The purpose in compiling these pages of historical chronology is to provide an overview of the whole sweep of history from the earliest surviving written documents, with emphasis on the history of ideas, particularly of science, and on the continual struggle between rationalism and religious fantasy.
Instead of the clumsy suffixes AD and BC (or CE and BCE), for dates we simply distinguish years before the datum point by the minus sign −, not to be confused with the spaced hyphen used to indicate a date range. Thus for example Ovid lived (−43 - 17).
In the study of history there is, self-evidently, so much material that the first question to decide was how to divide it up into manageable chunks. I noted that the earliest written documents date from around −2500, so there are 4500 years of history to cover up to year 2000. Accordingly it seemed sensible to divide this into 9 chunks each of 500 years. So I decided to call 500 years an "Age". Prehistory, covered by an introductory section, is a subject in itself.
Further examination suggested that the period 1500 - 2000 for the most recent age was unsatisfactory, since the date 1500 falls in the middle of the lives of such important figures as da Vinci, Macchiavelli, Copernicus, Michelangelo, and Luther, who should all I thought, come together and should really be in the pre-modern age. Accordingly I came to the conclusion that 1600 was a better dividing point. This decison was confirmed when I noticed that it led to some very neat divisions in earlier ages, as indicated in the next section.
However, no matter where a dividing line is placed there will be an important figure whose life spans that date. As a matter of consistency everyone must be treated the same, which means placing them according to their date of birth rather than death. This places them alongside their contemporaries, even if the major work for which they are best known was completed, or published, or became more widely known, later in their life, or even posthumously. (In previous versions I tried other devices, but this was not satisfactory.)
Frankly I have been rather surprised at how well this division into Ages has worked! I don't think it is just a self-deluson on my part; it really does make sense of the data and the dates. It is not suggested that the transitions between Ages are sudden, but they are nevertheless distinct and take place over, say, 50 years.
These pages on History of Ideas were begun here in 2004 but briefly transferred to the Leicester Secular Society site from June to September 2007, during which time the pages were completely recast and expanded. This version was updated February 2010. The aim is to provide a resource on the history of ideas generally, and of science in particular, from a secular perspective.
To compress the information into the minimum of space, multiple links on the same subject are denoted by the ampersand &. This is sometimes replaced by H to indicate an original text or A to indicate an Adobe PDF file or X to indicate an animation.
Early History: Prehistory (before −2400). First Age (−2400 - −1900). Second Age (−1900 - −1400). Third Age (−1400 - −900). The first three ages of history, the first 1500 years, are dominated by the civilisation of Egypt.
The Fourth Age: (−900 - −400) corresponds to the dates of many of the major prophetic figures such as Buddha, LaoTzu, Confucius, Zoroaster, Isaiah, Pythagoras and ends with Socrates.
The Fifth Age: (−400 - 100) corresponds closely to the classical age of Greek and Hellenistic learning, from Plato and Aristotle to the architecture of Vitruvius.
The Sixth Age: (100 - 600) coincides with the rise of Christianity, from the first Gospels to its introduction by missionaries to the British Isles, with the middle date 350 marking its official adoption by the Roman Empire.
The Seventh Age: (600 - 1100) fits closely the period of the Islamic golden age from the birth of Mohammed to the mysticism of al Gazali, with its central date 850 being the high point of intellectual activity, by figures such as al Kwarizmi, at Mamun's House of Wisdom in Baghdad. Meanwhile in Europe such figures as Charlemagne and Alfred were establishing the basis for civilised development.
The Eighth Age: (1100 - 1600) corresponds to the gradual rediscovery of classical knowledge, the beginnings of new knowledge, and is centred on 1350, the date of the black death, and of William of Ockham. It is also an age of religious upheaval, crusades, persecution of heretics and schisms. The science of this period was confused with ideas of astrology, alchemy and magic even in the minds of the most enlightened thinkers.
The Ninth Age: (1600 - 2100) marks the beginning of the scientific discoveries which led to the modern scientific worldview. The central date of this age, 1850, is close to that of Darwin's Origin of Species.
It is natural to wonder what the Tenth Age will be like. Will it be the start of a new Dark age like that following the Fifth Age, or a new Age of Reason and Enlightenment? Or something wholly new?
ABOUT HISTORY IN GENERAL
History Guide.
Chronology
COLLECTIONS WITH LINKS TO ORIGINAL SOURCES (or English translations)
Caution: It is advisable to check sources for possible biases. For instance the first three sites
listed here, while useful, are run by Fordham University in New York, which is a Jesuit foundation.
Ancient History Source Book
Medieval History Source Book.
Modern History Source Book.
Timeline of the History of Science
GENERAL CHRONOLOGIES
Nexus, Historical Chronology part I (−10,000 - −601), other parts follow.
WebChron - a collection of chronologies on specific subjects.
AlternaTime - a list of links to specialised chronology sites.
Chronology of Biology.
Chronology of Science and Science Fiction
Chronology of Science
Timelines and Scales of Measurement
Science Timeline
Timesearch, part of Bamber Gascoigne's History World.
SPECIALISED SUBJECTS
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive.
Chronology of Mathematics &.
Chronology of Slavery from 1619.
Chronology of Money.
Chronology of Chronological Methods.
Chronology of Vision Science (1600 - 1960).
Steam Engines Timeline 100 - 1960.
History of the Microscope 1299 -
History of Computers & 1820 -
The Science that led to the Atomic Bomb 1890 - 1945
The Automobile.
Timeline of Art.
SPECIALISED REGIONS
Chronology of Egyptian History &.
Chronology of British History.
Chronology of Chinese History.
Chronology of United States History.
Chronology of Irish History.
SPECIALISED PERIODS
Medieval Timelines (800 - 1600).
Chronology of Romantic Period (1642 - 1851).
Chronology of Ancient Rome.
World War Two in Europe
Ancient Greece
GRAPHICAL PRESENTATIONS
HyperHistory.
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
Bible Unearthed Documentary & - says there’s no evidence of the exodus out of Egypt nor for the existence of Abraham. In fact, up until about the 7th century BCE there isn’t much that can be said about ancient Israel.
Biblical and Historical Timeline - looks plausible but according to this Isaac lived to age 146, which I'm disinclined to believe.
David Rohl & - controversial revised Egyptian and Biblical Chronology.
& - the Assyrian (732) and Babylonian (605) captivities.
OTHER CONTROVERSIES AND CRANKS
A. T. Fomenko - claims most of History is Fiction.
Immanuel Velikovsky & & & & & & (1895 - 1979), revised chronology for early history.
Graham Hancock & & & & theory of a lost ancient civilisation.
Erich von Daniken & & (1935 - ), 'ancient astronauts' theory.