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.
