Stone Age

The **Pleistocene** epoch, also known as the **Stone Age**, is a geologic time period on Earth. It began about 3 million years ago, following the Age of Mammals, and lasted until approximately 5600 BCE, the beginning of the Historical Era.

This era is marked by a series of ice ages, in which global temperatures dropped, glaciers covered much of the Northern Hemisphere and sea levels fell. In between the ice ages were interglacial periods, when temperatures increased, glaciers receded and sea levels rose.

In the Here Be Dragons universe, civilization rose and fell several times in the Stone Age before the dawn of recorded history--mostly in the interglacial periods.

## Timeline

### Stone Age (Pleistocene Epoch):

3 MYA - 5600 BCE

**2.58 MYA** Beginning of the Quaternary Ice Age, still ongoing in the present day.

**2.5 MYA** Evolution of Smilodon, the Sabertooth tiger--North America

**2.5 MYA** Evolution of Homo habilis

Panamanian land bridge connects the Americas.

**2 MYA** First stone tools--Africa

[Modern geologists place the beginning of the Pleistocene a little before 1.8 million years ago.]

**1.8 MYA** Evolution of Homo erectus.

**1.8 MYA** Disappearance of the Terror Bird--South America, North America

**1.4 MYA** Invention of fire by Homo erectus

**1.2 MYA** Evolution of the Cave Bear

### Hyperborean Age

**1 MYA** Rise of Hyperborea, a civilization in the Arctic inhabited by creatures whose descendants today are the Yeti and Sasquatch.

**1 MYA** Life of Loana, noted for looking great in a fur bikini. Presumably a Homo erectus.

**750,000 BCE** Fall of Hyperborea as the empire was covered by glaciers.

**640,000 BCE** Last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano.

**400,000 BCE** Isthmus of Dover washed away by a rising North Sea, separating Britain from Europe.

**393,000 BCE** Destruction of Mu.

**350,000 BCE** First Neanderthals.

**300,000 BCE** Gigantopithecus exits the fossil record.

**250,000 BCE** First Homo sapiens.

**200,000 BCE** Beginning of Illinoian Glaciation.

**198,000 BCE** The Krell civilization destroyed by Monsters From the Id--Altair IV

**161,000 BCE** Destruction of Lemuria

**148,000 BCE** The Battlestar *Galactica*, carrying survivors of the Cylon holocaust, arrives at Earth.

**130,000 BCE** End of the Illinoian Glaciation; beginning of the last interglacial period.

### 590 Years

> The First, Second and Third ages of Middle Earth seem to have have occurred during the most recent Interglacial Period--a 16,000-year period starting around 130,000 BCE. As it's impossible to precisely place events of this period on a modern timescale, the dating system from the *Red Book of Westmarch* is used here instead.
>
>

**60 1st Age (1A)** The forces of Morgoth routed by the Elves; his fortress at Angband beseiged for most of the next four centuries.

**70 1A** Morgoth puts his servant Sauron in charge of his armies and begins creating dragons.

**455 1A** Morgoth breaks the seige of Angband.

**532 1A** Birth of Elrond

**587 1A** Defeat of Morgoth--Angband.

**590 1A** End of the First Age.

### 3441 Years

**32 Second Age (2A)** Founding of Numenor.

**40 2A** Dwarves migrate to Moria in the Misty Mountains.

**500 2A** Return of Sauron to Middle-Earth.

**1000 2A** Sauron begins to build Barad-dur--Mordor.

**1590 2A** Elven smiths complete the forging of the Rings of Power: three for the Elves, seven for the Dwarves, nine for Men--Eregion.

**1600 2A** Sauron forges the One Ring in Mount Doom--Mordor.

**1700 2A** Sauron's conquest of Middle-Earth is halted by the intervention of Numenor.

**2251 2A** First appearance of the Nazgul

**3262 2A** The King of Numenor takes Sauron prisoner, but ends up listening to Sauron's evil counsel.

**3319 2A** After the Undying Lands are attacked at Sauron's instigation, the Valar destroy Numenor.

**3320 2A** The Founding of Gondor.

**3434 2A** The Last Alliance between Elves and Men defeat Sauron in battle and beseige Barad-dur--Mordor.

**3441 2A** Gil-Galad slain and the One Ring cut from Sauron's hand at the Battle of Mount Doom--Mordor.

### 3021 Years

**2 Third Age (3A)** The One Ring lost in the Battle of Gladden Fields.

**241 3A** Birth of Elrond's daughter Arwen.

**1000 3A** Saruman, Gandalf and the other Wizards are sent to Middle Earth from the Undying Lands.

**1050 3A** The first Hobbits come to Eriador.

**1300 3A** The Chief of the Nazgul becomes a Ring Wraith

**1601 3A** Hobbits establish The Shire.

**1980 3A** The Balrog comes to Moria.

**2463 3A** The One Ring is found, and Smeagol--afterwards known as Gollum--murders his cousin to possess it.

**2510 3A** Dragons reappear in the north.

**2759 3A** Saruman makes Isengard his fortress.

**2770 3A** The dragon Smaug drives the Dwarves from the Lonely Mountain.

**September 22, 2890 3A** Birth of Bilbo Baggins--Hobbiton, The Shire.

**March 1, 2931 3A** Birth of Aragorn.

**2941 3A** Gandalf recruits Bilbo Baggins for Thorin Oakenshield's expedition to the Lonely Mountain.
Baggins meets Gollum and acquires the One Ring. Smaug is killed.

**September 22, 2968 3A** Birth of Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's nephew.

**September 22, 3001 3A** Bilbo gives Frodo the One Ring at their shared birthday party, and afterwards leaves The Shire.

**3018 3A** The Fellowship of the Ring is formed.

**3019 3A** Destruction of the One Ring--Mount Doom.

**September 29, 3021 3A** Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel depart Middle Earth for the Undying Lands. End of the Third Age.

### Hyborian Age

**121,000 BCE** Founding of Stygia and Acheron.

**113,327 BCE** Founding of Aquilonia by Hyborian barbarians.

**114,575 BCE** Birth of Conan the Barbarian--Cimmeria

**114,551 BCE** Conan turns to piracy--the Black Coast

**114,534 BCE** Conan becomes King of Aquilonia.

### Ice Age (most recent)

**114,000 BCE** Beginning of Wisconsinian Glaciation, the most recent. Fall of the Aquilonian Empire.

**100,000 BCE**: Evolution of the Dire Wolf

**100,000 BCE**: Construction of Ringworld. (See 2850.)

**100,000 BCE**: A Thing from Another World crashlands in Antarctica. (See 1982.)

**95,000 BCE** Hobbit colony living in present-day Indonesia.

**73,000 BCE** The largest volcanic explosion in the last 25 million years--present-day Indonesia.

**68,000 BCE** Most recent eruption of Yellowstone Caldera--present-day Wyoming.

**47,000 BCE** Fifty-meter-wide meteor weighing 300,000 tons strikes with a force of 10 megatons, creating a crater more than a kilometer across--present-day Barringer, Arizona.

**33,000 BCE** First Cro-Magnon people

**30,000 BCE** Domestication of the dog

**30,000 BCE** Paintings in the Cave of Forgotten Dreams the earliest known cave art--Chauvet, France

**28,000 BCE** The Cro-Magnon child Ayla is adopted by the Neanderthal Clan of the Cave Bear.

**27,500 BCE** Disappearance of the Cave Bear--Europe

**24,000 BCE** Venus of Willendorf carved--Austria

**22,000 BCE** The last Neanderthals live on what is now the southern coast of Spain.

**18,000 BCE** Sinking of Atlantis

**17,000 BCE** Cave painting at Lascaux

**16,000 BCE** Maximum extent of Wisconsinian ice age.

**15,000 BCE** Altamira cave paintings.

**13,500 BCE** Clovis people reach New World, begin extermination of Western Hemisphere's megafauna.

**13,000 BCE** Domestication of the pig in Mesopotamia

**12,500 BCE** Lake Bonneville dries up, leaving the Bonneville Salt Flats.

**12,000 BCE** Hobbit colony in Indonesia wiped out by volcanic eruption.

**12,000 BCE** Opar founded in Central Africa

**11,000 BCE** Sheep domesticated in Mesopotamia

**10,000 BCE** Paleolithic/Neolithic (Stone Age) cultures begin

**10,000 BCE** Extinction of Pleistocene megafauna in North America, including mammoth, mastodon, ground sloth, dire wolf, sabertoothed tiger, cave lion and giant beaver. Lions, horses and camels vanish from the Americas.

[Modern geologists mark the end of the Pleistocene at 9,700 years BCE.]

### Neolithic Era

**9500 BC -**

**9500 BCE** Founding of Sarnath, presumably by refugees from Atlantis.

**9000 BCE** Domestication of rice in East Asia and the fig in Mesopotamia

**9000 BCE** Founding of Jericho

**8500 BCE** Domestication of wheat and barley in Mesopotamia

**8300 BCE** End of most recent ice age.

**8000 BCE** North America cut off from Asia as Bering land bridge floods

**8000 BCE** Domestication of the cow in Mesopotamia, the goat in Persia and the cat in the Near East. Domestication of the potato in Peru and squash in Mexico.

**8000 BCE** Extinction of the Woolly Rhinoceros.

**8000 BCE** Doom comes to Sarnath

**7300 BCE** Kennewick Man

**7000 BCE** Domestication of maize in Mexico.

**6650 BCE** Invasion of the Solar System by Fifth Invader Force defeated by Fourth Invader Force in the Himalayas.

**6000 BCE** Domestication of the chicken in Southeast Asia

**6000 BCE** Irish elk extinct

**6000 BCE** Gozer the Destructor manifests in Sumeria.

**5700 BCE** Volcanic eruption forms Crater Lake in Oregon

**5600 BCE** Desertification of the Sahara

**5600 BCE** Flooding of the Black Sea