PRE HISTORY CHRONOLOGY

BP – Before Present

4600m years - Age of Earth

3500m years - Birth of life on earth
40m years - emergence of Indian subcontinent
30m years - Appearance of earliest humans
6m years - Appearance of hominids ( southern and eastern Africa )
5.5m -
2.2m - Skulls of Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus in the
Potwar plateau in Pakistan Punjab
in the Siwalik hill area Appearance of Australopithecus
2m - lower Palaeolithic age in Africa
1.8 – 1.6m - Appearance of Homo erectus
Earliest stone hand axe. Fire discovered Appearance of homo habilis
1.5m - (eastern and southern Africa)
230,000-30,000 - Appearance of Homo sapiens
115,000 - Appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens
(modern man in south Africa ) last phase of uplift of the Himalayas
1200 -
BC
2m-12000 - Pleistocene ( ice age )
700000 - Skull of archaic Homo sapiens from the Narmada valley
600,000-150,000 - Lower Palaeolithic age in India
150,000 -
50000 - Origin of language. Austric people came to India Middle Palaeolithic age in India
35,000 -
34000 - fossils of Homo sapiens sapiens in Sri Lanka
30,000 - Dravidians come to India

12,000 till present - Holocene ( post-ice age ) Upper Palaeolithic age in India

10000 -

9000 - Neolithic age in W.Asia

7000 - Neolithic settlement in Indian subcontinent.

Earliest agri. settlements in Baluchistan Start of plant cultivation in India
6000 -
5th M - Existence of granaries, use of mud bricks. Mesolithic age in India
5000 - Earliest evidence of domestication of animals in India
Neolithic sites to the north of Vindyas
4500 onwards - Potters wheel
4000 - Brahui ( Dravidian) speakers come to India
Pre Harappan settlements in Cholistan (Pakistan)
3M - writing enters Indus culture
3M – 2M - Extreme aridity and freezing temperature in Central Asia
3000 – 2000 - period of heavy rain and substantial flow of water into Indus & Saraswati

2800 - 2200 - Date of ganeshwar deposits (Rajasthan)

2700 - Earliest date for Neolithic settlement in Kashmir
2500 - Earliest Neolithic settlement in south India
2500 – 1900 - Mature Harappan culture
2100 -1500 - Ahar Chalcolithic culture (Banas valley ,Rajasthan )
2000 onwards - Wide use of black and red ware
2000 - Earliest date for Chirand’s Neolithic phase. Elam as a powerful satate. Remains of
horse in surkotada
2000 – 1800 - Kayatha chalcolithic culture (MP)
2000 – 1500 - Ochre coloured pottery culture
1900 – 1500 - Degenerate phase of Harappan culture in Gujarat ,Rajasthan, Haryana &
western U.P
1900-1200 - Post Urban Harappan culture
1800 - early trace of gold in Karnataka. Use of rice in Lothal

1700 -Yamuna and Sutlej leave Saraswati. Existence of horse & Bactrian camel in
Baluchistan
1700 – 1200 - Malwa culture found in Nvdatoli, Eran, & Nagda (MP)
1500 - Chalcolithic burnt bricks in Gilund (Rajasthan)
1500 -1200 -Vedic entry into Indian subcontinent
1500 – 1000 - Rig Veda
1400 -700 - Jorwe culture (Maharashtra )
1200 - Many Chalcolithic sites in Central & E India
1200 onwards - Eclipse of Chalcolithic habitations in W.India
1000 - Latest evidence of Neolithic settlements
in Southern & Eastern India. Earliest date of Khetri copper belts
500 - Start of Middle Indo – Aryan , covering Prakrit, Pali and Apabhramsha
languages
300 - Fired bricks used in North India. Writing in Brahmi script
Till 2nd C - Continuity of Chalcolithic black and red ware