17001400BCE

17001400 BCE denotes a point approximately 17.0014 million years before the present, placing it within the Middle Miocene epoch of the Neogene Period. At that time Earth was about 4.5 billion years old, and the planet’s surface was dominated by extensive forests, swamps, and shallow seas. Continental plates were closer to their modern positions, but the oceanic configuration had not yet reached the current arrangement; the Atlantic was widening at a slow pace while the Tethys Sea was closing.

The Miocene is noted for significant mammalian diversification. Early proboscideans (such as the ancestral elephantids) and perissodactyls (like equids and rhinoceroses) proliferated, and the first true pasture specialists, including early grasses, plants, and their grazing mammals, appear in the fossil record. Primates were also evolving rapidly, giving rise to the great apes that would eventually lead to humans. Avian diversity expanded, with many modern families becoming established.

Climate during the Middle Miocene was warmer and generally wetter than today, but it was also marked by a gradual cooling trend that would crest in the Late Miocene. This cooling promoted changes in vegetation, such as the spread of more open habitats and grasslands, influencing the evolutionary pathways of many mammalian groups.

Since humans did not exist at 17001400 BCE, no direct evidence of human activity from that year is available. The era is studied primarily through geological and paleontological research, employing radiometric dating techniques to estimate the ages of fossils and rock strata with a typical precision of a few percent of the total age. Scientific consensus typically references broader time intervals rather than this precise year, as geological time scales use epochs and periods for practical classification.