List of time periods
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This is a list of named time periods defined in various fields of study.
Cosmological time periods
Because of the scales involved (both very large and very small), cosmological time periods are usually described in seconds. In this table, each row is defined in seconds after the Big Bang, with earliest at the top of the chart.
| Seconds after Big Bang | Period |
|---|---|
| to 5.4 × 10−44 | Planck time |
| 10−43 to 10−35 | Planck Epoch |
| 10−35 to 10−33 | Inflationary epoch |
| 10−35 to 10−12 | Epoch of Grand Unification |
| 10−12 to 10−6 | Electroweak Epoch |
| 10−6 to 100 | Hadron Epoch |
| 100 to 102 | Lepton Epoch |
| 102 to 1013 | Epoch of Nucleosynthesis |
| 1013 on | Epoch of Galaxies |
The present time is approximately 4.3 x 1017 seconds after the Big Bang; the Sun and Earth were created about 2 x 1017 seconds after the Big Bang. 1020 seconds is 3 trillion years in the future.
Geologic time periods
The geologic time scale covers the extent of the existence of Earth, from about 4600 million years ago to the present day. It is marked by Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points. Geologic time units are (in order of descending specificity) eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages; and the corresponding chronostratigraphic units, which measure "rock-time", are eonothems, erathems, systems, series, and stages.
The second and third timelines are each subsections of their preceding timeline as indicated by asterisks. The Cenozoic is sometimes divided into the Quaternary and Tertiary periods, although their use is no longer official.
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Human time periods
The human timescale covers the time that humans have existed, usually taken to be from about 250,000 years ago - when homo sapiens began to develop. It is broadly divided into prehistorical (before history began to be recorded) and historical periods (when written records began to be kept).
Prehistorical periods
In archaeology and anthropology, prehistory is subdivided around the three-age system.
- The Stone Age
- *Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)
- *Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic (Middle Stone Age)
- *Neolithic (New Stone Age)
- The Copper Age
- The Bronze Age
Historical periods
- Antiquity
- *Iron Age
- *(Ancient Greece, c:a 1000 BC-, see Timeline of Ancient Greece)
- *Pax Romana (Roman Empire, 96 - 180)
- *Period of the Three Kingdoms (China, 220 - 280)
- Middle Ages (Europe, 5th century - 15th century)
- *Viking Age (Scandinavia, Europe, 793 - 1066)
- *Nara period (Japan, 709 - 795)
- *Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (China, 907 - 960)
- *Sengoku period (Japan, 1478 - 1605)
- *The Renaissance (Europe, 14th century - 16th century)
- Early Modern (Europe, 14th century - 18th century)
- *Elizabethan period (United Kingdom, 1558 - 1603)
- *The Reformation (Europe, 16th century)
- *The Age of Enlightenment (Europe,18th century)
- *Tokugawa shogunate (Japan, 1603 - 1868)
- Modern (Europe, 18th century - 20th century)
- *Industrial Revolution (Europe 18th and 19th centuries)
- *Napoleonic Era, 1799-1815
- *Victorian era (United Kingdom, 1837 - 1901)
- *Edwardian period (United Kingdom, 1901 - 1910)
- *Meiji era (Japan, 1868 - 1912)
- *World War I (Earth, 1914 - 1918)
- *Interwar period (Earth, 1918 - 1939 or 1937)
- *World War II (Earth, 1937 or 1939 - 1945)
- *Cold War (Soviet Union and United States, as well as Earth, 1945-1989)
- *Post-communist period (Russia, after 1991)
Calendar systems
Various societies in the past all over the world have created calendars to record events, such as religious dates and other celebrations. A common characteristic of most of the known calendars is that they count years from some point in history, either known or unknown. This of course leads to a calendar based periodization. Most commonly known is the christian time calendar, with its time before and after Christ. Others are the Islamic and Jewish calendars.
- Before Common Era (Formely known as Before Christ)
- Common Era (Formerly known as Anno Domini)
- Islamic calendar
- Jewish calendar
Mythological and astrological time periods
- Astrological ages
- * Age of Taurus
- * Age of Aries
- * Age of Pisces
- * Age of Aquarius
- Greek mythology
- * Golden Age, self-sufficient
- * Silver Age, self-indulgent
- * Bronze Age, warlike
- * Heroic Age, nobly aspirant
- * Iron Age, violent
Specialist human periods
See also
- Periodization for a discussion of the tendency to try to fit history into non-overlapping periods.
- Exponential timeline shows all history on one page in ten lines.
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