GoKawiil
Tech News
Researchers re-examined carved and modified human skulls found at the 10,000-year-old Göbekli Tepe site in Turkey, previously interpreted as evidence of a ritualistic 'skull cult.' The new analysis concludes that explanation doesn't hold up, though it confirms Neolithic communities there had a notable interest in human skulls for other reasons.
Archaeologists have uncovered the first two intact burials at Göbeklitepe, Turkey, dating to roughly 8,700-8,000 BCE. One pit beneath a building floor held remains of at least three people, while a second contained a single young adult skeleton laid on its side. Comparing these burials to hundreds of scattered bone fragments found since 1995, researchers concluded many loose fragments likely originated from similar ordinary graves and were later displaced by erosion and natural decay.
Researchers analyzing Britain's tallest standing stone alignment, the Devil's Arrows, have determined that its massive stones originated from a quarry site 18 kilometers away and were moved there by human effort rather than glacial action. The findings, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, show Neolithic communities transported multiple 25-ton stones across the Yorkshire landscape to build the monument.
A new archaeological analysis of prehistoric bone remains suggests that cannibalism during the Neolithic period was not a uniform behavior but took different forms depending on time and place. Researchers found variation in butchering marks, burial context, and treatment of remains, indicating diverse motivations ranging from ritual to survival or warfare.
New research led by Curtin University and the University of York has identified Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire as the true source of the massive sandstone pillars forming the Devil's Arrows near Boroughbridge. Each stone weighs over 25 tonnes and stands up to seven meters tall, and the study overturns earlier assumptions that nearby Plumpton Rocks supplied the material. The monument likely dates to around 2000 BC, during the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age.