Some refer to this period as pre-history
EUROPEAN & ASIAN HISTORY 9000 BC - 5001 BC
EUROPEAN & ASIAN HISTORY Return to EUROPEAN INDEX
Some suggest the desire to dominate and conquer had begun.
This is associated with the belief that the earth has four corners.
This world domination belief originated in Mesopotamia.
If man considers himself intrinsically evil
then he needs an autocratic rule to control his actions.
If man considers himself intrinsically good
then he needs a democratic rule to monitor his behavior.
35,000 B.C.
Cro-Magnon man spread throughout Europe and is believed to have come from China. This period lasted until 10,000 B.C. with some pockets surviving until 200 B.C. The Mesolithic culture spread from Egypt over North Africa through Germany, France, to England, Ireland (Maglemosan) and Scandinavia (Ertebolle). From the East come the Mongoloid, Indus-Valley and middle East peoples, the Tardenoisian of the Aegean, Natufian of the Near East penetrating into Germany and Scandinavia replacing or absorbing the Neanderthal peoples. The Battle-axe People who penetrated Europe from the East are not Indo-European in nature.
Population densities in Western Europe appeared to dramatically increase about this time resulting some believe in a higher social evolution. Their main food source is reindeer, wild ox, red deer, bison, ibex, chamois, wooly rhinoceros and mammoth. Fish and plant foods do not appear to be consumed in large amounts. An abundance of food as a result of warmer weather allowed a more sedentary type of culture including cave art. It is also believed the big game hunting cultures of the Russian Plains and Siberia developed about this time.
This influx into Europe of diverse cultures caused a major social evolution leading to longer range trading patterns requiring better communication and cooperation.
Aldan River in far eastern Siberia is occupied about this time. These people are hunting the mammoth, horse, bison, and wholly rhinoceros. Their tools are not Levallois-Mousterian nor do they resemble Aurignacian tools. Some suggests this places the artifacts closer to 18,000 B.C. but this conflicts with the carbon 14 dating to 35,000 B.C.
Some believe that Neanderthal man who evolved from 300,000 BC. to this time just disappeared from Europe within the next 5,000 years. This seems very strange given their superior strength and adaptability.
The Venus of Hohle Fels found in a cave in southwestern Germany is believed to be an expression of fertility. It is the oldest example of figurative art.
Some believe the Lapita Culture, ancestors of the Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia originated in southeast Asia 35,000 to 30,000 B.C. Others suggest it was more like 4,000 to 3,000 B.C.
In 2008 archeologists unearthed tools dating back at least 35,000 years in a rock shelter in Australia's remote northwest, making it one of the oldest archaeological finds in that part of the country.
A Hohle Fels Figurine is unearthed in southern Germany dating to this period. It was similar to the Venus statues of 27,000 B.C. with exaggerated sexual features and a de-emphasized head.
Malaria mutated about this time but didn't become a problem until about 3,000 B.C.
34,000 B.C.
The Shanidar Cave (Iraq) is occupied from this period until 25,500 B.C. The tools used suggest an Aurignacian culture. These Baradostian people are trading with the Syria-Palestine peoples and the peoples on the Anatolian Plateau and Iranian Highlands. The tools are similar to those found at Disitun Cave (Iran) and the Korain Cave (Turkey).
Dzudzuana Cave, Republick of Georgia contains 488 flax fibers, 13 spun, 58 dyed, some fibers are 200 mm long. These are the oldest know use of fibers by humans.
33,000 B.C.
An ostrich eggshell from India shows primitive abstract art.
In the Jurreru Valley, India are well-stratified deposits indicating the
presence of modern man.
Modern man has been recorded at Pestera Cu Oase in Romania.
In south west Germany a female figurine is carved from a mammoth tusk, other carvings include horses and lions.
32,000 B.C.
At Saint Cesaire, France the remains of Neanderthal Man in association with modern man artifacts suggests interbreeding or inter-trading between the two Homo Sapien clans. These finds contradict the displacement theories of many historians. The People are traveling to New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania leaving little doubt that ocean travel of 100km or more is possible. Keep in mind most believe the first known ocean trip was made in 50,000 B.C. or earlier.
Neanderthal Man is located at Zafarraya, southern Spain. Homo Sapiens at Vogelherd in southwestern Germany has Neanderthal features. Miadec in Moravia the Czech Republic also have Neanderthal features.
Some date the oldest Chauvet Cave drawings of France to this date. Scholars were stunned with the quality of the art some say "People can no longer say art evolved from crude beginnings" The art dates from this period to 18,000 B.C., which was the glacial maximum.
New Guinea is believed by some to be populated by homo sapiens about this time.
31,000 B.C.
A Homo Sapiens skull with Neanderthal distinctive features is found in Romania, France, and the Czech Republic suggesting interbreeding. It's noteworthy that Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal share 99.5% of their genetic blueprint. The 'out of Africa' and 'replacement theory' should suggest all peoples in Eurasia should look like Africans, this interbreeding might explain some of the genetic diversity of the world?.
Diuktai Cave (also spelled Dyuktai) is an archaeological site on the Aldan River, a tributary of the Lena in eastern Siberia, occupied by a group that may have been ancestral to some Paleoarctic people of North America. This cave was occupied until 8,000 B.C. The used stone tools, leaf-shaped spearpoints and wedge-shaped cores, similar to those found in Alaska and western Canada. Some tools were similar to those found in Africa and comparable to the Olduvai culture on two million years ago.
30,000 B.C.
At Sokchang-ni, Korea shows indications of late Paleolithic man. The Fukui Cave in northern Kyushu, Japan yielded bifacial tools dated to this period or older. Bone carvings of lion and horses are uncovered at Vogelhead, Germany, likely made by Neanderthal man. Human remains at Choukoutien, China suggest a mixture of Mongoloid, Caucasoid and possibly Melanesian features. They speculate that the Mongoloid features are a recent adaptation.
The Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany began a full genetic code of Neanderthal woman, who died in a Croatia's Vindija cave about 30,000 B.C. This study would make it possible to clone Neanderthal.
Archaeological findings suggest human activity in Hong Kong dates back over 30,000 years.
Some speculate that shamanism dates to this period based on their interpretation of cave paintings. Shamanism should not be confused with the term priesthood.
Cro-Magnon man made needles from bone containing eyes for the insertion of some type of thread.
Stone tools, and skeleton remains are discovered in the Philippines. Some believe the Philippines have been occupied 40,000 to 50,000 B.C.. Others push the date back to 250,000 B.C. It is believed the first Peoples are a Austro-Melanesian People, know today as the Negritos or Aeta..
The people of southeast Asia started to migrate north over the next 5,000 years.
M20 a DNA marker originated in Iran at this time and is mostly found in India. Less than 2% of Lebanese have M20 DNA.
Most western Europeans have M173 DNA that originated at this time.
The Sudan of Africa is occupied by hunters who leave traces of their civilization by their pottery. They will later evolve into the Nubia Culture about 3,500 B.C.
Formosa (Taiwan) is first populated by Austronisian speaking peoples.
29,000 B.C.
Neanderthals are still evident at Andalusian toward Gibraltar, Spain.
The second wave of man into Europe was the Gravettian, which displaced the Aurignacian starting about 29,000 years ago.
A site in the Chez Republic (Pavlov VI) contained artifacts of the Gravettian People, fire pits, flint knives, bone tools and clay with fingerprints, reindeer hair and textiles. Two cooking pits had the remains of two mammoths.
Evidence suggest Belgium has domesticated dogs about this time..
28,000 B.C.
In 2001 Russian and Norwegian archeologists reported evidence that date to about this time of humans camped at Mamontovaya Kurya on the Usa River at the Arctic circle. A tusk was dated at 36,600 years of age and plant remains at 30,000.
Grinding stones from Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic are embedded with starch grains, suggesting people were processing roots from cattails and ferns into flour. These finds push the first use of flour back 10,000 years. Cattail root tastes similar to creamed corn and was processed by early American Indians, its very tasty.
A limestone figurine of a woman is discovered at Willfndore, Austria. Some suggest this represents the beginning of the Mother Earth belief. The spiritual nature of the nurturing earth is linked to feminine fertility. The art in the Chauvet Cave, France predates by 12 to 18 millenniums the art at Lascaux, France and Aetamina, Spain. It is noteworthy that a materialistic view of our cultural reality is common throughout the world.
Some believe Neanderthal Man who genetically split from Homo Erectus about 660,000 B.C. was either absorbed or replaced by Homo Erectus about this time. The last Neanderthal are believed to have been in Gibraltar region. Science has yet to resolve this issue, just maybe Neanderthal Man is the dominate Homo Erectus or modern humans. Normally the strongest survives.
The Cussac cave in France was found in 2000 to contain drawings from this time. Bones of 5 people from the Neolithic era were also found.
Homo sapiens (modern). Skull of adult male found by French workmen (L. Lartet) at Cro-Magnon, France in 1868.
Siberia is believed to be populated by Homo Sapiens about this time.
Japan is believed to be populated by Homo Sapiens about this time. The Ainu were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Japanese islands back to this time. They had European features, wavy hair and thick beards before they intermarried with the Japanese.
27,000 B.C.
Europe is gripped in a glacial Maximum phase between 27,000 to 16,000 B.C.
Homo Erectus is present in central Java some time between 27,000 - 53,000 B.C. The probability that Homo Erectus and Home Sapien mated together is most likely throwing another twist on the 'out of Africa' theory.
In 2000 DNA analysis of a Neanderthal infant skeleton from this time showed a 7% difference in DNA to modern humans, which indicated that modern humans did not descend from them.
The settlement of Doini Vestonice, Czech of the Gravettian culture dates to this period.
26,000 B.C.
Sungir near Vladimir, Russia indicates beads and other materials are used as adornment in their burial practice. Children and adults are equally adorned suggesting a belief system of equality, devoid of a caste system mentality. A belief in life after death, compassion and reverence for life is widespread and well entrenched.
In the Australian outback on the 2,000 foot high Pavlov Hills were found evidence of ceramics and textiles dated to 26,000 to 22,000 B.C..
The Dordogna Valley of France was occupied about this time.
Neanderthal man is still living at Gibraltar and are using most of the tool set of modern man, as well as jewelry. They also are believed to had the same language ability as modern man. During this period Europe was in a serious of climate swings from hot to cold within a decade or two of each swing. Some feel this oscillation of climate contributed to their eventual decline and disappearance. The oscillating swings from Global warming to Global cooling might have been caused by the abrupt stop and start of the Gulf Stream. However no viable explanation has been presented why the Gulf Stream stops and starts so abruptly in historical times.
25,760 B.C. Cro-magnon man is dated to this time at Miadec, Czech Republic.
25,000 B.C.
The community of Dolni Vestonice near Brno, Czechoslovakia reveals use of fires, hearths and wickiup or wigwam type structures. Between Marseille and Cassis in the Calanque a sea cave preserved paintings of early sea life and animals from this period. Mal'ta west of Lake Baikel, Siberia sites are carbon dated to 12,800 B.C. but other scholars suspect the real age of the sites is 20,000 to 25,000 B.C. They are using points, needles and ivory bracelets. They made figurines of birds and women. Three women are wearing hooded garments like the Eskimo parkas. Their hut structures are similar to those found in Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine. A modern looking woman is cremated near Lake Mungo, Australia.
Archeological discovery of a txistu flute suggests the Basque culture existed at this time in their current territory of France/Spain/Portugal. The Basque are believed to represent the indigenous Peoples of Europe and their language is not related to any other language of the world.
It is believed the Negrito Peoples arrived the Philippines.
A new human type, not Mongoloid appeared in some caves as the Peking man, in Northern China. They may be allied to the Ainu people of Japan and Korea.
A people from the Caucasus Mountains, Russia share common DNA among the Ojibwa and Dakota Sioux in America. This suggests some of these Peoples migrated to America or the Ojibwa or Dakota Sioux migrated to Russia.
Dozens of Venus female figurines are found throughout Europe. Some
speculate they represent fertility symbols but others disagree saying we just
don't know.
24,500 B.C.
The 6th largest Super Volcano called the Taupo or Oruanui Caldera eruption occurred in New Zealand to form Lake Taupo in the northern Island. The lake is 238 sq miles and represents the ejection of 1170 cubic km of material. About 28 minor eruptions have occurred since 25,000 B.C. The latest major eruption was in 180 A.D. when 100 cubic km of material was ejected within minutes. Taupo eruptions occurred in 1,000 and 1815 AD which turned the sky red over Rome and China but is believed to have only changed climate in the southern hemosphere.
24,000 B.C.
It is believed that Neanderthal man is still using the caves in southern Spain at this time.
A mammoth ivory figure of a man was discovered in Brno, Xzechoslovakia dated to this period.
Mammoth ivory was used to carve a exquisite male likely to head a staff, discovered at Dolni Vestonice, Czechoslovakia.
23,400 B.C.
Sumerian tradition suggests their kingship moved
from Sippar to Shuruppak and one king clan reigned for the next 18,600
years
.
23,000 B.C.
One genetic clan identified by mtDNA lived in the Caucasus Mountains and then spread across Europe, and even reached America where a rare European lineage is also found among the northern Americans such as the Ojibwa and Sioux nations.
Lapedo Valley, Iberia contained caves with rock art and rock-shelters. A four year old was buried stained with red ocher, wearing a pendent of shells and three pierced deer teath. He looks like Cro-Magnon Man but also contained typical Neanderthal traits. He is believed to be a hybred. This fly's in the face of current orthodoxy.
Solutrean culture (23,000 to 18,000 B.C.) figurines, sculptures and bas-reliefs of females, often with pendulous breasts, sometimes pregnant and with exaggerated sexual characteristics are found from Russia to France. An ivory carving at Audeevo, Russia dated to this period. It is believed the figurines represent a relatively short-lived set of beliefs that are in use over a wide area of Europe. These people also practiced some cave art. The materialistic ideals these carvings represent however are not short lived. One of these exquisite ivory carvings of the head of a woman was called the Venus of Brassempout, France.
Shan Hai Ching (Classic of the Mountains and Rivers) is sited as evidence of the Chinese visit to the Americas. Others suggest it is mythological and not geographical. Some believe the Shan Hai Ching represents a geographical survey conducted by Ta-Chang and Shu-Hai during the reign of the Emperior Yao about 23,000 B.C. Others suggest it was rewritten about 202 B.C. to 9 A.D. and half the writings are missing.
22,500 B.C.
I central Portugal's Lapedo Valley is found fossil evidence that suggests extensive interbreeding between Neandertals and Homo Sapiens. The red ocher child is called Lagar Ellho 1. This culture may have existed since 30,000 B.C.
22,000 B.C.
The last ice age began and humans in Europe retreated to Spain, the Balkans and the Ukraine.
The Venus of Willendorf, Austria, a fertility statuette was discovered. There are 100's of similar carvings all over the world, this one is just the oldest discovered to date. It is considered an icon of prehistoric art.
Human bones are discovered in the Philippines dating to this period.
Some believe a third major migration into Europe occurred about this time.
21,000 B.C.
A serpentine pendant of a pregnant woman is discovered at Grimaldi, Italy. Most ancient peoples adored woman as givers of life especially pregnant woman.
The oldest boomerang or Killing Stick is discovered in Poland made from a mammoth tusk. It exceeded the spear by killing at up to 660 feet.
Kostenki, USSR, has artifacts dated to this time frame. The site of Kostenki by the River Don, Ukraine was inhabited for ~3,000 years when glaciers moved in. Shelters were built partly underground for warmth with large mammoth bones. The site was first excavated in 1879 and includes human burials, animal bones, female figures of limestone and ivory, necklaces of arctic fox teeth, and headbands of mammoth ivory.
On the southwestern shore of the sea of Galilee are traces of starch granules of wild wheat and barley in a stone used to grind grain and in a hearth like oven, This is 10,000 years before either grain is known to be domesticated.
20,000 B.C.
Micro blade technology is positioned in northern China at this time or earlier. Vallon-Point d'Arcin caves Northwest of Avignon, France contains 300 drawings of rhinoceros, panther, owl, bison and reindeer believed created over the next 3,000 years. Evidence of tailored clothing is uncovered at Sungir, Moscow. Others suggest mile high glaciers dominate Europe and the dating are in error.
The 7th largest Super Volcano called the Aira Caldera occurred in southern Japan and was equal to about 50 Mount St. Helens of 1980. It ejected 14 cubic miles of material about 50 times Mt St Helens to leave a caldera 25 km wide. It was last active in 1914 and 1946.
20,000 to 8,500 BC: The Sahara was devoid of any human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today
Some suggest the proto-Basques occupied the traditional Basque Country in Spain about this time. Others suggest there is no proof these peoples are the ancestors of the Basque. Most however believe the Basque are the oldest European culture.
Some suggest that blood type 'A' mutated in Central Europe about this time and began spreading through out the world..
In Australia scientists in 2005 said hundreds of human footprints dating back 20,000 years were discovered in a dry lake bed near Willandra Lakes, southwest of Sydney.
19,500 B.C.
During the period of 19,500 B.C. to 13,000 B.C. the Yangtze Valley of China was forested with evergreen trees. This evergreen forest vanished by 9,900 B.C.
19,000 B.C.
The Mal'ta-Afontova tradition (20,000 to 8,000 B.C.) has been dated to this time + or - 300 years in the Yenesei Valley, central Russia. The Malta people lived in long houses and carved bone into figurines. They hunted both arctic and plains game.
Two pottery pieces were unearthed at Liyuzui Cave in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province of China dated 16,500 and 19,000 BC
DNA studies of six Tibetan populations suggest they came from the east about this time (8,000 B.C.). The Tibetan Plateau had an indigenous population dating to 19,000 B.C. who mixed with these later settlers.
This is believed to be the height of the ice age in Europe
A previously unidentified Tibetan population is identified dating to this period. They survived long enough to have mixed with Tibetan immigrants who came from the east about 8,000 B.C.
This was believed to be the last of the Woolly Mammoth in Britain, being eliminated by the Glacial Maximum, but one turned up dating to 12,000 B.C. destroying this theory.
18,000 B.C.
It is interesting that ethnic diversity began to rapidly emerge as we began to come out of an ice age. The mutation and adaptation increased about 100 times more rapidly as the population exploded as a result of global warming.
Paintings in Borneo and Kimberlay region of Australia show ocean going boats with over 30 people in them.
The Clovis points in North America are similar in style to Solutrean culture (18,000-14,000 B.C.) from Spain and southwestern France. Archaeologists are skeptical but they have been totally wrong about their hypotheses concerning the origins of Clovis point technology in the past. The Solutrean culture (21,000-16,000 B.C.) existed in Spain and France producing bifacial spear points as late as 13,000 B.C.
This is the middle of an ice age. It is noteworthy that the population of East Asia had a rapid expansion despite an extremely cold climate. Some speculate the northern peoples of Asia and America are driven south. These hunter gathers are known to have migrated to northern Japan about this time, eventually to become known as the Ainu of Japan. Others suggest the great ice sheet melting and subsequent flooding occurred about this time.
Fossils,
rock art, stone artifacts, bone harpoons, shells, and many other items have been
found in areas which today are considered too hot and dry to inhabit. The
artifacts were located near remains of giraffe, elephant, buffalo, antelopes,
rhinoceros, and warthog, as well as those of fish, crocodiles, hippopotamuses,
and other aquatic animals, indicating the presence of lakes and swamps in the
Sahara Region.
Needles were being manufactured in southern France.
The Nile River usually a fast flowing river was but a meandering flow in bends and oxbows pushing into the wadis marshes. These marshes are now dry sand and dark rock. A young man with two spear points embedded in his pelvic bones and his forarms had been broken, likely to ward off blows. He also had a spear point embedded in his upper arm, rounded by partly healed bone. It is believed that food was scarce on the Nile and fights occurred over food. Evidence suggest many died from violence.
The Shugnou site southwest of Samarkand, Russia is occupied at an altitude of 6,700 feet. Dyukhtai people had settlements in Siberia and northeast Asia, their decedents would be called the Mounted Nomadic peoples and later the Huns. It is also possible their decedents are the North American Indians or they may have value add to that culture. It is not know where they came from. The Dyukhtai people occupied the Alden region of Siberia until 8,000 B.C. and used bifacially knives and spearheads similar to Paleo-Indian cultures. They however lacked fluting a distinctive and ubiquitous characteristic of the Paleo-Indian technology. Its possible some Paleo-Indians migrated to Asia to become the Dyukhtai people.
The Ainu occupied Hokkaido, Japan having arrived from the Amur River Valley, Russia. Some believe the Ainu migrated to North America based on skeletal and cultural evidence.
Magdalenian culture (18,000 to 8,000 B.C.) is a apogee of cave and antler art. Their most elaborate work is in northern Spain and southern France. By 11,000 B.C. deep cave painting and engraving stopped.
Controversial problems that have provoked heated debates in current Russian archaeology. Notable among these are the surprisingly early dates for the Early Upper Paleolithic, the age of the Dyuktai culture of Yakutia, the problem of human presence in Siberia at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum (20,000-18,000 BP), and the timing of the initial settling of the Chukchi Peninsula and northeastern Siberia.
17,500 B.C.
Dr. D.J. Mulvaney in 1961 and 1964 unearthed human artifacts at Carnarvon National Park in Queensland, Australia, subsequently dated at 19,500 years.
17,000 B.C.
Most peoples are sewing garments using bone needles throughout Europe. Egyptian tradition suggests their god Hercules, one among eight originated about this time and eventually evolved into twelve. This is the same Hercules later adopted by the Greeks. Others suggest that Egypt had two religions one of multi deities and the other of a single Great Spirit God who created all things. This Sun God is the father of all other gods and the father of the father of all deities. It is noteworthy that Egypt had no idea of religion so this is pure speculation.
In prehistoric times every family, tribe, village or town had their own particular spirit or God idea. The Egyptians for example had hundreds of gods but never placed these gods on the same high level as the Canaanite-Hebrew Gods. Others suggest this just isn't true, Egypt acknowledged the one God concept long before the Canaanite one God belief.. The many gods in this context are really totems or at best spirits.
Rock art in Australia depicts a marsuoial lion, including stripes, a tufted tail. and pointy ears, nor seen in fossil remains.
16,000 B.C.
The Scandinavian ice sheet reached its maximum extent and sea levels are 425 feet below present levels. The Mezhirich site on the Dnieper River of Russia is occupied about this time. Their dwellings are built using mammoth bones as structural support. They dug deep storage pits to keep their meat refrigerated in the permafrost. Their artifacts suggest they traded over a 400 to 500 mile range. The Kostenki site on the Don River is another settlement of this period. Other Mousterian sites are scattered to the East as far as Afghanistan.
According to scientific research, the Upper Cave Man located above the Apeman Cave near the peak of the Dragon Bone Hill, China lived about 18,000 years ago with their physical character being quite similar to that of modern man.
A four foot tall genus of Home is discovered on the Indonesian Island of Flores. Others suggest its merely a pygmy with a rare genetic disorder but will not allow the finder or other scientists to view the remains of six individuals. In September, 2003, a 3-foot-tall adult female skeleton was found in a cave believed to be 18,000 years old. A trove of fragmented bones accounted for as many as seven primitive individuals that lived on the equatorial island of Flores, located east of Java and northwest of Australia. Scientists have named the extinct species Homo floresiensis. Scientists in 2005 said the group emerged some 95,000 years earlier and went extinct about 12,000 years ago. In 2009 new studies suggested the people, dubbed hobbits, were a previously unknown species altogether.
We need to keep in perspective that Venice, Italy was 200 miles from the sea at this time. Ireland and Great Britain were part of the mainland.
On Manhattan Island the ice was a half-mile thick. In western North America, the ice covered parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and all of Western Canada. In Europe it buried Scandinavia and Scotland, most of Great Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, much of Poland and much of the Soviet Union. In the Southern Hemisphere, there was ice in Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina. See levels fell by 350 feet.
The Japanese Islands were interconnected at this time including a land bridge to South Korea.
15,000 B.C.
One genetic clan identified by mtDNA settled in Tuscany and their descendents ventured across Northern Europe and eventually crossed the English Channel. Another genetic clan, the users of stone tools, drifted across all of Europe. Yet another genetic clan originally from Spain later moved into northern Finland and Norway.
Some believe the horse that originated in America, migrated across Asia to arrive in Indo-Iranian about this time. Proof to verify this belief has not been uncovered. They claim painting in the Dusheh caves showing men riding horses dates to this period.
The Lascaux Cave near Montignac in southwest France contains 600 painted images and almost 1,500 engravings. They think this site was occupied by the Magdalenians from 16,000 to 9,000 B.C.
The Mas-D' Azil cave in France was occupied by man 15,000 to 8,000 B.C. as a camp site.
14,500 B.C. to 300 B.C.
The Jomon cultural period of Japan
14,000 B.C.
Polynesian culture places their origin about this time on main land Asia. They are believed to be the descendents from Tibetans and Thais people.
Homo Sapiens in Europe were trading or traveling 250 km to the Atlantic Ocean
and 125 km to the Mediterranean Sea Region.
The first flooding of the Caspian and Black seas occurred about this time,
resulted from the melting of the Scandinavia ice sheet.
13,000 B.C.
Some time between 13,000 to 11,000 B.C. the Tuc D'Audoubcert cave in France was entered by Homo Sapiens, also called Cro Magnons, who sculpted small clay bison in a recess almost a mile underground.
Between 13,000 B.C. and 5,000 B.C. global warming caused the flooding and submergence of the Sunda Continent creating Java, the south China Sea, and the thousands of islands that make up Indonesia and Philippines.
Stanley J. Olsen, author of the "Origins of the Domestic Dog" (1985), posits that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers domesticated various subspecies of wolf during this time period 13,000BC-8,000BC in northern Europe, North America, the Near East and China. Other suggest it is more likely 18,000 B.C. and Belgium dates to 29,000 B.C..
Evidence suggest Western Russia has domesticated dogs about this time.
The
Sahara Region was as dry as modern conditions.
12,000 B.C.
It is interesting that cave paintings and rock art does not appear in the Middle East, China, Korea or Japan until about this time. Australia and Europe developed this technology ten to 30,000 years earlier. Some believe that with art came religion and a God or Great Spirit concept. Egypt however attained a God concept first, then art and didn't practice the concept of religion. Most early concepts of God focused on the Sky God or Sky Spirit. If this assumption is true the Middle East concept of God likely originated in Europe, Egypt or even earlier in Indonesia-Australia.
The Djulirri, Arnhem Land of Australia contains rock art aboriginal history from about this time, up to and including contact with Europeans even into more modern times..
At Ein Mallaha, Palestine a grave site is indications of domestication of the dog. Sciences believe the domestication of the dog likely commenced about 12,000 B.C. but it likely precedes this date back into antiquity.
It is known that wild grains were being gathered in Iraq and Turkey about this time.
Ivory figurines were discovered at Malta, Siberia.
The Woolly Mammoth was still roaming Britain at this time.
It is significant that the Basque culture did not exist in Europe 12,000 to 5,000 or 4,000 B.C. Its significant the Basque language is not related to any other European or Indo-European language. It is significant that the Basque are blood type 0 and rhesus negative, unlike their European neighbors. Every thing suggests they are recent ocean arrivals from else where.
It is believed the Ainu people arrive Japan about this time. They claim in their legends that they have been in Japan since 100,000 B.C.
11,000 B.C.
Indications of a foraging people are discovered in the Yellow River Valley, China.
10,500 B.C.
The Jomon people of Japan use pottery, fish, hunt and gather acorns, nuts and edible seeds. This culture survived until about 300 B.C. with some 10,000 known relatively sedentary sites. Japanese potters, who are thought to have been women, begin making cooking pots with pointed bases. Carbon-14 testing of the earliest known shards has yielded a production date of about 10,500 B.C., but because this date falls outside the known chronology of pottery development elsewhere in the world, such an early date is not generally accepted. They continued making these pots until 7,500 B.C.
Between 10,500-9,000 B.C. is the peak of the ice age in China.
Some believe that blood type 'B' mutated in Asia about this time and began spreading through out the world. Others suggest it originated in Africa.
Rain turned the Sarah region into habital land. This was the time of a brief refreezing episode called Younger Dryas, that lasted about 1,000 years.
Some believe a proto-Egyptian culture existed (12,500-10,500) and are responsible for the construction of the Great Sphinx and possibly some of the pyramids. Geological evidence tends to supports this contention. The alignment of the pyramids corresponds to the star configurations of this time period. This suggests that if not built at this time then they were likely designed during this period.
10,000 B.C.
Some suggest an ice age started about 115,000 B.C., peaked about this time, and returned to present warm conditions by 5,000.. Others suggest it returned to warmer condition more rapidly. Indications are that the earth has not yet reached hot conditions like 115,000 B.C., 200,000 B.C., 570,000 B.C., 610,000 B.C. or 680,000 B.C. We are still coming out of the last ice age. Ice ages occur at 100,000 year intervals.
The
Mediterranean valley flooded very rapidly. Plato
recorded this as the great flood along with the disappearance of Atlantis Island
which was likely a larger Cyprus. It
is believed the Osirian civilization occupied the Mediterranean Valley at this
time. Some might have fled into
Egypt.
Global warming is believed to have reduced large game animal populations forcing a cultural change throughout Europe. The people are forced to migrate and turn to plant life and seafood as their primary source of food. Some contend the global warming is violent and not a gradual process. It is believed that farming began in Iraq and Turkey about this time and these farmers migrated throughout Europe.
The Great Inland Sea of China may have extended to the Caucasus mountains.
Ancient people migrated from the Sunda Continent to Taiwan as the South China Sea formed due to global warming.
Homo sapiens fossils are found at the later "Upper Cave" at Zhoukoudian near Bejing China.
The first Austronesian speakers are believed to have originated on the island of Taiwan following the migration of a group, or groups, of Pre-Austronesian speaking peoples from continental Asia approximately 10,000-6000 B.C. They went on to colonize 57% of the world from East to West ranging 206° from 44°E in Madagascar to 110° W on Easter Island.. They were the aboriginal folks in Fujian, China. Others contend the migration was from Malaysian to Taiwan caused by the flooding of the Sunda Continent by the south China Sea due to global warming. The flooding created Java, and thousands of islands that make up Indonesia and Philippines.
Recent genetic findings suggest that the people now known as Gaelic speaking Celts (including Irish, Welsh, Scots, Basques and Berbers) are a remnant of a group of people who also left Spain 12,000 years ago and spent 6,000 years isolated from Europe before returning, bringing the Megalithic culture to coastal Europe.
One genetic clan identified by mtDNA who lived in the ice-capped Pyrenees trekked northward to what is England and their descendents are now present in all of Europe. Another genetic clan lived in Syria where they eventually farmed and raised domesticated animals. Their descendents traveled throughout Europe, spreading their agricultural innovations with them.
A migration of people with M-172 DNA out of Iran is mixing with M-89 DNA that arrived out of Africa in 43,000 B.C.
The Proto-Celts (Neolithic man?), occupied much of North Western Europe at this time. The Lapps occupied northern Europe and intermarried with the peoples in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russian. Magdalenian culture flourished in France with their cave paintings. This is the period of megaliths, pottery, battle-axes (unknown origin), domestication of the horse, Ukraine long-house (unknown origin), use of ochre in burial rights (unknown origin), and an active and extensive trading period. The Azilian people occupied Southern France and Northern Spain. The Azilian or Painted Pebble culture is also found in Switzerland, Belgium and Scotland.
The early Neolithic period in China covers the period of 10,000 B.C. to 5,000 B.C. Homo sapiens fossils are found at the later "Upper Cave" of Zhoukoudian near Beijing dating from about 10,000 B.C.
The Choukoutien upper caves of China produced skeletons that display few classic Mongoloid features that characterize modern Chinese populations.
Early evidence for pottery,(10,000 B.C. - 7,000 B.C.) usually associated with the rise of agriculture and sedentary living, comes from rock shelters discovered at sites in the southern provinces of Zhejiang and Guangxi of China.
Art work that appears to be related to Australia art work is located in 30 caves in Borneo in the Marang Mountains.
The future Mounted People of Northern Eurasia ranged from Poland to Eastern Asia, the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. They developed aspirations to dominate others, had well-developed organizational talent, used broad planning and the formation of world empires on a federalist basis. Most important every conquered enemy became a friend. They had no racial prejudice, once he identified with the interests of the Horde. Their Shamanistic religion would repeatedly check the major religions of the world, including Semitic-Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Their world concept extended to the four corners of the earth, the four directions of the sky. This belief of the four directions is a widely held belief. They firstly subjugated the peoples encountered, then worked on pacification of all the peoples of their world. Some of their decedents are the Viking, Huns and the Goths. It is also possible that some of the American Natives could be their descendants due to some common beliefs. They also share some common beliefs with the Sumerian of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is believed occupied by three or more linguistic groups sharing a common political and cultural way of life. Sumerian and Semitic speaking peoples are part of this early grouping of peoples. These people are a mixture of Armenoid and Mediterraneon in origin that can be found from Hungary to Polynesia (many Islands). The Sumerian-Sematic myths and legends all point to their ancestral homeland as southern Mesopotamia. Traces of older civilizations than Sumerian or Sematic are also evident in the archaeology. How or why these people developed an aggressive conquering mentality is unknown. Some assume an aggressive conquering belief is linked to city-state cultures but this Proto-Mongoloid peoples are nomads. The Mississippi River city-states did not lead to a warring culture. The early Egyptian city-states were not war like in nature. Most American nomads didn't aspire to conquer their neighbor. It is suggested that if man considers himself intrinsically evil then he needs an autocratic rule to control his behavior. If man considers himself intrinsically good then he needs a democratic rule to monitor his behavior.
Some speculate that cultivation of roots and tubers must have commenced in northern China about this time.
Some believe in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (Iraq, Turkey and Syria) people began to collect wild wheat and barley likely to make malt then beer. It is believed over the next 5,000 years they gradually learned to cultivate these wild grains.
At Ein Mallaha, Palestine a grave site is indications of domestication of the dog. Scientes believe the domestication of the dog likely commenced about 12,000 B.C. but it likely precedes this date back into antiquity.
Japan's Neolithic Age coincides with a long period of climatic global warming that begins about 10,000 B.C. and causes sea levels to rise—separating the Japanese archipelago from the Asian continent. This epoch, known as Jomon, or "cord-marked," takes its name from the distinctive vessels made during this time. Roughly contemporary with the civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Nile, and the Indus Valley, the Jomon is among the earliest pottery cultures of the world. The Jomon people rely on hunting, fishing, and food gathering for survival. They reside in pit dwellings arranged around a central open space, which are increasingly arranged in settled communities. It is believed they arrived some 500 years earlier or more.
The Jomon culture of Japan is associated with the introduction of rice agriculture and the use of metal and probably came from the Asian mainland between 10,000BC-400BC.
The Jomon inhabit Japan who some say they evolved into the Ainu, origin unknown. Some suggest they are of the Australoid people while others suggest they are a separate people being displaced by the expansion of the Mongoloid peoples. Some suggest they occupied China before the Mongoloid peoples and originated from Europe via Siberia.
Ceramic vessels are being used in Japan.
Scholars were stunned to discover a descendent of homo erectus called homo floresiensis on the island of Java, Indonesia. The were 1/2 the size of homo sapiens with corresponding small brains yet with cognitive abilities equal to homo sapiens, including the making of fire. They are believed to have been in this area since 93,000 B.C..
Some suggest the Gray Wolves were domesticated (selective breeding) between 10,000-8,000 B.C. in the Middle East based on genetic research. Dog and man go back to at least 29,000 B.C. in Europe.
9,900 B.C.
The evergreen forest of the Yangtze River Valley, China vanished as the temperature was 8 degrees C. lower than modern temperatures.
9,400 B.C.
Evidence suggests that figs were being cultivated at Gilgal, Jordon.
9,000 B.C.
Global temperatures began to rise heating up the Yangtze Valley of China.
The earliest human skeleton, Perak Man, dating back 11,000 years and Perak Woman aged 8000 years, were discovered in Lenggong, Malaysia. The site has an undisturbed stone tool production area, created using equipment such as anvils and hammer stones. The Tambun Cave paintings are also situated in Perak. From East Malaysia, Sarawak's Niah Caves, there is evidence of the oldest human remains in Malaysia, dating back some 40,000 years.
EUROPEAN HISTORY Return
to EUROPEAN & ASIAN INDEX