Prehistory
Madjedbebe: Australia's Oldest Known Human Occupation Site
Excavations dated the earliest artefacts to about 65,000 years ago, pushing back the possible human arrival in Australia, though the date remains debated.
Era · Before c. 3000 BC
Prehistory
From the formation of Earth and the age of dinosaurs to the first cave art and monuments, before writing was invented.
Prehistory
First Australians: How Humans Reached Australia by Sea
Modern humans completed the earliest known long sea crossings and settled all of Sahul, founding the world's longest continuous living cultures.
Prehistory
Diepkloof Rock Shelter: Engraved Ostrich Eggshell Flasks
The shelter produced the largest known collection of Middle Stone Age engraved eggshell, evidence of a shared graphic tradition among early Homo sapiens.
Prehistory
Quaternary Megafauna Extinction: Why the Ice Age Giants Vanished
Roughly two-thirds of the world's genera of large land mammals disappeared, transforming ecosystems on every inhabited continent.
Prehistory
La Brea Tar Pits: Ice Age Fossils in the Heart of Los Angeles
Rancho La Brea became one of the richest Ice Age fossil sites in the world, with millions of specimens from more than 600 species.
Prehistory
Sulawesi Cave Art: The World's Oldest Figurative Paintings
Dating of Sulawesi's rock art showed that figurative painting and narrative scenes existed in Southeast Asia earlier than in any known European cave.
Prehistory
La Chapelle-aux-Saints: The 'Old Man' and the Neanderthal Image
The skeleton became the reference Neanderthal; Boule's stooped reconstruction shaped the brutish caveman image until later studies showed Neanderthals walked fully upright.
Prehistory
Neanderthal Interbreeding: The DNA Modern Humans Still Carry
Living people outside Africa carry roughly 1 to 2 percent Neanderthal DNA, some of which still affects immunity, skin and disease risk.
Prehistory
Kostenki: Early Upper Palaeolithic Sites on the River Don
The sites showed that modern humans lived on the East European Plain by about 45,000-42,000 years ago and later built large mammoth-bone structures there.
Prehistory
Lebombo Bone: One of the World's Oldest Counting Devices
The notched bone became a widely cited example of early tallying, though its exact purpose remains unknown.
Prehistory
Lake Mungo: Mungo Lady, Mungo Man and Australia's Oldest Burials
The burials are among the oldest known human remains in Australia and the oldest known cremation; both were later returned to their Aboriginal custodians.
Prehistory
Ice Age Flutes of Swabia: The Oldest Musical Instruments
The flutes show that early modern humans in Europe made carefully designed musical instruments by about 40,000 years ago.