5th Millennium Cal BC Research Articles

Dating Egypt's oldest ‘art’: AMS 14C age determinations of rock varnishes covering petroglyphs at El-Hosh (Upper Egypt)

Direct dating, using the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C method, indicates that some petroglyphs (rock art) at El-Hosh in Upper Egypt pre-date the early 7th millennium BP (mid 6th millennium cal BC), making it the oldest graphic activity recorded in the Nile Valley.

Peau noire, masques blancs: self-image in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Scotland

Models attributing the origins of the British Neolithic to developing Mesolithic complexity founder on the paucity of evidence for activity during the 5th millennium cal BC. The Scottish transition is examined and its is argued that the onset of the Neolithic was primarily a cognitive and cultural event rather than an economic transformation. It is suggested that knowledge of the existence of complex neolithic societies in northern Europe may have inhibited Late Mesolithic self-confidence, resulting in suppression of identity, thus creating the impression of hiatus that precedes Neolithicization.