Volume 11 , Issue 29

The People's Chronology

David found "The People's Chronology" book at a garage sale awhile back, here in SW Colorado. It is a year-by-year record of human events from Prehistory to the present (1973), edited by James Trager, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

The People's Chronology was copyrighted in 1979. It is the first edition, includes a historical chronology, ISBN 0-03-017811-8, with 1206 pages, including the index.

It includes historical facts concerning political events, exploration colonization, economics, finance, retailing, human rights, social justice, science, technology, energy, transportation, medicine, religion, education, communication, media, literature, publishing, art, photography, theater,music, sports, everyday life, tobacco, crime, architecture, environment, agriculture, marine resources, food availability, nutrition, consumer protection, food and drink, population.

Starting on page 1 with 3 Million B.C. and working its way historically through over 1100-plus pages to 1973.

So ... the person or persons who say, "Life on earth is only 6000 years old." To those certain persons whom I may or may not name -- perhaps do NOT know their history of the earth or have been misinformed!

For example ...
3 Million B.C. -- An upright-walking australopithecine ape-man appeared on the earth in the late Pliocene period and had thumb-opposed hands in place of forefeet, which permitted him and his female counterpart to use tools. Fossil remains found by Carl Johanson in Ethiopia's Awash Valley, A.D. 1974 with further finds in 1975 substanciate that fact.

1 Million B.C. -- The australopithecine ape-man becomes extinct as the human species becomes more developed. Homo erectus erectus is unique among primates in having a high proportion of meat relative to plant foods in his diet, but like other primates he is omnivorous, a scavenger who competes with hyenas and other scavengers while eluding leopards.

400,000 to 360,000 B.C. -- Homo erectus hominid of the Middle Pleistocene period (Peking man) may have used fire to cook venison, which supplemented his diet of berries, roots, nuts, acorns, legumes, and grains.

By conserving his energies, he could track down swifter but less intelligent animals, but he still split bones to get at the marrow because he did not use fire effectively to make the marrow easily available.

120,000 to 75,000 B.C. -- Neanderthal man of the Upper Pleistocene period had large front teeth, which he may have used as tools. Less than half of his surviving infants reached age 20, 9 out of 10 of these died before age 40.

By 75,000 B.C. the neanderthal man had become a skilled hunter, able to bring down large, hairy elephant-like mammals (Mammuthus primiginius), saber-toothed tigers, and other creatures that would become extinct. Neanderthal man cared for his sick and aged but engaged in cannibalism when necessary.

50,000 B.C. -- Neanderthal man may have been on the west coast of the Western Hemisphere and may even have reached the continent 20,000 years earlier.

As determined by racemization tests that record the extent to which molecules of aspartic acid in a a specimen have altered in their fifiguration from the form that occurs in living bone to its mirror image. Such tests were conducted in the A.D. 1970s on bones found between A.D. 1920 and A.D. 1935, but the rate of change is affected by such factors as temperature, so the tests were not be conclusive.

42,000 B.C. -- The continent that would be called Australia was populated by the earth's first seafaring people. Colonists arrived from the Asian mainland.

38,000 B.C. -- Homo sapiens emerged from Neanderthal man and, while physically less powerful, had a more prominent chin, a much larger brain volume, and superior intelligence. Homo sapiens would split into six major divisions, or stocks: Negroids, Mongoloids, Caucasoids, Australoids, Amerindians, and Polynesians, and some of these would have subdivisions. Caucasoids would include Alpine, Mediterranean and Nordic stocks.

Homo sapiens control of fire and his development of new, lightweight bone and horn tools, weapons and fishhooks, and his superior intelligence permitted man to obtain food more easily and to preserve it longer.

Hunters provided early tribes with meat from bison and tigers, while other tribes-people fished and collected honey, fruits and nuts (as shown by cave paintings near Aurignac in southern France).

36,000 B.C. -- Homo sapiens reached the northern continent of the Western Hempisphere, where Neanderthal man had probably preceded him.

33,000 B.C. -- Homo sapiens became the dominate species on earth with no serious rivals to his supremacy.

28,500 B.C. -- The island that would be called New Guinea was populated by colonists who arrived either from Australia or from the Asian mainland.

27,000 B.C. -- The islands that would be called Japan were reached by Homo sapiens who may have arrived in the islands as much as 5,000 years ago over ice sheets or land bridges.

25,000 B.C. -- Fishermen in Europe's Dordogne Valley had developed short baited toggles that became wedged at an angle in fishes' jaws when the line, made of plant fibers, was pulled taut.

Small pits lined with hot embers or pebbles preheated in fires were used by Homo sapiens for cooking food that may have been covered with layers of leaves or wrapped in seaweed to prevent scorching.

13,600 B.C. -- A Great Flood inundated much of the world following a sudden 130-foot rise in sea levels as a result of runoff from a rapid melting of a glacial ice sheet covering much of the northern continent of the Western Hemisphere. Time is approximate and somewhat conjectural.

How far back do we need to go to educate the Alaska Governor, Ms Palin, that life on earth began more than 6000 years ago!
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