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Prehistory

EPOCH ONE OF SIX · 2.6 MILLION YEARS AGO – 3000 BCE

The longest chapter of human history: from the first split stone to the first metal. Four stages, in the order the ground holds them.

Nothing here is dated from a written record, because nothing here was written down. Every boundary between these four stages — and every date attached to them — comes from stone, bone, pollen and the layers of the ground itself, and shifts a little every time a new site is dug.

Palaeolithic 2.6 Mya – 10 000 BCE Read Mesolithic 10 000 – 6000 BCE Read Neolithic 6000 – 4500 BCE Read Chalcolithic / Copper Age 4500 – 3000 BCE Soon