Kinstory Timeline

Humans make the first tools from stone, wood, antlers, and bones.

Skeletal remains uncovered suggest the Rift Valley in East Africa is home to the earliest human ancestors.

Humans discover fire.

Period of migration across the African continent and out of Africa to Asia and Europe. Fire is first used during this period.

Humans first wear clothes.

Earliest boats are constructed.

Beginnings of human settlements and agriculture.

Spread of agriculture across Africa. River societies emerge along the Nile, Niger, and Congo Rivers.

Hand-made bricks first used for construction in the Middle East.

Egyptian agriculturalists develop irrigation and animal husbandry to transform the lower Nile Valley. The rise in the food supply generates a rapidly increasing population. Agricultural surpluses and growing wealth allow specialization including glass making, pottery, metallurgy, weaving, woodworking, leather making, and masonry.

Egyptians begin using burial texts to accompany their dead into the afterlife. This is the first evidence of written texts anywhere in the world.

Iron used for the first time in decorative ornaments.

Egypt emerges as a centralized state and flourishing civilization.

Humans invent the wheel.

Glass is made by people for the first time.

Bronze Age: Widespread use of copper and its important alloy bronze.

First written languages are developed by the Sumerian people of southern Mesopotamia (part of modern Iraq).

Period of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and Northeastern Africa.

Other civilizations emerge in Mesopotamia, northern China, Northeastern India.

Ancient Egyptians produce papyrus, a crude early version of paper.

Nubian state with its capital at Kerma emerges as a rival to Egypt.

Water-raising and irrigation devices like the shaduf (shadoof), invented by the Ancient Egyptians, introduce the idea of lifting things using counterweights.

Semites of the Mediterranean develop the alphabet.

Egyptian New Kingdom unites the Nile Valley including Nubia.

Nubia briefly regains its independence from Egypt.

Iron Age begins: iron is widely used for making tools and weapons in many parts of the world.

Bantu migration out of present-day eastern Nigeria spreads across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Nubian Pharaohs rule the entire Nile Valley during the 25th Dynasty.

Thales of Miletus discovers static electricity.

Axum emerges in Northeastern Africa. Axum eventually becomes the nation of Ethiopia.

Ancient Nok culture emerges in what is now Nigeria

Egypt is conquered by Alexander the Great. Ptolemy becomes the first ruler of a dynasty that will control Egypt until 283 BCE.

Rulers of Nubia establish a new kingdom at Meroe. The Kingdom, which will be called Kush, will last there for more than nine centuries.

Ancient Egyptians invent lighthouses, including the huge Lighthouse of Alexandria

Hannibal rules Carthage. During his reign, Roman Italy is invaded.

Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea is the scientific capital of the Hellenistic world, famous for its museum, university, and library

Settlement is established at Jenne on the Niger River in West Africa

Terence Afer (the African) is considered one of the the Roman Empire's finest Latin translators and poets.

Gear-driven, precision clockwork machines (such as the Antikythera mechanism) are in existence.

Rome conquers Carthage and establishes its first significant presence on the African continent

Slavery is a major feature of the Roman Empire for several hundred years. Over two million slaves from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are in Roman Italy at the end of the Republic.

Roman engineer Vitruvius perfects the modern, vertical water wheel.

Cleopatra VIII Rules Egypt.

Romans develop the first, basic concrete called pozzolana.

Romans invade Kush, sack the capital at Napata

Life and Era of Jesus Christ, beginnings of Christianity

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke independently develop microscopes.

Christianity is established as Jesus is crucified.

Hero of Alexandria, a Greek scientist, pioneers steam power.

In a terrifying week, two-thirds of Rome burns to the ground and Emperor Nero takes the opportunity to rebuild Rome and claims a huge plot of land to build his new palace complex. Nero blames the fire on the Christians although some claimed the fire was started by Nero to clear the land. He orders the first Roman persecution of the new faith.

After a six month siege the Romans under the direction of Titus destroy Jerusalem killing one and a half million Jews. The gold taken from the Temple finances the Colosseum back in Rome.

Claudius Ptolemy devises a framework of Astronomy which will last for 1400 years. He calculates pi as 3+8/60+30/602 which in decimals is "3.1416666...", an amazing feat for the time.

Rome has the five "Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius and Marcus Aurelius.

Ts'ai Lun makes the first paper in China

Roman Emperor Hadrian begins the impressive 73 mile defensive wall in the north of England to keep out the Picts and tax the trade.

The Bar Kokhba revolt in Jerusalem against the Romans is finally crushed after two and a half years during which the Jewish state had home rule and a resumption of animal sacrifices. 580,000 Jews are killed in the restoration of Roman rule and the city of Jerusalem is reduced to rubble. Emperor Hadrian did not allow Jews to return to Jerusalem and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina.

The State of Ghana begins to evolve in the West African Sudan. It is located in what is now Burkina Faso,

Beginning of the Classic period for the Maya who will rise to amazing feats of scientific knowledge and architecture.

Not content to be the ruler of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria, the beautiful Warrior Queen Zenobia breaks with Rome and invades Egypt. Emperor Aurelian eventually defeats her. Some records show she was killed after Aurelian's triumph, but others say she was pardoned, due to her beauty and regal bearing, and married a Roman senator and lived peacefully in luxury the rest of her days.

Roman Emperor Aurelian starts building the walls around Rome which would run for 12 miles and were 11 feet thick and 26 feet tall. This is a concrete statement that Rome could no longer hold its enemies back at the border. Other major towns started constructing their own walls against the raiding barbarians whose skills do not typically include siege-craft.

Edict of Milan is issued. Christians are now tolerated in the Roman Empire.

Saint Basil of Caesarea, Greek bishop of Caesarea Mazaca (modern day Turkey), is born. He will care for the poor and establish what we would consider the first hospital.

Ezana, the ruler of Axum (Ethiopia) converts to Christianity

Ezana destroys Meroe, the capital of Kush.

Emperor Julian, "The Apostate," tries to return the Empire back to the Pagan religions, but utterly fails.

Mayan envoy "Fire Is Born" enters the city of Waka. He will consolidate the small Mayan city states and launch the Mayan golden age that will endure for five centuries.

The Battle of Adrianople (Hadrianopolis) - the beginning of the end of Roman military power. Not waiting for reinforcements, Emperor Valens gives the order to his weary men to attack the circled wagons of the Goths. In a surprise to all, the absent Gothic Cavalry returns just as the battle is about to begin. The heavy Cavalry routes the light horsemen of the Romans and is victorious over the Roman infantry. Some scholars think this was a historic turning point in the tactics of warfare when the Cavalry gained supremacy over infantry… the Battle of Adrianople shook the confidence of the Roman Empire and the Romans dealt in a defensive manner with the Goths. The Goths were originally glad to be allowed to enter the Empire but were treated very badly and abused by corrupt Roman administrators. This treatment angered the Goths and they turned against the Romans.

Saint Augustine of Hippo completes the first autobiography in the Western world, The Confessions. He dies on 28 August 430 during the Vandal siege of his African home of Hippo, in modern day Algeria. He wrote clearly about the absolute need of God's grace to a fallen humanity.

After being betrayed by Rome several times Alaric marches on Rome to demand the money promised to his troops. Emperor Honorius refuses, and the Visigoths sack Rome for three days. Aleric tells his troops to not kill unnecessarily and not to harm churches or religious statuary.

Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo in North Africa argues for the equality of all human beings.

Bantu-speakers arrive in what is now South Africa with iron and domesticated cattle.

Beginning of the trans-Saharan salt and gold trade in West Africa.

An extensive slave trade develops in Medieval Europe. The vast majority of the slaves originate in what is now Russia and eastern Europe, but slaves come from every society on the continent. By 1300 a small number of slaves are of African origin.

Ethiopia defeats the Jewish prince Dhu Nuwas, to establish Christianity in Yemen.

The coldest winter in 2,000 years haunts Europe. Summer does not come and the sun shines only faintly, perhaps due to ash from volcanoes. Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian's dream of revitalizing the Eastern and Western Roman Empires is dealt a severe blow, but the bad news is just starting.