The context of human prehistory and history is known to terrestrial geology as the Quaternary period. It comprises two epochs: the Pleistocene, which ended about 11 or 12 thousand years ago, and the Holocene which is still unfolding. The Pleistocene lasted over 150 times as long as the Holocene has so far.
The beginning of the Quaternary (that is, the Gelasian, see below) is about the same time as the beginning of the Stone Age, so the Stone Age as a whole is approximately contemporaneous with the Quaternary. The Quaternary is defined by geologists on the basis of rock and soil formation, and the Stone Age is defined by archaeologists and anthropologists on the basis of technological artifacts. (Back in the day when the Gelasian was accounted part of the Pliocene epoch, we'd say that the Stone Age began in the late Pliocene.)
The end of the Pleistocene is also approximately contemporaneous with the end of the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age. This places the Neolithic (or New Stone Age) and both intermediary (before Neolithic) and succeeding (after Neolithic) technological periods entirely within the Holocene.
See Preprehistory for further context.
Pleistocene epoch ("Ice Age", Old Stone Age) edit
The Pleistocene epoch comprises almost all (more than 99%) of the Quaternary. The Pleistocene is more or less contemporaneous with the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), and is also what is usually meant when the term ice age is used informally. The Pleistocene ended about eleven or twelve thousand years ago; the Stone Age (in any given region) ended whenever people began using metal tools, which is a process thought to have begun in the Ancient Near East, but began at different times in different places.
Holocene epoch edit
The Holocene epoch comprises the last eleven or twelve millennia and is, perhaps, merely an interglacial pause in the Pleistocene pattern. The transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene is marked by the end of the Younger Dryas (a late stage of the last glacial period) in the 10th millennium BCE. Geologically, the Holocene is the time since the retreat of the glaciers; anthropologically, it corresponds to the time since the Neolithic revolution began.
Note that the so-called Stone Age, taken as a whole, comprises not only the entirety of the Pleistocene but also most of the Holocene.
Neolithic, or New Stone Age edit
The Neolithic is the Holocene Stone Age, and is principally characterized by the development of pastoral, horticultural, and agricultural techniques. In the Near East, it ended when the Bronze Age began, but in many other parts of the world, there was a direct transition from neolithic to iron-age technologies during the last thousand years or so.
See also: Epipaleolithic, Mesolithic, Chalcolithic.
Bronze Age edit
The Bronze Age began around 5000 years ago in the Near East. It began later or was bypassed entirely in other regions. Generally, the Bronze Age comprises the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. In any given region, it ended when the Iron Age began.
Iron Age edit
The Iron Age began roughly 3000 years ago. In the Near East, it began around the 12th or 11th century BCE, and began later in other regions. It is often roughly identified with the 1st millennium BCE. We no longer consider ourselves in the Iron Age, but there is no consensus about when the Iron Age ended.
Contemporary edit
For the history of the last thousand years or so, see: history of the world, history by period, history of religions.
List of millennia of the Holocene Epoch edit
- 10th millennium BCE
- End of the last glacial period (Younger Dryas)
- Bering Strait floods with seawater, closing the Bering Land Bridge
- 9th millennium BCE
- Numerous domestications of various plants and animals
- Town of Jericho established
- 8th millennium BCE
- Permaculture or forest gardening in the highlands of New Guinea
- Coastal flooding and incursions of the sea upon the land for about 5000 years, centered on this millennium
- 7th millennium BCE
- Agriculture spreads to East Asia, South Asia, and Europe
- 6th millennium BCE
- Black Sea flooded with saltwater at 5600 BCE?
- 5th millennium BCE
- 4th millennium BCE
- Uruk period in Sumer
- Sredny Stog and Yamnaya cultures (Proto-Indo-European speakers?) possibly domesticate the horse
- sudden drastic climate change at 3200 BCE?
- 3rd millennium BCE (early Bronze Age)
- 2nd millennium BCE (high Bronze Age, introduction of the chariot)
- Shang Dynasty in China
- Middle Kingdom of Egypt and early New Kingdom
- Old and Middle Assyrian Empires
- Hittites
- Old Babylonia (Kassites etc.)
- early Vedic period
- early Olmecs
- 1st millennium BCE (Iron Age)
- Late New Kingdom, Neo-Assyrian Empire, Israel and Judah; Zhou Dynasty; Greek Dark Ages and Archaic Greece; late Vedic period
- Achaemenid Empire of Persia, Qin Dynasty and Western Han, Maurya Empire, classical and Hellenistic Greece, Ancient Carthage, Roman Republic
- 1st millennium
- Roman Empire; Chola Empire and Gupta Empire; Eastern Han and Tang Dynasty; classic period of Maya civilization and Teotihuacan; Tiwanaku and Wari in the Andes; early Islamic Golden Age
- 2nd millennium
- later Islamic Golden Age, Yuan and Ming dynasties, Aztec civilization, Tawantinsuyu
- circa 15th century
- Renaissance
- Age of exploration (to early 17th century)
- 16th century and 17th century
- 18th century
- 19th century
- 20th century
- 3rd millennium
Deficiencies of the three-age system edit
The problem with technology-based chronological terms such as Bronze Age, Iron Age, (those used by the three-age system), is that the phenomena involved have locations as well as periods. Thus the Anatolian Iron Age starts around fifteen or fourteen thousand years ago but the Chinese Iron Age starts a few centuries later. (The particulars are disputed, and this is only an example. The point would be the same if the use of iron originated in China and spread to the west, or were independently discovered later in the west.)