Ages (historic periods of time)
Known as "periodization", the categorization of periods of time according to general technological characteristics
See also Turning Points
Periodization[edit | edit source]
- 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.
| 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
Major periods of human history[edit | edit source]
| Paleolithic | Neolithic | Copper Age | Bronze Age | Iron Age | Classical Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rise of mankind
to 12,000 BC |
12,000 BC
to 4,000 BC |
5,000-3,000 BC | 3,300-1,100 BC | 1,000 BC to 550 BC | |
| Stone Age | Chalcolithic period,
use of copper but mostly stone tools |
||||
| Prehistory (before writing) | |||||
| stone tools and other hand-made or natural objects | copper smelting (heating, separating from other elements, and shaping into tools through molds) | ||||
| some pottery, baskets | pottery, baskets, ovens, farm tools | ||||
See:
- Three-age system - Resumptive Table (comparison chart - Wikipedia)
- Oldest Pottery | The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program (si.edu)
Three-Age System[edit | edit source]
- 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..."
- Periodization is mostly used for archaeological categorization
- for students, it is helpful to understand social and political structures, population growth, and trade and other forms of cultural diffusion