Recent archaeological findings in Europe have shed new light on the practice of ritual human sacrifice during the Neolithic period. Researchers have identified multiple cases of what appears to be ligature strangulation or positional asphyxia at ritual sites from approximately 5500 to 3500 BCE. Analysis of these findings suggests that human sacrifice was an integral […]
Europe
Posted inStone Age Archaeology
Europe’s Oldest Plough Marks Discovered, Testifying the Use of Animals in Agriculture 7000 Years Ago
Researchers have made an archaeological discovery that changes our understanding of prehistoric agriculture in Europe. Excavations at the Anciens Arsenaux site in Sion, Switzerland, have revealed evidence that Neolithic farmers were using animal traction to pull plows from 5,100 to 4,700 years ago. This discovery predates by nearly a millennium what were previously the oldest […]
Posted inModern Era
The Shield-Lantern, a Renaissance Gadget to Fight at Night Blinding the Adversary
The Kunsthistorisches Museum or Museum of Art History in Vienna is one of the most important of its kind in the world. It houses significant collections of art, archaeology, numismatics, and applied arts, including the imperial treasury and the most outstanding collection of works by Rubens, Velázquez, Dürer, Caravaggio, Brueghel, and many others. It also […]
Posted inScience, Stone Age Archaeology
Huge Tsunami with 20-meter Waves Swept Away Stone Age Communities in Northern Europe
Scientists from the University of York in England have discovered that a huge tsunami with waves over 20 meters (65 feet) high flooded large parts of northern Europe around 8,000 years ago. This giant tsunami could have destroyed Stone Age populations in northern Britain. The research focused on a tsunami that hit Britain and northern […]
Posted inGeography, Prehistory
Paratethys, the Largest Lake Ever to have Existed on Earth
Scientists have discovered that around 11 million years ago, Europe was home to the largest lake the world has ever seen. Known as Lake Paratethys, it stretched from the Alps all the way to Central Asia, covering an enormous area of over 2.8 million square kilometers. Dr. Dan Palcu of Utrecht University in the Netherlands […]
Posted inStone Age Archaeology
6000 Years Ago, the Oldest Cities in Europe Ensured their Food with Cereals and Peas, without the Need for Meat
Around 6,000 years ago in the forest steppe region northwest of the Black Sea (now part of Ukraine and Moldova), massive settlements began emerging as part of the Trypillia culture. Known as megasites, some of these earliest farming communities sprawled across up to 320 hectares, with populations of around 15,000 people. Experts believe these were […]
Posted inGeography, Travel
Rhine Falls, Europe’s Largest Waterfall
In Europe, there are no waterfalls as large as those in America and Africa, but that doesn’t mean the old continent lacks important and beautiful waterfalls. The largest one is formed by the Rhine River as it passes through Switzerland, specifically in the towns of Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Laufen-Uhwiesen, near the northern city of […]
Posted inBronze Age Archaeology
Hundreds of Hidden Bronze Age Mega-Forts Discovered in the Carpathian Basin Using Satellite Imagery
Archaeologists have discovered over 100 interconnected Bronze Age settlements in the Carpathian Mountains, offering insights into Europe’s prehistoric societies and resilience during a turbulent era.
Posted inScience
Europe was not covered in dense forests before modern humans arrived
For decades, scientists believed that outside of ice ages, most of Europe was covered in dense forests before modern humans arrived. However, new research is revealing that the landscape had much more open and semi-open vegetation than conventionally expected. Textbooks in biology and forestry have long shown Europe as naturally covered by thick forests. The […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
How two Byzantine princesses scandalized Europe by using a fork
A few years ago I was invited to dinner by some Bengali friends and when we sat down what was my surprise to see that there was a knife but no fork, even though the menu was based on rice and chicken. They used their hands to eat it and, wherever you go, do what […]
