3874 entries. Last updated May 23, 2013.

Food / Wine / Cookery / Diet Timeline Outline

  • Eras
  • Themes

2,500,000 BCE – 8,000 BCE

Five bone tools excavated in Swartkrans, South Africa, once used by Parantrhopus robustus for foraging purposes. Photography by Jim Di Loreto and Don Hurlbert, Smithsonian Institution. (View Larger)
Early Humans Make Bone Tools
(Circa 1,500,000 BCE)

Scorched stone tools excavated in 2004 at Gesher Benot-Ya-aqov, in Israel, provide evidence for the existence of early hearths. Photograph by Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution. (View Larger)
The Earliest Hearths
(Circa 1,500,000 BCE – 790,000 BCE)

Photocredit: James Di Loreto, & Donald H. Hurlbert, Smithsonian Institution. (View Larger)
Hunting Large Animals With Spears
(Circa 500,000 BCE)

A projectile point, estimated to be over 104,000 years old, uncovered in Omo Kibish, Ethipia. Photocredit: Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution. (View Larger)
Tools for Capturing Fast or Dangerous Prey
(Circa 104,000 BCE)

The Katanda Bone Harpoon Point. Photocredit: Smithsonian Institution.
Katanda Bone Harpoon Point
(88,000 BCE – 78,000 BCE)

<p>Fish hooks made of shell found in the Jerimalai Cave in East Timor.</p>
The Oldest Fish Hooks and Evidence of Paleolithic Offshore Fishing
(Circa 21,000 BCE – 16,000 BCE)

<p>Two of the 20,000 year-old pottery fragments found in the Xianrendong Cave in China.  Photo by AFP/Science/AAAS.</p>
The Oldest Known Pottery
(Circa 18,000 BCE)

8,000 BCE – 1,000 BCE

The Earliest Known Fermented Beverage
(Circa 7,000 BCE)

<p>Fragment of clay sieve from central Europe.  Credit: Mélanie Salque.</p>
The Earliest Evidence of Cheese-Making in Europe
(Circa 5,500 BCE – 5,000 BCE)

From National Geographic. (View Larger)
The Earliest Known Winery
(Circa 4,000 BCE)

The Botai culture originated from the Akmola province of Kazakhstan, highlighted in green. (View Larger)
Horse Domestication Revolutionizes Transportation, Communication, and Warfare
(Circa 3,500 BCE)

The Areni-1 shoe. (View Larger)
The Oldest Known Well-Preserved Leather Shoe
(Circa 3,500 BCE)

<p>Model of Ötzi the Iceman in exhibit at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.</p>
The First Prehistoric Human Ever Found with his Everyday Clothing and Equipment
(Circa 3,300 BCE)

The Word Bibliography is Derived from a Greek Word for Papyrus
(Circa 3,100 BCE – 3,050 BCE)

Probably the Most Ancient Surviving Fermented Beverages
(Circa 1,900 BCE – 700 BCE)

Probably the Earliest Surviving Recipe for Making Beer
(Circa 1,800 BCE)

YBC 4644, one of three tablets in Yale's collection inscribed with ancient recipes.
The Earliest Surviving Recipes
(Circa 1,700 BCE)

The Uluburun Shipwreck
(1,375 BCE)

800 – 900

The frontispiece of a 1709 edition of De re coquinaria. (View Larger)
The Earliest Surviving Cookbook
(Circa 850)

A bust of Aulus Cornelius Celsus.
The Oldest Western Medical Document after the Hippocratic Writings and…
(Circa 850)

1000 – 1100

<p>The reconstructions of three Norse buildings are the focal point of this archaeological site, the earliest known European settlement in the New World. The archaeological remains at the site were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.</p>
The First Conclusive Proof that Norsemen Reached North America
(Circa 1000)

1300 – 1400

Folio 11 of MS M.232, the Morgan Library's 1470 Belgian manuscript of Ruralia Commoda. (View Larger)
Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Horticulture
(Circa 1304 – 1309)

A recipe for pork in a sage sauce, from The Forme of Cury. (View Larger)
One of the Oldest Known Manuscripts on Cookery in English, Written in the…
(Circa 1390)

1450 – 1500

The First Technical Dictionary
(1473 – 1474)

The First Printed Cookbook
(Circa 1475 – 1479)

The First Printed Book on Wine
(October 1478)

The First Separately Printed Treatise on Diet
(March 23, 1487)

1500 – 1550

<p>A recipe for Custarde taken from the Boke of Kokery, c. 1440.</p>
The First English Cookbook, Known from a Single Surviving Copy
(1500)

The First English Book on Preparing and Carving Meat, Game and Fish
(1508)

The First Printed Book to Set Out Rules for a Healthy Diet
(1542)

1650 – 1700

<p>The title page of <em>Le Cuisinier Francois</em>, by Francois Pierre de La Varenne, 1680.</p>
The Founding Text of Modern French Cuisine
(1651)

1700 – 1750

Probably the Most-Widely Read English Cookery Book of the 18th Century
(1747)

1750 – 1800

The First American Cookbook Written by an American
(1796)

Malthus on Population
(1798)

1800 – 1850

The First Book on Modern Food Preservation Methods
(1810)

1850 – 1875

One of the Major Publishing Successes of the 19th Century
(1859 – October 1861)

1920 – 1930

Animal Ecology
(1927)

1950 – 1960

First Stored-Program Computer to Run Business Programs on a Routine Basis
(November 17, 1951)

2000 – 2005

Printing on Cakes
(November 20, 2001)