On a storm-battered Orkney coast lies a Neolithic village so well preserved you can peer into 5,000-year-old homes, complete with their stone beds and dressers. Meet Skara Brae, older than the pyramids.

Built and rebuilt over many centuries on Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge still guards its secrets. Here is what we actually know about who raised it, how, and why — and the myths worth letting go.

On Malta stands Tarxien, the most richly decorated of all the island’s prehistoric temples. With carved spirals, animal reliefs, and a colossal statue, it is a masterpiece of Neolithic art over 5,000 years old.

A mound in central Bulgaria records over 3,000 years of continuous village life, and gives its name to the chronology of the Balkans.

On a Breton headland stands the Cairn of Barnenez, a 75-metre stone monument with eleven burial chambers, raised around 4800 BCE — older than the pyramids and one of Europe’s oldest buildings.

Nearly 9,000 years ago, farmers on a hill in central Greece built what may be the oldest town in Europe.

On a lake in northern Greece, waterlogged mud preserved a Neolithic village, and a wooden tablet that may bear some of the world’s oldest signs.

Nearly 6,000 years ago in Thessaly, a community built its home as a series of nested stone rings converging on a central hall.

On a nine-metre mound by the Danube, the Vinča culture built fine pottery, thousands of figurines, Europe’s first copper, and mysterious signs some believe are the continent’s earliest script.