3.3 million years · one continuous record
All of Human History
Every invention, discovery and turning point, laid out on a single coiling spiral — the centre is three million years ago, the rim is today. Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, or jump straight to a year.
In view · 3.3 million BCE – 2026
47 entriesSystematic butchery with stone flakes
Cut-marked animal bones across East Africa show hominins routinely dismembering large carcasses with sharpened flakes.
East Africa
Shellfish harvesting at Pinnacle Point
Coastal caves in South Africa preserve the earliest systematic use of marine food and tidal timing.
Southern Africa
Wild cereal grinding at Ohalo II
Charred barley and wheat grains with grinding stones show cereal processing millennia before farming.
Levant
Domestication of the dog
Wolves entering the human niche become companions, guards and hunting partners.
Eurasia
Bread before agriculture
Charred flatbread crumbs at Shubayqa in Jordan were baked from wild cereals and tubers.
Levant
Fig cultivation at Gilgal
Parthenocarpic figs found in the Jordan Valley could only be propagated by human cuttings.
Levant
Agriculture
Wheat, barley, lentils and peas brought under cultivation in the Fertile Crescent.
Fertile Crescent
Emmer and einkorn wheat domesticated
Farmers in the Fertile Crescent selected non-shattering wheat strains.
Fertile Crescent
Domestication of sheep and goats
Herded flocks provide meat, milk, wool and hide on demand.
Southwest Asia
Rice domestication in the Yangtze
Communities along the middle and lower Yangtze began selecting and sowing wild rice.
China
Squash domestication in Mesoamerica
Cucurbita seeds show selection for larger fruit and thicker rinds.
Mesoamerica
Maize domestication from teosinte
Farmers in the Balsas River valley began transforming a scraggly grass into maize.
Mesoamerica
Domestication of cattle
Aurochs were brought under human control in the Near East and, separately, in North Africa and South Asia.
Near East
Irrigation canals
Diverted river water carried to fields in Mesopotamia and the Nile valley.
Mesopotamia
Potato domestication in the Andes
Highland farmers near Lake Titicaca selected frost-hardy tubers and learned to freeze-dry them as chuno.
Andes
Banana and taro gardening at Kuk Swamp
Highland farmers drained wetlands to cultivate root and tree crops.
New Guinea
Cheese making
Perforated ceramic strainers in Poland carry milk fat residues from separating curds and whey.
Central Europe
Irrigated barley of the Zagros foothills
Simple channels carried hill runoff to terraced plots.
Iran
Wine making at Areni and Hajji Firuz
Residues in jars from the Caucasus and Zagros record deliberate grape fermentation.
Caucasus
The plough
The ard, dragged by cattle, breaks soil far faster than a hoe.
Mesopotamia
Sorghum and pearl millet in the Sahel
African farmers domesticated drought-tolerant grains suited to a short rainy season.
Sahel
Teff domestication in Ethiopia
Highland farmers selected a tiny, iron-rich grain uniquely suited to the Ethiopian plateau.
Horn of Africa
Llama and alpaca herding
Andean herders bred camelids for wool, meat and transport.
Andes
Sumerian beer brewing and rations
Standardised barley beer served as wage and nutrition.
Mesopotamia
Water-lifting shaduf in the Nile fields
A counterweighted lever raised river water into irrigation ditches.
Egypt
Iron ploughshares open northern soils
Iron-shod ards and later heavier ploughs cut the damp, root-bound soils of temperate Europe that bronze and wood tools could not work.
Central Europe
Terrace farming in the Andes
Stone-walled andenes turned steep slopes into stable, frost-buffered fields.
Andes
Chinese belt-drive and rotary winnowing fan
Han workshops used belt transmission and geared winnowing machines.
China
Horse collar
A padded collar lets a horse pull without choking, unlike the throat harness.
China
Heavy mouldboard plough
An iron plough that turns dense, wet northern European soils.
Northern Europe
Silkworm smuggling to Byzantium
Monks carried eggs and mulberry knowledge west, breaking a Chinese monopoly.
Byzantium
Three-field crop rotation
Rotating winter grain, spring legumes and fallow raised yields by half.
Europe
Champa rice and double cropping
Fast-ripening rice allowed two harvests a year in southern China.
China and Vietnam
Terra preta and Amazonian soil engineering
Amazonian peoples enriched poor tropical soils with charcoal, bone and pottery.
Amazonia
Chinampa agriculture at Tenochtitlan
Aztec farmers built raised lake-bed plots yielding several harvests a year.
Mesoamerica
Columbian Exchange of crops
Maize, potatoes, tomatoes and cassava moved east while wheat and cattle moved west.
Atlantic
Seed drill
Jethro Tull's horse-drawn drill sowed seed in straight rows at controlled depth.
England
Crop rotation and enclosure farming
The Norfolk four-course rotation removed fallow years using turnips and clover.
England
Cotton gin
Eli Whitney's gin cleaned short-staple cotton fifty times faster by hand.
United States
Food canning
Nicolas Appert sealed and heated food in glass, later tin, to preserve it.
France
Mechanical reaper
Horse-drawn reapers cut grain far faster than scythes.
United States
Refrigerated shipping of meat
Compression plants carried frozen carcasses across oceans.
Australia and Argentina
Barbed wire
Joseph Glidden's cheap fencing enclosed the American plains.
United States
Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis
Nitrogen fixed from air into fertiliser at industrial scale.
Germany
Chinese and Indian famine-resistant cropping programmes
State breeding stations distributed improved seed and fertiliser.
Asia
Green Revolution wheat
Norman Borlaug's dwarf, rust-resistant wheat spread through Mexico, India and Pakistan.
Global
Gene-edited crops reach the field
CRISPR-edited varieties entered commercial trials and markets.
Global