Humans · Era

Rise of Homo Sapiens

300 kya – 12 kya

Our species emerges, develops language, art, and spreads across the world.

Date source not yet attached to this catalogue record.

Show in earlier-history viewComparison uses the human-history calendar.

Key events

About 300 thousand years ago

Homo sapiens in Africa

Our species evolved in Africa long before farming or cities. Communities developed varied tools, ways of living and cultural traditions over a long history; farming was not the beginning of modern humans.

100,000 years ago

Language Emerges

Complex symbolic communication develops.

70,000 years ago

Out of Africa

Humans migrate across the world.

65,000 years ago

Humans Reach Australia

Seafaring migrations to Sahul.

40,000 years ago

Cave Art — Chauvet & Lascaux

The first great art — bison, horses, handprints.

20,000 years ago

Humans Reach the Americas

Migrations across Beringia populate the New World.

Era Overview

Period300 kya – 12 kya

Events and overlapping lifetimes are paginated below.

ScaleHumans

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