Timeline

Ethiopia: Lucy, first discovered specimen of female Australopithecus afarensis so far

Early stone tools found for this period

Africa, Asia: collection of pebbles with red ochre, quartz crystals

Africa: traces of first use of fire

India: red ocher “pastels” with worn facets indicate ritual body or wall painting

India: early rock art, Bhimbetka cup marks

South Africa, Spain, India, Russia and the Czech Republic: red ocher in ritual burials

Italy: in Isernia, in the La Pineta district, the oldest human settlement where Homo Aeserniensis lived, from the name of the locality

Morocco: Tan-Tan figurine in quartzite

France: first controlled use of fire by women

France: Meander carvings on ox bone by Pech de l'Azé, used in cult sites

Italy: important human presence in the Balzi Rossi caves in Liguria

First artistic images

Germany, Spain, Crimea - first use of jewelry

Turkey, Germany: finely decorated handcrafted tools

Italy: in Rome, at the Saccopastore site, traces of the oldest Neanderthal community in Europe

Israel: Berekhat Ram tuff figurine found in the Golan Heights

Mitochondrial Eve: in Africa, in the common Ancestor from which we descend, the mitochondrial change takes place, transmitted through the maternal line up to us

Italy: Man from Altamura in Puglia, (Homo Neanderthalensis)

Europe: Homo neanderthalensis spreads

Australia: the red ocher “pastels” and the mola found in the rock shelter of Malangangerr in Arnhem Land, one of the proofs of the first human presence in Australia

Europe: Modern man spread from Eastern Europe to Western Europe

France: 18 cup marks on limestone tombstones in La Ferrassie

Western Australia: petroglyphs in the Burrup peninsula and petroglyphs found in Hammersley, Pilbara

First artistic manifestations in Europe:
shell and bone beads involve the use of cords and threads
appearance of female symbolic motifs in Germany (Schelklingen mammoth ivory figurine, Hohle Fels cave, 38.000-33.000 BC) and Siberia

Italy: red ocher paintings from the site of Fumane In Veneto

Austria: The Galenberg serpentine figurine is the first deliberately carved three-dimensional female sculpture

France: paintings in the cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc

Linen and hemp used for clothes

France: Lespugue ivory figurine wearing a cord apron, found in the French Pyrenees

France: cave paintings of Peche Merle and Cosquer attributable to Cro-Magnon man

Czech Republic: the oldest molded clay figurines of humans and animals

Russia: Burial of three people wearing thousands of ivory beads

Italy: several figurines found in the Grotta del Principe at the Balzi Rossi, one on mammoth fang covered in a thick layer of red ochre, the figurine known as the Direct on flat oval dark green chlorite pebble, the figurine double in yellow serpentine and the Lozenge in green steatite

France: Brassempouy ivory figurine found in Aquitaine

Austria: Willendorf limestone figurine

statue of Savignanoin serpentine found in Savignano sul Panaro in Emilia Romagna

France: Laussel bas-relief on limestone, found in the Dordogne in the Abri Shelter of Laussel and painted in the Cougnac caves

Russia: Mal'ta ivory figurine found in Irkutsk Oblast

Slovakia: Moravany ivory figurine found in Zahorie

Levant: settled Natufian culture in the Levant region (traces of the beginning of the domestication of cereals and the dog)

France: Renancourt figurine carved in limestone, last found in Amiens

France: Sireuil limestone figurine

bas-relief on stalactite, found in Frasassi in the Marche region, e statuette of Polycinelain green steatite, found in the Grotta del Principe at the Balzi Rossi

Australia: rock art, petroglyphs, at Cutta Cutta and Kintore, Northern Territory, and in Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia

Italy: important finds from Grotta del Romito in Calabria, including the Ox graffiti

France: Lascaux cave cave paintings

Spain: cave paintings of Altamira

figurines of Parabitain horse bone found in Parabita, near Lecce in Puglia

Germany: ivory figurines, branches and Gonnersdorf bone

Japan: two pebbles engraved with busts of women; perforated stone disc

China: Antlers engraved with meandering designs

France: graffiti with depictions of humans, animals, symbols such as meanders and fingerprints in the Rouffignac cave, in the Dordogne

Italy: engravings Romanelli cave in Puglia

Japan: Jomon culture, the first pottery

Africa: Tassili, paintings stylistically similar to the art of Lascaux and Altamira

Upper Galilee: burial of the Shaman of Galilee near Mount Carmel

Chiozza statue, in Emilia Romagna, built on a yellowish fine-grained river sandstone pebble, a common rock of the Emilian Apennines.

Cave of the Genoese, Levanzo (Sicily)

Turkey: Göbekli Tepe, the oldest "temple" in the world

Switzerland: jet statue of Monruz, found in the canton of Neuchatel

Mesolithic figurine of the Shelter of Gabanin Trentino-Alto Adige, carved in bas-relief on a red deer horn support and Macomer figurinein local basaltic stone found in Macomer, in the province of Nuoro, Sardinia

Central Ukraine: Early sacrificial burials, including horses

Southern Russia: The Yamna people of the middle Volga steppes domesticate horses

Anatolia: Çatal Höyük, a sophisticated settled civilization

Turkey and Iran: very early metalworking; use of linen

India: numerous paintings and engravings

Europe: Cultures Sesklo and Vinča

statues of Favellaof the Court in Calabria and of Braccianoin green steatite in Lazio
Remains of female skeleton on Majella (Lama dei Peligni)

Serbia: Culture of Lepenski Vir

Italy: village of Raven Pass in Puglia the largest Neolithic village in Europe; terracotta figurines of Ripabianca of Monterado in the Marches and ceramic figurine of Pavolella cave In Calabria.

Denmark: naturalistic engraved amber bear

Italy: figurines of Gaban in Trentino-Alto Adige (the first made on deer bone plate and the second worked up boar's tooth) to terracotta figurine of Sammardenchia in Friuli-Venezia Giulia; in Central Italy culture of Ripoli; in southern Italy culture of Serra d'Alto

Jordan: village of Teleilat al-Ghassul

Early invasions of Europe by the Yamna warlike peoples, now known as Proto-Indo-Europeans, from the Volga steppes of southern Russia

statue of Vicofertilein ceramic body, found in the burial of a woman in Emilia-Romagna.

Yugoslavia: Vinca culture ends

Yugoslavia: three clay tablets with the first writing

Anatolia: Catal Huyuk is abandoned

Italy: in Sardinia we witness the birth and development of the culture of Bonu Ighinu

Megalithic temples of Malta

Finish the Sesklo culture

Second invasion of Ancient Europe by the Maikop, warriors from the Pontic-Caspian steppes

Sumer: the first writing, the beginning of written history

Ireland: passage tomb of Newgrange and Knowth

Italy: the last manifestations of the Neolithic are located in Sardinia with the culture of Ozieri

Crete: Minoan period, city of Knossos

England: Avebury stone circles, including the Silbury Hill complex

Third invasion of Old Europe by the Yamna warrior people

Ireland: Beaker people and the end of the Irish Neolithic period
Russia: chariot with spoked wheels

Italy: founding of Rome