An illustrated timeline
The Human
Story
From the first stone tools to the present day: 3,300,000 years of people, places, ideas and empires — in one long scroll.
4 chapters · 17 eras · 752 moments
Chapter I
Deep Time
Three million years of stone, fire and wandering
- Lower Paleolithic3.3M BC
- Middle Paleolithic300K BC
- Upper Paleolithic50K BC
Era 01 of 17c. 3.3 million BC – 300,000 BC
Lower Paleolithic
The first stone tools and the taming of fire.
For more than three million years our ancestors were one kind of animal among many on the African savanna, until they began to break stones into tools. Over this vast span, bipedal australopiths gave way to the genus Homo, and Homo erectus carried the hand axe and, eventually, fire across Africa, Asia and Europe. By its end, the lineages leading to Neanderthals, Denisovans and ourselves were already taking shape.
Oldowan industryAfrica & Eurasia
Homo habilisEast & South Africa
Paranthropus boiseiEast Africa
Homo erectusAfrica & Asia
Acheulean industryAfrica, Europe & Asia
born c. 3.2 million BC
c. 2.6 million BC
c. 2 million BC
c. 1.8 million BC
c. 1.8 million BC
c. 1 million BC
Era 02 of 17c. 300,000 BC – 50,000 BC
Middle Paleolithic
Homo sapiens appears and walks out of Africa.
Era 03 of 17c. 50,000 BC – 12,000 BC
Upper Paleolithic
Cave art, the last Neanderthals and a world in ice.
Chapter II
The Dawn of Civilization
Farms, cities, writing and the first kings
- Mesolithic12K BC
- Neolithic10K BC
- Chalcolithic4500 BC
- Bronze Age3300 BC
- Iron Age1200 BC
Era 04 of 17c. 12,000 BC – 10,000 BC
Mesolithic
The ice retreats and the seas rise.
Era 05 of 1710,000 BC – 4500 BC
Neolithic
Farming changes everything.
Era 06 of 174500–3300 BC
Chalcolithic
Copper, the wheel and the first towns.
Era 07 of 173300–1200 BC
Bronze Age
Writing, pyramids and the first empires.
Era 08 of 171200–500 BC
Iron Age
Collapse, iron, alphabets and new powers.
Chapter III
Empires & Faiths
Philosophers, prophets, conquerors and castles
Era 09 of 17500 BC – AD 476
Classical Antiquity
Athens, Rome, Han China and the great philosophies.
Era 10 of 17AD 476 – 1000
Early Middle Ages
Byzantium, Islam's rise and the Tang golden age.
Era 11 of 171000–1450
High & Late Middle Ages
Crusades, Mongols, cathedrals and the Black Death.
Era 12 of 171450–1600
Renaissance & Age of Discovery
The printing press, new worlds and a rebirth of art.
Chapter IV
The Modern World
Science, revolution, industry and the global age
Era 13 of 171600–1760
Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment
Reason, telescopes and the rights of man.
Era 14 of 171760–1870
Age of Revolutions & Industry
Steam, revolution and the nation-state.
Era 15 of 171870–1945
Empires & World Wars
Electricity, empire and two world wars.
Era 16 of 171945–1991
Atomic Age & Cold War
The bomb, decolonisation and the race to the Moon.
Era 17 of 171991–2026
Information Age
The internet, globalisation and a connected planet.