Prehistory - Research Articles

A two-stage account of consciousness: language and stories coalesce ~60 ka; the narrative ‘I’ emerges in the Holocene via women-led serpent ritual networks and pronoun tech.

A diffusionist deep dive tracing masked ritual from a single Levantine hearth—stone masks and plastered skulls—to a global grammar of spirit embodiment.

Do emergence-style creation myths reach back to the Paleolithic? A critical synthesis of phylogenetic work, Pueblo/Andean data, and Paleolithic ‘Venus’ iconography that centers women as cosmogenic agents.

A concise case for historical links between Australian bullroarer–initiation and PNG Tambaran/flute cults, framed by Sahul-era connectivity.

A speculative synthesis: an early, enforced incest taboo scaled exogamy and alliance networks, raised effective population size and heterozygosity, and helped H. sapiens outcompete archaic cousins.

Integrating Venus figurines, goddess myths, and X-chromosome sweeps to re-evaluate women’s possible leadership in early human culture.

An in-depth examination of the serpent reliefs at Göbekli Tepe (c 9600–8200 BCE), their ritual context, and the possibility that they foreshadow the Eden serpent-and-tree complex—read through the lens of the Eve Theory of Consciousness.

A thought‑experiment aligning the Book‑of‑Mormon Jaredites with the Late‑Pleistocene Clovis horizon and recasting Nephite arrivals as a first‐millennium‑BC Atlantic influx.

A comprehensive interdisciplinary theory proposing that human consciousness originated as a cultural invention in prehistoric times, likely pioneered by women and spread through ritual and language.

Guide to seven leading theories of the Upper Paleolithic cognitive revolution—what changed, when it happened, and why it sparked modern human behavior.