The gauntlet has been thrown! Not to brag, but after awhile I tend to become a pesky Deity player, so now I'll aim for Sherman tanks before Christ.
On a more serious note, these things are part of the charm of the entire Civ series. In certain lucky games, with the perfect starting place and some beelining, you will see absurdly early techs, at least early Medieval (around 500 AD). Personally, I love that aspect about Civ. For me, it's like a sandbox game, not chess - I'm more of a history buff who grabs the opportunity to play God a bit.
I play Diety as well but I usually am ahead of time around 1800 AD by 200 years or so if I b-line for science.