Media History Timeline: Prehistoric Era

The Prehistoric Era

Gallery

Ice Age
horse engraved
on pelvis bone

Sketch of
Cro Magnon engraving,
may be lunar
notation,
c. 28,000 BCE

Clay tokens,
Mesopotamia,
4th millennium BCE

Clay ball used to house
clay tokems
found at Uruk site,
Mesopotamia
(modern Iraq)

75,000 - 3501 B.C.E.

Dates are approximate

75,000: Estimated date of geometric carvings found on rocks in South African cave.

45,000: Neanderthal carvings on Wooly Mammoth tooth, discovered near Tata, Hungary

30,000: Ivory horse, oldest known animal carving, from mammoth ivory, discovered near Vogelherd, Germany

28,000: Cro-Magnon notation, possibly of phases of the moon, carved onto bone, discovered at Blanchard, France

10,000: Engraved antler baton, with seal, salmon and plants portrayed, discovered at Montgaudier, France

8,000 -- 3100 BCE: In Mesopotamia, tokens used for accounting and record-keeping