CHRONOLOGY OF PREHISTORY

20 Billion Years Ago to 4001 B.C.

20 billion years ago to 4001 B.C.	Chronology of Prehistory
20 billion years ago	According to the "Hot Big Bang Model" the creation of the universe occurred about 20 to 10 billion years ago. At the big bang itself, the universe is thought to have had zero size, and so to have been infinitely hot. But as the universe expanded, the temperature of the radiation decreased.
Big Bang plus one second	One second after the big bang the temperature of the universe fell to about ten billion degrees. This is only about a thousand times the temperature of the center of the sun, but temperatures as high as this are reached in Hydrogen Bomb explosions. The universe at this time consisted mostly of photons, electrons, and neutrinos and their antiparticles, along with a few protons and neutrons. As the universe continued to expand and the temperature to drop, the rate of production of electron-anti-electron pairs would decrease until it was below the rate of annihilation. Most of the electrons and anti-electrons would have annihilated with each other to produce more photons, leaving only a relatively few electrons left over.
Big Bang plus about one hundred seconds	About one hundred seconds after the big bang the temperature of the universe was about one billion degrees. This is the temperature inside the hottest stars. Protons and neutrons started to combine to produce the nuclei of deuterium, helium, and other elements. In the Hot Big Bang Model about a quarter of the protons and neutrons would have been converted into helium nuclei, along with a small amount of heavy hydrogen and other elements. The remaining neutrons would have decayed into protons.
Big Bang plus a few million years	Within only a few hours of the Big Bang, the production of helium and other elements stopped. For the next million years or so, the universe would have just continued expanding, without much happening. Eventually, once the temperature had dropped to a few thousand degrees, electrons and nuclei started combining to form atoms. The universe as a whole continued expanding and cooling, but in more dense regions the expansion would have been slower due to the higher gravitational attraction. This eventually stopped expansion in some regions and caused them to start to collapse. As these contracted, the temperature of the gas would increase until eventually it became hot enough to start nuclear fusion reactions.
5 billion years ago	Our sun, a second or third generation star, begins to form out of a cloud of rotating gas containing the debris of earlier supernovas. Most of the gas in that cloud went to form the sun, but a small amount of the heavier elements collected together to form the bodies that now orbit the sun as planets like the earth. Embryonic Stars Emerge from Interstellar “EGGs” The earth was initially very hot and without an atmosphere. Over time it cooled and formed an atmosphere from outgasing from the rocks. This early atmosphere contained no oxygen and primitive forms of life perhaps developed in the oceans consuming hydrogen sulfide and releasing oxygen. This gradually changed the atmosphere to the composition that it has today and allowed the development of higher forms of life.
4.5 billion years ago to 3.8 billion years ago	Azoic Time Formation of crust and ocean of the Earth. The lack of an atmosphere allows meteorite bombardment. No life forms are present.
3.8 billion years ago to 700 million years ago	Precambrian Time - Divided into Archeozic and Proterozic Eras Permanent crust formed, with vast deposits of metallic minerals. Metamorphic rocks in massive formations, e.g., Canadian Shield. Erosion and sedimentation begin. Earliest life marine (blue-green algae). Photosynthesis begins to create an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Wormlike forms possible. First recognizable fossils.
700 million years ago to 500 million years ago	Paleozoic Era - Cambrian Period Sedimentary rock (sandstone, shale, limestone, conglomerate) forms in shallow seas over continents. Climate generally mild, but North America tropical. First fossils of animals with shells and skeletons. All fauna are marine; every invertebrate phylum represented. Animal ability to secrete calcium leads to shell, skeleton formation. Trilobites dominant.
500 million years ago to 435 million years ago	Paleozoic Era - Ordovician period North America, Europe, Africa moving. Seas at greatest extent over North America. Rocks chiefly sedimentary. Marine ecosystems develop; fossil evidence of deepwater life forms. Mollusks, some corals. Fishlike vertebrates appear.
435 million years ago to 395 million years ago	Paleozoic Era - Silurian period Shallow flooding deposits sediments. Later withdrawal of water leaves oxidized "red beds," salt deposits. Earliest land plants. Coral reefs, arthropods, crinoids in seas. Fish develop vertebrate jaw. First sharks.
395 million years ago to 345 million years ago	Paleozoic Era - Devonian period Continents drier at beginning. Europe, America collide, causing mountain building (orogeny). South pole in central Africa. Fish dominant: armored fish, lungfish. Toward period's end, first land animals, amphibians. Plant life, including lowland forests of giant psilotophyta, highly developed, uniform over planet.
345 million years ago to 280 million years ago	Paleozoic Era - Carboniferous period Climate warm, moist; coal-forming sediments laid down in vast swamps. Severe continental collisions cause orogeny, e.g., in Urals. Ferns, fernlike trees, primitive conifers among flora in swamps. Insects, e.g., cockroaches, flourish. First reptiles appear toward end.
280 million years ago to 230 million years ago	Paleozoic Era - Permian period Land, e.g., E North America, rising. Atmosphere, oceans cooler. Glaciation in southern hemisphere. General aridity. Insects evolve toward modern types. Reptiles flourish. Ferns, conifers persist in cool air.
230 million years ago to 195 million years ago	Mesozic Era - Triassic period Climate warming; semiarid to arid. Continental plates, joined c.200 million years ago in supercontinent Pangaea, begin to break into continents; faults, tilting widespread. Fewer species, higher populations. Ammonites, clams, snails present. First dinosaurs. First mammals may have evolved.
195 million years ago to 140 million years ago	Mesozoic Era - Jurassic period North America, Africa, separate; ocean basins open. Erosion of Appalachians. Plate subduction (Pacific under North American) causes folding, orogeny in W North America. Climate warmer than present. Cycads appear. Ginkgoes, horsetails among flora. Reptiles dominate the land, sea and air. Archaeopteryx, an early bird, appears. First mammal fossils.
140 million years ago to 65 million years ago	Mesozoic Era - Cretaceous period Extensive submergence of continents leaves overlapping marine rocks. Chalk deposits. South America, Africa separate; North Atlantic widening. Cycles of orogeny. Dinosaurs, large reptiles climax, then disappear. Snakes, lizards, appear. Revolution in plants:flowering plants (angiosperms); modern trees. Floral uniformity that lasts into Eocene. Some 65 million years ago, a giant asteroid or comet struck the earth, spewing huge amounts of dust and debris into the air. That dust, according to a widely accepted theory first proposed by Nobel laureate Luis Alvarez, was circulated by the winds and enshrouded the earth for months, blocking sunlight and causing temperatures to plummet. As a result, the dinosaurs, and 70% of all other terrestrial species, were wiped out. Kevin Pope, a former NASA scientist, reviewing recent studies of atom-bomb blasts and analyses of particles in strata at the 65 million-year level concluded that most of the dust particles were too large to have remained suspended in the air for many months. Pope speculates instead that soot from the worldwide conflagrations, sulfate aerosols and other impact phenomena were to blame.
63 million years ago to 37 million years ago	Cenozoic Era - Tertiary period - Paleocene/Eocene epoch Seas withdraw; Europe emergent. Volcanism forms Rockies, other ranges. Erosion fills basins, laying bauxite deposits in W North America. Greenland, North America split. Most common modern plants present. Modern birds, early horses, pigs, whales, rodents. Number of primate types increases. Hardwoods, redwoods in W North America Climate warm, humid.
37 million years ago to 23 million years ago	Cenozoic Era - Tertiary period - Oligocene epoch North America largely dry; red bed sedimentation; erosion in Rockies. African, European plates collide, causing Alpine orogeny. Arabia, Africa split at Red Sea rift. California collides with mid-Pacific ridge. Archaic mammals disappearing. Modern horses, pigs, true carnivores, rhinoceroses, elephants begin to appear. Cats, dogs evolving. Modern grasses.
23 million years ago to 5 million years ago	Cenozoic Era - Tertiary period - Miocene epoch Coastal submergence; volcanism raises Cascades, western North American plateaus. Himalayas, Alps, Andes built up. South America, Antarctica separate; cold transantarctic current isolates southern continent. Climate cooler; forests reduced, grassy plains increase. Mammals include hyena, bear, seal, raccoon. Giant ape widespread. Giant hog develops, then disappears.
7 million years ago	The precise origins of Homo sapiens, the species to which all humans belong, are subject to broad speculation based on a small number of fossils, on genetic and anatomical studies, and on the geological record. Most scientists agree, however, that humans evolved from apelike primate ancestors in a process that began millions of years ago. Current theories trace the first hominid (humanlike primate) to Africa, where 2 lines of hominids appeared 5 to 7 million years ago. One was Australopithecus, a social animal, who lived from perhaps 4 to 3 million years ago, and then apparently became extinct. The other was a human line, Homo habilis, a large-brained specimen that walked upright and had a dextrous hand. Homo habilis appeared some 2.5 million years ago, lived in semipermanent camps, and had a food-gathering and sharing economy.
5 million years ago to 1.8 million years ago	Cenozoic Era - Tertiary period - Pliocene epoch Volcanism creates isthmus between North and South America. Outlines of North America roughly modern. Polar, Alpine ice caps sizable. Uplifting, titling in West North America continues. Cooler, drier climate. Life forms begin to take on modern appearances. Climax, maybe initial decline, of mammals. Manlike apes. Earliest human artifacts, Olduvai Gorge skeletal finds from this epoch. Fossils, rocks, ancient skeletal remains have been uncovered in the Rift Valley and surrounding areas [photo] Evidence points to a common human ancestry originating in Africa from the emergence of a humanlike species in eastern African some 5 million years ago. From Hadar, Ethiopia, the 3.18 million year-old remains of "Lucy" were unearthed in 1974.
2 million years ago	Stone Age, period beginning with the earliest human development, c.2 million years ago. It is divided into three periods. The Paleolithic period, or Old Stone Age, was the longest phase of human history, roughly coextensive with the Pleistocene Epoch. Its most outstanding feature was the development of Homo sapiens. Paleolithic peoples were generally nomadic hunters and gatherers who sheltered in caves, used fire, and fashioned stone tools. Their cultures are identified by distinctive stone-tool industries: Pre-Chellean, Abbevillian (or Chellean), and Acheulian in the Lower Paleolithic; Mousterian in the Middle Paleolithic, associated with Neanderthal man; and Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian in the Upper Paleolithic. By the Upper Paleolithic there is evidence of communal hunting, constructed shelters, and belief systems centering on magic and the supernatural. Rock carvings and paintings reached their peak in the Magdalenian culture of Cro-Magnon man. The Mesolithic period, or Middle Stone Age, began at the end of the last glacial era, over 10,000 years ago. Cultures included gradual domestication of plants and animals, formation of settled communities, use of the bow, and development of delicate stone microliths and pottery. Notable Mesolithic cultures were the early Azilian and Tardenoisian, over most of Europe; the middle Mesolithic Maglemosian, in the Baltic and N England; the late Ertebolle, or kitchen-midden culture; and the Natufiar, in the Middle East. The time periods and cultural content of the Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, vary with geographic location. The earliest known Neolithic culture developed from the Natufian in SW Asia between 8000 and 6000 B.C. People lived in settled villages, cultivated grains and domesticated animals, developed pottery and weaving, and evolved into the urban civilizations of the Bronze Age. In SE Asia a distinct type of Neolithic culture cultivated rice before 2000 B.C. New World peoples independently domesticated plants and animals, and by 1500 B.C. Neolithic cultures existed in Mexico and South America that led to the Aztec and Inca civilizations.
1.8 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.	Cenozoic Era - Quaternary period - Pleistocene epoch Great age of glaciers. Polar, Alpine ice advances in 4 or 5 separate glacial periods. Glacial drift widespread. Land forms altered; lakes created by ice retreats. Extinction of many mammals, including mastodon, mammoth, sabertooth carnivores. Wide spread of species across Asia, Europe, and Africa. Fire use develops. Rise of man (Homo sapiens) c.100,000 years ago; Cromagnon c.35,000 years ago..The earliest true human being in Africa, Homo sapiens, dates from more than 200,000 years ago.. A hunter-gatherer capable of making crude stone tools, Homo sapiens banded together with others to form nomadic groups; eventually nomadic San peoples spread throughout the African continent. African Nomads Discoveries suggest Africa was the primary gene-center for cultivated plants like cotton, sorghum, watermelon, kola-nuts and coffee, and first site of the domestication of certain plants for food.
1.75 million years ago	Anthropoids use patterned tools (Oldowan choppers) (see Leakey, A.D. 1959).
1.75 million years ago	Homo erectus our nearest ancestor, appeared in Africa perhaps 1.75 million years ago and began spreading into Asia and Europe soon after. It had a fairly large brain and a skeletal structure similar to ours. The size of its braincase, however, was intermediate between Homo habilis and Homo sapiens. Its culture included stone tools and the first use of fire. The first fossils, found (1891) in Java, were called Pithecanthropus, or Java man. Homo erectus learned to control fire and probably had primitive language skills. The final brain development to Homo sapiens and then to our subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens occurred between 500,000 and 50,000 years ago, either in one place-probably Africa-or virtually simultaneously and independently in different places in Africa, Europe, and Asia. All modern races are unquestionably members of the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens. The spread of humankind into the remaining habitable continents probably took place near the end of the last Ice Age: from Asia to the Americas, across a land bridge, and to Australia, across the Timor Straits.
1 million years ago	Australopithecine ape-man becomes extinct as the human species becomes more developed. Homo erectus erectus is unique among primates in having a high proportion of meat relative to plant foods in his diet, but like other primates he is omnivorous, a scavenger who competes with hyenas and other scavengers while eluding leopards (see 1959).
241,200 years before the Flood	After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28,800 years, as reckoned from Sumerian King lists.
125,000 years ago	Neanderthal man or Neandertal man, type of early human, existing 125,000-35,000 years ago and generally considered a subspecies of Homo sapiens (see human evolution), whose fossil remains were first found (1856) in Neanderthal, W Germany. The Neanderthals' middle Paleolithic culture (see Stone Age) included stone tools, fire, burial, and cave shelters. The so-called classic Neanderthals were robust and had a large, thick skull, a sloping forehead, a chinless jaw, and a brain somewhat larger than that of modern humans; they stood slightly over 5 ft (152 cm). It is unclear whether Neanderthals were replaced by Homo sapiens sapiens or interbred with other early humans.
120,000 to 75,000 years ago	Neanderthal man of the Upper Pleistocene period has large front teeth, which he may use as tools. Less than half of his surviving infants reach age 20, 9 out of 10 of these die before age 40 (see A.D. 1856).
75,000 B.C.	Neanderthal man can communicate by speech, setting him apart from other mammals.
75,000 B.C.	Neanderthal man has become a skilled hunter, able to bring down large, hairy elephant-like mammals (Mammonteus primigenius), saber-toothed tigers, and other creatures that will become extinct.
75,000 B.C.	Neanderthal man cares for his sick and aged but engages in cannibalism on occasion.
50,000 B.C.	Date palms flourish in parts of Africa and Asia, where they will become an important food source.
50,000 B.C.	Neanderthal man may be on the west coast of the Western Hemisphere and may even have reached the Continent 20,000 years earlier (as determined by racemization tests that record the extent to which molecules of aspartic acid in a specimen have altered in their figuration from the form that occurs in living bone to its mirror image; such tests will be conducted in the A.D. 1970s on bones found between A.D. 1920 and A.D. 1935, but the rate of change is affected by such factors as temperature, so the tests will not be conclusive).
42,000 B.C.	The continent that will be called Australia is populated by the earth's first seafaring people. Colonists arrive from the Asian mainland.
40,000 to 35,000 B.C.	Cro-Magnon man, biologically modern human being (species Homo sapiens), existing 40,000-35,000 years ago (see human evolution). Skeletal remains were first found (1868) in France and then in other parts of Europe. Cro-Magnon man was anatomically identical to modern humans, but differed from Neanderthal man, who disappeared in the fossil record shortly after Cro-Magnon's appearance. Cro-Magnon's upper Paleolithic culture (see Stone Age) produced flint and bone tools, shell and ivory jewelry, and elegant polychrome cave paintings of great vitality (see Paleolithic art).
38,000 B.C.	Homo sapiens emerges from Neanderthal man and, while physically less powerful, has a more prominent chin, a much larger brain volume, and superior intelligence. Homo sapiens will split into six major divisions, or stocks-Negroids, Mongoloids, Caucasoids, Australoids, Amerindians, and Polynesians, and some of these will have subdivisions (Caucasoids, for example, will include Alpine, Mediterranean, and Nordic stocks).
38,000 B.C.	His control of fire, his development of new, lightweight bone and horn tools, weapons, and fishhooks, and his superior intelligence permit man to obtain food more easily and to preserve it longer. Hunters provide early tribes with meat from bison and tigers, while other tribespeople fish and collect honey, fruits, and nuts (as shown by cave paintings near Aurignac in southern France).
38,000 B.C.	Increased availability of food will lead to an increase in human populations
36,000 B.C.	Homo sapiens reaches the northern continent of the Western Hemisphere, where Neanderthal man has probably preceded him.
33,000 B.C.	Homo sapiens becomes the dominant species on earth, with no serious rivals to his supremacy.
28,500 B.C.	The island that will be called New Guinea is populated by colonists who arrive either from Australia or from the Asian mainland (see 42,000 B.C.).
27,000 B.C.	Homo sapiens reaches the islands that will be called Japan and may have arrived in the islands as much as 5,000 years earlier over ice sheets or land bridges (see 660 B.C.).
27,000 B.C.	Homo sapiens uses small pits lined with hot embers or pebbles preheated in fires to cook food that may be covered with layers of leaves or wrapped in seaweed to prevent scorching.
27,000 B.C.	Fishermen in Europe's Dordogne Valley have developed short, baited toggles that become wedged at an angle in fishes' jaws when the line, made of plant fibers, is pulled taut.
14,000 B.C.	Paleolithic art, art of the most recent ice age. Knowledge of this art is largely confined to works discovered at 150 sites in W Europe, particularly to the magnificent cave paintings in northern Spain and the Dordogne River valley of southwestern France. Most of these works were produced during two overlapping periods. The Aurignacio-Perigordian (c.14,000-c.13,500 B.C.) includes the Lascaux cave paintings, the outdoor sculpture at Laussel, and several small, abnormally voluptuous female figures called Venuses, e.g., the Venus of Willendorf, Austria. The Solutreo-Magdalenian (c.14,000-c.9500 B.C.) includes the murals at Rouffignac and Niaux, and the ceiling of the cave at Altamira, Spain. The painting styles ascribed to Cro-Magnon man embrace a variety of techniques, which include painting with fingers, sticks, pads of fur or moss; daubing; dotting; sketching with colored material and charcoal; and spray-painting through a hollow bone or by mouth. In most paleolithic caves animal figures predominate, suggesting ritual significance. Drawn with the vitality and elegance of great simplicity, they are the masterpieces of prehistoric art. See also rock carvings and paintings.
13,600 B.C.	A Great Flood inundates much of the world following a sudden 130-foot rise in sea levels as a result of runoff from a rapid melting of a glacial ice sheet covering much of the northern continent of the Western Hemisphere (time is approximate and somewhat conjectural).
12,000 B.C.	The dog is domesticated from the Asian wolf and used for tracking game. (Fossil remains found in a cave near Kirkuk in Iraq in the A.D. 1950s will be dated in the 1970s by fluorine analysis.)
11,000 B.C.	Vast fields of wild grain appear in parts of the Near East as the glaciers begin to retreat.
10,500 B.C.	Human habitations appear even at the southernmost parts of the Western Hemisphere, where cavemen pursue guanaco and hunt a horse species that will become extinct. (Fossil evidence found 1,200 miles south of Buenos Aires in the A.D. 1970s.)
10,000 B.C. to the present	Cenozoic Era - Quaternary period - Holocene or Recent epoch Glaciers retreat. Climate warmer; deserts form in some areas. Many scientists argue that Holocene is only another interglacial episode of the Pleistocene epoch. Human civilization; people begin to affect climate, geology. Extinction of other species continues.
10,000 B.C.	Homo sapiens increases in number to roughly 3 million.
10,000 B.C.	Goats are domesticated by Near Eastern hunter-gatherer tribespeople who have earlier domesticated the dog.
8500 B.C.	Goats' milk becomes a food source in the Near East, where goats have been domesticated for the past 1,500 years (as determined by carbon 14 radioactivity decay studies on fossil evidence found at Asiab, Iran) (see Libby, A.D. 1947).
8000 B.C.	Earth's human population soars to 5.3 million, up from 3 million in 10,000 B.C., as agriculture provides a more reliable food source. Where it has taken 5,000 acres to support each member of a hunter-forager society, the same amount of land can feed 5,000 to 6,000 people in an agricultural society.
8000 B.C.	Europe's final postglacial climatic improvements begin. They will produce a movement of people to the north of the continent, where the settlers will eat fish caught in nets of hair, thongs, and twisted fiber, along with shellfish, goose, and honey.
8000 B.C.	Agriculture begins at the end of the Pleistocene era in the Near East. Women use digging sticks to plant the seeds of wild grasses.
7700 B.C.	Desert predominates over fertile lands in the arc extending from the head of the Persian Gulf through the Tigris-Euphrates Basin to the eastern Mediterranean and then south to the Nile Valley. Men and animals are crowded in oases in the region that will be called the "Fertile Crescent" by U.S. archaeologist James Henry Breasted (A.D. 1865-1935).
7700 B.C.	Ewes' milk becomes a food source and supplements goats' milk and mothers' milk as lamb and mutton begin to play a large role in human diets in the Near East, where sheep are domesticated. (Sheep remains that vastly outnumber goat remains will be found at Asiab in Iran, and a large majority of the sheep remains will be from yearlings, good archaeological evidence that sheep have been domesticated.)
7200 B.C.	Sheep are domesticated in Greece (Argissa-Magula) (see 7700 B.C.).
7200 B.C.	Populations in the Middle East will increase in the next 2 millennia, and more permanent camps will be established by people who have lived until now in small groups that shifted camps every 3 or 4 months. Seed collecting will become more important to the food supply.
7000 B.C.	Glaciers recede in the northern continent of the Western Hemisphere.
7000 B.C.	Barley (Hordeum spolitalieum), millet (Panicum miliaceum), and certain legumes, including lentils, are cultivated in Thessaly, where the Greeks may also have domesticated dogs and pigs (based on evidence found in excavations at Argissa-Magula). (Domestication of swine has been delayed by the need of pigs for shade from the sun and by the fact that they cannot be milked, cannot digest grass, leaves, or straw, and must therefore be given food that man himself can eat-acorns, nuts, cooked grain, or meat scraps.)
7000 B.C.	Emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum), domesticated from the wild Triticum dicoccoides, grows in the Kurdistan area lying between what will be southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran.
7000 B.C.	The Jordanian town of Jericho, 840 feet above sea level, has a population of some 2,500, attracted by the area's perennial spring. The city will soon be walled to protect it from attack.
7000 B.C.	Fish too large to be caught from shore are caught at sea by Greek fishermen.
7000 B.C.	Greek seafarers sail to the Aegean island of Milos, 75 miles from the mainland, to obtain obsidian.
6800 B.C.	The Kurdistan village of Jarmo is founded with some 30 dwellings that cover 3 acres and house 200 people. It is one of the first permanent agricultural settlements. (Excavations in 1947 by University of Chicago team.)
6800 B.C.	Village farmers begin to replace food-gathering tribespeople in much of Greece (see 7000 B.C.).
6800 B.C.	Swiss lake dwellers make bread of crushed cereal grains and keep dried apples and legumes (including peas) in the houses they build on stilts. (Evidence from excavated remains of the houses and their contents.)
6800 B.C.	Inhabitants of the Swiss lake regions have domesticated dogs and plow oxen.
6800 B.C.	The first true pottery evolves, permitting new forms of cookery (although food has earlier been boiled in gourds, shells, and skin-lined pits into which hot stones were dropped).
6800 B.C.	Swiss lake dwellers collect wild flax (Linum usitatissimum) or cultivate it and use its strong fibers to make lines and nets for fishing (and for animal traps and ropes and cords for building construction and navigational purposes).
5508 B.C.	Year of Creation that will be adopted in 7th century A.D. Constantinople and used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and secularly in Russia until early in the 18th century A.D.
5500 B.C.	Copper smelted from malachite (copper carbonate) by artisans in Persia produces the first metal that can be drawn, molded, and shaped, but the metal is too soft to hold an edge (see bronze, 3600 B.C.). The River People emerge along Nile, Niger, and Congo Rivers (West-Central Africa); the Isonghee of Zaire (Republic of Congo) introduce mathematical abacus; and Cyclopian stone tombs built in Central African Republic area. Spread of agriculture south of the Sahara Desert supporting a growing population, which mastered animal domestication and agriculture, and forced the San groups into the less hospitable areas.
5490 B.C.	Year of Creation as it will be reckoned by early Syrian Christians.
5000 B.C.	Lands bordering the Nile River begin to dry out. The Egyptians build dikes and canals for irrigation and start to develop a civilization in North Africa.
5000 B.C.	Agricultural peoples inhabit the plains of southeastern Europe.
5000 B.C.	Corn (maize) and common beans grow under cultivation in the Western Hemisphere..
5000 B.C.	Villages begin to cluster together in the Fertile Crescent, but a common need for water sometimes leads to savage warfare
5000 B.C.	Domesticated cattle are common in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and villagers often cooperate to build primitive irrigation canals and ditches.
Friday 4 April 4004 B.C.	Date of Creation as it will be reckoned by Bruce G. Armstrong.
Sunday 23 October 4004 B.C.	Date of Creation as it will be reckoned by Irish theologian James Ussher in A.D. 1650.
Friday 28 October 4004 B.C.	Adam and Eve are created by God on the sixth day of creation, as it will be reckoned by Irish theologian James Ussher in A.D. 1650.
Tuesday 1 November 4004 B.C.	Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden on the tenth day of creation, as it will be reckoned by Irish theologian James Ussher in A.D. 1650.

 This excellent timeline was “captured” from http://www.b17.com/family/lwp/chronology/civilization.html. It is preserved here against a recent spate of web disasters (page crashes) were valuable resources have been lost or made unavailable to web surfers.

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