The New 10 Ages of Prehistory

SALON 153 - the Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter 27 November 2006 reports that Antiquity has made an attempt to replace the old three-age system, originally invented for the Danish National Museum collections in the nineteenth century.

Antiquity's Editor - the Sutton Hoo excavator, Martin Carver proposes 'integrated world prehistory' back to 26,000 BC.


Salon IFA reports that 'he new scheme is suggested by a key paper on radiocarbon dating published in Antiquity by Christopher Bronk Ramsey of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, and colleagues from the universities of Sheffield, Reading, Belfast and Leiden.'

Here are Antiquity’s ten periods


1. Before 24,000 BC: hunter-gatherers in the Sahara; use of beads for ornament in Australia; horse and rhino images on the Margot Cave, France
2. Twenty-fourth to thirteenth millennia BC: earliest pottery in east Asia; male and female hand stencils in cave art
3. Thirteenth to sixth millennia BC: seed processing in America; rice cultivation in China; migration to Taiwan; wells and water-management in Israel; flint mining in Iberia; salt production in France
4. Fifth millennium BC: sea travel in Persian Gulf
5. Fourth millennium BC: class distinction at Abydos, Egypt; mound burials in the Urals
6. Third millennium BC: fortified settlements in Greece; Beaker Age stone bracers in England; copper industry in south-western Iberia; ceremonial centre on the Euphrates
7. Second millennium BC: first chariot burials in Eurasia; early settlement in the Pacific; megalithic burial rites on Menorca; Biblical radiocarbon dates in Jordan; stone circle astronomy in Ireland
8. First millennium BC: warrior stelae in Spain; olive cultivation in Egypt; cave painting in New Caledonia; mummification and pyramidal cairns in continental east Asia; Indian traders on Bali; settlement in the Florida Everglades
9. First millennium AD: geoglyphs in Peru; settlers of Iceland; vegetation at Angkor, Cambodia; auroch bones in France; Maya murals from Guatemala; Tang pottery in Sri Lanka
10. Second millennium AD: ritual road on Rarotonga; mound burials of the Golden Horde; tree cults in Russia; taro cultivation on Rapa, French Polynesia; images of anthills in Zimbabwe; burial in medieval Mongolia; Aztec irrigation systems; sites and monuments on the moon(think about it: Ed).

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