Werewolf Chronology

BCE  28-1000  1022-1299  1300-1399  1400-1500  1501-1600  1601-1764  1765-1900  1901-1999

140000 BCE

According to research published in 1998, humans and wolves established a common bond more than 140,000 years ago.  Further DNA evidence shows that dogs began to evolve from their wolf ancestors about 135,000 years ago.  Literally, humans and their canine companions evolved together.

75000 BCE

Discoveries of the earliest human altars reveal evidence of bear, wolf, and other animal cults, reminding us that the identification of humans with animals is one of the most common elements of myth, folklore and religion.

25000 BCE

The Franco-Cantrabrian cave artists from over 25,000 years ago have left portraits depicting ghostly creatures and a variety of 2-legged beings with the heads of animals and birds.  Perhaps what the ancients were saying is that ". . . the road to supernatural powers is easier to follow in animal shape and that spirits can only be reached with an animal's assistance."

6000 BCE

Cave drawings in Catal Huyuk depict hunters draped in leopard skins - this would support the theories that early hunters learned to hunt by mimicking animal predators.

3000 BCE

This is about the time scientists have recorded the building of the Sphinx - the lion headed beast-woman of Egypt.  For centuries this has symbolized the higher spiritual nature triumphing over the world of matter.

2000 BCE

This is the suggested date that the Epic of Gilgamesh was written down giving us the first literary character of Enkidu as a werewolf like being.

1000 BCE

The Greeks were using stories to depict the power of transformation.  Heroes and deities freely change themselves and others into various animals and serpents.

850 BCE

Suggested date for the writing of Homer's Odyssey, a work filled with accounts of were creatures and shape-shifters, such a Circe, who transformed her lovers into swine.

750 BCE

The date given for the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, brothers who were suckled by a she-wolf.

c. 540 BCE

Nebuchadnezzar, mighty king of Babylon, suffers a mental affliction which causes to to allows his hair and beard to grow long and to roam about and live as an animal for nearly four years.

500 BCE

The Scythians, a nomadic Eurasian people, record their belief that the Neuri turn themselves into werewolves during an annual religious festival.

400 BCE

Damarchus, a werewolf from the Greek city state of Arcadia, is said to have won boxing medals at the Olympics.

100 - 75 BCE

The great Roman poet Virgil speaks of the powers of the werewolf Moeris, from whom he claims to have learned many secrets of magick, including the raising of the dead.

BCE  28-1000  1022-1299  1300-1399  1400-1500  1501-1600  1601-1764  1765-1900  1901-1999