Region

Middle East

Neanderthals: Life and Legacy of Europe's Ice Age Humans

Neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago, but interbreeding left roughly 1-2 per cent Neanderthal DNA in the genomes of people with ancestry outside Africa.

c. 400,000-40,000 years ago · 8 min read

Prehistory

Skhul and Qafzeh: Early Modern Humans in the Levant

The burials showed that Homo sapiens lived in south-west Asia long before Europe, during an early dispersal from Africa that did not lead to lasting settlement.

c. 120,000 years ago · 6 min read

Prehistory

Shanidar Cave: Neanderthal Burials and the 'Flower Burial'

The remains of ten Neanderthals reshaped views of their care for the injured and treatment of the dead, though the 'flower burial' remains contested.

c. 75,000-45,000 years ago · 6 min read

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.

c. 50,000-45,000 years ago · 6 min read

Prehistory

Ohalo II: Ice Age Fisher-Hunter-Gatherer Camp on Sea of Galilee

The submerged camp gave unusually complete evidence of Ice Age huts, bedding and plant use, including early harvesting of wild cereals.

c. 23,000 years ago · 5 min read

Prehistory

Natufian Culture: The First Settled Villages of the Levant

A late hunter-gatherer culture whose sedentary villages and intensive use of wild cereals laid the groundwork for the Neolithic Revolution.

c. 12,500 BC · 6 min read

Prehistory

Abu Hureyra: Early Farming and Climate Change in Syria

One of the most important records of the transition from foraging to farming; the site was flooded by the Tabqa Dam reservoir in the 1970s.

c. 11,500 BC · 5 min read

Prehistory

Neolithic Revolution: How Farming Began in the Fertile Crescent

Farming and herding replaced foraging as the main way of life in the Near East and spread from there to Europe, North Africa and South Asia.

c. 10,000 BC · 8 min read

Prehistory

Göbekli Tepe: The World's Oldest Monumental Temple Site

One of the oldest known monumental sites in the world; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018 that has transformed ideas about early Neolithic society.

c. 9600 BC · 8 min read