Neolithic people did not write. However, because they lived in settled communities, they left many traces. By Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art Introduction The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is characterized by the beginning of a settled human lifestyle. People learned to cultivate plants and domesticate animals for food, rather than rely solely on hunting[…]
Silbury Hill Neolithic mound. It stands 30 metres high and 160 metres wide, and comprises half a million tonnes of chalk. It is non-megalithic, but still a huge accomplishment. Copyright © Stu Smith 2013 – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0). Cropped In the Neolithic there were no maps. However, most times people[…]
Cereal in West Kennet (Wiltshire, United Kingdom). Copyright © Victor Jimenez Jaimez 2014 – Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) The emergence, adaptation, growth, and spread of new technology and social orders. By Dr. Víctor Jiménez Jáimez (left) and Dr. David W. Wheatley (right) Jáimez: Marie Curie IEF Post-Doctoral Researcher in Archaeology[…]
The owner of this skull had a nasty run in with an axe. Christian Meyer These massacres entail killing on a relative scale seen today only in the most war-torn countries. By Dr. Rick Schulting / 08.07.2015 Lecturer in Scientific and Prehistoric Archaeology University of Oxford The discovery of 26 bodies with lethal injuries in a 7,000[…]
Rock art in central Northumberland, northern England. Author provided Trying to save Neolithic rock art made by our ancient ancestors is no easy task. But it tells us how people used to live. By Dr. Aron David Mazel and Dr. Myra J. Giesen / 12.20.2017 Mazel: Reader in Heritage Studies Giesen: Visiting Fellow Newcastle University The British and Irish countryside is often celebrated for its wealth of[…]
Cat’s Brain long barrow is near the more famous Stonehenge (pictured) but predates it by hundreds of years. Shutterstock An archaeological dig at Cat’s Brain has unearthed a remarkable insight into life in Britain before Stonehenge. By Dr. James Leary / 11.20.2017 Director of Archaeology Field School University of Reading This summer, the University of Reading Archaeology Field School excavated[…]
The decoration of choice by Europe’s farming-friendly forefathers. Solange Rigaud, Author provided Studying beads, shells and animal teeth – ornaments which carried deep cultural meaning to prehistoric man – reveals that northern Europeans resisted the spread of agriculture for centuries. By Dr. Solange Rigaud / 04.09.2015 Researcher at the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences New York University[…]
Çatalhöyük after the first excavations by James Mellaart and his team (photo: Omar hoftun, CC: BY-SA 3.0) By Dr. Senta German Faculty of Classics Andrew W Mellon Foundation Teaching Curator, Ashmolean Museum University of Oxford Çatalhöyük or Çatal Höyük (pronounced “cha-tal hay OOK”) is not the oldest site of the Neolithic era or the largest, but it is extremely[…]
This diagram depicts part of the Late Neolithic farmhouse with the position of the postholes. Drawing: Archaeologist Jens Johannsen By Ivan Dikov / 10.11.2017 Archaeology in Bulgaria The remains of a 4,000-year-old house dated to the Late Neolithic period have been discovered by archaeologists in Vinge, in Denmark’s Zealand province, the country’s largest island. Archaeologists[…]