Ages of Man. The Ages of Man are the stages of human existence on the Earth according to Greek mythology. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to progress from an original, long-gone age in which humans enjoyed a nearly divine existence to the current age of the writer, in which humans are beset by innumerable pains and evils. In the two accounts that survive from ancient Greece and Rome, this degradation of the human condition over time is indicated symbolically with metals of successively decreasing value. [citation needed] Hesiod's Five Ages[edit] Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Silver Age The first extant account of the successive ages of humanity comes from the Greek poet Hesiod's Works and Days (lines 109–201). Ovid's Four Ages[edit] The Roman poet Ovid (1st century BC – 1st century AD) tells a similar myth of Four Ages in Book 1.89–150 of the Metamorphoses. Ovid emphasizes the justice and peace that defined the Golden Age.
Historicity of the Ages[edit] Three-age system. The three-age system in archaeology and physical anthropology is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective tool-making technologies: Jomon pottery, Japanese Stone Age. Origin[edit] The concept of dividing pre-historical ages into systems based on metals extends far back in European history, but the present archaeological system of the three main ages: stone, bronze and iron, originates with the Danish archaeologist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865), who placed the system on a more scientific basis by typological and chronological studies, at first, of tools and other artifacts present in the Museum of Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen (later the National Museum of Denmark).
He later used artifacts and the excavation reports published or sent to him by Danish archaeologists who were doing controlled excavations. [edit] "... then Zeus the father created the third generation of mortals, the age of bronze ... And in 1822: Bronze Age. Diffusion of metallurgy in Europe and Asia Minor. The darkest areas are the oldest. The Bronze Age is a time period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze and proto-writing, and other features of urban civilization.
The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, for classifying and studying ancient societies. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing. History[edit] The overall period is characterized by the full adoption of bronze in many regions, though the place and time of the introduction and development of bronze technology was not universally synchronous.[2] Man-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques.
Near East[edit] Southwest Asia / Middle East. Iron Age. Archaeological period The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly applied to Iron Age Europe and the Ancient Near East, but also, by analogy, to other parts of the Old World. The duration of the Iron Age varies depending on the region under consideration. It is defined by archaeological convention. The Iron Age is taken to end, also by convention, with the beginning of the historiographical record. In the Indian sub-continent, the Iron Age is taken to begin with the ironworking Painted Gray Ware culture.
History of the concept[edit] The time and context of this Iron Age era varied by geography or country.[2] Please note that classically, it is said that this era occurred in the 12th century BC.[3] Chronology[edit] [edit] Ancient Near East[edit] West Asia[edit] Egypt[edit] Europe[edit] Asia[edit] General. Stone Age. Modern Awash River, Ethiopia, descendant of the Palaeo-Awash, source of the sediments in which the oldest Stone Age tools have been found The Stone Age is the first of the three-age system of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: Historical significance[edit] The Stone Age is nearly contemporaneous with the evolution of the genus Homo, the only exception possibly being at the very beginning, when species prior to Homo may have manufactured tools.
According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the other living Primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest, where the primates evolved. The Stone Age in archaeology[edit] Beginning of the Stone Age[edit] "...the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers .... End of the Stone Age[edit] The Old World.
[Ancient] Rome. [Ancient] Greece.