In July and August, this blog covered one of the great revolutions in information transmission, the evolution of language. And as we move into September, we will consider another, the invention of writing. But in between these two great revolutions, there are tantalizing hints that people were experimenting with other techniques for enhancing social memory. In this tweet I […]| Logarithmic History
17.3 – 16.4 thousand years ago We’re now taking in history a millennium per day. Lascaux cave paintings, Southwest France, discovered in 1940. (Some analyses push the dates back before 18 thousand years ago, earlier than the previously accepted 16 – 15 thousand.) Below, from Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering how the Brain Codes Our Thoughts (an […]| Logarithmic History
For a long time the Clovis culture, associated with these spear points found across North America, looked like the earliest evidence of human occupation of the Americas. Clovis people are often thought to have entered the continent through an ice-free corridor that opened up between glaciers in Western Canada (although there are other possibilities). But […]| Logarithmic History
What song the sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture. Thomas Browne. Urn Burial In the mid-twentieth century, Soviet archeologists excavated a site at Mal’ta near Lake Baikal that included the remains of of a 3-4 year old boy. Recent ancient […]| Logarithmic History
21.6 – 20.6 thousand years ago Glacial periods within the present Ice Age start gradually and end rapidly. The last glacial period began around 90 thousand years ago, and reached its peak, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), around 20 thousand years ago. During the LGM most of Northern Europe and northern North America were under […]| Logarithmic History
28,000 years ago The Venus of Willendorf, from Austria, is one of a number of “Venus figurines” from the European Upper Paleolithic. The statuette is realistic, except for the attenuated/missing hands and feet, and the absence of facial features. Obviously she’s nude, and fat. But not entirely unclothed. The pattern on her head is not […]| Logarithmic History
Ochre tools from Blombos Cave reveal early Homo sapiens used pigment for advanced stone toolmaking 70,000–90,000 years ago.| Archaeology News Online Magazine
Türkiye’s Gobekli Tepe has long been considered the world’s oldest settlement, an extraordinary outlier. Here,… The post Boncuklu Tarla: The Town Older than Gobekli Tepe appeared first on Historic Mysteries.| Historic Mysteries
Creevykeel Court Tomb is a cursed Neolithic site. Ghosts haunt its stones, said to be the resting place of giants, and strange lights have been seen at night.| Historic Mysteries