Skip to content
Stela
ENFR

Halls

We built IWe discovered IIWe imagined IIIWe changed the world IVWhat we lost VWhat we leave behind VI

Explore

TimelineMapJourneysSearch the archive

Language

Français

Settings

Cross the archive by time

3.3 million yearson a single line.

The line is not to scale. The oldest ages are folded, the last centuries unfolded; every fold is marked, so nothing is hidden from you.

List view (accessible)
ContinentAllAfricaAsiaEuropeAmericasOceaniaAntarctica
DomainAllToolsWritingArtScienceBuildingBeliefFrontiers

146 fragments shown · 6 continents · Beyond Earth

The timeline

Move with ← →between fragments, Enter to open one. A cluster opens the fragments it holds.

List view (accessible)

Oldestfirst.

The same fragments, oldest first

From 3.3 million to 300,000 years ago

  1. c. 1 million years agoRH-0013 · AfricaEarly fire at Wonderwerk Cave
  2. c. 1.4 million years agoRH-0002 · AfricaA handaxe from Olduvai Gorge
  3. c. 780,000 years agoRH-0026 · AsiaThe hearths of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov
  4. c. 320,000 years agoRH-0069 · AfricaThe earliest known Homo sapiens, Jebel Irhoud

From 300,000 to 30,000 years ago · × 10 times larger from here

  1. c. 300,000 years agoRH-0038 · EuropeThe Schöningen spears
  2. c. 78,000 years agoRH-0113 · AfricaMtoto, the child of Panga ya Saidi
  3. c. 77,000 years agoRH-0014 · AfricaThe engraved ochre of Blombos Cave
  4. c. 70,000 years agoRH-0119 · AsiaShanidar 1, a Neanderthal who lived on with his wounds
  5. before 46,000 years agoRH-0005 · AsiaThe painted pig of Leang Tedongnge
  6. c. 43,000 years agoRH-0044 · EuropeThe bone flute of Geißenklösterle
  7. c. 37,000 years agoRH-0037 · EuropeThe paintings of Chauvet Cave

From 30,000 years ago to 3000 BCE · × 10 times larger from here

  1. c. 29,000 years agoRH-0039 · EuropeThe fired figure of Dolní Věstonice
  2. c. 50,000 years agoRH-0051 · OceaniaThe engravings of Murujuga
  3. c. 23,000 years agoRH-0122 · OceaniaThe footprints of the Willandra Lakes
  4. c. 20,000 years agoRH-0001 · AfricaThe Ishango bone
  5. c. 13,000 years agoRH-0049 · AmericasA Clovis point
  6. 9600 to 8200 BCERH-0025 · AsiaGöbekli Tepe
  7. c. 8500 BCERH-0106 · AsiaEinkorn and emmer: the first wheats
  8. before 8000 BCERH-0120 · AmericasThe footprints of White Sands: a child carried across the mud
  9. 8700 to 6500 BCERH-0006 · AmericasThe Cave of the Hands
  10. c. 7000 BCERH-0071 · AmericasMaize, from teosinte
  11. 7000 to 4000 BCERH-0126 · AfricaThe Cave of Swimmers, in a desert that was green
  12. 8200 to 2000 BCERH-0053 · OceaniaKuk Swamp
  13. before 4600 BCERH-0057 · OceaniaThe eel traps of Budj Bim
  14. c. 3150 BCERH-0072 · EuropeThe wheel and axle of the Ljubljana Marshes
  15. 3300 to 2900 BCERH-0070 · AsiaThe first writing: proto-cuneiform tablets of Uruk

From 3000 BCE to 1500 CE · × 10 times larger from here

  1. c. 2560 BCERH-0015 · AfricaThe Great Pyramid of Giza
  2. 2600 to 2400 BCERH-0117 · AsiaThe Royal Game of Ur, and the guards who played it
  3. 2600 to 2000 BCERH-0142 · AmericasCaral: thirty-two flutes laid away in the sand
  4. 3000 to 1500 BCERH-0103 · EuropeStonehenge, stones from three horizons
  5. 2600 to 1900 BCERH-0138 · AsiaA seal from the Indus, and the readers we lost
  6. 1792 to 1750 BCERH-0027 · AsiaThe Code of Hammurabi
  7. c. 1749 BCERH-0125 · AsiaNanni's complaint to Ea-nasir
  8. c. 1600 BCERH-0017 · AfricaThe Edwin Smith Papyrus
  9. c. 1400 BCERH-0060 · AsiaThe Hurrian Hymn no. 6
  10. c. 1250 BCERH-0114 · AfricaThe absence register of Deir el-Medina
  11. c. 1000 BCERH-0056 · OceaniaLapita pottery
  12. c. 1000 BCERH-0141 · AsiaThe qanats of Persia: water carried through the dark
  13. c. 650 BCERH-0036 · AsiaThe Epic of Gilgamesh (Flood Tablet)
  14. c. 433 BCERH-0140 · AsiaThe bells of Marquis Yi: an orchestra buried with a man
  15. 300 to 250 BCERH-0022 · AfricaThe Library of Alexandria
  16. 479 to 59 BCERH-0029 · AsiaThe Analects of Confucius
  17. 246 to 210 BCERH-0028 · AsiaThe Terracotta Army
  18. 196 BCERH-0018 · AfricaThe Rosetta Stone
  19. 205 to 60 BCERH-0008 · EuropeThe Antikythera mechanism
  20. 200 BCE to 105 CERH-0104 · AsiaPaper: a sheet of pounded rags and bark
  21. 270 BCE to 350 CERH-0016 · AfricaThe pyramids of Meroë
  22. before 79 CERH-0145 · EuropeThe walls of Pompeii: love, insults and a shopping list
  23. 97 to 105 CERH-0124 · EuropeCome to my birthday: Claudia Severa's letter to Lepidina
  24. c. 125 CERH-0107 · EuropeStone poured like water: Roman concrete and the Pantheon dome
  25. 170 to 310 CERH-0050 · AmericasThe Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan
  26. c. 300 CERH-0019 · AfricaThe Obelisk of Aksum
  27. 100 to 800 CERH-0123 · AmericasThe Moche portrait vessels
  28. before 500 CERH-0030 · AsiaThe Sushruta Samhita
  29. 550 to 620 CERH-0048 · AsiaThe Buddhas of Bamiyan
  30. 224 to 993 CERH-0031 · AsiaThe Bakhshali manuscript
  31. c. 820 CERH-0096 · AsiaThe book of al-jabr: al-Khwarizmi's algebra
  32. 868 CERH-0007 · AsiaThe Diamond Sutra of 868
  33. 895 CERH-0040 · EuropeThe Clarke Plato
  34. 1001 to 1013 CERH-0139 · AsiaThe Tale of Genji: a lady of the court writes what passes
  35. 1044 CERH-0108 · AsiaThe fire drug: the first written formulas for gunpowder
  36. 700 to 1500RH-0130 · AfricaThe Iya of Benin: the earth walls of a kingdom, disappearing
  37. 1113 to 1150 CERH-0033 · AsiaAngkor Wat
  38. 1150 to 1179 CERH-0146 · EuropeHildegard of Bingen: the year her sisters were forbidden to sing
  39. 1000 to 1350 CERH-0023 · AfricaThe Great Mosque of Kilwa
  40. 1150 to 1250 CERH-0024 · AfricaThe rock-hewn churches of Lalibela
  41. after 1200 CERH-0004 · AfricaThe Timbuktu manuscripts
  42. 1200 to 1300 CERH-0132 · AfricaThe golden rhinoceros of Mapungubwe, and the person buried with it
  43. 1100 to 1500RH-0003 · AfricaGreat Zimbabwe
  44. 1180 to 1500RH-0010 · OceaniaNan Madol
  45. 1300 to 1386 CERH-0109 · EuropeThe hours struck by iron: the mechanical clock of Salisbury
  46. 1200 to 1500RH-0143 · AmericasThe Dresden Codex: eight scribes who counted the sky
  47. 1377 CERH-0034 · AsiaThe Jikji
  48. 1300 to 1500RH-0020 · AfricaThe heads of Ifẹ
  49. 1200 to 1650RH-0059 · OceaniaThe moai of Rapa Nui
  50. c. 1455 CERH-0041 · EuropeThe Gutenberg Bible
  51. 1420 to 1532RH-0102 · AmericasMachu Picchu, the mountain estate of an Inca ruler

From 1500 to today · × 10 times larger from here

  1. 1431 to 1582RH-0121 · AmericasOnly a little while here: the songs of Nezahualcóyotl
  2. 1526RH-0131 · AfricaAfonso of Kongo: "our country is being completely depopulated"
  3. 1586RH-0118 · AsiaWon-i's mother: a letter to a husband in his grave
  4. 1400 to 1800RH-0052 · AmericasThe khipu
  5. before 1600RH-0144 · AmericasThe Great Law of Peace: words woven into wampum
  6. 1610RH-0042 · EuropeSidereus Nuncius (Galileo, 1610)
  7. 1500 to 1897RH-0021 · AfricaThe Benin Bronzes
  8. 1712 to 1769RH-0095 · EuropeFire made to work: from Newcomen's engine to Watt's condenser
  9. 1796RH-0110 · EuropeFrom variolation to vaccination: Jenner and the cowpox
  10. 1800RH-0083 · EuropeVolta's pile, the first electric battery
  11. 1826 to 1827RH-0073 · EuropeThe first photograph from a camera: the view from the window at Le Gras
  12. 1846RH-0105 · AmericasEther Day: the first public operation under anaesthesia
  13. 1860RH-0097 · EuropeThe phonautograph and the oldest recognisable recorded voice
  14. 1856 to 1866RH-0098 · EuropeMendel's peas: experiments on plant hybrids
  15. 1858 to 1866RH-0086 · EuropeThe cable under the Atlantic
  16. before 1864RH-0116 · OceaniaRongorongo, the tablets no one can read
  17. 1876RH-0085 · AmericasThe telephone: a patent and a sentence
  18. 1882RH-0084 · AmericasPearl Street Station, the first central power network in New York
  19. 1886 to 1888RH-0111 · EuropeThree wheels and a petrol engine: the Benz Patent-Motorwagen
  20. 1796 to 1980RH-0043 · EuropeThe end of smallpox
  21. 1875 to 1925RH-0127 · AfricaÈre ìbejì: a figure for a twin who died
  22. 1901RH-0087 · AmericasThe letter S across the Atlantic
  23. 1903RH-0074 · AmericasThe first powered flight: the Wright Flyer
  24. after 1907RH-0128 · AfricaThe plastering of Djenné: a town that re-coats its mosque by hand
  25. 1800 to 2019RH-0129 · AfricaAdwinasa: the kente of a weaver who used every pattern he knew
  26. 1909 to 1913RH-0094 · EuropeBread from the air: the Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia
  27. c. 1913RH-0135 · OceaniaThe Ratu Finau, a drua, and the axe marks of its builders
  28. 1915 to 1918RH-0134 · OceaniaThe kula: to own a thing is to give it
  29. 1920 to 1929RH-0009 · OceaniaA map of the swell: Marshall Islands stick charts
  30. 1928 to 1945RH-0075 · EuropeThe discovery of penicillin
  31. 1940RH-0062 · AmericasThe Crypt of Civilization
  32. 1945RH-0032 · AsiaThe Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome)
  33. 1945RH-0076 · AmericasTrinity: the first nuclear explosion
  34. 1946RH-0136 · OceaniaBikini: a home left for the good of mankind
  35. 1947RH-0088 · AmericasThe transistor
  36. 1948RH-0077 · EuropeThe Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  37. 1950RH-0045 · Europe"Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (Turing, 1950)
  38. 1953RH-0078 · EuropeThe double helix: the structure of DNA
  39. 1957RH-0079 · AsiaSputnik 1, the first artificial satellite
  40. 1967RH-0080 · AfricaThe first human heart transplant
  41. 1968RH-0081 · Beyond EarthEarthrise
  42. 1969RH-0054 · Beyond EarthThe first footprints on the Moon
  43. 1969RH-0082 · OceaniaThe Parkes dish and the Moon walk seen by the world
  44. 1970 to 1971RH-0063 · AsiaThe Expo '70 time capsules
  45. 1972 to 1973RH-0061 · Beyond EarthThe Pioneer plaque
  46. 1973RH-0089 · AmericasA telephone call from the street
  47. 1976RH-0058 · OceaniaHōkūleʻa
  48. 1977RH-0012 · Beyond EarthThe Golden Record
  49. 1969 to 1990RH-0011 · AmericasA map of a new network: ARPANET
  50. 1983RH-0090 · AmericasThe network of networks: the switch to TCP/IP
  51. 1978 to 2000RH-0112 · AmericasA place for everyone on Earth: the Global Positioning System
  52. 1990 to 1993RH-0046 · EuropeThe first web server
  53. 1992RH-0115 · AsiaTevfik Esenç, the last voice of Ubykh
  54. 1993RH-0066 · Americas“This place is not a place of honor”
  55. 1990 to 1999RH-0099 · AntarcticaThe ice at Vostok: 420,000 years of air
  56. 1997RH-0055 · AmericasDeep Blue and Kasparov
  57. after 1998RH-0101 · AsiaThe International Space Station, a wreck to come
  58. c. 2002RH-0137 · OceaniaCool fire: Aboriginal burning that cares for Country
  59. 2002 to 2008RH-0067 · AmericasThe Rosetta Disk
  60. 2008RH-0065 · EuropeThe Svalbard Global Seed Vault
  61. 1994 to 2025RH-0068 · Beyond EarthKEO, the satellite that never left
  62. c. 2010RH-0133 · OceaniaA ngatu for a first birthday, and for a farewell
  63. after 2012RH-0064 · EuropeMemory of Mankind
  64. before 2014RH-0100 · OceaniaPlastiglomerate from Kamilo Beach: a stone of our own making
  65. 2015RH-0091 · AmericasThe first orbital-class booster to come back: Falcon 9 flight 20
  66. 2016RH-0035 · AsiaAlphaGo and Lee Sedol
  67. 2020RH-0047 · EuropeThe Arctic Code Vault
  68. 2022RH-0092 · Beyond EarthWebb's First Deep Field
  69. 2022RH-0093 · AmericasChatGPT, the machine that answered in words

2026 · you are hereWhat will remain of us?

Reading the line

Every fold is marked.Nothing is hidden.

× 10

Each marker widens time tenfold. Four folds: at 300,000 years ago, at 30,000 years ago, at 3000 BCE and at 1500 CE.

× 10,000

A century after 1500 takes ten thousand times more room than a century among the first three million years.

≈ 0.2%

Written history, from the first tablets about 5,000 years ago to today, covers a tiny part of the human story. The line gives it room so you can read it.