Forums: Neolithic

The Egtved Girl In 1921 a burial mound at Egtved was excavated. In it was found a completely preserved coffin, and inside it lay a 16-18 year old girl about 160cm (5’4”) tall, slim, with long, loose blonde hair and carefully trimmed nails. For burial she had been laid in the coffin, fully dressed, on top of a cow-skin. Her upper body was clad in a loose bodice with elbow length sleeves and around her hips she wore a knee length skirt of string. On her braided woollen belt were a large, spiral-decorated bronze disk with a spike and a...

At a settlement in what is now southern Germany, the menu turned gruesome 7,000 years ago. Over a period of perhaps a few decades, hundreds of people were butchered and eaten before parts of their bodies were thrown into oval pits, a new study suggests. Cannibalism at the village, now called Herxheim, may have occurred during ceremonies in which people from near and far brought slaves, war prisoners or other dependents for ritual sacrifice, propose anthropologist Bruno Boulestin of the University of Bordeaux... A social and political crisis in central Europe at that time triggered various forms of violence, the...

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Archeologists have discovered a water well in Cyprus that was built as long as 10,500 years ago, and the skeleton of a young woman at the bottom of it, an official said Wednesday. Pavlos Flourentzos, the nation's top antiquities official, said the 16-foot (5-meter) deep cylindrical shaft was found last month at a construction site in Kissonerga, a village near the Mediterranean island nation's southwestern coast. After the well dried up it apparently was used to dispose trash, and the items found in it included the poorly preserved skeleton of the young woman, animal bone fragments, worked...

Matt Ford scours the countryside for enigmatic rock carvings left by our ancestors. While some people dream of the warm sun of southern Spain for their retirement, David Jones chose high fells, the sharp teeth of a gale and the quest to find 5,000-year-old artwork. "I decided to build a new life when I retired," says the former IT marketing specialist, as a bitter wind whips through his hair. "I wanted the last third to be quite different from the first two thirds. I walk a lot, I work with charities, and I do this." "This" is joining more than...

A new figure in humanity's history emerged last week when archaeologists announced the discovery of what could be one of the world's oldest known spiritual figures. After years of meticulous excavation just miles from Israel's Mediterranean coast, scientists from the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem unearthed a 12,000-year-old grave that held the remains of a diminutive "shaman" woman.

Volunteers working in Northumberland and Durham have unearthed a remarkable collection of intricate rock art formations dating back 5,000 years. Over 100 of the extraordinary Neolithic carvings of concentric circles, interlocking rings and hollowed cups were uncovered in the region by a team of specially trained volunteers working on a four-year English Heritage backed project called the Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP). Their findings have now been recorded and published online via a website called England’s Rock Art (ERA), which was launched today, Thursday July 3 2008, athttp://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era. © English Heritage (Above) Barningham Moor County Durham: Photographer R....

Neolithic men were prepared to fight for their women By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 1:49AM BST 03/06/2008 Neolithic age men fought over women too, according to a study that provides the most ancient evidence of the lengths men will go to in the hunt for partners. Many archaeologists have argued that women have long motivated cycles of violence and blood feuds throughout history but there has really been no solid archaeological evidence to support this view. Now a relatively new method has been used to work out the origins of the victims tossed into a mass grave of...

Turkish site a Neolithic 'supernova' By Nicholas Birch April 21, 2008 Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt was among the first to realize the significance of the Gobekli Tepe site, which is 7,000 years older than Stonehenge. URFA, Turkey - As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, as a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable. "This place is a supernova," said Mr. Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on...

Archaeologists uncover unique cremation graves By ÄŒTK / Published 20 March 2008 Prostejov, South Moravia, March 19 (CTK) - Czech archaeologists have uncovered unique cremation graves in Prostejov that date back to the Neolithic period of the Linear Pottery culture and that indicate that people believed in human soul's existence 7,000 years ago already, daily Mlada fronta Dnes wrote Wednesday. The graves were uncovered during construction of a new industrial zone on the eastern edge of the town. "This is the first cremation burial site of the Linear-Pottery-culture to be uncovered on Czech soil. Below it there are skeleton graves...

Older than the pyramids, buried for centuries – found by an Orkney plumber Tristan Stewart-Robertson A RARE piece of Neolithic art has been discovered on a beach in Orkney. The 6,000-year-old relic, thought to be a fragment from a larger piece, was left exposed by storms which swept across the country last week. Local plumber David Barnes, who found the stone on the beach in Sandwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, said circular markings had shown up in the late-afternoon winter sun, drawing his attention to the piece. Archeologists last night heralded the discovery as a "once-in- 50-years event". But they warned...