|
Major assumptions and dating within the model
Overarching assumptions within the model
The model is predicated on leading edge societies and economies. Therefore the dating is not when summits are reached or even neared but rather when the aegis for the historical events began. For this reason I take a conservative line and assume that when we are reviewing ancient and prehistoric history, there is lag time factored in and assumed. Humans were working the problem prior to our having found the archeological evidence in tools. The start in the development for any prehistoric inventions left scant trace levels for evidence. We only see the technology and thinking once it has come into wide use. This is assumed inside of the model.
The model is based primarily on the West and the areas surrounding the Levant. Civilization in the Fareast occurs later than in Mesopotamia and does during the agricultural era race far ahead and become leading edge during the Update and Transmission periods of the agricultural era. However as I don't know their history well enough, as well as most of the people reviewing the model don't know Far Eastern history in any great detail, I have kept the focus on the West and its roots from the Levant. Further though I have studied some Far Eastern history, I feel the complexity added by tracking dilutes what the model can tell us now. Further the very late move in India from oral to written texts requires a specialist for dating which I am not. As well the histories written for China reference dating relating to the communist party and therefore the potential impact in coloring historical dates also mandates specialists to separate any wheat from the chafe.
Model dating logic
Start Dates for the three eras:
176,000 – date from the Genographic project for the proverbial "mitochondrial Eve" (1st human woman). Female mitochondrial DNA dates back to 176000 years ago. The project found that females store every generation in their DNA – men do not. This is the most exacting date I have found anywhere for the start of the Homo Sapien Sapien (human beings) family.
The model also uses the uses the assumptions of primate evolution from a bush like structure which most scholars accept today instead of the older and easier tree like linear structure. As well it is assumed that the 1st humans were East Africans who walked out to populate the world – hence the different start dates for civilization in direct proportion to distance from East Africa.
10,000 years ago is the date for the onset of the stable weather we still have and enjoy today for the Holocene Epoch. Using the ratios from the model I calculated the start date for the start of agriculture to 9675 years ago. Coincidentally farming erupted just after the weather became warmer and wetter. Likely hunter-gatherers had always tried to domesticate plants but couldn't till the weather stabilized.
1768CE. This is the date when Richard Arkwright first designed his spinning frame. Though originally mule powered, in the following year he powered it with water and then later powered it with a steam engine. This invention was a single catalyst for the industrial revolution through the automation of the cotton mill. Cotton prices fell from 1768 forward resultantly.
Agricultural era dates:
7675BCE: This was almost 10,000 years ago and is the start of the Holocene Epoch. This event more than any other enabled humanity to farm. This date also coincides with accepted scholarly dating of oldest farming communities and first towns.
4000BCE: The end of the Ubaidian civilization is dated to around 4000BCE. The Sumerians who followed the Ubaidian's invented writing and more immediately followed and this is the reason for the date choice. There is also speculation today that the Egyptians may have actually invented writing to the Sumerians. In either event civilization exploded in Mesopotamia with the arrival of the Sumerians and the Egyptians from a technological perspective.
2000BCE: Though the Hebrews started writing down their books around 800BCE, the texts were originally oral stories which have been dated as far back as 2000BCE. In the West the Hebrews, Christians and Islam make up almost 100% of their survival guides. This is why I chose the start of the Hebrew traditions as the start for the updates in the West.
200BCE: This is the end date for the Axial Age, a term coined by Karl Jaspers who noted that all of the major religions came into existence, or the seeds had been laid between 800-200BCE. Though I think a case can be made for one exception with the Hinduism, as it is much older as many of its customs derives from hunter-gatherer traditions, the 200BCE date certainly was the end date for the worldview update.
1300CE: The Middle Ages was the peak in the transmission and codification of worldview. The start of the Renaissance marks the start of the undercurrents which created not only industrial epoch but also served as the historical events which began to dismantle church power and authority through the development of humanist thinking.
Model Index
|
| 
