Human begin tattooing their bodies
These permanent designssometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, always personalhave served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment.
4th Millennia B.C.E.
Humanity’s first weddings begin
The first recorded exchange of a dowry occurs in 3,000 BCE.
Humans arrive on and settle the island of Hispaniola
For at least 5,000 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America for the Europeans, the island, which he named Hispaniola, was inhabited by indigenous peoples whom he called “Indians.”
Humans begin cultivating cotton, perhaps in modern-day Mexico
The history of the domestication of cotton is very complex and is not known exactly. Several isolated civilizations in both the Old and New World independently domesticated and converted cotton into fabric.
Humans of ancient Sumer invent belt wrestling
A polished bone implement found at Eva in Tennessee, United States and dated to around 5000 BCE has been construed as a possible sporting device used in a “ring and pin” game.
Longshan culture emerges in modern-day China
The Longshan also sometimes referred to as the Black Pottery Culture, was a late Neolithic culture in the middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China from about 3000 to 1900 BC.
Skara Brae settlement flourishes in Scotland
Consisting of eight clustered houses, it was occupied from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC. Europe’s most complete Neolithic village, Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
The site of modern-day Beirut is settled for the first time
Several archaeological sites have been discovered in Beirut, revealing flint tools of sequential periods dating from the Middle Palaeolithic and Upper Paleolithic through the Neolithic to the Bronze Age.
Aboriginal Australians develop the Pama–Nyungan languages
The Pama–Nyungan languages are now the most widespread family of Australian Aboriginal languages, containing perhaps 300 languages.
Construction begins at sacred site of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is perhaps the world’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was built in several stages: the first monument was an early henge monument, built about 5,000 years ago.