Odkhronicon

This timeline of prehistory covers the time from the appearance of Homo sapiens 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.

• 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).

• 230,000–150,000 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 super-eruption 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.

• 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.

• 45,000–43,000 years ago: Early European modern humans

• 45,000–40,000 years ago: Châtelperronian cultures in France.

• 42,000 years ago: Laschamps event, a geomagnetic excursion with major implications for humans at the time.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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. 

• 23,000–21,000 years ago: The earliest known human footprints in North America are left at what is now White Sands National Park, New Mexico. It is also the earliest known evidence of the Oasisamerica civilizations, which eventually became the cultures in modern Northern Mexico and Southwestern United States.

• 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 Inuit skin clothing.

• 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.

• 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.

• 14,000–12,000 years ago: Oldest evidence for prehistoric warfare (Jebel Sahaba, Natufian culture).

•  13,500 years ago. Rice was domesticated in this region, together with the development of paddy field cultivation, the Yangtze and Yellow River basins 

• 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.

• 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. 

• 11,700 years ago.  Neolithic Revolution, or the (First) Agricultural Revolution; the domestication of various types of plants and animals happened in separate locations worldwide, starting in the geological epoch of the Holocene 

• 11,000 years ago the Fertile Crescent (11,000 BP), Jericho 

• 11,000 years ago (c. 9,000 BC) Barley, one of the world's most important crops, barley, was domesticated in the Near East .[41] Barley is a highly resilient crop, able to grow in varied and marginal environments, such as in regions of high altitude and latitude. Archaeobotanical evidence shows that barley had spread throughout Eurasia by 2,000 BC. To further elucidate the routes by which barley cultivation was spread through Eurasia, genetic analysis was used to determine genetic diversity and population structure in extant barley taxa Genetic analysis shows that cultivated barley spread through Eurasia via several different routes, which were most likely separated in both time and space. 

• 10,000–9,000 years ago. Agriculture appeared first in Southwest Asia The region was the centre of domestication for three cereals (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat and barley), four legumes (lentil, pea, bitter vetch and chickpea), and flax. Domestication was a slow process that unfolded across multiple regions, and was preceded by centuries if not millennia of pre-domestication cultivation.[42] Tell Aswad is the oldest site of agriculture, with domesticated emmer wheat dated to 10,800 BP.[45][46] Soon after came hulled, two-row barley – found domesticated earliest at Jericho in the Jordan valley 

• Rice was domesticated in this region, together with the development of paddy field cultivation 

•  9,000 years ago the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9,000 BP)

• 9,000–6,000 years ago Papua New Guinea Highlands (9,000–6,000 BP), 

• 5,000–4,000 years ago Central Mexico (5,000–4,000 BP), 

• 5,000–4,000 years ago Northern South America (5,000–4,000 BP), 

• 5,000–4,000 years ago sub-Saharan Africa (5,000–4,000 BP), 

• 4,000–3,000 years ago eastern North America (4,000–3,000 BP).