TIME

The Ice Age

≈ 115,000–11,700 years ago

The Earth at the Last Glacial Maximum seen from space, with white ice sheets over the far north of North America and Europe, the Atlantic Ocean below them and Africa to the right.

Early HumanityThe Ice Age

The last glacial period.

The last glacial period was the most recent cold phase of the Pleistocene, from about 115,000 to 11,700 years ago. Ice sheets covered much of the northern continents.

At the peak, about 26,500 to 19,000 years ago, sea level fell more than 100 meters. Modern humans lived through all of it.

115,000–11,700 years ago, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Early Humanity
Period
≈ 115,000–11,700 years ago
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing mammoths crossing a snowfield below mountains. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The scene is imagined.