User:Arkuat/Prehistory and history

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The context of human prehistory and history is known to terrestrial geologists as the Quaternary period. It comprises two epochs: the Pleistocene, which ended about 11 or 12 thousand years ago, and the Holocene which is still unfolding. The Pleistocene lasted over 150 times as long as the Holocene has so far.

The beginning of the Quaternary (that is, the Gelasian, see below) is about the same time as the beginning of the Stone Age, so the Stone Age as a whole is approximately contemporaneous with the Quaternary. The Quaternary is defined by geologists on the basis of rock and soil formation, and the Stone Age is defined by archaeologists and anthropologists on the basis of technological artifacts. (In former days, when the Gelasian was accounted part of the Pliocene epoch, we'd say that the Stone Age began in the late Pliocene.)

Some marine geologists do not use the term "Quaternary", and instead group the Pleistocene and the Holocene in the Neogene Period, along with the Miocene and Pliocene. (See Preprehistory for further context.)

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[edit] Pleistocene epoch ("Ice Age", Old Stone Age)

The Pleistocene epoch comprises almost all (more than 99%) of the Quaternary. The Pleistocene is more or less contemporaneous with the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), and is also what is usually meant when the term ice age is used informally.

[edit] Holocene epoch

The Holocene epoch comprises the last eleven or twelve millennia and is, perhaps, merely an interglacial pause in the Pleistocene pattern. The transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene is marked by the end of the Younger Dryas (a late stage of the last glacial period) in the 10th millennium BCE. Geologically, the Holocene is the time since the retreat of the glaciers; anthropologically, it is the time since the Neolithic revolution began.

Note that the so-called Stone Age, taken as a whole, comprises not only the entirety of the Pleistocene but also most of the Holocene.

[edit] Neolithic, or New Stone Age

The Neolithic is the Holocene Stone Age, and is principally characterized by the development of pastoral, horticultural, and agricultural techniques. In the Near East, it ended when the Bronze Age began, but in many other parts of the world, there was a direct transition from neolithic to iron-age technologies during the last thousand years or so.

See also: Epipaleolithic, Mesolithic, Chalcolithic.

[edit] Bronze Age

The Bronze Age began around 5000 years ago in the Near East. It began later or was bypassed entirely in other regions. Generally, the Bronze Age comprises the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. In any given region, it ended when the Iron Age began.

[edit] Iron Age

The Iron Age began roughly 3000 years ago. In the Near East, it began around the 12th or 11th century BCE, and began later in other regions. It is often roughly identified with the 1st millennium BCE. We no longer consider ourselves in the Iron Age, but there is no consensus about when the Iron Age ended.

[edit] Contemporary

For the history of the last thousand years or so, see: history of the world, history by period, history of religions.

[edit] List of millennia of the Holocene Epoch

[edit] Deficiencies of the three-age system

The problem with technology-based chronological terms such as Bronze Age, Iron Age, etc., is that the phenomena involved have locations as well as periods. Thus the Anatolian Iron Age starts around fifteen or fourteen thousand years ago but the Chinese Iron Age starts a few centuries later. (The particulars are disputed, and this is only an example. The point would be the same if the use of iron originated in China and spread to the west, or were independently discovered later in the west.)

[edit] See also

Logarithmic timeline, Orders of magnitude (time), Prehistory, History, Three-age system, Periodization, Archaeology, Historiography, History of the world, History by period, History of Earth