72
votes
Accepted
How do we know the gender distribution of cave art painters?
A significant portion of cave paintings are so called "hand stencils": People pressed one hand onto the wall and applied color around the hand.
Image: Cueva de las Manos, Perito Moreno, ...
- 1,012
39
votes
Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?
Coins, dedications, and other 'ritual' objects have been buried in the foundations of buildings since prehistory. The function of these artefacts is unclear, but they do not appear to have been ...
- 77.2k
32
votes
Was the Earth's sea-level significantly lower in ancient times?
The beginnings of human Civilization by-and-large are coincident with the start of our current interglacial period, known as the Holocene at roughly 10,000BC. At the start of it, worldwide sea levels ...
- 122k
28
votes
How do we know that prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies were egalitarian?
The claim that prehistoric hunter gatherers were egalitarian is mostly supported by:
analogy to some modern or historic hunter-gatherer societies
lack of monumental buildings in the archeological ...
- 4,764
25
votes
Accepted
When did nonporous ceramic become widespread?
Porcelain originates in China. They were able to reach the 1,200C needed to vitrify pottery as far back as the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 CE) and there was much earlier proto-porcelain (it had been ...
25
votes
Accepted
Are there pyramids at Sternenfels?
There are certainly no 'pyramids' at Sternenfels. There are some man-made alterations to the landscape, but while they are claimed sometimes to be pre-historical, most available reliable info ...
- 80.8k
23
votes
Why were there no agricultural, city-state forming civilizations in the Ice Age?
(Most of what I'm writing is a summary of "After the Ice: A global human history 20,000-5,000 BC" by Steven Mithen - published 2003 so it's pretty up to date as an overview of what is known)....
- 3,164
23
votes
Accepted
What is known about the Ubaid lizard-people figurines?
There are many theories & interpretations, but relatively little evidence to support most of them. Of course, there are no written sources from the Ubaid period to support them.
You are ...
- 77.2k
23
votes
Accepted
What were the 20th century historical disputes?
In academic circles the late 20th century saw the culmination of the practice where no academic ever criticised the blunderings of any other academic.
Well, that shows Berkley to be an ignoramus with ...
- 32k
19
votes
Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?
The ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, from about 3000 BC on, used to bury clay tablets in the foundations of their temples and other major buildings giving the name of the king who founded the temple ...
- 9,694
18
votes
Are there any underground cities known except those found in Cappadocia?
There are a few underground cities that I can think of, some may fit your requirements better than others. If you consider tunneling into rocks, then Petra would be a very large city that was built ...
- 6,667
18
votes
Accepted
How do archaeologists date cave paintings?
Short Answer
The dating of cave art, while still a far from exact science, has come a long way in the last 25 years and includes:
comparisons to known pieces of art and animals known to have existed ...
- 108k
18
votes
Accepted
Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?
There are several theories of disappearance of the Dorset people. Two are discussed in the article "Disappearance of Dorset Culture" published on the webpage of the Canadian Museum of History:
...
- 6,225
17
votes
Where can I find reliable primary sources written by Ancient Egyptian laborers?
We actually have a lot of good evidence written by workers from that period. The bulk of that evidence comes from the workers' village of Deir el-Medina which housed the men who built the tombs in the ...
- 77.2k
16
votes
When archaeology says "a 12th century structure", does it mean the structure EXISTED till 12th century or it was BUILT in 12th century?
This usually means "built in the twelfth century." However, the means of dating are significant here. News reports usually omit that vital detail, and it's necessary to look for more solid ...
- 32k
15
votes
Accepted
Did iron age Britons still use the "ritual" sites built by their neolithic predecessors?
That is a really good question. The truth is that evidence for any sort of "cultural continuity" is scant.
One word of caution though. I generally hesitate to use the word "ritual" in an ...
- 77.2k
14
votes
What is the historical basis for the Exodus?
As a complement to other answers, and especially to nbubis' answer.
Based to a large extent on the work of the Israeli archeologist Israel Finkelstein (a youtube video with him talking on this topic ...
- 2,363
13
votes
Why were there no agricultural, city-state forming civilizations in the Ice Age?
Blame the weather.
Larger version
The reason it took so long for agriculture to develop can be summed up in this chart which shows variation in global temperature against time. The analysis in the ...
- 569
13
votes
Has this rock been engineered by humans and, if so, what was its use?
The kindly Deputy Head of Collections at Manchester Museum took a look at my stone and gave the following response.
Your 'bead' is almost certainly a fossil called porosphaera globularis. There has ...
- 309
12
votes
When did nonporous ceramic become widespread?
Ceramic glaze became "prevalent" in Islamic art about the 8th century CE. It also became popular in China and Japan through the introduction of "colored" glazes in the 6th to 8th centuries CE.
So I ...
- 104k
12
votes
Are there any underground cities known except those found in Cappadocia?
Dating in its origins from the 2 millenium BCE and still inhabited by up to 40 million people today:
The first type of yaodong were underground dwellings that date back to the 2nd millennium BC, ...
- 80.8k
12
votes
Have any artifacts or archaeological remains from the White Ship disaster of 1120 ever been recovered?
According to the chronicler Orderic Vitalis (1075 – c. 1142), most of the royal treasure was recovered:
The dwellers on the coast, as soon as they ascertained that the
reports of the disaster was ...
- 108k
12
votes
What does BPE/PE in some archaeology journals stand for?
"BPE" stands for "Before Present Era", and is equivalent to the more familiar BP (Before Present = 1950). It is a new "standard" abbreviation that I have seen appearing over the last decade or so (...
- 77.2k
11
votes
What is the historical basis for the Exodus?
UCSD held a fascinating conference on the topic of the Exodus a couple of years back, which I highly recommend viewing - It contains a variety of views on the subject, along with both archeological ...
- 529
11
votes
Accepted
DNA results of Amarna dead?
That article seems to be about the North Tombs cemetery, which was excavated as part of the Amarna Project in 2015. Like you, I'm really looking forward to the publication of the DNA data.
However, ...
- 77.2k
11
votes
Accepted
How can we make claims of ancient alcohol consumption based on chemical analysis of remains?
There are real challenges involved in identifying the organic residues that suggest the processing of alcoholic beverages. As you observed, fermentation is a natural process and would be expected to ...
- 77.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Could there be frozen animals under Antarctica's ice sheets?
Possibly - but neither dinosaurs nor woolly mammoths.
Antarctica froze over about 34 million years ago, which is long after extinction of the dinosaurs (other than their avian descendants) some 60 ...
- 72.5k
10
votes
Are there any underground cities known except those found in Cappadocia?
Nushabad in Iran was apparently used to avoid Mongol invasions (13th Century), but is perhaps older as artefacts from earlier periods have been found within. It is not clear how long people stayed ...
- 1,116
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