Tag Archives: Top 10 Ages

Top Tens – Tropes & Other: Top 10 Ages (Special Mention)

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Wooden hourglass by S Sepp for Wikipedia “Clock” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 

TOP 10 AGES (SPECIAL MENTION)

 

I’ve previously compiled my top ten ages – that is, my top ten ages of human history, or rather, the usage of the term age or ages as nomenclature for historical eras (or, in some cases, prehistorical eras – or mythic or scientific eras).

It was not so much ranking them by the quality of each age of itself but the name or title for the age, particularly in terms of resonance or versatility – hence Golden Age, Stone Age, and so on.

However, as usual, I don’t just have a top ten but a whole host of special mentions. My usual rule is twenty special mentions for each top ten, where the subject matter is prolific enough, as it is here – surprisingly so, although I had to push the boundaries of the use of age as nomenclature to include other time periods or titles. After all, my special mentions are also where I can have some fun with the subject category and push some boundaries or splash out with some wilder entries.

 

Geological time scale, proportionally represented as a log-spiral with some major events in Earth’s history by Jarred C Lloyd for Wikipedia “Geologic Time Scale” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

 

(1) GEOLOGICAL TIME – EON, ERA, PERIOD, EPOCH & AGE

 

We’re talking the big time – or deep time. Time periods so vast that the ages of human history, indeed the entirety of human history or even human prehistory, are blinks of the eye in comparison. Time measured in geological strata. Time based on events throughout the history of the planet itself, a time span of about 4.5 billion years or so.

Eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages of geological time – enough for their own top ten list, many times over (unless you confined yourself entirely to geological eons, of which there are only four).

Presently we are in the Phanerozoic Eon (over half a billion years), Cenozoic Era (66 million years), Quaternary Period (2.6 million years), Holocene Epoch (11,700 years) (with the informal Anthropocene Epoch often proposed), and Meghalayan Age (4,200 years)

Longest of all, you have eons. These are the big boys of geological time – so big there are only four of them in our planet’s history, spanning from half a billion years to almost two billion years each. Our present eon – the Phanerozoic Eon – is one of the two runts of the litter, just over a half a billion years in length, albeit corresponding to most life on earth (hence its name derived from the Greek for plentiful or abundant life).

Next, you have eras – of which there are ten defined eras, spanning hundreds of millions of years, except for our own current era or Cenozoic Era, the runt of the litter at only 66 million years, commencing with the extinction of the (non-avian) dinosaurs.

Next, periods – of which there are 22 defined periods (and two sub-periods used for the Carboniferous Period), ranging from 20 million to 250 million years, including the big stars of geological time, not least the Jurassic Period thanks to the film franchise of that name. Once again, the runt of the litter – and exception at only 2.6 million years of age (which corresponds to hominid prehistory), is our current period, the Quaternary Period.

Epochs – of which there are 37 formal defined ones (and the informal Anthropocene Epoch named for our environmental impact as well as 11 sub-epochs within our own Quaternary Period and the preceding Neogene Period). Like periods, epochs include some more of the big names of geological time. They mostly come in at 2.5 million years to 42.6 million years – again with our current epoch, the Holocene Epoch, as the exception at only 11,700 years ago, corresponding with the entirety of human history and agricultural prehistory (with change left over from the Stone Age).

Ages are actually the shortest period of geological time, from thousands of years to millions of years, with 96 formal ages and five informal ones. Our current age is the Meghalayan, only four thousand years or so before the present.

 

RATING: S-TIER

GOD-TIER (OR IS THAT EARTH-TIER?)

 

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man – public domain image

 

(2) RENAISSANCE

 

Renaissance has something of the same resonance as golden age, except by way of revival or restoration – the word is literally rebirth in French.

The most famous use of the term is for the Renaissance in Europe, usually connoting the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century – marking the transition from the medieval period to modernity via the rebirth of classical art, culture and ideas.

One could easily compile a top ten renaissances, indeed even just from its most famous usage alone. While the focus tends to be on the Italian Renaissance to the exclusion of all else, it was part of a wider European cultural movement that was nearly universal throughout Europe – such that the Renaissance can be and is labelled by its national or regional variations, of which the next most famous may well be the English Renaissance, thanks to the Elizabethan era and William Shakespeare representing its peak.

However, the term has been used more broadly than that, including for earlier revivals within the medieval period such as the Carolingian Renaissance, as well as elsewhere in history and culture – essentially for any revival or restoration of former glory or new golden age.

And of course the Renaissance – the famous one – inspired the use of the term Renaissance Man, from such archetypal polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(3) ERA

 

The end of an era…

There’s cosmological, geological, calendar, regnal, musical, and above all, historiographical or historical eras.

The last seems to be common usage for eras in American and British history. British historical eras tend to coincide with royal periods – Elizabethan, Victorian, Edwardian, and so on.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(4) MILLENNIUM

 

That thousand year stare…

Yes, yes – I know the saying is thousand yard stare but I couldn’t resist adapting it for millennium as the period of a thousand years.

Interestingly, Wikipedia lists fifteen millennia BC and three millennia AD in its list of decades, centuries, and millennia – so going all the way back to 15,000 BC, although only the first millennium BC or so is recorded history as such.

Speaking of BC, that prompts the usage of millennium for millenarianism, particularly in Christianity (where it is known as millennialism) – in which millennium connotes return to a golden age (as messianic age)

Millenarianism occurs in some other religions, just not as prevalently, and even in secular movements. Rome celebrated its millennium (from the year of the traditional founding of Rome in 753 BC) – ironically during the Crisis of the Third Century in 248 AD. More infamously, Nazi Germany touted its own millennium for its Third Reich of a thousand years, akin to that for the First Reich or Holy Roman Empire.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

Logo of 20th Century Studios, formerly 20th Century Fox

 

(5) CENTURY

 

Well, this just seemed the natural one to follow after millennium, reflecting our tendency to demarcate history into centuries or periods of a hundred years.

On that point, I’m not sure (and would like to find out) when we began referring to numbered centuries as such in common parlance – at least as commonly as we do to the twentieth or twenty-first century. I suspect people in the nineteenth century referred to it as such but did people do so before then? Say, did people in the fifteenth century refer to themselves as being in the fifteenth century? When did it originate? Obviously, it could not have originated before the concept of the Christian common era – numbering calendar years from the birth of Jesus Christ – which I understand to originate in the sixth century, albeit it would have taken longer to be common parlance (and perhaps the Gregorian calendar).

Another use of century has been to connote predominant world economic or political power. The best known or most famous is probably the American Century, as coined by Time magazine publisher Henry Luce for American predominance in the twentieth century or at least from the middle of it.

However, before that there is Britain’s Imperial Century from 1815 to 1914 as the height of Britain as world power (and empire).

And there has been a number of centuries proposed for the twenty-first century or other successors to the American Century, usually reflecting the resurgence of Asia within the world economy or the rise of China and India – Asian Century, Chinese Century, Indian Century, and Pacific Century.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(6) DECADE

 

As my entry for century naturally seemed to follow from that for millennium, so too my entry for decade seems to flow naturally from that for century.

Although apparently the contemporary convention of denominating decades by grouping years based on their shared tens digit, that is from a year ending in 0 to a year ending in 9, is just that – contemporary, dating back to the late nineteenth century.

As is the convention of nicknaming decades, such as the Roaring Twenties or the Swinging Sixties.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(7) PATRIARCHAL AGE

 

All of them, some feminists might quip.

However, the Patriarchal Age usually connotes the (mythic) era of the three Biblical patriarchs in the Book of Genesis – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

One might well identify the patriarchal age for any nation or phenomenon that asserts a founding father or fathers as being the period contemporary to those father figures.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(8) HEROIC AGE

 

People mostly remember the “ages of men” in Greek mythology as fourfold – the glittering Golden Age, declining into a still somewhat lustrous Silver Age, before declining further into a war-like Bronze Age and finally rusting into that worst of ages, the Iron Age (the latter two not to be confused with the Bronze Age and Iron Age nomenclature in prehistory).

However, Hesiod who coined these ages of men also included the Heroic Age between the Bronze Age and Iron Age – the time of superhuman heroes from Thebes to Troy that improved upon the preceding Bronze Age (and possibly the Silver Age as well), albeit not quite a return to Golden Age.

Although one might well identify a heroic age for every nation (or even phenomenon) that lays claim to heroes or heroic times. Indeed, there are assertions of British and Germanic Heroic Ages to match the Greek Heroic Age – as well as claims to a Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and Heroic Age of Medicine.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

(9) AXIAL AGE

 

Coined by German philosopher Karl Jaspers, the Axial Age referred to broad but profound changes in philosophical and religious thought that, despite occurring in various locations throughout the ancient world (China, India, Persia, Judaea and Greece), laid “the spiritual foundations of humanity…upon which humanity still subsists today”.

“Jaspers identified a number of key thinkers as having had a profound influence on future philosophies and religions, and identified characteristics common to each area from which those thinkers emerged. Jaspers held up this age as unique and one to which the rest of the history of human thought might be compared”.

Jaspers was talking about the half millennium or so from the 8th century to the 3rd century BC and “presented his first outline of the Axial Age by a series of examples” – Confucius and Lao Tse in China, Buddha in India, Zaruthustra in Persia, the Jewish prophets of the Old Testament, Homer and the Greek philosophers.

It has proved an enduring trope, despite being so broadly drawn as to be somewhat amorphous – one of the major criticisms of it. The other major criticism is that it omits arguably the two most foundational figures in religious thought – Jesus and Mohammed – although presumably Axial Agists would argue that those two figures were influenced by their Axial Age predecessors. One might fix that by proposing a second Axial Age from the birth of Christ through to Mohammed – it certainly is striking that no major world religion of any substance (or at least originality) has arisen after Christianity or Islam.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(10) VIKING AGE

 

The term given to the period in which, not surprisingly given the name, the “Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America”.

It is typically used for the period from the first Viking raid in Britain in 793 AD to 1066 AD – the latter for the failed invasion of England attempted by the Norwegian king Harald III rather than the successful Norman conquest that comes to mind for that year (and arguably also falls within the Viking Age).

Some propose a “long Viking Age” stretching as far as the 15th century, given that Norway retained Orkney and Shetland until 1469.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(11) AGE OF DISCOVERY

 

Here be dragons no longer!

Also dubbed the Age of Exploration and largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, typically the period from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries when European nations – primarily Portugal, Spain, France and England – “discovered” the Americas and circumnavigated the world, largely mapping it to our present understanding, at least in the size of oceans and shape of continents (except Australia and Antarctica).

Of course, discovery and exploration continued after the seventeenth century (continuing even now with new ages of space exploration) but perhaps without the same definitive impact as this age, although I remain disappointed that ending the age in the seventeenth century excludes Captain Cook and much of the exploration of Australia.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(12) AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

 

Also called the Age of Reason or simply the Enlightenment, typically the intellectual and philosophical movement (or movements) in Europe from the late 17th century to the French Revolution or start of the 19th century, although the term itself appears to date from the late 19th century.

Often divided or classified by nation or geography, but particularly into two Enlightenments – the British Enlightenment (extending to the colonies in America) and the continental Enlightenment, the latter usually focused on the French Enlightenment. Think John Locke and Adam Smith for the former – and Voltaire and Rousseau for the latter, although each was far broader than that.

Essentially the origin of modern philosophy and political ideology, overlapping with the scientific revolution – as well as the major impetus for my next entry…

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(13) AGE OF REVOLUTION

 

Following on from the Age of Enlightenment, the period from about 1764 to 1849 – with the revolutionary part commencing with the American and French Revolutions through to 1848 as a year of revolution (also called the Spring of Nations) throughout Europe. Significantly, that includes the Industrial Revolution ongoing throughout the period, which arguably did more than any of the political revolutions to, well, revolutionize the world.

Although come on – it could have extended to the world-shaking Eureka Rebellion in 1854. I suppose at least it included the equally as important Rum Rebellion in 1808 – poor old Captain Bligh kept getting those mutinies.

The term was popularized by communist English historian Eric Hobsbawm as the title of one of his series of histories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, each with age in the title – albeit from 1789 to 1848 in his title. Despite being communist (and his consequent blind spot towards the flaws of Soviet communism), Hobsbawm had a knack for turns of phrase in his writing – not unlike Marx himself come to think of it. And at least it gave him his perspective of the Industrial Revolution and French Revolution as the two revolutions, economic and political, looming above all others to define modern history – if anything, with the former looming larger.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(14) AGE OF IMPERIALISM

 

The period from 1875 to 1914, according to the title of the book by historian Eric Hobsbawm – as sequel to his Age of Revolution (from 1789 to 1848) and Age of Capital (1848 to 1875).

And in fairness, it’s a pretty good title for that period. While imperialism has been ubiquitous throughout history upon the emergence of states, that period saw imperialism at its largest extent throughout the world, with almost all of it in one empire or another, predominantly those of the European imperial powers of course, but with outliers such as the Ottoman Turks and Japan.

One might well call it the Golden Age of Imperialism (and indeed at least popular historian Paul Johnson did, at least implicitly) – to rival the Golden Age of the Barbarians proposed by James C. Scott in Against the Grain (that extended to about 400 years ago).

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(15) LONG 19TH CENTURY & SHORT 20TH CENTURY

 

The long 19th century – from 1789 to 1914 (or the French Revolution to the First World War) – a concept popularized by English historian Eric Hobsbawm (but not originating from him).

It essentially reflects that the historical momentum of a period connoted by a century may not fit neatly within the tidy nomenclature of years numbered from 00 to 99. It’s a concept that has been applied to other centuries as well – the long sixteenth century proposed by French historian Fernand Braudel (from 1450 to 1640), as well as similar proposals for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Not surprisingly, given what some historians have noted as the acceleration of historical momentum or change in modern history, the twentieth century gets the reverse treatment with the concept of the short twentieth century, which Hobsbawm also adopted – typically from 1914 to 1991 or from the First World War to the end of the Cold War (the Long War popularized by Philip Bobbitt).

Speaking of war as well as those two centuries, I can’t resist throwing in the seemingly paradoxical observation by historian H.P. Willmott that the Second World War was the last war of the nineteenth century, while the First World War was the first war of the twentieth century.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(16) KALI YUGA

 

And we round out my special mentions for Top 10 Ages with some wild-tier mythic or mystical ages, starting with one of the biggest – the Kali Yuga, named for the Hindu goddess of destruction.

It’s “the fourth, shortest and worst of the four yugas (world ages) in Hinduism”, similar to the Iron Age of classical mythology, although given the cyclical nature of Hinduism, it is immediately followed by the first age of the next cycle.

Naturally people identify the worst of world ages with our own present age.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

(17) FIVE SUNS

 

The five distinct cycles or world-ages of creation and destruction in Aztec mythology, with ours being the fifth.

Being Aztec mythology, they all kind of suck, each with their own apocalyptic destruction – particularly now that we aren’t feeding the sun god with blood sacrifices…

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

(18) AGE OF AQUARIUS

 

“This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius!

Age of Aquarius!

Aquarius!

Aquarius!”

 

Yes – that’s from the 1967 musical Hair and is about as trippy, hippy, New Age mysticism as it sounds.

The song is catchy though – even if I can’t now get out of my head the cheeky adaptation of it in the Illuminatus trilogy

 

“This is the dawning of the Age of Bavaria!

Age of Bavaria!

Bavaria!

Bavaria!”

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

The Downfall of Numenor and the Changing of the World (from Second to Third Age) – Ian Alexander based on Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth, for Wikipedia “History of Arda” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

 

(19) FOUR AGES OF MIDDLE-EARTH

 

Yes – I know it’s not real world history but Tolkien did intend it as mythology for England and I just can’t resist including the ages of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth as special mentions for my Top 10 Ages.

Of course, fans are most familiar with the Third Age, as the setting for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ring – even almost all the backstory in the appendices of the latter. It’s over three thousand years long, with the main events of book books within the last century or so.

The Second Age was the period of almost three and a half millennia before the Third Age, ending with the defeat of Sauron (and his loss of the Ring) by the Last Alliance of Men and Elves. Of course, the only thing more destructive to the Second Age than Sauron was its desecration by The Rings of Power.

The First Age was the most cosmic of Middle Earth’s ages, with its most prominent feature as the war against the uber-Sauron, Morgoth.

The Fourth Age is essentially everything as epilogue (literally in the appendices) to the destruction of the Ring and final defeat of Sauron, although it was nice enough to wait until Sam got home from seeing off Frodo at the Grey Havens before starting.

The Fourth Age then merged with the ages of our own history – so that there would indeed be a Fifth and Sixth Age or even more – as apparently 6,000 years or so before the twentieth century.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

Romans during the Decadence by Thomas Couture, 1847 – public domain image

 

(20)  AGE OF DECADENCE

 

It is one of my rules in my top tens to throw in a kinky entry amidst my wilder special mentions, usually as my final or twentieth special mention, at least where the subject matter permits. So I’m going with age of decadence here. If it’s decadent enough, it might skip the age and simply be known as decadence or the decadence.

And yes – it may be the title of a video game but the term decadence “implies moral censure, or an acceptance of the idea, met with throughout the world since ancient times…declines are objectively observable and that they inevitably precede the destruction of the society in question”.

It does not necessarily connote moral or s€xual decadence or degeneration, as it may connote other forms of decline, but let’s face it – it usually does (or at least there’s an overlap).

The people who tend to decry decadence often tend to do so in contemporary terms – that is, they tend to see themselves in an age of decadence, leading inevitably through decline to destruction, albeit they also tend to see themselves as aloof from any of it.  In other words, declinism – “the idea that a society or institution is declining is called declinism”.

Typical ages of decadence in history are like those attributed to the Roman Empire before its fall – reveling in luxury, in its extreme characterized by corrupting “extravagance, weakness, and s€xual deviance”, as well as “orgies and sensual excesses”.

The concept of decadence also lent itself to a late-19th-century movement in art, culture and literature – “emphasizing the need for sensationalism, egocentricity, and bizarre, artificial, perverse, and exotic sensations and experiences”.

In his book, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, historian Jacques Barzun gave a more useful definition of decadence without moral judgement – not as a slur but as a technical label – albeit seemingly evoking The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats: “The forms of art as of life seem exhausted, the stages of development have been run through. Institutions function painfully.”

 

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

TOP 10 AGES (SPECIAL MENTION):

TIER LIST

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

(1) GEOLOGICAL TIME – EON, ERA, PERIOD, EPOCH & AGE

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

(2) RENAISSANCE

(3) ERA

(4) MILLENNIUM

(5) CENTURY

(6) DECADE

(7) PATRIARCHAL AGE

(8) HEROIC AGE

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

(9) AXIAL AGE

(10) VIKING AGE

(11) AGE OF DISCOVERY

(12) AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

(13) AGE OF REVOLUTION

(14) AGE OF IMPERIALISM

(15) SHORT 19TH CENTURY & LONG 20TH CENTURY

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

(16) KALI YUGA

(17) FIVE SUNS

(18) AGE OF AQUARIUS

(19) FOUR AGES OF MIDDLE EARTH

(20) AGE OF DECADENCE

 

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