THE HOLOCENE EPOCH

TIMELINE OF EARTH & HUMAN HISTORY

11,000–10,000 BCE:

• Clovis Comet Theory proposed by Richard Firestone et al. now under investigation. Multiple cometary fragments exploded over glaciated area of North America near modern-day Great Lakes; cause of disappearance of the Clovis Culture paleo-Indians in North America.
• Global extinction of megafauna, from the mammoths of Siberia to the giant rhinoceros of Europe; to the American camels, saber-tooth cats, giant beaver ground sloth, etc. Seen is a surprising event of uncontrolled violence. [i]
• Homofloresiensis, the human’s last known surviving close relative becomes extinct in Indonesia.
• Sea levels rise abruptly and massive inland flooding occurs due to glacier melt.
• Land bridge from Siberia to North America disappears as sea level rises.

c. 10,500–3500 BCE:

Earliest Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian sites, “Clovis Culture,” characterized by a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence strategy to the establishment of agriculture and other practices (e.g. pottery, permanent settlements) and techniques characteristic of proto-civilizations. These more southerly paleo-Indians survive the Polar disaster and go onto populate Central and South America.

8000–1800 BCE:

Archaic Period in Mesoamerica, characterized by incipient agriculture, cultivation and domestication of crops. Permanent villages established. Late in this era, use of pottery and loom weaving becomes common.

c. 6000 BCE:

• Climatic or Thermal Maximum, the warmest period in 125,000 years, with minimal glaciation and highest sea levels. (McEvedy)
• Rising sea levels form the Torres Strait, separate Australia from New Guinea.
• Increasing desiccation of the Sahara. End of the Saharan Pluvial period.
• Rising sea levels form the Irish Sea, separating the island of Ireland from the British Isles and Continental Europe.

c. 5600 BCE:

Black Sea deluge theory: evidence of a massive flood through the Bosphorus Straits. In less than one year, the event flooded 60,000 square miles of land and significantly expanded the Black Sea shoreline to the north and west. The hypothesis remains an active subject of debate.

c. 5000 BCE:

Use of a sail begins. The first known picture is on an Egyptian urn found in Luxor.

4000 BCE:

The city-states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt are established and grow to prominence. Agriculture spreads widely across Eurasia. Development of “proto-cuneiform” writing; base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, potter’s wheel and wheel. World population in the course of the millennium doubles, approximately from 7 to 14 million people.

3500–1800 BCE:

Late Archaic period in Mesoamerican civilization.

3300–2900 BCE::

Construction of the Newgrange solar observatory/passage tomb in Ireland.

c. 3300 BCE:

Ötzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy.

3195 BCE:

“Tree Ring Event,” resulting from eco-disaster, per dendrochronologist, Mike Baillie; dating by means of tree-rings and Greenland ice cores. Data is suggestive of major volcanism or bolide (asteroid or comet) impact.

3123 BCE:

The Köfels Impact Event: The valley of Ötztal, in Austrian Alps was hit by a small asteroid, creating a landslide three miles long and a quarter-mile wide, with a determined volume of the rockslide mass set at 3.28 km cubed. A record of the observation of this event was carved into a Sumerian clay tablet known as “the Planisphere,” which roughly dates to 700 BCE, (No. K8538, British Museum). A new study at the University of Bristol in 2007–8 indicates it may have been a replica of an earlier tablet recording an astronomical observation of the fall of an asteroid. Although much of the tablet records planetary positions, the trajectory of the asteroid was recorded, giving a remarkably accurate path for the asteroid, within 1° in the direction of Köfels. The falling material from the explosion would have been consistent with the rain of “fire and brimstone” upon the cities of Sodom and Gommorah, which were located in the Levant near the southern end of the Dead Sea. Geologist, Mark Hempsell said, “It is probable more people died under the plume than in the Alps due to the impact blast.” [ii]

3114 BCE:

Start date of a 13-b’ak’tun epoch of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar (correlated to Gregorian calendar), used by the ancient Maya civilization.

3102 BCE:

Beginning of the Kali Yuga era, as correlated to Gregorian calendar. Date may commemorate the “flood of Manu” in Puranas. [iii]

c. 3100 BCE:

• The Indus Valley civilization constructs the first advanced system of drainage.
• Menes unifies Upper and Lower Egypt, and a new capital is erected at Memphis.

c. 3050 BCE:

The beginnings of Iberian civilizations, arrival to the peninsula, dating as far back as 4000 BCE.

c. 3000 BCE:

• Satellite imagery, Master (2001, 2002) suggests the 3.4 km diameter Umm al Binni lake in the Al Amarah region of Iraq may be an impact crater. Master estimates the age of the crater to be 5,000 years. 3,000–5,000 years ago, that region was under the Persian Gulf at a depth of approximately 10 m (Larsen and Evans 1978: 237). The alleged Umm al Binni impact could be responsible for this catastrophe, producing the energy equivalent to thousands of Hiroshima sized bombs. The impact-induced tsunamis would have devastated coastal Sumerian cities. This may provide an alternate origin of the 2.6 m sediment layer discovered during an excavation of the Sumerian city of Ur by Leonard Wooley in 1954. Descriptive passages in the Epic of Gilgamesh may describe such an impact and tsunami, suggesting a link to the Sumerian Deluge (Matthews 2001; Britt 2001).
• Neolithic period ends, Aegean Bronze Age starts, Minoan civilization starts, Troy is founded.
• Stonehenge begins to be built. In its first version, it consists of a circular ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts.
• The Angono Petroglyphs are carved in the Philippines.
• Caral, the first city in the Americas (Peru), starts to be built

2807 BCE:

A very large-scale comet or meteorite impact event in the southern Indian ocean, caused enormous megatsunamis. It is theorized that the legends of the “Great Flood: in the Bible, the Maya Popol Vuh the Hindu Puranic story of Manu, through Deucalion in Greek mythology and the story of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh may be associated with this event, which caused the underwater Burckle crater.

c. 2500 BCE:

Sahara becomes fully desiccated.

2345 BCE:

A “Tree Ring Event” global eco-disaster per leading dendrochronologist, Mike Baillie.

2200 BCE:

• Beginning of a severe centennial-scale drought in Northern Africa, Southwestern Asia and mid-continental North America, which likely caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt as well as the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia.
• The sudden collapse of Sumerian civilization has been linked to a comet or asteroid impact. (Courty 1997, 1998; Peiser 1997; Napier 1997; Bjorkman 1973; Weiss et al 1993; Master 2001, 2002). It has been suggested by Master (2001, 2002); Master and Woldai (2004, 2006); Hamacher (2005, 2007).
• Rapid and massive migrations westward from the Altai Mountains across the Urals into northeastern Europe and eastward into China and southeast Asia.

1900 BCE:

The Akkadian creation myth and version of the Mesopotamian “Great Flood,” Atra-Hasis, with warnings of the consequences of human overpopulation.

1800 BCE:

Preclassic, formative period begins in Mesoamerican civilization. The start of nation-states. The first large-scale ceremonial architecture, development of cities. The development and flourishing of the Olmec civilization at such sites as La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. Early Zapotec, Monte Alto Culture in Guatemala’s Pacific lowlands, and Maya civilization. Important early Maya cities include Nakbe, El Mirador, San Bartolo, Cival and Takalik Abaj.

c. 1700 BCE:

An earthquake damages palaces at Knossos and Phaistos in ancient Crete.

1600 BCE:

Shang Dynasty was founded in China.

1628 BCE:

A “Tree Ring Event” global eco-disaster, per Mike Baillie. The Exodus story — and other related stories in the Bible, such as the collapse of Jericho and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah — were legendary stories of events that occurred around the time of the eruption of Thera which has been fairly securely fixed around 1600 BCE, give or take 50 years. Whatever happened at this period of history, including this monstrous eruption as global in effect as is shown in the tree-ring chronologies … more was going on than just a volcanic eruption. Egyptian records report many strange sky, weather, and plague phenomena. [iv]

1600–1500 BCE:

Interchangeably called the Minoan, Thera or Santorini eruption, was a major catastrophic volcanic eruption, one of the largest volcanic events on Earth in recorded history. The eruption devastated the island of Thera. The eruption may have contributed to the collapse of the Minoan culture. The eruption seems to have inspired certain Greek myths. It has been speculated that the cataclysm provided the basis for or otherwise inspired Plato’s story of Atlantis, as related in his books, Timaeus and Critias.’

1400–400 BCE:

The Olmec flourished during Mesoamerica’s Preclassic, formative period. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed. Having the hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.

1269 BCE:

Ramses II, pharaoh of ancient Egypt, and Hattusilis III, king of the Hittites, sign the earliest known peace treaty.

1235 BCE:

Athens founded.

1206–1150 BCE:

Bronze Age collapse: The cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and Syria, and the Egyptian Empire in Syria and Canaan. Almost every city between Troy and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often left unoccupied thereafter. Robert Drews describes the collapse as “the worst disaster in ancient history, even more calamitous than the collapse of the Western Roman Empire”. A number of people speak of the cultural memories of the disaster as stories of a “lost golden age.”

1200 BCE:

• Beginnings of Judaism.
• Austronesian eoples have migrated from Philippines to Celebes, the Moluccas, northern Borneo and eastern Java in modern-day Indonesia. From Moluccas a group heads west to Madagascar and another heads east into Oceania reaching Melanesia.

1184 BCE:

Fall of Troy.

1159 BCE:

A “Tree Ring Event” global eco-disaster per Mike Baillie. Collapse of Shang and Mycenean cultures. Collapse of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean region. A series of impacts/overhead explosions, would more adequately explain the longstanding problem of the end of the Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 12th century BCE. At that time, many — uncountable — major sites were destroyed and totally burned.

1000 BCE:

• The pre-Classic Maya and Zapotec civilizations rise in Mesoamerica, while ancient Egypt begins its decline. The religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism develop. Graeco-Roman Europe, India and China see the rise of literature. World population greatly increases in the course of the millennium, reaching some 170 to 400 million people at its close, depending on the estimates used.
• The Iron Age spreads to Western Europe.
• Egypt declines as a major power.
• Rise and fall of the Assyrian Kingdom. Ashurbanipal, the literate emperor extends his kingdom.

8th century BCE:

The Shàngshu, or “Classic of History” opening chapters state that Emperor Yao is facing the problem of floodwaters that “reach to the Heavens.” He went on to found the 1st Chinese dynasty.

600 BCE–100 CE:

Pre-Classic Maya settlement of Izapa at its height.

6th century BCE:

• The Roman Republic is established.
• Buddhism was founded by Siddharta Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha.
• Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and created the Persian Empire

5th century BCE:

The Chiemgau impact in Bavaria leaves large debris field and forms Lake Tüttensee. The 1.1-kilometer diameter rock smashed into the ground with a force equivalent to 8,500 Hiroshima bombs. Potential association with the Pha√´ton comet of Greek and Roman legend.

c. 500 BCE–200 CE:

Maya pre-Classic city-states at El Mirador and Nakbe flourish and are abandoned simultaneously.

539–334 BCE:

Estimated completion of the Torah and original Hebrew version of the Book of Genesis, which includes the “Great Flood” myth of Noah’s Ark.

4th century BCE:

• Alexander the Great conquers the Persian Empire. The zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world.
• Chandragupta Maurya founds the Mauryan Empire in India.

3rd century BCE:

• China was unified under the Qin Dynasty.
• Celts invaded Western Europe.
• Rome and Carthage fought the Punic wars.
• Rome invaded Ancient Greece.

250 BCE:

Ashoka introduces animal welfare legislation in India.

208 BCE:

A “Tree Ring Event” global eco-disaster per Mike Baillie. Possible fine-tuning of >Chiemgau or subsequent impact date to around 200 BCE, due to tree-ring evidence from preserved Irish oaks, which show a slowing in growth around 207 BCE. This may have been caused by a veil of dust kicked up the impact, which filtered out sunlight‚ Roman authors at about the same time wrote about showers of stones falling from the skies and terrifying the populace. [v]

2nd century BCE:

The apocryphal 1st Book of Enoch adds to the Genesis flood myth by saying that God sent the “Great Flood” to rid the earth of the Nephilim, the titanic children of the Grigori, the “sons of God.” Was included in early versions of the New Testament, but eventually failed to gain admittance to Jewish and Christian canon.

1st millennium:

This era marks the peak of the Roman Empire and its subsequent decline, the transformation of the Eastern Roman Empire into the Byzantine Empire, while the Western Roman Empire collapses, giving rise to the Early Middle Ages. Christianity and Islam rise to power in the 4th and 7th centuries, respectively. World population, which had tripled over the preceding millennium, grew more slowly during the thousand-year era and could well have diminished. Some estimates vary suggesting world population declined from 400 million people to 250 million people.

100–400 CE:

The decline of Roman Empire may have been partly due to lead poisoning, according to modern historian and toxicologist Jerome Nriagu. Romans used lead acetate (”sugar of lead”) to sweeten old wine and turn grape pulp into a sweet condiment. An aristocrat with a sweet tooth might have eaten as much as a gram of lead a day. Widespread use of this sweetener would have caused gout, sterility, insanity and many of the symptoms, which were present among the Roman aristocrats. High levels of lead have been found in the bones of aristocratic Romans.

44 BCE:

Pliny states, “Portentous and protracted eclipses of the Sun occur, such as the one after the murder of Caesar the dictator…” Yet there were no solar eclipses visible from anywhere in the Roman Empire from February of 48 BCE through December of 41 BCE. There was, however a spectacular daylight comet in 44 BCE, perhaps the most famous comet in antiquity. There are sulfate deposits in the Greenland ice cores for this year and tree ring evidence from North America, where dendrochronology points to a climatic change in the late ’40s BCE. [vi]

c. 1 CE:

Jesus is born.

c. 30 CE:

Beginning of Christianity.

47 CE:

London founded by Romans as Londinium.

48 CE:

The Library of Alexandria, largest library in the world, burned (the first of four possible dates of its final destruction, spanning to the Muslim conquest in 642 CE).

60–70 CE:

The Destruction of Jerusalem. The story Josephus tells of famine, social unrest, institutional deterioration, and the scattering of Judeans throughout Palestine‚ Josephus reports portents, including a “brilliant daylight in the middle of the night” (Josephus, Jewish Wars 6.3). Tacitus reports portents in Book Five of his Histories, “Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city [Jerusalem], and a comet, that continued a whole year…” It very well may be that the eschatological writings in the New Testament, the very formation of the divinity of Jesus was based on cometary events of the time, including a memory of the “Star in the East.” The destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem may very well have been an “act of God,” as reported by Mark in his Gospel. [vii]

79 CE:

Volcanic explosions of Vesuvius in Roman Italy completely bury Herculaneum and most of Pompeii under 60 feet of ash and pumice.

1st century CE:

Diaspora of the Jews.

c. 190–280 CE:

Three Kingdoms period in China.

200–900 CE:

Classic period in Mesoamerican civilization, with the Maya centers of Palenque, Tikal, Coba among many others, with the Teotihuacan in Central Mexico and the Zapotec to the west, at sites as Lambityeco, Dainzu, Mitla, Yagul.

226 CE:

Rise of the Sassanid Empire of Persia.

c. 250–900 CE:

The Classic period, or height of Maya civilization. The greatest time period for the cities of the Maya southern lowlands, such as Tikal, Palenque and Copàn.

280–550 CE:

The height of Hindu culture in India under the Gupta Dynasty.

4th century CE:

The rise of Christianity.

317 CE:

Sirente crater is created by meteoroid impact in central Italy. Dating suggests its formation coincided with the celestial vision said to have converted the future Roman emperor, Constantine, to Christianity.

365 CE

A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Crete, devastated Alexandria. It was more than a 100 ft high when it hit the coast.

c. 370–469 CE:

The Hunnic Empire. The Huns were a confederation of Eurasian tribes, mostly Turkic, from the steppes of Central Asia. Appearing from beyond the Volga River some years after the middle of the 4th century, they first overran the Alani, who occupied the plains between the Volga and the Don rivers, and then quickly overthrew the empire of the Ostrogoths between the Don and the Dniester rivers. About 376 CE they defeated the Visigoths living in what is now Romania and thus arrived at the Danubian frontier of the Roman Empire. Their mass migration into Europe, led by Attila, brought with it great ethnic and political upheaval.

393 CE:

The last Olympic Games of the ancient era is observed in Athens, Greece.

300–600 CE:

Germanic kingdoms are established in Northern and Western Europe.

300–700 CE:

The first “barbarian” invasions of Roman Empire, a.k.a., the migration period or Völkerwanderung.

5th century CE:

The fall of the Western Roman Empire.

400–476 CE:

The sackings of Rome by the Visigoths and the deposing of Romulus Augustus.

476 CE:

I-Hsi and Chin-ling, China: “thundering chariots” “like granite” fell to ground; vegetation was scorched. [viii]

5th–17th century CE:

The “Dark Ages” is a term in historiography referring to a period of cultural decline or societal collapse that took place in Western Europe between the Fall of Rome and the eventual recovery of learning. The dating of the Dark Ages has always been fluid, but the concept was originally intended to denote the entire period between the fall of Rome in the 5th century and the “Renaissance” or “rebirth” of classical values in the 14th to 17th centuries.

5th century CE:

• Rise of the Byzantine Empire.
• Rise of the Merovingian dynasty.

526 CE:

The Great Antioch earthquake: “…The surface of the earth boiled and foundations of buildings were struck by thunderbolts thrown up by the earthquakes and were burned to ashes by fire … Antioch became desolate … up to 250,000 people perished. [ix]

c. 536 CE:

Two large impactors, known as Kanmare and Tabban, struck off the northeastern coast of Australia, leaving underwater craters 18 km and 12 km in size respectively, causing megatsunamis, which left behind large chevron formations, followed by a period of global cooling, failed crops, famine then pestilence.

536–545 CE:

Reduced sunlight mists, known as “dry fogs”, crop failures, famines and plagues occur in China and the Mediterranean. Praetorian Prefect Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator wrote a letter documenting the conditions: “All of us are observing, as it were, a blue colored sun; we marvel at bodies which cast no mid-day shadow…” Procopius of Caesarea, a Byzantine, wrote: “… the Sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the Moon, during the whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the Sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed.” John of Ephesus, cleric and a historian, wrote: “The Sun was dark and its darkness lasted for eighteen months … the fruits did not ripen and the wine tasted like sour grapes.”

539 CE:

The Death of King Arthur: This was also the time assigned to the legendary King Arthur, the loss of the Grail, and the manifestation of the “Waste Land.” Although scholars place the historical King Arthur in the fifth century, the date of his death is given as 539 CE. According to Mike Baillie, the imagery from the Arthurian legend is in accordance with the appearance of a comet and subsequent famine and plague: the “Waste Land” of legend … the ancient Cymric [Welsh] empire had … all but disappeared, and were replaced by Anglo-Saxons … Here we must consider that they were victims of possibly many overhead cometary explosions which wiped out most of the population of Europe, plunging it into the Dark Ages which were, apparently, really dark, atmospherically speaking.

536–539 CE:

Out on the Asian steppes, whatever happened in 536 CE caused political upheaval: the horse-based economy of the warlike Avars foundered, and their vassals, the cattle-herding Turks, overthrew them. Driven from the steppes, the Avars joined forces with the Slavs in Hungary on the borders of the Roman Empire. Gildas, who was writing at approximately 540 CE, says that the island of Britain was on fire from sea to sea “…until it had burned almost the whole surface of the island and was licking the western ocean with its fierce red tongue.” In The Life of St. Teilo, who had recently been made Bishop of Llandaf Cathedral in Morganwg, South Wales, it says: “…he could not long remain, on account of the pestilence which nearly destroyed the whole nation. It was called the “Yellow Pestilence,” because it occasioned all persons who were seized by it to be yellow and without blood, and it appeared to men a column of a watery cloud, having one end trailing along the ground, and the other above, proceeding in the air, and passing through the whole country like a shower going through the bottom of valleys. Whatever living creatures it touched with its pestiferous blast, either immediately died, or sickened for death … and so greatly did the aforesaid destruction rage throughout the nation, that it caused the country to be nearly deserted”.

540 CE:

• The Grendel impact, now under investigation, struck off the southwestern coast of Norway, creating an underwater crater 18 km in size, speculated to have caused megatsunamis on the Scottish coast and inland. A “Tree Ring Event” global eco-disaster event occurred according to leading dendrochronologist Mike Baillie.
• In Yemen, the Great Dam of Marib, dating from around the sixth century BCE, one of the engineering wonders of the ancient world and a central part of the south Arabian civilization, broke and began to collapse. By 550 CE, the dam was a complete loss and thousands of people migrated to another oasis on the Arabian peninsula, Medina. The Arab tribes, traumatized by the environmental disasters around them, began to think of conquest for the sake of survival. In 610 CE, a new leader would unify them: Muhammad.
• Although a great many historical changes happened in the seventh century, such as the Roman war with Persia, the rise of Islam, rebellion and civil war in the Roman Empire, and the advance of the Slavs driven by the Avars, it can be said that the seeds of these changes, the destruction of the old that made way for the new, all can be traced to the environmental catastrophe beginning in 536 CE.

541–542 CE:

John of Ephesus documented the progress of this “pestilence” in Constantinople, where city officials gave up trying to count the dead after two hundred thirty thousand: “The city stank with corpses … It might happen that [a person] went out to market to buy necessities and while he was standing and talking or counting his change, suddenly the end would overcome the buyer here and the seller there, the merchandise remaining in the middle with the payment for it, without there being either buyer or seller to pick it up.” [x]

c. 550 CE:

The Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico. They populated central Mexico dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their political influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the complex civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices the foundation for later Aztec culture was laid.

580 CE:

In France a great fireball and blast occurred; Orleans and nearby towns are burned.

588 CE:

On June 25th in China a “red-colored object” fell with “noise like thunder”, it exploded and burned several houses.

616 CE:

On January 14th ten deaths reported in China from a meteorite shower; siege towers are destroyed. [xi]

670 CE:

A “Greek fire” weapon is invented in Constantinople and used to great effect by the Byzantines in battle.

7th century CE:

The beginning of Islam.

630–670 CE:

The Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa.

676 CE:

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne enacts protection legislation for birds on the Farne Islands (Northumberland, UK).

679 CE:

In Coldingham, England a monastery is destroyed by “fire from heaven” as reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

8th century CE:

Viking raids are common in Northern Europe.

c. 750 CE:

The start of the Medieval Warm period.

5th–16th century CE:

The Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the early modern period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christianity in the Reformation, the rise of humanism in the Italian Renaissance, and the beginnings of European overseas expansion.

c. 790–1076 CE:

The rise of the Ghana or Wagadou Empire in Mauritania.

800–900 CE:

The settlement of the Magyars in Hungary.

856 CE:

The Damghan earthquake in Iran kills 200,000 people.

c. 850 CE:

Severe drought exacerbated by soil erosion causes collapse of Central American city states and the end of the Classic Maya civilization.

810 CE:

In Upper Saxony, Charlemagne’s horse is startled by a meteor; it throws him to the ground.

893 CE:

The Ardabil earthquake in Iran kills 150,000 people.

900–1519 CE:

The post-Classic period in Mesoamerican civilization: Collapse of many of the great nations and cities of the Classic period, although some continue, such as in Oaxaca, Cholula, and the Maya of the Yucatán, such as at Chichen Itza and Uxmal. This is sometimes seen as a period of increased chaos and warfare. The Toltec for a time dominate Central Mexico from the 11th to 13th centuries, then collapse. The northern Maya are for a time united under Mayapan. The Aztec Empire rises in the early 15th century and seems on the path to asserting a dominance over the whole region not seen since Teotihuacan, until Mesoamerica is discovered by Spain and conquered by the conquistadores and a large number of native allies.

1010–1200 CE:

The height of Tamil civilization under the Cholas. The Indian colonization of southeast Asia occurs.

1138 CE:

The Aleppo earthquake in Syria kills 230,000 people.

1206–1368 CE:

The Mongol Empire was the largest empire in history. It emerged from the unification of Mongol and Turkic tribes in modern-day Mongolia, and grew through invasions, after Genghis Khan had been proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206 CE. At its greatest extent it stretched from the Danube to the Sea of Japan and from Novgorod to Kampuchea, covering over 33,000,000 sq. km (12,741,000 sq. mi.) — 22 percent of the Earth’s total land area — and held sway over a population of over 100 million people. The empire immediately began to split following the Succession War of 1260–1264.

c. 1250 CE:

The start of the Little Ice Age.

1290 CE:

The Chihli earthquake in China kills 100,000 people.

1293 CE:

The Kamakura earthquake in Japan kills 23,000 people.

1315–1317 CE:

The “Great Famine” affects Northern Europe. The average human life expectancy goes from 30 to 17.

1321–1368 CE:

In the O-Chia district, China “iron rain” kills people, animals and damages homes.

1347–1348 CE:

The “Black Death” killed about half the population of Western Europe. The effects of this event were possibly global though the number of deaths worldwide is unknown. Bubonic plague decimates Europe, creating the first attempts to enforce public health and quarantine laws.

1348 CE:

A January 25th earthquake in Carinthia (Austria) leaves 16 cities destroyed — “fire fell from heaven” — and over 40,000 dead.

1369 CE:

In Ho-T’ao, China a “large star” fell, starts fire and injures soldiers.

c. 1440 CE:

A large impactor, Mahuika, off the coast of New Zealand, leaves a underwater crater 20 km wide and causes megatsunamis. The local Maoris move inland.

1490 CE:

On February 3rd in Ch’ing-Yang, Shaanxi, China “stones fell like rain” — more than 10,000 killed.

1492 CE:

In Ensisheim, Alsace a 280-pound meteorite landed; in the same year Columbus reported “a marvelous branch of fire” that fell into the sea as he crossed the Atlantic. [xii]

1498 CE:

The Meiö Nankai earthquake in Japan kills 40,000 people.

1519 CE:

On March 4th Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico. The deity, Quetzalcoatl, had promised to return this year.

1516 CE:

In Nantan, China “during summertime in May of Jiajing 11th year, stars fell from the northwest direction, five to sixfold long, waving like snakes and dragons. They were as bright as lightning and disappeared in seconds.” Many of them were recovered in 1958 by local farmers when China needed steel for the “Great Leap Forward” advocated by Mao Zedong. They have coarse octahedral structure and contain 92.35 percent iron and 6.96 percent nickel, belonging to IIICD meteorite classification (Wasson et. al 1980s). Most Nantan meteorites weight from 150 to 1500 kg. [xiii]

1556 CE:

The Shaanxi earthquake kills 830,000 people.

1560–1600 CE:

Rapid industrialization in England leads to heavy deforestation and increasing substitution of coal for wood.

1586 CE:

The Mount Kelut eruption in Indonesia killed 10,000 people locally. It has erupted 30 times since 1000 CE and continues to be active, killing 5,000 with boiling mudflows in 1919, an eruption in 1990 which killed another 30 people and another again in 2007, which caused the evacuation of 30,000 residents.

c. 1600 CE:

The elephant bird, a giant flightless bird of Madagascar, becomes extinct. Known as Aepyornis, it was the world’s largest bird, believed to have been over 3 meters (10 ft) tall and weighing close to half a ton or 400 kilograms (880 lb). Remains of Aepyornis adults and eggs have been found, with a circumference of over 1 meter (3 ft) and a length up to 34 centimeters (13 in).

1600 CE:

The Huaynaputina volcano eruptions in Peru destroyed several villages and damaged major cities, Arequipa and Moquegua, killing untold thousands locally, as the largest volcano eruption in South America in historic times. The global climactic effects were even more dire, with 1601 CE being the coldest year in six centuries and a crop failure and famine in Russia killing 2 million people.

1627 CE:

The last known Auroch dies. This large wild cattle was indigenous to much of Europe.

1630–1631 CE:

A “second sun” was seen on and around May 29, 1630, and on May 20, 1631, one year later, Magdeburg fell during a bombing siege, in which 20,000 of the citizens perished in the massive fires. Apparently, the siege of the city was topped off by a cataclysmic meteor impact event.

1634 CE:

New England has a population of 10,000 English Puritans.

1639 CE:

In China a large stone fell in a market: tens were killed and tens of houses destroyed.

1654 CE:

In Milano, Italy a monk reported killed by meteorite.

1661 CE:

On August 9th in China a meteorite smashes through a roof but causes no injuries. [xiv]

1662 CE:

The last known Mauritius dodo dies. The extinction was due to hunting, but also by the pigs, rats, dogs and cats brought to the island by settlers. Later the species has become an icon on animal extinction.

1667 CE:

The Shamkhi earthquake in Azerbaijan kills 80,000 people.

1690 CE:

American Colonial Governor William Penn requires Pennsylvania settlers to preserve 1 acre (4,840 sq. yd.) of trees for every five acres cleared.

1693 CE:

An earthquake in Sicily kills 60,000 people.

1700 CE:

Some 600 ships are engaged in hauling “sea coal” from Newcastle to London, an enormous increase compared to 1650 CE, when only two ships regularly carried sea coal. Rapid industrialization and the demand for iron and naval supplies has stripped England’s forests.

1703 CE:

The Genroku earthquake in Japan kills 37,000 people.

1707 CE:

The Great Höei earthquake kills 30,000 people.

1711 CE:

Jonathan Swift notes the contents of London’s gutters: “sweepings from butchers’ stalls, dung, guts and blood, drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud…”

1720 CE:

In India, hundreds of Bishnois Hindus of Khejadali go to their deaths trying to protect trees from the Maharaja of Jodhpur, who needed wood to fuel the lime kilns for cement to build his palace. This event has been considered as the origins of the 20th century Chipko movement.

1727 CE:

The Tabriz earthquake in Iran kills 77,000 people.

1730 CE:

THe Hokkaidö earthquake in Japan kills 137,000 people.

1755 CE:

The Lisbon earthquake kills 100,000 people.

1776 CE:

June 12–27, 1776: Thomas Jefferson, at the request of a committee, drafts a declaration of independence. Only a fragment of his original draft exists today.

1783 CE:

The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris which recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.

1783 CE:

The Calabria earthquake in Italy kills 50,000 people.

1783 CE:

The Laki volcano killed 9,350 or 25 percent of Iceland’s population (another 33 percent had previously been killed due to smallpox). A thick haze of sulfur dioxide spread across Western Europe, resulting in several thousands of deaths between 1792–1793 CE. Inhaling sulfur dioxide gas causes victims to choke, as their internal organs swell. In Great Britain, alone it has been estimated that 23,000 died from this poisoning. The disruption led to a most severe winter in 1794, killing an additional 8,000 people.

1792 CE:

The eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan caused part of the volcano to collapse into the sea. The landslide caused a megatsunami 330 ft (100 meters) high that killed 15,000 people in the local fishing villages. Unzen has continuously taken lives and destroyed property, particularly during the eruptions of 1991–1995.

1797 CE:

The Quito earthquake in Ecuador kills 40,000 people.

1812 CE:

The Caracas earthquake in Venezuela kills 20,000 people.

1815 CE:

The eruption of Mt. Tambora in what is now Indonesia is the largest of Holocene period, with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 7.0. 11,000– 12,000 people were killed directly by the eruption and its climactic effects were anomalous and far ranging. 1816 became known as the “Year Without a Summer,” crops failed and livestock died in much of the Northern Hemisphere, resulting in the worst famine of the 19th century.

1820 CE:

World human population reached 1 billion.

1828 CE:

Carl Sprengel formulates the “Law of the Minimum”, stating that growth is limited not by the total of resources available, but by the scarcest resource.

1845 CE:

The first use of the term “carrying capacity” in a report by the U.S. secretary of state to the Senate.

1854 CE:

• The Great Ansei Nankai quakes in Japan kill 85,000 people.
• Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden: Life in the Woods.

1860 CE:

The string tree from the island of St. Helena becomes extinct because of habitat destruction.

1864 CE:

George Perkins Marsh publishes The Earth as Modified by Human Action, the first systematic analysis of humanity’s destructive impact on the natural environment, which becomes (in Lewis Mumford’s words) “the fountain-head of the conservation movement.”

c. 1870 CE: