Questions tagged [prehistoric-times]
For questions about the historical period before written language, which is considered "prehistoric". This tag is most appropriate to describe the relevant time period on Earth, but it may also be acceptable in similar settings.
67
questions
15
votes
4answers
948 views
Encountering the Accountants : Spreading Numeracy in the Neolithic World
The BBC in the UK are currently screening a archaeology series exploring the idea that the Neolithic peoples in the Orkney Isles (North of Scotland) were the cultural capital of the British Isles. ...
18
votes
3answers
4k views
How long could an operational Virginia-class sub survive in the Jurassic sea?
A nuclear attack submarine carrying a crew of, at least, a hundred people went missing in the North Atlantic Ocean, its last known location was the Bermuda Triangle where ships and planes have ...
3
votes
1answer
140 views
Establish common language with Chalcolithic group (Modern man vs copper age group)
How would a single person establish a common language with group that does not speak any language that this person knows? This group is from copper age period and modern man does not have any modern ...
7
votes
2answers
595 views
What are the hippos of the Americas?
In a world where man entered North and South America without causing a mass extinction, all of the paleofauna which became extinct ~10,000 BC in the Americas are still around. There are several ...
9
votes
4answers
2k views
What American animals would have been domesticated had they not gone extinct?
Here are some lists of North American and South American megafauna that went extinct during the Quaternary.
In Eurasia, many species of large mammal were domesticated, most particularly the 'big 4' ...
14
votes
18answers
2k views
How might the actions of descendants matter for their ancestors? (reverse causality)
Imagine two groups of people exploring the same location, but at different times. For convenience, think of the group exploring first as the "ancestors" and the group exploring later as the "...
4
votes
1answer
158 views
Neandertal Civilization [closed]
Since its initial discovery in Germany's Neander Valley in 1848, Homo neandertalensis, the Neandertal, had undergone quite a dubious reputation. From sensationalist beginnings as big, hairy apes, ...
5
votes
7answers
17k views
Could an intelligent civilization have existed on Earth before humans? [duplicate]
And more importantly, how could we not know about it? I remember hearing that most of our man-made monuments and buildings will have completely collapsed in a few thousand years, so is it possible for ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
The Key For a Longer-Lasting, Steampunkier Industrial Revolution
From 359 to 298 million years ago, the "Carboniferous Coal Swamps" dominated the continents.
It was the Carboniferous coal itself that sparked one of the greatest watersheds in human history--the ...
5
votes
7answers
1k views
How far in the past could unprepared humans survive?
A small late medieval county, consisting of a very small town, a small castle, and a couple of surrounding small villages suddenly and inexplicably gets transported into the past. It's not a spherical ...
2
votes
1answer
264 views
The Tethys Salinity Crisis
From 5.96 to 5.33 million years ago, disaster struck the Mediterranean Sea. A tectonic snag turned this...
...into something like this.
In this alternate scenario, the sea separating modern Europe ...
7
votes
6answers
778 views
How to keep water out of a trench civilization
In my world there is a neolithic civilization of people who inhabit earthen trenches. The people first soften the earth with ... fluids ... and dig out 6 - 12 foot deep trench systems that extend out ...
2
votes
3answers
201 views
Cultural divides?
I am currently trying to build a world history and I'm trying to find sources and reasons for what determines where a new culture is created or how big a culture is?
A bit of background is that I'm ...
4
votes
1answer
390 views
Comet Hale-Bopp is the herald of new ages of Humanity
I'm working at a tale about historic cycles. Every new cycle is anounced (or even caused) by an astronomic phenomenon.
Looking for some cyclical astronomical events, I'm thinking about periodic ...
5
votes
2answers
3k views
What kind of names would humans living in Lower Paleolithic Ethiopia have?
I'm writing a story set in the early Lower Paleolithic era, in the area around where Ethiopia currently is.
What kind of names would my characters have? Do we have any knowledge of how people were ...
2
votes
4answers
571 views
Rise and Fall of prehistoric civilizations
Behaviourally modern humans showed up around 50000 years ago, but what we can call a civilization: settlements bigger than a few huts, agriculture and complex social structure, started only some 6000, ...
0
votes
1answer
126 views
An Earlier Pleistocene = Mass Extinction?
Five million years ago, the warm Miocene gradually descended into the cool Pliocene before dropping into the frigid Pleistocene. Such a change in temperature was so gradual that life went on without a ...
