# Prehistoric Europe

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Prehistoric Europe Early Prehistory Lower Paleolithic Homo antecessor[1][2] Homo heidelbergensis Middle Paleolithic Homo neanderthalensis Upper Paleolithic Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens population of all regions Mesolithic Hunter-gatherers Neolithic Agriculture, herding, pottery Late Prehistory Chalcolithic Old Europe (archaeology), Indo-Europeans, Varna culture Bronze Age Minoan Crete, Mycenaean civilization, Korakou culture, Cycladic culture, Lusatian culture, Yamnaya culture Iron Age Ancient Greece, Thracians, Ancient Rome, Iberians, Germanic tribes, Hallstatt culture Europe portal v t e

[Tarxien Temples](/source/Tarxien_Temples), [Malta](/source/Malta), around 3150 BC

**Prehistoric Europe** refers to [Europe](/source/Europe) before the start of written records,[3] beginning in the [Lower Paleolithic](/source/Lower_Paleolithic). As history progresses, considerable regional unevenness in cultural development emerges and grows. The region of the eastern Mediterranean is, due to its geographic proximity, greatly influenced and inspired by the classical Middle Eastern civilizations, and adopts and develops the earliest systems of communal organization and writing.[4] The [Histories](/source/Histories_(Herodotus)) of Herodotus (from around 440 BC) is the oldest known European text that seeks to systematically record traditions, public affairs and notable events.[5]

## Overview

This overview section duplicates the intended purpose of the article's lead section, which should provide an overview of the subject. Please merge it with the introduction, move its content to other sections, or retitle the section to give it a clear scope. (May 2026)

See also: [History of Europe](/source/History_of_Europe)

Widely dispersed, isolated finds of individual fossils of bone fragments (Atapuerca, Mauer mandible), stone artifacts or [assemblages](/source/Assemblage_(archaeology)) suggest that during the [Lower Paleolithic](/source/Lower_Paleolithic), spanning from 3 million until 300,000 years ago, palaeo-human presence was rare and typically separated by thousands of years. The [karstic](/source/Karst) region of the [Atapuerca Mountains](/source/Atapuerca_Mountains) in Spain represents the currently earliest known and reliably dated location of residence for more than a single generation and a group of individuals.[6][7]

*[Homo neanderthalensis](/source/Homo_neanderthalensis)* emerged in [Eurasia](/source/Eurasia) between 600,000 and 350,000 years ago as the earliest body of European people that left behind a substantial tradition, a set of evaluable historic data through a rich fossil record in Europe's limestone caves and a patchwork of occupation sites over large areas. These include [Mousterian](/source/Mousterian) cultural [assemblages](/source/Assemblage_(archaeology)).[8][9] [Modern humans](/source/Homo_sapiens) arrived in Mediterranean Europe during the [Middle Paleolithic](/source/Middle_Paleolithic) between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago [10], and both species occupied a common habitat for several thousand years. Research has so far produced no universally accepted conclusive explanation as to what caused the Neanderthal's extinction between 40,000 and 28,000 years ago.[11][12]

Homo sapiens later populated the entire continent during the [Mesolithic](/source/Mesolithic), and advanced north, following the retreating ice sheets of the [Last Glacial Maximum](/source/Last_Glacial_Maximum) that spanned between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago. A 2015 publication on ancient European DNA collected from Spain to Russia concluded that the original hunter-gatherer population had assimilated a wave of "farmers" who had arrived from the [Near East](/source/Near_East) during the [Neolithic](/source/Neolithic) about 8,000 years ago.[13]

The Mesolithic era site [Lepenski Vir](/source/Lepenski_Vir) in modern-day [Serbia](/source/Serbia), the earliest documented [sedentary](/source/Sedentary_lifestyle) community of Europe with permanent buildings, as well as monumental art, precedes by many centuries sites previously considered to be the oldest known. The community's year-round access to a food surplus prior to the introduction of agriculture was the basis for the sedentary lifestyle.[14] However, the earliest record for the adoption of elements of farming can be found in [Starčevo](/source/Star%C4%8Devo_culture), a community with close cultural ties.[15]

Belovode and [Pločnik](/source/Plo%C4%8Dnik), also in Serbia, is currently the oldest reliably dated copper smelting site in Europe (around 7,000 years ago). It is attributed to the [Vinča culture](/source/Vin%C4%8Da_culture), which on the contrary provides no links to the initiation of or a transition to the [Chalcolithic](/source/Chalcolithic) or [Copper Age](/source/Copper_Age).[16][17][18]

The process of smelting bronze is an imported technology with debated origins and history of geographic cultural profusion. It was established in Europe about 3200 BC in the Aegean and production was centered around Cyprus, the primary source of copper for the Mediterranean for many centuries.[19]

The introduction of metallurgy, which initiated unprecedented technological progress, has also been linked with the establishment of social stratification, the distinction between rich and poor, and use of precious metals as the means to fundamentally control the dynamics of culture and society.[20]

The [European Iron Age](/source/European_Iron_Age) culture also originates in the East through the absorption of the technological principles obtained from the [Hittites](/source/Hittites) about 1200 BC, finally arriving in Northern Europe by 500 BC.[21]

During the Iron Age, Central, Western and most of Eastern Europe gradually entered the actual historical period. Greek maritime colonization and Roman terrestrial conquest form the basis for the diffusion of literacy in large areas to this day. This tradition continued in an altered form and context for the most remote regions ([Greenland](/source/Greenland) and [Eastern Balts](/source/Eastern_Balts), 13th century) via the universal body of Christian texts, including the incorporation of [East Slavic peoples](/source/East_Slavs) and Russia into the Orthodox cultural sphere. [Latin](/source/Latin) and [ancient Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek) languages continued to be the primary and best way to communicate and express ideas in [liberal arts education](/source/Liberal_arts_education) and the sciences all over Europe until the early modern period.[22]

## Stone Age

### Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)

Further information: [Paleolithic Europe](/source/Paleolithic_Europe)

#### Oldest fossils, artifacts and sites

Name Abstract Age Location Information Coordinates Dmanisi skull 5 Homo erectus 1.77 Mio Dmanisi "early Homo adult with small brains but large body mass" 41°19′N 44°12′E / 41.317°N 44.200°E / 41.317; 44.200 Lézignan-la-Cèbe[23] Lithic Assemblage 1.57 Mio Lézignan-la-Cébe a 30 pebble culture, lithic tools, argon dated 43°29′N 3°26′E / 43.483°N 3.433°E / 43.483; 3.433 Kozarnika limestone cave 1.5 Mio Kozarnika Human molar tooth (considered to be the earliest human—Homo erectus/Homo ergaster—traces discovered in Europe outside Caucasian region), lower palaeolithic assemblages that belong to a core-and-flake non-Acheulian industry, and incised bones that may be the earliest example of human symbolic behaviour.[24][25] 43°39′N 22°42′E / 43.650°N 22.700°E / 43.650; 22.700 Orce Man[26] tooth and tools 1.4 Mio Venta Micena most finds are stone tools 37°43′N 2°28′W / 37.717°N 2.467°W / 37.717; -2.467 Pleistocene mandible[27] Homo antecessor 1.3 Mio Atapuerca Mountains 42°22′N 3°30′W / 42.367°N 3.500°W / 42.367; -3.500 Mauer 1 Homo heidelbergensis 600,000 Mauer earliest Homo heidelbergensis 49°20′N 8°47′E / 49.333°N 8.783°E / 49.333; 8.783 Boxgrove Man Homo heidelbergensis 500,000 Boxgrove 50°51′N 0°42′W / 50.850°N 0.700°W / 50.850; -0.700 Tautavel Man Homo erectus 450,000 Tautavel proposed subspecies 42°48′N 2°45′E / 42.800°N 2.750°E / 42.800; 2.750 Swanscombe Man Homo heidelbergensis 400,000 Swanscombe north-western habitat maximum 51°26′N 0°17′E / 51.433°N 0.283°E / 51.433; 0.283 Schöningen Spears[28] wooden javelins 380,000 Schoningen 1995 active hunt 42°48′N 2°45′E / 42.800°N 2.750°E / 42.800; 2.750

#### Lower and Middle Paleolithic human presence

Acheulean hand axes and hand axe-like implements, flint, 800,000–300,000 BC

The climatic record of the Paleolithic is characterised by the [Pleistocene](/source/Pleistocene) pattern of cyclic warmer and colder periods, including eight major cycles and numerous shorter episodes. The northern maximum of human occupation fluctuated in response to the changing conditions, and successful settlement required constant adaption capabilities and problem solving. Most of Scandinavia, the [North European Plain](/source/North_European_Plain) and Russia remained off limits for occupation during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic.[29] Populations were sparse and small throughout the Palaeolithic.[30]

Associated evidence, such as stone tools, artifacts and settlement localities, numbers more than fossilised remains of the hominin occupants themselves. The simplest pebble tools with a few flakes struck off to create an edge were found in [Dmanisi](/source/Dmanisi), Georgia, and in Spain at sites in the [Guadix-Baza](/source/Hoya_of_Guadix) basin and near [Atapuerca](/source/Atapuerca_Mountains). The [Oldowan](/source/Oldowan) tool discoveries, called *Mode 1-type assemblages* are gradually replaced by a more complex tradition that included a range of hand axes and flake tools, the [Acheulean](/source/Acheulean), *Mode 2-type assemblages*. Both types of tool sets are attributed to *[Homo erectus](/source/Homo_erectus)*, the earliest and for a very long time the only human in Europe and more likely to be found in the southern part of the continent. However, the Acheulean fossil record also links to the emergence of *[Homo heidelbergensis](/source/Homo_heidelbergensis)*, particularly its specific [lithic](/source/Lithic_technology) tools and handaxes. The presence of *Homo heidelbergensis* is documented since 600,000 BC in numerous sites in Germany, Great Britain and northern France.[31]

Although [palaeoanthropologists](/source/Paleoanthropology) generally agree that *Homo erectus* and *Homo heidelbergensis* immigrated to Europe, debates remain about migration routes and the chronology.[32]

The fact that *[Homo neanderthalensis](/source/Homo_neanderthalensis)* is found only in a contiguous range in [Eurasia](/source/Eurasia) and the general acceptance of the [Out of Africa](/source/Out_of_Africa_I) hypothesis both suggest that the species has evolved locally. Again, consensus prevails on the matter, but widely debated are origin and evolution patterns.[33][34][35][36]

The Neanderthal fossil record ranges from Western Europe to the [Altai Mountains](/source/Altai_Mountains) in Central Asia and the [Ural Mountains](/source/Ural_Mountains) in the North to the [Levant](/source/Levant) in the South. Unlike its predecessors, they were biologically and culturally adapted to survival in cold environments and successfully extended their range to the glacial environments of Central Europe and the Russian plains. The great number and, in some cases, exceptional state of preservation of Neanderthal fossils and cultural [assemblages](/source/Assemblage_(archaeology)) enables researchers to provide a detailed and accurate data on behaviour and culture.[37][9] Neanderthals are associated with the [Mousterian culture](/source/Mousterian_culture) (*Mode 3*), stone tools that first appeared approximately 160,000 years ago.[38][39]

### Upper Paleolithic

Main articles: [European early modern humans](/source/European_early_modern_humans) and [Paleolithic Europe](/source/Paleolithic_Europe)

[Chauvet Cave](/source/Chauvet_Cave) painting, [Aurignacian culture](/source/Aurignacian_culture), France, c. 30,000 BC

*Homo sapiens* arrived in Europe around 46,000 and 43,000 years ago via the [Levant](/source/Levant) and entered the continent through the [Danubian corridor](/source/Danubian_corridor), as the fossils at the sites of [Bacho Kiro cave](/source/Bacho_Kiro_cave) and [Peștera cu Oase](/source/Pe%C8%99tera_cu_Oase) suggest.[40] With an approximate age of 46,000 years,[41] the *[Homo sapiens](/source/Homo_sapiens)* fossils found in Bacho Kiro cave consist of a pair of fragmented [mandibles](/source/Mandibles) including at least one [molar](/source/Molar_(tooth))[42][43] This site yielded the oldest known ornaments in Europe, [radiocarbon dated](/source/Radiocarbon_dating) to over 43,000 years ago.[44]

The fossils' genetic structure indicates a recent Neanderthal ancestry and the discovery of a fragment of a skull in Israel in 2008 support the notion that humans interbred with Neanderthals in the Levant.[45]

After the slow processes of the previous hundreds of thousands of years, a turbulent period of Neanderthal–*Homo sapiens* coexistence demonstrated that cultural evolution had replaced biological evolution as the primary force of adaptation and change in human societies.[46][47]

Generally small and widely dispersed fossil sites suggest that Neanderthals lived in less numerous and more socially isolated groups than *Homo sapiens*. Tools and [Levallois points](/source/Levallois_technique) are remarkably sophisticated from the outset, but they have a slow rate of variability, and general technological inertia is noticeable during the entire fossil period. Artifacts are of utilitarian nature, and symbolic behavioral traits are undocumented before the arrival of modern humans. The [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian) culture, introduced by modern humans, is characterized by cut [bone](/source/Bone) or [antler](/source/Antler) points, fine flint [blades](/source/Blade_(archaeology)) and bladelets struck from prepared [cores](/source/Lithic_core), rather than using crude [flakes](/source/Lithic_flake). The oldest examples and subsequent widespread tradition of prehistoric art originate from the [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian).[48][49][50][51]

After more than 100,000 years of uniformity, around 45,000 years ago, the Neanderthal fossil record changed abruptly. The Mousterian had quickly become more versatile and was named the [Chatelperronian](/source/Chatelperronian) culture, which signifies the diffusion of Aurignacian elements into Neanderthal culture. Although debated, the fact proved that Neanderthals had, to some extent, adopted the culture of modern *Homo sapiens*.[52] However, the Neanderthal fossil record completely vanished after 40,000 years BC, but genetic studies show mixing may have been common in the prehistoric period, and modern Europeans all have Neanderthal DNA.[53].

[Last Glacial Maximum refugia](/source/Last_Glacial_Maximum_refugia), c. 20,000 years ago

  [Solutrean](/source/Solutrean)

  [Epigravettian](/source/Epigravettian)[54]

Around 32,000 years ago, the [Gravettian culture](/source/Gravettian_culture) appeared in the [Crimean Mountains](/source/Crimean_Mountains) (southern [Ukraine](/source/Ukraine)).[55][56] By 24,000 BC, the [Solutrean](/source/Solutrean) and Gravettian cultures were present in Southwestern Europe. Gravettian technology and culture have been theorised to have come with migrations of people from the Middle East, Anatolia and the Balkans, and might be linked with the transitional cultures mentioned earlier since their techniques have some similarities and are both very different from Aurignacian ones, but this issue is very obscure. The Gravettian also appeared in the [Caucasus](/source/Caucasus) and [Zagros](/source/Zagros) Mountains but soon disappeared from southwestern Europe, with the notable exception of the Mediterranean coasts of Iberia.

The Solutrean culture, extended from northern Spain to southeastern France, includes not only a [stone technology](/source/Stone_technology) but also the first significant development of cave painting and the use of the needle and possibly that of the bow and arrow. The more widespread Gravettian culture is no less advanced, at least in artistic terms: sculpture (mainly *venuses*) is the most outstanding form of creative expression of such peoples.

[Lascaux](/source/Lascaux) cave painting, [Magdalenian](/source/Magdalenian), 15,000 BC

Around 19,000 BC, Europe witnesses the appearance of a new culture, known as [Magdalenian](/source/Magdalenian), possibly rooted in the old Aurignacian one, which soon superseded the Solutrean area and also the Gravettian of Central Europe. However, in Mediterranean Iberia, Italy, the Balkans and Anatolia, [Epigravettian](/source/Epigravettian) cultures continued to evolve locally.

With the Magdalenian culture, the Paleolithic development in Europe reaches its peak and this is reflected in art, owing to previous traditions of paintings and sculpture.

Around 12,500 BC, the [Würm Glacial](/source/W%C3%BCrm_Glacial) Age ended. Slowly, through the following millennia, temperatures and sea levels rose, changing the environment of prehistoric people. Ireland and Great Britain became islands, and Scandinavia became separated from the main part of the European Peninsula. (They had all once been connected by a now-submerged region of the continental shelf known as [Doggerland](/source/Doggerland).) Nevertheless, the Magdalenian culture persisted until 10,000 BC, when it quickly evolved into two *microlith* cultures: [Azilian](/source/Azilian), in Spain and southern France, and [Sauveterrian](/source/Sauveterrian), in northern France and Central Europe. Despite some differences, both cultures shared several traits: the creation of very small stone tools called [microliths](/source/Microlith) and the scarcity of figurative art, which seems to have vanished almost completely, which was replaced by abstract decoration of tools.[57]

In the late phase of the epi-Paleolithic period, the Sauveterrean culture evolved into the so-called [Tardenoisian](/source/Tardenoisian) and strongly influenced its southern neighbour, clearly replacing it in Mediterranean Spain and Portugal. The recession of the glaciers allowed human colonisation in Northern Europe for the first time. The [Maglemosian](/source/Maglemosian) culture, derived from the Sauveterre-Tardenois culture but with a strong personality, colonised Denmark and the nearby regions, including parts of Britain.

		- [Bone flute](/source/Bone_flute), [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian), [Geissenklösterle](/source/Geissenkl%C3%B6sterle) cave, 43,000 BC

		- [Adorant from the Geißenklösterle cave](/source/Adorant_from_the_Gei%C3%9Fenkl%C3%B6sterle_cave), Aurignacian, 42,000 to 40,000 BC

		- [Lion-man](/source/Lion-man), Aurignacian, c. 41,000 to 35,000 BC

		- [Aurignacian](/source/Aurignacian) cave paintings, [Chauvet Cave](/source/Chauvet_Cave), c. 30,000 BC

		- [Venus of Dolní Věstonice](/source/Venus_of_Doln%C3%AD_V%C4%9Bstonice), [Gravettian](/source/Gravettian), c. 29,000 BC

		- [Venus of Laussel](/source/Venus_of_Laussel), Gravettian, c. 23,000 BC

		- [Venus of Brassempouy](/source/Venus_of_Brassempouy), c. 23,000 BC

		- Antler carving, Magdalenian, 15,000 BC

### Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)

Main article: [Mesolithic Europe](/source/Mesolithic_Europe)

Further information: [Balkan Mesolithic](/source/Balkan_Mesolithic), [British Mesolithic](/source/British_Mesolithic), [Irish Mesolithic](/source/Irish_Mesolithic), [Azilian](/source/Azilian), [Fosna–Hensbacka culture](/source/Fosna%E2%80%93Hensbacka_culture), and [Kunda culture](/source/Kunda_culture)

[Thaïs bone](/source/Tha%C3%AFs_Bone), France, [Azilian](/source/Azilian) culture, c. 10,000 BC[58]

A transition period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, the [Balkan Mesolithic](/source/Balkan_Mesolithic) began around 15,000 years ago. In Western Europe, the Early Mesolithic, or [Azilian](/source/Azilian), began about 14,000 years ago, in the [Franco-Cantabrian region](/source/Franco-Cantabrian_region) of northern Spain and southern France. In other parts of Europe, the Mesolithic began by 11,500 years ago (the beginning [Holocene](/source/Holocene)) and ended with the [introduction](/source/Neolithic_Europe) of farming, which, depending on the region, occurred 8,500 to 5,500 years ago.

In areas with limited glacial impact, the term "Epipaleolithic" is sometimes preferred for the period. Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the Last Glacial Period ended had a much more apparent Mesolithic era that lasted millennia. In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands, which had been created by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours that are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. Such conditions delayed the coming of the Neolithic to as late as 5,500 years ago in Northern Europe.

As what [Vere Gordon Childe](/source/Vere_Gordon_Childe) termed the "Neolithic Package" (including agriculture, herding, polished stone axes, timber longhouses and pottery) spread into Europe, the Mesolithic way of life was marginalised and eventually disappeared.[59] Controversy over the means of that dispersal is discussed below in the *Neolithic* section. A "[Ceramic Mesolithic](/source/Ceramic_Mesolithic)" can be distinguished between 7,200 and 5,850 years ago and ranged from Southern to Northern Europe.

		- [Venus of Monruz](/source/Venus_of_Monruz), Switzerland, c. 9000 BC

		- [Shigir Idol](/source/Shigir_Idol), Russia, c. 10,000 BC

		- [Roca dels Moros](/source/Roca_dels_Moros), Spain

		- [Magura Cave](/source/Magura_Cave) drawings, Bulgaria, c. 8,000- 6,000 BC

		- [Pesse canoe](/source/Pesse_canoe), Netherlands, c. 8000 BC

		- [Elk's Head of Huittinen](/source/Elk's_Head_of_Huittinen), Finland, c. 6500 BC

		- [Lepenski Vir](/source/Lepenski_Vir) sculpture, Serbia, c. 7000 BC

		- [Amber](/source/Amber) animal figurine, [Denmark](/source/Nordic_Stone_Age#Mesolithic), c. 12,000 BC

		- [Star Carr pendant](/source/Star_Carr_Pendant), Britain, c. 9000 BC

## Neolithic (New Stone Age)

Main article: [Neolithic Europe](/source/Neolithic_Europe)

Further information: [Old Europe (archaeology)](/source/Old_Europe_(archaeology))

Chronology of agriculture introduction in Europe

The European [Neolithic](/source/Neolithic) is assumed to have arrived from the Near East via [Asia Minor](/source/Asia_Minor), the [Mediterranean](/source/Mediterranean) and the [Caucasus](/source/Caucasus). There has been a long discussion between *migrationists*, who claim that the Near Eastern farmers almost totally displaced the European native hunter-gatherers, and *diffusionists*, who claim that the process was slow enough to have occurred mostly through [cultural transmission](/source/Cultural_transmission). A relationship has been suggested between the spread of agriculture and the diffusion of [Indo-European languages](/source/Indo-European_languages), with several models of migrations trying to establish a relationship, like the [Anatolian hypothesis](/source/Anatolian_hypothesis), which sets the origin of Indo-European agricultural terminology in Anatolia.[60]

### Early Neolithic

[Neolithic longhouses](/source/Neolithic_long_house) appeared in central Europe in connection with the early Neolithic cultures such as the [Linear Pottery culture](/source/Linear_Pottery_culture) or [Cucuteni culture](/source/Cucuteni_culture).

Apparently related with the Anatolian culture of [Hacilar](/source/Hacilar), the Greek region of [Thessaly](/source/Thessalia) was the first place in Europe known to have acquired agriculture, cattle-herding and pottery. The early stages are known as [pre-Sesklo](/source/Pre-Sesklo) culture. The Thessalian Neolithic culture soon evolved into the more coherent [Sesklo culture](/source/Sesklo) (6000 BC), which was the origin of the main branches of Neolithic expansion in Europe. The [Karanovo culture](/source/Karanovo_culture) on the territory of modern day Bulgaria, was another early [Neolithic culture](/source/Neolithic_Europe) (Karanovo I-III ca. 62nd to 55th centuries BC) which was part of the [Danube civilization](/source/Danube_civilization) and it is considered the largest and most important of the Azmak River Valley agrarian settlements.[61] The Karanovo I is considered a continuation of Near Eastern settlement type.[62] The [Starčevo culture](/source/Star%C4%8Devo_culture) is dating to the period between *c.* 6200 and 4500 [BCE](/source/BCE).[63][64] It originates in the spread of the [Neolithic package](/source/Neolithic_package) of peoples and technological innovations including farming and ceramics from [Anatolia](/source/Anatolia). The Starčevo culture marks its spread to the inland Balkan peninsula as the [Cardial ware](/source/Cardial_ware) culture did along the Adriatic coastline. It forms part of the wider [Starčevo–Körös–Criş culture](/source/Star%C4%8Devo%E2%80%93K%C3%B6r%C3%B6s%E2%80%93Cri%C5%9F_culture). Practically all of the [Balkan Peninsula](/source/Balkan_Peninsula) was colonized in the 6th millennium from there. The expansion, reaching the easternmost Tardenoisian outposts of the upper [Tisza](/source/Tisza), gave birth to the [Proto-Linear Pottery](/source/Linear_Pottery_culture) culture, a significant modification of the Balkan Neolithic that was the origin of one of the most important branches of European Neolithic: the [Danubian](/source/Danubian_culture) group of cultures. In parallel, the coasts of the [Adriatic](/source/Adriatic) and of southern Italy witnessed the expansion of another Neolithic current with less clear origins. Settling initially in [Dalmatia](/source/Dalmatia), the bearers of the [Cardium pottery](/source/Cardium_pottery) culture may have come from Thessaly (some of the pre-Sesklo settlements show related traits) or even from Lebanon (Byblos). They were sailors, fishermen and sheep and goat herders, and the archaeological findings show that they mixed with natives in most places. Other early Neolithic cultures can be found in [Ukraine](/source/Ukraine) and Southern Russia, where the Epigravettian locals assimilated cultural influxes from beyond the Caucasus (e.g. the [Dniepr-Donets culture](/source/Dnieper%E2%80%93Donets_culture) and related cultures) and in [Andalusia](/source/Andalusia) (Spain), where the rare Neolithic of [La Almagra Pottery](/source/La_Almagra_Pottery) appeared without known origins very early (c. 7800 BC).

### Middle Neolithic

Main article: [Middle Neolithic](/source/Middle_Neolithic)

This phase, starting 7000 years ago was marked by the consolidation of the Neolithic expansion towards western and northern Europe but also by the rise of new cultures in the Balkans, notably the [Dimini](/source/Dimini) (Thessaly) and related [Vinca](/source/Vin%C4%8Da_culture) (Serbia and Romania) and [Karanovo](/source/Karanovo_culture) cultures (Bulgaria and nearby areas). Meanwhile, the Proto-Linear Pottery culture gave birth to two very dynamic branches: the Western and Eastern [Linear Pottery Cultures](/source/Linear_Pottery_Culture). The western branch expanded quickly, assimilating Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and even large parts of western Ukraine, historical [Moldavia](/source/Moldavia), the lowlands of Romania, and regions of France, Belgium and the Netherlands, all in less than 1000 years. With this expansion came diversification and a number of local Danubian cultures started forming at the end of the 5th millennium. In the Mediterranean, the Cardium pottery fishermen showed no less dynamism and colonised or assimilated all of Italy and the Mediterranean regions of France and Spain. Even in the Atlantic, some groups among the native hunter-gatherers started the slow incorporation of the new technologies. Among them, the most noticeable regions seem to be southwestern Iberia, which was influenced by the Mediterranean but especially by the Andalusian Neolithic, which soon developed the first [Megalithic](/source/Megalithic) burials ([dolmens](/source/Dolmen)), and the area around Denmark ([Ertebölle](/source/Erteb%C3%B8lle) culture), influenced by the Danubian complex.

### Late Neolithic

This period occupied the first half of the 6th millennium BC. The tendencies of the previous period consolidated and so there was a fully-formed Neolithic Europe, with five main cultural regions:

1. [Danubian culture](/source/Danubian_culture): from northern France to western Ukraine. Now split into several local cultures, the most relevant being the [Boian culture](/source/Boian_culture), the [Rössen culture](/source/Culture_of_R%C3%B6ssen) that was pre-eminent in the west, and the [Lengyel culture](/source/Lengyel_culture) of Austria and western Hungary, which would have a major role in later periods.

1. The area of Dimini-Vinca: Thessaly, Macedonia and Serbia but extending its influence to parts of the mid-Danubian basin (Tisza, [Slavonia](/source/Slavonia)) and southern Italy.

1. Mediterranean cultures: from the Adriatic to eastern Spain, including Italy and large portions of France and Switzerland. They were also diversified into several groups.

1. Eastern Europe: basically central and eastern [Ukraine](/source/Ukraine) and parts of southern Russia and [Belarus](/source/Belarus) (Dniepr-Don culture). This area has the earliest evidence for domesticated horses.

1. Atlantic Europe: a mosaic of local cultures, some of them still pre-Neolithic, from Portugal to southern Sweden. In around 5800 BC, western France began to incorporate the Megalithic style of burial.

		- [Sesklo culture](/source/Sesklo_culture), Greece, c. 6000-5300 BC

		- [Karanovo culture](/source/Karanovo_culture), Bulgaria, 6th mill. BC

		- [Karanovo culture](/source/Old_Europe_(archaeology)), Bulgaria, 5th mill. BC

		- [Vinča culture](/source/Vinca_culture) figurine, Serbia, c. 5000 BC

		- [Linear Pottery culture](/source/Linear_Pottery_culture), [Germany](/source/History_of_Germany), 5000 BC

		- [Goseck Circle](/source/Goseck_Circle), Germany, 4900 BC

		- [Dimini](/source/Dimini), walled acropolis, Greece, c. 4800 BC

		- [Gavrinis](/source/Gavrinis) megalithic tomb, [France](/source/Neolithic_France), 4000 BC

		- [Locmariaquer megaliths](/source/Locmariaquer_megaliths), [France](/source/Prehistory_of_France), 4500 BC

		- [Monte d'Accoddi](/source/Monte_d'Accoddi), Sardinia, c. 3500-3000 BC[65]

		- [Menga Dolmen](/source/Menga_Dolmen), [Spain](/source/Neolithic_Iberia), c. 3700 BC

		- [Newgrange](/source/Newgrange), [Ireland](/source/Prehistoric_Ireland), 3200 BC

		- [Hamangia culture](/source/Hamangia_culture), [Bulgaria](/source/History_of_Bulgaria)

		- [Tisza culture](/source/Tisza_culture), [Hungary](/source/History_of_Hungary_before_the_Hungarian_Conquest), 5300 BC[66]

		- [Bonu Ighinu culture](/source/Bonu_Ighinu_culture), Sardinia, 4500 BC

		- [Okolište](/source/Okoli%C5%A1te_(Neolithic_site)), Bosnia and Herzegovina, c. 5000 BC

## Chalcolithic (Copper Age)

Main article: [Chalcolithic Europe](/source/Chalcolithic_Europe)

Further information: [Old Europe (archaeology)](/source/Old_Europe_(archaeology))

[Varna culture](/source/Varna_culture) elite burial, Bulgaria, 4500 BC

Also known as "Copper Age", the European [Chalcolithic](/source/Chalcolithic) was a time of significant changes, the first of which was the invention of [copper metallurgy](/source/Metallurgy_during_the_Copper_Age_in_Europe). This is first attested in the [Vinca culture](/source/Vin%C4%8Da_culture) in the 6th millennium BC. The Balkans became a major centre for copper extraction and metallurgical production in the 5th millennium BC. Copper artefacts were traded across the region, eventually reaching eastwards across the steppes of eastern Europe as far as the [Khavalynsk culture](/source/Khvalynsk_culture). The 5th millennium BC also saw the appearance of economic stratification and the rise of ruling elites in the Balkan region, most notably in the [Varna culture](/source/Varna_culture) (c. 4500 BC) in Bulgaria, which developed the first known gold metallurgy in the world.

The economy of the Chalcolithic was no longer that of peasant communities and tribes, since some materials began to be produced in specific locations and distributed to wide regions. [Mining](/source/Mining) of metal and stone was particularly developed in some areas, along with the processing of those materials into valuable goods.[67]

**Early Chalcolithic, 5500-4000 BC**

Prehistoric migrations c. 5000–4000 BC. [Comb Ware](/source/Comb_Ceramic_culture), [Khvalynsk](/source/Khvalynsk_culture), Dnieper–Donets and Sredny Stog cultures were found to have a significant [EHG](/source/Eastern_hunter-gatherer) component.

From 5500 BC onwards, Eastern Europe was apparently infiltrated by people originating from beyond the Volga, creating a plural complex known as [Sredny Stog culture](/source/Sredny_Stog_culture), which substituted the previous [Dnieper-Donets](/source/Dnieper%E2%80%93Donets_culture) culture in Ukraine, pushing the natives to migrate northwest to the Baltic and to Denmark, where they mixed with the natives ([TRBK](/source/Funnelbeaker_culture) A and C). The emergence of the Sredny Stog culture may be correlated with the expansion of Indo-European languages, according to the [Kurgan hypothesis](/source/Kurgan_hypothesis). Near the end of the period, around 4000 BC, another westward migration of supposed Indo-European speakers left many traces in the lower Danube area (culture of [Cernavodă](/source/Cernavod%C4%83_culture) I) in what seems to have been an invasion.[68]

[Solnitsata](/source/Solnitsata) ("The Saltworks"), a prehistoric town located in present-day [Bulgaria](/source/Bulgaria), is believed by archaeologists to be the oldest town in [Europe](/source/Europe) - a fortified stone settlement - citadelle, inner and outer city with pottery production site and the site of a [salt](/source/Salt) production facility approximately six millennia ago;[69] it flourished ca 4700–4200 BC.[70][71][72]

Meanwhile, the Danubian [Lengyel culture](/source/Lengyel_culture) absorbed its northern neighbours in the Czech Republic and Poland for some centuries, only to recede in the second half of the period. The hierarchical model of the Varna culture seems to have been replicated later in the Tiszan region with the [Bodrogkeresztur culture](/source/Bodrogkereszt%C3%BAr_culture). Labour specialisation, economic stratification and possibly the risk of invasion may have been the reasons behind this development.

In the western Danubian region (the Rhine and Seine basins), the [Michelsberg culture](/source/Michelsberg_culture) displaced its predecessor, the [Rössen culture](/source/R%C3%B6ssen_culture). Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean basin, several cultures (most notably the [Chasséen culture](/source/Chass%C3%A9en_culture) in southeastern France and the [Lagozza culture](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chassey-Lagozza-Cortaillod-Kultur) in northern Italy) converged into a functional union of which the most significant characteristic was the distribution network of honey-coloured [silex](/source/Flint). Despite the unity, the signs of conflicts are clear, as many skeletons show violent injuries. This was the time and area of [Ötzi](/source/%C3%96tzi), the famous man found in the Alps.

**Middle Chalcolithic, 4000-3000 BC**

[Cucuteni](/source/Cucuteni-Trypillia) figurine, Romania, 4000 BC

This period extends through the first half of the 4th millennium BC. During this period the [Cucuteni-Trypillia](/source/Cucuteni%E2%80%93Trypillia_culture) culture in Ukraine experienced a massive expansion, building the largest settlements in the world at the time, described as the first cities in the world by some scholars. The earliest known evidence for wheeled vehicles, in the form of wheeled models, also comes from Cucuteni-Trypillia sites, dated to c. 3900 BC.

In the Danubian region the powerful [Baden culture](/source/Baden_culture) emerged circa 3500 BC, extending more or less across the region of [Austria-Hungary](/source/Austria-Hungary). The rest of the Balkans was profoundly restructured after the invasions of the previous period, with the [Coțofeni culture](/source/Co%C8%9Bofeni_culture) in the central Balkans showing pronounced eastern (or presumably Indo-European) traits. The new [Ezero culture](/source/Ezero_culture) in Bulgaria (3300 BC), shows the first evidence of pseudo-bronze (or [arsenical](/source/Arsenic) bronze), as does the Baden culture and the [Cycladic culture](/source/Cycladic_culture) (in the Aegean) after 2800 BC.[73]

In Eastern Europe, the [Yamnaya culture](/source/Yamna_culture) took over southern Russia and Ukraine. In [western Europe](/source/Western_world), the only sign of unity came from the Megalithic [super-culture](/source/Super-culture), which extended from southern Sweden to southern Spain, including large parts of southern Germany as well. However, the Mediterranean and Danubian groupings of the previous period appear to have fragmented into many smaller pieces, some of them apparently backward in technological matters. From 2800 BC, the Danubian [Seine-Oise-Marne culture](/source/Seine-Oise-Marne_culture) pushed directly or indirectly southwards and destroyed most of the rich Megalithic culture of western France. After 2600 BC, several phenomena prefigured the changes of the upcoming period:[74]

Large towns with stone walls appeared in two different areas of the Iberian Peninsula: one in the Portuguese region of [Estremadura](/source/Estremadura_Province_(historical)) (culture of [Vila Nova de Sao Pedro](/source/Vila_Nova_de_Sao_Pedro)), strongly embedded in the Atlantic Megalithic culture; the other near [Almería](/source/Almer%C3%ADa) (southeastern Spain), centred around the large town of [Los Millares](/source/Los_Millares), of Mediterranean character, probably affected by eastern cultural influxes (*[tholoi](/source/Tholoi)*). Despite the many differences, both civilisations seem to have had friendly contact and to have maintained productive exchanges. In the area of [Dordogne](/source/Dordogne) ([Aquitaine](/source/Aquitaine), France), a new unexpected culture of [bowmen](/source/Archery) appears: the [Artenac](/source/Artenac) culture soon takes control of western and even northern France and Belgium. In Poland and nearby regions, the putative Indo-Europeans reorganised and reconsolidated with the culture of the Globular Amphoras. Nevertheless, the influence of many centuries in direct contact with the still-powerful Danubian peoples had greatly modified their culture.[73][75]

		- [Varna culture](/source/Varna_culture), Bulgaria, 4500 BC

		- [Cucuteni-Trypillia](/source/Cucuteni-Trypillia) pottery, Ukraine

		- [Maidanetske](/source/Maidanetske), Ukraine, c. 3800 BC

		- [Bodrogkeresztúr culture](/source/Bodrogkereszt%C3%BAr_culture), Hungary, 4000-3600 BC

		- [Ħaġar Qim](/source/%C4%A6a%C4%A1ar_Qim) temple, [Malta](/source/History_of_Malta#Temple_period_(3850_BC–2350_BC)), 3600-3200 BC

		- [Ħal Saflieni](/source/%C4%A6al_Saflieni_Hypogeum) figurine, Malta, 3300–3000 BC

		- [Dimini culture](/source/Dimini), Greece, c. 4000 BC

		- [Baden culture](/source/Baden_culture), Hungary, 3300 BC

		- [Funnelbeaker culture](/source/Funnelbeaker_culture), Denmark, 3200 BC

		- [Ljubljana Wheel](/source/Ljubljana_Marshes_Wheel), [Slovenia](/source/Prehistoric_pile_dwellings_around_the_Alps), 3150 BC

		- [Los Millares](/source/Los_Millares), Spain, c. 3100 BC

		- [Yamnaya](/source/Yamnaya_culture) stone stele, Ukraine, c. 2600 BC

		- [Bell Beaker culture](/source/Bell_Beaker_culture) burial, Spain, c. 2500 BC

		- [Stonehenge](/source/Stonehenge), [Britain](/source/Bell_Beaker_culture#Britain), 2500 BC

		- [Silbury Hill](/source/Silbury_Hill), Britain, c. 2400 BC

		- [Gold lunula](/source/Bell_Beaker_culture#Ireland), Ireland, c. 2400 BC

## Bronze Age

Main article: [Bronze Age Europe](/source/Bronze_Age_Europe)

[Cycladic culture](/source/Cycladic_culture) marble figurine, 2700 BC

Use of Bronze begins in the [Aegean](/source/Aegean_civilization) around 3200 BC. From 2500 BC the new [Catacomb culture](/source/Catacomb_culture), whose origins were obscure but were also Indo-Europeans, displaced the Yamna peoples in the regions north and east of the Black Sea, confining them to their original area east of the Volga. Around 2400 BC, the [Corded Ware culture](/source/Corded_Ware_culture) replaced their predecessors and expanded to Danubian and Nordic areas of western Germany. One related branch invaded Denmark and southern Sweden ([Scandinavian Single Grave culture](/source/Corded_Ware_culture#Single_Grave_culture)), and the mid-Danubian basin, though showing more continuity, had clear traits of new Indo-European elites ([Vučedol culture](/source/Vu%C4%8Dedol_culture)). Simultaneously, in the West, the Artenac peoples reached Belgium. With the partial exception of Vučedol, the Danubian cultures, which had been so buoyant just a few centuries ago, were wiped off the map of Europe. The rest of the period was the story of a mysterious phenomenon: the [Beaker people](/source/Beaker_people), which seemed to be of a mercantile character and to have preferred being buried according to a very specific, almost invariable, ritual. Nevertheless, out of their original area of western Central Europe, they appeared only within local cultures and so they never invaded and assimilated but went to live among those peoples and kept their way of life, which is why they are believed to be merchants.

The rest of Europe remained mostly unchanged and apparently peaceful. In 2300 BC, the first Beaker Pottery appeared in Bohemia and expanded in many directions but particularly westward, along the Rhone and the seas, reaching the culture of Vila Nova (Portugal) and Catalonia (Spain) as their limits. Simultaneously but unrelatedly, in 2200 BC in the Aegean region, the [Cycladic](/source/Cycladic) culture decayed and was substituted by the new palatine phase of the [Minoan](/source/Minoan_civilization) culture of [Crete](/source/Crete).

The second phase of Beaker Pottery, from 2100 BC onwards, is marked by the displacement of the centre of the phenomenon to Portugal, within the culture of Vila Nova. The new centre's influence reached to all of southern and western France but was absent in southern and western Iberia, with the notable exception of Los Millares. After 1900 BC, the centre of the Beaker Pottery returned to Bohemia, and in Iberia, a decentralisation of the phenomenon occurred, with centres in Portugal but also in Los Millares and [Ciempozuelos](/source/Ciempozuelos).

[Nebra sky disk](/source/Nebra_sky_disk), [Germany](/source/Unetice_culture), 1800 BC

Though the use of [bronze](/source/Bronze) started much earlier in the Aegean area (c. 3.200 BC), c. 2300 BC can be considered typical for the start of the Bronze Age in Europe in general.

- c. 2300 BC, the Central European cultures of [Unetice](/source/Unetice_culture), [Adlerberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adlerberg_group&action=edit&redlink=1), [Straubing](/source/Straubing_culture) and pre-[Lausitz](/source/Lusatian_culture) started working bronze, a technique that reached them through the Balkans and Danube.

- c. 1800 BC, the culture of [Los Millares](/source/Los_Millares), in Southwestern Spain, was substituted by that of [El Argar](/source/El_Argar), fully of the Bronze Age, which may well have been a centralised state.

- c. 1700 BC is considered a reasonable date to place the start of [Mycenaean Greece](/source/Mycenaean_Greece), after centuries of infiltration of Indo-European Greeks of an unknown origin.

- c. 1600 BC, most of these Central European cultures were unified in the powerful [Tumulus culture](/source/Tumulus_culture). Simultaneously but unrelatedly, the culture of [El Argar](/source/El_Argar) started Phase B, which was characterised by a detectable Aegean influence (*[pithoi](/source/Pithos)* burials). About then, it is believed that [Minoan Crete](/source/Minoan_Crete) fell under the rule of the [Mycenaean Greeks](/source/Mycenaean_Greeks).

- Around 1300 BC, the Indo-European cultures of Central Europe, such as [Celts](/source/Celts), [Italics](/source/Italics) and certainly [Illyrians](/source/Illyrians), changed the cultural phase conforming to the expansionist [Urnfield](/source/Urnfield) culture, starting a quick expansion that brought them to occupy most of the Balkans, Asia Minor, where they destroyed the [Hittite Empire](/source/Hittite_Empire) (conquering the secret of [iron](/source/Iron) [smelting](/source/Smelting)), northeastern Italy, parts of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, northeastern Spain and southwestern England.

Derivations of the sudden expansion were the [Sea Peoples](/source/Sea_Peoples), who attacked Egypt unsuccessfully for some time, including the [Philistines](/source/Philistines) ([Pelasgians](/source/Pelasgians)?) and the [Dorians](/source/Dorians), most likely Hellenised members of the group that ended invading Greek itself and destroying the might of [Mycene](/source/Mycene) and later [Troy](/source/Troy).

Simultaneously, around then, the culture of [Vila Nova de Sao Pedro](/source/Vila_Nova_de_Sao_Pedro), which lasted 1300 years in its urban form, vanishes into a less spectacular one but finally with bronze. The centre of gravity of the Atlantic cultures (the [Atlantic Bronze Age](/source/Atlantic_Bronze_Age) complex) was now displaced towards Great Britain. Also about then, the [Villanovan culture](/source/Villanovan_culture), the possible precursor of the [Etruscan civilisation](/source/Etruscan_civilisation), appeared in central Italy, possibly with an Aegean origin.

		- [Minoan](/source/Minoan_civilization) palace at [Knossos](/source/Knossos), Crete, c. 1700 BC

		- [Mycenaean](/source/Mycenaean_Greece) diadem, Greece, c. 1600 BC

		- [Treasury of Atreus](/source/Treasury_of_Atreus), Greece, c. 1300 BC

		- [Bush Barrow](/source/Bush_Barrow), [Britain](/source/Bronze_Age_Britain), 1900 BC

		- [Trundholm Sun Chariot](/source/Trundholm_sun_chariot), [Denmark](/source/Nordic_Bronze_Age), 1500 BC

		- [Argaric culture](/source/Argaric_culture) gold diadem, Spain, 1600 BC

		- [Nuraghe Santu Antine](/source/Nuraghe_Santu_Antine) in [Torralba](/source/Torralba%2C_Sardinia), [Sardinia](/source/Sardinia), [Italy](/source/Italy), c. 1600 BC

		- [Nuragic](/source/Nuragic_civilization) ship model, Sardinia, 1000 BC

		- [Valchitran treasure](/source/Valchitran_treasure), Bulgaria, c. 1300 BC

		- [Sintashta culture](/source/Sintashta_culture) chariot, Russia, c. 2000 BC

		- [Terramare culture](/source/Terramare_culture), Italy, 1650–1150 BC

		- [Bronze swords](/source/Urnfield_culture#Tools_and_weapons), [Switzerland](/source/Bronze_Age_Switzerland), 1000 BC

		- [Berlin Gold Hat](/source/Urnfield_culture#Golden_hats), Germany, c. 1000 BC

		- [Bronze cuirasses](/source/Prehistory_of_France#The_Bronze_Age), France, c. 900 BC

		- [Urnfield culture](/source/Urnfield_culture), Germany, c. 1100 BC

		- [Bronze chariot wheel](/source/Urnfield_culture#Chariots_and_wagons), Romania, c. 13th century BC

		- Ruins of [La Bastita de Totana](/source/Argaric_culture), Spain, c. 1600 BC

## Iron Age

Main article: [Iron Age Europe](/source/Iron_Age_Europe)

Further information: [Hallstatt culture](/source/Hallstatt_culture), [La Tène culture](/source/La_T%C3%A8ne_culture), and [Archaeology of Northern Europe](/source/Archaeology_of_Northern_Europe)

Though the use of [iron](/source/Iron) was known to the Aegean peoples about 1100 BC, it failed to reach Central Europe before 800 BC, when it gave way to the [Hallstatt culture](/source/Hallstatt_culture), an Iron Age evolution of the [Urnfield culture](/source/Urnfield_culture).

Around then, the [Phoenicians](/source/Phoenicians), benefitting from the disappearance of the Greek maritime power ([Greek Dark Ages](/source/Greek_Dark_Ages)) founded their first colony at the entrance of the Atlantic Ocean, in Gadir (modern [Cádiz](/source/C%C3%A1diz)), most likely as a merchant outpost to convey the many mineral resources of Iberia and the British Isles.

Nevertheless, from the 7th century BC onwards, the Greeks recovered their power and started their own colonial expansion, founding Massalia (modern [Marseille](/source/Marseille)) and the Iberian outpost of Emporion (modern [Empúries](/source/Emp%C3%BAries)). That occurred only after the [Iberians](/source/Iberians) could reconquer [Catalonia](/source/Catalonia) and the [Ebro](/source/Ebro) valley from the Celts, separating physically the Iberian Celts from their continental neighbours.

The second phase of the European Iron Age was defined particularly by the Celtic [La Tène culture](/source/La_T%C3%A8ne_culture), which started around 400 BC, followed by a large expansion of them into the Balkans, the British Isles, where they assimilated [druidism](/source/Druidism), and other regions of France and Italy.

The decline of Celtic power under the expansive pressure of [Germanic tribes](/source/Germanic_tribes) (originally from [Scandinavia](/source/Scandinavia) and [Lower Germany](/source/Lower_Germany)) and the forming of the Roman Empire during the 1st century BC was also that of the end of prehistory, properly speaking; though many regions of Europe remained illiterate and therefore out of reach of written history for many centuries, the boundary must be placed somewhere, and that date, near the start of the calendar, seems to be quite convenient. The remaining is regional prehistory, or, in most cases, [protohistory](/source/Protohistory), but no longer European prehistory, as a whole.

		- [Protogeometric](/source/Protogeometric_style) amphora, Greece, c. 975–950 BC

		- [Villanovan culture](/source/Villanovan_culture) warrior burial, [Italy](/source/Prehistoric_Italy#Iron_Age), 730 BC

		- [Hallstatt culture](/source/Hallstatt_culture) armour, Austria, 7th century BC

		- [Celtic](/source/Celts) [Hochdorf Grave](/source/Hochdorf_Chieftain's_Grave), [Germany](/source/History_of_Germany#Iron_Age), 530 BC

		- [Vix palace](/source/Vix_Grave), Hallstatt culture, [France](/source/Prehistory_of_France#The_Iron_Age), 500 BC

		- [Panagyurishte Treasure](/source/Panagyurishte_Treasure), Bulgaria, 400–300 BC

		- [Thracian](/source/Thracian) tomb, [Bulgaria](/source/Thracian_Tomb_of_Sveshtari), 3rd century BC

		- [Scythian](/source/Scythians) gold pectoral, Ukraine, 4th century BC

		- [Geto-Dacian](/source/Helmet_of_Co%C8%9Bofene%C8%99ti) gold helmet, Romania, c. 400 BC

		- [Battersea Shield](/source/Battersea_Shield), [Britain](/source/British_Iron_Age), c. 350–50 BC

		- [Broch of Mousa](/source/Broch), [Scotland](/source/Prehistoric_Scotland#Iron_Age), c. 300-100 BC

		- [Lady of Elche](/source/Lady_of_Elche), [Spain](/source/Prehistoric_Iberia#Iron_Age), 4th century BC

		- Celtic [oppidum](/source/Oppidum) of [Manching](/source/Oppidum_of_Manching), Germany, 2nd century BC

		- [Broighter gold boat](/source/Broighter_Gold), [Ireland](/source/Prehistoric_Ireland#Iron_Age_(500_BC–AD_400)), c. 100 BC

		- Chariot fitting, [La Tène culture](/source/La_T%C3%A8ne_culture), France

		- [Dejbjerg wagon](/source/Dejbjerg_wagon), [Denmark](/source/Pre-Roman_Iron_Age), 1st century BC

## Genetic history

Main article: [Genetic history of Europe](/source/Genetic_history_of_Europe)

[Indo-European migrations](/source/Indo-European_migrations) spread [Yamnaya](/source/Yamnaya_culture) Steppe pastoralist ancestry and [Indo-European languages](/source/Indo-European_languages) across large parts of Eurasia.[76]

The genetic history of Europe has been inferred by observing the patterns of genetic diversity across the continent and in the surrounding areas. Use has been made of both classical genetics and molecular genetics.[77][78] Analysis of the DNA of the modern population of Europe has mainly been used but use has also been made of ancient DNA.

This analysis has shown that modern man entered Europe from the Near East before the Last Glacial Maximum but retreated to refuges in southern Europe in this cold period. Subsequently, people spread out over the whole continent, with subsequent limited migration from the Near East and Asia.[79]

According to a study in 2017, the early farmers belonged predominantly to the paternal [Haplogroup G-M201](/source/Haplogroup_G-M201).[80] The maternal haplogroup [N1a](/source/Haplogroup_N_(mtDNA)) was also frequent in the farmers.[81]

Evidence from genome analysis of ancient human remains suggests that the modern native populations of Europe largely descend from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic [hunter-gatherers](/source/Hunter-gatherer), derivative of the Cro-Magnon population of Europe, [Early European Farmers](/source/Early_European_Farmers) (EEF) introduced to Europe during the [Neolithic Revolution](/source/Neolithic_Revolution), and [Ancient North Eurasians](/source/Ancient_North_Eurasians) which expanded to Europe in the context of the [Indo-European expansion](/source/Indo-European_expansion).[82] The Early European Farmers migrated from Anatolia to the Balkans in large numbers during the 7th millennium BC.[83] During the [Chalcolithic](/source/Chalcolithic) and early [Bronze Age](/source/Bronze_Age), the EEF-derived cultures of Europe were overwhelmed by successive invasions of [Western Steppe Herders](/source/Western_Steppe_Herders) (WSHs) from the [Pontic–Caspian steppe](/source/Pontic%E2%80%93Caspian_steppe), who carried about 60% [Eastern Hunter-Gatherer](/source/Eastern_Hunter-Gatherer) (EHG) and 40% [Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer](/source/Caucasus_Hunter-Gatherer) (CHG) admixture. These invasions led to EEF [paternal](/source/Paternal) DNA lineages in Europe being almost entirely replaced with EHG/WSH paternal DNA (mainly [R1b](/source/Haplogroup_R1b) and [R1a](/source/Haplogroup_R1a)). EEF [maternal](/source/Maternal) DNA (mainly haplogroup N) also declined, being supplanted by steppe lineages,[84][85] suggesting the migrations involved both males and females from the steppe. EEF mtDNA, however, remained frequent, suggesting admixture between WSH males and EEF females.[86][87]

A 2025 study conducted by scientists from the [University of Ferrara](/source/University_of_Ferrara) had found that many of the prehistoric Europeans, including genetic remains from the Stonehenge inhabitants, retained dark skin of their African ancestors until the [Bronze](/source/Bronze_Age) and [Iron Ages](/source/Iron_Age). The analysis suggested that lighter skin had evolved in Europe more sporadically than conventionally believed in academic scholarship.[88][89] The study had analysed 348 samples pooled from human remains across the British Isles, mainland Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Middle East with a chronological range extending from 45,000 to 1,700 years ago.[88]

## Linguistic history

Main articles: [Paleo-European languages](/source/Paleo-European_languages) and [Pre-Indo-European languages](/source/Pre-Indo-European_languages)

The written linguistic record in Europe first begins with the [Mycenaean](/source/Mycenaean_Greece) record of [early Greek](/source/Mycenaean_Greek) in the Late Bronze Age. Unattested languages spoken in Europe in the Bronze and Iron Ages are the object of reconstruction in [historical linguistics](/source/Historical_linguistics), in the case of Europe predominantly [Indo-European linguistics](/source/Indo-European_linguistics).

Indo-European is assumed to have spread from the [Pontic steppe](/source/Pontic_steppe) at the very beginning of the Bronze Age, reaching Western Europe contemporary with the [Beaker culture](/source/Beaker_culture), after about 5,000 years ago.

Various pre-Indo-European substrates have been postulated, but remain speculative; the "[Pelasgian](/source/Pelasgian)" and "[Tyrsenian](/source/Tyrsenian_languages)" substrates of the Mediterranean world, an "[Old European](/source/Old_European_hydronymy)" (which may itself have been an early form of Indo-European), a "[Vasconic](/source/Vasconic_substratum_hypothesis)" substrate ancestral to the modern [Basque language](/source/Basque_language),[90] or a more widespread presence of early [Finno-Ugric languages](/source/Finno-Ugric_languages) in northern Europe.[91] An early presence of Indo-European throughout Europe has also been suggested ("[Paleolithic continuity theory](/source/Paleolithic_continuity_theory)").[92]

[Donald Ringe](/source/Donald_Ringe) emphasizes the "great linguistic diversity" which would generally have been predominant in any area inhabited by small-scale, tribal pre-state societies.[93]

## See also

- [Atlantic Europe](/source/Atlantic_Europe)

- [European megalithic culture](/source/European_megalithic_culture)

- [Mediterranean Europe](/source/Mediterranean_Europe)

- [Prehistoric Britain](/source/Prehistoric_Britain)

- [Prehistoric Cyprus](/source/Prehistoric_Cyprus)

- [Prehistoric France](/source/Prehistoric_France)

- [Prehistoric Georgia](/source/Prehistoric_Georgia)

- [Prehistoric Hungary](/source/Pannonian_basin_before_Hungary)

- [Prehistoric Iberia](/source/Prehistoric_Iberia)

- [Prehistoric Ireland](/source/Prehistoric_Ireland)

- [Prehistoric Italy](/source/Prehistoric_Italy)

- [Prehistoric Romania](/source/Prehistoric_Romania)

- [Prehistoric Scotland](/source/Prehistoric_Scotland)

- [Prehistoric Transylvania](/source/Prehistoric_Transylvania)

- [Prehistory of Brittany](/source/Prehistory_of_Brittany)

- [Prehistory of Poland (until 966)](/source/Prehistory_of_Poland_(until_966))

## References

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1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Lammerse, Vivian (February 10, 2022). ["Onze voorouders arriveerden veel eerder in Europa dan gedacht - en dat verandert alles"](https://scientias.nl/onze-voorouders-arriveerden-veel-eerder-in-europa-dan-gedacht-en-dat-verandert-alles/). *Scientias.nl*. Retrieved May 25, 2026.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Neanderthals' Last Stand Is Traced"](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/science/14neanderthal.html?ex=1315800000&en=ca90a9bfe57071f2&ei=5089&_r=0). *The New York Times*. September 13, 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["Fossil Teeth Put Humans in Europe Earlier Than Thought"](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/science/fossil-teeth-put-humans-in-europe-earlier-than-thought.html?scp=1&sq=kents%20cavern&st=cse). *The New York Times*. 2 November 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["DNA Deciphers Roots of Modern Europeans"](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/science/dna-deciphers-roots-of-modern-europeans.html?_r=1). *The New York Times*. June 10, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Rusu, Aurelian I. (January 2011). ["Lepenski Vir – Schela Cladovei culture's chronology and its interpretation"](https://www.academia.edu/1558753). *Brukenthal. Acta Musei*. Retrieved December 29, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** ["Archaeological Exhibitions"](http://www.duncancaldwell.com/Site/Prehistory_Shows.html). Duncancaldwell. Retrieved December 29, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** ["Serbian site may have hosted first copper makers"](http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/calendar/articles/20100924). UCL Institute of Archaeology. Retrieved December 29, 2016.

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1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** ["The oldest Copper Metallurgy in the Balkans"](https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/21-1/Jovanovic.pdf) (PDF). Penn Museum. Retrieved December 29, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** ["HISTORY OF METALLURGY"](https://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ab16). HistoryWorld.net. Retrieved December 29, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** Gilman, Antonio; Cazzella, Alberto; Cowgill, George L.; Crumley, Carole L.; Earle, Timothy; Gallay, Alain; Harding, A. F.; Harrison, R. J.; Hicks, Ronald; Kohl, Philip L.; Lewthwaite, James; Schwartz, Charles A.; Shennan, Stephen J.; Sherratt, Andrew; Tosi, Maurizio; Wells, Peter S. (1981). ["The Development of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Europe (and Comments and Reply)"](https://www.academia.edu/3231693). *Current Anthropology*. **22** (1). Academia.edu: 1–23. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1086/202600](https://doi.org/10.1086%2F202600). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [145631324](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:145631324). Retrieved December 29, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** ["The Hittites: Civilization, History & Definition"](http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-hittites-civilization-history-definition.html) (Video & Lesson Transcript). *Study.com*. Retrieved December 29, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** Slomp, Hans (2011). [*Europe, A Political Profile: An American companion to European politics*](https://books.google.com/books?id=V1uzkNq8xfIC&q=Latin+and+ancient+Greek+influence+europe&pg=PA50). ABC-CLIO. p. 50. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-313-39181-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-313-39181-1).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** ["Lithic Assemblage Dated to 1.57 Million Years Found at Lézignan-la-Cébe, Southern France"](https://anthropology.net/2009/12/16/lithic-assemblage-dated-to-1-57-million-years-found-at-lezignan-la-cebe-southern-france/). *Anthropology.net*. 2009-12-17. Retrieved December 30, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-24)** [""Kozarnika" cave"](https://web.archive.org/web/20160915170614/http://vdcci.bg/kiosk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:kozarnika-cave&catid=14:nature&Itemid=127&lang=en). VDCCI BG. Archived from [the original](http://vdcci.bg/kiosk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:kozarnika-cave&catid=14:nature&Itemid=127&lang=en) on September 15, 2016. Retrieved September 5, 2016.

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1. **[^](#cite_ref-28)** Arlette P. Kouwenhoven (May–June 1997). ["World's Oldest Spears"](https://archive.archaeology.org/9705/newsbriefs/spears.html). *Archaeology*. **50** (3). Retrieved December 30, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-29)** ["Paleolithic settlement"](https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Paleolithic-settlement). *Encyclopædia Britannica*. Retrieved December 31, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-30)** French, Jennifer (2021). [*Palaeolithic Europe: A Demographic and Social Prehistory*](https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/archaeology/prehistory/palaeolithic-europe-demographic-and-social-prehistory?format=PB). UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–18. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-108-71006-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-108-71006-0).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-31)** Moncel, Marie-Hélène; Despriée, Jackie; Voinchet, Pierre; Tissoux, Hélène; Moreno, Davinia; Bahain, Jean-Jacques; Courcimault, Gilles; Falguères, Christophe (2013). ["Early Evidence of Acheulean Settlement in Northwestern Europe – La Noira Site, a 700,000 Year-Old Occupation in the Center of France"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3835824). *PLOS ONE*. **8** (11) e75529. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2013PLoSO...875529M](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PLoSO...875529M). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1371/journal.pone.0075529](https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0075529). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [3835824](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3835824). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [24278105](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24278105).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-32)** ["Early Human Evolution: Homo ergaster and erectus"](http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo/homo_2.htm). palomar edu. Retrieved December 31, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-33)** Cookson, Clive (June 27, 2014). ["Palaeontology: How Neanderthals evolved"](https://www.ft.com/content/c8260378-fc36-11e3-98b8-00144feab7de). *Financial Times*. Retrieved October 28, 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-34)** Callaway, Ewen (19 June 2014). "'Pit of bones' catches Neanderthal evolution in the act". *Nature News*. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1038/nature.2014.15430](https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature.2014.15430). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [88427585](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:88427585).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-35)** ["Oldest Ancient-Human DNA Details Dawn of Neandertals"](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oldest-ancient-human-dna-details-dawn-of-neandertals/). *Scientific American*. March 14, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-36)** ["*Homo heidelbergensis*"](https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-heidelbergensis). Smithsonian Institution. 2010-02-14. Retrieved September 26, 2016. Comparison of Neanderthal and modern human DNA suggests that the two lineages diverged from a common ancestor, most likely *Homo heidelbergensis*

1. **[^](#cite_ref-smithsonian_37-0)** Edwards, Owen (March 2010). ["The Skeletons of Shanidar Cave"](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-skeletons-of-shanidar-cave-7028477/?no-ist=&page=1). *Smithsonian*. Retrieved 17 October 2014.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-38)** Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (1999). [*A Dictionary of Archaeology*](https://books.google.com/books?id=8HKDtlPuM2oC&q=mousterian+40%2C000&pg=PA408). Blackwell. p. 408. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-631-17423-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-631-17423-3). Retrieved 1 August 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-39)** ["Homo neanderthalensis"](https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-neanderthalensis). Smithsonian Institution. September 22, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2016. ...The Mousterian stone tool industry of Neanderthals is characterized by…

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Wilford_40-0)** Wilford, John Noble (2 Nov 2011). ["Fossil Teeth Put Humans in Europe Earlier Than Thought"](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/science/fossil-teeth-put-humans-in-europe-earlier-than-thought.html). *New York Times*. Retrieved 2012-04-19.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-41)** Fewlass, Helen; Talamo, Sahra; Wacker, Lukas; Kromer, Bernd; Tuna, Thibaut; Fagault, Yoann; Bard, Edouard; McPherron, Shannon P.; Aldeias, Vera; Maria, Raquel; Martisius, Naomi L.; Paskulin, Lindsay; Rezek, Zeljko; Sinet-Mathiot, Virginie; Sirakova, Svoboda; Smith, Geoffrey M.; Spasov, Rosen; Welker, Frido; Sirakov, Nikolay; Tsanova, Tsenka; Hublin, Jean-Jacques (11 May 2020). "A 14C chronology for the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition at Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria". *Nature Ecology & Evolution*. **4** (6): 794–801. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1038/s41559-020-1136-3](https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41559-020-1136-3). [hdl](/source/Hdl_(identifier)):[11585/770560](https://hdl.handle.net/11585%2F770560). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [32393865](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32393865). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [218593433](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:218593433).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-42)** Sale, Kirkpatrick (2006). [*After Eden: The evolution of human domination*](https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780822339380). Duke University Press. p. [48](https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780822339380/page/48). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-8223-3938-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8223-3938-2). Retrieved 11 November 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-43)** Kuhn, Steven L.; Stiner, Mary C.; Reese, David S.; Güleç, Erksin (19 June 2001). ["Ornaments of the earliest Upper Paleolithic: New insights from the Levant"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34721). *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*. **98** (13): 7641–7646. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2001PNAS...98.7641K](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001PNAS...98.7641K). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1073/pnas.121590798](https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.121590798). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [34721](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC34721). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [11390976](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11390976).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-44)** Milisauskas, Sarunas (1974). [*European Prehistory: A Survey*](https://books.google.com/books?id=gcGSn0eVs2oC&q=bulgaria&pg=PA234). Springer. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4419-6633-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4419-6633-9). Retrieved June 8, 2012. One of the earliest dates for an Aurignacian assemblage is greater than 43,000 BP from Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria ...

1. **[^](#cite_ref-45)** Connor, Steve (2015-01-29). ["Skull discovery proves humans lived side-by-side with Neanderthals"](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/human-skull-discovery-in-israel-proves-humans-lived-sidebyside-with-neanderthals-10008717.html). *[The Independent](/source/The_Independent)*. Retrieved 2025-10-30.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-46)** ["Chapter 5: Hunting & Gathering Societies"](http://www2.fiu.edu/~grenierg/chapter5.htm). Florida International University. Retrieved December 31, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-47)** ["Creativity in human evolution and prehistory"](http://www.u.arizona.edu/~mstiner/pdf/Kuhn_Stiner1998b.pdf) (PDF). Arizona University. Retrieved December 31, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-MellarsArcheology_48-0)** Mellars, P. (2006). "Archeology and the Dispersal of Modern Humans in Europe: Deconstructing the Aurignacian". *Evolutionary Anthropology*. **15** (5): 167–182. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1002/evan.20103](https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fevan.20103). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [85316570](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:85316570).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-49)** ["Homo neanderthalensis Brief Summary"](http://eol.org/pages/4454114/details). EOL. Retrieved September 26, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-50)** Peresani, M; Dallatorre, S; Astuti, P; Dal Colle, M; Ziggiotti, S; Peretto, C (2014). "Symbolic or utilitarian? Juggling interpretations of Neanderthal behavior: new inferences from the study of engraved stone surfaces". *J Anthropol Sci*. **92** (92): 233–55. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.4436/JASS.92007](https://doi.org/10.4436%2FJASS.92007) (inactive 12 July 2025). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [25020018](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25020018).{{[cite journal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_journal)}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_DOI_inactive_as_of_July_2025))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-51)** Milisauskas, Sarunas (2011). [*European Prehistory: A Survey*](https://books.google.com/books?id=gcGSn0eVs2oC&pg=PA234). Springer. p. 74. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4419-6633-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4419-6633-9). Retrieved 8 June 2012. One of the earliest dates for an Aurignacian assemblage is greater than 43,000 BC from Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria ...

1. **[^](#cite_ref-52)** ["Chatelperronian Transition to Upper Paleolithic"](http://archaeology.about.com/od/upperpaleolithic/qt/Chatelperronian-Guide.htm). About.com. Retrieved December 31, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-53)** ["Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry"](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03335-3). Nature. Retrieved November 16, 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-54)** Fu, Q.; Posth, C.; Hajdinjak, M.; et al. (May 2, 2016). ["The genetic history of Ice Age Europe"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4943878). *[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal))*. **534** (7606): 200–205. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2016Natur.534..200F](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Natur.534..200F). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1038/nature17993](https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature17993). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [4943878](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4943878). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [27135931](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27135931).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-orig_55-0)** Prat, Sandrine; Péan, Stéphane C.; Crépin, Laurent; Drucker, Dorothée G.; Puaud, Simon J.; Valladas, Hélène; Lázničková-Galetová, Martina; van der Plicht, Johannes; Yanevich, Alexander (17 June 2011). ["The Oldest Anatomically Modern Humans from Far Southeast Europe: Direct Dating, Culture and Behavior"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117838). *PLOS ONE*. **6** (6) e20834. plosone. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2011PLoSO...620834P](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011PLoSO...620834P). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1371/journal.pone.0020834](https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0020834). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [3117838](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117838). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [21698105](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21698105).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-bbc_56-0)** Carpenter, Jennifer (20 June 2011). ["Early human fossils unearthed in Ukraine"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13846262). BBC. Retrieved 21 June 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-57)** ["Mas d'Azil"](https://web.archive.org/web/20010430150334/http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/paleoexhibit/masdazil.htm). *Logan Museum*. Beloit College. Archived from [the original](http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/paleoexhibit/masdazil.htm#thumbnails) on 30 April 2001.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-58)** ["The Thaïs Bone, France"](https://www3.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-entity?identity=83&idsubentity=1). *UNESCO Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy*. The engraving on the Thaïs bone is a non-decorative notational system of considerable complexity. The cumulative nature of the markings together with their numerical arrangement and various other characteristics strongly suggest that the notational sequence on the main face represents a non-arithmetical record of day-by-day lunar and solar observations undertaken over a time period of as much as 3½ years. The markings appear to record the changing appearance of the moon, and in particular its crescent phases and times of invisibility, and the shape of the overall pattern suggests that the sequence was kept in step with the seasons by observations of the solstices. The latter implies that people in the Azilian period were not only aware of the changing appearance of the moon but also of the changing position of the sun, and capable of synchronizing the two. The markings on the Thaïs bone represent the most complex and elaborate time-factored sequence currently known within the corpus of Palaeolithic mobile art. The artefact demonstrates the existence, within Upper Palaeolithic (Azilian) cultures c. 12,000 years ago, of a system of time reckoning based upon observations of the phase cycle of the moon, with the inclusion of a seasonal time factor provided by observations of the solar solstices.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-59)** Childe 1925

1. **[^](#cite_ref-60)** The supposed autochthony of Hittites, the Indo-Hittite hypothesis and the migration of agricultural "Indo-European" societies were intrinsically linked by Colin Renfrew 2001

1. **[^](#cite_ref-:0_61-0)** Danver, Steven L. (2015). *Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues*. Oxon: Routledge. p. 271. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7656-8222-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7656-8222-2).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-62)** Whittle, Alasdair; Hofmann, Daniela; Bailey, Douglass W. (2008). *Living Well Together? Settlement and Materiality in the Neolithic of South-East and Central Europe*. Oxbow Books. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-78297-481-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-78297-481-9).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Istorijski_atlas_63-0)** Istorijski atlas, Intersistem Kartografija, Beograd, 2010, page 11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChapman2000237_64-0)** [Chapman 2000](#CITEREFChapman2000), p. 237. sfn error: no target: CITEREFChapman2000 ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Harv_and_Sfn_template_errors))

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## External links

Media related to [Prehistory of Europe](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Prehistory_of_Europe) at Wikimedia Commons

Wikivoyage has travel information for ***[Prehistoric Europe](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Europe#Q2995225)***.

- [Europe's oldest prehistoric town unearthed in Bulgaria](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20156681)

- [Hans Slomp (2011). Europe, a Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics. ABC-CLIO. pp. 50–. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-313-39181-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-313-39181-1). Europe, a Political Profile]

- [Neolithic and Chalcolithic Artifacts from the Balkans](https://web.archive.org/web/20070116061308/http://www.worldmuseumofman.org/balkanneolithic1.htm)

- [Central European Neolithic Chronology](https://web.archive.org/web/20070107140155/http://www.comp-archaeology.org/Central_European_Neolithic_Chronology.htm)

- [South East Europe pre-history summary to 700 BC](http://www.eliznik.org.uk/EastEurope/History/history-pre.htm)

- [Prehistoric art of the Pyrenees](https://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/app/eng/artprepy.htm)

Paleolithic sanctuaries:

- [\[1\]](https://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/)

- [\[2\]](https://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/fr/index.html)

v t e Prehistoric Europe Sovereign states Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales States with limited recognition Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria

v t e Prehistoric technology Prehistory Timeline Outline Stone Age Subdivisions New Stone Age Technology history Glossary Tools Farming Neolithic Revolution Founder crops New World crops Ard / plough Celt Digging stick Domestication Goad Irrigation Secondary products Sickle Terracing Food processing (Paleolithic diet) Fire Basket Cooking Earth oven Granaries Grinding slab Ground stone Hearth Aşıklı Höyük Qesem Cave Manos Metate Mortar and pestle Pottery Quern-stone Storage pits Hunting Arrow Boomerang throwing stick Bow and arrow history Nets Spear spear-thrower baton harpoon Schöningen woomera Projectile points Arrowhead Transverse Bare Island Cascade Clovis Cresswell Cumberland Eden Folsom Lamoka Manis Mastodon Plano Systems Game drive system Buffalo jump Toolmaking Earliest toolmaking Oldowan Acheulean Mousterian Aurignacian Clovis culture Cupstone Fire hardening Gravettian culture Hafting Hand axe Grooves Langdale axe industry Levallois technique Lithic core Lithic reduction analysis debitage flake Lithic technology Magdalenian culture Metallurgy Microblade technology Mining Prepared-core technique Solutrean industry Striking platform Tool stone Uniface Yubetsu technique Other tools Adze Awl bone Axe Bannerstone Blade prismatic Bone tool Bow drill Burin Canoe Oar Pesse canoe Chopper tool Cleaver Denticulate tool Fire plough Fire-saw Hammerstone Knife Microlith Quern-stone Racloir Rope Scraper side Stone tool Tally stick Weapons Wheel illustration Architecture Ceremonial Kiva Pyramid Standing stones megalith row Stonehenge Dwellings Neolithic architecture long house British megalith architecture Nordic megalith architecture Burdei Cave Cliff dwelling Dugout Hut Quiggly hole Jacal Longhouse Mudbrick Mehrgarh Pit-house Pueblitos Pueblo Rock shelter Blombos Cave Abri de la Madeleine Sibudu Cave Roundhouse Stilt house Alp pile dwellings Stone roof Wattle and daub Water management Check dam Cistern Flush toilet Reservoir Well Other architecture Archaeological features Broch Burnt mound fulacht fiadh Causewayed enclosure Tor enclosure Circular enclosure Goseck Cursus Henge Thornborough Megalithic architectural elements Midden Oldest extant buildings Timber circle Timber trackway Sweet Track Arts and culture Material goods Baskets Beadwork Beds Chalcolithic Clothing/textiles timeline Cosmetics Glue Hides shoes Ötzi Jewelry amber use Mirrors Pottery Cardium Cord-marked Grooved ware Jōmon Linear Unstan ware Sewing needle Weaving Wine winery wine press Prehistoric art Art of the Upper Paleolithic Art of the Middle Paleolithic Blombos Cave List of Stone Age art Bird stone Cairn Carved stone balls Cave paintings Cup and ring mark Geoglyph Hill figure Golden hats Guardian stones Gwion Gwion rock paintings painting pigment Megalithic art Petroform Petroglyph Petrosomatoglyph Pictogram Rock art Rock cupule Stone carving Sculpture Statue menhir Stone circle list British Isles and Brittany Venus figurine Prehistoric music Evolutionary musicology music archaeology Alligator drum Paleolithic flute Divje Babe flute Gudi Prehistoric religion Evolutionary origin of religion Paleolithic religion Spiritual drug use Burial Burial mounds Bowl barrow Round barrow Mound Builders culture U.S. sites Chamber tomb Cotswold-Severn Cist Dartmoor kistvaens Clava cairn Court cairn Cremation Dolmen Great dolmen Funeral pyre Gallery grave transepted wedge-shaped Grave goods Jar burial Kuyavian long barrows Long barrow unchambered Grønsalen Megalithic tomb Mummy Passage grave Rectangular dolmen Ring cairn Simple dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Unchambered long cairn Other cultural Archaeoastronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Origin of language Prehistoric counting Prehistoric medicine trepanning Prehistoric warfare Symbols symbolism

v t e History of Europe Prehistory Paleolithic Europe Neolithic Europe Chalcolithic Europe Bronze Age Europe Iron Age Europe Classical antiquity Classical Greece Roman Republic Hellenistic period Roman Empire Early Christianity Christianity in late antiquity Crisis of the Third Century Fall of the Western Roman Empire Late antiquity Middle Ages Early Middle Ages Migration Period Christianity in the Middle Ages Christianization Francia Anglo-Saxon England Byzantine Empire Papal States Bulgarian Empire First Second Maritime republics Venice Genoa Pisa Amalfi Viking Age Kievan Rus' Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Majorca) Holy Roman Empire High Middle Ages Republic of Florence Feudalism Crusades Mongol invasion Serbian Empire Late Middle Ages Black Death Hundred Years' War Kalmar Union Modern period Renaissance Printing High Renaissance Early modern Christianity in the modern era Reformation Age of Discovery Scientific Revolution Baroque Grand Duchy of Tuscany Thirty Years' War Absolute monarchy Ottoman Empire Portuguese Empire Spanish Empire Early modern France Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Cossack Hetmanate Swedish Empire Dutch Republic British Empire Habsburg monarchy Russian Empire Age of Enlightenment Great Divergence Industrial Revolution French Revolution Napoleonic Wars Nationalism Revolutions of 1848 World War I Russian Revolution Interwar period World War II Cold War European integration Euro area crisis COVID-19 pandemic 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Related Art of Europe Bibliography of European history Genetic history of Europe History of Christianity History of the Mediterranean region History of the European Union History of Western civilization Maritime history of Europe Military history of Europe Crusading movement

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Prehistoric Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Europe) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Europe?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.