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Work the Field · Civilizations Compared

The Field Through Time — Civilizations Compared

Every regional timeline on one shared axis. Where the lines separate, civilizations that shared a century did not share a level — the divergence the single world average cannot show.

hover or tap any point for its era and field · tap a connecting leg for the transition between eras
Transition near 2150 BCE Transition near 1 CE Transition near 1950 CE Astrological Age (precession · approximate boundaries) Age of Taurus · ~4300–2150 BCE (only its tail is shown). Precession moves the spring equinox point backward through the zodiac ~1° every 72 years; each age lasts ~2,150 years. Boundaries are conventional, not astronomically fixed.Age of Taurus Age of Aries · ~2150 BCE – ~1 CE. Bronze-to-Iron Age span. Boundaries approximate.Age of Aries Age of Pisces · ~1 CE – present. The equinox point crossing Pisces across nearly all recorded post-classical history. Boundaries approximate.Age of Pisces Age of Aquarius · dawning. Onset is genuinely disputed — estimates range from the 20th century to ~2600 CE — so it is shown only as a cusp at the present edge, not a dated band.Aquarius ▹ Geological Epoch Holocene Epoch · began ~11,700 years ago at the end of the last glacial period; the span of settled human civilization. Shown from the chart's 3000 BCE edge.Holocene Epoch Anthropocene (proposed) · a proposed epoch of human dominance of Earth systems. The ~1950 'Great Acceleration' boundary is most-cited; not yet formally ratified by the ICS.Anthropocene 200 · 200 Coercion ↓ ↑ Consent 250 · 250 310 · 310 350 · 350 400 · 400 3000 BCE 1000 BCE 1 CE 500 CE 700 CE 1000 CE 1300 CE 1500 CE 1700 CE 1850 CE 1950 CE 2026 CE North America · Contact & Conquest (1492) · field 140 North America · Early Colonization (1607) · field 219 North America · King Philip's War (1675) · field 171 North America · Plantation Slavery Entrenched (1700) · field 159 North America · First Great Awakening (1740) · field 256 North America · French & Indian War (1763) · field 222 North America · Revolution & Declaration (1776) · field 301 North America · The Constitution (1787) · field 302 North America · War of 1812 (1812) · field 257 North America · Indian Removal (1835) · field 141 North America · Mexican–American War (1848) · field 187 North America · Abolitionist Movement (1850) · field 299 North America · Civil War & Emancipation (1863) · field 267 North America · Reconstruction's Collapse (1877) · field 238 North America · Gilded Age & Empire (1898) · field 283 North America · Progressive Era (1910) · field 336 North America · World War I (1918) · field 285 North America · Depression & New Deal (1933) · field 322 North America · World War II (1945) · field 319 North America · Civil Rights Movement (1955) · field 388 North America · Vietnam & Upheaval (1968) · field 275 North America · Cold War's End (1989) · field 364 North America · 9/11 & the War on Terror (2003) · field 296 North America · The Present (2026) · field 325 North America China · Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE) · field 171 China · Western Zhou · Mandate of Heaven (1046 BCE) · field 231 China · Hundred Schools · Warring States (350 BCE) · field 277 China · Qin Unification (221 BCE) · field 192 China · Han Synthesis (120 BCE) · field 323 China · Tang Golden Age (700 CE) · field 387 China · Song Dynasty (1000 CE) · field 386 China · Mongol · Yuan (1300 CE) · field 290 China · Ming (1450 CE) · field 332 China · High Qing (1750 CE) · field 324 China · Century of Humiliation (1860 CE) · field 171 China · Republican · Warlord (1920 CE) · field 209 China · Maoist Era (1960 CE) · field 167 China · Reform & Opening (1990 CE) · field 268 China · The Present (2026 CE) · field 281 China Japan · Jōmon (3000 BCE) · field 222 Japan · Yayoi · Yamato (300 CE) · field 234 Japan · Asuka–Nara · Buddhism (700 CE) · field 311 Japan · Heian (1000 CE) · field 325 Japan · Kamakura–Muromachi (1300 CE) · field 301 Japan · Sengoku · Warring States (1500 CE) · field 260 Japan · Edo · Tokugawa (1700 CE) · field 295 Japan · Meiji Restoration (1890 CE) · field 302 Japan · Imperial Militarism (1940 CE) · field 209 Japan · Postwar Miracle (1980 CE) · field 352 Japan · The Present (2026 CE) · field 341 Japan India · Indus Valley (2500 BCE) · field 261 India · Vedic · Upanishadic (800 BCE) · field 283 India · Mauryan · Ashoka (250 BCE) · field 339 India · Gupta Golden Age (400 CE) · field 346 India · Early Medieval (900 CE) · field 301 India · Delhi Sultanate (1300 CE) · field 278 India · Mughal · Akbar (1600 CE) · field 345 India · Late Mughal · Colonial onset (1750 CE) · field 256 India · British Raj (1900 CE) · field 223 India · Independence · Gandhi (1950 CE) · field 320 India · The Present (2026 CE) · field 309 India Persia / Iran · Elamite · Early (2000 BCE) · field 201 Persia / Iran · Achaemenid · Cyrus (500 BCE) · field 355 Persia / Iran · Hellenistic · Parthian (150 BCE) · field 298 Persia / Iran · Sasanian Empire (400 CE) · field 325 Persia / Iran · Islamic Golden Age (900 CE) · field 355 Persia / Iran · Sufi Poetry · Mongol (1250 CE) · field 316 Persia / Iran · Safavid · Isfahan (1600 CE) · field 338 Persia / Iran · Qajar Decline (1850 CE) · field 241 Persia / Iran · Pahlavi Modernization (1950 CE) · field 264 Persia / Iran · Islamic Revolution (1980 CE) · field 221 Persia / Iran · The Present (2026 CE) · field 236 Persia / Iran Russia · Kievan Rus\u2019 (1000 CE) · field 271 Russia · Mongol Yoke (1300 CE) · field 220 Russia · Muscovy (1550 CE) · field 236 Russia · Petrine Empire (1720 CE) · field 249 Russia · Imperial Zenith (1815 CE) · field 241 Russia · Golden Age of Letters (1880 CE) · field 299 Russia · Revolution \u00b7 Civil War (1918 CE) · field 192 Russia · Stalinist USSR (1945 CE) · field 196 Russia · Late Soviet (1975 CE) · field 222 Russia · Post-Soviet \u201990s (1995 CE) · field 233 Russia · The Present (2026 CE) · field 224 Russia Time axis is compressed in antiquity and expanded toward the present, so coexisting civilizations have room to compare. Order is real; spacing is not to scale.

Each line is one region's field — the root-mean-square of its worldview, political, and economic calibrations — across time. Read the vertical gaps: at any moment, the distance between two lines is how far apart those civilizations calibrated. Around 700–1300 CE, China (Tang–Song) and Persia (the Islamic Golden Age and the age of Rumi) ride high while the younger threads sit low — the divergence that a single world average erases. Lines begin where each region's record begins: Japan and China in deep antiquity, North America only at 1492. The time axis is compressed in antiquity and expanded toward the present so that coexisting civilizations have room to be compared; chronological order is exact, but spacing is not to scale. The gold line at 200 is the Coercion / Consent threshold. For the full era-by-era reading of any single region — with every calibration and transition — open its own timeline from the World page.