Year 28,000 bce

Astronomy

A sketch carved into bone, discovered at Blanchard (France), appears to be a record of the phases of the Moon. See also 30,000 bce Mathematics.

The earliest known unequivocally identified musical instruments, flutes and whistles crafted of bird or bear bones or reindeer antlers, are made. The instruments were found from France deep into central Europe and the Russian Plain. See also 45,000 bce Communication; 25,000 bce Communication.

Beads, bracelets, and pendants are worn by humans. See also 40,000 bce Communication; 16,000 bce Communication.

People carve and engrave vulvas and, somewhat more rarely, phalluses (France). See also 25,000 bce Communication.

People from Gravettian cultures at sites such as Pavlov and Dolni Věstonice (Czech Republic) and Kostenki (Russia) build huts that use mammoth bone for support if wood is not available. See also 400,000 bce Construction; 13,000 bce Construction.

The earliest fired ceramics, found at sites in the Pavlov Hills of Moravia (Czech Republic) and made from the local loess, are manufactured starting about this time. The small statues and various-shaped blobs may have been intended to explode when refired so the shards could be used in divination; most are found shattered. Animals represented are nearly all predators, while human statuettes are the famous Venus figurines (which occur later than the very first ceramics). See also 40,000 bce Materials; 24,000 bce Materials. (See essay.)

People arrive on Buka Island in the northern Solomons, probably by sailing from New Guinea. See also 35,000 bce Transportation.