Questions tagged [paleolithic]
The period from about 2.6 million years ago, when the first stone tools may have been made, up to around 10,000 BC. Also known as the 'Old Stone Age'.
16
questions
-2
votes
3
answers
415
views
Why have we settled while foragers used to be healthier instead? [closed]
Evidence (See below) shows that foragers used to be healthier than farmers in pre-history. Also, foragers worked between 4-6h to have all of their needs while farmers used to work for longer periods. ...
0
votes
0
answers
116
views
Are there examples of African/European/American hunter-gatherer's constructions?
Often people think about hunter-gatherers as primitives. "Dark Emu" book is a great example of popular history book that refutes those beliefs. Aboriginal constructions could be quite ...
2
votes
0
answers
107
views
Is there any evidence that people in the late Pleistocene understood that their environment was changing?
Of all the periods of geographic and climactic transformation our planet has undergone, the late Pleistocene is of particular interest to historians, since it was the first to be witnessed by human ...
2
votes
2
answers
291
views
Roughly how many people were in a Magdalenian group? (And Gravettian?)
The book "The Creation of Inequality" (Marcus & Fannery, 2012) says the Magdalenian groups were much larger than the Gravettian groups but doesn't provide a clear number (or I did not ...
5
votes
1
answer
468
views
Why have so few paleo-Indian skeletons been found?
I recently read Charles C. Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Second Edition, and was intrigued by the footnote on page 174:
[Aleš] Hrdlička's complaint about the lack of ...
-1
votes
1
answer
259
views
Did Palaeolithic humans live longer than early Neolithic farmers?
Please quote published research.
There is work on Paleolithic teeth that is often used as evidence to suggest that Paleolithic humans lived longer than early farmers (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/...
4
votes
2
answers
427
views
Did humans hunt with dogs before planting crops for food?
Were humans hunting with dogs before they were planting crops?
25
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Is there an accepted explanation for multiple independent "cradles of civilization"?
Human history begins with millions of years of hunter-gathering and lithic technology:
The Paleolithic ... is ... distinguished by the development of the
most primitive stone tools ... and covers ...
2
votes
1
answer
162
views
How did first humans build tools? [closed]
I'm referring this question in this way and tell me if I'm wrong:
The first humans were just surrounded by: rocks, trees, plants, water, sand, animals, fruits. So how just with hands, mouth, feet ...
2
votes
0
answers
413
views
Why are cave paintings so few and rare? [closed]
Just watched a few documentaries about cave paintings. While I acknowledge the importance of discovery, I can't help but question one simple thing - why are there so few paintings in those caves? ...
6
votes
1
answer
961
views
When were domesticated animals tethered on a pole with a rope?
Domestication of plants and animals are thought to have happened during the neolithic period, roughly between 13000-7000 years ago. Now I'm interested of the history of using rope and central pole to ...
3
votes
0
answers
103
views
Has there been any evidence of Denisovan DNA outside of the Denisova Caves? [closed]
Is this the only known source of Denisova hominins genetics?
10
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Why are there no dogs pictured in paleolithic cave paintings?
It has been described before that the occurence of reindeers is strangely low, while this was the main food source.
But isn't it even stranger for dogs? Recent genetic research suggest that dogs were ...
4
votes
1
answer
207
views
Homo Sapiens Sapiens: Are genetic studies to be trusted?
Bryan Sykes, an Oxford scientist, wrote a book called "The Seven Daughters of Eve" in which, using studies of mitochondrial DNA, he had claimed to be able to trace nearly all living Europeans back to ...
6
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What was the main diet of pre-agricultural Asians?
The modern Asian diet is based mostly around rice. Was rice a major part of the paleolithic Asian diet? Did they know how to process and eat rice before agriculture?
Aside from meats, what were other ...
9
votes
1
answer
295
views
Megafauna extinctions
If you have read Jared Diamond's works, you already know the question.
There is a coincidence between planetary scale climate change, human settlement and megafauna extinctions. From giant kangaroos ...