Table Of ContentRODNEY CAS
THE CON
VIM
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
WORLD
HISTORY
EVERY MAJOR EVENT
FROM 38000 BC TO
THE PRESENT DAY
OUTSTANDING VALUE!
•PARR AGON*
.
WORLD HISTORY
To Jeffrey Davis
for support and encouragement
WORLD HISTORY
Chronological Dictionary of Dates
Rodney Castleden
P
PARR AGON
This edition published and distributed by
Parragon Book Service Ltd in 1995
Unit 13-17 Avonbridge Trading Estate
Adantic Road
Avonmouth
Bristol BS11 9QD
© 1994 Parragon Book Service Ltd
Produced by Magpie Books an imprint of
Robinson Publishing Ltd, London 1995, reprinted 1996
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall
not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired
out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior
consent in any form of binding or cover other than that
in which it is published and without similar condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
ISBN 0 75251 320 6
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication
Data is available from the British Library.
Printed in Great Britain.
PREFACE
The aim of this reference book is to provide as continuous and
detailed a narrative of the story of the human race as we can fit
into a small book. The human race has existed for 2 million
years, and we get occasional glimpses of earlier hominid ances¬
tors as far back as 3 and 4 millions years ago. However, the early
evidence is very patchy and cannot yet be assembled into a
continuous scenario with any reliability. This argues for a
relatively late start. It is also clear that the modem human race
- the one to which we all belong - came into being very suddenly
40,000 years ago. It was then that rapid cultural advances started
to happen: people started making new kinds of tools and
adopting new styles of living that included trade, ceremonial
burials and more ambitious and prolific artwork. By 35,000 BC
we even see hints at territorial conquest. We see all the signs and
characteristics of the human race that we belong to - uniquely
restless, enquiring, resourceful, inventive and adventurous.
This book is very much an outline of human history and
prehistory: it has not been possible to include everything that has
happened. For instance, it would have cluttered the text too
much to put in the births and deaths of all prominent people, so I
have included a sample, mainly to give an idea of time scale and
period flavour. It is difficult to strike the right balance between
covering the multitude of events happening all over the world at
any moment, which might be complete but confusing, and
giving a continuous narrative. I have tried to resolve the
problem by following, for the later periods especially, a limited
number of themes and narrative threads. Whether this succeeds
is for the reader to judge, but I hope that what emerges is a vivid
and kaleidoscopic picture of the human story as an extraordinary
web of interactions among individuals, groups and nations, and
between people and their environment - sometimes with all-too-
predictable sometimes with quite unpredictable outcomes. I
hope it will help the reader towards an awareness of his or
her own place in the human story, and towards a perception of
the present that we currently share not as a climax but as a
passing note in an endlessly complicated symphony.
The pre-classical period, that is, from 38,000 BC to around
750 BC, can be dated thanks to refinements in the radiocarbon
Preface
dating method. With corrected or ‘calibrated* dates adjusted
using calibration tables devised during the last five years it is
possible to achieve an accuracy of within 100 years for dates as
old as 2,000 BC. The reader should bear in mind that the older
the date is, the wider the margin of error. From around 3,000 BC
in Egypt and the Middle East and 750 BC in Europe greater
accuracy is possible because dated documents exist. Even so,
there are inconsistencies among the source documents and
sometimes dates given in chronicles for the period AD 400-
1000 contradict one another. Sometimes they conflict with
radiocarbon dates - a useful check on the reliability of ancient
historians! I have tried to resolve these inconsistencies to the best
of my ability, always opting for the dates favoured by recent
scholarship.
Rodney Castleden
KEY TO ICONS
^ Architecture: the year given is the year of design, unless
otherwise stated
Art: the year given is the year of public exhibition
QJ Literature: the year given is the year when published,
unless otherwise stated
^ Music: the year given is the year of first performance, unless
otherwise stated
1 28,500 BC
BC
38,000 Homo sapiens emerges in Africa and the Middle East as a
new human species with less physical power but a larger
brain capacity than Neanderthal man. Homo sapiens
advances rapidly at the expense of rivals. People colo¬
nize Australia and North America, probably for the first
time.
37,000 In Eurasia a warm interlude or interstadial (the Hengelo)
begins.
36,000 People living on Mount Carmel (in the Skhul Cave) are
of transitional type, not pure Neanderthal, implying that
‘modern’ man may be a mutant type, a rapidly evolving
form.
35,000 The Hengelo interstadial ends. During the much colder
period that follows in Eurasia, Homo sapiens becomes the
dominant species on Earth. These ‘Advanced Hunters’
dispossess the Neanderthalers of their hunting grounds.
Descendants of the Neanderthalers are, nevertheless, to
survive in refuges in outlying regions, such as Java and
parts of Africa.
34,000 The Aurignacian culture appears.
32,000 Advanced Hunters reach Syria. At Lake Mungo (Aus¬
tralia), colonists feed on fish and shellfish from a series of
lakes; they cook on hearths and in a clay oven.
30,000 The Dyuktai culture appears in Siberia, producing stone
tools similar to those of later North American peoples,
suggesting that the peoples of the two areas are linked.
The Denekamp interstadial, another warm phase, starts
now. The milder climate may haved encouraged people
to colonize Siberia, later enticing them out onto the land
bridge connecting Siberia with Alaska. Advanced Hun¬
ters reach Italy, Spain, Portugal, North Africa. At Cueva
Morin (Spain) two graves are covered with mounds; the
body in one has had its head and feet cut off. An offering
of cooked meat and ochre is deposited in a pit.
& La Ferrassie cave art (France): animals and female
genitals carved or painted on flat limestone plaques
28,500 New Guinea is peopled by colonists arriving from Asia or
Australia.
27,000 The Aurignacian culture dies out in France to be
replaced by the Gravettian culture. People (Homo
25,000 BC 2
sapiens) colonize Japan at about this time, although they
may have arrived via land bridges or ice sheets as long as
5,000 years ago. The Denekamp interstadial ends and the
climate cools dramatically, especially in mid-high lati¬
tudes. Trading in flints begins in Central Europe.
25,000 Advanced Hunters in the Dordogne valley develop
baited toggles that become wedged in a fish’s mouth
when the fishing-line is pulled taut. The first people are
arriving in North America by way of Siberia and the
Bering Strait land bridge. A woman dies at Lake Mungo
(Australia): her skull is identical to that of a modern
aborigine. Hers is the earliest cremation known.
23,000 The dynamic Gravettian culture centres on Central and
Eastern Europe. The Gravettians are great mammoth
hunters, spreading to the west and south to become well
established in Greece and Italy, then penetrating to
southern France, Spain, Portugal and Britain. The
Gravettian thrust to the east reaches the Urals. The
Gravettians produce the first portable art in the world.
At Predmost (Czech Republic) mammoth bones are
collected and carved with geometric patterns; 20 people
are buried in a pit 40 metres/131 feet long, covered with
flat stones and mammoth shoulder blades. It will never
be known what events led up to the mass burial.
20,000 The Solutrean culture appears, producing fine laurel-leaf
stone points for spears (France only). In the rest of Europe,
the Gravettian culture continues. The production of female
figurines implies a fertility cult. People living in the
Franchthi Cave (Greece) hunt wild ass and gather
plants. By this time the southern parts of Australia are
colonized, and there is a settlement at Tiapacoya in Mexico.
Ivory figure of Arctic hunter (Buret’, Siberia)
Kapova Cave paintings of mammoth, horse, rhino¬
ceros (Urals)
Ivory figurine of bird (Mal’ta, Baikal region)
Baked clay figurines (Pavlov, Czech Republic)
Venus of Willendorf (Austria)
Ivory horse, rhinoceros, mammoth (Vogelherd,
Germany)
Paintings of horses; negative silhouettes of hands
(Pech-Merle, France)
