43 Key Dates of Human Prehistory

In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq, cultivation of barley and wheat begins. At first they are used for beer, gruel, and soup, eventually for bread. In early agriculture at this time, the planting stick is used, but it is replaced by a primitive plow in subsequent centuries. Around this time, a round stone tower, now preserved to about 8.5 meters high and 8.5 meters in diameter is built in Jericho. Approximate age of Haplogroup J (mtDNA).

Çatal Höyük urban settlement founded in Anatolia

Jiahu culture began in China

Copper smelting in evidence in Pločnik and other locations.

Late Neolithic civilizations, invention of the wheel and spread of proto-writing. The oldest golden treasure found in Varna Necropolis.

Civilizations develop in the Mesopotamia/Fertile crescent region (around the location of modern day Iraq). The american mastodon goes extinct.

The Post Track and Sweet Track causeways are constructed in the Somerset Levels

Mass graves at Tell Brak in Syria

Minoan culture begins on Crete

Uruk period in Sumer. First evidence of mummification in Egypt.

Writing is invented in Sumer, triggering the beginning of history