I’ve been looking for a timeline for Earth and her inhabitants. Like, when was first Homo species around compared to time of oldest tool found. And what else was going on when pyramids were being built. I have a very rough and wandering text file started but today got serious on looking for one. Hint: Google is your frenemy.
In 2017, some fossils from the Mediterranean region (initially found in 1944) were thoroughly examined with high-tech stuff. They determined they were Graecopithecus freybergi and existed over 7 million years ago. And were NOT in east Africa. But Greece and Bulgaria. Which tosses some theories for loops. They not only looked at the bones, but the layers of stuff around them, which helps with the timeline. They found other things, too. Like a type of grass that shouldn’t have existed there. And tons of dust from the Sahara. And that the area was an actual savanna biome.
That search result led me to look for “pre human remains” (human being Homo sapiens aka “anatomically modern humans”) which gave me the tip of an iceberg within Wikipedia.
Now, I know, Wikipedia is not to be trusted. They’re evil. They’re wrong. They’re too fluid. Blah blah. I disagree. And I also believe that one should never rely on a single source for information. The best part about Wikipedia is the “further reading”, “references”, “external links”, and the “see also” sections at the bottom of every article. I almost always start there and work my way through their pages and the information linked to them. So there.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, iceberg tip.
List of human evolution fossils is, like, wow. Listed in chronological order from oldest to newest. And, like most Wikipedia graphs, can be resorted into things like “date found” and “discovered by”. From there, I wanted to verify the time shorthand they (and other articles) were using: ka, Ma, Ga, etc. First I did a Google search which didn’t get me far. “Ka” stands for a lot of things, by the way. Sigh. But they did have a link back to Wikipedia Called “Detailed logarithmic timeline“. Jackpot. Wow. Just what I was looking for! But still no answer to the shorthand. Returned to the fossil page and realized the “ka” for the first time used was a link. Duh. Which led me to a section of the “Year” page called “SI Prefix multipliers (yeah, toasted a few brain cells on that alone).
[for the curious, ka is thousand, Ma is million, Ga is billion, and etc is et cetera]
The “Detailed logarithmic timeline” page is part of a main article, “Logarithmic Timeline“. That one branches out from there. It’s resource has a link to an archived graphic of “Four Thousand Years of World History” made in 1931 (history of it from original Slate article). Oh, and it is 5′ tall. Yeah, it only goes back to 2000 BC but it is still awesome to view.
I remember as a kid the first time I realized Jesus was not locked into his own universe. There were other things happening in the world at the same time. It was a pivotal moment in my life when I saw a similar timeline graphic. It removed the religious magic from him, almost as if I considered him to be…not real? Like, I knew Santa Claus wasn’t real but was based on a real person a long time ago and resembled nothing what we in the US see now. And I kinda saw Jesus as the same thing. Real but not…touchable? Linked to anything else other than that big huge book on the coffee table? But seeing that timeline graphic when I was a kid? Boom. It made me realize Jesus was indeed real. He pooped his diapers (something my Sunday School teacher was not pleased for me to say aloud). He stubbed his toe. He was overall a real person. And now he’s Santa Claus.
I wandered again. That Histomap led me to others: Histomap of Religion and the Histomap of Evolution. Do a Google search for “Histomap” and have fun!
Anyway, the “Detailed logarithmic timeline” was what I was looking for. Mostly. It is a great jumping point at the least, right?