Prehistoric
Daily life reference pages for selected prehistoric locations and periods, with entries focused on settlement, subsistence, tools, housing, and seasonal routines.
126 entries
Published locations
Ice Age, Mesolithic, and Early Hunter-Gatherer Worlds
- Daily life in Shanidar Cave during the Middle Paleolithic
- Daily life in Denisova Cave during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic
- Daily life in Blombos Cave during the Middle Stone Age
- Daily life in Aurignacian Europe during the early Upper Paleolithic
- Daily life among Chauvet cave communities (c. 32,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Upper Paleolithic Europe (c. 20,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Solutrean western Europe during the late Ice Age
- Daily life in Magdalenian Europe during the late Ice Age
- Daily life in north-central Europe during the Ahrensburgian period
- Daily life at Dolni Vestonice (c. 25,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Gravettian mammoth bone villages during the late Ice Age
- Daily life in Kostenki during the Upper Paleolithic
- Daily life among Lascaux cave artists (c. 17,000 BCE)
- Daily life among Altamira cave communities (c. 15,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Doggerland during the Mesolithic period
- Daily life in European Mesolithic river and coastal communities (c. 7,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Baltic Mesolithic communities (c. 7,000-5,000 BCE)
- Daily life in the eastern Baltic forest zone during the Kunda culture
- Daily life in the Baltic wetlands during the Narva culture
- Daily life in northeastern European forest communities during the Comb Ceramic period
- Daily life in coastal southern Scandinavia during the Ertebolle period
- Daily life in Baltic communities during the Pitted Ware period
- Daily life at Star Carr (c. 9,000 BCE)
- Daily life at Lepenski Vir in the Danube Gorge (c. 7,000-6,000 BCE)
- Daily life at Lake Mungo during Pleistocene Australia
- Daily life in Early Holocene Australia (c. 8,000-4,000 BCE)
Near East, Africa, and Early Farming Frontiers
- Daily life in North Africa during the Iberomaurusian period
- Daily life in the Nile Valley during the Qadan period
- Daily life in the Ohalo II camp during the Last Glacial Maximum
- Daily life in the Levant during the Kebaran period
- Daily life in the Natufian Levant (c. 12,500 BCE)
- Daily life among Gobekli Tepe communities (c. 9,600-8,200 BCE)
- Daily life in Neolithic Anatolia (c. 7,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Catalhoyuk (c. 7,100-6,000 BCE)
- Daily life in northern Mesopotamia during the Halaf period
- Daily life in Ubaid village communities during the Ubaid period
- Daily life in Jericho during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period
- Daily life in Ain Ghazal (c. 7,200-5,000 BCE)
- Daily life in the Green Sahara (c. 6,000 BCE)
- Daily life at Nabta Playa (c. 5,000-4,000 BCE)
- Daily life in the Early Neolithic Nile Valley and Fayum (c. 5,200-4,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Badarian Nile villages during the Predynastic period
- Daily life among Prehistoric Sahel pastoralists (c. 4,000-2,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Early Pastoral East Africa (c. 2,000 BCE)
- Daily life in early farming Mehrgarh (c. 6,500 BCE)
- Daily life in South Indian Neolithic ashmound communities (c. 3,000-1,200 BCE)
East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific
- Daily life in Dadiwan and early Neolithic northwest China (c. 6,000-5,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Banpo during the Neolithic
- Daily life in Neolithic Yellow River China (c. 4,000 BCE)
- Daily life in the upper Yellow River during the Majiayao period
- Daily life in Neolithic Yangtze River China (c. 5,000-3,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Hemudu wetlands during the Neolithic
- Daily life in Hongshan culture communities (c. 4,700-2,900 BCE)
- Daily life in Longshan Neolithic China
- Daily life in Korea's Jeulmun period (c. 4,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Jomon Japan (c. 3,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Neolithic Taiwan (c. 3,000-2,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Neolithic Mainland Southeast Asia (c. 2,500-1,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Ban Chiang early village communities (c. 2,000-1,000 BCE)
- Daily life in the New Guinea Highlands early agricultural communities (c. 7,000-3,000 BCE)
- Daily life among Lapita Pacific voyagers (c. 1,500-1,000 BCE)
Europe and the Mediterranean Neolithic to Bronze Age
- Daily life in Linear Pottery Culture Europe (c. 5,500-4,900 BCE)
- Daily life in Swifterbant wetlands during the Neolithic
- Daily life in the Alpine lake dwellings during the Neolithic
- Daily life in the western Mediterranean during the Cardial Ware Neolithic
- Daily life in Los Millares during Copper Age Iberia
- Daily life in Funnelbeaker farming communities
- Daily life in Vinca culture Balkan villages (c. 5,700-4,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Sesklo during Neolithic Thessaly
- Daily life in Cucuteni-Trypillia settlements (c. 4,800-3,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Varna culture communities (c. 4,600-4,200 BCE)
- Daily life in Skara Brae during the Neolithic
- Daily life among Stonehenge builders (c. 3,000-2,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Late Neolithic Britain (c. 2,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Megalithic Malta (c. 3,600-2,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Khirokitia during Neolithic Cyprus
- Daily life in Minoan pre-palatial Crete (c. 3,000-2,000 BCE)
- Daily life at Botai during the Eneolithic period
- Daily life in the Sredny Stog steppe during the Eneolithic period
- Daily life among Yamnaya steppe pastoralists (c. 3,300-2,600 BCE)
- Daily life among Afanasievo steppe pastoralists (c. 3,300-2,500 BCE)
- Daily life in the Caucasus during the Maykop culture (c. 3700-3000 BCE)
- Daily life among Corded Ware communities (c. 2,900-2,350 BCE)
- Daily life among Bell Beaker communities (c. 2,800-1,800 BCE)
- Daily life around the Amesbury Archer and Early Bronze Age Britain (c. 2,300 BCE)
The Americas
- Daily life in Beringia during the Ice Age
- Daily life at Monte Verde (c. 14,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Paleoindian North America (c. 10,500 BCE)
- Daily life among Clovis hunters (c. 11,000-10,500 BCE)
- Daily life among Folsom bison hunters (c. 9,000-8,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Eastern Woodlands Archaic North America (c. 6,000-2,000 BCE)
- Daily life in the Windover pond community during the Archaic period
- Daily life in the Archaic Great Basin (c. 6,000-2,000 BCE)
- Daily life in the California Channel Islands Archaic (c. 7,000-3,000 BCE)
- Daily life on the Pacific Northwest Coast (c. 3,000-1,000 BCE)
- Daily life at Poverty Point (c. 1,700-1,100 BCE)
- Daily life in Archaic Arctic and Paleo-Eskimo communities (c. 2,500-1,000 BCE)
- Daily life among Caribbean Archaic peoples (c. 4,000-1,000 BCE)
- Daily life in Mesoamerican Archaic villages (c. 2,500-1,500 BCE)
- Daily life in Valdivia coastal villages during the Early Formative period
- Daily life on the Andean Pre-Ceramic Coast (c. 3,000-1,800 BCE)
- Daily life in Norte Chico and Caral-Supe (c. 3,000-1,800 BCE)
- Daily life in Prehistoric Amazonia (c. 3,000-1,000 BCE)
More entries
- Biskupin during the Early Iron Age – Homes, farming and shared work in a fortified lakeside settlement.
- Bylany in Neolithic Bohemia – Longhouses, household work and food preparation in an early farming settlement.
- Daily life at Gobero during the early Holocene
- Dolní Věstonice: Upper Palaeolithic daily life – Food, shelter and skilled work reconstructed from the archaeological evidence.
- Duyfken Point: shellfish gathering and coastal life – Local evidence and regional comparisons illuminate coastal food gathering while preserving uncertainties about daily routines.
- Federsee lake settlements – Houses, cultivation and everyday work in Neolithic wetland communities.
- Hallstatt's salt-mining community – Mining work, meals and material reuse in the Austrian Alps during the Early Iron Age.
- Klasies River during the Middle Stone Age – Coastal food gathering, plant cooking and stone technology, understood through archaeological evidence.
- Kostenki on the Don River – Food, tools and fire across an Upper Palaeolithic archaeological landscape.
- Kuk Swamp: early farming – Plant use, cultivation mounds and drainage in prehistoric New Guinea.
- Kutikina Cave, Tasmania – Ice Age shelter and evidence for preparing wallaby meat and marrow.
- Lake Mungo: food gathering and hearths – What food remains, hearths and earth ovens reveal about everyday life.
- Madjedbebe: tools and plant foods
- Mezhyrich – Mammoth-bone structures, fire management and craft work at a late Ice Age camp in Ukraine.
- Nabta Playa: Neolithic daily life – Early households, seasonal water and the evidence for gathering wild foods.
- Nebelivka during the Trypillia period – Homes, food and shared activities in a prehistoric community whose population and seasonal rhythms remain uncertain.
- Neolithic Bronocice – Farming and household production reconstructed from plants, animal bones and textile tools.
- Neolithic Fayum – Fishing, grain storage and everyday work around the northern lakeshore.
- Pinnacle Point during the Middle Stone Age – Shellfish gathering, pigments and toolmaking across separate periods of occupation on South Africa’s southern coast.
- Sibudu rock shelter – Bedding, adhesive technology and animal remains illuminate everyday activities during separate Middle Stone Age occupations.
- Taforalt during the Later Stone Age
- Talianki during the Trypillia period – Household spaces, skilled pottery production and the limits of reconstructing life in a prehistoric settlement.
- Wadi Kubbaniya – Fishing, wild plant foods and seasonal life beside the Nile during the Late Palaeolithic.