How these dates were made
Why this bar's edges are floors, not a founding and a fall.
The atlas draws the world at 10 moments in time, not continuously. This bar runs from the first snapshot in which Lunda appears to the last, so both edges are floors — the earliest and latest years it is attested, not a founding and a dissolution.
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
Robben Island
1658 CE – still standingPolity · Africa
Algeria
Founded 1900 CE · attested to 2026 CEConflict · Africa
Kanem–Bornu Wars
700 CE – 1846 CETrade route · Africa
Atlantic Middle Passage
1600 CE – 1850 CELandmark · Africa
Sofala
900 CE – 1600 CEPolity · Africa
Angola
Attested 1815 CE – 2026 CEConflict · Africa
Great Zimbabwe & Mutapa Wars
1100 CE – 1629 CELandmark · Africa
Gedi Ruins
1100 CE – 1600 CEDated moments inside this span
Events the timeline places between 1530 CE and 1900 CE.
And in the rest of the world
Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.
Image credits5 pictures from Wikimedia Commons
- Robben IslandSouth African Tourism from South Africa · CC BY 2.0
- Flag of AlgeriaOriginal: National Liberation Front of Algeria Vector: SKopp · Public domain
- SofalaMallet · Public domain
- Flag of AngolaOriginal: Henrique de Carvalho Santos Vector: SKopp · Public domain
- Ruins of GediMgiganteus · CC BY-SA 3.0