Editing List of time periods (section)

==General periods==
{{Further|Human history}}
* [[Geologic time scale|'''Geologic Time''']] – Period prior to humans. 4.6 billion to 3 million years ago. (See "prehistoric periods" for more detail into this.)
* '''Primatomorphid Era''' – Period prior to the existence of ''[[Primatomorpha]]''
* '''Simian Era''' – Period prior to the existence of ''[[Simiiformes]]''
* '''Hominoid Era''' – Period prior to the existence of ''[[Hominoidea]]''
* '''Hominid Era''' – Period prior to the existence of ''[[Hominidae]]''
**Distant signs of Human-like apes
* '''Homininaeid Era''' – Period prior to the existence of ''[[Homininae]]''
* '''Homininid Era''' – Period prior to the existence of ''[[Hominini]]''
* '''[[Prehistory]]''' – Period between the appearance of ''[[Homo]]'' ("humans"; [[Oldowan|first stone tools]] <abbr>c.</abbr> three million years ago) and the invention of writing systems (for the [[Ancient Near East]]: <abbr>c.</abbr> five thousand years ago).
** [[Paleolithic]] – the earliest period of the Stone Age 
*** [[Lower Paleolithic]] – time of [[archaic human]] species, predates ''[[Homo sapiens]]''
*** [[Middle Paleolithic]] – coexistence of archaic and [[anatomically modern human]] species
*** [[Upper Paleolithic]] – [[Early human migrations|worldwide expansion]] of anatomically modern humans, the disappearance of archaic humans by extinction or [[Archaic human admixture with modern humans|admixture]] with modern humans; earliest [[Art of the Upper Paleolithic|evidence for pictorial art]].
** [[Mesolithic]] ([[Epipaleolithic]]) – a period in the development of human technology between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods.
** [[Neolithic]] – a period of primitive [[technological]] and [[social]] development, beginning about 10,200 BC in parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world.
** [[Chalcolithic]] (or "Eneolithic", "Copper Age") – still largely Neolithic in character, when early [[copper]] [[metallurgy]] appeared alongside the use of stone tools.
** [[Bronze Age]] – not part of prehistory for all regions and civilizations who had adopted or developed a writing system.
** [[Iron Age]] – not part of prehistory for all civilizations who had introduced written records during the Bronze Age.
* '''[[Ancient history]]''' – Aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of [[recorded history]] is roughly five thousand years, beginning with the earliest linguistic records in the third millennium BC in [[Sumer|Mesopotamia]] and [[Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)|Egypt]].
**'''[[Classical antiquity]]''' – Broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome]], collectively known as the [[Greco-Roman world]]. It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
* '''[[Post-classical history]]''' – Period of time that immediately followed ancient history. Depending on the continent, the era generally falls between the years AD 200–600 and AD 1200–1500. The major classical civilizations that the era follows are [[Han dynasty|Han China]] (ending in 220), the [[Western Roman Empire]] (in 476), the [[Gupta Empire]] (in the 550s), and the [[Sasanian Empire]] (in 651). 
** '''[[Middle Ages]]''' – Lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and is variously demarcated by historians as ending with the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, or the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, merging into the [[Renaissance]] and the [[Age of Discovery]].
*** [[Early Middle Ages]]
*** [[High Middle Ages]]
*** [[Late Middle Ages]]
* '''[[Modern history]]''' – After the post-classical era
**'''[[Early modern period]]''' – The chronological limits of this period are open to debate. It emerges from the [[Late Middle Ages]] (c. 1500), demarcated by historians as beginning with the [[fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, in forms such as the [[Italian Renaissance]] in the West, the [[Ming dynasty]] in the East, and the rise of the [[Aztecs]] in the New World. The period ends with the beginning of the [[Age of Revolutions]].
** '''[[Contemporary history]]''' – History within living memory. It shifts forward with the generations, and today is the span of historic events from approximately 1945 that are immediately relevant to the present time.