Posted on 02/26/2019 1:53:17 PM PST by Openurmind
AKSON RUSSIAN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION—Russian scientists studied the Zhokhov site of ancient people, which is located in the high-latitude Arctic, and described in detail the way of life of the ancient people who had lived there. It turned out that, despite the sparsely populated area, the ancient people had communicated with representatives of other territories and had even exchanged various objects with them through some kind of the fairs.
Zhokhov Island, located at 76º N in the New Siberian Islands, 440 kilometers north of the modern coast of the East Siberian Sea, belongs to the High Arctic. Here, the Zhokhov site was discovered, considered the earliest evidence for human habitation in the High Arctic. The settlement was daed to 9300-8600 years ago, where 25-50 people lived permanently. In the remote past, Zhokhov island was a part of a vast plain formed due to significant sea level drop during the Last Glacial Maximum. Because of the post-glacial sea-level rise, this plain was flooded and eroded. At present, the Zhokhov site is located in the south-western part of modern Zhokhov island, near the foot of a low (about 120 m) hill protecting it from the severe north-west wind. This place was very convenient for the ancient people. The hill served as an observation point, and because of the proximity to the coast, they always had a supply of wood, carried in by the sea.
Lithic material was imported 1000 Kilometers from this site and this culture.
I did some work on the island of Papau New Guinea. IIRC, they were still finding stone age tribes in the 1960’s in isolated valleys.
If that’s obsidian/volcanic glass- and it looks like it- it is very easy and pleasant material to knap. You can drive super long flakes with little effort. Obsidian is even used by a few flintknappers to make specialized surgery scalpels today.
Darn! I was going to guess that they invented the Flavored Shaved Ice Concession Stand! ;)
Thanks for sharing this article.
The world was much warmer then?
Oh absolutely... And in the Amazon. One of the mistakes historians do is judge the technology of one site against all other sites they date to the same era. I really did not realize this factor until they found Gobekli Tepe and dated it at almost 12,000 years ago.
This is when brute ignorant “cave man” was supposed to have crossed the Bering land bridge 20 years ago. We now know it was much earlier and it may have been by sea even though we are still sure cave man was “ hydrophobic”. So what we think we “know” now may not be what we “think we know”.
We are too quick to lock this in as fact when we have so much more to open our perspectives to possibilities. The timeline comparison of technology is a HUGE one. Just look at the difference right now between Mexico, or many African cultures to our own level of technology.
I read “the Grand Valley Dani” in college.
Were you with those folks?
My privilege Sir. If you don’t mind me asking, any special reason why?
Much cooler and we had more fur... lol :)
Absolutely... But these are dated to over 9k ago and prismatic and very obviously struck in the hammer and anvil technique. You don’t find this later even in the 1,300s except for in the mesoamerican cultures. Even in North America they were still not this advanced until later. These are very advanced lithics for this timeline.
One of the things that has long interested me is trade patterns among ancient peoples. Trade in goods, technology, etc.
It was actually much more extensive that thought for many years. Incredibly more actually... :)
Old news... John Snow used this stuff to kill a snow king and his skinny troops...
What do you consider the likelihood that some 10K+ years ago, there was (for the time) and advanced civilization throughout the world, or much of it anyway, which collapsed due to (reason n)?
Given some of the stuff out there, it seems quite possible, and would even help explain why sometimes it seems like the ancients were smarter than “we” think they should be.
I dunno, but it does seem rather curious.
Right now if we lost the grid and sooner or later all the “batteries” died would we be in the stone age? Absolutely... We would be starting from scratch and I really do think it has happened before. This is why monasteries all over the world tried to document knowledge and pass it on. This knowledge was destroyed on purpose. Can you just imagine what knowledge from the REAL past was stored at the Library of Alexandria alone before it was destroyed for RELIGIOUS reasons same as the monasteries?
I think there may have been MANY civilizations that preexisted what we think we know now... Back hundreds of thousands of years. Definitely before the last ice age. Most of the megalithic structures were discovered after the global reset by those who are credited for building them. They did not... They came along and found them later, thousands of years later.
This is why I find it extremely important that certain knowledge like how to foundry metal from raw ore even in small amounts at a time and work it into tools is absolutely priceless right now. After the coming global reset this knowledge could advance humanity 20k and right back into the iron age.
Not even close.
Even if 99% of the population died off, the remaining 1% would have all the skills, knowledge and material to rebuild technological society.
The survivors would be living in a golden age for a couple of hundred years.
The U.S. went from horses to landing on the moon in far less than one hundred years, and they had to invent the technology (along with the rest of Western Civilization).
The survivors would have all the knowledge they needed, and huge amounts of technology already in place.
I was working at a mining site that is on the mountain ridge that runs along the south side of the Baliem valley. Looking at some of the photos on the internet - I think I worked with some of those guys!
I have a photo of one of our local helpers playing a game on a computer - pretty striking. Some other guy in his tribe slept with his wife. They went to the tribal court. The other guy had to take my helper’s wife as is own. Had to give my helper two pigs, and my helper was allowed to put up 50 posters around the area describing what a cheat that the other guy and his wife were!
At the north end of the mine site (Baliem Valley to the north) was a pile of clothing, rubber work boots, hard hats, etc. I asked one of the guys what that was about.
He said when the workers leave to go home for a visit, or just quit, they leave all that stuff at the edge of the mine site. Seems they can’t stand to wear boots or clothing. I asked the one helper about that. He took off his boots and started running around in circles on the sharp rocks and brush and laughing.
It snowed three times when we were there (working at elevations from 12,000 to 15,000 feet). Rained every day for four months except for 6 days. We would be surveying, and a few times times families would come walking by on a nearby trail going over the pass. Barefoot, practically naked in the snow or rain, with the adults carrying a small net bag with some belongings.
RUGGED terrain. I have no idea how far it was to the nearest village to the north.
Near the mine, the mine built a new village for the people with proper homes, a school, etc. Many of the families lived there. Many of the older men moved to a side valley a short distance away and built another village of straw and mud huts. All they wore were the “penis gourds” - the size of the gourd indicated their rank in the tribe.
A bunch of the kids from the new village gave us a tour that included the old guy’s village. “Don’t stare, don’t talk, no pictures...we are just walking through.”
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