Posted on 05/10/2014 2:20:13 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Giant bull, wild boar and red deer bones left at a settlement a mile from Stonehenge prove that Amesbury is the oldest settlement in Britain and has been continually occupied since 8820 BC, according to archaeologists who say the giant monuments were built by indigenous hunters and homemakers rather than Neolithic new builders.
Carbon dating of aurochs – a breed twice the size of bulls – predates the settlers responsible for the massive pine posts at Stonehenge, suggesting that people had first lived in Wiltshire around 3,000 years before the site was created in 3000 BC. Experts had previously thought the stones had been the work of European immigrants.
“The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution in a number of ways,” said David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, who led the dig at Vespasian’s Camp in the open basin of Blick Mead.
“It provides evidence for people staying put, clearing land, building and, presumably, worshipping monuments.
“The area was clearly a hub point for people to come to from many miles away, and in many ways was a forerunner for what later went on at Stonehenge itself.
“The first monuments at Stonehenge were built by these people.
"For years people have been asking 'why is Stonehenge where it is?' Now, at last, we have found the answers.”
Land clearing had been considered part of the farming culture introduced by continental Neolithic immigrants during the 5th millennium. The finds date clearances around an area of the spring to between 7500 and 4600 BC, when Mesolithic culture had been seen as nomadic.
“In effect, Blick Mead was the very first Stonehenge Visitor Centre, up and running in the 8th millennium BC,” said Jacques.
“The River Avon would have been the ‘A’ Road – people would have come down on their log boats.
“They would have had the equivalent of tour guides and there would have been feasting.
"We have found remains of big game animals, such as aurochs and red deer, and an enormous amount of burnt flint from their feasting fires. There’s also evidence for a multi-cultural population at the site.”
Around 31,000 Mesolithic worked flints were found in a 16-square metre during excavations lasting little more than a month.
“Tool types suggest people were coming to it from far to the west of Stonehenge and from the east,” added Jacques. “Another possible reason why people were attracted to the area was the striking bright pink colouring of the flint, which isn’t that colour anywhere else in the country.
“The colouring is caused by algae - Hildenbrandia rivularis - and it is due to a combination of dappled light and the unusually warm spring water in the area.
“It’s unique to have people of that time come from so many different faraway places. The site and the Stonehenge areas were very well-known places to visit for a very long time – the London of the Mesolithic.”
Professor David John, of the Natural History Museum, said that the constant spring water temperature at the site would have been between 10 and 14 degrees, giving the flint its pink tinge once it had been removed from the stream for several hours.
“It is a rather magical effect now,” said Jacques. “It may well have been seen so back then.”
The more I read, the more I think that we’ve had civilizations, at least off-and-on, for several hundred thousand if not millions of years. Nothing else makes sense. One example: Mohenjo Daro.
"But you're not as confused as him. It's not your job to be as confused as Nigel is."
Dude, wait, wutt??? 
You have a clan or tribe that wander into a valley as hunter-gatherers. For some reason, based on the size of the valley and it’s offerings (apple trees, wildlife, streams, reasonable winters)....they stop being hunter-gatherers and put up a permanent camp. Within two generations....they have a cycle of planting and harvest, and have gotten themselves into a very stable lifestyle. No threats in the valley, and all is peaceful.
So the next obvious step is to sit there at night, note the stars, and how movement occurs. You question the four seasons, discuss things around a fire, and start to develop social organization within the growing tribe. Ceremonies are held, and you have some tribal members who gather and dispense knowledge.
I’d make a guess that 30,000 years ago....we were already in the stages of civilization with various tribes. Course, at some point, violence would intercede....wiping out an entire tribe with vast levels of knowledge gone. Somewhere down the line...we eventually had enough of the knowledge gatherers avoid violent death, and continue to pass knowledge down through the generations. Statistically, we beat the odds, and civilization grew.
Amesbury remained a central part of civilization....until violence arrived at their front door, and ceased the whole mystic tourism center. Their knowledge disappeared as they were zero’ed down to nothing. Other than some stones in the ground, and some stuff dug up...there’s nothing left to show of that whole generation.
(four months later) see in particular the illustration in #1 and #9.
Macro-Etymology: Paleosigns [writing 20,000 years ago?]
Macro-Etymology Website | prior to May 20, 2005 | the webmasters thereof
Posted on 5/20/2005 2:00:18 AM by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1406892/posts
(four months later) Mohenjo Daro is just a bit older than the Great Pyramid, and younger than the prehistoric temples on Malta; but an example of much earlier sites include the Gobekli Tepe site in Anatolia (11K old, 6K older than Stonehenge). I wholeheartedly agree that there’s probably been multiple rises and falls, and the falls were not due to “overspecialization” or other mundane gradualist nonsense.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/132
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.