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Early Europe Mysteries in Stone
Historians believe that Stonehedge, Avebury, and other Megalith monuments were built due the spread of a new, Eastern culture through Europe. They also attribute other technological advancements around this time due to this culture spread. One of these advancements is the burial of individuals with grave goods, in a burial mound.
Hagar Qim, near Malta
The Old Stone Age is also known as the Paleothic Era, and was 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, during the age of Homo Erectus, and was named such for the raw stone tools used by the people of the era.
The Copper Age was the dawn of "civilized" man. People around this time recorded their lives on stone walls, and began to maunfacture objects for luxury, other than for just daily use.Discovery of a dagger decorated with thousands of tiny golden beads is proof of this.
This book told a brief history of Early Europe, from the arrival of Homo-Erectus to the Bronze Age, and everything between. This book told of artifacts and villages found from in those time periods. It also gave brief informative interjects about a few of the artifacts and corpses they have found. Also, it had alot of information about all of the differant ways that technology and ideas spread across the countryside. It had severaly theories on the evolution of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal. This book did a good job of explaining how the Menhirs and Megaliths were built.
About 12,000 B.C. early europeans began to live in settlements. They were still a nomadic people. It would take them to about 7,000 B.C. to begin clearing the dense European forest and start farming, and staying in permenant settlements.
Recently discovered wooden posts in Lake Zurich, Swizterland, proved to be remnants of a Bronze Age village. A similar village was found in Fierve, Italy. During the Bronze Age, it had been an actual village, not a village on water. The posts were submerged because the water levels had risen greatly since the Bronze Age. This discovery is unique because the village was in excellent condition under the water.
I chose this book because I wanted to know more about Europe. I have always wanted to travel there, and have read many books about Europe. I realized that reading this book would fill the gap about very early, before-common-era Europe. Also, Stonehedge and the other Megaliths around Europe fascinate and intrigue me, and I wanted to know more about the people who made them. Generally, I don't read non-fiction books like this one, but I wanted to see if I could do so while reading about something very interesting, like the topic of this book. Further, I really wanted to learn about the subjects presented in this book.
About mid-way through the Copper Age, a new social class began to emerge. This was the warrior aristocracy. Around this time, people began to value themselves over the whole of their tribe or group. The beginnings of today's social classes had emerged.
Around 8000 B.C. the plow appeared. This lead to agriculture on a very large scale, and the dominance of farming and animal-raising communities across Europe.
The latter part of the Bronze Age is known as the Urnfield Culture. During this time period, the differance between graves and their contents was huge. The upper-class graves usually had around 100 grave goods, while the lower class had hardly any. The segregation of soceity had reached the height that it is at today.
Archaeologists recently discovered a 5,000 year old corpse from the Bronze Age in the Swiss Alps. They have nicknamed it the "Iceman". Perfectly preserved, it was underneath a glacier, and has been tested extensively for data on the Bronze Age. They discovered that Bronze-Age people practiced the same herding techniques as today's people.
Iron working, introduced to Europe around 800 B.C, lead to the Iron Age. The beginning of this age is known as the Halstatt Era, During the Halstatt era, the warrior aristocracy flourished through trade with the Meditarrean. Tribes around Halstatt, Austria, benfited from the salt trade.
http://www.bronzeage.net/chest.htm http://www.unr.edu/sb204/geology/europe.html
![irish iron age art]](http://im.glogster.com/media/2/4/1/68/4016800.jpg "irish iron age art]")
