Create an Ancient History Timeline

Track the history of civilization and the rise and fall of empires with the ancient history template.

On this page
Places
Periods
People
Linking Items
Attachments & Links
Customizing the Item Cards
Configuring Groups
All guides
Quickstart Guide
Working with Dates
Custom Item Types
For Fiction
Story Timeline
Novel Outline
Worldbuilding
For History
Ancient History
Historical Warfare

About the Ancient History Template

With the ancient history template, you can track the movements of ancient cultures and see the rise and fall of empires. Group events by person or place, and easily attach images, documents, or links to other resources.

The template is set up with grouping enabled, so you can easily add historical periods and events for any civilizations, empires, kingdoms, or cultural groups you’re tracking.

In this guide, we’ll show you how you can use the ancient history template to follow the events of any historical group. We’ll add events, link them to people and places, and use grouping to make it easy to compare everything on the timeline.

You can follow this same approach for any historical period and customize the template to capture all sorts of information.

Places

When you start a new file without example content, the template uses 'Place' as a default label for events related to a specific civilization or people. Just double-click the label or use the Inspector to rename it to whatever you need.

After that, you can create new events on the timeline and easily move them between groups on the timeline.

Rename Places

There are two ways to rename a Place:

  1. Double-click a
    Place label to rename it on the timeline, or
  2. Select a Place on the timeline to rename it in the Inspector.
Create Event
  1. Double-click on a blank space on the timeline to create an event inside one of the groups.
  2. Click and drag to adjust the placement. Drag the
    arrows to change the duration.
  3. Select the event and use the date fields in the Inspector to enter precise dates.
Add and Remove Events from a Group
  1. Drag an event into a group to make it appear in both.
  2. To remove an event from a group, select the event and click the
    menu
    icon next to the group label in the Inspector. Then choose Remove relationship.

Periods

The Periods group can be used to show the lifespan of a dynasty, a cultural movement, an archaeological period (like the Bronze Age), or anything else spanning an extended time frame.

To add new a new period, just double-click an empty space in the Periods group on the timeline, or create the event in the Periods Panel and drag it over.

  1. Click the
    Periods
    icon in the sidebar to open the Periods panel and select New Period.
  2. Drag a period from the panel to place it within the Periods group on the timeline.
  3. Drag the
    arrows to change the duration.
  4. Select the period and use the date fields in the Inspector to enter precise dates.

People

The people in your project could be rulers, conquerors, thought leaders, revolutionaries, adventurers—or anyone connected to your events.

  1. Select the
    People icon in the sidebar to open the People panel.
  2. Select New Person to create and name a person.
  3. Select the person and use the
    Dates
    panel in the Inspector to enter details like their birth and death dates.

Linking Items

Linking events to people and places lets you capture details like who was involved and where it happened. Making these connections allows you to sort and filter information and view your timeline in different ways.

  1. Select an event on your timeline to open the Inspector.
  2. In the
    Relationship
    panel, select Add Place or Add Person and choose an option.
  3. You can create a place or person and assign it to an event in the same step using the Create button.

Customizing the Item Cards

The template shows images, links, and other event info by default, but you can turn these off in the Item Display menu if your timeline feels too cluttered.

  1. Click the
    Item
    Display button in the footer to open the menu panel.
  2. Tick the checkbox next to a label to select all options, or expand the list to pick each one individually.

Configuring Groups

Grouping helps keep your timeline organized as your project grows. The Ancient History template comes with grouping already set up, but you can easily tweak the settings in the Group menu. Try different options to see what works best for you and your data.

  1. Select the
    Group
    button in the footer to open the Groups panel.
  2. Tick a checkbox to select all the options within the group, or expand the list to check each option individually.

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