Timeline
Every guide, in its time.
Read across eras and regions, then open a guide to see the sources behind its dates. A shared date is a question to investigate, not evidence of contact.
1 of 57 guides in East Asia
1000 BCE – 1 CE 1
- 202–186 BCE
Which is older, the buried text or the famous one?
Writings on Reckoning: an excavated text beside a transmitted classic.
Zhangjiashan, Hubei, China · East Asia · Mathematics & measurement
Compare the Suan shu shu, a mathematical manuscript on bamboo strips from a Han tomb, with the transmitted Nine Chapters, and learn how excavated witnesses test a textual tradition.
Keep the habit
Dates are ranges. Read them that way.
Each guide names its period, its place, and the records that support them.
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