Ages (historic periods of time)

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
• additionally, social and political organization existed coincidentally within and across each of these periods
• for an historic example of a person who lived in three periods at once see Otzi the Iceman

Three-Age System

• When putting together a chronological presentation of ancient artifacts, early 19th century archeologist C. J. Thomsen found that the objects stood out in the three groups of stone, bronze and iron.
• the ancient writers Hesiod (Greek) and Lucretius (Roman) grouped human history into "progressive" periods, i.e. either degrading or advancing from one to the other:
  • Hesiod's Ages of Man is a degradation: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron.
  • Lucretius' is a progression: "Everything must pass through successive phases. Nothing remains forever what it was. Everything is on the move. Everything is transformed by nature and forced into new paths..."