Do we layer too much significance on people and things from prehistory and the past - simply because they are old? Do we confer special status on them in the absence of direct connection? 00:00 - Greetings & introduction 02:55 - A reverence for ‘things’ from the past 14:37 - A reverence for the people of the past 18:59 - Were people more spiritual in the past? 22:26 - William Stukeley’s legacy 26:53 - Making the past ordinary again! 30:40 - Exotic vs simple explanations 34:46 - Contingency and evolution vs intentional development 45:36 - The past as a mirror WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/i9GJZB08Bx8 🟡 Donate to the GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE PROJECT here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys 🔴 Become a PATREON member here: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.ukFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistoryguys/Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguysInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys

A new study out of Notre Dame University, Indiana has suggested that accepted estimations for population levels at Çatahöyük and other Neolithic villages in Anatolia may be grossly inflated. In the past We have been told that Çatalhoyuk could have had up to 10,000 inhabitants at any one time - now this paper says maybe not so much. In fact, maybe less than 1,000 people lived there. This is a pretty big deal and hopefully, we’ll be able to help explain why in the next forty minutes! 'How many people lived in the world’s earliest villages? Reconsidering community size and population pressure at Neolithic Çatalhöyük' available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278416524000047 

Why do certain places take on significance in the human psyche? How do places of pilgrimage arise? Why are Göbekli Tepe, Stonehenge and other sites where they are? We look at an aspect of human behaviour that is rarely taken into account when trying to explain what our ancestors were up to. The Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge Podcast is the place where we discuss matters of prehistory at a more conceptual and philosophical level, inspired by our research for the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge Project https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys (also see below). 00:00 - Intro & Overview 03:20 - Elephants, water & stone 06:41 - Testing the premise at Göbekli Tepe 14:09 - Testing the premise at Stonehenge 25:09 - Where are the places of pilgrimage in early Neolithic S.E. Europe? 30:57 - Crete & Knossos? 32:54 - Human imprinting: a useful perspective? 37:26 - Grime’s Graves, Mont Viso, the Langdale axe factcories 43:23 - Outro Help us make our next film, GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE at ... 🟡 BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription (see Patreon link below), you can make a one off donation by following the link above. All single donations go to our current project: GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE 🔴 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel. WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistoryguys/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys

In the process of developing and making Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge, we're lifting the corner of the carpet on all sorts of aspects to do with the Neolithic period that we perhaps would not have otherwise. And so it is with the topic of this discussion - obsidian: we had absolutely no idea how crucial this 'black stuff' was to the spread of farming from Anatolia and the fertile crescent into Europe until really examining the narrative of how the early pioneers first ventured out in to the Aegean and crossed to mainland Greece. Our research has turned up all sorts of surprises and we hope you all enjoy this brief overview of the power of the trade in obsidian.

As the first steps in making the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge film project, a few weeks ago Rupert and I spent three days at Göbekli Tepe with access to the whole site - we've been down amongst the T-pillars, we've seen the places where the people lived, we've seen excavations that are normally out of the public eye and much more - all in the company of the head archaeologist there, Lee Clare. So that is what this show about: we so had our minds blown during our visit, we've got so much to talk about, and this is the first opportunity - probably the first of many - to share what we've taken away from our visit. Help us make our film series, GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE at ... 🟡 BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription (see Patreon link below), you can make a one off donation by following the link above. All single donations go to our current project: GÖBEKLI TEPE to STONEHENGE 🔴 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel.

In the very first 'Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge' podcast, we aim to provide a context for the phenomenon of the T-Pillar sites of South Eastern Turkïye and to set the scene for the journey we are about to embark upon with the whole Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge film project, In order to fulfil the promise of the project our prehistory focus has shifted over to the Levant and the Fertile Crescent.  And our tiny minds have been a little bit blown just a bit. We've never accepted the idea of Göbekli Tepe as this 'Ground Zero' of civilization as it presents in the popular press and now largely in the public imagination, or even worse, that it must have been constructed by aliens (how could hunter-gatherers have made THAT?). But of course, there is a story that leads up to Göbekli Tepe, the other Taş Tepeler (stone hills) and other sites; one that stretches back a further 10,000 years, right to the shores of the Sea of Galilee. We hope you enjoy this condensed overview of what came before Göbekli Tepe. 00:00:00 - Intro & show outline 00:04:24 - Why the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge podcast? 00:10:46 - It didn’t all start with Göbekli Tepe 00:15:59 - Ohalo II 00:20:00 - The Epipaleolithic 00:23:18 - Archaeological sites of the area 00:26:05 - Zarzian Culture 00:27:04 - Available information about the Epipaleolithic 00:29:47 - Kharaheneh IV 00:32:58 - Natufian Culture 00:39:51 - Bread & beer? 00:43:27 - More about the Natufians 00:45:23 - Halizon Tachtit 00:47:04 - Tortoises 00:49:54 - The Younger Dryas 00:55:22 - Special buildings, silo storage and the Tas Tepeler sites 00:58:32 - Göbekli Tepe precursor sites 01:03:45 - Desert kItes and the hunting of gazelle 01:06:40 - Rounding up & goodbyes For those of you who would like to take a closer look at some of the sites we discussed in the podcast, below is a list of some of the key settlements. Ohalo II, northern Israel. A 22,000 year-old site that was discovered when sea of Galilee dried to a very low level in 1989 The small settlement of oval houses also contained a single burial of a male between 35-40 years old Due to the waterlogged conditions there was an unusually high level of preservation. Thousands of seeds and fruits showing that these people exploited over 100 different plant species with evidence that they lived there all year round. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohalo_II Kharaneh IV, Jordan The site’s main period of occupation was 21,000 to 18,500 years ago. Traces of stone foundations for round huts - more widely known as hut circles. Over time the site developed into a low mound covering over two hectares or five and a half acres. The surface was littered with literally millions of discarded flints. Also interesting here is that these people apparently socialised in some way with other more distant groups. archaeologists have also found beads here made from marine shells which came from the mediterranean and the red sea - which are 125 and 250 miles away respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharaneh_IV El Wad, Mount Carmel, northern Israel A cave settlement dating to around 14,500 years ago. As the community grew in size, the area outside the cave was terraced to allow the building of circular stone huts with paved floors. It was the excavations at El Wad in the 1920s that prompted Dorothy Garrod to name these people the Natufians after recognising similarities between the stone tools found at El Wad and her previous excavations at Shuqba cave near Wadi en-Natuf. Interesting that excavations have shown that some Natufian graves were reopened specifically to remove the skull of the deceased https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Wad Tel Abu Hureyra - northern Syria Established about 13,000 years ago but abandoned before the end of the younger dryas. Then reoccupied around 10,800 years ago. The site is significant because the inhabitants of Abu Hureyra started out as hunter-gatherers but gradually moved to farming, making them the earliest known farmers i

Every week we make an exclusive short podcast for our Patreon supporters called 'The Monday Moot'. It's a kind of a sandbox where we air our thoughts on aspects of prehistoric archaeology. Sometimes, those thoughts become worthy topics for a wider audience and this is one of those instances. Here, Michael & Rupert ask if the word 'henge' has an impact on the way we view our circular earthworks in the UK. KENNY BROPHY INTERVIEW: https://youtu.be/f6yQcGzqccg

We take you to The Scottish Isles, Bohemia and South Carolina! More fingerprints on pottery have been found at the Ness of Brodgar and it turns out that they all belong to young adult men and that the most recent print to be found belonged to a thirteen year old boy! A team of archaeologists from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen have discovered a long barrow, built around 3,800BC on the legendary Říp Mountain in the Czech Republic. Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence applied to LIDAR technology has led to the discovery of ancient Shell Rings on Daws Island, South Carolina.

This is an excerpt from a longer YouTube interview conducted with Professor Timothy Darvill in August 2021. The argument over the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel doesn't go away and although it may seem that the general consensus is that it's a bad idea, that impression is incorrect. One authoritative archaeological voice is that of Tim Darvill's and here we present a view from someone who was in at the inception of the scheme to restore the Stonehenge landscape to be in keeping with the dignity of the site.   🔴 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistory... We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel. 🟡 BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehisto... If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription, you can make a on off donation by following the link below. NOTE: all single donations go forward to a special fund for our next location movie. WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistor... Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys

Hope you’ll find it in your hearts to excuse the clickbaity title - but then again it is a truly valid use of the word ’alien’. The rocks in question are certainly not where they belong and pose a genuine mystery as to why they are where they have been found - down near Avebury henge in Wiltshire, 280 miles from their origin

Here is our breakdown of Professor Darvill’s hypothesis that Stonehenge (in Stage 2 - 2,500BC) was constructed to be a monumental perpetual calendar whose purpose was to keep in pace with the solar year.

🟢 IF YOU'D LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE - SEE OUR CROWDFUNDING LINKS BELOW 🟢 Dr. Lee Clare is the research co-ordinator and archaeologist in charge of the excavations at Göbekli Tepe. He took on the position of research coordinator of the DFG long-term project at Göbekli Tepe in 2015, and in 2019 moved to the DAI’s Istanbul Department where he is now acting consultant for prehistoric archaeology. The image of Göbekli Tepe in the wider world has become a bit distorted over time as far as we can tell and has not kept up with the most recent discoveries and interpretations. We thought we’d go straight to the source and talk to the man who can give us the very latest on the excavations and current views one of the oldest megalithic site in the world. We truly were thrilled to be able to talk with Lee (from his home in Istanbul) and are very excited at the prospect of one day being able to visit the site and expand our knowledge further.   There is an extended version of this interview with more questions answered available to Patreon supporters here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/gobekli-tepe-dr-62006084 🟢 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel. 🟢. BUY ME A COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription, you can make a on off donation by following the link below. NOTE: all single donations are going forward to a special fund for our next film.

We talk with archaeologist Sue Greaney, Senior Properties Historian with English Heritage and Editor of PAST, the newsletter of the Prehistoric Society about her passion for archaeology and her responsibilities at Stonehenge and other sites managed by English Heritage. The main reason we wanted to get her on, though is that Sue is the author of a fantastic new piece of research on the Mega Henge complex at Mount Pleasant in Dorset.

We're very proud to bring you our interview with Professor Alice Roberts - anatomist and biological anthropologist, author and broadcaster and Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. Alice will need no introduction for many of you, but to understand why we were so thrilled that she agreed to be on the show, as per Rupert's intro: Before becoming a writer and presenter, Alice’s career began as a medical doctor, she went on to become a university lecturer, teaching human anatomy, developing a particular expertise, and doing a PhD in paleopathology (the study of disease in ancient human remains). Through a circuitous route, this led to her working as a bone specialist with the renowned archaeology series Time Team and then on to presenting SEVERAL OF her own land mark television series. She has won numerous awards, perhaps most notably being the first recipient of the Royal Society David Attenborough Award in 2020. Her books are always a joy to read and her latest title, Ancestors, The Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials is so relevant to everything the Prehistory Guys are about, that it seemed the perfect time to get her on to talk about that, along with her thoughts about many other aspects of her work. We hope you enjoy our chat as much as we did…  

Our second interview with Tim Darvill and a riveting first-person deep dive through prehistoric archaeology from in-the-moment practical concerns of current practice, through to the more philosophical concerns confronting the modern day antiquarian.  We talk about Stonehenge, long barrows, bluestones, emerging narratives for the Neolithic, prehistory in the press ... and much more!

More for your money in this Prehistory Flash: we've expanded the format to include more than one item to help return us to more of the podcast style delivery. Hope you enjoy! There will be video versions to follow. This time: Pythagorian geometry in Mesopotamia 1,000 before Pythagoras New finds at King Arthur's Stone in Herefordshire and possibly the earliest coin factory in the world! 🔵 PATREON: We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel at https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys 🔵 BUY ME A COFFEE: If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription, you can make a on off donation by following the link below. NOTE: all single donations are going forward to production of a new film next year: STANDING WITH STONES 2! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistoryguys/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys 

This is ground breaking research from the Balkans where researchers are piecing together the apparently widespread use of cosmetics as far back as six and a half thousand years ago. Tiny ceramic bottles have been excavated across a wide region of the Balkans and Transdanubia, and as long ago as the 1930s it was suggested that they might be for cosmetics or medicines. So Bine Kramberger from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Christoph Berthold and Cynthianne Spiteri from Eberhard Karls University at Tübingen in Germany have analysed a number of pots from various locations, to try to identify exactly what these tiny vessels contained.   🔵 PATREON: We have a friendly and enthusiastic Patreon community helping us create our content through monthly subscription. Get access to exclusive (ad-free!) content, be on the inside track of what we're up to and help us build the channel at https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys 🔵 BUY ME A COFFEE: If you want to show some love to the Prehistory Guys but don't want the commitment of a monthly subscription, you can make a on off donation by following the link below. NOTE: all single donations are going forward to production of a new film next year: STANDING WITH STONES 2! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistoryguys/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys

30,000 years ago, close to the banks of the river Danube, it seems that the saddest of events occurred to a family living there during the Paleolithic period. Michael and Rupert bring you some of the background to this story emerging from the latest aDNA study of remains found in the town of Krems in Austria.

Welcome to another prehistory guys interview, introducing you to archaeologists and historians, all too often hidden behind the scenes, finding out what they’re up to while the world isn’t watching. This time we're talking with Dr Lee Bray, lead archaeologist for the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, south west England. Lee started out in geology before making the move into archaeology, and to Exeter University where he gained his doctorate in Romano British Iron production on Exmoor. Dartmoor is a special place for us, so we were very much looking forward to this conversation with Dr Bray, who has possibly the best job archaeology can provide. He didn't disappoint. Like what we're doing? There are 2 ways to support our work: 🔵 BECOME A PATRON: https://www.patreon.com/theprehistoryguys 🔵 ONE-OFF DONATION: https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=QR2WYYNF4X84C   WEBSITE: https://theprehistoryguys.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theprehistoryguys/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/prehistoryguys Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prehistoryguys

12th feb 2021 BBc broadcast a programme hosted by Professor Alice Roberts called 'Stonehenge, the Lost Circle Revealed'.Both leading up to and afterwards, there was a flurry of headlines in the press ranging from the reasonably restrained to the outright sensational. To cut to the chase, the end result has been - to the dismay of many in the archaeological community and both Rupert and I - the the perception has been left with the general public that Stonehenge had a previous existence in the south Wales hills before it was transported wholesale to what is now Wiltshire.We followed up that broadcast with a short off-the-cuff show of our own on YouTube that attempted to redress some of the (what we regarded as) misleading elements of that programme.In some eyes, this was interpreted as an attack on the lead archaeologist featured in the BBC show, namely Prof Mike Parker Pearson. It was not. What MPP has done here is amazing and we hope by the time we’ve got to the end of this section in the podcast, you’ll get a sense of the high regard we’ve got for him.What we were trying to do however is point out that there was so much more nuance to the finds that have been made and the results that have been extracted. Moreover that there are other voices in the field that were ignored by the BBC and that all is not as simple as made out.All that said - the story is amazing, the questions it poses are mind bending and the picture of people in the late Neolithic and what they were up to remains just as enigmatic if not more so than before the gloss of certainty that was painted over this whole question of the origins of the bluestones of Stonehenge by the BBC programme.We just want to make it real again. Strip it back to the actual evidence and leave you - we hope - much more excited by just how much more complex this story is than the impression left by the BBC in this case.As ever - even with the detail we go into here - we've barely scratched the surface. This could have been a very long podcast indeed. However, let us know if you think we should do more on this! Help support us and join our Patreon community See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.