Time is a crucial factor for history and archaeology. Our perception of Time determines the way we perceive past itself. Dating allows us to relate and consequently interpret events and phenomena. The present Timeline has primarily educational purposes. Its users can navigate themselves with the aid of the arrow keys on the keyboard or by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the Timeline right / left.

Two types of information appear in this Timeline: a) information related to points of time; b) information related to time spans. That is because “points” refer to selected events considered to be historical landmarks, while “time spans” refer to long-term processes. There is, however, another set of data that, although related to events that occurred at a specific point in time - or even in a very short period – they are depicted as fairly lengthy processes. This paradox is due to the inability of historical and archaeological research to determine anything but the wider period in which this event is located. Either as points or as periods, when the definitions of time are related to historical phenomena, they are, to a greater or lesser degree, conventional.

In order to make the best of the Timeline, the visitor should study the information for specific sites along with those under the label “general history”.