Time-Culture SECTION__ 01

The Time BEFORE the Common Era BC/BCE

Time Intervals for THIS SECTION:

[ Beginning with 1 mya BCE]   [ 200 tya]   [ 100 tya]   [ 50 tya]

[ 25 tya]   [ 10 tya]   [ 05 tya]   [ 04 tya]

[ 03 tya]   [ Ending with 2500 ya BCE]

One Million Years Before the Common Era.

780,000 BCE:
EARLY HUMANS.
Intelligent hominids occupy the eastern Mediterranean shores by around 780,000 BCE.
Archaeology Magazine reports in its 2002 May/June issue the recent findings in northern Israel (near Gesher Benot Ya'aqov) the discovery of both botanical remains and tools (mainly nuts and 'nut-crackers') in the same archaeological layer. This provides the earliest evidence...from the Lower Palaeolithic period...that high in protein seed-nuts were an important part of the hominidian diet and that they had made tools to open them. Hominids are distant ancestors of humans which attained a certain level of tool using and social organization. The "nut-crackers" they used were basalt and limestone rocks pitted by repeated use. Among modern chimpanzees and their hunter-gatherer primate societies, females are known to collect nuts and open them with similar tools. In the paleolithic, there may have been competition among other nut-eating mammals for the acorns, pistachio nuts, almonds, and water-chestnuts that existed in the area. The more intelligent hominids probably were able to know when the nut-species would be ready for harvest and this might have given them an advantage over the competition for the rich protein resource. Some of the hominids may have figured-out how to 'plant' a nut-seed and how to remember where it was left to grow. However, it would be many thousands of years until even a primitive agriculture would be devised-invented in a geographical region only several hundreds of miles to the northeast of these earliest of proto-agrarian findings.

780,000 BCE to c. 200,000 BCE:
Paleontologists generally agree that the earliest modern humans (a zoologically classified primate: Homo sapiens sapiens) originated in Northern Africa. (See entry for 160,000 BCE). These earliest modern humans had ancestors which dispersed themselves into the northern regions including the eastern Mediterranean and farther north into Europe, Asia Minor and beyond. For many thousands of years, therefore, we can suppose that this 'corridor of hominid-human diaspora' which traversed the eventual Levant must have existed. It seems logical to suppose the Levantine valleys and shore-lines formed the major cross-road connections for all emigrations in pre-historic times. These routes would have been analogous to what exists in the USA today as the 'Route-66' geographic system, only in the Levant the direction was predominately north and south; later the influence of sailing would have added an east-west contribution to the human migrations and commerce. For many thousands of years there were individual and multi-partied nomadic and familial-genetic groups meandering up into the northern lands (even as far as Siberia and parts of modern China) and also occasionally returning to the south or back into Africa. These migrations occurred over the millennia prior to any definitive written record and often with little or no artifactual clues; we find evidence of occasional pre-agrarian settlements or camp-sites only. All was essentially 'non-urban' and hunting-gathering in action.

These earliest humans would become the indigenous tribes and clans of wherever they tended to circuitously roam or settle. The groups would have had leaders and followers. In the apparently universal 'primate model' some of the hominids and more intelligent humans would hold power and prestige over a local group and relatives while others would be more subservient or enslaved. There would have been endless bickering and contests for strategic locales and resources. This primatological model extends even to today in reference to certain cultures and sub-cultures of humans. Again, most of this dynamics of diaspora is all set in 'pre-historical' time,... and to any extent that language had an un-written syntax and constant form among any of these earliest humans,...we can assume they had their great stories to tell and pass on about their travels and histories. In some cases there are well-preserved mummies and frozen corpses or other remains somehow well preserved (dry sand, volcanic ash, salt-sediment and bogs, etc.) for paleo-archaeological study. Much of the more northern 'paleo-arctic' regions where early humans roamed are not consistently very dry and for these reasons we are lucky to find any fossil record or remains whatsoever from much of this earliest phase of human history since proteins degrade rapidly under moist or humid conditions. Some of the tribes and early people also cremated their dead, and so there is not much known directly about these people either. Rock and Cave-art paintings exist and there are the occasional preserved artifacts for some of the very early people which are always being recovered by today's archaeologists.

Two Hundred Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

200,000 BCE:

160-120,000 BCE:
EARLY MODERN HUMANS:
Modern-in-form (and brain-size) humans are known from the fossil record from around 160-120,000 years ago. These evolved from earlier examples of the human genus Homo that existed on the African continent around 2.3 million years ago. They were nomadic hunters and gatherers. Homo sapiens idaltu lived in North Eastern Africa (not far from what would become 'ancient Egypt' in Ethiopia's dry and barren Afar rift valley ). They may be considered a distant cousin of any of us today. This species member would have had little difficulty mating with Homo sapiens sapiens ('Modern humans') to produce normal fertile offspring (the criterion of enspeciation). Both H. idaltu and H. sapiens had common ancestors extending back as far as 5-2.6 million years ago, and these are the 'anatomical homidae,' earliest hominids and australopithecines. These too, had common ancestors farther back into time. These earliest hominidian ancestors dispersed out of Africa to colonize vast and distant areas of the globe. Many of their descendants would become the more modern ethnic groups later. (For more about this pre-historical phase link to Chronofile BCE.

For more detailed information concerning the earliest human ancestors refer to the Hominidian Species List.

Paleo-anthropologist define modern humans not so much in terms of any supposed socio-cultural behaviors;__ instead they look for the size of the cranium and various skull features, as well as evidence of upright posture implicated in the pelvic girdle and other strictly measurable 'somatic' or body and skeletal features. Fossil remains that fulfil these criteria are well established by 120,000 BCE, and many suppose the species was probably well-defined as early as 200,000 years ago. All of these hominidian bioforms originated on the African continent, and, we can suppose, from the earliest of times, certain of these nomadic and migratory proto-people traveled in all directions,__ eventually venturing to what would become the Levantine cross-roads (current Lebanon and Syria and Israel)__ and beyond to Asia and western Europe.

One Hundred Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

100,000 BCE:

98,000 YEARS BCE:
Jebel Qafzeh is a cave site located in Mount Qafzeh, Israel containing twenty-four archaeologically interesting layers. The first human remains found were of two ancient humans in separate locations. This discovery was made by the scientist Neuville in 1933 when he uncovered the first two humans. By 1977, portions of eleven humans were excavated, including adult and infant remains. A DOUBLE BURIAL from the Qafzeh Cave attests to perhaps the earliest known demonstration of a religious sensibility some 100,000 years ago. The infant was laid at the foot of a young woman, most likely its mother. These people look quite modern, but their culture resembled that of the more robust Levantine Neanderthals. In Europe some 60,000 years later, modern-looking people and Neanderthals developed different cultures. Animal remains were also found of the gazelle, horse, fallow deer, wild ox, and rhinoceros. Presently, the bones found from Qafzeh are dated to be 100,000 years old. (See reference Biblio-12 at the end of these chrono-files.)

Fifty Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

50,000 BCE:

30,000-15,000 YEARS BCE:
Among the earliest pieces of prehistoric sculpture that has been found is the "Venus of Willendorf" , ca.30,0000 - 25,000 BCE, found in southern Austria. Now in Naturhistorisches Museum, it is likely that it represented a fertility symbol, perhaps carried by a male hunter/gatherer as a reminder of his mate back home. Other similar pieces have been found in Russia and Siberia (dating to around 23-21,000 BCE). The Cro-Magnon people left images on the walls of a Cave at Lascaux, France ("Hall of Bulls"). These date from around 15,000-13,000 BCE;, the images includes paintings of bulls, horses, deer, bison, etc. Evidence in southern Chile (Excavation work at Monte Verde by Tom Dillehay of the University of Kentucky) support the view that human tribes lived in the Americas as early as 33,000 years ago. Although these pre-historic 'world people' left some evidence of habitation and some artifacts, there is not much to define them as a proper 'civilization'. They do form distinct 'cultures' and ethnic groups, many of which would prosper to define all the world's populations of today. Hence we speak of a 'COMMON ERA' for all of Earth's genetic descendents.

Twenty-Five Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

25,000 BCE:

12,000 BCE:
The concept of 'Human Civilization' is sometimes said to be about 12,000 years old. Before this time, all human activities were more or less of the 'hunter-gatherer' category for the various ethnic and cultural groupings reflecting the great diaspora of the earliest hominidian emigrations originally and generally focussed on the southernmost regions of the Levant and North Africa. It was a slow transition from proto-agrarianism to 'city synthesis', so it may be better to say that human civilization is around 10-12,000 years old.

11-10,000 BCE to Today:
Holocene Epoch:

Human Civilization becomes well established.

At some point 10-11,000 years ago, the advantages of a less nomadic life was realized and farming-agriculture was discovered-invented in the region of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers and the foot-hills of the Zagros mountains. This region is called 'Meso-potamia' meaning 'between rivers'. And with this ontogeny of agriculture, larger local populations prospered and formed the very first settlements and 'proto-cities' with trade and commerce. After 4.6 billion years from the Earth's origen in the solar-system, an intelligent creature had arrived on the scene. One destined to discover the Pythagorean theorem, The Calculus and Differential Equations, Quantum Electrodynamics and to attain the ability to explore other parts of the solar system and image distant galaxies beyond the Milky-Way. But these abilities would require many thousands of years of intellectual effort and a preliminary shackling by the Zodiac and a comprehension of the seasons and ways to measure time. Mankind was fated to learn about the Truth in the all not-so-fixed stars.

After more than a 150 years of archaeological exploration of the 'City of David', virtually no structural remains of the tenth century can be identified with certainty. Even the monumental "stepped-stone structure"--thought to be part of Davidic construction, has recently been dated to the end of the Late Bronze Age. The same is true for the "Warren's Shaft," a subterranean water channel at first identified with a 'water-shaft' mentioned in 2 Samuel 5.8 in connection with the Davidic capture of Jerusalem. Some archaeologists now date this structure to later than the Iron Age IIA period. "Only fragmentary walls and scattered artifacts, none of which elicit images of the monumentality and grandeur of what David and Solomon are said to have constructed in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5.9; Kings 5-7), incontrovertibly belong to the period of the early (Davidic) monarchy. Yet the biblical record of monumental architecture in Jerusalem is not fictitious, and the discrepancy between textual records and material remains should not be used to discredit the former." [Biblio-3; p254]

Ten Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

10,000 BCE:

AGRICULTURE and HORTICULTURE BECOMES ESTABLISHED.

In the peri-mesopotamian valleys,...Agriculture develops more consistently as humans begin to limit millions of years of nomadic life-styles. Still many groups continue the nomadic ways into modern times.

9,000 BCE: The 'Land of Canaan' had a walled city called Jericho mentioned in ancient texts and believed to date from c. 9,000 BCE. By the use of Carbon-14 dating techniques, there seem to be traces of farming and of habitation on the Jericho site as long as 9000 BCE,...almost 6000 years before writing appears anywhere in the world.
The Canaanites came under Egyptian rule in the 15th century BCE, during the conquests of King Thutmose III. Among the early records referring to Jerusalem are Egyptian tablets dating from about 1400 BC that name the city 'Urusalim.' This is perplexing because the Jebusite occupation and biblical recounting is usually fixed to around 900s BCE. Even if the biblical journalistic reports do not match the historical and archaeological records, ...it is most likely that the Israelite settlement of Palestine occurred in the period beginning about 1200 BCE. Archaeologically, socially, politically, economically, and militarily, the twelfth century makes the most sense in reference to what is known in reference to the context of conquest/settlement.

After more than a 150 years of archaeological exploration of the 'City of David', virtually no structural remains of the tenth century can be identified with certainty. Even the monumental "stepped-stone structure"--thought to be part of Davidic construction, has recently been dated to the end of the Late Bronze Age. The same is true for the "Warren's Shaft," a subterranean water channel at first identified with a 'water-shaft' mentioned in 2 Samuel 5.8 in connection with the Davidic capture of Jerusalem. Some archaeologist now date this structure to later than the Iron Age IIA period. "Only fragmentary walls and scattered artifacts, none of which elicit images of the monumentality and grandeur of what David and Solomon are said to have constructed in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5.9; Kings 5-7), incontrovertibly belong to the period of the early (Davidic) monarchy. Yet the biblical record of monumental architecture in Jerusalem is not fictitious, and the discrepancy between textual records and material remains should not be used to discredit the former." [Biblio-3; p254]

Five Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

5,000 BCE:

5000 BC to 4000 BCE: The site of Jerusalem was occupied during the Stone Age,__ (up to c. 2,000 BCE), but the aboriginal inhabitants were driven out in the period from 5000 BC to 4000 BC by a people who had advanced into the Bronze Age. The invaders, called Canaanites in the Old Testament, were a mixed people among whom (it is reported in the Bible) the "Jebusites" were a dominant people. The bible reports that the Israelite King David purchased the Temple site from a Jebusite. To some extent it can be said that 'Jebus' is an older name for Jerusalem.

Construction begins in Babylon, a civilization not as old as Sumer or Akkad. "An eye for an eye,"....commanded the code of laws of Hammurapi, who reigned during the peak period of Babylonian prosperity. The Babylonians eventually united both Sumer and Akkad and instituted a highly organized systematics of administration, including a judiciary and legislative. Commerce and the arts flourished, great temples were built, and the study of a proto-scientific astrology yielded a practical calendar. See 600 BCE.

Four Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

4,000 BCE:

c. 3500 BCE:
Sumerians.
The first known true civilization was that of the Sumerians who settled in the region of confluence of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers. Recently, some evidence may prove the 'Akkadian' people were well settled even earlier with less known about them. Both civilizations were more or less contemporary and at war with one another by 2340 BCE; The Akkadian Empire collapse around 2198 BCE due to regnal feuding.

They built walled cities and had scribes writing with clay tablets in a cuniform alphabet. This was the origin of the simplest way of writing typified by etching lines and marks into wet clay. They deployed a numbering system based on integer 60 which we still use in our clock-works. The 'Hexigesimal System' (as opposed to a 'decimal' or other system) for partitioning a mystical circle was preferred because integer 60 is the smallest number with the most prime factors. The correlation of this system with the Zodiac and constellations would from the basis of much of an eventual astrological and early alchemical proto-science and what epistemologists call 'associative-correlative (non-linear) thinking'. It is a system founded with a mystical and even sensual (non-Newtonian) causality and Jungian 'participation mystique' syndrome (a sort of generally benign and functional 'mass psychosis'). It is a predominantly superstitious world view, yet seemingly necessary for an eventual future 'objective' world-view. This proto-scientific associative-correlative type of world-view mediated by language seems to require an ecology having something commonly called 'seasons', and this seems to be a critical factor for the evolution of civilizations having any semblance of a primitive technology. Cultures lacking this ecology seem to not progress on their own to anything resembling a proto-science.

The Sumerians flourished until around 2340 BCE when the Akkadian invaders took over and were slowly joined by a steady stream of semitic and indo-European invaders over a period of about a thousand years. The language of the Sumerians eventually faded and was replaced by Akkadian in commerce. Today this region of the world is known as 'Iraq'; it can be considered to be one of the northern most domains of a Levantine focus...['Holy Lands']

c. 3100 BCE:
Dynastic Egypt.
Dynastic period begins in Egypt circa 3000 BCE; the beginning of the 'Old Kingdom' period starts c. 2680 BCE. Cheops begins building the Great Pyramid c. 2590 BCE. By the reign of 'The Heretic King' Akhenaton (aka 'Amenhotep IV'... 1375-1358 BC),...Humanity would recognize its first fully documented effort to establish the concept of mono-theism on multi-culturally polytheistic populated multi-continental Earth.

Three Thousand Years Before the Common Era.

3,000 BCE:

c.3000-2500 BCE:
Semitic people called the Canaanites inhabit ancient Palestine and Phoenicia. "Phoenicia" is the Greek translation of "Canaan,"...meaning "the land of purple merchants," referring to the dye they used to color cloth. Indeed, it is from the time of Canaan that Bethlehem is believed to have derived its name, "Bethlehem" - "Beit Lahem" in Arabic (meaning "The house of Lahman" - a tribal Canaanite God). In the tradition of the time, we might suppose, ... an authoritarian ruler (male, or less likely a female) with a name sounding like 'Lahem' may have been implicated as a deified ruler of the region that would become pre-historic Bethlehem. Again, this is mere archeological speculation since there is not much in the way of a written record for the early Levant. Elsewhere in Egypt however, papyrus is being used by scribes to tell of Pharaoh's adventures and conquests.

The term 'Semitic' is generally synonymous with the Hebrew speaking 'Jewish people,'__ but it is said to include the related group of people who spoke Aramaic, Arabic and Amharic. These languages are all classified by linguist as a group of languages constituting the "Afro-Asiatic Language Family." It is believed that Jesus' native language would have been Aramaic, but many of the people of the region involved in teaching or merchandising would have also had some ability to speak Greek as well as Roman Latin. The Semitic and Afro-Asiatic linguistic group is distinct from these other languages classified as belonging to the 'Indo-European Languages' which includes the originating-evolving idioms of modern Russian and Germano-English. (see entry for 988-1054 CE).

c.2900 BCE:
The period from approximately 2900 to 2350 BCE in southern Mesopotamia (Sumer) is known as the Early Dynastic Period. During this time, Sumer was divided politically between competing city-states, each controlled by a dynasty of rulers. The succeeding period (ca. 2350–2150 BCE) is named after the city of Agade (or Akkad), whose Semitic monarchs united the region, bringing the rival Sumerian cities under their control by conquest. The city of Agade itself has not so far been located by archeologists, but it was probably founded before the time of Sargon (reigned c. 2340–2285 BCE), the dynasty's first king. Tradition credits Sargon with being the "cup bearer" of the king of Kish, at a time when Kish was an important and powerful city in the northern part of lower Mesopotamia. The name Sargon is a modern reading of Sharru-ken (meaning "the king is legitimate"). Usurping power and assuming for himself the title of king, Sargon went on to conquer southern Mesopotamia and to lead military expeditions to conquer further lands in the east and north.

Sargon was succeeded by two of his sons, Rimush and Manishtushu, who consolidated the dynasty's hold on much of Mesopotamia. The "Akkadian Empire" reached its apogee under Naram-Sin (ruled c. 2260–2223 B.C.), and there are references to campaigns against powerful states in the north, possibly including Ebla. At its greatest extent, the empire reached as far as Anatolia in the north, inner Iran in the east, Arabia in the south, and the Mediterranean in the west.

2500 BCE:
Next Section begins with 2500 BCE.

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