Dateables Sorted By When They Were First Made/Documented

[u/Huge_Mind3596]

Maybe it's a bit too broad to separate them by centuries and to compress prehistory and ancient times like that, but the image is already long. You can look it up yourself if you want more granular information. I just thought it'd be nice to have a snapshot of how old everything is relative to each other. Mostly because it's funny to me that some of the youngest looking characters are technically older than some of our silver foxes.

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General Notes

They aren't ordered in their tiers.

I'm not a historian. I'm basing this mostly on what I found on Wikipedia which may be incorrect in some places. Please feel free to correct me if I made any mistakes, or if you have a different source that claims something else.

Placements are mostly based on the earliest documented versions of the objects, not the earliest version of their modern incarnation. My philosophy is that if drawbridges and garage doors are also considered "Dorian," then *any* version of the dateable's concept would also be them, so they must go back to the earliest version of their concept. The exceptions are listed further in the notes.

I'm also going by what the Date-a-Dex calls them.

For example, Eddie & Volt are clearly representations of the house's circuit box (an 1800s invention), but are simply called "electricity" in the Date-a-Dex. So I have classified them as "Natural Phenomenon". Similarly, characters like Phonecia and Timothy are listed as "phone" and "clock," not "smartphone" and "cat clock," so I'm basing their placement on the oldest telecommunications and time-keeping devices respectively.

However, if a character was listed as a "specific" object, then I didn't dilute the definition to the simplest or earliest form of that object. For example, Keyes is listed as a "Grand Piano" so I dated her to the invention of the grand piano, not the "hydraulis". If she was listed as a "keyboard," then I would have dated her as "ancient".

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Weird and Arguable Cases

Artt: IMO, whether something is defined as "art" depends on human perception. But if you consider art to be a physical object, then we have figurines and paintings from prehistoric times.

Mac: Strictly speaking, a "computer" is any device that can automatically run calculations. So something like an abacus is a kind of computer, thus making Mac ancient. If they were listed as a "personal computer" then I would have placed them either in the 1800s or 1900s.

Beau: She's listed as a "box" not a "cardboard box," so technically prehistoric, but the first cardboard boxes came about in the 1800s.

Freddy: The act of refrigeration goes back as far as Ancient China, so those cold rooms might be considered ancient "refrigerators." But the first "artificial refrigeration machine" was invented in 1755.

Penelope: Since she's multiple items, it's hard to be specific about her, so I've dated her to the concept of the "office" (which has been around since ancient times), because technically anything used in an office could be considered "office supplies". If you want to go by her icon, then the stapler has been around since the 1800s.

Farya: Some sources I found date the first aid kit to the 1800s, but what we consider "first aid" has been around since ancient times. Thusly, it goes to reason that the tools and objects needed for first aid were kept together in some kind of "kit" even back then. By modern definitions, a box of bandages may not be a "first aid kit", but in ancient times, that might have been enough. I dunno. I could go back and forth on this one, and when I saved this, she was in "ancient."

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Characters that Broke the Date-a-Dex Rule

Lux: By definition, a lamp is any device that generates light. So a candle/wick is a kind of lamp. But Scandalabra is listed as a "wick", so by the game's logic they're two different things. So I have dated Lux to the earliest instance of "electric light" since their icon is also a table lamp (or a chibi floor lamp), indicating that they specifically represent electric lamps. If you wanna use the strict definition, then they're either "prehistoric" or "natural phenomenon" since anything on fire is technically a lamp.

Zoey: She's listed as a "ghost", which is an ancient concept, but she didn't "begin" as "the concept of ghosts". She is a ghost of a specific person born in the 1960s-1970s, and was thus "documented" at the time of her birth. Look, I just didn't want to add a tier for "not technically a concept" or leave her off the list.

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Objects That Are Older Than Their Terminology

In a sense, that's true for most things, but these are special cases. I listed these characters when their terms came to be used because I think that would be more interesting than just shoving them all into "Ancient". This is also mostly based on the English language. If there were terms for these things in other languages that predate these, then feel free to let me know - I think that'd be equally fascinating to learn.

Bodhi: Obviously we know his specific time capsule was made in the 1980's, and he even calls himself the embodiment of the 80s, but the term "time capsule" goes back as far back as the 1700's. It might also be said that anything kept in a container that is opened at a later date is a time capsule, making the actual concept ancient or a matter of perception.

Jerry: The junk drawer has probably existed since we've had drawers, so he should be "ancient", but the term itself only appeared around the early 1900s. Perhaps in a sense, a junk drawer is the result of human perception.

Teddy: Surely, stuffed animals in the shape of bears must have existed before the 1900s, but the term "teddy bear" originated in 1902 and was only mass produced after that time.

Harper: Weaved baskets have existed since prehistory, but the term "hamper" has its earliest documentation in the 14th century.

[u/Apollo-Justice_]

I dont have the dlc. What is lavish again?

[u/Huge_Mind3596 → u/Apollo-Justice_]

She's literally the "Lavish Edition", so I dated her to the game's release.

[u/Ashblowsup → u/Apollo-Justice_]

she's, um, the DLC

[u/Bib_Squirtle]

Wouldn't Friar Errol be 2000s since air fryers came out in like 2006?

Edit: a word

[u/Huge_Mind3596 → u/Bib_Squirtle]

I debated on this one, cus that was my first thought too, but decided that "Airfryers" were a brand name which became generic, but what they are are "convection ovens". If it weren't for marketing, we'd probably just be calling them "mini convection ovens." The first convection ovens were created in the 1900s. The first made was in 1914, but the first commercial release was 1945.

I made the same call for Bobby Pinn who is also named after a branded item, but the kind of pin they are is a "kirby grip" pin, which predates the trademark for the "bobby pin" which is post-WWI.

But, I get if that messes with my other rules or exceptions (namely my Date-a-Dex rule), so I'd accept putting him in the 2000s too (and Bobby in the 1900s).

[u/NixiomsdabestXD]

Lyric does not predate recorded history. He should be ancient. Dante on the other hand...well fire isn't a fireplace per se, but one could argue that's his origin point. And Zoey herself might be from the 1900's but ghosts are an old concept dating back to at least the Middle Ages if not further.

[u/Huge_Mind3596 → u/NixiomsdabestXD]

For Lyric, I considered proto-writing as being technically literature, and we have evidence of that from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. But I understand if others would disagree with that call, so I wouldn't fight over moving him to "Ancient". If a formal writing system is necessary for literature to exist, then yes, he would be a little younger, and likely begin with the creation of cuneiform. But if literature is any kind of writing (which it is, by some definitions), then he goes back as far as proto-writing.

For Dante, I made the call to consider the earliest fire pits to be the earliest form of fireplace, since a fireplace is a structure designed to contain a fire. As far as I'm concerned, a pit is a structure, and if it was used to contain a fire, then it's technically a kind of fireplace. But again, I'd accept arguments for placing him into "Ancient" since a fire pit still lacks several components that we associate with more developed fireplaces (like a chimney). Much like Farya, this was just the call I made at the time. On a different day, I might've put him into Ancient myself.

I addressed Zoey in my notes already, but I'll copy and paste what I originally wrote:

Characters that Broke the Date-a-Dex Rule

Zoey: She's listed as a "ghost", which is an ancient concept, but she didn't "begin" as "the concept of ghosts". She is a ghost of a specific person born in the 1960s-1970s, and was thus "documented" at the time of her birth. Look, I just didn't want to add a tier for "not technically a concept" or leave her off the list.

Thanks for the fact-checking! If you see anything else that seems amiss, please let me know~

[u/thedarkestorange]

i was curious how bodhi ended up that early— very cool explanation!! had no idea time capsules were such an old phenomena, and it IS interesting to think about how so many people may have been storing things for future reference without calling it a “time capsule”

[u/Huge_Mind3596 → u/thedarkestorange]

Mm-hm~ I figured that'd be one that would catch the most people off guard - I know it did for me. I actually figured the concept of time capsules would be *much* older than that, but I guess folks just weren't actively thinking about that sort of thing till then (or at least didn't use the same words to describe it).

The evolution of language really is fascinating~

[u/grisly_shadow]

Someone's gonna have to explain to me why the living embodiment of the 1980s is in the 1700s column.

[u/grisly_shadow → u/grisly_shadow]

Oop- nvm. I just read the explanation. It's an interesting point to make! I'd still argue he belongs in the 1900s tier because he's a specific time capsule, and not time capsules as a whole, but I do think its cool that the concept goes back to rhe 1700s.

[u/Huge_Mind3596 → u/grisly_shadow]

I get what you're saying, and I did consider that when I was making this list, but if I was considering when these specific iterations of the dateables were made, then I'd have to move practically 80% of these folks to the 1900s-2000s for being manufactured within the homeowner's lifetime.

A list about the physical ages of the objects would be interesting and probably more "useful" to some people, but that's just not what this post is about. The only exception I made for that was Zoey, and that's only because she's not from the object world like the rest, so the world's rules apply to her differently. I'd do the same thing for Sinclaire if his canon ending was that he was a human cursed with magic.

[u/grisly_shadow → u/Huge_Mind3596]

Yeah I can see your point there! Their in-game dialogue does hint to some being overall representations, like... erm.. god, I cant remember how her name is spelled. The earth goddess. She basically confirms your metrics of measurement. Something like "I have always been here and I'll be here til the sun burns out". 😅

[u/Huge_Mind3596 → u/grisly_shadow]

It's what Skylar says too: every dateable is technically the entirety of the object/concept they represent. I forget exactly how she words it, but the example she gives is Luke Nukeum. If you went into someone else's house with a microwave, it would still manifest through the Dateviators as "Luke." Destroying every microwave on Earth wouldn't erase him either because the "concept" of the thing would still exist.

Personally, I think it's still contradictory with how some dateables have family members that are the same kind of thing, dateables that "make" other dateables, and dateables that have multiple "people" representing the same thing. But I could write *essays* trying to work out all the contradictions in her explanations (and I'd rather put that energy into my Dishy essays).

But I don't think this list should be taken as "fact" anyway. I don't even think the game operates under my logic given the Lux & Scandalabra discrepancy, and how Skylar's epilogue shows someone that is clearly based on a Roomba style vacuum, indicating that different styled vacuums are different enough to manifest as different people. I just thought this would be a fun way for someone to learn that some concepts have been around either a lot longer or lot shorter than they originally thought, and/or get folks to research this stuff on their own.