Ages of Earth, Mankind

LAND MASSES

The earths land masses have moved, collided, joined and moved apart for the last 4 billion years with super continents of Vaalbara, Ur, Columbia, Rodinia which broke up about 1 billion years ago into

Laurasia	Northern Hemisphere lands
Gondwana	Southern Hemisphere lands (plus Arabia and India).
	These drifted apart and then together again to form, the last super content.
Pangaea	formed by their collision 500Mya and brokeup 200 Mya during Jurassic
Laurasia	Northern Hemisphere spread out by rifting
Gondwana	Southern Hemisphere spread out too.	After Pangea

The separations moved into approximate current locations by 15Mya during a period of plate tectonic collisions and mountain raising.
The break-up of Pangaea continues today in the Great Rift Valley.
Dinosaur bones are found in unexpected places because they could roam unhindered on once joined lands that now much separated about the earth.

GEOLOGICAL HISTORY

Archean Eon	3800M - 2500Ma	million years ago
Proterozoic Eon	2500M to 542 Ma	Precambrian
Phanerozoic Eon	542M to present	Cambrian fungi, algae
Paleozoic Era	542M to 225 Ma	Trilobites, fish, reptiles. Pangaea
Mesozoic Era	225M to 65 Ma
Triassic .	225M to 190 Ma	Early dinosaurs	200 mya
Jurassic .	190M to 136Ma	Great Age of Dinosaurs	170 mya
Cretaceous.	136M to 65Ma	First mammals. Mass extinction	65 mya
Cenozoic Era	65M to present
Paleogene.	65M to 23Ma	Continents separating	30 mya
Neogene Period	23M to 1.8Ma	Continued evolution of animals, movement of continents	15 mya
Miocene Age	23M to 5.3Ma	Proconsul, hominoids. Continents close to present
Pliocene Age	5.3M to 1.8Ma	Cooler (drift=180km) Artic Ice sheets, Australopithecus Mediterranean & Panama formed. "Lucy"=Homo
Quaternary Period	1,.8Ma to present	Fourth Glacial Period. drift=100 km(60miles)
Pleistocene Epoch	1.8Ma to 10,000ya	Lake Agassiz covered much of N.America
early stage	1.8Ma to 780,000	Homo Antecessor
middle	780,000 to 130,000	Three (6) Ice Ages, X=50K cold then 50K warm. "Eve"
late stage	130,000 to 10,000	Sangamond Warm ; Wurm Ice Age (longest). Out of Africa
Dryus stadial	12,800 to 11,500	Last cold snap, mass extinction of large mammals.
Holocene Epoch	10,000 to present
PreBoreal	10,000 to 9,000	7 °C rise in 50 years
Borea Age	9,000 to 8,000	Cool, dry, then rising temps
Atlantic	8,000 to 5,000	Warmest period of human, Sea 3-m above present
Subboreal	5,000 to 2,500	Similar to today
Subatlantic	2,500 to present	Variable

GLACIATIONS -- cold and warm periods on Earth

Thousands of years before present, BP, also called, years ago.

			^ Lucy 3,700K (Homo)
1200 - 800	Pre-Pastonian Glacial	cold for	400,000 years. Homo Antecessor
800 - 680	Pastonian Interglacial	warm	120,000 years long
680 - 620	Gunz/Nebraskan Glacial	cold	40,000
620 - 455	Gunz-Midlel Interglacials	warm	165,000 Neanderthal
455-380/300	Mindel / Kansan Glacial	cold	155,000 Heidelbergensis
380/300-200	Mindel-Riss Interglacial	warm	100,000 Neanderthal, Heidelbergensis
200 -130	Riss/ Illinoinan glacial	cold	70,000 Eve 170K (Homo sapiens)
130 -110	Riss-Wurm Internglacial	warm	20,000
110 - 12	Wurm / Wisconsin glacial	cold	98,000 Adam 60K (Homo sapiens sapiens)
12 - 0	Holocene/ Present Interglacial	warming	12,000 with much to go, 8-80Ky

Ice Age Temperatures
Ice Age Temperature
Other Notes

Medieval Warm period -- a time of warm weather around 800-1300 AD during the European Medieval period.
Little Ice Age : 1300 - 1850 AD.
Any of several dates ranging over 400 years may indicate the beginning of the Little Ice Age

* 1250 for when Atlantic pack ice began to grow
* 1300 for when warm summers stopped being dependable in Northern Europe
* 1315 for the rains and Great Famine of 1315-1317
* 1550 for theorized beginning of worldwide glacial expansion
* 1650 for the first climatic minimum

In contrast to its uncertain beginning, there is a consensus that the Little Ice Age ended in the mid-19th century.

Former Lands and Seas

Beringia -- Much of the Bering and Chukchi Seas were dry land 1,000 miles (1,600 km) north to south. Occurred many times in history allowing animal species to cross between old and new worlds.
Beringia existed both in the glaciation that occurred before 35,000 BP and during the more recent period 22,000-7,000 years Before Present. The strait reopened about 15,500 BP and by c. 6000 BP the coastlines had assumed approximately their present configurations.
Lake Agassiz -- covered much of Manitoba and Minnesota.
Sundaland -- a peninsula, subcontinent Borneo Sumatra, Bali and Palawan were connected to Asia. Rest of the Philippines were one island.
Sahulland -- an island continent comprising Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania until about 8,000 years ago. Eight million years ago this separated from Antarctica, then part of the southern super continent Gondwana, until the plate began to drift north.

HISTORIC PERIODS

History -- These vary with peoples round the world

Stone Age:
Paleolithic Age	2.6Mya to 4,000 years ago, before present
Lower	2.6Mya to 100,000 -- Homo Habilis, Erectus,
Middle	300,000 to 30,000 -- Neanderthal, Sapiens
Upper	50,000 to 10,000 -- Hunter-gatherers, Out of Africia
Mesolithic	11,500 to farming -- microliths, bow, canoe
Neolithic	9,500 to metals -- farming, herding, polished stone axes, timber longhouses, pottery)
Ancient Ages :
Copper , Chalcolithic	4,500 to 3,500 ya
Bronze	3,500 to 2,600
Early	40,00 to 3,500
Middle	3,500 to 3,200
Late	3,200 to 2,500
Iron	3,200 to 2,000 (0 BC)
Roman	0 AD to 400 AD
Medieval Age :	400 AD to 1500 AD
Dark Ages	400 to 900
High Middle	1000 to 1300
Later Middle	1300 to 1453
Modern Age:	1500 to present
Post-medieval	1500 to 1800
Industrial	1800 to present

Note : the North American tribes must be considered as a mix of Paleolithic stone axe culture with some Mesolithic skills such as bows and canoes.
While the MesoAmerican civilizations were certainly Neolithic

Ancient Cultures.

Oldowan tradition is about the pebble or broken rock choppers from the Australopithecus and early homodin found from 2 million years to 700,000 years ago.
Acheulean is the name given to an archaeological industry of chipped stone tool manufacture associated with prehistoric hominins during the Lower Paleolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia and Europe. Acheulean tools are typically found with Homo erectus remains within the time from around 1.65 million years ago to about 100,000 years ago. The industry started in Africa and reached Europe about one million years ago. It ended with nicely shaped arrow heads and hand axes.
Mousterian is a name given to a style of predominantly flaked flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic. Mousterian tools that have been found in Europe were made by Neanderthals and date from between 300,000 BP and 30,000 BP. In Northern Africa and the Near East they were also produced by anatomically modern humans
Châtelperronian lasted from between c. 35,000 and c. 29,000 BP and was the earliest industry of the Upper Palaeolithic in central and south western France, extending also into Northern Spain. Blade tools appear to have been derived from the earlier, Neanderthal, Mousterian industry and represents the period when Neanderthals and modern humans occupied Europe together.
Périgordian existed between c.35,000 BP and c.20,000 BP. and is a term for several distinct, characterized by notched blades, but related Upper Palaeolithic cultures which are thought by some archaeologists to represent a contiguous tradition. (Wikipedia does not describe nor show pictures of these tools.)
Aurignacian culture dates to between 32,000 and 26,000 BC. and is located in Europe and southwest Asia. Tools are shaped and smoothed on one side ; also bone and antler tools and art. Associated with Cro-Magnon moving up the Danube. The Aurignacian culture is considered by some archaeologists to have co-existed with the Périgordian culture of tool making.
Gravettian culture (c.28,000–23,000 ya) of the European Upper Paleolithic that is characterized by a stone-tool industry with small pointed blades used for big-game hunting (bison, horse, reindeer and mammoth). People in the Gravettian period also used nets to hunt small game. Gravettian is divided into two regional groups: the western Gravettian, mostly known from cave sites in France, and the eastern Gravettian, with open sites of specialized mammoth hunters on the plains of central Europe and Russia.
Solutrean industry (c 21,000--15,000 ya) is the most highly skilled stone work with pressure flaking rather than cruder flint knapping.
Magdalenian spans the period between c. 18,000 and 10,000, is one of the later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in western Europe with reindeer hunters, although Magdalenian sites also contain extensive evidence for the hunting of red deer, horse and other large mammals present in Europe towards the end of the last ice age. The culture was geographically widespread, and later Magdalenian sites have been found from Portugal in the west to Poland in the east.

MESOLOTHIC begins with the Holocene warm period around 9,660 BC .----
Swiderian 11,000 BC - 8200 B Germany, Poland
Ahrensburg10,000 BC - 9000 BC North central Europe. Hunting culture
Maglemosian c. 9000 BC – 6000 BC Northern Europe, Fishing, hunting, flint, wood bone tools.
Kunda c 8000 BC – 5000 BC Baltc

NEOLITHIC c 5000 BC including farming, herding, polished stone axes, timber longhouses and pottery
Linear Pottery c 5500 BC - 4500 BC Central Europe. farmers moving up the Danube practicing slash-and-burn methods. Garden and grazing civilization, Seditary. Out populated Hunters who were separated.
Rossen (4,600–4,300 BC) Central Europe. Flint tools and Linear pottery. Mixed agriculture was practiced, and cattle, sheep, goats and pigs were kept. Multi-family long houses. Warm wet Atlantic period.
Dnieper–Donetsca. 5th—4th millennium BC Eastern?
Funnelbeaker c 4300 BC–c 2800 BC technological merger of local neolithic and mesolithic techno-complexes between the lower Elbe and middle Vistula rivers,(greater Poland-Germany) introducing farming and husbandry as a major source of food to the pottery-using hunter-gatherers north of this line. lactose gene.
Yamna (Yamnaya) 3,600–2,300 BC south east Europe, greater Ukrain. Homeland of Proto-Indo-European langauge. Haplogroup R1a/b. Nomadic, cattle, sheep, goats and horse
Corded Ware (Battle Axe) c. 2900–2400 BC NW half of Europe. Massive migration of Yamna culture people from the North Pontic steppe (Black Sea) into Europe about 4,500 years ago. Nomadic pastoralists, carts, cattle.
Bell-Beaker c. 2800 – 1800 BC. Spread from Iberia through Europe displacing Corded ware culture with copper, boats, trade. Mixed farming, livestock. Stonehenge, Haplogroup H
Unetce c 2300 BC - 1600 BC Central Europe. Pure copper weapons for chiefs. Village of thatched houses. Market places.
Tumulus c1600 BC - 1200 BC
Urnfield c1300 BC – 750 BC) Central Europe
Hallstatt 800 BC-500 BC Central and Atlantic Europe of Iron Age -- led to Celts
La Tène 450 BC to Roman conquest Central and Atlantic Europe. Towns. Trade in salt, tin and copper, amber, wool and leather, furs and gold.
Celtic 500 BC most of Europe. expansion

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