The Gravettian saw a flourishing of hunter gatherer art.  Engravings of bison, Venus figurines, and rich burials hint at a shifting Ice Age ideology and social organization.

Support the show

The Aurignacian culture of Europe ended 33,000 years ago and was replaced by the Gravettian. Sometimes overlooked, this period of prehistory saw an intriguing peak in Ice Age culture and the precocious development of technologies not often associated with hunter gatherers.

Support the show

The oldest European sculptures, paintings, and musical instruments appeared around 40,000 years ago. What does Aurignacian art reveal about the worldview of ancient hunter gatherers?

Support the show

In the absence of Neanderthals, Homo sapiens developed the Aurignacian culture, which spanned Europe. These people continued the trend toward technological complexity that had begun during the out of Africa migrations.

Support the show

Our most detailed insight into a prehistoric encounter and coexistence of two intelligent hominin species comes from the 8,000 year period before the eradication of the Neanderthals, when Homo sapiens migrated into Europe.

Support the show

One branch of Homo sapiens expanding out of Africa migrated through southern Asia and adapted to tropical environments. Bows and arrows, microlithic tools, and seafaring were some of their technological innovations.

Support the show

The permanent expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa began about 60,000 years ago. After intimate encounters with Neanderthals in Southwest Asia, some of them moved into Europe and Northern Asia. How did these Eurasian migrants adapt to foreign climates and ecosystems?

Support the show

Eagle talons around their necks, painted faces, and stone-tipped spears in hand, Neanderthals were not dumb brutes. Join me on this crash course and learn about the species with whom we share the most in common.

Support the show

Footprints on lake margins, contact between hominin species, and changing fortunes in arid landscapes characterize the earliest attempts of Homo sapiens to leave Africa.

Support the show

Despite the relatively harsh and fluctuating environmental conditions of North Africa, Middle Stone Age people there developed aspects of modern human behavior earlier than anywhere else.

Support the show