100,000 BCE – today
All of human history.
One timeline.
An iPhone app for the human past. Every person, city, monument, event and work is a record, placed in time and on the map, and linked to the records it names.
iPhone · public beta on TestFlight
- 71,023Records, each with its dates and sources
- 57Civilisations, from Egypt to Polynesia
- 17,100Photographs, credited
Parallel view · drag through the years
Mediterranean
China
Mesoamerica
7000 BCE
1968 CE
Inside the app
Four ways into the same history.
The timeline asks when, the map asks where, a record page tells you what, and search finds it again. Every screen below is a capture from the app itself.
Timeline
Every civilisation, side by side.
One axis runs from 100,000 BCE to today. Switch every civilisation on and each gets a column, so you can read across a single decade and see what Persia, Egypt and the Greeks were doing in it. Pick one and its records sort into people, places, events and works.
Zoom in and the records bring their pictures with them.
The axis gives each era room by hand rather than by the calendar, so prehistory doesn’t swallow the screen and the last five centuries don’t vanish into a sliver.
Map
The same records, asked where.
The app draws its own world: coastlines, rivers, deserts and mountains, with no map service behind it and no modern motorway across antiquity. Tap open ground and it tells you what’s there and how high.
Each civilisation’s footprint shows where its records gather. Drag through the years and the map follows.
Records
71,023 records, and the threads between them.
People and mythic figures, states and cities, monuments, events, discoveries, works and objects. Each page gives its dates and places, the sources behind them, and a photo with its credit where a good one exists.
Names in the prose link to their own records, so you can tap one and keep going.
Search and saved
Keep what you find.
Search every record by name or summary. Save the ones you want and write your own notes on them.
Export them whenever you like. They live on your phone, not on our server.
A curious fact a day
On your home screen as a widget, or as one quiet notification a day if you switch it on. Tap it to land on the record it came from.
All of it on your phone
The records, the photos and the map are in the app. It works on a plane, in a museum basement, or anywhere the signal gives up.
No ads, no tracking
No analytics or ad SDKs, and no account needed for anything. Signing in with Apple is optional; it lets us reply to feedback you send.
Fifty-seven civilisations, with more to come
Start anywhere. It’s all one history.
Each civilisation has its own page, its own column on the timeline and its own footprint on the map, and its records wear its colour. Pick one to read, or switch them all on and watch them overlap.
Africa 7 Egyptians West Africans Maghrebis Ethiopians East Africans Central Africans Southern Africans
- EgyptiansFrom the green Sahara to the High Dam
- West AfricansFrom Nok to the Sahel states
- MaghrebisFrom Carthage and Numidia to the present
- EthiopiansFrom the Solomonic emperors to the federal republic
- East AfricansFrom the Swahili coast and the lake kingdoms to the present
- Central AfricansFrom the Kingdom of Kongo to the Congo basin today
- Southern AfricansFrom Mapungubwe and the Cape to the 1994 election and the present
West Asia 10 Mesopotamians Levantines Persians Caucasians Jewish people Caliphates' peoples Ottomans Palestinians Arabs Turks
- MesopotamiansFrom the first cities to the fall of Babylon
- LevantinesFrom the first farmers to the Bar Kokhba revolt
- PersiansFrom the Iranian plateau to the first world empire
- CaucasiansFrom Urartu and Colchis to the present
- Jewish peopleFrom the Mishnah to the State of Israel and the present
- Caliphates' peoplesFrom Muhammad's successors to the fall of Baghdad
- OttomansFrom a frontier beylik to an empire on three continents
- PalestiniansFrom Ottoman rule to the Palestinian Authority and the present
- ArabsFrom Ottoman Cairo to the Arab Spring and the present
- TurksThe Republic of Turkey, from Atatürk to the present
Mediterranean 4 Greeks Romans Byzantines Italians
- GreeksFrom Minoan palaces to the polis
- RomansFrom seven hills to an empire of three continents
- ByzantinesThe Roman empire that outlived Rome by a thousand years
- ItaliansFrom the fall of the Western Empire to the Republic
Western Europe 5 Irish Spaniards French Portuguese Britons
- IrishFrom the passage tombs of the Boyne to the present
- SpaniardsFrom the Visigoths to the present
- FrenchFrom the Gauls to the Fifth Republic
- PortugueseFrom Afonso Henriques to the Carnation Revolution
- BritonsFrom Stonehenge to the present
Central Europe 3 Central Europeans Germans Poles
- Central EuropeansFrom the Venus of Willendorf to the Velvet Revolution
- GermansFrom the Germanic peoples to reunification
- PolesFrom Biskupin to Solidarity
Eastern Europe 3 Balkan peoples Ukrainians Russians
- Balkan peoplesFrom the gold of Varna to the states of today
- UkrainiansFrom the Trypillia towns to independent Ukraine
- RussiansFrom the princes of Moscow to the Russian Federation
Nordic 1 Nordic peoples
- Nordic peoplesFrom the rock carvings of Alta to the welfare states
Inner Asia 4 Central Asians Tibetans Uyghurs Mongols
- Central AsiansFrom the Sogdian cities and the Göktürks to the five republics
- TibetansFrom Songtsen Gampo's empire to the Dalai Lamas and the present
- UyghursFrom the Orkhon khaganate to the Tarim oases and the present
- MongolsFrom Temüjin's khanate and the world empire to the present
South Asia 2 Indus Valley peoples South Asians
- Indus Valley peoplesFrom the farmers of Mehrgarh to the decline of the cities
- South AsiansFrom the Rigveda to the present day
East Asia 3 Chinese Koreans Japanese
- ChineseFrom the Yellow River to the Son of Heaven
- KoreansFrom the Three Kingdoms to the last king of Joseon
- JapaneseFrom the keyhole tombs to the fall of the Empire
Southeast Asia 5 Indonesians Cambodians Vietnamese Burmese and Thai Filipinos
- IndonesiansFrom Srivijaya and Borobudur to the present
- CambodiansFrom Funan and Angkor to the present
- VietnameseFrom the Đông Sơn drums to the present
- Burmese and ThaiFrom Bagan and Sukhothai to Burma, Siam, Laos and Malaya
- FilipinosFrom the rice terraces and the Laguna copperplate to the present
Oceania 3 Polynesians Australians Indigenous Australians
- PolynesiansFrom the Lapita voyagers to the Pacific nations
- AustraliansFrom the First Fleet to the Australia Act and the present
- Indigenous AustraliansFrom Lake Mungo to the Apology and the present
The Americas 7 Andeans Mesoamericans Maya Latin Americans Indigenous North Americans Americans Canadians
- AndeansFrom Caral to the fall of Cusco
- MesoamericansFrom the Olmec heads to the fall of Tenochtitlan
- MayaFrom El Mirador to the present day
- Latin AmericansFrom the landfall of 1492 to the present
- Indigenous North AmericansFrom Cahokia and the Haudenosaunee to Nunavut and the present
- AmericansFrom Jamestown to Watergate and the present
- CanadiansFrom Champlain's Quebec to patriation and the present
Nature, across them all 3 Eruptions Summers Droughts
- Eruptions184, from the sulfur they left in polar ice
- Summers40 of the warmest and coldest in 2,000 years
- Droughts856 runs of dry years, read from tree rings, caves and lake beds
Every date says how sure it is.
CertainApproximate
Every date and every place carries its own certainty and its sources, right on the page. Switch on Certain and the timeline shows only records dated as firmly as their age allows.
A legendary figure is dated by when its story is first attested, never by the myth’s own date. Some records are still wrong, so every section of a record has Send feedback: tell us right there, and it reaches us.
Pricing
Free to explore. One unlock for the full picture library.
Free
- Every civilisation, every record
- The timeline and the map
- Search, saves and your notes
- Photos of the most significant records
Pictures · coming later
- Every photo, for every civilisation
- Buy once, or by the year
- Free for everyone during the beta
- Price to come before launch
Try it now on iPhone.
Leave your email and we’ll send you the link to the public beta on TestFlight, Apple’s app for trying apps before they’re released. We’ll write again when it’s on the App Store.