Unit 1.6 Historic Periods, Time, and Human Development

World History Lecture Notes

 

I. MAIN TECHNOLOGICAL PERIODS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

 

1. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) – starting about 2.5 million years ago, with the development of the first stone, bone, and wood tools.

 

2. Neolithic (New Stone Age)  - starting about 15,000 – 8,000 B.P. (before present)

 

3. Agriculture Civilization - began with the advent of the plow about 6,000 B.P.

 

            A. Bronze Age - earliest phase of agricultural civilization

                        (included the development of alloys of copper and tin)

            6,000 B.P.- 3,000 B.P.

 

            B. Iron Age – latest phase of agricultural civilizations

                        (development of the use of iron in tools, required complex smelting technology)

            3,200 B.P.

 

4. Industrial Civilization – includes the past 250 years

 

 

II. MAIN HISTORICAL ERAS

 

Eras

Date Range

Ancient Civilizations 
Middle Ages 
Renaissance 
Age of Reason/ Revolutions 
Victorian Era 
Industrial Revolution 
Modern Era

12,000 BP - 500 AD
500 AD- 1500 AD
1300 AD - 1600 AD
1600 AD - 1800 AD
1800's
1700's - 1920's
1600 - Present Day

 

III. TRADITIONAL TIME LINE OF RECENT HISTORY

 

300        200        100               100         200         300

BC                                              AD

(BEFORE CHRIST)                                   (ANNO DOMINI)

Also BCE (before the common era)                                          "IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD"

Time Line

  • 2nd Century BC includes the years 199-100 BC
  • 2nd Century AD includes the years 100 - 199 AD
  • The 2nd Century is not the 200's but the 100's. 150 BC is the 100's BC
  • 150 AD is the 100's AD. Centuries like 1st , 2nd, 14th, are not the same as 100's, or 1300's.
  • We live during the 2000's but this is the 21st Century.

 

10 years = decade

100 years = century

1000 years = millennium