Two locations on the Isle of Skye have recently revealed evidence for occupation during the Late Upper Palaeolithic (LUP). Now new research (published in the Journal of Quaternary Science: ) into the environment at this time shows that these Palaeolithic…
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH Given the severity of the ongoing war in Ukraine, it is no surprise that the rich prehistoric archaeology of the country has been largely forgotten, especially within its southern and eastern regions, but it makes this…
Analysis of engraved stone slabs from the 15,800-year-old site of Gönnersdorf, located on the banks of the Rhine in west-central Germany, has identified a set of carvings that appear to depict fish nets or traps. Gönnersdorf has produced a rich…
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…
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?
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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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Review by George Nash Until relatively recently, European Palaeolithic rock art outside the Franco-Cantabrian area (south-west France and northern Spain) was considered a rare occurrence. This belief was partly based on harsh climatic regimes in the northern and alpine areas…
The latest season of excavations at Românești has provided evidence that the site was geared towards producing particular types of stone tools.
When Jean-Luc Champerret explored the Lascaux caves soon after their rediscovery, he saw not paintings but ancient writing. With the publication of his extraordinarily imaginative interpretation, Simon Coppock revisits the caves and their elusive, poetic markings.
Neil went on to propose using what R G Collingwood called ‘the historical imagination’ by blending data and interpretation to ‘tell the story’. He was convinced that this ‘must be done if archaeology is to be interesting and worthwhile’.
Researchers have studied the 30,000-year-old figurine using micro-CT imaging to try to trace the origins of the oolite rock it was made from
In the 1970s, prehistoric rock art was found in the Tagus River Basin, just as a dam project was set to raise water levels. In a race against time, archaeologists sought to find a way to record thousands of images before they were submerged. Now the results have been carefully studied using a variety of new technological approaches. Sara Garcês and George Nash tell the remarkable story of one of Europe’s principal rock-art areas.
The researchers discovered that there were at least four phases of alternating Neanderthal and modern human occupation in the rock shelter.
Showcasing 12 articles in four parts, Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy emerged from a 2017 interdisciplinary conference, and the editors aimed to represent the diversity of topics that arise when archaeology and philosophy meet. This target is emphatically achieved. Part…
What is it? This 51,000-year-old engraved toe bone is one of the oldest works of art ever found. The bone, which is the second phalanx of a giant deer, is 56.8mm long, 38.9mm wide, and 30.9mm thick, and weighs 36.1g.…
The footprints were left by a group children, aged between six to seven years old, playing in the cave recess sometime during the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic c. 60,000-15,000 years ago.
Cave painting is one of the earliest forms of human culture, one of the first outlets of our creativity. But the meaning that these paintings had to the communities who created them remains a bit of a mystery. Who painted…
Archaeologists excavating a 15,000-year-old campsite at Les Varines, Jersey, have recovered ten fragments of stone decorated with hundreds of interweaving lines. Recently published analysis of these ‘plaquettes’ suggests that they may represent the earliest artworks yet identified in the British Isles. Carly Hilts reports.
As far as I could tell, every minor contour of the original has been replicated, as of course have the paintings themselves.