Widely dispersed, isolated finds of individual fossils of bone fragments (Atapuerca, Mauer mandible), stone artifacts or assemblages that suggest that during Lower Paleolithic, spanning from 3 million until 300,000 … See more

Also known as "Copper Age", the European Chalcolithic was a time of significant changes, the first of which was the invention of copper metallurgy. This is first attested in the Vinca culture in the 6th millennium BC. The Balkans became a major centre for … See more

Though the use of iron was known to the Aegean peoples about 1100 BC, it failed to reached Central Europe before 800 BC, when it gave way to the Hallstatt culture, an Iron Age evolution of the Urnfield culture. Around then, the Phoenicians, benefitting from the … See more

Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)
Oldest fossils, artifacts and sites
Lower and Middle Paleolithic human presence See more

The European Neolithic is assumed to have arrived from the Near East via Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and the Caucasus. There has been a long … See more

Use of Bronze begins in the Aegean around 3200 BC. From 2500 BC the new Catacomb culture, whose origins were obscure but were … See more

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 … See more