By Chapter or By Topic: All > Anchors > People > Docs > Touchstones > New Looks > History > Pre-Sumer
By Chapter: Use this timeline as you read each chapter of “30 Philosophers: A New Look at Timeless Ideas.” Within this timeline, a generation is defined as spanning 25 years, aiding in the chronological arrangement and understanding of historical progressions.
30 Philosophers Timeline: Overview
Big Bang Expansion
NASA/WMAP Science Team, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
13.8 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Free Will
Free Will: two general types. Determinism says everything that happens is set in stone and can't be changed; in contrast, indeterminism says people and animals make choices.
How predetermined are our choices?
Evolution
Darwin identified several key categories, which are often discussed today as natural selection, sexual selection, and artificial selection.
Our true origin story.
Cultural Transmission
What separates humans from animals.
First Atoms
Molecules or atom isolated on blue background
13.7 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Population III Stars: Heavier Elements
NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
13.6 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Birth of the Sun
Epic sun surface flare prominence solar system
4.6 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Earth is Born
Solar system planets set. The Sun and planets in a row on univer
4.5 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
First Atmosphere: Hydrogen & Helium
4.48 Billion Years Ago
4.49 to 4.6 Billion Years Ago
LUCA: Last Universal Common Ancestor
LUCA's form is unknown. Imagined image of various LUCA shapes.
3.75 Billion years ago (+/- 100 million)
DNA, Ribosomes, and ATP
The First True Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes divided labor within single-celled life, featuring a true nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. From them branched plants, fungi, and animals.
2.4 Billion Years Ago (+/- 300 million years)
Plant Ancestors Split from Animal and Fungi Ancestors
Plant cells feature chloroplasts, a cellulose cell wall, and a large central vacuole for holding water. They also have plasmodesmata, tiny channels between cells. And of course, photosynthetic chlorophyll.
1.65 Billion Yeas Ago (+/- 50 million)
Life that later leads to these kingdoms separates.
Emergence of the Great Apes (Great Apes LCA)
Imagined image: Circa 18 million years ago, the Proconsul, an inhabitant of the Miocene forests, stands as a landmark in the evolutionary journey toward self-awareness. Here a Proconsul ponders his image in a local watering hole.
16.5 Million Years Ago (+/- 2 Million Years)
Tool potential begins, Neocortical expansion
Chimpanzees Branch Off (CHLCA)
"<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/23165290@N00/7283201268" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sahelanthropus tchadensis adult male - head model - Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - 2012-05-17</a>" by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/23165290@N00" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tim Evanson</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>
7.5 Million Years Ago
Advanced coalition politics and tool precursors
Homo heidelbergensis
Imagined image depicting two Homo heidelbergensis individuals at different stages of their evolutionary timeline. The first individual represents what they might have looked like around 650,000 years ago, and the second shows them around 440,000 years ago, just before the transition towards Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
Circa 640,000 Years Ago
Homo heidelbergensis on Earth from about 640,000 to 200,000 BCE.
Neanderthal-Sapien LCA
Imagined image: Homo sapiens (center) might be a hybrid of two extict human species: Homo heidelbergensis and Homo antecessor. Left is heidelbergensis with its protruding jaw. Right is antessor with his small brain and flatter face.
440,000 Years Ago (+/- 40,000 years)
Oldest Surviving Spear
350,000 BCE
400,000 to 300,000 BCE
Adam: Haplogroup A
Imagined image: Homo sapien couple, circa 275,000 years ago. Even as early as this, humans all over Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia essentially looked like we look now.
275,000 BCE
Eve: Haplogroup L
Imagined image: Homo sapien couple, circa 175,000 years ago. By this time, humans all over Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia essentially looked like we look now.
175,000 BCE
200,000 to 150,000 BCE
“The” Human DNA
Spiral strands of DNA on the dark background
70,000 BCE
2,800 Generations Ago
Oldest Known Bracelet
70,000 BCE
2,880 Generations Ago
Advanced Sewing Needles
28,000 BCE
28,000 to 21,000 BCE
Phenotype Variation: Blue Eyes
Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@valeriya?utm_source=instant-images&utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Valeria Boltneva</a> on <a href="https://pexels.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pexels</a>
8000 BCE
Genetic Mutation from the Neolithic Era
Cuneiform Writing
3400 BCE
3400 BCE to 100 CE (end of use for scholarly work)
Gilgamesh, circa 2700 BCE
King of Uruk
Library of Ashurbanipal
A conservative recreation of the exterior of the Library of Ashurbanipal, illustrating the architectural style of ancient Assyrian buildings. The image depicts a grand structure on a raised platform, adorned with carvings and motifs characteristic of Assyrian art. While the depiction includes speculative elements, such as the building's size and detailed adornments, it aims to capture the historical significance and imposing presence of this legendary library in the heart of Nineveh.
Built circa 700 BCE, destroyed 612 BCE.
Socrates (469 – 399 BCE)
Portrait of Socrates. Marble, Roman artwork (1st century), perhaps a copy of a lost bronze statue made by Lysippos
Socratic Questioning
Father of Western Ethics
Democritus (460 BCE – circa 370 BCE)
Two and a half millennia ago, Democritus imagined atoms in the void — long before microscopes, equations, or particle accelerators confirmed the intuition.
Atomist
The Laughing Philosopher
Bernard of Chartres (circa 1070 – 1130)
There are no surviving images of
Bernard of Chartres. As a scholastic, the best we can do is an artistic representation of scholasticism.
Neoplatonist
French Philosopher
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
"<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/52890443@N02/4896956109" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Charles Darwin: Scientific Badass</a>" by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/52890443@N02" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CGP Grey</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CC BY 2.0</a>
British Naturalist
Chapter 1 Quote Attribution Clarification
big bang, black hole, supermassive star, galaxy, cosmos, physical, science fiction wallpaper.