2.58 Million Years Ago to 12,000 The time of Ice

Woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses and saber-toothed cats are some of the most iconic animals of the period.

Highlights

• Earth enters an ice age
• Homo erectus evolves
• Early humans colonize Eurasia
• Neanderthals evolve
• Modern humans appear
• Toba supervolcano erupts

Glacial Advances Herald a New Ice Age

During the Last Glacial Maximum, which ended about 11,700 years ago, the Arctic ice sheet covered most of Northern Europe.

By the beginning of the Quaternary, glacial advances had gripped much of the northern and southern hemispheres, with ice sheets reaching as far south as the north of France. The last glacial period took place between 110,000 and 11,700 years ago, and is thus popularly referred to as the Ice Age itself. However the Last Glacial Maximum, and was only one part of a cycle that has persisted for the last 2.58 million years.

During glacial periods, sea levels drop significantly, sometimes by hundreds of feet. These events allow land bridges to form, such as those that existed between Britain and Europe, Australia and New Guinea and Alaska and Kamchatka. Thanks to the appearance of these land bridges, the migration of both animals and humans alike were made possible. Just as camelids once moved from their native North American homeland into South America and Africa using the Bering Strait land bridge, humans migrated all over the world during the Last Glacial Maximum between 18 and 12 thousand years ago.

A New Land of Giants Survives the Lingering Cold

Charles R. Knight

Woolly mammoths were widespread across Eurasia throughout much of the Quaternary Period, while their close relatives, the mastodons, dominated North America.

Also known as the Irish elk, megaloceros was the largest deer that ever lived.

Larger animals, particularly those with thick coats of hair or fur, are generally better equipped to survive in cooler climes. Many iconic megafaunas  such as elephants and rhinoceroses, had tundra-dwelling counterparts throughout much of the Quaternary. Mammoths, were among the most successful species of spanning much of the globe 

Robert Bruce Horsfall

Doedicurus (foreground) and glyptodon were gigantic armadillos that coexisted with the first humans to arrive in South America.

The Pleistocene, the first of the two Quaternary epochs, saw a new land of giants colonize the Earth. Imcluding megaloceros the largest species of deer with dire beavers, lions and bears.

Despite the effects of the Great American Interchange, South America was still home to unique giants of its own, such as  megatherium and the glyptodonts.

Roman Uchytel

Thylacoleo was a carnivorous marsupial that was endemic to Australia. It likely preyed upon its contemporary, the diprotodon, which was the largest marsupial that ever lived.

Australia, which had enjoyed tens of millions of years of isolated evolution, also saw the appearance of enormous ancestors to its current fauna. Among the most notable was procoptodon, a giant kangaroo, and the diprotodon, a truly bizarre marsupial that grew larger than a hippopotamus.

John Megahan

Haast’s eagle likely preyed upon moas, giant flightless birds that were endemic to New Zealand.

Various bird species also grew to enormous proportions, such as the North American teratornis. Many of the carnivorous flightless birds, such as the terror birds (phorusrhacids), that had appeared during the Neogene, still terrorised the Americas. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, moas reigned supreme as they had done for some 15 million years, only to be wiped out a mere 600 years.

Early Man

During the Early Pleistocene, humans, appeared in East Africa among the earliest progenitor of the modern human race was homo habilis, one of the first animals to learn how to use basic tools.

The Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) was undoubtedly in full swing by at least two million years ago. Homo erectus, or upright man, learned how to make basic tools and light fires some 1.9 million years ago. Homo erectus built the first campfires and cooked their food, possibly as part of social gatherings.

Pixabay

Neanderthals formed small communities of hunter gatherers, coexisting with saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths (background).

Several unique human species existed during the Pleistocene, including the Neanderthals. Our own species, that being homo sapiens, appeared some 280,000 years ago, coexisting with  ice age animals, such as woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed cats.

The Neanderthals, which appeared some time before modern humans, were also advanced tool users and had even mastered language.

Like the Neanderthals, early modern humans built rudimentary structures out of wood and mammoth tusks and wore clothes to keep warm in the cold climes of Ice Age Eurasia. However, only early humans managed to migrate to the Americas and Australasia, around 13,000 and 50,000 years ago respectively. Neanderthals, by contrast, typically lived in small and relatively isolated communities, and were never particularly great in number. As such, due to competition with homo sapiens and, possibly, interbreeding, they disappeared around 40,000 years ago.

Prehistory

Arise of Homo Sapiens

3.3 million years ago  Lower Paleolithic

• 2 million years ago: As Elder Thing civilization continues to decline, they retreat to their cities on the southernmost tip of South America and the Antarctic regions.
• 1.7 million years ago: Ithaqua appears in the northernmost regions of Earth, resulting in the decline of the voormis.
• 1.5 million years ago: Sarkomand, capital city of the men from Leng, is abandoned and falls into ruin when the moon-beasts enslave the Lengites and take them elsewhere.
  • The being later known as Dr. Marc Souvate becomes the immortal vehicle for the worshippers of Nodens. He begins a series of jumps forward across long spans of time, heading towards the time when Nodens will return.

The Great Ice Age

1 million years ago: The Ice Age is brought about by the combined power of Ithaqua and Aphoom Zhah. The voormis civilization in Hyperborea is destroyed first, replaced by equally ill-fated humans. Some great human sorcerers, including Zon Mezzamalech, live in this short-lived kingdom. The human civilization of Zobna falls next, moving to Lomar in the south and destroying the native cannibal gnophkehs. The much-devolved Elder Things, no longer able to resist intense cold as their ancestors did, develop artificial heating to try to survive.

850,000 years ago: A king of Lomar is among those that exchange minds with one of the Great Race of Yith.

800,000 B.C. – People lived in Mu (Lemuria).

750,200 years ago: The time of the wizard Eibon, greatest wizard of Hyperborea. During his life, the worship of Tsathoggua is driven from Hyperborea by priests of Yhoundeh. Eibon disappears at the age of 132 during the Yhoundeh inquisitions, and his assistant Cyron of Varaad correlates several of his sorcerous works into the Book of Eibon. Cyron also writes the Vita Ivonis, an account of Eibon’s life.

750,000 years ago: The great polar civilzations finally fall. The Elder Things retreat to deep within the Earth, and the people of Lomar are overwhelmed by the Inuto people. The human civilization in Hyperborea splinters, and its surviving peoples scatter across the planet. A secret brotherhood saves copies of the Book of Eibon from Hyperborea and takes them to mainland Europe. Some voormis begin worshipping Ithaqua, while the rest flee and become known as the Sasquatch and Yeti. The serpent people move to Lemuria and become known as the Dragon Kings. Tsathoggua returns to N’kai.

The Golden Age of Mankind

• 500,000 years ago: Homo sapiens, modern humanity, arises. These earliest true humans found the kingdom of Nemedis, and war for a thousand years with the Dragon Kings. The humans win, and the serpent people are driven south.
• The exiled serpent people form the second kingdom of Valusia. A few, however, hide instead among the islands of the sea of Neol-Shendis, awaiting their time to rise again.
• 493,000 – Thongor, a barbarian of Lemuria, opposes an attempt at Dragon King takeover with ancient magic. Thongor will later unite Lemuria in his Golden Empire of the Sun.
• 450,000 – On Nibiru, a distant member of our solar system, life faces slow extinction as the planet’s atmosphere erodes. Deposed by Anu, the ruler Alalu escapes in a spaceship and finds refuge on Earth. He discovers that Earth has gold that can be used to protect Nibiru’s atmosphere.
• 445,000 – Led by Enki, a son of Anu, the Anunnaki land on Earth, establish Eridu -Earth Station I – for extracting gold from the waters of the Persian Gulf.
• 430,000 – Earth’s climate mellows. More Anunnaki arrive on Earth, among them Enki’s half-sister Ninhursag, Chief Medical Officer.
• 416,000 – As gold production falters, Anu arrives on Earth with Enlil, the heir apparent. It is decided to obtain the vital gold by mining it in southern Africa. Drawing lots, Enlil wins command of Earth Mission; Enki is relegated to Africa. On departing Earth, Anu is challenged by Alalu’s grandson.
• 400,000 – Seven functional settlements in southern Mesopotamia include a Spaceport (Sippar), Mission Control Center (Nippur), a metallurgical center (Shuruppak). The ores arrive by ships from Africa; the refined metal is sent aloft to orbiters manned by Igigi, then transferred to spaceships arriving periodically from Nibiru.
• 393,000 – Lemuria is shattered by volcanic eruptions, leaving only that which ultimately becomes Hyboria. Some survivors found the First Empire of Atlantis, centered around the capital city of Caiphul. Many years later, this first Lemurian Atlantis is replaced by The Second Empire, founded by the people of Shem, who make their capital the City of the Golden Gates.
• 380,000 – Gaining the support of the Igigi, Alalu’s grandson attempts to seize mastery over Earth. The Enlilites win the War of the Olden Gods.

300,000 Middle Paleolithic

300,000
The Anunnaki toiling in the gold mines mutiny. Enki and Ninhursag create Primitive Workers through genetic manipulation of Ape woman; they take over the manual chores of the Anunnaki. Enlil raids the mines, brings the Primitive Workers to the Edin in Mesopotamia. Given the ability to procreate, Homo Sapiens begins to multiply.

300,000 years ago: Around this time, the female deep one Pht’thya-l’yi is born to Mother Hydra.

200,000 years ago: The human kingdom in Mu reaches its height. At this time, the Muvians worship many dark gods, including Ghatanothoa, Ythogtha, and Zoth-Ommog.

200,000
Life on Earth regresses during a new glacial period.

173,148 In the Year of the Red Moon, Ghatanothoa becomes the supreme god in Mu, following the god’s destruction of a high priest of Shub-Niggurath.

161,844 Ghatanothoa’s worship has become so strong that other religions are outlawed. Zanthu, last high priest of Ythogtha, tries to free his god, destroying Mu. Zanthu flees to the Plateau of Tsang.

110,000 The beginning of the last ice age during the last years of the Pleistocene to approximately 18,000 years ago.

100,000
Climate warms again. The Anunnaki (the biblical Nefilim), to Enlil’s growing annoyance, marry the daughters of Man.

c. 80,000 BC: Pht’thya-l’yi, daughter of Mother Hydra, comes to live in the deep one city of Y’ha-nthlei. (The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Lovecraft)

75,000 years ago: Toba Volcano supereruption.

75,000
The “accursation of Earth” – a new Ice Age-begins. Regressive types of Man roam the Earth. Cro-Magnon man survives.

Upper Paleolithic 50,000 to 10,000 BP

• 50,000 BC: A race of “great-headed brown people” dominate South Africa. One of their generals is among those who exchange minds with one of the Yithians.
• 50,000 – Polar shift. Lemuria and Atlantis lose land to the sea.
• 50,000 Atlantis becomes five islands.
• 49,000 – Enki and Ninhursag elevate humans of Anunnaki parentage to rule in Shuruppak. Enlil enraged. Plots Mankind’s demise.
• 40,000 years ago humans are given fire of learning from Prometheus
• 33,000 fey migrate from the Otherworld creating shared cultures between them and humans.
• 30,000 Alulim was the first king of Eridu, and the first king of Sumer. Enki Avatar of Enlil, the god of Eridu brought civilization to Sumer at this point.
• 30,000-11,000 B.C. – First native peoples enter North America from Asia via Beringia.
• 28,000 BC Nacaals (Delphynes priests from Lemuria) move to India and Tibet.
• 27,000 years ago. End of shared cultures located around central and south western France, between fey and humans.
• 24,000 BC: The City of the Golden Gates, capital of the Second Kingdom of Atlantis, sinks beneath the waves as a result of dark magics. This event also devastates much of the Atlantean continent.
  • After the loss of contact with Atlantis, the people of K’n-yan receive only limited knowledge of the outer world for the next 25,000 or so years.

Thurian Age – Most of the planet is unexplored wilderness inhabited by “scattered clans and tribes of primitive savages.”

c. 20,000 BC: Many great countries have arisen in the Thurian continent, including Commoria, Grondor, Kamelia, Thule, and Verulia. The survivors of Lemuria and Atlantis have degenerated into barbarians; the Picts arise around this time. Valusia is taken over by humans.

Some time later, the serpent people try to take back Valusia by subterfuge, but are stopped by King Kull.

c. 18,000 BC: A Great Cataclysm destroys the old world, bringing in the Hyborian Age.

18,000 years ago. The last glacial period ends; rise of human civilization.

Hyborian Age

The Atlantean continent’s western regions sink, leaving only the islands that become Bal-Sagoth and Poseidonis.

The last Atlanteans, who flee northward, become the barbaric Cimmerians. The surviving Lemurians are enslaved by an unknown ancient race in the eastern part of the Thurian continent.

Mu rises again, and Ghatanothoa summons his servitors, the lloigor. The lloigor enslave the humans who came to live on the newly risen land.

Bokrug and the Thuum’ha come to Earth and found the kingdoms of Ib in the Middle East and Lh-yib in the land of the Cimmerians.

• c. 17,500 BC: A lesser cataclysm breaks the Thurian continent in two.
• c. 15,500 BC: In the eastern part of the shattered Thurian continent, the Lemurians free themselves from slavery. The Lemurians travel west and overwhelm the serpent people there, founding the kingdoms of Acheron and Stygia. They adopt the practices of the serpent people and worship many dark gods, including Nyarlat, Sebek, Set, Gol-Goroth, and Shuddam-El. The Stygians also cultivate a plant called the Black Lotus, which “enhanced” their worship of their deities.

The surviving serpent people flee to the southern edge of the continent.

• 15,000 BC: The Cimmerians, under the chieftain Crom-Ya, begin their ascent to glory. Crom-Ya is later deified as the god Crom.
• 15,000 B.C. – Descendants of people from Lemuria from India, Burma, Tibet to upper Egypt.
• 14,000 – Atlanteans settled in southern Egypt.
• 13,000 – Realizing that the passage of Nibiru in Earth’s proximity will trigger an immense tidal wave, Enlil makes the Anunnaki swear to keep the impending calamity a secret from Mankind.
• 13,000 – The Hyborians, a northern people, conquer Acheron and form eight separate countries- Aquilonia, Argos, Brythunia, Corinthia, Koth, Nemedia, Ophir, and Zingara. Stygia, however, endures. (“The Hyborian Age,” Howard; “Black Eons,” Howard and Price)
• 13,000 – Beginning of the Holocene extinction generally from the impact of humans.
• 13,000 – earliest evidence of human warfare.
• 12,000 B.C. – The Bird-Serpent War.

Throughout more than 90% of Mankinds history, Humans lived in small bands as nomadic hunter-gatherers. As language became more complex, the ability to remember and communicate information resulted in a new replicator: the meme. Ideas could be exchanged quickly and passed down the generations.