Atlas Trail
Seven Eras: A Walk Through World History
World history divided into seven conventional periods, from the vast unrecorded span of prehistory to the world of the last eighty years. Walk them in order to see where each one's boundary comes from, and how the dividing lines historians draw are themselves argued over.
Stop 1 of 7.
Eras
Prehistory: everything before writing, known only through archaeology.
Stop 2 of 7.
Eras
The Ancient Near East and Bronze Age World: the first cities, states and writing systems.
Stop 3 of 7.
Eras
Classical Antiquity: Greece and Rome, from the polis to a Mediterranean-wide empire.
Stop 4 of 7.
Eras
The Post-Classical and Medieval Period: Rome's successor states, Byzantium, Islam's expansion and the Mongol conquests.
Stop 5 of 7.
Eras
The Early Modern Period: overseas empires, the printing press, and contact between hemispheres.
Stop 6 of 7.
Eras
The Late Modern Period: revolution, industry, and two world wars.
Stop 7 of 7.
Eras
The Contemporary Period: from 1945 to the present, an era still open.
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