Deep Time

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This work challenges the link between deep time and modern geology by examining late Enlightenment writings that merged new empirical data with various traditions of chronology and human origins. Starting in the mid-eighteenth century, it explores how deep time became connected to Earth history, incorporating colonial natural history, oral traditions, and scientific romance. It highlights the emergence of a modern geological timescale through literary, scientific, and travel writings of the late Enlightenment/Romantic period. Key figures include John Reinhold and George Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook, and Buffon with his Epochs of Nature. The text also discusses Herder, Blake, and the influence of oral traditions, alongside Darwin's interactions with anthropology and archaeology, particularly in The Descent of Man. Explorers, naturalists, poets, and philosophers of the time referred to the "abyss of time," reflecting new ideas that challenged established time scales. These included cultural evolution concepts inspired by Pacific peoples, insights into Earth's strata, and the study of oral traditions and non-Western scriptures like the Mahabharata. Heringman ultimately posits that the notion of deep time, now linked to modern geology, originated from a blend of human and natural history.