- — Africa:
Discovery of Toumaï
A team led by Michel Brunet recovered the cranium of Sahelanthropus tchadensis at the Toros-Menalla (TM 266) site in the Djurab desert; the species was announced in 2002 and dated to about seven million years.
Era: Toumaï and the Sao
Sources: Sahelanthropus tchadensis · Wikipedia, Sahelanthropus tchadensis · Australian Museum, Sahelanthropus tchadensis: Ten Years After the Discovery · Smithsonian Magazine
- — South America:
Paramaribo named World Heritage
UNESCO inscribes the Historic Inner City of Paramaribo, a Dutch colonial town blending European and local building traditions.
Era: Democracy, Diversity, and Oil
Sources: Historic Inner City of Paramaribo · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Africa:
Kunta Kinteh Island recognised
James Island and Related Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2003 as a memorial to the slave trade; the island was renamed Kunta Kinteh Island in 2011, recalling the figure in Alex Haley's Roots associated with nearby Juffure.
Era: The river, European trade and the Atlantic slave trade
Sources: Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Kunta Kinteh Island · Wikipedia
- — Europe:
Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley inscribed by UNESCO
Andorra's only World Heritage Site, the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, was inscribed as a cultural landscape, recognised for its high-Pyrenean pastoralism and a communal land-ownership system surviving from the 13th century.
Era: A Sovereign Democracy in the Heart of Europe
Sources: Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Africa:
Cesária Évora and morna go global
Cesária Évora, the "barefoot diva", won a Grammy for the album Voz d'Amor, the high point of a career that carried Cape Verdean morna and its Creole longing to audiences worldwide.
Era: A stable democracy and a global people
Sources: Cesária Évora · Wikipedia, The story of morna: Cape Verde's music of displacement and return · Al Jazeera
- — Africa:
Rainforests of the Atsinanana inscribed
Six eastern national parks — home to species found nowhere else after 60 million years of isolation — join the World Heritage List.
Era: Independence & the Republics
Sources: Rainforests of the Atsinanana (World Heritage List) · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Asia:
Nisa inscribed by UNESCO
The Parthian Fortresses of Nisa were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007 as an exceptional record of the Parthian civilisation at one of its earliest and most important cities.
Era: Ancient Oases: Margiana and Parthian Nisa
Sources: Parthian Fortresses of Nisa · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — North America:
Bolt's sprinting dynasty
Usain Bolt wins the 100m and 200m at three straight Olympics, cementing Jamaica's dominance of world sprinting.
Era: Independent Jamaica and Global Culture
Sources: Usain Bolt · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Melaka and George Town inscribed by UNESCO
UNESCO lists Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca, recognising more than five centuries of trade and multicultural exchange between East and West.
Era: The New Economic Policy, Mahathir and Modern Malaysia
Sources: Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Oceania:
The lagoons join the World Heritage List
UNESCO inscribes the Lagoons of New Caledonia for reef diversity and intact ecosystems — the territory's other inheritance, held in common by both of its political camps.
Era: Three Referendums and an Unsettled Future
Sources: Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Asia:
Hegra becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Nabataean site of Hegra (al-Hijr) was inscribed as Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognizing the kingdom's deep pre-Islamic past.
Era: Oil, Modernization and Contemporary Saudi Arabia
Sources: Hegra Archaeological Site (al-Hijr / Madain Salih) · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Oceania:
Chief Roi Mata's Domain joins World Heritage List
UNESCO inscribed the residence, death site and burial of Chief Roi Mata on Efate, Lelepa and Artok — Vanuatu's first World Heritage property.
Era: Kastom, Cyclones and Climate Diplomacy
Sources: Chief Roi Mata's Domain — World Heritage List · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Chief Roimata's Domain — World Heritage Site · Vanuatu Tourism Office
- — Africa:
Loropéni inscribed by UNESCO
The Ruins of Loropéni are added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, becoming Burkina Faso's first such site.
Era: Loropéni and the Gold Frontier
Sources: Ruins of Loropéni — World Heritage Centre · UNESCO, 13 new sites added to UNESCO's World Heritage List (2009) · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Africa:
Cidade Velha named a World Heritage Site
UNESCO inscribed Cidade Velha, the Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande — the first European city in the tropics — as Cape Verde's only World Heritage Site, recognising its role in the Atlantic slave trade and colonial expansion.
Era: A stable democracy and a global people
Sources: Cidade Velha, Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Cidade Velha · Wikipedia
Culture & Ideas in the 2000s
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged culture and ideas — art, language, science and learning, narrowed to the 2000s — 14 of them, drawn from 13 nations, running from 2001 to 2009. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 14
- Nations
- 13
- Earliest
- 2001
- Latest
- 2009
- Africa
- 6
- Asia
- 3
- Oceania
- 2
- Europe
- 1
- North America
- 1
- South America
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.