Mike Parker-Pearson, on page 344 of his 2012 book, Stonehenge, says that when all sorts of things were going on, between 2470 and 2280BC, we are unable to precisely date the sequence of events as the calibration curve flattens out at this point in time. It is more or less impossible to get a single date any more precise than the broad 190 year plateau. We cannot be certain of the order in which things happened.
Archaeology news
A New Chronology for Stonehenge
Mike Pitts has a timeline on the Richards, Darvill and Parker-Pearson revised chronology for Stonehenge - go to http://mikepitts.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/stonehenge-in-five-easy-stages... ... but he adds some uncertainty as it seems a few cremations found there have been C14 dated somewhat earlier than the construction of the bank and ditch. At the moment this remains conjecture, a wisp of a possibility of a future revision of dates, and here are the five stages.
1) 3000-2875BC ... the Aubrey Holes, ditch and bank, various postholes and stakeholes.
The Plague of Justinian and Romany intrusions
At www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121129093138.htm ... a study of the bacterium that causes bubonic plague has revealed an older outbreak probably occurred in the first millennium AD. It was not a new disease, as supected by many people, pointing a finger at the devastating Plague of Justinian in the 6th century AD. This was a pandemic that decimated the Classical World and was the underlying factor behind the collapse of the Eastern Empire - and opened up the Levant and Egypt to Persian and Arab invasions.
The Eye and the Owl
A wonderful post to catch the eye at http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/owl-plaques-eye-... ... here we have some repeating motifs that look suspiciously like plasma pinch phenomena as illustrated by Perratt. I'm sure David Talbot has lots of images like this but here they are associated with the Chalcolithic culture of Iberia - and this began prior to 3000BC.
Chalcolithic Spain and Portugal
At www.minoanatlantis.com/Minoan_Spain.php ... the authors are suggesting Iberia was colonised by Early Minoans - by which I suppose they mean by people from the Aegean region. They were, it is alleged, seeking out metals and minerals to use in alloys. This is thought to have begun in the 4th millennium BC - which is prior to Early Minoan culture on Crete or in the Cyclades, or Early Helladic in Greece - but contemporary with the Vinca culture found in the Balkans.
The Scots were wearing tartans even in Roman times
Proof that tartans are not a modern myth, BBC News at www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20579219 ... comes from a statue of the emperor Caracalla discovered in the Moroccan city of Volubilia. Caracalla, the son of Severus, took part in a 3rd century campaign in Scotland, and was proud of this achievement - which is why he has a depiction of a Caledonian prisoner of war wearing checked leggings and unruly long hair. Large numbers of captives were taken in the campaign and found their way into Roman slave markets.
Tonga settlement
At www.sci-news.com/archaeology/article00715.html ... the first human settlers to arrive on Tonga, a South Sea island group in the Pacific, is now set between 840 and 820BC which is quite an intriguing date. I say this because in the Biblical narrative some strange things were going on with Elijah and Elisha involved, including what some people have interpreted as a revolving falling bolide of some description.
Some new dates suggested at Stonehenge
This is an important one, I think, but not necessarily the last word on the subject. At www.livescience.com/25157-stonehenge-megaliths-timeline-enigma.html ... Robert Ixer and Timothy Darvill are suggesting the sarsen horseshoe was erected prior to the bluestone oval and circle that surrounds it - as early as 2600BC. The bluestone rearrangement, they allege, was somewhat later, at the time of the arrival of the Beaker people, in around 2450BC (but perhaps somewhat later, closer to 2300BC). Mike Parker-Pearson says something similar in his book.
Sicilians and Anatolians
It seems a land bridge may have existed between Italy and two small islands off the west coast of Sicily until well into the Holocene, post Ice Age, period - until perhaps as recently as 6000BC. Is this further evidence of upheaval at this time - and changing sea levels. Palaeolithic hunters were active on the islands during the Late Glacial Maximum as human bones have been found in a cave on one of the islands - see www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121128182945.htm (see also www.popular-archaeology.com).
Diving into the Ice Age
Mexico's Yucatan peninsular has many caves and cenotes, an estimated 10,000 of them. People lived in the caves during the Ice Age, and their remains, and that of Ice Age animals, can be found - now in a watery grave. The cenotes are basically open caves, where the ceilings of the limestone have collapsed. In more recent times they were used by the Maya, but there was a difference. In the Ice Age the floors of the caves and cenotes were dry - now they are under water. Some of them are filled with rain water, the result of floods from tropical storms.