They're still in the stone age.
Posted on 06/30/2002 7:18:49 AM PDT by SJackson
Archaeologists have been able to compile enough evidence to write an accurate history of man before the invention of writing. Recent findings in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe strongly supported the results found by the archaeologists of Western Europe, and research in all field areas generally corresponded in determining the stages of human development.
At one point in that development, man devised vocal signals to express fear, hunger, thirst, sadness thereby making up the beginning of spoken language. At the sight of approaching large beasts, men scattered, producing guttural screams to warn others of the coming danger. At night, hunters slept wherever their excursions landed them after cutting and slicing their prey with primitive knives and ate the meat uncooked. They had not yet known fire as a deterrent to wild animals, and spent the night in terror if they heard the roar of a fanged large tiger. Finally, however, they came to know fire, most likely in the forest after lightening ignited a tree. They had probably already learned to fear it when they watched erupting volcanoes from afar, and the pinnacle was when those people learned how to start their own fire, using it to cook, seeking warmth from it, and making the tips of their spears harder by fire-treating them.
The early people, however, did not learn how to make their knives more solid as they did their spears, probably because they only learned to make knives from bone. One day, probably one million years ago, man knew how to manipulate rock to make primitive tools, thus entering what is known today as the Stone Age.
The stone weapons and utensils were superior to items made of wood and bone, surviving to our present day and revealing beyond any doubt the length of time man has been on earth.
The beginning of agriculture the Modern Stone Age
(Approximately 8,000-4,000 BC)
This stage of human history was the attraction for old archaeologists such as Breadwood, Millert, Coffan and others who wished to study the first agricultural communities. In their studies, the scientists tried to categorize the various stages and give names to them. Kathleen Kenyon, who excavated between 1952 and 1958 in Tal Al-Sultan near Jericho, divided the early age into two stages, ‘Pottery’ and ‘Pre-Pottery’, and each into two periods, ‘A’ and ‘B’. Other scientists assigned names to remnants they found according to the area of excavation, and others used broader naming methods based on geographical location, such as ‘coastal civilization’.
Some archaeologists used the name ‘Early Stone Age’ for the period before the use of pottery and ‘Late Stone Age’ for the period after. The names First, Second, Third, and Fourth Modern Stone Age were also used.
The Modern Stone Age could be divided into two segments, early and late, according to a comprehensive naming method that covers all remnants found in the Early Modern Stone Age.
Based on findings in several sites in Palestine and Jordan, the civilizations found in those areas could be categorized according to period. The Early Stone Age comprises Pre-Pottery A and B and the Late Stone Age comprises the Yarmouk civilization and Pottery A and B. The first stage was marked for simple agriculture, with man still depending to a great extent on hunting for sustenance. The late period saw the use of pottery utensils and better farming.
The Early Modern Stone Age
Pre-Pottery A and B
This stage covers the period that Kenyon called ‘interim’, stretching from the Modern Stone Age to Pre-Pottery A and B. The interim period here is considered part of the stage, depending on fossils found in layers from that epoch in Jericho. Stone utensils from this stage were more advanced than their counterparts from the Natoufi tools, featuring spearheads with striations and objects with sharp double edges.
The remnants of hunted animals found in Palestine dating from that period were mostly bones of deer, livestock, pigs and foxes, indicating that life in this period was no different from the earlier period, with sustenance relying primarily on hunting.
The only other site besides Jericho in which this civilization was represented is Wadi Al-Fallah on the Palestinian coast near Haifa. Judging by the half-life of radioactive carbon found in the area, it was determined that the findings date back to 8,000-4,000 BC.
In Jericho, Kenyon uncovered circular homes made of mud, with the walls slanting slightly inward. There was also a stairwell leading down to the homes, built beneath the ground. The most significant architectural finding on the site, however, was the indicators of the defense system, made up of a wall, a tower and a moat. A section of the wall was found on the western side standing 3.9 meters high and 1.5 meters wide. On the inside of the wall was built a tower some 8.5 meters high and with a staircase from top to bottom. Similar circular homes were found elsewhere in the northern Middle East, such as Tal Al-Mreibet and Tal Usoud in Syria.
Late Modern Stone Age
This stage was marked for man’s first use of pottery to make tools. It appears that Palestine, like other Mediterranean areas, witnessed major climatic changes at the end of the Early Modern Stone Age and the beginning of the Late Modern Stone Age.
The stone utensils dating from the Pre-Pottery period ‘A’ are marked for striated spearheads, double-edged knives, chisels, axes, and sickles. Although remnants of hay, wheat and fig seeds were also found, there were indicators that hunting still played a major role in daily life.
It is not known until now whether this period ended in Jericho due to natural causes, such as earthquakes, or at the hands of newcomers, but Kenyon mentioned that indicators of migration between this age and the following one have been uncovered.
The Modern Stone Age Pre-Pottery ‘B’, which dates to 7,000-6,000 BC, introduced visible advances in production, as man learned to tame animals. There was also a change in architecture and tool making. Tools were now made with long, slender razors, homes became geometric, and floors and walls were treated with mud.
As for the economy, it appears that man still relied somewhat on hunting to support farming. In Jericho were discovered the remnants of some tamed animals, such as dogs, goats, and bucks. Farming in this period was varied, as confirmed by the finding of remnants of hay, wheat, pea, and lentil seeds in Jericho.
Pottery
In the Jericho area, the Pre-Pottery epoch was followed by pa period when people learned to manufacture pottery utensils that were colored and smoothed. The pottery of period ‘A’ was marked for simple designs involving the use of pottery mixed with hay. Decorations were predominantly red in color on a cream backdrop and usually took the shape of triangles or simple squiggly lines.
Remnants from this period reveal that man used carving to make domiciles. Kenyon mentioned that it is difficult to determine if Jericho was evacuated before the beginning of the Modern Stone Age or if the area was destroyed by newcomers. In any case, Kenyon asserts that the area was empty of inhabitants for a time between the end of the Early Modern Stone Age and the beginning of the Late.
The second Early Modern Stone Age
Rectangular homes made of mud brick different in shape from those used before were uncovered in Jericho. This period was marked with considerable development in pottery making and stone making.
In addition to Jericho, scientists found several sites in Palestine from this period.
The countries of the Near East region witnessed many of the advances and inventions of prehistoric times, and Palestine is a wonderful example.
Rizeq Safouri is a Member of the Scientific Research Center
They're still in the stone age.
He's a Palestinian scientist, an academic. If he says Palestinians were here 1,000,000 years ago making tools from rocks, it must be true.
"I used to smoke marijuana. But I'll tell you something: I would only smoke it in the late evening. Oh, occasionally the early evening, but usually the late evening - or the mid-evening. Just the early evening, midevening and late evening. Occasionally, early afternoon, early midafternoon, or perhaps the late mid-afternoon. Oh, sometimes the early-mid-late-early morning...but never at dusk."
I was joking.
You have your conferences mixed up. The 6000 BC conference on global climate change was held in Damascus.
The arms control conference in 3000 BC was held in Athens. The SPPC (Society for the Prevention of the Proliferation of Chariots) or the No-Cha's as they are more commonly known, were there to protest and call for the abolishment of the wheel.
a.cricket
Sorry I don't buy this; never will.
Written records are the only basis on which to interpolate and extrapolate anything other than direct physical evidence found.
I tune out when "experts" begin assembling a complex social structure, how the family interacted and what they typically had for breakfast on the basis of one found toe bone.
That analysis is alittle like saying Americans existed in N orth America or Turks lived in Turkey in the stone Age.
All of the above are migrants.
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