Time line of prehistoric inventions

Time line of human evolution and prehistoric inventions

from http://www.eupedia.com (http://www.eupedia.com/europe/timeline_human_evolution.shtml, accessed 03 March 2016)

Australopithecus made stone tools at least 2.6 million years ago in Ethiopia (source). Modern and ancient chimps have been known to make and use stone tools for multiple purposes too (source), so the use of tools may date from well before the split between the two species some 6 million years ago.

[repetitive clang of stones]

The earliest evidence of religion come in the form of totemism or animal worship (like bear cult) practised by Neanderthals, some time between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago.

[ritual, trance, interconnectedness]

The first signs of jewellery appear circa 100,000-years ago in the form of shell beads recovered in Israel and Algeria (source). More elaborate jewellery dating from 75,000 years ago has also been found at the Blombos Cave in South Africa (source).

[dance, gait, subdivision, timbre]

Neanderthals made string/rope at least 90,000 years ago in France (source).

[tar, harmonics, sympathetic onsets]

The oldest known musical instrument is a flute from Germany dating from 35,000 years ago (source).

[harmonic proportion, physical proportion (spacing of holes), imitate sounds from other protomusical phenomena, such as drum head, bird song, difference, breath cycle = phrase?]

Humans started to make ceramic at least 25,000 to 29,000 years ago in Central Europe (source).

The first pottery vessels appear at least 20,000 years ago in Northeast Asia (source).

[resonance, complex spectral patterns, French video on preservation of sonic vibration on turned pottery hoax]

The cultivation of cereals appear to have started at least 12,000 years ago in the Levant (source), and perhaps earlier in Northeast Africa.

[agriculture tied to measurement and calculation, field work rhythms, timing of events in yearly cycle, observation of cycles and patterns, collectives]

Humans started building stone structures, including temples, at Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia about 11,000 years ago (source).

[resonance of acoustic spaces exploited, reflection, reverberation and echo]

Metallurgy may have started in the Balkans with copper working (c. 7500 years ago, source), followed by gold (7000 ybp), bronze (6500 ybp) and silver (6000 ybp).

[gongs, inharmonicity, spectral morphing]

The oldest evidence of writing date from 7300 years ago in central Romania (source) and northern Greece (source).

[identify important elements of language, symbols refer to holistic meaning, not broken into syllables, consonants, vowels, pitch inflection, rhythm...]

The world’s first cities appeared in southern Mesopotamia some 6,500 years ago (source).

[noisy environments preference musical parameters that cut through the din. subtleties of emergent phenomena is masked. collaboration. complex time patterns of social, interaction and cooperation, commerce, trade...]

The first potter’s wheel appears in the Near East between 6,500 and 5,200 years ago, during the Ubaid period (source).

[see resonance of ceramic, etc.]

The earliest evidence of horse domestication, and perhaps also horse riding, dates from 6,000 to 5,500 years ago in the Eurasian Steppe (source).

[intimate and extensive exposure to 4-limbed gaits, polyrhythm, variation, phase]

The world’s oldest known wheel is approximately 5,200 years old and was found in Slovenia (source).

[cycles]

Shoes only show up in the archeological record from 5,500 years ago in Armenia (source). Ötzi the Iceman, the oldest natural human mummy, who died in the Alps 5300 years ago also wore leather shoes.

[timbral variation on unclad feet]