Tag Archives: Ages

Top Tens – Tropes: Top 10 Golden Ages (Special Mention)

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Gold bars (also called ingots or bullion) by Ariel Palmon for Wikipedia “gold” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 

 

TOP 10 GOLDEN AGES

(SPECIAL MENTION)

 

But wait – there’s even more Golden Ages! Given that it has been adapted for common usage to connote peaks of history or culture, real or idealized, virtually everything has its own Golden Age. Indeed, too many to choose from that I had to narrow it down to twenty of the most golden for my usual number of special mentions.

 

(1) GOLDEN AGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT

 

Not surprisingly for a civilization spanning millennia, ancient Egypt had a number of golden ages, albeit apparently not sufficient for their own Wikipedia entry unlike other historical golden ages. The golden ages usually identified for ancient Egypt include the Fourth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom – 2613 to 2494, embodied (or is that entombed?) by the Great Pyramid of Giza built in the reign of pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) – and also the New Kingdom, when Egypt was an empire.

 

(2) GOLDEN AGE OF CHINA

 

China has multiple golden ages – prolific enough for their own Wikipedia entry, although this seems to identify a golden age for each imperial dynasty. Notably the golden age of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing is its peak from 1662-1779, prior to its spectacular decline in the nineteenth century or its Century of Humiliation. Apart from the Qing, the usual golden ages of China are identified as those in the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties.

 

(3) GOLDEN AGE OF INDIA

 

Much like China, numerous golden ages are proposed for India (again prolific enough for their own Wikipedia entry). I tend to prefer the Gupta empire (as the golden age of Hindu India) but others include the Mauryan empire, Vijayanagra empire, Chola empire, and Mughal Empire (as the last golden age of India)

 

(4) ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE

 

The golden age of Islamic civilization, usually proposed as the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun-al-Rashid from 786 AD to 809 AD, with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in the imperial capital of Baghdad, with the city itself representative or symbolic of the golden age. Think the Arabian Nights and you have the legendary depiction of the Islamic Golden Age

Since 23 years or so seems short for a Golden Age, it is usually proposed extending beyond the reign of Harun-al-Rashid through to “the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the siege of Baghdad in 1258”, although I think that understates the decline and fragmentation of the caliphate before that. Some extend it beyond that – to 1350 to include the Timurid empire or even to the 15th or 16th centuries to include the rise of the Islamic gunpowder empires. Sometimes a separate Golden Age is proposed for Spain under Islamic rule or Al-Andalus.

And yes – the Islamic Golden Age gets its own Wikipedia page in that name.

 

(5) GOLDEN AGE OF BYZANTIUM

 

The Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty – at least dubbed as such by the historian Robert Browning. It seemed only fair as I included the period of the Five Good Emperors as a Roman golden age in my Top 10 Golden Ages.

 

(6) PORTUGUESE GOLDEN AGE

 

My first special mention for the golden ages proposed for a whole host of European nations – I limited myself to five such special mentions (from sixth to tenth place special mentions) but it seems to be a common trope used for the political or cultural history of European nations or even regions such as Flanders so that was hardly exhaustive. I could readily have done a top ten (and perhaps even special mentions) just for golden ages proposed by European nations. As it was, my top ten included entries for the French golden age (Grand Siècle and Belle Epoque) and for the English or British golden age (Merrie England – with a shout out to the Elizabethan era for England and the Victorian era for Britain). If you count the Roman Empire and classical Greece or Athens, my top ten included entries for those as well.

Note also the usage for political or cultural history – the denomination of golden age tends to connote not just a zenith of power but also of culture, although those things tend to overlap with each other. Not always, however, as is the case with one of my European golden age special mentions.

The Portuguese Golden Age is usually proposed from 1415 to 1518, corresponding to when Portugal was at the forefront of the European maritime discovery and trade – “possibly the European power of the time most proficient in sailing” – and as such, the first European power to being building a colonial empire in the so-called Age of Discovery. Indeed, for a century or so, the Portuguese were effectively the Age of Discovery.

The Portuguese may have been eclipsed, both in history and popular imagination, by the subsequent and more spectacular Spanish role in the Age of Discovery (and Conquest of the Americas) and their empire may have been more modest – with the exception of Brazil – than Spain or other European powers but it endured from being the first to being one of the last, with its imperial holdings in Africa or East Timor lasting until the 1970s.

Speaking of Brazil, a second Portuguese Golden Age is often proposed revolving around its empire in Brazil and particularly the Brazilian gold rush from the late 17th century to the 19th century. Brazil was the crown jewel of the Portuguese empire – indeed, it was the ruling seat of the empire by the Portuguese royal family in exile during the Napoleonic Wars – and certainly the empire was not the same after Brazilian independence.

 

(7) SPANISH GOLDEN AGE

 

The Spanish Golden Age or Siglo de Oro – also known as the Golden Century, although it’s usually stated to be for a longer period, from 1492 to some point in the seventeenth century.

“The Spanish Golden Age is broadly associated with the reigns of Isabella I, Ferdinand II, Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV, when Spain was at the peak of its power and influence in Europe and the world.”

1492 of course coincided with the final defeat of the Muslims in the Reconquista, as well as Spain’s unification into a single state under the union of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand II. 1492 also coincided with the discovery by Columbus of the New World – which was ultimately to result in Spain achieving heights of empire in the Americas and elsewhere previously undreamed of solely in Europe.

It’s in common enough usage to get its own Wikipedia page in that name.

 

(8) POLISH GOLDEN AGE

 

It’s somewhat surprising to think of a Polish Golden Age coinciding with or even commencing before the Spanish Golden Age, potentially in the fourteenth century or so, and similarly extending through to the seventeenth century – reflected in the territorial extent of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as one of the largest kingdoms of Europe – “at its peak…from modern-day Estonia in the north to Moldavia in the south and from Moscow in the east to Brandenburg in the west”.

And yes – it gets its own Wikipedia page.

 

(9) DUTCH GOLDEN AGE

 

The Dutch Golden Age resembles the Portuguese Golden Age – as the zenith of a smaller European nation punching above its weight in maritime trade and empire. 

The Dutch Golden Age “roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the Rampjaar occurred” – the Rampjaar, or Disaster Year, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch war.

Another Golden Age that gets its own Wikipedia page – as does the Golden Age of Dutch Painting with which it largely coincides. There’s also the Golden Age of Dutch cartography, again largely overlapping the Dutch Golden Age in general.

 

(10) DANISH GOLDEN AGE

 

Something of an exception to the rule of Golden Ages for nations in that the Danish Golden Age usually connotes “a period of exceptional creative production in Denmark, especially during the first half of the 19th century” without coinciding with any corresponding peak of Danish political power or empire. (If it did refer to the latter, it would probably refer to the height of Danish power in the Viking Age or at least when Denmark had a colonial empire beyond Greenland and the Faeroes).

Yet another Golden Age with its own Wikipedia page.  

 

(11) GOLDEN AGE OF THE BARBARIANS

 

Sadly, not a term in popular use but one coined by James C. Scott in his book Against the Grain, in which he wrote that until about 400 or so years ago humanity was in the Golden Age of the Barbarians, an era in which the majority of the world “had never seen a tax collector”. In part, this was due to “barbarian zones” – areas where “states found it either impossible or prohibitively difficult to extend their rule”, typically due to geography or terrain. “Not only did this place a great many people out of the reach of the state, but it also made them significant military threats to the state’s power.”

I’m not entirely sure about Scott’s thesis although one might identify a Golden Age of the Barbarians in the Migration Period or barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire. More broadly, other historians have written of the recurring impact or military power of Central Asian steppe empires or peoples, the so-called steppe effect, punching well above their weight in population.

 

(12) GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY

 

Scott’s Golden Age of the Barbarians prompts to mind a term that is in popular use (so much so that it gets its own Wikipedia page) – the Golden Age of Piracy, typically from 1650 to 1730, “when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans”.

 Apparently, some historians subdivide it into three periods – the buccaneering period from 1650 to 1680 or so (characterized by Anglo-French pirates based in the Caribbean attacking Spanish colonies and ships in the Caribbean and Pacific), the Pirate Round in the 1690s (characterized by longer voyages from the Americans to prey on East India Company shipping in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea), and the post-Spanish Succession period when former English sailors or privateers turned to piracy.

Of course, fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise know the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end when the East India Company took control of Davy Jones and killed the Kraken.

 

 (13) GOLDEN AGE OF CAPITALISM & GILDED AGE

 

The Golden Age of the Barbarians and the Golden Age of Piracy naturally prompts to mind the Golden Age of Capitalism.

At first glance, it might seem somewhat surprising that the Golden Age of Capitalism, at least in the Wikipedia article of that name, is used for the twentieth century postwar economic expansion after the Second World War to the 1970s but it really shouldn’t. It was a period of unprecedented economic expansion in which North America, Europe and eastern Asia (particularly the “Four Asian Tigers”) “experienced unusually high and sustained growth”, including countries devastated by the war

It was period in which the term economic miracle came or has come to be commonly used – for Japan, for West Germany and Austria (the Wirtschaftswunder or Miracle on the Rhine), South Korean (Miracle on the Han River), Belgium, France (Trent Glorieuses), Italy (Miracolo economico), Greece, Sweden (Record years), and even Spain and Mexico.

However, it might have seemed that the Golden Age of Capitalism would apply to the rise of industrial capitalism in the nineteenth century, particularly when combined with laissez-faire free market political policy. And indeed, the term of the Gilded Age is used for the 19th century, at least for United States history from about 1865 to 1902 or between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era. Apparently, historians in the 1920s sourced the term from one of Mark Twain’s lesser known novels contemporary with it, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today in 1873. As the term gilded implies, it is not as complimentary as the term Golden Age – suggesting a thin gold gilding or veneer of economic expansion over robber barons, materialist excess, political corruption and social problems.

 

(14) GOLDEN AGE OF PHYSICS

 

Or rather Golden Ages of Physics, as more than one period of dramatic advancements or achievements in physics, including cosmology and astronomy or astrophysics, have been dubbed as golden ages, arguably going all the way back to Galileo or Newton.

Perhaps the most prolific use of Golden Age of Physics is for the first thirty years of the twentieth century, or even more narrowly the few years from 1925 to 1927 or so – although even this seems to have been immediately followed by a Golden Age of Nuclear Physics, potentially through to the fifties (in turn followed by a Golden Age of Non-Linear Physics or Golden Age of General Relativity from the 1950s or so to the 1970s). A Golden Age of Cosmology is often proposed from the 1990s to the present.

 

 

(15) GOLDEN AGE OF SF

 

From the Golden Age (or Ages) of Science (or Physics), it’s only a small step to the Golden Age of Science Fiction usually proposed from 1938 to 1946 or through to the 1950s – after the ‘pulp’ era of SF in the 1920s-1930s and ending with New Wave science fiction in the 1960s.

The start of the Golden Age of Science Fiction is usually identified with the editorship of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction by John W. Campbell and particularly the July 1939 issue – as well as SF authors Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, who wrote stories for Astounding Science Fiction.

 

(16) GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS

 

The Golden Age of Science Fiction largely overlaps with the Golden Age of Comics, usually identified at least from 1938 to 1945 but variously through to the 1950s. Essentially, this was when comics in their modern form were born as well as the superhero archetype and the enduring holy trinity of comics (or DC Comics) – Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

 

(17) GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ANIMATION

 

The Golden Age of Comics prompts to my mind at least that related medium I associate with comics as a guilty pleasure, animation – although the Golden Age of Animation actually preceded the Golden Age of Comics, starting in 1928 (with the advent of sound in cinema) through to the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started losing out in popularity to television. Many or most iconic animated characters originate in this period, most notably those in the Disney canon such as Mickey Mouse or the Warners Bros canon such as Bugs Bunny.

 

(18) GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION

 

Indeed – two Golden Ages of Television.

The first Golden Age of Television is proposed for the era of American television from 1947 to 1960 “marked by its large number of live productions”.

A second Golden Age of Television is proposed for American television in the 21st century as having “such a number of high quality, internationally acclaimed television programs”.

 

(19) GOLDEN AGE OF RACE QUEENS

 

Well, I just couldn’t resist special mention for the Golden Age of Race Queens or promotional models. Indeed, there are two Golden Ages of Race Queens – “the first was the swimsuit clad race queen bubble of the late 1980s to late 1990s and the miniskirted second golden age of race queen of the 2000s, when the influx of models came with the ability to draw the same as or bigger popularity than some of the drivers competing in the events.”

 

 

(20) GOLDEN AGE OF P0RNOGRAPHY

 

I tend to reserve my final twentieth special mention for a kinky entry. I believe I’ve fulfilled that obligation with this entry, but there is indeed such a proposed Golden Age and it even gets its own Wikipedia page.

The Golden Age refers to the period from 1969 to 1984, “in which s€xually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the general public”. It ended when video supplanted films or theaters as the predominant distribution medium.

 

TL;DR – TOP 10 GOLDEN AGES (SPECIAL MENTION) RECAP

 

(1) GOLDEN AGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT

(2) GOLDEN AGE OF CHINA

(3) GOLDEN AGE OF INDIA

(4) ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE

(5) GOLDEN AGE OF BYZANTIUM

(6) PORTUGUESE GOLDEN AGE

(7) SPANISH GOLDEN AGE

(8) POLISH GOLDEN AGE

(9) DUTCH GOLDEN AGE

(10) DANISH GOLDEN AGE

(11) GOLDEN AGE OF THE BARBARIANS

(12) GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY

(13) GOLDEN AGE OF CAPITALISM

(14) GOLDEN AGE OF PHYSICS

(15) GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION

(16) GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS

(17) GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ANIMATION

(18) GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION

(19) GOLDEN AGE OF RACE QUEENS

(20) GOLDEN AGE OF P0RNOGRAPHY

 

Top Tens – Tropes & Other: Top 10 Golden Ages

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The Golden Age – fresco by Pietro da Cortona (public domain image used for Wikipedia “Golden Age”)

 

 

TOP 10 GOLDEN AGES

 

Yes – it’s a top ten on the spot for my Top 10 Golden Ages.

Golden Age was my top entry for my Top 10 Ages – for usage of the term age in culture or history – connoting the best, either as primordial paradise or peak perfection. As I noted in that entry, it has been adapted for common usage to connote peak periods in history or culture, more than enough for its own top ten. So here it is!

 

(1) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY – GOLDEN AGE

 

The OG Golden Age – the original usage in classical mythology to connote the primal paradisiacal state of humanity, as by Hesiod or Ovid.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOLD TIER)

 

(2) BIBLICAL – GARDEN OF EDEN

 

“When the apple reddens,

Never pry,

Lest we lose our Edens,

Eve and I”

 

The only other OG Golden Age to rival that of classical mythology – and with, dare I say it, the core concept explicit or implicit in a Golden Age, that of original sin to go with our original paradise. Every Eden has its serpent, its forbidden fruit or its temptation – else how does a Golden Age fall?

Eden was of course the original earthly paradise, but arguably Biblical mythology has the promise of a return to Golden Age paradise in heaven.

You could also argue for the reigns of King David and King Solomon as the Golden Age of Biblical Israel, after which it would be divided into two kingdoms, each of which would fall in turn. Not coincidentally, David was so golden that it is from his lineage the Messiah was prophesied to rise (Jesus for Christianity and still to come for Judaism), through whom heaven and earth will return to its golden age.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOLD TIER)

 

(3) ARCADIA & UTOPIA

 

Et in Arcadia Ego.

Arcadia “refers to a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature”, from the classical Greek province of the same name “as a poetic byword for an idyllic vision of unspoiled wilderness” or garden for shepherds.

As such, it combines something of the Golden Age of classical mythology and the Garden of Eden – “it is seen as a lost, Edenic form of ife, contrasting to the progressive nature of Utopian desires”.

Hence Arcadia tends to evoke an unattainable and lost Golden Age from the past, while Utopia – despite its literal name “no place” originating from Sir Thomas More’s book of that title for a fictional island – usually evokes at least a potential Golden Age in the present or future.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOLD TIER)

 

 

(4) ROUSSEAU – STATE OF NATURE

 

“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”

Perhaps the most enduring modern mythic golden age – Rousseau’s idyllic “state of nature”, as encapsulated in the “born free” part of his iconic quotation of it.

On the other hand, it is opposed by the equally enduring mythic dark age state of nature proposed by Hobbes.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(5) CHILDHOOD

 

Okay, okay – perhaps we don’t have to go so far as to propose the state of nature as golden age, what with life in it being “nasty, poor, brutish and short” as declared by Hobbes, but instead propose our state of innocence and joy in childhood as a golden age? Or narrow it even further to our hypothetical state of bliss in the womb – the subconscious or primal memory of which is often proposed as the origin of myths of paradise or golden ages from which we have fallen.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(6) CLASSICAL GREECE / ATHENS

 

And now we come to the first of my top ten entries for golden ages proposed for peak periods of culture or history – the Golden Age of Classical Greece or Athens, an Athenocentric golden age proposed for classical Greece of Athens from 480 BC to 404 BC, from Persian to Peloponnesian Wars and including the Age of Pericles.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(7) PAX ROMANA / THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS

 

The zenith of the Roman Empire, considered by Edward Gibbon writing in the eighteenth century as the happiest time of human history.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

(8) MERRIE ENGLAND

 

Perhaps more mythic than historic – “a conception of English society and culture based on an idyllic pastoral way of life that was allegedly prevalent in Early Modern Britain at some time between the Middle Ages and the onset of the Industrial Revolution”.

 

Or an “essential Englishness with nostalgic overtones”. Think William Wordsworth – or the Shire.

 

“A world that has never actually existed, a visionary, mythical landscape, where it is difficult to take normal historical bearings.”

 

On the other hand, the Elizabethan era is often proposed as the Golden Age of England, while the Victorian era is proposed as the Golden Age of Britain.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(9) GRAND SIECLE  / BELLE EPOQUE

 

One can’t propose the Golden Ages of England or Britain without proposing the Golden Ages of France – the Grand Siecle of the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, or the Belle Epoque of the Third Republic from 1871 to 1914, the latter period often extended to a golden Age of continental Europe or European civilization as a whole.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(10) HOLLYWOOD (AMERICAN CENTURY & AMERICAN DREAM)

 

Finally, what embodies the American golden age – the American Century and the American Dream – more than Hollywood?

 

There is also often proposed a Golden Age of Hollywood itself, from 1910 to 1969 or so.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

Top Tens – Tropes & Other: Top 10 Ages (Complete Top 10)

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A pocket watch (savonette type) which is showing time – feature image for Wikipedia “time” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 

TOP 10 AGES

 

No – I’m not talking ages of individual humans but rather the ages of human history. That is, the use of the term age or ages as nomenclature for historical eras (or, in some cases, prehistorical eras – or mythic or scientific eras).

This has been bouncing around my head ever since it struck me that this usage was so common that it could readily be the subject of a top ten – indeed, for a top ten and special mentions. And that was excluding usage that seemed less common (or more specialized) or just did not appeal to me.

So here are my top ten ages.

 

The Golden Age – fresco by Pietro da Cortona (public domain image used for Wikipedia “Golden Age”)

 

(1) GOLDEN AGE

 

More a mythic or metaphoric term but one that has been adapted to usage for historical periods.

As the golden implies, it connotes the best – either as primordial paradise or peak perfection.

Its original usage was in classical mythology to denote the original paradisiacal state of humanity, albeit a usage common in other mythologies – notably the Biblical Garden of Eden (the effects of which persisted in the extreme longevity of life for generations of humanity in Genesis).

It has since been adapted for common usage to connote peak periods in history or culture, as for example the Golden Age of Athens or classical Greece itself – so much so that one can readily have a top ten Golden Ages.

One derivate but somewhat distinct adaptation is the usage of the Gilded Age for the period from the 1870s to the 1890s in American history.

Another is the term Silver Age, subsequent to a corresponding Golden Age and secondary to or less of a peak than that Golden Age – but still a peak and typically superior to what follows.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT GOLD TIER?)

 

Ice block, Canal Park, Duluth – photograph by Sharon Mollerus, feature image Wikipedia “Ice” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

 

(2) ICE AGE

 

Ice, ice, baby.

More a scientific term for the periods of cooler temperature in the history of Earth’s climate – “resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers” (or glaciation).

Apparently, the earth’s climate has alternated between ice ages and greenhouse periods where there are no glaciers on the planet (although the latter seems to be contested in extent).

Accordingly, there have been a number of ice ages – including at least one period dubbed Snowball Earth for its total or near total glaciation – but most people use Ice Age for the most recent one, immediately preceding our present geological (and intergalacial) period known as the Holocene, which includes all of human history (and part of human prehistory in my next entry).

As such, one could compile a Top 10 Ice Ages.

Not so much historical usage, since all recorded history has occurred within our present interglacial period – with the exception of the so-called Little Ice Age, a period of regional cooling, particularly in the north Atlantic area, conventionally dated from the 16th to the 19th century (although some propose extending it back to about 1300).

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER – OR IS THAT ICE TIER?)

 

Gjantija Temples in Gozo, Malta, 3600-2500 BC, by Bone A and used as the feature image for Wikipedia “Stone Age” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

 

(3) STONE AGE

 

Not so much historic but prehistoric for usage, preceding recorded history – albeit comprising over 99% of actual human history, extending back over three million years (and hence before our present human species, homo sapiens, to earlier hominids as well) and ending between 4000 BC and 3000 BC with the advent of metalworking.

Or I should say more complex metalworking – the melting and smelting of copper and bronze – since there was some simple metalworking of more malleable metals in the Stone Age, “particularly copper and gold for the purposes of ornamentation”.

As implied by the title, its defining characteristic is the use of stone tools (and weapons) but that perhaps belies the complexity and versatility of human use of materials as tools prior to metallurgy – not only stone but animal and plant products such as animal skins or leather (involving the invention of sewing and needles), bone, ivory, antlers, shells, and wood, as well as other materials such as the use of ceramics. Even in terms of stone, it involved the impressive construction or development of standing stones or other stone structures.

The later Stone Age also involved the development of agriculture and domestication of animals, while the earlier Stone Age involved the use of a something as a tool that arguably eclipses even stone, particularly for humanity exercising control over its environment well beyond the use of stone for tools – fire.

The complexity and versatility also applies to the Stone Age itself – compounded by its duration unequalled in human history to date – such that one could readily compile a Top 10 Stone Ages. One of the best known demarcations is the tripartite division into Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic – each of which can be divided further, along with other classifications.

Speaking of tripartite demarcations, the Stone Age is the first of the so-called three age system frequently used in archaeology to demarcate the timeline of “human technological prehistory (especially in Europe and western Asia” – the second and third ages are my next two entries…

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER – OR IS THAT STONE-TIER? OK – I’ll stop that now)

 

Yes – it’s gold not Bronze but one of the most iconic artifacts of the Bronze Age, the Mask of Agamemnon (in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens) used in various Wikipedia articles, including “Bronze Age” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

 

(4) BRONZE AGE

 

Metal!

After the Stone, comes the Bronze.

Also – after the Silver, comes the Bronze.

The second of the so-called three age system used in archaeology to demarcate the timeline of “human technological prehistory (especially in Europe and western Asia” – characterized principally by metallurgy of the titular bronze for tools and weapons.

Also the Bible as well as the Iliad and Odyssey. Well, not exactly – they’re the Iron Age dreaming of the Bronze Age.

God is bronze – or Bronze Age. I remember a passage in the Old Testament where his divine war-winning power was stymied by iron chariots. (Looking it up it’s in the Book of Judges 1:19, which implies that God could not drive out the Canaanites with their chariots of iron – iron chariots pop up in a few references in that book and the preceding Book of Joshua).

Also the infamous Bronze Age Collapse.

Shout-out to the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, the intervening period between the Stone and Bronze Ages characterized by smelting copper – easier to do but copper is inferior (as softer) to bronze.

A subject broad enough for its own top ten, particularly given it occurred in different ways or at different times throughout the world.

Outside of the prehistoric three-age system, the Bronze Age is occasionally used as a lesser age after the Golden Age and Silver Age.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

Molten raw iron by Valandil for Wikipedia “Iron” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 

(5) IRON AGE

 

Metal!

Ferrous metal!

The third of the so-called three-age system in archaeology – like the Bronze Age, it is defined by the evolution of metallurgy from the smelting of bronze to that of iron and the consequent use of iron weapons or tools.

Note that we’re still talking prehistory here, albeit evolving to protohistory – the Iron Age is usually defined as ending with written history. That is, when a people start to have history written about them by outsiders – or write their own (and that of other people), those writers of history usually meaning the Greeks or Romans, at least in ancient history in Europe or the Middle East. .

It may just be me, but while iron was obviously the superior metal, the Bronze Age just seems more glamorous – flashier, even. It probably helps that it ended, at least in the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean, with the bang of the Bronze Age Collapse, rather than the whimper of just becoming written history.

While not as flashy as the Bronze Age, the Iron Age probably remains broad enough to squeeze out its own top ten, at least a quick one – again like the Bronze Age, it occurred in different ways or at different times throughout the world.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

The Course of Empire: Destruction (1836) – one of a series of five paintings by Thomas Cole (in public domain) and typically the painting used when someone wants to use a painting to depict the fall of Rome, albeit the series depicts an imaginary state or city

 

(6) DARK AGE/S

 

After the fall, comes the darkness.

A term for the early Middle Ages (500-1000 AD) or even the entire Middle Ages (500-1500 AD) in European history, after the fall of the classical western Roman Empire.

More broadly, for any period of perceived decline or collapse – or one marked by a comparative scarcity of historical records preceding or subsequent to it.

Not surprisingly, it was not used by the people living in it but originated in the Renaissance – seen as it was as a return to the “light” of classical antiquity – and was codified in the Age of Enlightenment – seen as it was in terms of the light in its title compared to the benighted darkness of what came before it.

A term that tends not to be used now for that period of European history because of its negative connotations – which perhaps misses out on its cooler connotations and for that matter its continued usage in popular culture or imagination.

And yes – its broader use is a subject for its own top ten

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

“Cleric, Knight, Workman”, a medieval French manuscript illustration by unknown author in “Li Livres dou Sante”, 13th century (public domain image used in Wikipedia “Middle Ages”)

 

(7) MIDDLE AGES

 

No, not the singular middle age, connoting that amorphous period of human age between youth and old age – but the plural Middle Ages or medieval period in Western history, usually between 500 AD and 1500 AD (albeit often as amorphous as human middle age).

As its name indicates, it’s the middle period of another three-age system of classification. Just as the tripartite classification of Stone-Bronze-Iron Age is used for prehistory prior to ‘recorded history’, “the three traditional divisions of Western history” consists of “classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period”.

The Middle Ages or medieval period itself is usually divided into three periods – the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

US astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface near leg of lunar module in the first moon landing – public domain image

 

(8) SPACE AGE

 

The nomenclature of ‘age’ has been used in various ways for modern history but the only one that really sticks for me is Space Age. It’s a little like that the Bronze Age just seems more glamorous or flashier than the Iron Age, despite the latter’s superior metallurgy.

In fairness, it doesn’t get more glamorous or cooler than the concept of the Space Age, with humanity venturing beyond the confines of the planet itself. The Space Age is usually said to commence with the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, by the latter in 1957. Of course, the Space Race itself had its origins with the launch of some objects or vehicles into sub-orbital space before that. Some usages of the phrase divide up the Space Age into a First and Second Space Age, separated by the end of the Cold War – and presumably other Space Ages might follow.

Other usages of the nomenclature of age in modern history include Industrial Age, Machine Age, Oil or Petroleum Age, Plastic Age, and Atomic or Nuclear Age – although for that last you’d think it might be Uranium or Plutonium Age if one followed the naming convention of Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages.

Jet Age is another usage that earns its own Wikipedia article. At first glance, it seems somewhat niche, particularly given its large overlap with Space Age – but the Wikipedia article persuaded me it does have broader merit, given the impact of commercial jet travel.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

Internet map in Wikipedia ”Information Age” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

 

(9) DIGITAL AGE

 

Styled by Wikipedia as the Information Age – coinciding or overlapping with other epithets such as Internet Age – I prefer to call it the Digital Age, as it sounds better to my ear (with the repetition of the g-sound), and also follows from terms such as Digital Revolution.

It obviously also overlaps with that other modern technological age, the Space Age – although in my opinion is more sweeping in its effects, including those that underlay the technical means that enabled most of the Space Age.

I find it particularly interesting as the first age (and the only age in my top ten) that may potentially include other than human intelligence (discounting deities in the Golden Age and depending on how one defines human in the Stone Age or Ice Age) – or more precisely, posthuman intelligence.

It arguably shares that potential with that of genetic engineering or biotechnology, depending on whether you count our descendants transformed by such things as posthuman rather than human – as far as I know, Genetic Age is not a term used yet but maybe it should or will be.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

The chakras mapped on to Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man – public domain image used for Wikipedia “New Age”

 

(10) NEW AGE

 

Yeah – it’s hippy time!

And we circle back to the mythic or mystical utopianism with which we started with Golden Age in the first entry.

The New Age has some connotations of Golden Age utopianism – often connoting an age to come or that is dawning – but other usage of the term has been d the “range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s”

It does originate in use of the term new age, usually to connote that “a better life for humanity is dawning”.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WEIRD TIER)

TOP 10 AGES (TIER LIST)

S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT GOLD TIER?)

(1) GOLDEN AGE

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

(2) ICE AGE

(3) STONE AGE

(4) BRONZE AGE

(5) IRON AGE

(6) DARK AGE

(7) MIDDLE AGES

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

(8) SPACE AGE

(9) DIGITAL AGE

X-TIER (WILD / WEIRD TIER)

(10) NEW AGE