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Age 1 of 6 9000 BCE – 3000 BCE

Prehistory, 9000–3000 BCE

6,000 years · 251 records · 23 dated moments

Six millennia, and almost no bars.

Open the canvas here The atlas at 3000 BCE

The canvas begins here because this is where the atlas begins — and for most of these six thousand years it has almost nothing to draw. What survives is physical: the earliest enclosures, rock art and settlement sites, standing open-ended because nobody knows when they stopped being used. The emptiness is not a gap in this timeline. It is the shape of the record.

The states the atlas drew most often

The polities the canvas draws first in this age, when it has room for only a few.

All 29 polities

Middle East

Egypt

Attested 3000 BCE – 2026 CE

South Asia

Dravidians

Attested 3000 BCE – 700 BCE

Oceania

Austronesians

Attested 3000 BCE – 400 BCE

East Asia

Ainu

Attested 3000 BCE – 1700 CE

Europe

city-states

Attested 3000 BCE – 2000 BCE

Africa

Khoisan

Attested 3000 BCE – 2000 BCE

South Asia

Indus valley civilization

3000 BCE – 1799 BCE

Europe

Hurrian Kingdoms

Attested 3000 BCE – 2000 BCE

Best-evidenced conflicts

Ranked the way the war lane ranks them: the ones the canvas draws first.

All 1 conflicts

Middle East

Unification of Egypt

3100 BCE – 2950 BCE

Egyptian unification was a gradual process associated with Narmer and the First Dynasty, not a single securely documented conquest.

Still standing, and who was alive

Landmarks standing during this age, and people who lived in it.

All 219 landmarks

Landmark · Americas

Grand Canyon

3000 BCE – still standing

Immense gorge carved by the Colorado River over millions of years

Landmark · Oceania

Great Barrier Reef

3000 BCE – still standing

World's largest coral reef system, visible from space

Landmark · Europe

Plitvice Lakes

3000 BCE – still standing

Cascading chain of sixteen turquoise lakes connected by waterfalls in the Croatian highlands

Landmark · Europe

Giant's Causeway

3000 BCE – still standing

40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by ancient volcanic eruptions on the Northern Irish coast

Dated moments

16 of 23, spread evenly across the age.

All 23 dated moments
9000 BCE Quebrada de Humahuaca Americas 9000 BCE Ischigualasto (Valley of the Moon) Americas 8000 BCE Kuk Early Agricultural Site Oceania 8000 BCE Tassili n'Ajjer Africa 7300 BCE Cueva de las Manos Americas 6600 BCE Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Oceania 5000 BCE Chinchorro Mummy Sites Americas 5000 BCE Abydos Middle East 3700 BCE Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Americas 3600 BCE Tarxien Temples Europe 3600 BCE Ban Chiang East Asia 3300 BCE Carnac Stones Europe 3200 BCE Ancient Thebes Middle East 3180 BCE Skara Brae Europe 3100 BCE Early Sumerian City-State Wars Middle East 3100 BCE Memphis Middle East
Image credits11 pictures from Wikimedia Commons