27. Pleistocene Rock Art of Sahul

The Levant witnessed a gradual transition from simple nomadic societies to more complex sedentism. The earliest signs of this fundamental change in human life appeared during the Last Glacial Maximum.Support the show 

Migration out of Africa, interbreeding with Neanderthals, and colonization of Eurasia. What can stone tools, bone tools, and ornaments discovered in the Middle East tell us about those fateful events?Support the show 

Red ochre, shark teeth, ostrich eggs, lion men, hand stencils, cannibalism, friendly wolves, ritual burials, animal masks and big buttocks. 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ideas about the Stone Age people who created the extraordinary images found in caves around the world, from hand outlines to abstract symbols to the multicoloured paintings of prey animals at Chauvet and, as shown above, at Lascaux. In the 19th Cen ...  Show more

Lascaux Cave is an Ice Age wonder. Its walls and ceilings are adorned with stunning depictions of bison, aurochs and deer painted by hunter-gatherers 20,000 years ago using all kinds of pigments from red ochre to violet. They are, quite simply some of the most beautiful exampl ...

Scientists have discovered some fossilized impressions of hand and footprints they estimate to be well over 100,000 years old. They also believe that these hand and footprints were pressed into the ground deliberately to form a design making it possibly the oldest known work of a ...  Show more