Prehistoric Archive
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The Stonehenge Riverside Project: exploring the Neolithic landscape of Stonehenge
Posted on May 21, 2012 | No CommentsStonehenge is a national symbol, recognised throughout the world, and interpreted in different ways by a variety of constituencies, from Druids to New Age enthusiasts. -
Ancient wall images are revealed to be 37000 years old
Posted on May 15, 2012 | No CommentsResearchers have determined that engraved and ocre-stained images from the ceiling of a collapsed rockshelter in southwest France are as old—or older than—the Chauvet cave paintings, making them among the oldest images discovered so far in Europe, a study reports. -
Study examines rise of agriculture in Stone Age Northern Europe
Posted on April 30, 2012 | No CommentsThis week’s edition of Science presents the genetic findings of a Swedish-Danish research team, which show that agriculture spread to Northern Europe via migration from Southern Europe. -
European neanderthals on the verge of extinction even before the arrival of modern humans
Posted on March 20, 2012 | No CommentsNew findings from an international team of researchers show that most neandertals in Europe died off around 50,000 years ago. The previously held view of a Europe populated by a stable neandertal population for hundreds of thousands of years up until modern humans arrived must therefore be revised. -
Prehistoric architecture found in Jordan from 20,000 years ago
Posted on February 21, 2012 | No CommentsThe ancient hut structures in eastern Jordan were discovered by a team of archaeologists including academics from The University of Nottingham. The finding suggests that the area was once intensively occupied and that the origins of architecture in the region date back 20 millennia, well before the emergence of agriculture. -
Life on the edge: early maritime cultures of the Pacific Coast of North America
Posted on January 29, 2012 | No CommentsA variety of evidence suggests that the Americas may have been colonized, at least in part, by maritime peoples moving around the North Pacific Rim near the end of the Pleistocene. -
Early history of wound treatment
Posted on January 22, 2012 | No CommentsThe first written records containing medical information date from about 2500 BC. Clay tablets from this time have been discovered in Mesopotamia and the first medical papyri from Egypt are probably some seven hundred years younger... -
The ‘Solarization’ of the Moon: Manipulated Knowledge at Stonehenge
Posted on December 23, 2011 | No CommentsThe aim of the monument builders was to juxtapose, replicate and reverse certain key horizon properties of the sun and the moon, apparently with the intention of investing the sun with the moon’s former religious significance. -
77,000 year old evidence for ‘bedding’ and use of medicinal plants uncovered at South African rock shelter
Posted on December 13, 2011 | No CommentsThis discovery is 50,000 years older than earlier reports of preserved bedding and provides a fascinating insight into the behavioural practices of early modern humans in southern Africa. -
Dogs were first domesticated in East Asia, research finds
Posted on December 1, 2011 | No CommentsData on genetics, morphology and behaviour show clearly that dogs are descended from wolves, but there’s never been scientific consensus on where in the world the domestication process began.