The Theoretical Timeline for all of History

 

300,000 BC Existence of anatomically modern Humans. 

11,700 BP?  The beginning of the Holocene Epoch, 

• This is the modern epoch we are currently in.  The Holocene follows the Holocene Glacial Retreat which ended the Last Glacial Period.  
• The Holocene is technically the latest period of the larger Pleistocene Epoch, characterized by alternating glacial advance and retreat, with interglacial periods between.  There is no evidence that the current epoch is not simply one such interglacial period.
• The late Pleistocene would colloquially be referred to as the Ice Age, while the early Holocene is popularly referred to as the Stone Age.   
• The established view was that climate variability during the Holocene was negligible.  Geologists posited a "steady state model" of climate that is now coming into question.  Instead, the data suggests that there were at least four climatic movements since the Ice Age.
  

10,000 BC  Gobekli Tepe

• signaled a transition between a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle and semi-permanent settlements relying on seasonal agriculture.  This was assumed to be occupied only intermittently.
• 
  
• was assumed to be: 
• pre-pottery civilization
• pre- writing
• pre central government
  

7500 BC Chatalhoyuk  A very large "proto-city settlement".  Lasted until 5600 BC.  Located in the region of modern Turkey.

5000 BC  (the date is speculative)  Beginning around 14,000 Before present but ending around 5000 BC, the Holocene Humid Period was a time when regions such as the Sahara were much greener than the present arid desert. Northern Africa was wetter than today, covered by grasses and trees.  Lakes and large rivers were a prominent feature.  This change in climate was the result of interactions between glaciations and solar progression (milanchovich cycle).

5000 BC to 3000 BC  The Post Glacial Climatic Optimum:  A warm period with much warmer temperatures supporting agriculture farther north in Iceland, Norway, Sweden.

5000 BC  The Ubaid.  Located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.  Large scale irrigation systems.  Created permanent agriculture development and stable communities.  Formally structured cities with residential, public, and commercial zones.  Had permanent grain storage areas, implying sophisticated resource management.  Pioneers of urban planning and advanced agriculture.

4000 BC  Ancient Sumeria 

3500 BC The Mesopotamian Civilizations, widely considered the oldest known civilization. It emerged from the fertile region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This civilization is credited with innovations like 

• The first cultures to develop writing.  Cuneiform and hieroglyphs
• the first permanent cities
• complex social structures
• agriculture
  

3000 BC to 1 AD Classic Antiquity 

• 3300 - 1200 BC The Bronze Age
  

3150 BC Ancient Egypt emerged as a unified kingdom 

1900 BC Rise of the Babylonian Empire 

1200 BC  The Bronze Age Collapse.  Occurred over a period of several decades.

 

975 BC Construction of Solomon's Temple

900 BC to 450 BC  The colder climatic period of the Early Iron age.

800 BC Time of Homeric Epics

625 BC Rise of the Roman Republic

356 BC Rise of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic period. 

31 BC Emergence of Imperial Rome

1 AD to 500 AD  Late Antiquity

• Its ending coincides, roughly, with the fall of the Western Roman Empire

500 AD to 700 AD Early Middle Ages (The Dark Ages)

536 AD Intense volcanic activity blankets the upper atmosphere with volcanic ash and sulfur, resulting in noticeably cooler temperatures and only 4 hours of sunlight per day.  Three separate eruptions are recorded from this year.

Further volcanic activity was recorded in 539 and 545, extending the period of relative darkness from suspended particulates in the upper atmosphere reflecting sunlight away from the surface of the planet.  While it wasn't always dark, as the name suggests, certainly there were persistent periods with diminished insolation, leading to poor crop production, resulting in malnutrition and the spread of plague.  This high death rate led to overall decreased population, decreased productivity and a less cohesive social structure.     

AD 541–549  The primary dates of the Justinian Plague.  The cycle of plague return is estimated to have lasted well into the AD 700s

The deadly virus swept throughout the Roman Empire and set up a negative spiral with many returns:

1. Volcanic activity covered the atmosphere with ash resulting in colder temperatures and less sunlight
2. Crops failed as a result of poor growing conditions.
3. Crop failure led to widespread malnutrition.
4. Malnurished populations were more susceptible to the plague and outbreaks proliferated.
5. Because of the very high death tolls, there were fewer farmers to work the agricultural fields
6. Fewer farmers led to decreased agricultural productivity.  Crop failures increased.
7. Decreased agriculture led to more malnutrition
8. Malnurished populations were more susceptible to the plague. Repeat steps 4 through 7.
   

900 to 1500 AD High Middle Ages

AD 1000 to 1200 The Medieval Warming Period, with grapes being grown in Northern British Isles.

 AD 1430 and1850  The Little Ice Age, another period of significantly cooler temperatures.

1600 to present  Modern Era

1600 to 1750 Baroque 

This timeline represents the received wisdom of traditional historians. Looking backward, there are 2000 years between the present and the time of Christ.  And 2000 years between Jesus and the early Bronze Age.  And a final 2000 years between the early Bronze age and the earliest beginnings of civilization, marked by agriculture, writing, pottery, permanent settlements.  Prior to that, humanity was neolithic hunter gatherers with no society, culture, or civilization to speak of;  mere cave-dwellers barely evolved past neanderthals

However,  a modern revision has begun to question this traditional framework.  While historians would traditionally identify Sumeria, around 4000 BC, as the inception of civilization, the development of more information about Chatalhoyuk (7500 BC) and Gobekli Tepe (10,000 BC) has brought many of these assumptions into question.

Traditionally, pre-modern humans (Denisovans, Neanderthals) were thought to exist as recently as 25,000 years ago, so that the possibility of complex human societies before 6000 BC were thought to be very unlikely.  However, anatomically modern humans have been found to date to 300,000 years ago, giving a much larger time span for human societies to develop and recede.  

At the same time Neanderthals, originally assumed to be more primitive than Homo sapiens, are now emerging through more recent archaeology to have more sophisticated cultures than originally assumed.

The geologic conditions of the modern Holocene period were thought to be relatively stable and conform to uniformitarian assumptions.  The assumption was that climate was largely unchanged from what emerged since the last glacial retreat.  However, things like the Holocene Humid Period and the Little Ice Age/ Medieval Warm Period have caused many to abandon their uniformitarian assumptions.

The question is: if human societies can develop from agrarian, horse-powered societies to modern computer and space travel societies in as little as 2000 years, what developments might have occurred in 300,000 years?