Brief History of the Media Timeline

The Prehistoric Era  (45,000-3501 B.C.E.)

45,000: In what is now Hungary, a Neanderthal carves on a woolly mammoth tooth.

30,000: In what is now France, Chauvet cave dwellers draw on walls.

20,000: In the Koonalda Cave, Australia, finger drawings on clay walls.

10,000: Notches in bones in Near East presumed to be a lunar calendar.

10,000: Writing on skin. Tattooing instruments found in Europe.

9000: Mesopotamia hunter-gatherers settle down; it is the start of agriculture.

6200: Oldest known map, a town plan from Catal Hyk, Turkey.

4800: In Egypt, evidence of astronomical calendar stones.

4004: Bishop Ussher’s date, accepted by early Protestants, of the creation of the world.

4000: Egyptian pharaohs listen to flutes and harps.

3760: Start of Hebrew calendar.

3500-1 B.C.E.

3000: Egypt develops hieroglyphic writing.

2640: China produces silk. It will serve as a writing surface.

2400: In India, engraved seals identify the writer.

2000: Nine Greek muses, responsible for poetry, history, comedy, song, dance.

1700: The written law code of Hammurabi, in Babylonia, carved on a stone pillar.

1500: Babylonian mathematicians figure out the Pythagorean Theorem.

750: The book of Amos.

710: In the Egyptian city of Memphis, an account of creation carved in stone.

620: Draco gives Athens a written code of laws, "draconian" in its harshness.

530: In Athens, a public library.

500: Chinese scholars write on bamboo with reeds dipped in pigment.

415: Lysistrata, comedy by Aristophanes.

250: In Near East city of Pergamum, parchment is made as a writing surface.

105: In Alexandria, the first college of technology is founded.

13: Some of the finest lyrical poems of the mature Horace appear.

1-1099 C.E.

14: Rome sets up network of relay runners carrying messages 50 miles in a day.

100: In India, Vatsyayana writes of erotic arts, the Kama Sutra.

100: Mayas adorn pyramids with wall mural painting of mythology.

120: Plutarch dies after writing of lives of important Greeks and Romans.

235: Dio Cassius dies. His extant histories cover end of republic, rise of imperial Rome.

386: Singing, including "Hallelujah" hymns, introduced into Christian church.

450: Ink on seals is stamped on paper in China. This is true printing.

595: In India, calculations done with nine numerals and zero, the decimal system.

640: Arab invaders find 300,000 scrolls in Alexandrian library.

740: Moors invade Spain, bringing learning and advanced culture.

800: Government pony express in Charlemagne’s Western Europe.

975: First airmail parcel post: pigeons each carry one cherry to Arab caliph.

1095: First Crusade is marker between Dark Ages and Middle Ages.

1100 C.E.-Printing Press

1100: Gothic Textus script introduced when quill pen is cut at an angle.

1150: Start of 350 years of Middle English.

1155: Oldest known printed map shows western China.

1225: “The Fibonacci series” introduced in his Book of Square Numbers.

1270: Syrian scholar compiles an encyclopedia.

1283: Thailand gets its own alphabet

1300: Wooden type is used in central Asia.

1305: Taxis family begins private postal service in Europe.

1333: Petrarch’s discovery of classical manuscripts helps bring on the Renaissance.

1378: In England, the Great Schism; Lollards say lay people can interpret the Bible.

1395: Improved version of the Wyclif Bible is completed.

1400: From Florence comes the Italic script, a flowing handwriting.

1430: Block-printed books published in Holland, Germany.

1436: Leone Alberti writes first book on painting to consider both theory and technique.

1446: The simplifed Korean phonetic alphabet, hangul, with 11 vowels, 28 consonants.

1451: Gutenberg’s press prints an old German poem.

Bibliography:

1. Operations: Story Time presentation and handout

2.  Group 1 Presentation

3.  My blog

4.  University of Minnesota research project