraq
6200 BCE: a century of cooler temps due to glacial melt?
6000 BCE: hunting nomads descend from high grasslands worldwide
5550 BCE: Black Sea suffers catastrophic salt flood from Mediterranean
5500 BCE: farming villages in Mesopotamia; potters' wheels
5000 BCE: Euphrates irrigation; Nile settlers harness the cycle of floods
4000 BCE: plowing with oxen, irrigation by Nile earthworks; deforestation?
4000 BCE: sheep favored for wool
3500 BCE: Uruk's cities reach 10k population; cylinder seals; the wheel
3440 BCE: Desertification of Sahara begins
3400 BCE: first writing in Egypt
3300 BCE: numerical notation tablets; Iceman mummified in Alps
3000 BCE: sea level reaches present level, temps 2 degrees warmer than current
3000 BCE: bureaucracy, surplus, warehousing, taxes, accounting, gold mines
2800 BCE: Gilgamesh; Pyramid of Djoser near Cairo
2700 BCE: Ur graves show fine arts, distant trade for gold, gems, spices
2500 BCE: walled cities in Egypt and Mesopotamia suggest insecurity
2430 BCE: earliest record of slaves being sold in Mesopotamia
2300 BCE: Sargon unites Mesopotamia around capital Akkad
2200 BCE: Serious drought in Middle East. Disappearance of the Saraswati. Collapse of Harrapan civilization.
2000 BCE: Uruk reaches 60k pop

2000-1600 BCE: Brutal climatic change in North Africa
c1800 BCE: Sumerian King List compiled; first Chinese dynasty
1628 BCE: Thera explodes
1362 BCE: end of Akhnaton's 17-year reign (conventional dating)
1208 BCE: oldest known asserted mention of "Israel"
c1200 BCE: migrations caused by drying climate? (deforestation???)
c950: Supposed time of the mythical kings of Israel, David and Solomon. Israel not yet monotheistic; Israel split north/south
800 BCE: no bible texts yet; ritual sacrifice of 1^st born (Morlech?)
c750 BCE: J's Eden, Eve, and Adam; Hosea anticipates(?) ten commandments
c730 BCE: Hesiod's myths of creation
c722 BCE: Assyrians destroy northern kingdom (Israel still not yet monotheistic)
700 BCE: touchstone makes uniform coinage possible, starting in Lydia
624 BCE: Buddha Shakyamuni (Buddha) born
622 BCE: Hilkiah sends 'book of the law' (Deuteronomy?) to Josiah
551-479 BCE: Kong Qiu (Confucious) alive

Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Church of Virus (2002). All Rights Reserved.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the Abbreviated Copyright Notice [supra] and this paragraph are included as an inseparable component of all such copies and derivative works, and that the terms of this copyright statement shall be binding on derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Church of Virus, except as needed for the purpose of developing further Church of Virus documents or as required to translate it into languages other than English, in which case the procedures for copyrights defined by the Church of Virus from time to time must be followed.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Church of Virus or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and the Church of Virus disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to any warranty that the use of the information herein will not infringe any rights or any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. You are specifically warned that study of documents produced by the Church of Virus may lead to a permanent change in your attitudes or behavior as a result of exposure to the memeplexii and component memes embedded in such documents.

Acknowledgements
<<Acknowledgements to follow here>>

Bibliography
<<Bibliography to follow here>>

References:
Dating of the Big Bang to 13.7 billion (10^9) years before present (GBP) at an accuracy within 1% from William Harwood, "Age of the Universe", 2003-02-11.
Further confirmation and updated report on star formation and BB timescale confirmed at Initial WMAP Results
Rachel Parker and Stuart Rankin,"Relativity & Gravitation", 2005-11-05, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, U. Cambridge
Geological time scales derived from Andrew MacRae, "Geological Time Scale", 1996-1997, accessed 1999-11-03
Information on the first clear separation from a common simian ancestor at 4.5 million years BP from http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/a_tree.html
Information on the dating of the first musical instrument at 78,000 BP from http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/fl-compl.htm
Age of the Earth, Mars, Moon derived from William Cromie, "Earth's Birth Date Turned Back", 2003-07-21
http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/precise.htm
"Ancient 'Volcanic Winter' Tied To Rapid Genetic Divergence In Humans", 1998-09-08
Neanderthal genome will unlock secrets of human evolution, Modern man enters Europe 40 kYBP and Neanderthal extinction 30kYBP, 2009-02-14

Authors’ addresses: hermit@lucifer.com

<<Appendices
<<Appendices to follow here>>

« Last Edit: 2023-10-03 14:02:35 by Hermit »

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Hermit
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Re:FAQ: Timeline
« Reply #1 on: 2009-07-20 22:50:41 »

Consensus Prehistoric Time-line

URL: http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=31;action=display;threadid=28793

Authors: Hermit

Revision: 1.00B

Comment, criticism and suggestions welcomed.
Author’s notes for revision: 1.0B
2009-07-20
Reversed order of Authors Notes
Incorporated dates from various articles in New Scientist
Author’s notes for revision: 0.95B
2009-02-14
Neanderthal genome will unlock secrets of human evolution
Noted but not mapped - early separation of Neanderthal and Modern man at 830kY BCE. If valid, and it may be, the separation has to be driven by an earlier separation of Neanderthal from Homo ergaster or Homo heidelbergensis
Modern man enters Europe at 40kY BCE
Extinction of Neanderthal at 30 kY BCE
Author’s notes for revision: 0.94B
2006-10-11
Added Loss of Bering Straits land-bridge in 11kY BCE
Author’s notes for revision: 0.93B
2006-03-16
Added Initial Stars at 400MYPBB. Rechecked PBB timeline. See bibliography. Minor change to Australopithecus garhi and Afarensis date and positioning. Homo Georgicus inserted.
Author’s notes for revision: 0.92B
2005-11-30
Minor formatting changes. Rechecked PBB timeline. See bibliography.
Author’s notes for revision: 0.91B
2003-07-21
Age of the Earth updated.

Status
Continuing

Abstract
A timeline reflecting universally significant prehistoric dates

Intended Audience
Those needing to refer to prehistoric and cosmic events.

Table of Contents

Material dated relative to the Present i.e. BP = Before Present

7 GYBP: Our Solar System formed
4.567 GYBP: Sol ignites
4.562 GYBP: Mars forms
4,557 GYBP: Earth forms
4.537 GYBP: Moon knocked loose from Earth
4.4567 GYBP: Earth crust forms
4.6 GYBP: Priscoan; Start of Precambrian
4 GYBP: Archean
4 GYBP: Oldest known rocks formed
3.8 GYBP: Beginning of life - bacteria, archaea, possibly eukaryotes
3.5 GYBP: Oldest Fossils - Single celled organisms
3.46 GYBP: Methanogenic microbes may have devloped
3.4 GYBP: Colonies of biodiverse stromatolites
3 GYBP: Virii are definitely present
2.5 GYBP: Proterozoic
2.4 GYBP: Great Oxidation Event Poisonous waste produced by photosynthetic cyanobacteria or other bacteria – oxygen – starts to build up in the atmosphere. Dissolved oxygen makes the iron in the oceans "rust" and sink to the seafloor, forming striking banded iron formations. As Oxygen only accumulates in the absence of Methane, it is possible that this was triggered by a decline in Methane producing bacteria.
2.3 GYBP: reduced volcanic activity. As the ice melted, Oxygen levels increased dramatically.
2.15 GYBP: First unambigious evidence for cyanobacteria and photosynthesis. There is significant doubt over suggestions of earlier photosynthesis.
2.0 GYBP: Eukaryotic cells – cells with internal "organs" (known as organelles) – come into being. One key organelle is the nucleus: the control centre of the cell, in which the genes are stored in the form of DNA. Eukaryotic cells evolved when one simple cell engulfed another, and the two lived together, more or less amicably – an example of "endosymbiosis". The engulfed bacteria eventually become mitochondria, which provide eukaryotic cells with energy. Later, eukaryotic cells engulfed photosynthetic bacteria and formed a symbiotic relationship with them. The engulfed bacteria evolved into chloroplasts: the organelles that give green plants their colour and allow them to extract energy from sunlight. Different lineages of eukaryotic cells acquired chloroplasts in this way on at least three separate occasions, and one of the resulting cell lines went on to evolve into all green algae and green plants.
1.5 GYBP: The eukaryotes divide into three groups: the ancestors of modern plants, fungi and animals split into separate lineages, and evolve separately. We do not know in what order the three groups broke with each other. At this time they were probably all still single-celled organisms.
900 MYBP:The first multicellular life develops around this time. It is unclear exactly how or why this happens, but one possibility is that single-celled organisms go through a stage similar to that of modern choanoflagellates: single-celled creatures that sometimes form colonies consisting of many individuals. Of all the single-celled organisms known to exist, choanoflagellates are the most closely related to multicellular animals, lending support to this theory.
800 MYBP: The early multicellular animals undergo their first splits. First they divide into, essentially, the sponges and everything else – the latter being more formally known as the Eumetazoa.
780 MYBP: A small group called the placozoa breaks away from the rest of the Eumetazoa. Placozoa are thin plate-like creatures about 1 millimetre across, and consist of only three layers of cells. It has been suggested that they may be the last common ancestor of all the animals.
770 MYBP: The planet freezes over again in another "snowball Earth".
730 MYBP: The comb jellies (ctenophores) split from the other multicellular animals. Like the cnidarians that will soon follow, they rely on water flowing through their body cavities to acquire oxygen and food.
680 MYBP: The ancestor of cnidarians (jellyfish and their relatives) breaks away from the other animals – though there is as yet no fossil evidence of what it looks like.
630 MYBP: Around this time, some animals evolve bilateral symmetry for the first time: that is, they now have a defined top and bottom, as well as a front and back. Little is known about how this happened. However, small worms called Acoela may be the closest surviving relatives of the first ever bilateral animal. It seems likely that the first bilateral animal was a kind of worm. Vernanimalcula guizhouena, which dates from around 600 million years ago, may be the earliest bilateral animal found in the fossil record.
600 MYBP: Vendian
590 MYBP: The Bilateria, those animals with bilateral symmetry, undergo a profound evolutionary split. They divide into the protostomes and deuterostomes. The deuterostomes eventually include all the vertebrates, plus an outlier group called the Ambulacraria. The protostomes become all the arthropods (insects, spiders, crabs, shrimp and so forth), various types of worm, and the microscopic rotifers. Neither may seem like an obvious "group", but in fact the two can be distinguished by the way their embryos develop. The first hole that the embryo acquires, the blastopore, forms the anus in deuterostomes, but in protostomes it forms the mouth.
580 MYBP: The earliest known fossils of cnidarians, the group that includes jellyfish, sea anemones and corals, date to around this time – though the fossil evidence has been disputed.
575 MYBP: Strange life forms known as the Ediacarans appear around this time and persist for about 33 million years.
570 MYBP: A small group breaks away from the main group of deuterostomes, known as the Ambulacraria. This group eventually becomes the echinoderms (starfish, brittle stars and their relatives) and two worm-like families called the hemichordates and Xenoturbellida. Another echinoderm, the sea lily, is thought to be the "missing link" between vertebrates (animals with backbones) and invertebrates (animals without backbones), a split that occurred around this time.
555 MYBP: Cambrian; Paleozoic; Phanerozoic
540 MYBP: As the first chordates – animals that have a backbone, or at least a primitive version of it – emerge among the deuterostomes, a surprising cousin branches off. The sea squirts (tunicates) begin their history as tadpole-like chordates, but metamorphose partway through their lives into bottom-dwelling filter feeders that look rather like a bag of seawater anchored to a rock. Their larvae still look like tadpoles today, revealing their close relationship to backboned animals.
535 MYBP: The Cambrian explosion begins, with many new body layouts appearing on the scene – though the seeming rapidity of the appearance of new life forms may simply be an illusion caused by a lack of older fossils.
530 MYBP: The first true vertebrate – an animal with a backbone – appears. It probably evolves from a jawless fish that has a notochord, a stiff rod of cartilage, instead of a true backbone. The first vertebrate is probably quite like a lamprey, hagfish or lancelet. Around the same time, the first clear fossils of trilobites appear. These invertebrates, which look like oversized woodlice and grow to 70 centimetres in length, proliferate in the oceans for the next 200 million years.
520 MYBP: Ordovician
Conodonts, another contender for the title of "earliest vertebrate", appear. They probably look like eels.
500 MYBP: Fossil evidence shows that animals were exploring the land at this time. The first animals to do so were probably euthycarcinoids – thought to be the missing link between insects and crustaceans.
489 MYBP: The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event begins, leading to a great increase in diversity. Within each of the major groups of animals and plants, many new varieties appear.
465 MYBP: Plants begin colonising the land.
460 MYBP: Fish split into two major groups: the bony fish and cartilaginous fish. The cartilaginous fish, as the name implies, have skeletons made of cartilage rather than the harder bone. They eventually include all the sharks, skates and rays.
440 MYBP: Silurian. The bony fish split into their two major groups: the lobe-finned fish with bones in their fleshy fins, and the ray-finned fish. The lobe-finned fish eventually give rise to amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The ray-finned fish thrive, and give rise to most fish species living today. The common ancestor of lobe-finned and ray-finned fish probably has simple sacs that function as primitive lungs, allowing it to gulp air when oxygen levels in the water fall too low. In ray-finned fish, these sacs evolve into the swim bladder, which is used for controlling buoyancy.
425 MYBP; The coelacanth, one of the most famous "living fossils" – species that have apparently not changed for millions of years – splits from the rest of the lobe-finned fish.
417 MYBP: Lungfish, another legendary living fossil, follow the coelacanth by splitting from the other lobe-finned fish. Although they are unambiguously fish, complete with gills, lungfish have a pair of relatively sophisticated lungs, which are divided into numerous smaller air sacs to increase their surface area. These allow them to breathe out of water and thus to survive when the ponds they live in dry out.
400 MYBP: Devonian. Oldest direct observation "clock" identified (coral growth lines indicating a 400 day year and providing calibration of radiometric dating directly from Newton's laws). The oldest known insect lives around this time.
385 MYBP: The oldest fossilised tree dates from this period.
375 MYBP: Tiktaalik, an intermediate between fish and four-legged land animals, lives around this time. The fleshy fins of its lungfish ancestors are evolving into limbs.
365 MYBP: The first four-legged animals, or tetrapods, evolve from intermediate species such as Tiktaalik, probably in shallow freshwater habitats. The tetrapods go on to conquer the land, and give rise to all amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
360 MYBP: Carboniferous
340 MYBP: The first major split occurs in the tetrapods, with the amphibians branching off from the others.
320 - 350 MYBP: The pelycosaurs, the first major group of synapsid animals, dominate the land. The most famous example is Dimetrodon, a large predatory "reptile" with a sail on its back. Despite appearances, Dimetrodon is not a dinosaur.
310 MYBP: Within the remaining tetrapods, the sauropsids and synapsids split from one another. The sauropsids include all the modern reptiles, plus the dinosaurs and birds. The first synapsids are also reptiles, but have distinctive jaws. They are sometimes called "mammal-like reptiles", and eventually evolve into the mammals.
290 MYBP: Permian
250 MYBP: The Permian period ends with the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history, wiping out great swathes of species, including the last of the trilobites. As the ecosystem recovers, it undergoes a fundamental shift. Whereas before the synapsids (first the pelycosaurs, then the therapsids) dominated, the sauropsids now take over – most famously, in the form of dinosaurs. The ancestors of mammals survive as small, nocturnal creatures. In the oceans, the ammonites, cousins of the modern nautilus and octopus, evolve around this time.
245 MYBP: Triassic; Mesozoic
214 Manicouagan, also known as the Eye of Quebec, was formed when an asteroid around 5 kilometres across struck northern Canada, gouging out a crater that was originally 100 kilometres wide and is now about 75 kilometers wide..
210 MYBP: Jurassic Bird-like footprints and a badly-preserved fossil called Protoavis suggest that some early dinosaurs are already evolving into birds at this time. This claim remains controversial.
200 MYBP: As the Triassic period comes to an end, another mass extinction strikes, paving the way for the dinosaurs to take over from their sauropsid cousins. Around the same time, proto-mammals evolve warm-bloodedness – the ability to maintain their internal temperature, regardless of the external conditions.
180 MYBP: The first split occurs in the early mammal population. The monotremes, a group of mammals that lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young, break apart from the others. Few monotremes survive today: they include the duck-billed platypus and the echidnas
168 MYBP A half-feathered, flightless dinosaur called Epidexipteryx, which may be an early step on the road to birds, lives in China.
150 MYBP Archaeopteryx, the famous "first bird", lives in Europe.
140 MYBP: Cretacious Around this time, placental mammals split from their cousins the marsupials. These mammals, like the modern kangaroo, that give birth when their young are still very small, but nourish them in a pouch for the first few weeks or months of their lives. The majority of modern marsupials live in Australia, but they reach it by an extremely roundabout route. Arising in south-east Asia, they spread into north America (which was attached to Asia at the time), then to south America and Antarctica, before making the final journey to Australia about 50 million years ago.
131 MYBP: Eoconfuciusornis, a bird rather more advanced than Archaeopteryx, lives in China.
130 MYBP: The first flowering plants emerge, following a period of rapid evolution.
100 - 275 MYBP: The therapsids, close cousins of the pelycosaurs, evolve alongside them and eventually replace them. The therapsids survive until the early Cretaceous, 100 million years ago. Well before that, a group of them called the cynodonts develops dog-like teeth and eventually evolves into the first mammals.
100 MYBP: The Cretaceous dinosaurs reach their peak in size. The giant sauropod Argentinosaurus, believed to be the largest land animal in Earth's history, lives around this time.
93 MYBP: The oceans become starved of oxygen, possibly due to a huge underwater volcanic eruption. Twenty-seven per cent of marine invertebrates are wiped out.
85 - 105 MYBP: The placental mammals split into their four major groups: the laurasiatheres (a hugely diverse group including all the hoofed mammals, whales, bats, and dogs), euarchontoglires (primates, rodents and others), Xenarthra (including anteaters and armadillos) and afrotheres (elephants, aardvarks and others). Quite how these splits occurred is unclear at present.
75 MYBP: Paleogene; Cenozoic; Tertiary The ancestors of modern primates split from the ancestors of modern rodents and lagomorphs (rabbits, hares and pikas). The rodents go on to be astonishingly successful, eventually making up around 40 per cent of modern mammal species.
70 MYBP: Grasses evolve – though it will be several million years before the vast open grasslands appear.
65 MYBP: Paleocene The 170-kilometre Chicxulub crater in Yucatán, Mexico is formed by an asteroid strike, abd the subsequent Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction wipes out a swathe of species, including all the giant reptiles: the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. The ammonites are also wiped out. The extinction clears the way for the mammals, which go on to dominate the planet.
63 MYBP: The primates split into two groups, known as the haplorrhines (dry-nosed primates) and the strepsirrhines (wet-nosed primates). The strepsirrhines eventually become the modern lemurs and aye-ayes, while the haplorrhines develop into monkeys and apes – and humans.
58 MYBP: The tarsier, a primate with enormous eyes to help it see at night, splits from the rest of the haplorrhines: the first to do so.
55 MYBP: Eocene The Palaeocene/Eocene extinction. A sudden rise in greenhouse gases sends temperatures soaring and transforms the planet, wiping out many species in the depths of the sea – though sparing species in shallow seas and on land.
50 MYBP: Artiodactyls, which look like a cross between a wolf and a tapir, begin evolving into whales.
48 MYBP: Indohyus, another possible ancestor of whales and dolphins lives in India.
47 MYBP The famous fossilised primate known as "Ida" lives in northern Europe. Early whales called protocetids live in shallow seas, returning to land to give birth
40 MYBP: Early opposed grip - thumb pad to side of second finger. New World monkeys become the first simians (higher primates) to diverge from the rest of the group, colonising South America.
35 MYBP: Oligocene
25 MYBP: Apes split from the Old World monkeys.
23 MYBP: Miocene; Neogene
18 MYBP: Gibbons become the first ape to split from the others.
14 MYBP: Orang-utans branch off from the other great apes, spreading across southern Asia while their cousins remain in Africa.
7 MYBP Gorillas branch off from the other great apes.
6 MYBP: Humans diverge from their closest relatives; the chimpanzees and bonobos. Shortly afterwards, hominins begin walking on two legs.
5 MYBP: Pliocene
4.5 MYBP: Ardipithecus ramidus (i.e. clear separation from common simian ancestor)
4 MYBP: Australopithecus afarensis
3 MYBP: Australopithecus africanus splits from afarensis this line splits at least three times, but all its descendents are lost by 1.5 MYBP.
2.6 MYBP: Late opposed grip, thumb to opposed finger pads, developed by Homo habilis. Used to create crude Oldowan stone tools.
2.8 MYBP: Australopithecus garhi splits from afarensis. Australopithecus afarensis is lost.
2.5 MYBP: Australopithecus garhi splits into Homo rudolfensis and Homo habilis which recombine to form:
1.8 MYBP: Homo ergaster; Earliest evidence of tool adaptation. Homo Georgicus intermediate between H. habilis and H. erectus found in Dmanisi, Georgia.
2 MYBP: A 700-kilogram rodent called Josephoartigasia monesi lives in South America. It is the largest rodent known to have lived, displacing the previous record holder: a giant guinea pig.
1.5 MYBP: Pleistocene; Quaternary. Homo erectus splits from Homo ergaster
500 kYBP: Homo heidelbergensis replaces Homo ergaster
400 kYBP: hunting horses with spears in Germany?
200 kYBP: genetic "Eve"
150 kYBP: Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens split from Homo heidelbergensis
150 kYBP-70,000 BP Man develops speech
140 kYBP: Diaspora from Africa; dogs domesticated?
130 kYBP: humans first acquire chins!??
80 kYBP: intentional burial?
78 kYBP: earliest musical instrument (diatonic flute - dating in 1999)
71 kYBP: 1000 year volcanic winter caused by eruption of Toba in Sumatra. Genetic evidence shows population reduced to 15000 to 40000 people. Possibly accelerates human evolution.
70 kYBP: Earliest proof of "precision grip", an angular precision geometric pattern engraved on haematite, found in Blombos Cave, ZA. (SAM-AA 8937).
60 kYBP: Diaspora reaches China via SE Asia; dog and wolf distinct
44 kYBP: Mediterranean population spurt
40 kYBP: Modern humans enter Europe
40 kYBP: stone figurines, ostrich-eggshell beads
30 kYBP: so-called fertility figurines
30 kYBP: Neanderthal extinction
18 kYBP: glacial maximum, sea level 120 meters below present
13 kYBP: humans reach western hemisphere
12 kYBP: ice age ends, temperatures rise, rainfall decreases
12 kYBP: sea levels rising 1m per century
10 kYBP: Holocene

Material Dated Relative to the Common Era i.e. BCE = Before Common Era

11000 BCE: wheat and rye cultivated in Syria
11000 BCE: Bering Straits landbridge submerged. America again isolated.
9000 BCE: pigs domesticated in Turkey
8000 BCE: goats domesticated in Iraq
6500 BCE: Earliest known writing (China); Start of Bronze age (deliberate copper arsenic amalgams)
6200 BCE: a century of cooler temps due to glacial melt?
6000 BCE: hunting nomads descend from high grasslands worldwide
5550 BCE: Black Sea suffers catastrophic salt flood from Mediterranean
5500 BCE: farming villages in Mesopotamia; potters' wheels
5000 BCE: Euphrates irrigation; Nile settlers harness the cycle of floods
4000 BCE: plowing with oxen, irrigation by Nile earthworks; deforestation?
4000 BCE: sheep favored for wool
3500 BCE: Uruk's cities reach 10k population; cylinder seals; the wheel
3440 BCE: Desertification of Sahara begins
3400 BCE: first writing in Egypt
3300 BCE: numerical notation tablets; Iceman mummified in Alps
3000 BCE: sea level reaches present level, temps 2 degrees warmer than current
3000 BCE: bureaucracy, surplus, warehousing, taxes, accounting, gold mines
2800 BCE: Gilgamesh; Pyramid of Djoser near Cairo
2700 BCE: Ur graves show fine arts, distant trade for gold, gems, spices
2500 BCE: walled cities in Egypt and Mesopotamia suggest insecurity
2430 BCE: earliest record of slaves being sold in Mesopotamia
2300 BCE: Sargon unites Mesopotamia around capital Akkad
2200 BCE: Serious drought in Middle East. Disappearance of the Saraswati. Collapse of Harrapan civilization.
2000 BCE: Uruk reaches 60k pop

2000-1600 BCE: Brutal climatic change in North Africa
c1800 BCE: Sumerian King List compiled; first Chinese dynasty
1628 BCE: Thera explodes
1362 BCE: end of Akhnaton's 17-year reign (conventional dating)
1208 BCE: oldest known asserted mention of "Israel"
c1200 BCE: migrations caused by drying climate? (deforestation???)
c950: Supposed time of the mythical kings of Israel, David and Solomon. Israel not yet monotheistic; Israel split north/south
800 BCE: no bible texts yet; ritual sacrifice of 1^st born (Morlech?)
c750 BCE: J's Eden, Eve, and Adam; Hosea anticipates(?) ten commandments
c730 BCE: Hesiod's myths of creation
c722 BCE: Assyrians destroy northern kingdom (Israel still not yet monotheistic)
700 BCE: touchstone makes uniform coinage possible, starting in Lydia
624 BCE: Buddha Shakyamuni (Buddha) born
622 BCE: Hilkiah sends 'book of the law' (Deuteronomy?) to Josiah
551-479 BCE: Kong Qiu (Confucious) alive

Acknowledgements
<<Acknowledgements to follow here>>

Bibliography
<<Bibliography to follow here>>

Authors’ addresses: hermit@lucifer.com

<<Appendices
<<Appendices to follow here>>

« Last Edit: 2009-10-03 12:22:50 by Hermit »

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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999

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