Ages (historic periods of time)

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Known as "periodization", the categorization of periods of time according to general technological characteristics

See also Turning Points

Periodization

  • categories help to characterize periods of time for easy reference
  • however, these categories are helpful in the general and not the specific applications
    • i.e., a period of time may fall into one category, but that does not mean that every population or civilization follows that particular characterization
  • ex.
Periods
Paleolithic Nelolithic Bronze Age Iron Age
<12,000 BC ✓+
12,000 BC ✓+ ✓-
4,000 BC ✓-
1000 BC ✓- ✓+ ✓-
1 AD ✓- ✓- ✓- ✓+
  • the idea is that while farming may have developed in some places, hunting and gathering continued in most other places, until farming spread everywhere.
  • so each of these "Ages" or "Periods" existed coincidentally

Major periods of human history

Neolithic

Paleolithic

Copper Age

Bronze Age

Iron Age