Contents 1 Paleolithic era 2 Antiquity 2.1 10th millennium BCE 2.2 9th millennium BCE 2.3 8th millennium BCE 2.4 7th millennium BCE 2.5 6th millennium BCE 2.6 5th millennium BCE 2.7 4th millennium BCE 2.8 3rd millennium BCE 2.9 2nd millennium BCE 2.10 1st millennium BCE 3 1st millennium CE 3.1 1st-5th centuries 3.2 6th-8th centuries 3.3 9th-10th centuries 4 2nd millennium 4.1 11th century 4.2 12th century 4.3 13th century 4.4 14th century 4.5 15th century 4.6 16th century 4.7 17th century 4.8 18th century 4.9 19th century 4.9.1 1800s 4.9.2 1810s 4.9.3 1820s 4.9.4 1830s 4.9.5 1840s 4.9.6 1850s 4.9.7 1860s 4.9.8 1870s 4.9.9 1880s 4.9.10 1890s 4.10 20th century 4.10.1 1900s 4.10.2 1910s 4.10.3 1920s 4.10.4 1930s 4.10.5 1940s 4.10.6 1950s 4.10.7 1960s 4.10.8 1970s 4.10.9 1980s 4.10.10 1990s 5 3rd millennium 5.1 21st century 5.1.1 2000s 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

The timeline of historic inventions is a chronological list of particularly important or significant technological inventions.

Note: Dates for inventions are often controversial. Inventions are often invented by several inventors around the same time, or may be invented in an impractical form many years before another inventor improves the invention into a more practical form. Where there is ambiguity, the date of the first known working version of the invention is used here.

Paleolithic era

• Indeterminate: Music, Language
• 2.4 Ma BP: Olduwan - struck stone tools, in East Africa
• 1.65 Ma: Acheulean - struck and reworked stone tools, in Kenya
• 1.4 Ma: Knife in Ethiopia
• 1 Ma: Controlled fire and sterilization of food and water (cooking) in East Africa
• 500 ka: Shelter construction ^[1]
• 100-500 ka: Clothing
• 400 ka: Pigments in Zambia ^[2]
• 400 ka: Spears in Germany ^[3]
• 200 ka: Burial in Africa
• 140 ka: Bone tools in Africa (see Blombos Cave)
• 140 ka: Shellfishing in Africa (see Blombos Cave)
• 100 ka: Lithic blades in Africa and the ancient Near East
• 60 ka: Ships probably used by settlers of New Guinea
• 50 ka: Bow
• 43 ka: Flute in Slovenia (disputed)^[4]
• 43 ka: Mining in Swaziland and Hungary
• 37 ka: Tally sticks in Swaziland ^[5]
• 35 ka: Flute in Germany^[6]
• 30 ka: Sewing needles
• 26 ka: Ceramics in Moravia
• 25 ka: Atlatl in Northwest Africa ^[7]
• 17 ka: twisted Rope (probably much earlier)
• 15 ka: Boomerang in Australia^[8]
• 12 ka: Basket weaving

See also

• List of inventors
• List of emerging technologies
• English inventions and discoveries
• Inventions of the Islamic Golden Age
• List of Australian inventions
• List of Chinese inventions
• List of Indian inventions and discoveries
• List of Japanese inventions
• List of Korean inventions
• List of United States inventions
• Scottish inventions and discoveries
• Welsh inventions and discoveries

External links

• History of Human Technology
• Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Inventions
• History and Geography of Inventions