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Sarsen Stones

Local sandstone used at Stonehenge, harder than granite, used for uprights and lintels, weighing up to 45 tons.

Bluestones

Stones transported from Wales to Stonehenge, at least 150 miles away.

First Stage of Stonehenge Construction

Built around 3000 BC, featuring a ditch, bank, and a ring of 56 pits known as the Aubrey Holes.

Cremation Burials at Stonehenge

Nearly 60 human burials found, reinterred by archaeologists in 1935 in Aubrey Hole No. 7, one of the biggest cremation cemeteries in early prehistoric Europe.

Seasonal Feasting Evidence

Archaeology indicates feasting occurred during the summer and winter solstices, with evidence found at Durrington Walls.

Natural Alignment of Stonehenge

Built at a location where natural grooves/ridges aligned with the solstice axis, making it a sacred site.

Adoption of Copper and Gold in England

Shift in focus towards personal wealth and status, leading to individual burial mounds and the eventual abandonment of grand communal monuments like Stonehenge.

Mike Parker Pearson

Led the Stonehenge Riverside Project and developed the living/dead theory of Stonehenge.

Jomon Culture

Ancient Japanese culture around 12,000 BP known for diversification of resources and the earliest ceramic technology.

Natufian Culture

Earliest large village in the world, located in Ain Mellaha, Israel, thriving between 11,000-9,000 BC.

Oasis Hypothesis

Suggests that a dry climate forced populations to domesticate plants and animals near water in the Near East to survive.

Genetic Signs of Animal Domestication

Includes smaller body sizes, changed horn shapes, and demographic shifts, such as young males being slaughtered first.

Neolithic Demographics

Population in the Near East rose from 100,000 to 5 million between 10,000 and 6000 BP, attributed to food production.

Clovis Culture

A prehistoric Native American culture known for their distinctive fluted points and mammoth kill sites, dating around 11,000 BP.

Glottochronology

Method for dating language separation, estimating about 14% change in core vocabulary every 1,000 years.

Tam Pà Ling Cave

Location in Laos where modern humans reached at least 68,000 years ago, indicating a dispersal route into mainland Southeast Asia.

Blombos Cave

Location of the oldest art in Africa, featuring engraved ochre, shell beads, and bone tools.

Klasies River Mouth

Site providing evidence of cannibalism through cut-marked human bones and the first shell middens consuming seafood.

Apollo 11, Namibia

Home to the oldest painted rock art in Africa, consisting of 7 painted stones.

Aterian Industry

Known for the first hafting (tanged tools) and the first ornaments (pendants).

Key Idea: No Human Revolution in Europe

Suggests that modern behavior (art, beads, blades) emerged first in Africa, not Europe, challenging the notion of European superiority.

Cro-Magnon, France

Early modern humans in Europe, dating back to approximately 32,000 BP.

Dolni Vestonice (Gravettian)

Site of a triple burial and Venus figurines, representing early expressions of fertility.

Lascaux, France (Magdalenian)

Represents the peak of cave art with extensive polychrome paintings.

Sungir, Russia

Noted for rich child burials, indicating hereditary status even among the young.

Mezhirich, Ukraine

Known for houses constructed from mammoth bones.

Four Upper Paleolithic cultures in order

Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian.

Australia's settlement timeline

Settled between 60,000 to 40,000 years ago requiring boats for two sea crossings.

Lake Mungo

Site of the first known cremations, featuring the remains of the Mungo Woman and Mungo Man.

Dreamtime art

Art created by mimis, representing ancestral beings from Australian Aboriginal mythology.

PaleoIndian migration path

Came to the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge during low sea level periods.

Clovis culture

Known for distinctive fluted stone points and mammoth kill sites, traditionally thought to be the first Americans.

Pre-Clovis evidence

Indicates earlier human presence in the Americas, with significant sites like Monte Verde in Chile.

Kennewick Man

Ancient skull that resembles the Ainu people of Japan, not Europeans.

NAGPRA (1990)

Legislation requiring the return of Native American remains and artifacts to tribes.

Mesolithic/Archaic Period

Transition period around 12,000 BP marked by diversification and intensification strategies in subsistence.

Diversification (Broad Spectrum)

Eating a variety of resources like fish, small game, and plants.

Intensification

Focusing on specific resources leading to sedentism and increased social inequality.

Jomon, Japan

Site containing the oldest known pottery (cordmarked).

Ertebolle, Denmark

Known for shell middens and diet isotopes showing a reliance on marine resources.

Lovelock Cave, NV

Notable for duck decoys, storage pits, and mummies.

Poverty Point, LA

Significant earthworks and a trade hub with no burial sites.

Natufian culture (Ain Mellaha, Israel)

Recognized as the earliest village, known for sickles that signal the advent of farming.

Guila Naquitz, Mexico

Site of the earliest known squash domestication.

Neolithic farming beginnings

Marked by the domestication of plants and animals leading to genetic changes.

Consequences of farming

Often negative; associated with increased disease, poor nutrition, social stratification, and inequality.

Jared Diamond's

Labels the shift to farming as 'the Worst Mistake in Human History' due to detrimental effects on health and social structures.

Abu Hureyra, Syria

Considered one of the world's first farming communities, transitioning from gazelle hunters to herders.

Bantu Iron Age Package

Involves the spread of farming and iron technology across southern Africa.

Language and Farming Spread

Farming expansion influenced language dispersion: Indo-European in SW Asia, Bantu in Africa, and Austronesian in South China.