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.

Tărtăria Tablets: Neolithic Symbols from Transylvania

Three small clay tablets bearing incised signs became the centre of a long debate about whether Neolithic Europe had a form of proto-writing.

c. 5300 BC · 5 min read

Prehistory

Faiyum Neolithic: The First Farmers of Ancient Egypt

Faiyum A communities combined imported Near Eastern crops and livestock with fishing and hunting, giving Egypt its earliest well-documented farming.

c. 5200–4200 BC · 4 min read

Prehistory

Chinchorro Mummies: The World's Oldest Artificial Mummies

The oldest known tradition of deliberate mummification; inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.

c. 5050–1700 BC · 8 min read

Prehistory

Vedbæk Burials: Denmark's Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherer Cemetery

The excavation revealed one of the best-documented Mesolithic cemeteries in Europe, shedding light on burial customs and family life among hunter-gatherers.

c. 5000 BC · 5 min read

Prehistory

Merimde Beni Salama: Early Farming Village of the Nile Delta

A long-lived farming village whose houses, grain stores and art reveal the beginnings of settled agricultural life in Lower Egypt.

c. 5000–4100 BC · 4 min read

Prehistory

Rudna Glava: Europe's Oldest Known Copper Mine in Serbia

Prehistoric miners dug dozens of shafts to extract copper minerals, leaving one of the earliest known mines in Europe and the world.

c. 5000 BC · 5 min read

Prehistory

Talheim Death Pit: A Neolithic Massacre in Germany (c. 5000 BC)

The mass grave became the first clear proof of large-scale lethal violence among Europe's earliest farmers.

c. 5000 BC · 6 min read

Prehistory

Belovode: The Earliest Securely Dated Copper Smelting

Copper slag dated to about 5000 BC showed that Vinča culture communities were extracting metal from ore, among the earliest secure cases anywhere.

c. 5000 BC · 6 min read

Prehistory

Domestication of the Donkey: From African Wild Ass to Pack Animal

The donkey became the first domestic pack animal of Africa and the Near East, transforming long-distance transport and trade.

c. 5000 BC · 6 min read

Prehistory

Prehistoric Pile Dwellings of the Alps: Lake and Bog Villages

Hundreds of waterlogged Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements preserved wood, food and textiles; 111 sites became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.

c. 5000–500 BC · 6 min read

Prehistory

Yangshao Culture: Painted Pottery of Neolithic China

The first Neolithic culture identified in China and the dominant farming tradition of the middle Yellow River for two thousand years.

c. 5000–3000 BC · 8 min read

Prehistory

Goseck Circle: Neolithic Solar Enclosure in Central Germany

One of the oldest and best-studied Neolithic circular enclosures in Europe, now partly reconstructed as an open-air monument.

c. 4900 BC · 6 min read