Timeline
Cosmic, Gaiac, and Ecozoic are additional eras that I am not familiar with or heard of in a timeline before. If I had to make an educational guess in line with Paleolithic, Neolithic, Ancient, Classical, and Modern then I would have to say: since we were talking about the “Big History”, I would put the Cosmic before all this at the beginning at the Big Bang. Now for Gaiac, I believe the root word is Gaia which means the Earth or Land, so maybe this is pertaining to Pangea or when the Earth itself was created or land was formed so this would go right after Cosmic. Ecozoic to me would fall in place after aModern as “Eco” to me is more of the ecosystem or environmental era, maybe about the atmosphere, and possibly leading to climate change or speaking of global warming.
Now after this hypothesis of mine, I just had to find out for myself if I could find out about what these additional three eras could possibly mean and where they would fit in a historical perspective of a timeline. So starting with Cosmic which indeed would be the first of the timeline as it is speaking of when our universe first existed because of the Big Bang. The Cosmic era so it spans about 13.8 billion years ago from what we know as of now. As for Gaiac I was able to find it as another galaxy, but couldn’t find sufficient evidence or not enough research on my end to get sources about a specific “Gaiac era” or timeline. Now for the Ecozoic, it was the term created by a cultural historian and scholar of the world's religions, Thomas Berry described that the geologic era that Earth is entering which us humans live in a mutually relationship with the Earth as its inhabitants but fear that there will be another extinction era like what happened to the Dinosaurs.
In the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.), early humans lived in caves or simple huts or tepees and were hunters and gatherers. They used basic stone and bone tools, as well as crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animals.
The Neolithic, the final division of the Stone Age, began about 12,000 years ago when the first developments of farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world.
The Ancient era or the Bronze Age, starting date of ca. 3000 BC is taken as the beginning of the historical era, i.e. the period for which we have written evidence. This was the emergence of civilizations and agricultural advancements especially in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The Classical Age (500-336 BC): The Classical Period of ancient Greece was a time when the Greeks achieved new heights in art, architecture, theater, and philosophy. Democracy in Athens was refined under the leadership of Pericles.
The modern era includes the early period, called the early modern period, which lasted from 1500 to around 1800. From World War II to present time is still considered part of the modern but new era with the technological advancements which has led us to the 21st century.
So the five major eras of human history including the 3 additional in my logical order are:
Cosmic - Gaiac - Paleolithic - Neolithic - Ancient - Classical - Modern - Ecozoic
Additional Resources:
Hi Oliver,
ReplyDeleteI think the Gaiac Era was the Paleolithic Era when their were very few humans and their impact on the environment was minimum. My timeline looks almost the same as yours, except that I put the Gaiac Era in with the Paleolithic Era.
I wish the best to you in your classes,
Claudia
Hi Carioca,
DeleteYea I think I spent the most time looking for that and I appreciate the input! Good luck and looking forward to working with you. :)
Stay safe and take care,
Oliver Q.