What is the Holocene?
The Holocene is the geological period we are currently in. It began 11,550 years ago, about 9,600 BC. The Holocene begins roughly when the last non-human member of the genus Homo, Homo floresiensis, died out. It was also the end of the Younger Dryas cold spell and the Wisconsin glaciation, during which huge areas of Canada, northern Europe, and Asia were covered in ice sheets 2-3 km thick. This most recent glaciation, which lasted 52,000 years, created many of the Northern hemisphere’s most beautiful landscapes. The Holocene was preceded by the Pleistocene, during which most of our species’ evolution took place. The Pleistocene began 1.8 million years ago. All of human civilization has occurred during the Holocene. Some historians put the first evidence of civilization in 9500 BC, the age of the oldest known granary, only 100 years after the beginning of the Holocene. The oldest Japanese potteries date to 10,000 BC. The oldest known human settlement, Jericho, was founded around 9000 BC
