View source for Ages (historic periods of time)

== Major periods of human history ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" 
|+General dates per onset of subsequent age
!Paleolithic
!Neolithic
!Copper Age
!Bronze Age
!Iron Age
|-
|Rise of mankind to 12,000 BC
|12,000 BC to 4,000 BC
|5,000-3,000 BC
|3,300-1,200 BC
|1,200 BC to 1500 AD
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center" |Stone Age
|Chalcolithic period = isolated use of copper but mostly using stone tools
|Bronze = copper + tin and requires high-heat and specialization, as well as trade
|"Historical periods" start 550 BC, including Classical Age (Americas or Eurasia), Roman Period, Early Medieval, etc. These each lead to modern "industrial age" starting in the early 1800s
|-
| colspan="3" style="text-align:center" |Prehistory (before writing)
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center" |Writing
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center" |stone tools and other hand-made or natural objects
|copper smelting (heating, separating from other elements, and shaping into tools through molds)
|furnaces, smelting
|
|-
|some pottery, baskets
|pottery, baskets, ovens, farm tools
|simple copper tools and weapons
|tools, weapons, some farming equipment 
|tools, weapons, farming equipment
|-
|Bands
|Tribes, villages
|Villages, early urbanization,
|Urbanization, civilizations, centralized rule & some standardization
|Urbanization, empires, centralized rule and standardization
|}
See:

* [[Three-age system#Three-age%20system%20resumptive%20table|Three-age system - Resumptive Table (comparison chart - Wikipedia)]]
* [https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/carrying-storing/oldest-pottery Oldest Pottery | The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program (si.edu)]



[[Category:World History]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Time]]