| ca. 4.4 million years ago |
Ardipithecus evolve in Africa |
| ca. 2.5–4 million years ago |
Australopithecus evolve in Africa |
| ca. 500,000–2 million years ago |
Homo erectus evolve and spread out of Africa |
| ca. 250,000–9000 B.C.E. |
Paleolithic era |
| ca. 250,000 years ago |
Homo sapiens evolve in Africa |
| ca. 30,000–150,000 years ago |
Neanderthals flourish in Europe and western Asia |
| ca. 120,000 years ago |
Homo sapiens migrate out of Africa to Eurasia |
| ca. 50,000 years ago |
Human migration to Australia |
| ca. 20,000–30,000 years ago |
Possible human migration from Asia to the Americas |
| ca. 25,000 B.C.E. |
Earliest evidence of woven cloth and baskets |
| ca. 15,000 B.C.E. |
Earliest evidence of bows and atlatls; humans cross the Bering Strait land bridge to the Americas |
| ca. 15,000– 10,000 B.C.E. |
Final retreat of glaciers; megafaunal extinctions |
| ca. 9000 B.C.E. |
Beginning of the Neolithic; horticulture; domestication of sheep and goats |
|
ca. 7000 B.C.E.
|
Domestication of cattle; plow agriculture |
| ca. 5500 B.C.E. |
Smelting of copper |
| ca. 5000 B.C.E. |
Invention of pottery wheel |
| ca. 3200 B.C.E. |
Earliest known invention of writing |
| ca. 3000 B.C.E. |
Development of wheeled transport; beginning of bronze technology |
| ca. 2500 B.C.E. |
Bronze technology becomes common in many areas; beginning of the Bronze Age |