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Human History Timeline

Explore the vast scale of human history and our brief moment in cosmic time. This interactive timeline spans 300,000 years of human existence.

Human History Timeline

Explore 300,000 years of human history and our brief moment in cosmic time

Zoom: 1.0x

Jump to:

300,000 BCE

100,000 BCE

50,000 BCE

10,000 BCE

5,000 BCE

1,000 BCE

0 CE

500 CE

1000 CE

1500 CE

1800 CE

1900 CE

2000 CE

Present Day

◀ Past

Scroll to explore

Use the era buttons above to jump to different time periods

Cosmic Perspective (Log Scale)

10^1

10^2

10^3

10^4

10^5

10^6

10^7

10^8

10^9

10B+ years

Universe (13.8 billion years)

Earth (4.5 billion years)

Life (3.5 billion years)

Mammals (200 million years)

Humans (300,000 years)

Civilization (10,000 years)

Modern Era (500 years)

Human Lifetime (80 years)

Universe (13.8B years)

Earth (4.5B years)

Life (3.5B years)

Mammals (200M years)

Humans (300K years)

Civilization (10K years)

Modern Era (500 years)

Human Lifetime (80 years)

This logarithmic scale helps visualize the vast differences in time periods. Each power of 10 (10, 100, 1,000, etc.) is given equal space, allowing us to compare extremely different timescales.

On this scale, you can see that human civilization (10,000 years) is just a tiny fraction of Earth's history, and even the entire existence of our species (300,000 years) is barely visible compared to cosmic timescales.

This visualization is inspired by the excellent work from To Scale: The Series. We highly recommend watching their video series for a deeper understanding of time scales.

Why This Matters

Understanding our place in the vast timeline of existence gives us perspective on how we use our brief time on Earth.

This visualization helps you:

Appreciate the brevity of human existence in cosmic time
Understand how recent our technological achievements are
Gain perspective on your own lifespan within human history
Recognize the accelerating pace of human development