10,000 Years Ago

Time that followed the end of the ice age, the rise of sea levels, and the mass extinction of mega fauna. Homo sapiens are the only remaining humans on the planet. Includes some of the earliest domestication of plants and animals and some of the earliest permanent settlements and cities.

10,000 Years Ago Web Pages[]

Sites[]

Africa[]

South Africa

West Africa

Dafuna - Site in Nigeria by the ancient Lake Megachad where the oldest boat was found.

Central Africa

Chongoni Rock Art Area - Rock art from farmers and hunter gatherers in Malawi.

East Africa

Lake Turkana - Lake in Kenya where many types of humans over the ages lived.
Laas Geel - Rock paintings in Somaliland protected by an overhang.
Panga ya Saida - Forest cave along Kenya’s coast. Only continuously habitated site, spanning all of the later stone age.

North Africa

Gobero - ~Site in the Sahara Desert with two graveyards from different periods when the desert was green. Near a lake, which sometimes overlapped this area.
Tassil n'Ajjer - One of the largest areas of prehistoric rock art in Africa. Full of water carved rock outcroppings.
Nabta Playa - Site in the Nubian Desert which was habitable for a short period of time at the beginning of the Holocene. The predecessors of the Egyptians built a stone calendar circle and migrated to the Nile Valley when the area dried up. During the early neolithic starting at about 11ka, this site was occupied by some of the earliest pastoralists, who buried their cows and only later their human dead.

Europe[]

Western Europe

Almendres Cromlech - Oldest stone enclosure in Portugal, dating to the very beginning of the neolithic period at 6000 BC. A larger ellipse was added to the original circle during the middle neolithic. During the late neolithic, the stones were moved around, perhaps to align with different objects in the sky or for social or ceremonial purposes.
Hort de la Bequera - Site in Catalonia where a portable rock with 12,000 year carvings of birds and humans interacting.
Grottes d'Agneux - Cave with 12,000 year old artwork that was covered in Midieval graffiti.
Stonehenge - Site of the most famous neolithic megalithic structure. Wood Posts that could be seen from that site existed 10,000 years ago. They may have marked Auroch migration routes. Alternatively, they may have marked lunar setting points when viewed from stonehenge's position. A structure near a spring dubbed Home Base was occupied for 15000 years from 6250 to 4700BC, showing mesolithic hunters may have stayed in one place for a long time.
Gough's Cave - Cave that opens up to Cheddar Yeo, the largest underground river system in Britain. Includes some of the earliest known humans to live in Britain, including Cheddar Man.
Star Carr - Earliest Mesolithic site containing dwellings in Scotland.

Northern Europe

Huseby Klev - Site in western Sweden that contains tar that was chewed by humans 10,000 years ago. DNA has been extracted from this tar. Humans at this time subsisted mainly on marine mammals, and switched to fish after these populations crashed.

Eastern Europe

Theopetra Cave - Cave in Greece with continuous human inhabitants for 50,000 years that includes that transition from Neanderthal to Modern Human occupation and hunter gatherers to agricultural lifestyles.
Lepenski Vir - ~Early fishing community on the Danube River and focal point to the later Danube Civilization.
Mayor Uzunova - Bulgarian site where the earliest known carving of the mother goddess was found.
Cuciulat Cave - Contains the first discovered cave art in Romania, and for a time, the oldest in central europe. Was mined extensively, making it difficult to find artifacts. The entrance has since collapsed.

Asia[]

West Asia

Pnei Hever - Site near the Pnei Hever (Ma'ale Hever) settlement in the Hebron Hills near the Pnei Hever river in Israel where a 9000 year old stone mask was found.
Ain Sakhri Caves - Natufian cave where the oldest depiction of human sex has been found carved from a stalactite.
Jericho - Site considered the oldest city in the world and known from the tale of its defeat in the Bible.
Atlit Yam - 9000 year old site off coast of Israel showing some of the earliest signs of fishing farming. Wells got salty and started to be used as waste disposal. A stone semi circle has been preserved.
Catalhoyuk - Early urban center in turkey. Homes shaped in a honeycomb like fashion and egalitarian.
Ain Ghazal - One of the earliest farming villages. Site with earliest plaster statues.
Sanliurfa - Place in Turkey where the oldest mansized statue was found, Urfa Man. This was contemporary to the nearby Gobekli Tepes. Also traditional home town of Abraham according to Islamic traditions.
Gobekli Tepe - Site in Turkey of the first known megaliths and the first known temple.
Ganj Dareh - Settlement in the Zagros Mountains in Iranian Kurdistan that contains the earliest evidence of goat domestication.

North Asia

Shigir Peat Bog - A peat bog on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals. Relics from over 10,000 years ago were found preserved in here, including the oldest known large wooden sculpture.

South Asia

Charama Caves - Caves in India associated with local lore of "alien" abductions.
Konkan Rock Carvings - 12000 year old rock carvings in India.
Bhimbetka Rock Shelters - Rock shelter in India that has been inhabited for over 100,000 years and contains rock art from 30,000 years ago up through the midieval times.

East Asia

Duogate Caves - The Chinese Prefecture of Altay contains many rock carvings and paintings dating back to at least 12,000 years ago. One site has possibly the world's earliest depiction of skiing, while another one seems to depict modern day objects such as aircraft. Herds of camels, sheep, wolves, and humans are also depicted.
Kanayama Megaliths - ~The only Megaliths in Japan that have been tested and confirmed for astro-archaeology.
Gunung Padang - A site some think is a prehistoric pyramid from the ice age. Some scientists say it is a natural volcanic structure though.
Jiahu - Early neolithic settlement in China. Bone flutes have been found here.
Zhengzhou - Site in China where pre-farming pottery has been discovered.
Nanzhuangtou - Site in China where the earliest signs of chicken domestication has been found (for cock fighting).
Lene Hara Cave - Cave in East Timur where the earliest paintings of human faces have been found.

Australia & Oceana

Kangaroo Island - Island off the coast of Australia. It separated from the mainland when the waters rose 10,000 years ago, an event which is remembered by the Aboriginal people.

Americas[]

North America

Haida Gwaii - Island archipelago home to the Haida People off the coast of British Columbia.
(Buffalo Jump - A cliff native americans would drive buffalo over.)
Traverse Gap - ~The area in between two lakes at the continental divide. Site where Brown's Valley Man was buried.
White Sands - ~The largest white sand dunes in the world, in New Mexico. Has the largest collection of preserved prehistoric footprints in the Americas, including some of humans stalking giant sloths.

Central America

Sistema Sac Actun - The largest underwater cave network in the world in the Yukatan Peninsula of Mexico. Filled with prehistoric animal remains and paleoamerican and mayan fossils and artifacts.

South America

Taboco Cave - ~Contains some of the earliest Brazilian cave paintings.