{ "schema_version": "icux-human-making-1.0.0", "task_id": "ICUX-002", "stable_id": "resource:icux-002:timeline-human-making", "title": "Timeline of Human Making", "route": "/experiences/icux-002/", "checked_on": "2026-09-12", "chronology_note": "date_start and date_end are signed numeric ordering keys. Negative values sort before positive years. Deep-prehistory labels preserve source wording such as 'years ago' rather than pretending to exact calendar dates.", "interpretive_boundary": "Milestones are aligned for comparison, not connected as a single ladder of progress. claimed_relationship states what is and is not being asserted.", "tracks": [ { "id": "stone", "label": "Stone shaping", "subtitle": "Percussion, bifacial shaping, prepared cores and hafted points", "accent": "#d7b47a" }, { "id": "ceramics", "label": "Ceramics", "subtitle": "Hand building, rotational forming, firing and porcelain", "accent": "#f08f6e" }, { "id": "textiles", "label": "Textiles", "subtitle": "Fiber preparation, weaving and encoded pattern control", "accent": "#c99cff" }, { "id": "printing", "label": "Printing", "subtitle": "Relief, movable type, lithography and offset transfer", "accent": "#74d4bd" }, { "id": "photography", "label": "Photography", "subtitle": "Photochemical capture, negatives and industrialized image workflows", "accent": "#79bfff" } ], "milestones": [ { "id": "stone-01-lomekwi", "track": "stone", "date_start": -3300000, "date_end": -3300000, "date_label": "c. 3.3 million years ago", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian notes evidence from Kenya that earlier episodes of toolmaking may reach about 3.3 million years ago; this is treated as a possible early episode, not a settled start point for later traditions.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "moderate", "region": "Kenya, East Africa", "process": "Possible very early percussive stone toolmaking", "summary": "Stone was deliberately struck to create useful edges before the classic Oldowan record, but the relationship between these early finds and later tool traditions remains unresolved.", "claimed_relationship": "possible earlier episode; no direct Oldowan lineage claimed", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-early-tool-kit" ] }, { "id": "stone-02-oldowan", "track": "stone", "date_start": -2600000, "date_end": -2600000, "date_label": "at least c. 2.6 million years ago", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian dates the earliest widely recognized Oldowan toolmaking to at least about 2.6 million years ago.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "high", "region": "Africa", "process": "Oldowan percussion flaking", "summary": "Hammerstones struck cores to detach sharp flakes, creating a repeatable toolkit of cores, flakes, and battered hammerstones.", "claimed_relationship": "established early stone-tool tradition; not treated as the sole origin of all later knapping", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-early-stone", "src-smithsonian-early-tool-kit" ] }, { "id": "stone-03-acheulean", "track": "stone", "date_start": -1760000, "date_end": -1760000, "date_label": "c. 1.76 million years ago", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian places the appearance of Acheulean handaxes and other large cutting tools at about 1.76 million years ago.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "high", "region": "Africa; later wider Old World", "process": "Bifacial shaping of large cutting tools", "summary": "Makers struck large flakes and then refined edges around both faces, producing handaxes and related large cutting tools with more sustained shaping sequences.", "claimed_relationship": "coexists with simpler core-and-flake work; not a universal replacement", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-early-stone" ] }, { "id": "stone-04-prepared-core-hint", "track": "stone", "date_start": -625000, "date_end": -625000, "date_label": "as early as c. 625,000 years ago", "dating_basis": "A Smithsonian Olorgesailie field report describes small blades from carefully prepared cores in deposits dated around 625,000 years, explicitly presenting them as an early hint of a later approach.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "tentative", "region": "Olorgesailie, Kenya", "process": "Early prepared-core experimentation", "summary": "Some toolmakers appear to have planned core geometry so that smaller flakes of intended size and shape could be detached, well before prepared-core methods became widespread in later toolkits.", "claimed_relationship": "experimental precursor-like behavior; continuity to later Middle Stone Age is not assumed", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-olorgesailie-2011" ] }, { "id": "stone-05-olorgesailie-msa", "track": "stone", "date_start": -320000, "date_end": -300000, "date_label": "c. 320,000–300,000 years ago", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian research at Olorgesailie places a major behavioral and technological transition beginning around 320,000 years ago.", "precision": "interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Olorgesailie, Kenya", "process": "Prepared-core points with nonlocal obsidian", "summary": "Smaller points, prepared-core production, potential hafting, and obsidian from distant sources appear together in a regional Middle Stone Age transition.", "claimed_relationship": "regional transition with new planning and material networks; not a global invention date", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-olorgesailie-innovation" ] }, { "id": "stone-06-msa-established", "track": "stone", "date_start": -285000, "date_end": -200000, "date_label": "c. 285,000–200,000 years ago", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian reports Middle Stone Age toolkits established by at least about 285,000 years in parts of Africa and 250,000–200,000 years in parts of Europe and western Asia.", "precision": "interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Africa; western Eurasia", "process": "Prepared cores and hafted points become established in multiple regions", "summary": "Prepared cores improved predictability; points could be hafted to shafts, while scrapers and awls broadened the toolkit. Timing differs by region.", "claimed_relationship": "multiple regional establishments; no single synchronized origin", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-middle-stone" ] }, { "id": "ceramics-01-jiangxi", "track": "ceramics", "date_start": -18000, "date_end": -18000, "date_label": "c. 18,000 BCE", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian's Chinese history timeline places earliest pottery production at about 18,000 BCE in present-day Jiangxi, describing the finds as about twenty thousand years old.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "high", "region": "Jiangxi, China", "process": "Early fired-clay vessel production", "summary": "People shaped and fired clay containers long before agriculture became established in China, showing that ceramic making did not depend on farming first.", "claimed_relationship": "very early pottery tradition; not presented as the origin of all ceramic traditions", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-china-timeline" ] }, { "id": "ceramics-02-jomon-coil", "track": "ceramics", "date_start": -10500, "date_end": -8000, "date_label": "c. 10,500–8000 BCE", "dating_basis": "The Met dates Incipient Jōmon to ca. 10,500–8000 BCE and describes vessels built by hand with coils and fired in open bonfires.", "precision": "interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Japan", "process": "Coil-building and open-fire pottery", "summary": "Jōmon potters built vessels coil by coil without a wheel, smoothed surfaces with tools, and fired dried pots in outdoor bonfires.", "claimed_relationship": "independent regional hand-building tradition; no transmission from Jiangxi asserted", "sources": [ "src-met-jomon" ] }, { "id": "ceramics-03-west-asia-pottery", "track": "ceramics", "date_start": -6900, "date_end": -5400, "date_label": "from c. 6900 BCE", "dating_basis": "The Met describes western Asian Pottery Neolithic production beginning about 6900 BCE; Hacilar workshop traditions are documented later in the sixth millennium BCE.", "precision": "approximate_interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Western Asia / Anatolia", "process": "Workshop pottery, slipping, polishing, and painted decoration", "summary": "Pottery production became a sustained village craft with dedicated workshop areas, surface slips, polishing, and later painted decoration.", "claimed_relationship": "regional development; no claim that western Asian pottery derives from East Asian pottery", "sources": [ "src-met-hacilar" ] }, { "id": "ceramics-04-potters-wheel", "track": "ceramics", "date_start": -4000, "date_end": -3000, "date_label": "4th millennium BCE", "dating_basis": "The Met notes that hand production continued for millennia in western Asia and that the potter's wheel was invented in the fourth millennium BCE.", "precision": "century_range", "confidence": "high", "region": "Western Asia", "process": "Rotational forming on the potter's wheel", "summary": "Rotational forming changed how symmetrical vessels could be shaped and standardized, adding a new forming method rather than eliminating hand-building.", "claimed_relationship": "mechanical forming method layered onto older hand-building traditions", "sources": [ "src-met-hacilar" ] }, { "id": "ceramics-05-tang-porcelain", "track": "ceramics", "date_start": 581, "date_end": 700, "date_label": "late 6th–7th century CE", "dating_basis": "The Met notes that porcelain became used for daily and tomb goods after the late sixth century; its Sui–Tang bowl record is dated to the seventh century.", "precision": "century_interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "China", "process": "Porcelain enters wider ceramic use", "summary": "Refined white clay and high-temperature firing supported porcelain vessels for practical and funerary use, emerging from much longer Chinese high-fired ceramic traditions.", "claimed_relationship": "gradual material and firing refinement; no single-day invention claimed", "sources": [ "src-met-chinese-porcelain" ] }, { "id": "ceramics-06-meissen", "track": "ceramics", "date_start": 1708, "date_end": 1710, "date_label": "1708–1710 CE", "dating_basis": "The Met reports successful true hard-paste porcelain production in 1708 and the founding/transfer of the Meissen factory in 1710.", "precision": "interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Saxony, Europe", "process": "European hard-paste porcelain formulation and kiln control", "summary": "Experiments with fusible clays, high-temperature kilns, and dense stoneware culminated in hard-paste porcelain production in Saxony.", "claimed_relationship": "European reinvention after sustained attempts to reproduce East Asian porcelain; not the first porcelain globally", "sources": [ "src-met-meissen" ] }, { "id": "textiles-01-cordage", "track": "textiles", "date_start": -26000, "date_end": -26000, "date_label": "c. 26,000 years ago", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian notes that by around 26,000 years ago people were weaving plant fibers into cords and perhaps baskets.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "moderate", "region": "Multiple prehistoric contexts", "process": "Plant-fiber twisting and cord weaving", "summary": "Flexible plant fibers were organized into cords and possibly containers, showing structured fiber-making long before mechanized looms.", "claimed_relationship": "early fiber technology; specific lineage to later loom weaving is not asserted", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-carrying" ] }, { "id": "textiles-02-silk", "track": "textiles", "date_start": -2700, "date_end": -2700, "date_label": "c. 2700 BCE", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian's Chinese history timeline places earliest silk production around 2700 BCE.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "high", "region": "China", "process": "Sericulture and silk fiber production", "summary": "Silkworm domestication enabled a controlled source of long, lustrous fibers that supported distinctive spinning, weaving, dyeing, and trade systems.", "claimed_relationship": "regional material innovation; separate from plant-fiber and Andean textile traditions", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-china-timeline" ] }, { "id": "textiles-03-drawloom", "track": "textiles", "date_start": -1900, "date_end": -1900, "date_label": "from c. 1900 BCE", "dating_basis": "The Met describes the drawloom as a Chinese invention from about 1900 BCE used to weave intricate patterned silks.", "precision": "approximate", "confidence": "moderate", "region": "China", "process": "Drawloom pattern control", "summary": "A drawloom could selectively raise groups of warp threads, expanding the complexity of repeatable woven patterns beyond simpler loom arrangements.", "claimed_relationship": "complex loom control within Chinese weaving; later drawloom use elsewhere does not imply a single unchanged design", "sources": [ "src-met-woven-silk" ] }, { "id": "textiles-04-andean", "track": "textiles", "date_start": -2000, "date_end": -1000, "date_label": "2nd millennium BCE", "dating_basis": "The Met places cloth's established cultural importance in the Andes by the second millennium BCE and documents weaving, dyeing, knotting, and plaiting as core techniques.", "precision": "millennium_interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Andean South America", "process": "Integrated weaving, dyeing, knotting, and plaiting traditions", "summary": "Andean makers developed a sophisticated textile system using multiple fiber techniques, with cloth carrying social, ritual, and political meaning.", "claimed_relationship": "independent Andean textile complex; not derived from Eurasian loom histories", "sources": [ "src-met-andean-textiles" ] }, { "id": "textiles-05-spinning-jenny", "track": "textiles", "date_start": 1765, "date_end": 1765, "date_label": "1765 CE", "dating_basis": "Science Museum Group collection records identify a reproduction of Hargreaves's original spinning jenny as 1765 and describe the machine's multi-spindle spinning principle.", "precision": "year", "confidence": "high", "region": "Britain", "process": "Multi-spindle spinning jenny", "summary": "One operator could manage multiple spindles, increasing yarn output while still relying on human power and a broader hand-to-factory textile system.", "claimed_relationship": "one strand of British textile mechanization; not the origin of spinning itself", "sources": [ "src-science-spinning-jenny" ] }, { "id": "textiles-06-jacquard", "track": "textiles", "date_start": 1804, "date_end": 1804, "date_label": "c. 1804 CE", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian describes Jacquard's punched-card loom attachment as developed about 1804, with cards controlling which warp threads were raised.", "precision": "approximate_year", "confidence": "high", "region": "France", "process": "Punched-card control of patterned weaving", "summary": "Interchangeable punched cards automated warp selection for complex patterns, separating pattern instructions from the weaver's moment-to-moment manual selection.", "claimed_relationship": "automation built on earlier drawloom and punched-control ideas; not treated as the invention of weaving", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-jacquard" ] }, { "id": "printing-01-china-paper", "track": "printing", "date_start": 700, "date_end": 750, "date_label": "c. 700 CE", "dating_basis": "The Met states that, according to current scholarship, printing on paper was invented in China about 700 CE.", "precision": "approximate_interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "China", "process": "Relief woodblock printing on paper", "summary": "Carved relief blocks enabled repeat impressions of text and images on paper, supporting duplication at scales impossible for hand copying alone.", "claimed_relationship": "early paper-printing tradition; not the origin of every later printing system", "sources": [ "src-met-print-china" ] }, { "id": "printing-02-diamond-sutra", "track": "printing", "date_start": 868, "date_end": 868, "date_label": "868 CE", "dating_basis": "The Diamond Sutra's colophon dates this surviving complete printed text to 868; earlier printing examples are known, so the milestone is the dated surviving complete text, not 'first printing.'", "precision": "year", "confidence": "high", "region": "Dunhuang / China", "process": "Dated complete woodblock-printed scroll", "summary": "A long printed Buddhist scroll demonstrates mature woodblock production, coordinated carving, inking, paper handling, and distributed religious publishing.", "claimed_relationship": "surviving dated evidence within an already developing Chinese printing tradition", "sources": [ "src-idp-diamond-sutra" ] }, { "id": "printing-03-jikji", "track": "printing", "date_start": 1377, "date_end": 1377, "date_label": "1377 CE", "dating_basis": "UNESCO records Jikji as printed with movable metal type at Heungdeok-sa in Cheongju in July 1377.", "precision": "year", "confidence": "high", "region": "Cheongju, Korea", "process": "Movable metal type printing", "summary": "Individually cast metal type was arranged and reused to print a Buddhist text, providing surviving evidence of a Korean metal-type printing tradition.", "claimed_relationship": "East Asian movable-metal-type tradition; no direct transmission to Gutenberg is claimed", "sources": [ "src-unesco-jikji" ] }, { "id": "printing-04-gutenberg", "track": "printing", "date_start": 1454, "date_end": 1455, "date_label": "1454–1455 CE", "dating_basis": "Library of Congress places the Gutenberg Bible in Mainz in 1454/1455 and describes completion probably in late 1455.", "precision": "interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Mainz, Germany", "process": "Western European movable metal type press system", "summary": "Uniform reusable type, ink, presswork, and page imposition were combined into a production system capable of large, consistent books.", "claimed_relationship": "Western European typographic system; not described as the first movable metal type globally", "sources": [ "src-loc-gutenberg" ] }, { "id": "printing-05-lithography", "track": "printing", "date_start": 1796, "date_end": 1796, "date_label": "1796 CE", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian dates Alois Senefelder's invention of lithography to 1796.", "precision": "year", "confidence": "high", "region": "Bavaria", "process": "Planographic lithography", "summary": "Printing from a flat stone surface used chemical affinity rather than raised or incised relief, opening a new family of image and text reproduction methods.", "claimed_relationship": "new planographic process alongside relief and intaglio methods", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-lithography" ] }, { "id": "printing-06-offset", "track": "printing", "date_start": 1903, "date_end": 1903, "date_label": "c. 1903 CE", "dating_basis": "Smithsonian dates Ira Rubel's modern paper offset process to around 1903 and notes earlier transfer practices on other materials.", "precision": "approximate_year", "confidence": "high", "region": "New Jersey, United States", "process": "Rubber-blanket offset lithography on paper", "summary": "The image transfers first to an intermediate rubber-covered surface and then to paper, improving consistency on commercial presses.", "claimed_relationship": "modern paper-offset implementation; earlier transfer methods existed and are acknowledged", "sources": [ "src-smithsonian-lithography" ] }, { "id": "photo-01-niepce", "track": "photography", "date_start": 1826, "date_end": 1827, "date_label": "1826–1827 CE", "dating_basis": "Library of Congress describes Niépce's first permanent photograph as dating to 1826–27; institutional accounts differ on whether a specific surviving image is labeled 1826 or 1827.", "precision": "interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "France", "process": "Heliographic permanent image making", "summary": "Light hardened a photosensitive coating so that an image could survive processing, shifting image formation from hand drawing toward photochemical exposure.", "claimed_relationship": "foundational permanent-image experiment; not a practical mass photographic process by itself", "sources": [ "src-loc-niepce" ] }, { "id": "photo-02-daguerreotype", "track": "photography", "date_start": 1839, "date_end": 1839, "date_label": "1839 CE", "dating_basis": "Library of Congress records the formal public announcement of Daguerre's process in Paris in 1839.", "precision": "year", "confidence": "high", "region": "France", "process": "Daguerreotype direct-positive process", "summary": "A silver-coated plate was sensitized, exposed, developed, and fixed to make a highly detailed one-of-a-kind photographic image without a negative.", "claimed_relationship": "practical direct-positive branch; later negative-positive processes follow a different production logic", "sources": [ "src-loc-daguerre-era" ] }, { "id": "photo-03-calotype", "track": "photography", "date_start": 1841, "date_end": 1841, "date_label": "1841 CE", "dating_basis": "Library of Congress dates William Henry Fox Talbot's calotype patent to 1841.", "precision": "year", "confidence": "high", "region": "Britain", "process": "Paper negative-positive calotype", "summary": "A paper negative could be used to make multiple positive prints, introducing a reproducible workflow distinct from one-off daguerreotype plates.", "claimed_relationship": "parallel negative-positive branch; not a simple improvement of the daguerreotype", "sources": [ "src-loc-daguerre-era" ] }, { "id": "photo-04-collodion", "track": "photography", "date_start": 1851, "date_end": 1851, "date_label": "1851 CE", "dating_basis": "The Met dates publication of the wet collodion process to 1851.", "precision": "year", "confidence": "high", "region": "Britain / rapidly international", "process": "Wet collodion glass negatives", "summary": "A glass plate coated and sensitized immediately before exposure captured high detail and could generate multiple paper prints, but it had to be exposed and developed while wet.", "claimed_relationship": "glass-negative process that displaced many paper negatives and daguerreotypes for practical reasons", "sources": [ "src-met-photo-processes" ] }, { "id": "photo-05-dry-plate", "track": "photography", "date_start": 1880, "date_end": 1885, "date_label": "c. 1880–1885 CE", "dating_basis": "The Met describes commercially prepared gelatin dry plates as rapidly replacing wet collodion in the 1880s; Library of Congress likewise places practical dry-plate adoption in the 1880s.", "precision": "approximate_interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Europe and North America", "process": "Factory-prepared gelatin dry plates", "summary": "Photographers could store light-sensitive plates and expose them later, separating plate preparation from the moment of taking a photograph and shortening exposures.", "claimed_relationship": "convenience and speed shift within glass-negative photography; wet processes persisted in some uses", "sources": [ "src-met-photo-processes", "src-loc-photo-1896" ] }, { "id": "photo-06-kodak", "track": "photography", "date_start": 1888, "date_end": 1889, "date_label": "1888–1889 CE", "dating_basis": "Library of Congress dates Eastman's Kodak camera to 1888 and notes the shift from paper film to a plastic base a year later.", "precision": "interval", "confidence": "high", "region": "Rochester, New York, United States", "process": "Roll-film camera plus centralized processing service", "summary": "The camera, preloaded film, and return-to-factory processing workflow moved much chemical labor away from the picture-taking moment and broadened amateur participation.", "claimed_relationship": "consumer workflow built on earlier dry-plate and film innovations; not the invention of photography", "sources": [ "src-loc-photo-1896" ] } ] }