Archaeologists working in north Abingdon have revealed evidence of one of our early human ancestors, as well as traces of ancient river systems, during preparation works for the new A34 interchange at Lodge Hill. Sixteen trial trenches were dug during…
Oldest figurative art identified The oldest narrative art in the world has been identified in Indonesia during new analysis of rock-art sites on the island of Sulawesi. A new method of dating called laser- ablation uranium-series (LA-U-series) imaging uses a…
New analysis of rock-art sites in Indonesia has identified the earliest narrative art currently known anywhere in the world. Research in recent years had already revealed that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to some of the oldest figurative…
Since March 2020 I have criss-crossed the United Kingdom, examining its history through the eyes of Current Archaeology. I have now visited every county in every country, but I have just a few geographical loose ends to tie off, including, this month, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Our Neanderthal cousins may now be extinct, but they are rarely out of the news. Writing in The Conversation, archaeologist Steven Mithen tackles the perennial question of why Homo sapiens flourished while Neanderthals died out by examining the differences between the brain cavities of the two species
A mammoth discovery A remarkable collection of mammoth bones has been found in a wine cellar in Lower Austria. Excavations at the site in Gobelsburg, carried out by archaeologists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), have revealed a dense…
REVIEW BY SIMON NORTON Ten years ago, Year 3 primary school teachers in the UK, like myself, were handed a revised National Curriculum which included a brand-new Unit of Study on ‘Prehistoric Britain’. For many teachers of seven-year-olds, this was…
What is it? This perforated baton made of mammoth ivory is believed to be a Palaeolithic tool used to make rope. The baton is 20.4cm long, 3.6cm wide, and 1.5cm thick. Four holes of slightly different sizes have been drilled…
Analysis of ancient wooden tools from Germany Results from the analysis of more than 700 pieces of prehistoric wood from Schöningen 13, Germany, have revealed that they had been transported from at least 3-5km away. A variety of techniques were…
In the complex story of human migration out of Africa, Homo sapiens are believed to have travelled steadily eastwards to Asia – eventually reaching Australia by around 50,000 years ago – but seem not to have moved into Europe for a period of 20,000 years.
Personal ornamentation is a powerful form of self-expression, often used to send messages about the wearer’s social identity, even today. But could such objects hold the key to understanding the cultural landscape of Palaeolithic Europe?
In 1994, the 300,000-year-old spears from Schöningen, Germany, made headlines as some of oldest wooden objects ever discovered. But these were not the only finds from the site. By the time excavations at Schöningen 13 (the ‘Spear Horizon’) came to…
REVIEW BY MATTHEW POPE From the start, Slimak is clear that The Naked Neanderthal is a very personal book and offers his own individual views on the archaeology of Neanderthal people. And this is an important point to make. The…
REVIEW BY AB What was life like for the inhabitants of Europe in the last Ice Age? How did they make their clothes? Did children play with toys? What was their relationship with dogs? These are just some of the…
REVIEW BY KK Wolf Road is Alice Roberts’ first foray into children’s literature. Drawing on archaeological and anthropological evidence, the book tries to provide as accurate a window as possible into the world of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, and into how they…
Across 6 Language spoken by the Incas (7)8 Romance language with surviving documents from the 12th century (7)10 Priests often associated with the ancient Celts (6)11 Extinct language of Italy (8)12 ___ de Rouge, French Egyptologist (1811-1872) (8)13 Egyptian goddess…
He told us that he was a speleologist, whose girlfriend had just left him. He was in a very sorry state of distress.
REVIEW BY AB In the 1990s, archaeologists excavating in West Sussex made a remarkable discovery: human remains belonging to ancient humans who lived around half a million years ago. These discoveries from Boxgrove continue to represent the oldest human remains…
A major new cave-art discovery has recently been made in Cova Dones, Spain. The nature of these images poses fascinating questions about how and where Palaeolithic people created such art, as Aitor Ruiz-Redondo told Matthew Symonds.
Beaver remains at a site in central Germany are changing our understanding of the diets of hominins in Lower Palaeolithic Europe, as well as the antiquity of the exploitation of beavers. Extensive excavations between 1969 and 2002 at Bilzingsleben, an…
We all enjoy stories about new discoveries, and it is these that tend to grab the news headlines, but there is another kind of story that gets far less coverage: those that contradict an earlier claim. In that category is…
In 2019, excavations at Kalambo Falls in Zambia produced a range of wooden objects. These included structural elements that have been dated using cutting-edge technology to an almost unbelievably ancient era. The results force us to rethink everything we thought we knew about the capabilities of early humans, as Larry Barham and Geoff Duller told Matthew Symonds.
Analysis of human and animal footprints carved into rock faces in Namibia has revealed that they contain a wealth of hidden details. Engravings of human and animal tracks are found in prehistoric rock art around the world, but these images…
Ever since the redoubtable Madeleine Colani explored the wonderful karst country of Hoa Binh Province, west of Hanoi in northern Vietnam, a century ago, the hunter-gatherers of Southeast Asia have received rather a poor press. With a background in the…
Earliest engravings? A series of marks, found in the La Roche-Cotard cave on the north bank of the Loire River in France, could be the earliest examples of Neanderthal engravings yet found. Surveys of the cave walls in 2013 and…
New research is changing our understanding of the climate of Early Pleistocene Europe and what it meant for our early relatives. Hominin fossils and stone tools indicate that archaic humans had reached Europe by around 1.4 million years ago. Surviving…
An Ice Age mystery In 1999, archaeologists working in Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany discovered the head of a 35,000-year-old ivory figurine, believed to depict a horse. Recent excavations have now produced part of the figurine’s missing body, which…
A set of marks in a cave in central France may be the earliest example of Neanderthal cave-wall engravings found to date. Tens of thousands of years ago, the entrance of La Roche-Cotard cave, which sits on the north bank…
Wood, for obvious reasons, is a rare discovery in the world of archaeology, with any and all recovered artefacts made from such a material heavily prized for research opportunities. Because of its relative scarcity, though, the best methodologies for analysing…
Palaeolithic portable art Several small limestone slabs, found at an open-air site at Bellegarde in south-eastern France in 2015 by Inrap archaeologists, have recently been identified as containing rare carvings made during the Upper Palaeolithic. Portable art from this period…
REVIEW BY FRANCIS WENBAN-SMITH This volume presents an interim report on the current research into Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal occupation on Jersey and in its vicinity, centred on re-investigation of La Cotte de St Brelade rock-shelter and its distinctive mammoth bone…
Excavations at Manor Farm in Frindsbury, Kent – in advance of the construction of a Maritime Academy – have revealed more than 800 stone artefacts found within sediments thought to relate to a Middle Pleistocene tributary of the River Medway.…
A rare example of Upper Palaeolithic portable art has been found at an open-air site in south-eastern France. Bellegarde, located between Nîmes and Arles, was discovered in 2015 by Inrap archaeologists. Excavations across c.2,000m2 of the multi-phase site have produced…
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Archaeologists found an alignment of large limestone rocks and sandstone cobbles that appears to have been arranged by the cave’s occupants.