We are pleased to present here a preliminary account of the first discovery of Palaeolithic cave art in Britain.

On 14 April 2003 we made the first discovery of Palaeolithic cave art in Britain. Since portable art of the period has long been known in this country (Sieveking 1972; Campbell 1977: vol. 2, figs 102, 105, 143), it has always seemed probable that parietal art must also have existed. We knew that we were most unlikely to discover paintings, since these are generally quite visible; but as far as we knew, nobody with a trained eye and advantageous lighting had combed the British caves in search of engravings, which are often extremely difficult to see. Such was the purpose of our initial survey and, sure enough, we rapidly encountered engraved marks in a number of caves, which we will be investigating more fully and systematically in the near future. At the well-known sites of Creswell Crags, in Derbyshire, we found both figurative and non-figurative engravings of the period. What follows is a brief, preliminary announcement of a discovery soon to be further amplified in print following systematic investigation.

A worked stone from a secure Mousterian context has a bone splinter driven through it and appears to modern eyes like an attempt to represent a face. The authors argue that a face was indeed intended, and that the Roche-Cotard “proto-figurine” can be counted among the earliest art objects. At this place and date it should refer to a Neanderthal people.

In this article, the authors reveal the symbolic role of cranes at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Worked bones of the Common Crane (Grus grus) are interpreted as coming from a spread wing used in dances, a ritual practice perhaps connected with the celebration of marriage.

A new Upper Palaeolithic occupation layer has been discovered in 2000 at the site of Markina Gora (Kostenki 14) on the River Don (the Voronezh Oblast), in Russia. The layer was sealed by volcanic ash, suggesting that a natural catastrophe had put an end to a human settlement there, just as Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae were destroyed and buried following the powerful eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. The Palaeolithic site is notable for its assemblage of ornaments

The famous upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian) burial with shell ornaments known as “Il Principe” was discovered in Italy sixty years ago. Here the authors present recent scientific research on his skeleton, leading to new assessments of the date of the burial and indications of diet.

How and when was northern Europe reoccupied at the end of the last Ice Age? Radiocarbon dates from the earliest post-glacial contexts provide one answer: they offer a sequence in which the regions of Europe, from the Upper Rhine to Britain, saw the return of humans. The authors use Bayesian methods to model a chronology and thus arrive at a sequence with clear assessments of uncertainty.

The authors use their revised chronology for the Mariupol-type cemeteries (presented in Antiquity 76: 356-63 (2002)) to offer a new sequence for Neolithic settlement and economy in Ukraine. They find that the transition to the Neolithic began about 6500 cal BC, but co-existed with Mesolithic communities for a further millennium. In about 4500 cal BC early copper age cultures appeared, which in turn coexisted with the Neolithic in neighbouring areas. Co-existent cultures are defined in terms of their artefacts, subsistence strategies, burial practice and physical types. The Mariupol-type cemeteries seem to have had their origins in the late Mesolithic and endured into the Copper Age, a period of more than two thousand years (c. 6500–4000 cal BC).

The Middle Palaeolithic record of the Arabian Peninsula can provide crucial evidence for understanding human dispersal. The authors summarise the archaeological evidence and suggest some of the routes taken by the earliest humans coming out of Africa, including one implying the use of boats. Early populations adapted to a hospitable environment, but had later to adapt to the advance of the desert.

Wood charcoal from stratified layers at Akrotiri is helping to map the ecology of the island of Santorini before the volcanic eruption in the second millennium BC which brought Bronze Age settlement to an end. Far from being treeless like today, the island had a relatively moist and cool climate with diverse vegetation including open oak woodland. Olive cultivation can be traced back to the Early Bronze Age. Cedar, yew and beech were also imported from Lebanon, Cyprus and Anatolia as artefacts, or for building.

The authors present a synopsis of research on the remarkable early Neolithic cemetery near Lake Baikal known as “The Lokomotiv” which was first discovered by the constructors of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1880s. A current campaign of research is beginning to understand the great variety of the burial rites and their contexts. The rites include communal burials, burial in pairs head to toe and decapitation before burial, the position of the skull being sometimes taken by a carved object. Among the earliest graves was one containing a Tundra wolf.

In this paper the author assembles the evidence for Mesolithic dwelling places surviving as posts, floors and assemblages. This evidence can be used to show how space was organised, where men and women slept, and how some of the implied family relationships anticipated Neolithic practice.

The authors explore the use of land in Neolithic south Italy, showing how the new territories combined arable farming with hunting and foraging wild resources from the hinterland.

Traditionally, it has been assumed that the Greek alphabetic numerals were independently invented in the sixth century BC. However, the author finds a remarkable structural similarity between this system and the Egyptian demotic numerals. He proposes that trade between Asia Minor and Egypt provided the context in which the Greek numerals were adopted from Egyptian models.

Early Neolithic graves at Jiahu, Henan Province, China, include tortoise shells which are incised with signs – some of which anticipate later Chinese characters and may be intended as words. Is this the earliest writing? The authors decide rather that the signs in this very early period performed as symbols connected with ritual practice, but they presage a long period of sign use which led eventually to a writing system.

Using ethnographic parallels the authors identify ‘bark peelers’ used in Ice Age Europe. They suggest that Palaeolithic Europeans used these to extract edible and nourishing new growth from the trunks of spring trees.

The authors consider the impact that trees would have had on the visibility of the landscape from and around Neolithic monuments. It is suggested that woodland may have been an integral part of the way monuments were experienced.