Abstract engraved stone (Valdivia culture), 1250 BC (30 x 31.5 cm), The culture of Valdivia developed along the coastal region of Ecuador.

These giraffe images are about 18 feet high, located on a high, curving slope at Dabous, Niger in the Aïr Mountains. They were made ca. 7000 BCE. More than 800 smaller rock engravings are nearby. Photo Matthew Paulson, 2015. Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; cropped at left.

This is really cool in and of itself but it's especially worth noting that the Aïr massif has been a giraffe-less desert for thousands of years, and it is artworks like this that inspired theories that the sahara's climate was wetter in the early holocene (later proven right).

The Ksar Draa in Timimoun, Algeria, is an ancient ruin that stands out in the middle of an ocean of dunes, and it's history has been lost over the centuries. The only news related to it is that for a certain period of time it was occupied by the Jews of the Timimoun region

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— Max Paschall, The Lost Forest Gardens of Europe

I've heard of this a few times by now. A key followup question, however, would be what changed this? Cereal agriculture doesn't seem to fit as the culprit. Going by Wikipedia the most striking hazelnut discoveries come from around 6000 BCE in the British Isles (currently no mention of any massive importance on the continent), where agriculture catches on only in the 4th millennium BCE. The Mesolithic on the other hand does coincide with the warm Atlantic period which might provide a better answer.

so I guess the knife works because whether a cut is made depends upon pressure, not force, and

pressure = force / area

so the narrower you make the blade, the more pressure you apply with the same force.

this seems pretty clear to be looking at a knife. But I honestly feel like I never would’ve thought of a knife. I would’ve had to see other sharp things first

and even then, would I make the jump from “I can find something sharp” to “I can make something sharp by sharpening it”?

Unless there’s some weird hypothetical world, i feel like you’d be able to generalize from nails (or if in the hypothetical you’re not human but still from earth) claws.

Probably you’d get to pointy stick before knife. first naturally pointy, then break it in a way that makes it pointy, then maybe some way of sharpening it to be pointy, then finding someway to get a line of shapness instead of a point.

For the vast majority of human prehistory (ca. 3 million BCE — 8000 BCE), knifes have indeed not been made by sharpening anything, they've been made by knapping rocks to leave a natural sharp edge. The best option is obsidian, as already known to Homo erectus. Then again, sharpening sticks is obviously an older technology still — known even to chimpanzees. OP's question is moot in that probably no human has ever needed to invent the general concept of sharpening, which is knowledge that predates our species.

Of course you still can't exactly make a wooden knife worth a damn no matter how sharp you hone it. Getting from any random sharp stick or rock to specifically a knife requires first developing a whole variety of handaxes. I would wager also bone/horn tools (good for things like scrapers and awls; also, shell razors), though unfortunately as organic materials these do not fossilize well enough to be clearly attested in the archeological record for us to be certain about this. Still, these (1) can be created by breaking but also (2) can be easily honed with stone, much more so than stones themselves.

Honed stone tools though are indeed an exclusively modern human technology, apparently first invented in Australia ca. 44000 BCE and independently in Japan ca. 38000 BCE (both fairly marginal places — maybe invented by necessity after being left outside of Pleistocene obsidian trade networks?). They do not spread worldwide until the Neolithic, which is indeed late enough to overlap with the knowledge of the working of natural copper and meteoric iron. Looking up some details of this on Wikipedia I even stumbled on this interesting quote: "Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself. The European Battle Axe culture [the first Indo-Europeans of Fennoscandia, 2800–2300 BCE] used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with moulding carved in the stone."

Venetian Glass Beads Found in Arctic Alaska Predate Arrival of Columbus

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/venetian-glass-beads-arctic-alaska-09357.html

Reminds me a bit of the case of Roman-design oil lamps in Palau (though probably manufactured “only” in mainland Southeast Asia).

Timeline of humanity

I put this recently together for a forum: a rough timeline of humanity, on a scale of 500 years = 1 row.

2000 CE — Modern Era 1500 CE — Renaissance, Age of Discovery 1000 CE — Middle Ages 500 CE — Migration Era; birth of Islam; peopling of Iceland and Madagascar 0 CE — Roman Empire, birth of Christianity 500 BCE — Classical Greece; birth of Buddhism 1000 BCE — Iron Age begins; peopling of Polynesia 1500 BCE — Indo-Iranian invasions of Middle East; Vedic phase of Hinduism 2000 BCE — Stonehenge built; alphabetic writing invented 2500 BCE — Old Kingdom of Egypt, pyramids built; Bantu expansion begins 3000 BCE — beginning of written history at Sumer; domestication of the camel 3500 BCE — desertification of Sahara; domestication of the horse; Proto-Indo-European spoken 4000 BCE — birth of agriculture in Mesoamerica; earliest known cities · · · 5000 BCE · · · 6000 BCE — use of copper and wool is invented; Doggerland sinks · · · 7000 BCE — birth of agriculture in East Asia · · · 8000 BCE — American & Eurasian megafauna extinctions · · · 9000 BCE — Beringia sinks, America disconnected from Siberia · · · 10000 BCE — end of the Ice Age, birth of agriculture in the Middle East · · · 12000 BCE — oldest known evidence of warfare · · · 13000 BCE — the latest green period of Sahara commences · · · 14000 BCE — oldest estimated age of Proto-Afro-Asiatic · · · 17000 BCE — latest established date for peopling of the Americas · · · 18000 BCE — oldest known pottery · · · 20000 BCE · · · 21000 BCE — Last Glacial Maximum, sea levels 125 meters lower · · · 23000 BCE — oldest known permanent settlement · · · 25000 BCE — Neanderthalians go extinct · · · 29000 BCE — oldest known ceramic figures · · · 30000 BCE — domestication of the dog; desertification of Sahara · · · 35000 BCE — the latest glaciation (“Ice Age”) begins · · · 40000 BCE — the age of the known remains of Denisovans · · · 45000 BCE — the start of the peopling of Europe by modern humans; oldest known cave art · · · 50000 BCE — a green period of Sahara commences · · · 55000 BCE · · · 60000 BCE · · · 65000 BCE — the peopling of Australia · · · 70000 BCE — the major Out of Africa migration of modern humans begins · · · 75000 BCE — Toba supervolcano eruption; global human population dips as low as some tens of thousands · · · 80000 BCE · · · 85000 BCE · · · 90000 BCE — desertification of Sahara · · · 95000 BCE · · · 100 000 BCE — oldest known stone buildings · · · · · · · · · 110 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 120 000 BCE — a green period of Sahara commences · · · · · · · · · 130 000 BCE · · · 135 000 BCE — end of the glaciation period before the latest · · · 140 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 150 000 BCE — ancestors of the Khoi-San migrate to southern Africa · · · · · · · · · 160 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 170 000 BCE — oldest approximations for the age of clothing · · · · · · · · · 180 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 190 000 BCE — the glaciation period before the latest begins · · · · · · · · · 200 000 BCE — oldest known stone-tipped spears (possibly invented much earlier still) · · · · · · · · · 210 000 BCE — oldest known signs of modern humans in Southern Europe · · · · · · · · · 220 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 230 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 240 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 250 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 260 000 BCE — oldest known signs of modern humans in Southern Africa · · · · · · · · · 270 000 BCE — oldest known split of human Y-chromosomal haplogroups · · · · · · · · · 280 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 290 000 BCE · · · · · · · · · 300 000 BCE — oldest known signs of modern humans (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco).

This jade disc was carved over 4,000 years ago. Placed in the grave as part of a ritual ceremony, they indicate high status. While their specific function is unknown, an ancient text describes them as objects held by high ranking nobles at gatherings. This association made such discs very valuable to later rulers, who wished to demonstrate their mandate to rule by collecting them. On view in our new Chinese galleries. 

“Ritual Disc (Bi),” around 2250 BCE (Liangzhu culture, around 2400–2250 BCE), made in China 

Tumblr, we need to talk

*inhales deep breath*

THE SPHINX IS OLD AS BALLS,

Probably even older

the conspiracy websites, of course, believe that a mere 10,000 years is far too most. nay, behold, the 800,000 year sphinx:

https://www.ancient-code.com/scientists-geological-evidence-shows-the-great-sphinx-is-800000-years-old/

i wonder what the oldest anyone has claimed the sphinx was. personally I think it was made 600 million years ago by our ediacaran forebearers

Do we actually *know* that people weren’t farming before then, though? Perhaps it’s a lifestyle that people would adopt and then abandon.

Any farming extensive enough to be people’s main source of sustenance for longer periods should definitely leave traces, in e.g. the pollen record, in people’s teeth and bone isotope ratios, or in waste pit remains. Extremely sporadic farming on an “one field once in ten years” scale (the early parts of the “shifting farming” stage in the header chart) would be probably undetectable, but probably also quite far from farming in the Neolithic sense.

The Artist Converting Abandoned Structures Into Designer Bags 

In the ‘Valley Of Secret Values’ Los Angeles-based artist, Thrashbird, has transformed the crumbling concrete monoliths of an abandoned power plant in Lime, Oregon, into a visually arresting site of outdoor art.

There’s going to be a very confused archeologist looking at one of these a bunch of centuries from now.

The first museum was apparently established about 2,500 years ago, by the daughter of the world’s first known serious archeologist: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennigaldi-Nanna%27s_museum

Sister of Belshezzar, of “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” fame, no less.

Indigenous people have been on the far northeastern edge of Canada for most of the last 10,000 years, moving in shortly after the ice retreated from the Last Glacial Maximum. Archaeological evidence suggests that people with distinct cultural traditions inhabited the region at least three different times with a possible hiatus for a period between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago.

Now, researchers who’ve examined genetic evidence from mitochondrial DNA provide evidence that two of those groups, known as the Maritime Archaic and Beothuk, brought different matrilines to the island, adding further support to the notion that those groups had distinct population histories. The findings are published in Current Biology on October 12.

“Our paper suggests, based purely on mitochondrial DNA, that the Maritime Archaic were not the direct ancestors of the Beothuk and that the two groups did not share a very recent common ancestor,” says Ana Duggan of McMaster University. “This in turn implies that the island of Newfoundland was populated multiple times by distinct groups.”

The relationship between the older Maritime Archaic population and Beothuk hadn’t been clear from the archaeological record. With permission from the current-day indigenous community, Duggan and her colleagues, led by Hendrik Poinar, examined the mitochondrial genome diversity of 74 ancient remains from the island together with the archaeological record and dietary isotope profiles. All samples were collected from tiny amounts of bone or teeth.

The sample set included a Maritime Archaic subadult more than 7,700 years old found in the L'Anse Amour burial mound, the oldest known burial mound in North America and one of the first manifestations of the Maritime Archaic tradition. The majority of the Beothuk samples came from the Notre Dame Bay area, where the Beothuk retreated in response to European expansions. Most of those samples are from people that lived on the island within the last 300 years. The DNA evidence showed that the two groups didn’t share a common maternal ancestor in the recent past, but rather one that coalesces sometime in the more distant past.

“These data clearly suggest that the Maritime Archaic people are not the direct maternal ancestors of the Beothuk and thus that the population history of the island involves multiple independent arrivals by indigenous peoples followed by habitation for many generations,” the researchers write. “This shows the extremely rich population dynamics of early peoples on the furthest northeastern edge of the continent.”

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Journal Reference:

no one ever says that Rome needed help from aliens to build their empire

#l laughed for days when i found out that #ancient egyptians used water to reduce friction and move blocks for distances #and that this was literally DEPICTED ON THEIR HIEROGLYPHICS #but ~western archaeologists~ #thought that the pouring of water depicted ~superstitious rituals~ #jfc

As an archeology major, I can vouch for this being absolutely true:

Any time we see something we don’t understand, we mark it down as ritual purposes. It’s actually a catch-all euphemism for “We have absolutely no clue what these people were doing here yet so until we work it out we’ll pretend it was something to do with their religion.”

And yeah, sometimes it is a white people thing. When white people went into Canada the natives introduced them to the delights of maple syrup. The white people asked “Well, how did you ever work out this sap was edible and delicious.”

The native people responded, “Oh, well, Squirrel showed us.”

White people: Hahahaha They’re off on that totem animal spirit guide thing again.

It wasn’t until this century that scientists actually observed squirrels in that area cutting holes in sugar maples, waiting for the sap to crystallize, and eating it.

The native people were actually being literal and the white people thought they were being metaphorical. Sigh.

Conversely, the reason nobody thinks Rome was built by aliens is pretty firmly connected to the fact that we still have around sizable amounts of the Romans’ original literature about how to do civil engineering. You can bet that if the Empire had been pre-literate or barely literate, and had remained so up until its defeat; or if a substantially larger proportion of its literature had been lost; people would have all kinds of mythical explanations for aqueducts.

Compare this also with the pre-Indo-European megaliths around Europe, nearly universally explained in folk belief as the work of “giants” and not “regular people who knew a couple things about stoneworking”. (I don’t think archeologists have ever been fooled about this, given that the knowledge of erecting pillars had been known all along by the Romans, the Greeks, the Egyptians etc.)

As for “taking literal explanations as spiritual” though — there’s the additional complication that sometimes originally literal explanations lose their transparency even for the original speakers and end up transcending into mythology. It’s not on this post, but the Easter Island statue thing may have been a good example, where by European contact the explanation “the statues walked” had passed into myth and the actual engineering skills behind had been lost. Or less flashily: like a third of all folk idioms ever. I wouldn’t be surprized if there were people on this site who knew the idiom “to put the cart before the horse” but did not know you’re actually supposed to put them in the opposite order.

Ten rooms in the rubble of Babel

1. The tower has a stump that whistles sometimes in the wind. There are people living up there. Yes, even there, in those rooms without roofs or walls! They have made for themselves a tapping, clicking language that can be heard through the storm. On quiet days you can hear their stories echoing down the broken spine of arches that leads to what was once the central square.

2. There is a room made up of blocks that before they made the tower made the town, that before they made the town made a temple that was lost beneath them both. The people who dragged the blocks out from the rubble have not yet built a language, but they are borrowing the words of one from their neighbours on all sides. It will be a beautiful patchwork when it comes.

3. There is a room under a staircase that is filled with old velvets. The staircase goes nowhere now. The velvets are wrapped around sleeping children and there are apple trees pushing through the atrium outside. Their language is a language of touch and has not yet concerned itself with colour; it may be that many of them were blinded in the wrack.

4. Down beneath the old city there was always an undercity. That is open to the sunlight, these days, but one can climb down there to the underside of the undercity, where pipes stretch off into the darkness and old wines drip from cracked-open cellars. The people who live in the pipes are emptying the city’s old storerooms, bit by bit, and their language is slow and low and echo-proof.

5. There is a room constructed from piled slabs of gold, like the hollowed-out heart of a dragon hoard. The slabs must have fallen some distance. They are embossed with stories that no-one will ever read again, and they say their old artist lives in that room and weeps at their ruin, and at the ruin of her memory. Her language is savage and sibilant and she is perhaps the only speaker; nobody else being willing to go into that dimly glittering tunnel.

6. Lift this stone and there is a perfect cube out of the rock beneath. Who knows what it was in the city? If anything was buried there it is long lost. There is a language brewing here but nobody to speak it. Perhaps it will become the language of ghosts.

7. But we do know that they buried the dead on the Southern slopes. There are long ranks of marker stones there, and at night the slopes are empty and the dust blows over them. But there are tents down there too and people living who tend the graves from time to time. The language growing here has something of a song about it.

8. There is a great avalanche-spread of bricks leading down to the river, and people come there to dig for the things that they and others have lost. There is a shack beside it. By night it lights up purple with demon-fire lamps quarried from the ruins, and the people there speak the old language, but in a whisper.

9. There is an old well from which one can see the stars. Stay here for the night, and you will find yourself infected with its language too. Your only hope is to head to the mountains, which is where those who speak the star-language all go eventually.

10. And then there is the ruined spire. You must never sleep there, unless you are sick of language and long to lose it entirely.

realistic indiana jones movies

Related: Indiana Jones and the Tenure Application