a chronology of historic events for homo sapiens sapiens

76,000 BC

Beads made from the shells of a tiny estuary mollusc Nassarius kraussianus, are found 20 kilometres away at the Blombos cave, 300 kilometres east of Cape Town in South Africa. Along with thousands of pieces of ochre, a coloured clay in a range of shades of colours from red to black, used for decorating and maybe curing hides, and cosmetic purposes, these shells were part of an extensive local trade in goods covering at least 30 km.

72,000 BC

Massive super volcano eruption of Toba, North Sumatra. Resulting in severe global cooling and massive loss of life. Confirmed by what is termed a genetic bottleneck. A few thousand human survivors. At this time Sapiens Sapiens is thought to have begun the move out of Africa. Yellowstone Park is current potential site for a super volcano eruption.

72,000 BC

Research conducted on the evolution of body lice from head lice, using the molecular clock method, has suggested an origin for clothing in Africa around this date. The Toba super volcano eruption would have ejected massive quantities of volcanic dust into the atmosphere resulting in dramatic global cooling, giving humans in Africa good reason to make clothes to keep warm.

62,000 BC

First sign of Sapiens Sapiens (modern man) buried with respect, in modern manner with red ochre, near Lake Mungo, Australia. Evidence suggests similar limited migrations reached the America's from West Africa.

57,500 BC

North Atlantic Ash Zone 2. Major volcanic activity on the Mid Atlantic Ridge in the region of Iceland.

50,000 BC

Next oldest discovery of Sapiens Sapiens, a child burial in Upper Egypt. Ethiopia key area for man.

50,000 BC

Genetic analysis of the male Y chromosome of all people living on the planet, suggest a common male sapiens sapiens ancestor at this date.

45,000 BC

Ochre pencils, carved bone objects, beads made from ostrich egg shells, were found with stone tools at a site in the Loiyangalani river valley in Tanzania, making them at least 45,000 BC, and probably much older.

42,000 BC

Signs of mining, field systems and farming on the Vaal River, South Africa. Production of intricately carved bone and stone tools and other artefacts, such as fish hooks, axes, beads, figurines and cave paintings from sites in Eurasia, which post date evidence of earlier comparable skills in Africa.

42,000 BC to 16,000 BC

Signs of a dramatic rise in the size and quality of Sapiens Sapiens tool kit, great artistic and hunter gatherer skills, together with improved diet. Significant change, after millions of years or negligible progress, with an increase in genetic mutations as modern man enters and establishes himself in Europe.

39,000 BC

Supernova event - arrival of radiation blast - preceded by huge gravity waves, which unsettle the earths crust, causing increase in volcanic activity. At that time, global radiocarbon increased suddenly to delta 14C = 150 percent, which equals a 250 percent increase in radiocarbon.

31,000 BC

Supernova event - arrival of the supernova shockwave - The delta 14C decreased up until that time, when another sharp increase occurred. The delta 14C shot up by 175 percent

25,000 BC

Sulatrean (Cro-Magnon) peoples on the Eastern Atlantic seaboard sail round the Atlantic both ways in walrus skinned, wooden framed boats, delivering advanced flint working skills to peoples on the Western Atlantic.

24,000 BC to 13,000 BC

Climatic desiccation of Australia, Sahara and other parts of the world, with water locked up in the ice of the Ice Age. Sea levels some 450 feet below current levels, but larger vertical crustal movements.

20,000 BC

Wild barley and other grass seeds were being milled for bread by the Sea of Galilee in Israel.

19,000 BC

This date is given to what is termed the Ice Age Maximum, with few humans north of Southern France.

18,000 BC

First signs of Goats domesticated in North Africa. Areas suitable for man far more limited than today

14,000 to 10,500 BC

Supernova event - arrival of the debris cloud - Radiocarbon again decreased to near normal levels up until that time, when a third sharp increase occurred.

10,860 BC and 10,740 BC

Two dramatic rises in temperature, following major debris impacts. Mass extinctions, worst for 3.5 million years, followed by a plunge in temperatures. World wide geological ash zone 15 - 35mm in depth, making barrier between Clovis and Fulsom peoples in North America. - Tectonic uplift and great floods causing Lake Victoria to discharge into the Nile. This led to a massive extension of the high level lakes and a surplus of water into the semi arid Sahel, and the Sahara region. It is suggested that the Earth's atmosphere and that of Mars was severely damaged and depleted by impacts from this debris cloud around this time.

13,000 BC to 12,000 BC

Farming at four Isnan sites at Naquada, Dishna and at Tushka, 125 miles up river from Aswan in Egypt. Thrived for 1,000 years and then suddenly disappeared - no evidence of domesticated seeds.

12,600 BC to 10,800 BC

Bolling or Allerod warming event, confirmed by maximum extent of glaciers when ice retreats and ice melt discharges start. Termed Windermere Interstadial, as warm as today, till intense heat events.

12,000 BC

Prior to this date the whole of the northern littoral of the Mediterranean Sea appears to have been occupied by herb dominated steppe. The only area where evergreen oak, pistachio, olive and wild wheat's and barley's survived together, was Southern Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan. A key glacial refuge for important plants.

11,000 BC

Wild rye seeds selected and propagated for cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates in Syria.

10,700 BC to 9,600 BC

Termed Allerod or Younger Dryas, there was a dramatic fall in temperature to a level as cold as the Ice Age minimum. Rise in sea levels temporally reversed, with water locked up in ice caps and glaziers.

10,000 BC

First signs of cultivation began in the eastern Mediterranean region, at the end of the last ice age. Durable stone houses at Wadi Hammeh 27 Natufian site. The mass extinctions of a wide range of species, and dramatic changes in climate, presented hostile conditions under which surviving humans were forced to turn to all possible means of providing and storing food for their families.

9,250 BC

Current suggested first date for Kharsag (The Sumerian head enclosure or Eden) in Southern Lebanon.

9,200 BC

Domesticated fig, quite different to wild varieties, 10 miles north of Jericho, south of Mount Hermon.

9,000 BC

Jericho, oldest town, quality stone and construction work. Warm climate below sea level in rift valley.

9,000 BC

Göbekli Tepe an early Neolithic site in south eastern Turkey. The houses are round megalithic buildings. The walls are made of un-worked dry stone and include numerous T-shaped monolithic roof supports of limestone, that are up to 3 m high, together with a bigger pair of pillars in the centre of the structures. The floors are made of burnt lime, and there is a low bench running along the whole of the exterior wall. The immensely strong structures were built into the hillside, providing the cometary debris blast protection, typical of such structures built for several thousand years round the world. Similar defensive structures existed at Jerf al Ahmar and Noavoli Cori. No traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found at these sites The inhabitants were hunter gatherers.

9,000 to 7,500 BC

The first signs of sophisticated humans and the domestication of plants and animals being dispersed into new areas of the Fertile Crescent. This included the range of founder crops, and the introduction into Cyprus of domesticated Mesopotamian fallow deer, with sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. Hunter gatherers change to farmers, at some sites such as Mureybet, in less than 100 years.

9,000 tto 8,000 BC

First signs of farming and domestication of wild plants such as squash on the tropical coast of Ecuador and rice along the marshy banks of the Yangtze in China.

8,900 BC to 7,500 BC

The first signs of sophisticated and domesticated plants and animals being dispersed into new areas of the Fertile Crescent. This included the range of founder crops, and the introduction into Cyprus of the domesticated Mesopotamian fallow deer, with sheep, goats and cattle.

8,500 BC

Advance of woodland vegetation in Eastern Turkey and Western Iran, not completed until 3,500 BC.

8,500 BC to 5,000 BC

A range of sophisticated technologies appear. At Jericho, Catul Huyuk and Sabi-Abyad (30 acres) craftsmanship skills are demonstrated both in creating objects and structures and in the careful selection of materials. Polished obsidian, copper smelting, metal working, electro plating and the superb quality Halaf ceramics.

8,300 BC

Occupation of Tell Qarqur on the Orontes river at the northern edge of the Ghab Valley in NW Syria.

8,200, 5,400 and 2,000 BC

Catastrophic and sudden droughts leading to the rapid drying up of many of Africa's lakes, leaving layers of dead fish in the sediments. Evidence of sudden global catastrophic events effecting climate.

7,000 BC

A mixed fermented wine of rice, honey and fruit was being drunk in Northern China.

7,000 BC

Oldest dated remains on the 13-hectacre Catalhoyuk site in Southern Turkey, containing hundreds of buildings packed tightly together with common walls, and with entrances through the roofs. British archaeologist James Mellaart, then at the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara, estimated that it was home for 10,000 people. Christian O'Brien identified fruit fly chromosomes drawn on the walls of one of the key buildings. Catalhoyuk is not a one off, similar Stone Age towns or cities, such as Mureybet in Syria, started to turn up all over the eastern Mediterranean. The manner in which these very early permanent habitation structures are clustered together in egg box fashion suggests that they would have provided greater protection from blasts associated with known episodic cometary debris entering the earths atmosphere. Similar design for superb megalithic structures in Malta 4,500 BC.

7,000 BC

High and wild stage of the Nile peaks through the reduction of rainfall at the two key river sources.

6,000 BC

Strikingly large houses uncovered during excavations at Tell el-Oueili a few kilometres east of Uruk. Occupation of a well planned 20ha Neolithic village at Sha'ar Hagolan, with paved streets, monumental courtyard size houses, sophisticated social organisation and one of the richest collections of pre-historic art ever found.

5,500 BC

Copper mining/trade at Gaza - Later early Egyptian Dynasty's require payment for Sinai copper in gold.

4,500 BC

Pulse of trading emanating from southern Mesopotamia. Southern pottery and other artefacts suddenly show up all over the region, as far a field as the Mediterranean and the Arabian peninsular.

4,500 BC to 3,250 BC

Recalibrated dates for the city of Uruk, which by 3,500 BC had grown into a true city, covering 2.5 square kilometres and housing a population estimated at 50,000. The five miles of city walls were said to have enclosed areas of one third housing, one third orchards, and one third clay pits. World trade and shipping, together with superb social organization and administration. Schools taught not only language and writing, but also sciences of the day, botany, zoology, geography and mathematics. Literary works of the past were studied and copied.

4,000 BC

Highest water level at Lake Chad. Central Sahara blooms from the Nile to the Atlantic.

4,000 BC (pre)

The remains of a spectacularly large building, with walls a metre and a half thick and a huge doorway opening out into a courtyard, was uncovered at the lower levels of Tell Brak, ancient regional Akkadian capital city of Nagar, in northern Mesopotamia, gateway to Anatolia.

3,700 BC

At Tell Hamoukar occupation mound in eastern Syria, 8 kilometres from the Iraqi border, archaeologist McGuire Gibson identified a town of 12 hectares enclosed by a defensive city wall. Inside the wall are remains of a large building containing a series of large mud brick ovens indicating that food was prepared on an industrial scale.

4,000 BC to 2,000 BC

Climatic desiccation creates the modern Sahara, Arabian and Thar (Indus area) deserts. People move into the Nile Valley from the early settlements west of the Nile. At this time Mesopotamia dries out, with monsoon rains moving south. Pressures on successful farming and by increasing populations, lead to major social unrest, and forced migrations to more favorable areas.

2,750 BC

Aryan Bak Sing tribes migrate from Sumer to Northern India and to China down the silk road. They also diffuse to other parts of the world setting up new civilizations, or improving old ones in Europe and the Americas.

2,700 BC

Iron Smelting at KenanTepe, Eastern Turkey.

2,350 BC

Well researched and documented evidence of the final collapse of the great Bronze Age Civilizations, due to massive global cometary debris explosions, specifically affecting the area from the Mediterranean to India, leading to global changes in climate, and further desiccation of the main deserts. Sumer as a political entity ceases to exist.