Comment by matt.clerke on January 8, 2013 at 5:46pm

There are several.... my favourite is the year long calendar.

January 1st 00:01 - Big Bang

November - Earth is formed

December 31st 23:00 - human history begins

December 31st 23:59 - now

or something like that...the numbers probably aren't right.

Comment by Ray R. on January 8, 2013 at 7:14pm

Fire was discovered by Homo erectus approximately 790,000 years ago . This was confirmed in 2008 by the discovery of burnt flakes of flint at a dig in Israel. This was long before the evolution of physiologically modern humans . The oldest paintings discovered are in a cave in Spain , and were made 40,800 years ago. Dogs were domesticated approximately 30,000 years ago . This has been confirmed by dating dog skulls found around human remains . The advent of farming , involving the use of domesticated plants and animals , dates back at least 10,000 years . Interestingly enough , gene studies have confirmed that malaria , evolved as a direct consequence of farming , shortly thereafter .

Comment by Kir Komrik on January 8, 2013 at 7:40pm

Hey Horacio,

Human migration patterns have been tracked pretty well as far back as 9,000 years bp. Before that calibration curves and dating methods for this kind of dating get shaky. So, we know, for example, that, certain types of pottery appeared in Europe in a migratory pattern before 6,000 years ago (Bell Beaker hypothesis). We know that human migration into the Americas occured much sooner than once believed. Archaelogical sites in Brazil show human presence there over 15,000 years ago.

The presence of an unknown group of humans in Florida some 12,000 years ago showed a civilization that was sufficiently advanced to knit plaid 'kilt' clothing which was miraculously preserved in a swamp.

In the Americas so-called Clovis spearheads have been found dating back over 12,000 years ago; and that date keeps moving back.

The discovery of Kennewick Man in Oregon/Washington demonstrated that "civlized" humans were present in the Americas over 9,000 years ago. Numerous native american tribes (Hopewell site, Meadowcroft site, etc.) also show established human culture existed over 9,000 years ago. The examples are numerous.

It is becoming more and more evident that calibration errors in 14 Carbon dating will require some adjustments to broadly accepted dates; however, those dates still place us far before 6,000 years ago.

- kk

Comment by Kelin420 on January 9, 2013 at 4:38am

Kennewick man was found about 2 miles from me...

Comment by _Robert_ on January 9, 2013 at 7:39am

.Are we saying Homo-Erectus were Germans? The nuns I had in catholic should have been carbon-dated.

Comment by Dave B on January 9, 2013 at 8:58am

Here's a great page to read. At the bottom is a timeline titled "Cultural History." I believe this is what you're looking for.

http://www.tokresource.org/tok_classes/biobiobio/biomenu/options_fo...

Comment by Pope Beanie on January 9, 2013 at 2:58pm

Astronomers and cosmologists have pretty scientific timelines.

Even if their science isn't obvious, what's convincing is that different scientific disciplines agree quite a bit on ages, for different scientific reasons.

Comment by Unseen on January 9, 2013 at 6:22pm

Ever heard of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey? Read about it here. This site has been dated to be at least 11,000 BC, which is some 6,000 years BEFORE Stonehenge. Prior to its discovery and dating, the oldest civilization honor was something of a tie between the civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Ancient India, both dated to 5,000-6,000 BC. Gobekli Tepe is so old that it has one wondering if there was an Ancient Dark Ages before the Medieval Dark Ages covering the period between Gobekli Tepe and the ancient civilizations of Egypt and India.

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