In the video above, UsefulCharts creator Matt Baker suggests that we not refer to the period spanning the fifth and the late fifteenth centuries as the “dark ages.” In justification, he doesn’t put forth the argument, now fairly common, that the time in question was actually full of subtle innovation occluded by modern prejudice. The real problem, as he sees it, is that the slowing, if not reversing, of the progress of human society that we’ve traditionally regarded as occurring in what are commonly known as the Middle Ages only occurred in Europe. What’s more, there have been multiple such eras in the world: take the earlier “Greek dark ages” associated with the Bronze Age civilizational collapse of 1177 BC.
All this and more comes across at a glance on Baker’s Timeline of World History, whose design is explained in the video. With characteristic UsefulCharts clarity (also demonstrated by the World Religions Family Tree and the Evolution of the Alphabet, previously featured here on Open Culture), it lays out all the periods of history we may know better by their names than by their relationship to actual events.
At the top, it begins with the end of prehistory and the start of history: that is, when writing developed around 5,300 years ago. At that point, multiple civilizations had already begun to establish themselves around the world, and it is their growth and decline represented by the thickness of the lines running down the timeline’s regular century-long divisions.
As the early Bronze Age gives way to the Bronze Age, the Bronze Age gives way to the Iron Age, and the Iron Age gives way to Classical Antiquity, these lines of civilization thicken into those of empire. None come thicker than that of ancient Rome, which occupies the visual center of the poster (itself, incidentally, available for purchase from UsefulCharts’ site), but the design’s strength lies less in underscoring the importance of any one empire than of revealing how much history was going on all over the world at any given time. Using its vertical lines to trace the rise and fall of the Olmecs, say, or the Aksumite Empire or the Mississippian Culture, one can hardly suppress a feeling of Ozymandian transience. Nor, for that matter, can one ignore that all of us live out our lives within the span of two of its horizontal ones.
Related content:
An Interactive Timeline Covering 14 Billion Years of History: From The Big Bang to 2015
The History of Civilization Mapped in 13 Minutes: 5000 BC to 2014 AD
The Writing Systems of the World Explained, from the Latin Alphabet to the Abugidas of India
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
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