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Vinny Burgoo · CC BY 3.0
Landmark Africa archaeological

Olduvai Gorge

1.8 million years ago

Paleoanthropological site in Tanzania's Great Rift Valley where some of the earliest evidence of human ancestors was found

See the deep-time shelf

Wikipedia

The opening of the article, and a way into the rest of it without leaving the site.

Olduvai Gorge on Wikipedia.

Read the article

1.8 million years ago — older than the timeline's axis, which begins at 9000 BCE. Drawn to the same scale as the rest of the canvas, everything since would be a single pixel, so Olduvai Gorge sits on the deep-time shelf instead.

Who held this ground

Borders from dated snapshots, up to a century apart; precision varies.

Reconstruction

  1. Bantu (3000 BCE–2000 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  2. Khoisan (1500 BCE–700 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  3. Bantu (800 CE–1400 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  4. Bantu peoples (1492 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  5. Bantu (1500 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  6. No border recorded here in this snapshot (1530 CE–1900 CE)
  7. German East Africa (1914 CE) Border precision: Defined
  8. Tanganyika Territory (1920 CE–1960 CE) Border precision: Defined
  9. Tanzania (1994 CE–2026 CE) Border precision: Defined
Border precision
  • Defined
  • Approximate

Elsewhere in Africa at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

Landmark · Africa

Taï National Park

3000 BCE – still standing

Polity · Africa

Algeria

Founded 1900 CE · attested to 2026 CE

Trade route · Africa

Trans-Saharan Western Route

400 CE

Conflict · Africa

Sand War (Algeria–Morocco)

1963 CE

Landmark · Africa

Rwenzori Mountains

3000 BCE – still standing

Polity · Africa

Angola

Attested 1815 CE – 2026 CE

Trade route · Africa

Trans-Saharan Eastern Route

400 CE

Conflict · Africa

Nigerian Civil War (Biafra)

1967 CE – 1970 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 1800000 BCE and 2026 CE.

8000 BCE Tassili n'Ajjer 3000 BCE Laas Geel 2000 BCE Kondoa Rock Art 1400 BCE Thimlich Ohinga 1000 BCE Leptis Magna 1000 BCE Nok

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Grand Canyon Landmark · Americas 3000 BCE – still standing Tibet Polity · South Asia 1000 CE – 1960 CE World War I Conflict · Europe 1914 CE – 1918 CE Nile River Trade Trade route · Middle East 3000 BCE – 30 BCE Sargon of Akkad Figure · Mesopotamia 2334 BCE – 2279 BCE Great Barrier Reef Landmark · Oceania 3000 BCE – still standing
Image credits 5 pictures from Wikimedia Commons