MetaFilter posts tagged with Prehistory

Cannibal holocaust

Artw — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:39:42 -0800

"Heads were skinned and muscles removed from the brain case in order to remove the skullcap. Incisions and scrapes on jaws indicate that tongues were cut out." "Scrape marks inside the broken ends of limb bones indicate that marrow was removed." "Whatever actually happened at Herxheim, facial bones were smashed beyond recognition." - Neolithic mass canibalism in southern Germany.

The quick and the dead

stbalbach — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:31:39 -0800

Recent research has shown Neanderthals were sophisticated and fearless hunters, successfully killing a large variety of dangerous game. But as far as humans were concerned, Neanderthals may have possibly been tasty main courses themselves, perhaps one reason for their, uh, "disappearance". Yet humans didn't always sit atop the food pyramid - the oldest human hair has been discovered - inside fossilized 200,000 year old hyena dung.

Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land

Rumple — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:12:57 -0800

The Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land is a comprehensive spatially-referenced database of current archaeological knowledge of all periods of Levantine history and prehistory. Spatial search is a good entry point, as are the Palestine Exploration Fund historic maps. You can also search by time period or dig into the many ancient Empires of the area. Or just look at everything in the database. The site is a work in progress, but a cool one powered by a consortium of over 30 professional archaeologists. May require Google Maps. via

Archaeology and Early Human History of Texas

Rumple — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:01:46 -0800

Texas Beyond History is a comprehensive web site covering the last 10,000 years of human occupation of (what is now called) Texas. A small section of the site was previously posted on Metafilter. via archaeolog.

Çatalhöyük, oldest city or biggest village?

Kattullus — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:55:37 -0800

Why humans started huddling together in cities is still shrouded in mystery but if the question is ever settled the answer will probably be found in Çatalhöyük, a settlement of five to eight thousand located in what is now Turkey that came into existence around 7500 BC. The current head archaeologist of the Çatalhöyük Project is Ian Hodder, one of the leading lights in postprocessual archaeology, who summarized his finding in a recent article in Natural History Magazine. The Çatalhöyük Project website is a treasure trove of information about the ancient settlement. Should the site's sprawling hugeness prove intimidating, I recommend starting with Hodder's introduction to the 2005 archive report. Just the photography section alone is immense, though the flickr page and illustration gallery is of manageable size. The illustrator, John Gordon Swogger, has blog archives from the 2005 and 2006 seasons and includes plenty of images with his writing. Finally, here are interactive 3d visualizations and a streaming video introduction where, among other things, you learn how to pronounce Çatalhöyük.

English ? Scottish ? Irish ? What's the difference ?

y2karl — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 23:59:23 -0800

...Historians teach that they are mostly descended from different peoples: the Irish from the Celts and the English from the Anglo-Saxons who invaded from northern Europe and drove the Celts to the country’s western and northern fringes. But geneticists who have tested DNA throughout the British Isles are edging toward a different conclusion. Many are struck by the overall genetic similarities, leading some to claim that both Britain and Ireland have been inhabited for thousands of years by a single people that have remained in the majority, with only minor additions from later invaders like Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans. The implication that the Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh have a great deal in common with each other, at least from the geneticist’s point of view, seems likely to please no one.

A United Kingdom? Maybe
See also Myths of British ancestry
In the words of one well known Basque cultural icon: HA Ha!

Petroglyphs In the American Southwest

snsranch — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 19:57:36 -0800

Prehistoric art in the American Southwest.

Corpses on the Moors

brundlefly — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:27:17 -0800

"A 2,600-year-old corpse has been discovered in the moors of northern Germany. It's not the only one. Such finds are frequent, but have posed an increasingly large riddle: Why were so many of the bodies victims of violence and dismemberment?"

Archeology motherlode in Utah

wsg — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 11:05:24 -0800

Artifacts were lying on the ground untouched for more than 1,000 years.
For sixty years Waldo Wilcox, a rancher in Utah, kept people off his land about 130 miles South of Salt Lake City. The reason was a string of prehistoric indian settlements that stretch 12 miles. (more inside)

When humans faced extinction

40 Watt — Wed, 18 Jun 2003 08:07:54 -0800

When humans faced extinction: A new study suggests that around 70,000 years ago there may have been as few as 2,000 individual humans, meaning that we could have been wiped out before we even got started. Related article here.

Out of Africa

Pretty_Generic — Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:58:08 -0800

America today - a nation overrun by Ethiopian immigrants. Can nothing stop them?

lagado — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 18:55:26 -0800

The Ancient Underwater Pyramids of Japan. "A STRUCTURE thought to be the world's oldest building, nearly twice the age of the great pyramids of Egypt, has been discovered. The rectangular stone ziggurat under the sea off the coast of Japan could be the first evidence of a previously unknown Stone Age civilisation, say archeologists. The monument is 600ft wide and 90ft high and has been dated to at least 8000BC. The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, was constructed more than 5,000 years later."