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William Davies

Bone Flute

Music is ubiquitous in all societies today, yet it is often seen as a "luxury" by writers on human evolution and not as important as spoken language.  Unlike those writers, we shall explore the functions music can play in societies today, and use such insights to evaluate the musical instruments that begin to appear in the archaeological record from 40,000 years ago. Continue reading →

Female Figurine

Euphemistically termed "Venus" figurines by coy 19th-century male authors, sculptures of women are prominent in the Eurasian archaeological record between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago.  We shall focus particularly on the famous figurine from Willendorf (Austria), and set her into her wider social context. Continue reading →