Blurs

Could some of our ancestors have spent far more of the Ice Age beneath the surface than we realise? When we imagine humans during the Ice Age, we tend to picture hunters crossing frozen landscapes, wrapped in animal skins, tracking mammoths and reindeer across windswept plains. It's an image that has become almost synonymous with prehistoric humanity. But there is another possibility. When conditions became brutally cold, perhaps the smartest place to be wasn't out on the frozen landscape at all. Perhaps it was underground. Humans have been using caves and rock shelters for hundreds of thousands of years. We know that Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo sapiens repeatedly occupied caves, sometimes during extraordinarily cold climatic periods. But this raises a more intriguing question: Did some human groups retreat into underground environments for much longer periods during the most severe phases of the Ice Age? The answer isn't as straightforward as it might first appear. W...

Hidden among the waters of Loch Bhorgastail on Scotland's Isle of Lewis is an archaeological mystery that looks deceptively ordinary from the surface. At first glance, the site appears to be little more than a small, stone-covered island. But beneath those stones lies something far more remarkable: a vast timber structure constructed by people more than 5,000 years ago. The discovery has forced archaeologists to rethink what they know about some of Scotland's earliest artificial islands — and raises a much bigger question. Why were Neolithic people building islands in the middle of lochs? An island that isn't quite what it seems Loch Bhorgastail lies on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, an area already rich in prehistoric archaeology. The island in the loch is a type of structure known as a crannog — an artificial or substantially modified island constructed in a body of water. Crannogs are relatively common across Scotland and Ireland, although many date from considerably later...

Hidden in the Lamorna Valley of West Cornwall is a monument that seems almost designed for a mystery story. It is narrow, dark and partially underground. Its stone walls were built more than 2,000 years ago, its original purpose remains uncertain, and for generations local folklore claimed that something far less ordinary inhabited its depths. This is Boleigh Fogou, one of Cornwall's enigmatic underground structures. Archaeologists know that it belongs broadly to the Iron Age and that it was associated with an ancient settlement. They can reconstruct much of its construction and history. But one fundamental question remains: Why was it built? And that unanswered question may help explain why the fogou eventually became associated with witches, spirits and the mysterious Cornish bucca-boo. What Is a Fogou? The word fogou derives from the Cornish word for a cave. But these are not simply natural caves. Fogous are deliberately constructed underground passages, usually formed by excava...

On the rugged Gower Peninsula in South Wales, a cave overlooking the Bristol Channel has become the focus of a remarkable archaeological rediscovery.  Inside Bacon Hole Cave, faint red markings on the rock wall have now been identified as deliberate prehistoric artwork dating to approximately 17,100 years ago. If the dating is correct, Bacon Hole contains the oldest known rock art in Britain, transforming what was once considered little more than an obscure Welsh cave into one of the country's most significant prehistoric sites. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the story is that the markings were not newly discovered. They had been there for more than a century. A Cave with a Deep History Bacon Hole is situated on the southern coast of the Gower Peninsula, within limestone cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel. The cave is approximately 36 metres long, with a broad entrance around 18 metres wide and 6 metres high. It has long been recognised as an important archaeological a...

In 1994, a discovery in southeastern Turkey began to transform our understanding of the ancient world. On a barren hilltop near the city of Şanlıurfa, archaeologists uncovered enormous carved stone pillars arranged in circular structures. The site was far older than the great pyramids of Egypt, older than Stonehenge, and older than most known monumental architecture. The discovery was Göbekli Tepe. Dating back roughly 11,000–12,000 years, Göbekli Tepe challenged long-held assumptions about the origins of civilisation. For decades, many archaeologists believed that agriculture came first, followed by permanent settlements, religion, and monumental construction. Göbekli Tepe suggested a more complicated story: Could large-scale religious and social organisation have existed before farming? The site became one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the modern era. The Discovery of Göbekli Tepe The site is located in the Anatolia region of modern-day Turkey, near the northern ...