(From "The Last Two Million Years" published in 1974 by The Reader's Digest Association, copyright 1973)
Scroll to the right to see the entire timeline.

Mankind's pre history is actually very uncertain.  It is based on pitifully few fossilized bone fragments found in scattered locations around the world but mostly in Africa.  This chart is a segment from a chart in the book "The Last Two Million Years" published in 1974.  Although somewhat outdated, it is sufficient to show that we as a species have been around for a very long time when compared to the 8000 years our civilization has existed.  The thin red line at the far right of the chart represents the entire history of civilization, dating back 6000 years before the time of Christ, (added to the original).   The 1470 man was a toolmaker.  His tools were nearly as advanced as those made by our earliest ancestors as taught by modern archaeology.  Those ancestors date back about 500,000 years (Homo Erectus).

So, what happened during the two million years from the time of 1470 Man and the beginning of the current civilization?  Is it possible that a civilization could have existed?  Could it have then been destroyed in some manner?  Could there be scant fragments of evidence that has survived to the present to tell of its existence? Could there have been more than one civilization?

Even scant finds of Technology Out of Time are significant.  Remember the old logic exercise: It is very difficult to prove the statement "All ravens are black" To prove this statement it is necessary to verify that every single raven in existence is black.  To prove the statement false, however, all you need to do is find one white raven.  Is anomalous technology that one white raven proving our understanding of prehistory is wrong?

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This page last revised Sunday September 20, 1998