Questions tagged [prehistory]

Prehistory is the span of time of before written history. It often refers to the period of human existence, but in broader terms also includes all time preceding this.

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4 answers
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Has the existence of a matriarchal society really been discredited?

I always thought that there was proof of the existence of matriarchal society in the ancient times but apparently, according to Wikipedia this hypothesis is mostly discredited today. Why? Wiki cites: ...
MartyVal's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
540 views

What are early archeological clues of humans boiling food?

Over the course of my life I have seen several large, dangerous fires. Unfortunate animals often perish in these. Especially slower ones, such as turtles. Surely, it can not have been difficult for ...
Ludi's user avatar
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5 votes
5 answers
4k views

Did Egyptian civilization start from North to South or vice versa?

I've been reading archeological claims that say that the ancient Egyptians came from the South and that the first chiefdoms and kings were in the south. Some also claim that there is a crown of ...
user20490's user avatar
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31 votes
5 answers
7k views

Why were there no agricultural, city-state forming civilizations in the Ice Age?

In spite of various fringe historians claiming to have found remains of Ice Age civilizations on lost continents, Atlantis and what not, there is - to the best of my knowledge - no tangible evidence ...
0range's user avatar
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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 ...
Arnon Weinberg's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

What caused women to lose their access to resources and become a part of men's possessions with the start of the agriculture era?

I'm reading the book SEX AT DAWN: the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality, the book suggests that in prehistoric times, when homo sapiens were just foraging on the earth, the relation between men ...
Sepideh Abadpour's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
374 views

What do we know culturally about Cheddar Man?

There's a lot of press today about a new DNA study of Cheddar Man, who lived about 9,000 years ago in what's now the English county of Somerset. They concentrated on the genes for hair, skin, and eye ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
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1 answer
532 views

Intuitive misconceptions [closed]

Are there any ideas that one would have in History intuitively that would be disproven by analysis? On the other hand, are there any intuitive historical ideas that have been verified by historians? ...
M. Harrow's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
655 views

How do we derive information for civilizations from periods before record keeping? [closed]

Civilizations record their history, but how do we derive information for periods before record keeping started? How much do we know for that era of human civilization?
md nth's user avatar
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