Nobody Cares about Pre-History

[WolfEyes]

Using hot rocks to heat water is still used today.

When I say I camp out, I mean I camp out. Cooking over an open fire and all. And sometimes I really go all the way and use traditional methods like baking fresh caught fish wrapped in leaves and clay buried in coals. You know. The stuff humans need to know in order to survive without technology.

 

[Free]

The stuff humans need to know in order to survive without technology.

Without what?!

 

[WolfEyes]

Without what?!

 

[Beebo Brink]

Spear thrower weapon use by prehistoric females equalized the division of labor while hunting -- ScienceDaily

Since 2019, every semester [Michelle] Bebber takes her class outside to use the atlatl. She noticed that females picked it up very easily and could launch darts as far as the males with little effort.

"Often males became frustrated because they were trying too hard and attempting to use their strength to launch the darts," Bebber said. "However, since the atlatl functions as a simple lever, it reduces the advantage of male's generally greater muscle strength."

 

[Beebo Brink]

Scientists discover that neanderthals were getting high on psychedelics millions of years ago | indy100

Not a very long article, which was capped with this speculative theory (stated as fact) that says more about the speaker than about the subject. Another example of glorifying the past and creating a Noble Caveman stereotype.

Ethnobotanist Giorgio Samorini, who wasn’t involved in the study, also told the publication: "This was not a profane purpose of 'searching for a high' but more generally the search for existential meaning that has been largely lost to time.”

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Bears get drunk on fermented honey. Can we make the same assumption?

 

[WolfEyes]

Spear thrower weapon use by prehistoric females equalized the division of labor while hunting -- ScienceDaily

Women should try blow guns. They're lots of fun from hidden places.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Population collapse almost wiped out human ancestors, say scientists | Evolution | The Guardian
Genomics analysis indicates that at least 800,000 years ago breeding individuals sank to as few as 1,300

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

When I say I camp out, I mean I camp out. Cooking over an open fire and all. And sometimes I really go all the way and use traditional methods like baking fresh caught fish wrapped in leaves and clay buried in coals. You know. The stuff humans need to know in order to survive without technology.

Fire is technology.

 

[WolfEyes]

In the conclusion:

First, there is an increasing recognition of a need to move beyond simple ‘presence/absence’ judgements about archaeological hearths as an index for the ‘when’ of human fire use. Regular human – fire interactions could long precede fixed hearths in settlements. Second, an understanding is emerging that fire use is not a single technology or process, but that several scales of use, and probably several intensifying technologies, evolved over a long period, intertwined, and sometimes eventually became bound together

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164

Emphasis mine.

 

[Soen Eber]

Population collapse almost wiped out human ancestors, say scientists | Evolution | The Guardian
Genomics analysis indicates that at least 800,000 years ago breeding individuals sank to as few as 1,300

Wasn't that about the same time as the monolith landed Toba supervolcano eruption?

EDIT: Toba was 74,000 years ago and is suspected of also creating a genetic bottleneck, down to maybe 10,000 - 12,000 people world-wide. My bad.

ANOTHER EDIT: The theory of Toba creating a genetic bottle has been more or less abandoned in favor of a founder effect messing up the old gene pool.

 

[Beebo Brink]

First I've heard of these artifacts. How did I not know this!!

Were these stone balls made by ancient human relatives trying to perfect the sphere? | Science | AAAS

 

[Soen Eber]

First I've heard of these artifacts. How did I not know this!!

Were these stone balls made by ancient human relatives trying to perfect the sphere? | Science | AAAS

Well, my own admittedly untutored opinion is that archeologists may be navel gazing a bit much when discussing uncomfirmable ancient human activity. To my mind it looks like those are just the right size to throw into a waxed linen or leather pouch alongside a few handfuls of millet, dried vegetables and dried meat to make soup along the way for hunter/gatherer societies, something they would have naturally had to buffer against the inevitable lean times and poor hunting.

Why not river stones instead? Maybe they were already harvested. Smooth stones are pretty handy for throwing at something and won't hurt your hands if you have to use it several times a day to catch small game.

As for the elegant axes, they're survival instruments, an unbalanced axe is ackward to use, hurts your shoulders, and god help you if you have to throw it at an attacking lioness and it misses.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Men have long played with their balls.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Well, my own admittedly untutored opinion is that archeologists may be navel gazing a bit much when discussing uncomfirmable ancient human activity. To my mind it looks like those are just the right size to throw into a waxed linen or leather pouch alongside a few handfuls of millet, dried vegetables and dried meat to make soup along the way for hunter/gatherer societies, something they would have naturally had to buffer against the inevitable lean times and poor hunting.

So you scold the archaeologists for their speculation, then promptly launch into your own!

To be fair to everyone, it's really difficult to refrain from trying to guess the why of it, even though it's most likely impossible to ever know for sure. My guess would be a throwing stone, since the rough symmetry would improve accuracy. Of course, it's possible they had multiple uses, being handy for a variety of purposes, just like many other stone tools.

The point of this specific article, however, is that the archaeologists would prove these spheres were deliberately crafted to be round, rather than being round as a side-effect of working the stone for another purpose. That gets us about as far as hard science can go; the rest is more in the realm of psychology.

 

[Soen Eber]

So you scold the archaeologists for their speculation, then promptly launch into your own!

I'm not writing in a prestigious journal to advance the cause of understanding our human ancestors, but you already know that

To be fair to everyone, it's really difficult to refrain from trying to guess the why of it, even though it's most likely impossible to ever know for sure. My guess would be a throwing stone, since the rough symmetry would improve accuracy. Of course, it's possible they had multiple uses, being handy for a variety of purposes, just like many other stone tools.

The point of this specific article, however, is that the archaeologists would prove these spheres were deliberately crafted to be round, rather than being round as a side-effect of working the stone for another purpose. That gets us about as far as hard science can go; the rest is more in the realm of psychology.

True enough And it is fun, isn't it? I'm just employing 19th century seat-of-the-pants analysis here ;P If it was good enough for the Victorians and it justified their empire, it's good enough for me

 

[Govi]

First I've heard of these artifacts. How did I not know this!!

Were these stone balls made by ancient human relatives trying to perfect the sphere? | Science | AAAS

Pétanque?

 

[Beebo Brink]

Pétanque?

I love that idea! Not to mention it would blow the minds of archeologists if homo erectus had the capacity for gaming, which includes the ability to conceptualize rules and then communicate them. IMHO, we've vastly underrated the intellectual level of early humans. New discoveries are constantly pushing back the point at which we reached impressive capabilities.

 

[WolfEyes]

Instead of a Game of Thrones, a Game of Stones.

 

[Beebo Brink]

‘I feel like a man from another era’: Neanderthal hunter Ludovic Slimak | Neanderthals | The Guardian

One of the world’s leading experts on Neanderthals, Slimak has spent decades travelling across continents in search of insights into this mysterious, extinct prehistoric species. Just a short drive away, he assures me, is one the most significant archaeological sites he’s ever spent time working at. “I started digging there 33 years ago,” he says, “and for the past 20 years I’ve spent a lot of time in this cave, trying to understand Neanderthals better. It’s here we’re making discoveries that are radically reshaping our understanding of the history of both Neanderthals and humans, too.” His book, The Naked Neanderthal, is the result of this research. In 2022, it was published in France to great acclaim. Now, it’s been translated into English