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
