Nikhil’s rabbit holes · Interactive exhibit
Civilizations and states run from 3500 BCE to the present. Rows run west to east, from the Americas across Eurasia to Oceania. Time moves left to right.
A bar is a duration, not a map. Wide does not mean large. Shared colors link an empire to the regions it ruled, so Roman provinces share one color and Ottoman lands share another. Overlapping bars are societies alive at the same time.
Dates are the usual textbook ones. Many early dates are approximate or disputed. There is no year 0. Lengths that cross from BCE to CE leave that year out.
This follows the frame of the poster it was made from. Most of sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Korea, and the Pacific are outside that frame, so they are outside this view. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies, and Māori society, are drawn across the years they span, not only at the modern end.
Scroll to move. Pinch, or hold ⌘ and scroll, to zoom. The strip under the buttons is a map of the whole chart. Click a bar for the story and for what else was happening. Double-click a bar to zoom to its lifespan. Press / to search. Esc closes.