#early humans

[the-cricket-chirps]

Bison From Cave Of Altamira, Santander, Spain, ca. 10,000 B.C, with artist’s interpretation.

[thetidemice]

my paleo inspired monotypes 💞

[wizard-legs]

I really love the theory about Venus figurines being self portraits drawn from the sculptor’s point of view; I’m not sure how much credence the theory holds but I enjoy it!! An homage to those inspired artists

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 14: Ancient History VI and Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct grouping.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration.

I am particularly in need of more specific non-European suggestions in particular, but all suggestions are welcome.

[futurebird]

Is this "the first human-made textbook"?

Huge drawings of touchable animal tracks would be an ideal teaching tool for young hunters & trackers. These rock carvings in Namibia are hard to date, but the paper estimates they are at least 5000 to 7000 years old.

The authors of the paper sought out the assistance of local hunter and trackers to better identify the animals represented in the rock art. The range of species identified and the specificity of the depicted species was remarkable, showing the detail and depth of human knowledge of the natural world even thousands of years ago. (The trackers could tell the age and sex of many of the animals represented by the prints.)

Some of the carvings are in a narrow crevice, almost like it was a "test" where the student could move through the prints identifying them by touch. (that's just my guess for how they used it, the authors of the paper are more circumspect in their ideas about what this was for)

Some of the prints are from animals who no longer live in the region, possibly pushing the age of the site deeper into the past.

[alpaca-clouds]

Neurodiversity from an Evolutionary Perspective

I spoke yesterday about how neurodiversity is a bit of Schrödinger's Disability today. We neurodiverse people get all the backlash of being diabled, and all the discrimination, but we rarely get disability benefits of any sort.

But today I want to talk about something else: Evolutionarily speaking most neurodiverse people are not disabled. Our disability stems entirely from the fact that we just do not function in a 9-5 capitalist hellscape.

Just look at it from the perspective that our species actually evolved to gather and hunt - and maybe also cultivate some stuff. (Given how long ago we did that, you could argue that this also shows in our genes.)

See, by now a lot of specialists think, that both autism and ADHD are very underdiagnosed, because even within the field a lot of people are looking for a certain, stereotypic way for the neurodiversity to show. With modern diagnostic criteria there is a good chance that about 5% of all people have ADHD and/or autism. Which is... a lot.

But the thing is that it actually makes a lot of sense. Because evolutionarily it would totally have been an advantage.

Let me talk about something we did at university yesterday. We got a lot of random shapes on a picture and we were supposed to find the T and the X between these shapes. Something I could do within less than a second, while three of my fellow students were unable to find the T (which was rotated) at all. Because my brain processes visual information completely differently.

And this... is evolutionarily an advantage, right? Just imagine being a hunter-gatherer and going through the forest or the savanna. And now you have someone among you, who is able to see a prey animal instantly, because of how they process visual information. Or who realizes them being stalked by a predator. Or them finding fruits and other things.

Neurodiverse people are also very capable of having a very different approach to problem solving. Which again would have a small tribe easier survive. Doubly so with the hyperfocus that neurodiverse people can have. Which totally is an evolutionary advantage for a group to have. Who knows. Maybe the first person to make fire was a neurodiverse person hyperfocusing on this task.

Also, there is the very common believe that people with ADHD specifically were probably very well adapt at hunting for several reasons.

So, yeah. This is so very common, because evolutionarily it was an advantage. From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense that it is so very common.

You have to remember: Modern Homo Sapiens as a species is around 160 000 years old. We settled down sometime between 10 000 and 15 000 years ago. So, just from an evolutionary perspective us having settled down is a very, very new thing. And not to mention, that the modern working culture has been around for not even quite 100 years. Office jobs have been a thing for even less.

And I can tell you: If you leave me out and about outside. I am good. Like, give me some nature observatory duty or something, putting up trail cams, what not. I am good. I can work for 12 hours straight (because hyperfocus). But sit me in the office for just 6 hours, and you will have me crawling up the walls, because that is just not what my brain does.

Ideally I am gonna need a job, that involves a lot of research and going outside. Which is why I hope to either go into Digital Humanities or the Environmental Geoinformatics. Because that is stuff I work well with.

If you gotta put me in an office job, you might as well shoot me right. Because my brain just doed not work like that.

[mindblowingscience]

Early humans migrated from Africa 84,000 years ago to populate the rest of the world by following river routes through Jordan - not going via the Red Sea as previously thought, according to a new scientific study. Scientists from the University of Southampton and Shantou University in China carried out field work in Jordan's rift valley where they found hand tools buried in the sediment of now-dried up rivers. Using luminescence dating techniques they traced them back to around 84,000 years ago. Modern humans evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago and migrated from the continent in several stages to populate Asia and then Europe. It was previously thought that when sea levels were low they travelled from the horn of Africa to southwestern Arabia via the Red Sea. But the discovery of the tools seems to confirm another theory that they took a land-only route to the north towards Jordan.

Continue Reading

[sinosauropteryxjuice]

Charles R. Knight, Cro-Magnon Artists in Font-de-Gaume, 1920

[ancientstuff]

This is interesting. And for me, unexpected.

[hirotheinkling]

Here’s my illustration of a Neanderthal man carrying a deer that he just hunted in what is now France! Although the upper body of Neanderthals was very similar to that of modern humans, there are some subtle but distinctive differences between their skeletons. The collarbone of Neanderthals is very long, the chest is generally larger and deeper, and the rib cage is slightly flared at the base. The strong arms show marked muscle attachment sites, and the Neanderthal forearm is relatively short. The fingers are short, but the fingertips are broad. The scapula (shoulder blade) is wide from side to side, and Neanderthals most likely had a powerful upper arm swing.

[therottenkingsreckoning]

You know what's something that should exist, if it doesn't already? A horror movie centering entirely around a group of early humans, being hunted by some prehistoric big fuck-off beast or something

Would also love to see at least one supernatural horror story set in Ancient Sumeria or Mesopotamia, using their gods & mythical monsters

Gimme that Early Civilization Horror, back when the gods were at your doorstep and death at a moment's notice was very real

[the-cricket-chirps]

Cave Paintings

Ekain Cave, Sastarrain Valley, Spain

Magdalenian period (10,000- 14,500 years ago)

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question : Assorted Performances Winners: Round 1, Heat I

These Questions are the winners from the previous iteration.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All time periods accepted. (Yes we have Live Aid.)

[ancientorigins]

It has long been believed that humans first arrived in the Americas 13,000 years ago. However, in recent years evidence has been found that hints at a much earlier arrival.

[zi-olan]

any time i hear about some advancement or discovery in physics, whether it's astronomical or subatomic, im struck by this sense that, despite all our technological progress, our methods for figuring that stuff out has not changed much in the past two or three million years: "let's hit these two rocks together, i wanna see what happens"