My Denisovan Farrah Fawcett doesn't write, doesn't call....
Posted on 10/20/2017 2:55:09 PM PDT by sparklite2
The discovery of a set of 9.7-million-year-old teeth has led archaeologists to raise questions about the commonly believed 'out-of-Africa' theory of human origins.
The teeth, which were discovered in a former bed of the Rhine river, don't resemble those of any other human species found in Europe or Asia.
The find suggests that contrary to popular belief, Europe may be the cradle of humanity.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I have always felt that there were past ages where some level of developed civilization occurred. Probably not to the level we have now, but large tribal or village level. Unfortunately roughly every 100,000 years we have a major event that drives us into another long ice age, and civilization breaks down and disappears. I don’t know what started the last ice age about 125,000 years ago, but the eruption of Toba 74,000 ya leaving a crater 18 by 65 miles is believed to have reduced humanity to no more than 10,000 breeding males and females. Around 32,000 years ago Europe had well developed cave dwelling social groups and artists, which declined and disappeared. I noticed that there were 3 additional dips in world temperatures between 28 and 22,000 years ago. I have identified the 22K event as the eruption of what is today Mt. Sakurajima on the edge of the 12 mile diameter Aira Caldera: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aira_Caldera Others might have been Vesuvius or Icelandic.
Around 18,000 years ago the world began to warm up, but about 13,000 ya something bad happened. Firestone et al. believe that a comet or similar object struck the Northern Hemisphere, destroying the Clovis culture, forming the Carolina Bays, and killing off most of the large mammals. The additional effect was over a 1,000 years of colder weather called the Younger Dryas. This book is a fascinating read but it’s conclusions are still very controversial: https://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Cosmic-Catastrophes-Stone-Age-Changed/dp/1591430615
Sometimes science itself isn’t wrong, it is just incomplete and leading to wrong conclusions. You cannot use carbon dating for something 9 million years old. Several decades ago I had a fascinating conversation in an east coast bar with a California archaeologist. She told me about controversial finds that may be 200,000 years old in CA, that the “authorities” refuse to even consider because of the Clovis first controversy.
Un-huh
I think it was gibsmedat cultures.
Once enough wealth is created by dint of applied intelligence and hard work, it becomes easier to take from the producers and give to the slackers.
'Tax the rich/feed the poor/until there are no rich no more'...
The Solutreans loved the shorelines. As a flint knapper I try and replicate all of the various points and styles, right now I’m replicating various Solutrean style blades and points. The suggested path of the Solutreans to the Americas is very plausible considering the landscape at the time. Early drawings/art left by them leads me to believe they were much more advanced than most think.
Excellent skill to learn.
My thought is that the remains we see today are from various groups of hunters and traders who lived far from the shorelines of that time when sea level was far lower. They gathered products and meats to trade with the peoples who lived along the shorelines.
When the ice melted, all that remained (and what we find today) are fragments of an outlier society.
What and who lived along the last glacial maximum shoreline is totally unknown and buried beneath hundreds of feet or more of sediment.
Interesting find off shore in about 200 ft of water. They were dredging a peak and came up with mammoth bones and a damn nice Solutrean blade. Several sites on our east coast show what many believe to be Solutrean style points and blades. Other theory’s suggest that much of early mans travels were from east to west. This comes from know flint deposits and tools made from them. The Alibates flint of the Texas Panhandle has been found as far west as New Mexico and southern Colorado. Good quality material was hard to find so they would carry much of it with them for future tool needs. It’s suggested that once a new source was found they would cache their remaining material and could come back if need be. When I look at the concentration of Clovis sites in the east as compared to the west it suggests western travel also.
Solutrean early man ... may not be all that early. ‘Recent relatives’ might be better descriptor. Early man goes much further back in time to at least 250,000 - 350,000 years ago - an almost unfathomable period of time.
Didn’t mean to suggest that, I was referring more to his arrival in the America’s and the path taken.
You forgot the bibibopsy.
It's based on the variety and age of the DNA.
The oldest 'living' DNA belongs to some small obscure tribe in Malaysia.
Thank you for a terrific post.
Few have noted that Leakey, in his last years, was digging in the Western US and though it possible the early man existed in the Americas, very early.
I have followed the out of Africa argument for 50 years, I thought it BS then and think that it BS now.
REgarding your interest in knapped arrows, etc. The Aztecs and Mayas produced some incredibly complex and detailed knapped objects as shown in the link below. I have a thought regarding Solutrians going to Americas. It would not surprise me if the Clovis culture had been influenced by some Solutrian visitors/settlers. I first Googled images “Aztec elaborate knapped obsidian artifacts,” and found several of the kind I had remembered. Then I added the word Mayan and a few more appeared. When I had tried “flint” I did not find what I wanted. So I hypothesize that when Clovis culture moved west and if the 13,000 year ago comet destroyed much of the larger animals including humans in North America, that Clovis remnants were left in the southern US and northern Mexico. With the availability of volcanic obsidian, this material was exploited and when the Uto-Aztecans moved south and established Mexico City/Tenochtitlan with a wealthy hierarchy, creativity exploded producing the gems you can see in the link below. Possibly the Mayans received the same skills earlier. You can see that a number of the artifacts have one or more human profiles. Don’t know if they are more Mayan or Aztec.
Hate to say it but more than 50% of those pictures show the work of modern knappers, but that doesn’t take away from the skills and imagination of the Mayan relic’s. Look up Giza Blades and you’ll see another interesting method of knapping. These blades were cut into slabs using copper saws and then hand grinding until the proper radius across the blades were met. They then used a mechanical pressure flaking device similar to one shown in your link.
If one accepts the “Lucy” creature as a human precursor, then yes these creatures also roamed Europe once upon a time and perhaps earlier than in Africa.
Agreed.
Good call, gleeaikin, I probably should have posted the link to the Cycles of book. :^)
In her 'Plato Prehistorian: 10,000 to 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology', Mary Settegast reproduces a table which shows four runic character sets; a is Upper Paleolithic (found among the cave paintings), b is Indus Valley script, c is Greek (western branch), and d is the Scandinavian runic alphabet.
Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the kind remark!
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