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The Signposts Perspectives 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Humanity is transforming from an agricultural society to a technological civilization-- mostly from dire need due to population pressures and intensifying competition Unstable sea levels; North African plains become the Sahara desert; mammoth extinction; iron, aluminum, porcelain, steel, gunpowder made; soap, concrete, mechanical computers, electrical batteries, steam engines, magnifiers, firearms, printing press, submarines, slide rules invented; wheel commonplace; the rise and fall of ancient Greece; Plato; Library of Alexandria; King Arthur; plague; Columbus; Leonardo da Vinci; Copernicus, Galileo, Issac Newton; Industrial Age; American Revolution; the first corporations are born Sponsor this page a - j r m o o n e y h a m . c o m - o r i g i n a l

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Before 2,000 BC in Perspectives...

The Signposts Perspectives 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Table of Contents

Approximately 2,700 BC - 1,600 BC: The vast grasslands of North Africa now undergo a drastic desertification

Approximately 2,000 BC- 1,500 BC: Is there a seachange in human consciousness taking place at this time?

2,000 BC or later: The last mammoths on Earth may be facing extinction on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean

Pseudo-concrete

2,000 BC: Mesopotamians are making their own pseudo-concrete now.

Approximately 1890 BC: A massive earthquake decimates a developing civilization in Crete

Approximately 1,628 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe

Approximately 1,500 BC: Perhaps the first portable sundials/clocks are in use in Egypt now

Approximately 1,390 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: A series of volcanic eruptions is destroying the island of Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean (perhaps helping to establish an important element of the Atlantis mythos for millennia to come)

Iron

Approximately 1,350 BC: Humanity is developing iron metallurgy

Approximately 2,000 BC-1,000 BC: Asians are processing tree bark into cloth and paper.

2,000 BC-1,200 BC: Surprisingly sophisticated "wet chemistry" and other techniques are being used by ancient Egyptians

Approximately 1,200 BC- 700 BC: Metal swords in Europe are sometimes being made now solely for combat; previously they may have been as much ceremonial as anything else

Approximately 1,159 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe

Approximately 128,000 BC- 1,000 BC: World sea levels may be highly unstable throughout this entire period

Approximately 1,000 BC: The wheel is in common use throughout eurasia; textile production is now the largest endeavor of most of humanity worldwide; periodic contact between the peoples of southwestern North America and Central America with China (and China with Europe) seems to be occuring.

Greece

Approximately 1,000 BC-146 BC: Ancient Greece rises and falls, and lays down much of the foundation for the western civilization which will follow over the next two thousand years; Archimedes resists a Roman invasion with a 'death ray' based on solar power around 212 BC

Soap as a medical aid

Approximately 800 BC-500 BC: Humanity is expanding its use of iron-- and beginning to produce and use soap

The concept of corporations is emerging

Approximately 500 BC: The Roman Empire appears, based in Italy; the concept of corporate entities begins to emerge

Plato

347 BC: The death of Greek philosopher Plato

Approximately 300 BC: The accumulation of books to create the famed Library of Alexandria in Egypt is begun by the Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I

Approximately 300 BC: Ctesibius of Egypt discovers some of the basic principles of hydraulics...

Aristotle, Archimedes, and the lever principle

300 BC-100 BC: Aristotle is speculating on the subject of physics, Archimedes formalizes the lever principle...

Approximately 208 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe

Concrete

Approximately 200 BC: Concrete is invented by the Romans

Approximately 500 BC- 500 AD: The Garamantian civilization of the central Sahara rises and falls, largely due to water availability: The Book of Genesis of the collection some day to be known as the Christian Bible may be written around 500 BC

Mechanical navigation computers

Approximately 100 BC- 65 BC: A ship equipped with a most unusual and remarkably advanced mechanical navigation computer sinks near the Greek isle of Antikythera

Electricity and batteries invented, then forgotten?

Around Zero or One AD: Global human population stands at about 200 to 300 million; Humanity may have settled and re-settled many Polynesian islands across the Pacific many times; Electric battery technologies may be invented, then forgotten again; Cancer is relatively rare now, but has still been recognized and documented in times earlier than this

Approximately 1 AD: Bio-stitches in use in India

80 BC-9 AD: Cast iron suspension bridges in China, and differential gearing created by Greeks

Sometime before 37 AD: There are hints of rare creations of metal works involving aluminum by this time...

Steam engines are considered

60 AD: The Egyptian scientist "Hero" holds the concept of the steam engine

Pompeii

79 AD: Pompeii and Herculaneum are "catastrophically buried" by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

Approximately 100 AD: The Roman Empire is spread across Europe, the Mideast, and north Africa; The Romans have paved 50,000 miles of roadways

Sometime before 300 AD: Metal artifacts of surprisingly pure aluminum alloys are made in China...

The time of King Arthur

Approximately 400 AD- 500 AD: A Celtic king and associates may now be inspiring the tales which someday will lead to the legend of King Arthur

Approximately early 400s AD- 512 AD: Mount Vesuvius is erupting periodically in ever more violent and destructive episodes-- perhaps sapping the strength of the Roman Empire...

Approximately 536 AD- 541 AD: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe

Matches

577 AD: Chinese women of the Northen Qi kingdom create matches for fire starters

Steel

200 AD-600 AD: Chinese porcelain and steel make their debut

622 AD: The Islam Constitution of Medina formalizes religious tolerance in the Moslem world for Jews and Christians, so long as they pay an annual tax to the government

638 AD: Muslims take Jerusalem

48 BC- 640 AD: The Library of Alexandria in Egypt (along with the vast majority of its irreplaceable treasures of human history and knowledge) is repeatedly damaged, then finally destroyed, in a series of man-made catastrophes. Humanity now loses yet another enormous piece of its collective memory, knowledge, and history. Human civilization's substantial amnesia in regards to its past grows by perhaps several entire magnitudes with this latest blow.

A fabulous city sinks beneath the sea

Approximately 700 AD: The legendary Egyptian city of Herakleion sinks beneath the Mediterranean Sea, possibly within only a matter of hours

Approximately 600 AD- 1,000 AD: The Wari Empire of South America (perhaps the continent's first) is paradoxically prospering upon harsh twin peaks in the Atacama desert of Peru

Approximately 876 AD: A symbol for zero is in use in India

The secret to making highly efficient magnifying lenses is found, then lost again

Sometime before 1000 AD: Steel is being manufactured by the advanced Huntsman Process (co-fusion) in the city of Gyaur Kala, Turkmenistan; Sometime after 1000 AD, some European craftsmen realize the secret of efficient magnifying lenses (but afterwards the knowledge is lost again)

Approximately 1,006 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion

1,009 AD: Friction between the Muslim/Arab worlds and Christianity increases substantially now

Gunpowder and fireworks

Approximately 1,044 AD: the Chinese now possess gunpowder

Approximately 1,054 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion

1,095 AD: Pope Urban II calls on Christians to seize Jerusalem from the Muslim "infidels" for the safety of pilgrims

Approximately 1,100 AD: Angkor Cambodia is perhaps the largest city on Earth at this time, with one million inhabitants

Approximately 1,181 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion

Approximately 950 AD-1,200 AD: This is a warmer than usual time in terms of world climate

1201 AD: An earthquake in Upper Egypt now may kill a million people

1,270 AD: Roger Bacon is experimenting with the science of optics

1,096 AD and 1,291 AD: The struggle between Muslims and european Christianity for Jerusalem

Approximately 1,299 AD: Mysteriously, humanity seems not to notice a new object in the skies as bright as the full Moon at this time

Cannon

Approximately 1,300 AD: Cannon are being used against castles

Approximately 1,312 AD: A mighty African fleet from Mali may land in Recife (also known as Purnanbuco) in Brazil this year

Approximately 1,320 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion

The Black Plague

Approximately 1,334 AD - 1,351 AD: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Black plague kills a third the population of europe (as well as others throughout Asia and northern Africa)

Firearms

Approximately 1,364 AD: First guns appear in Italy

Approximately 1,380 AD- 1,420 AD: East Africa suffers an intense drought

Approximately 1,401 AD- 1,700s AD: Amidst a popular new interest in ancient secrets, reports of perpetual flame technology in millennia old tombs appear

Approximately 1,450 AD: The whole of europe of this time boasts only ten percent of the total number of books once housed in the Alexandria Library [of 47 BC Egypt]; Could this mean european humanity has forgotten 90% of its collective past history and knowledge?

Columbus voyages to America

1,492 AD: Columbus makes his first voyage to America

The printing press

1,440 AD-1,500 AD: Western european science is beginning to surpass Islamic efforts, and Gutenberg creates the printing press...

Leonardo da Vinci

Approximately 1,500 AD-1,519 AD: Leonardo da Vinci is engaged most heavily in his scientific and technological contributions to humanity

The Industrial Age begins changing human sleep patterns

Approximately 1,500 AD-1,800 AD: Western europeans are adopting new sleeping habits to better cater to the demands of the emerging Industrial Age

1556 AD: The Chinese Province of Shansi suffers 830,000 dead as a result of an earthquake

Approximately 1,560 AD- 1,620 AD: East Africa suffers an intense drought

Approximately 1,572 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion

"Countless suns exist; countless earths revolve around these suns in a manner similar to the way the planets revolve around our sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds." - Giordano Bruno, 1584

Approximately 1,604 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion

Approximately 1,611 AD: The King James Version of the Holy Bible is published

Submarines and slide rules

Approximately 1,620 AD: Cornelis Drebbel invents the submarine by constructing a craft from wood and leather capable of remaining submerged for 15 hours; Englishman Edmund Gunter invents the slide rule

1,627 AD: Francis Bacon predicts air tanks, telephones, electric motors, refrigeration, airplanes, tape recorders, submarines, and robots

Copernicus, Galileo, and Issac Newton

1,543 AD- 1,687 AD: Copernicus determines the proper geometry of the Solar System, Galileo makes breakthroughes in mechanics principles, Issac Newton presents the laws of motion

Approximately 1,641 AD: The colonial governments of America are granting invention patents

Approximately 1,642 AD: The first functional mechanical calculator is created by Blaise Pascal

1,648 AD: Semjon Deshnjov proves that Asia and America are separate continents by sailing between Alaska and Kamchatka

Approximately 1,650 AD: World human population stands at 500-600 million

Approximately 1,657 AD: Cyrano de Bergerac describes space travel using rockets to go up and parachutes to descend

Approximately 1,664 AD: Rene Descartes has published after his death a paper proclaiming that lifeforms like humans and animals are simply very complex machines rather than anything more

Approximately 1,670 AD: One corporation created now will continuously survive for at least the next 330 years; Robert Boyle discovers hydrogen; Francesco de Lana realizes the lifting power of lighter-than-air volumes

Approximately 1,673 AD: Christiaan Huygens shows off a motor driven by periodic explosions of gunpowder

Approximately 1,675 AD: An early form of the HIV virus may jump from chimpanzees to humans around this time, during the hunting and butchering of the animals

Approximately 1,680 AD: Some new clocks begin to sport minute hands

Port Royal

1,692 AD: An earthquake causes 32 plus acres of the pirate haven Port Royal in the Carribbean to collapse into the sea

Steam engines

1,698 AD- 1,769 AD: Over 1600 years after the Egyptian "Hero" first conceptualized the steam engine, practical implementations finally become available to industry...

1,721 AD- 1,728 AD: A major rabies epidemic is taking place in Hungary (perhaps spawning the vampire legend)

1,740s AD: "Sheffield steel" technology is re-discovered again, after being lost for a thousand years

1,752 AD: Benjamin Franklin proves with a kite that lightning is a form of electricity

1,755 AD: Lisbon in Portugal is struck by a large earthquake, killing 30,000

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- American Benjamin Franklin, 1,759 AD

1,768 AD: A huge relative of the 20th century dugong and manatee is driven to extinction in the northern Pacific Ocean

1,770 AD: James Cook claims the eastern coast of Australia for Great Britain

1,772 AD: The remains of the sunken Kerguelen continent are discovered by modern humans

1,773 AD- 1,782 AD: A Great Destruction of Chinese history and knowledge; Chinese Emperor Qian Long orders the compilation of "the Sikuquanshu, or Complete Library in Four Branches"-- which essentially destroys all Chinese history and intellectual works not particularly favored by the Emperor of the time.

Approximately 1,760 AD to 1,840 AD: East Africa suffers an intense drought

1,775 AD- 1,783 AD: The American Revolution takes place, offering profound implications for human civilization for centuries to come

Balloons

1,783 AD: Lighter-than-air craft are invented (balloons)

1,790 AD: USAmerica passes its first patent and copyright laws

Gas lights

1,792 AD: Gas lighting appears in Scotland

1,799 AD: A specimen of the platypus is examined in London, then declared to be a hoax

Electric batteries

1,800 AD: Perhaps 1800 years after electric batteries were invented and forgotten the first time, Volta invents the electric battery once again

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