Posted on 03/18/2006 2:39:45 PM PST by blam
Before Scandinavia: These could be the first skiers
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
BEIJING – Move over Bode. You may have competition you don't know about - among a sturdy skiing clan in northwest China. They are central Asians, Mongols, and Kazaks, living in the remote Altay mountains of Xinjiang province, where some claim skiing was first conceived.
Using curved planks whose design dates back 2,000 years, the Altaic peoples are formidable skiers. They might not win a medal on perfectly groomed Olympic trails. But they can break their own paths, track elk for days in deep snow, and capture them live.
They don't zig-zag through slalom courses or bump down moguls. But using a single pole, they plunge straight down mountainsides in a blaze of efficiency, and climb hills with a speed and grace that has wowed the few Western experts who have witnessed their prowess.
"These skiers wouldn't do well in the Olympics," says pro skier Nils Larsen. "But the Olympians from Turin couldn't make their skis do what the Altaic skiers can.
"The Altaics learn at age three, and by seven they are really good. They saw us skiing, swerving and turning, and they thought it was the funniest thing," Mr. Larsen adds. "For them, going straight down the mountain is the manly thing. They think it is silly to turn, unless you have to."
In fact, until a few years ago, no one in the West's serious ski community was aware of the Altaic skiers, and no one knew that "ancient" skis were in use anywhere on the planet. Archeologists have long known about long skis with animal-skin bottoms preserved in Swedish bogs and depicted in old cave paintings.
But Larsen, a telemark-skiing expert from Washington state, heard a few years ago from friends on a scholarly expedition in the Altay region who saw locals using what had been identified as aboriginal skis.
For ski buffs, the discovery was exciting, spawning informal visits by foreigners desiring more information about how old skis were made, and how locals used them. This January, some 40 Altay herdsmen took part in what was billed as an "ancient-skiing contest" (except it wasn't "ancient" for the locals).
"My father told me about these older skis," says J.Suhee, a Mongolian diplomat raised in the Altaic region and now in Beijing. "But they were for survival, not for sports."
The skis used today in Altay are not unlike the 4,500-year-old skis found preserved in bogs near Hoting, Sweden. Local Altays hack them out of a single piece of lightweight wood - spruce or white pine - and wrap them with hairy, brittle horse-shank skin.
The skins are permanently attached to the bottom of the ski, providing a "grip" going uphill, and a natural "brake" going down. (The skins stay tight on the frame since they are soaked and stretched over the form, and then shrink as they dry.)
The skier's foot is kept in place using what is known in the West as an "arctic binding." Four holes are drilled through the ski, with rawhide binding threaded through in the shape of an "X." The foot is slid into that X, and it keeps the foot relatively stable.
"The skis have a distinctive shape, and the designs we saw are fairly uniform. But they seem more like cousins of our [modern] skis, than brothers and sisters," says Larsen, whose business card reads, "minister of ski culture."
Differences in ski styles are major. The Altay skis are at least twice as wide as even the latest hourglass-shaped alpine skis. And unlike modern skis, which have the boot clamped into place, these skis require much more maneuvering with foot and pole to steer the skis.
Balance is completely different. Altay skiers do not lean forward in a knee-intensive crouch. Rather, going down the mountain, they lean far back and use the pole as ballast. The pole tends to get used on one side or the other - not on both sides, as a kayaker would use a paddle.
Larsen, who videotaped the making and use of the Altay skis, says he was impressed with the local talent: "I've taught skiing 25 years, so I know when someone has good balance and .... they are naturals. The ski is like an extension of their body. You can tell they are totally confident on the ride."
Altay snows are so deep that cross-country skis are ineffective. But with their "ancient" skis and highly developed stamina, many Altaic skiers go for 12 hours at a time. They hunt for days, following deer, elk, bear, wolves, and other game through deep snows. Eventually the game tires, and often local Altays will tie them up. "They have scads of captured elk, which they use for antlers," Larsen says.
The origins of skiing are disputed. Research of ancient skiing methods is not highly funded. But anthropologists and ski-history buffs debate two main origins: Scandinavia, where the oldest preserved skis are found, and the Altaic area. Of late,a consensus has been forming among scholars and ski enthusiasts that it was the Altaic area.
Civilization developed earlier there. Altaic peoples may have brought skis to Sweden or Norway. Or the common-sense concept of skiing may have arisen independently in each place.
On Jan. 25, days before the ancient-skiing contest, China's state-run news service Xinhua announced that China had essentially invented skiing.
Citing newly discovered Altaic regional cave paintings of four hunters on boards with poles in their hands, chasing cattle and horses - the Xinhua story proposed that "Chinese were adept skiers in the Old Stone Age," and that skiing originated there 100 to 200 centuries ago.
Historians did not rush to embrace the theory. The ethnic Han Chinese, let alone a corporate state called China, did not exist in this part of the world in stone-age days, 10,000 years ago, they note.
I would like to disagree with you but, I've come to respect your knowledge of northern people. We'll let it ride...for now.(Ahem)
And maybe you weren't around for 2 million years, but that's your problem.
LOL...that will not go over well with our resident anti-Caucazoid.
That doesn't mean that they don't also have the same ancestry as the European, American Indian and East Asian people.
However, appearances can be deceiving!
It's a shame you don't want to spend a little time reading a very good book and theory which has much geolocial science to validate it's theory.
That ends our discussion. I'm not closed minded. You obviously are. There is nothing to be learned fom closed minded people.
However, most of the ancestors of today's European people (and American Indians and East Asians) lived in an area to the NW of Greater India. This was an ice-free zone and gave tremendous access to big game.
After the glaciation had retreated, human populations moved out of India to the East, the North and the West. Another group had lived in the Middle East and they too moved out to the East, the North and the West. The ancestral Europeans did the same, plus one group moved to the South East.
Through the simple expedient of swapping females with adjoining or neighboring tribes, genes were swapped all over the place.
India has its fair share of human types, as does Europe and Asia.
The polar peoples, however, have been a bit isolated for several thousand years, and have developed (and spread around) some characteristics that better adapt them to Arctic climate.
I think that we will see more of these China-first articles in the next few years.
You might pay attention to debating the issues.
Actually, to put it simply, we all have the same DNA and genes. Some of us have certain "switches" turned on, and in some of us they are turned off.
See http://freerepublic.com/~daveloneranger/links?U=%2Ffocus%2Ff-news%2Fbrowse for a specific discussion.
Here's a descent book on them:
Voyages Of The Pyramid Builders
Book Description
" Is it a mere coincidence that pyramids are found across our globe? Did cultures ranging across vast spaces in geography and time, such as the ancient Egyptians; early Buddhists; the Maya, Inca, Toltec, and Aztec civilizations of the Americas; the Celts of the British Isles; and even the Mississippi Indians of pre-Columbian Illinois, simply dream the same dreams and envision the same structures? Scientist and tenured university professor Robert M. Schoch-one of the world's preeminent geologists in recasting the date of the Great Sphinx-believes otherwise. In this dramatic and meticulously reasoned book, Schoch, like anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl in his classic Kon-Tiki, argues that ancient cultures traveled great distances by sea. Indeed, he believes that primeval sailors traveled from the Eastern continent, primarily Southeast Asia, and spread the idea of pyramids across the Earth, involving the human species in a far greater degree of contact and exchange than experts have previously thought possible. "
Does freestyle aerial skiing count as an Alpine event? (It certainly ain't Nordic, if you assume Nordic = cross-country = flat.)
'Cuz in Italy last month Han Xiaopeng won gold for the men in that event, and Nina Li took the women's silver.
A massive shift of the continents blows a big whole in those old, tired "stories' which BTW, have very shakey arguments that try prove them. Anyways. As i said, I don't bother debating with those who know it all.
In fact, Type II diabetics with an insulin deficit can use cinnamon successfully, since the combined result of cinnamon and insulin is greater than the effect you would get with that much cinnamon alone.
The Sundaland hypothesis is coincident with the world's most prolific cinnamon growing land.
In fact, Sri Lanka (Cylon) has 800 different species of cinnamon, and uncounted varieties. Viet Nam continues to be the best spot on Earth for cinnamon.
If modern humanity developed it's initial tool kit in this area, modern humanity also managed to acquire a need, not just a liking, for cinnamon!
Yes. But I don't understand it very well. I have a new book on order, The Red Paint People - A Lost American Culture, by Bruce Bourque. I hope to learn some...the Red Paint People are believed to have some association with the 'Northern People.' We'll see.
Please check out Scandinavian Porphyria.
I hope you will share his theories. Ships however, assume that the continents were always as they are now. There is much newer goelogical evidence that people simply walked, that all land was connected at one time or another.
I'm pressed for time. hopefully another day
BTW, it's not necessary to move continents at all to change land shapes substantially. Just raise and lower the ocean several hundred feet at regular intervals. You wouldn't believe.
That's interesting about the cinnamon. I have never liked it and just recently heard my brother say it made him physically sick. So...
I think right now we don't have enough geologic evidence to prove or disprove the idea. On the other hand, we found a European style stone arrow head (actually a spear point) in the tailings of a well drilled on our land in Indianapolis.
This undoubtedly came from what had been the surface circa 35,000 BC.
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