Roc de Marsal, a Neanderthal site in the Dordogne. The three year old child discovered in 1961 here was well preserved, and with a date of around 70 000 years BP it is one of the oldest burials of the Perigord.
Last updated Thursday 15 July 2010
Roc de Marsal, a Neanderthal site in the Dordogne. The three year old child discovered in 1961 here was well preserved, and with a date of around 70 000 years BP it is one of the oldest burials of the Perigord.
Last updated Thursday 15 July 2010
La Grotte de la Vache is important for the complete camp of Magdalenian hunters found, and may be seen almost as it was 12 000 to 15 000 years ago. Weapons, tools, typical game and artworks have been recovered from this small but important site.
Last updated Tuesday 13 July 2010
The neanderthal skeleton from Kebara in Israel
Last updated Saturday 10 July 2010
Per's Plains of Passage trip from the Danube mouth to its source at Donaueschingen by motorcycle in 1998.
Last updated Monday 28 June 2010
The oldest cave paintings in Central Europe, estimated at between 23 000 and 35 000 BP, have been discovered by a team of Romanian speleologists at the Coliboaia Cave, Romania.
Last updated Wednesday 23 June 2010
Neandertal skeletons at Shanidar Cave in Iraq
Last updated Monday 14 June 2010
Genyornis, an extinct giant bird from the Australian Ice Age
Last updated Friday 04 June 2010
Grotte de Bédeilhac has a huge entrance and was a good shelter for Magdalenian hunters. There are two horizons with human remains.
Important finds include clay sculptures, bone polishers, baguettes demi-ronde, perforated horse teeth and many paintings and engravings on the walls.
Last updated Wednesday 26 May 2010
Lightweight and Warm Sleeping Bags and Quilts
Last updated Sunday 16 May 2010
This is a very important and ground breaking paper by Mme Nicole Pailhaugue which summarises the fauna and seasons of occupation of the important site of La Grotte de la Vache, in the French Pyrenees. It deserves a much wider audience.
Last updated Saturday 10 July 2010
Kimberley Points - superbly made tools from the north of Australia
Last updated Sunday 11 April 2010
A walk from the top of the Kosciuszko Express chairlift to Mount Kosciuszko, then to Lake Albina and return.
Last updated Friday 02 April 2010
Lightweight Stoves
Last updated Friday 12 March 2010
Archeology for Jean Auel fans - the sites and sculptures and places mentioned in Jean Auel's series of books on life in the ice age.
Last updated Friday 11 June 2010
Niaux Cave, or la Grotte de Niaux is one of the most famous prehistoric caves in Europe. It lies in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees, and is located in Ariège, in the valley of Vicdessos, across the valley from the smaller Grotte de la Vache, in an area rich with prehistoric sites. The huge cave entrance, 55 metres high and 50 metres wide, is at 678 metres above sea level. There are more than two kilometres of galleries, with a hundred or more superb paintings from Magdalenian times, most of which are in the famous 'Salon Noir', 800 metres from the entrance. 
Grotte de la Mouthe was discovered in 1894, and was excavated by Emile Rivière. It contains more than 200 engravings and paintings of bison, horses, deer, cats, wolves, as well as two hands and a tectiform. The deposits in the cave record its use by Neanderthals and modern humans, based on the tools which were found there. 
Lake Mungo is a dry lake in south-western New South Wales, Australia. Many important archaeological findings have been made at the lake, most significantly the discovery of the remains of Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia, and Mungo Lady, the oldest human remains in the world to be ritually cremated. 
Grotte de Bernifal is a cave decorated with over 100 engravings and paintings. It includes engravings of horses, bison, mammoths and ibex as well as the enigmatic tectiform (roof shaped) drawings seen in many other caves of the same period. It has changed very little in more than twelve thousand years, and has not been vandalised, since the original entrance was blocked with rubble when the last artists left. 
Les Combarelles in the Dordogne, with more than 600 images on its walls, most of them engraved, is considered to be one of the major sanctuaries of Magdalenian culture. This extraordinary site was discovered in 1901. Beyond the entrance of the cave two galleries diverge. The largest one, now open to the public, is a narrow and winding passage, following a zig zag pattern for more than 240 metres. The animals represented are finely engraved. A diverse fauna is represented, including horses, reindeer, ibex, mammoths, rhinoceros, bears, lions and a few bisons and aurochs.
The cave of Mas-d'Azil is a large, 500 metre long tunnel dug by the Arize River through a wall of the Massif Plantaurelin, part of the Ariege Pyrenees. Secondary caves leading off the main tunnel were occupied at various prehistoric and historic times during a period of 20 000 years, and the objects found there gave the name of the cave to a prehistoric culture, the Azilian. It was excavated by Edouard Piette in the 19th century, who interpreted the halter-like marks on animal heads as being evidence of the domestication of reindeer and horses.
The Heaphy Track in New Zealand, 80 km long, has a wide variety of landscapes. It crosses the Southern Alps, taking the walker from the east to the west coast, through beech forests, alpine moors, mossy, very wet forests reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, a large and beautiful estuary at the entrance of the Heaphy River to the sea, then a superb walk along rocky and sandy ocean beaches, through groves of Nikau palms.
The Abel Tasman track follows the coastline along the north coast of the south island of New Zealand from Marahau to Wainui. Accommodation at either huts or tent sites must be booked in advance. It is a beautiful track with stunning coastal scenery, and the opportunity to take part in kayaking and guided walks, as well as catering for independent walkers.