The Stone Age, whose origin coincides with the discovery of the oldest known stone tools, which have been dated to some 3.3 million years ago, is usually divided into three separate periods — Paleolithic Period, Mesolithic Period, and Neolithic Period — based on the degree of sophistication in the fashioning and use of tools. (BRITANNICA)
The Pleistocene (= the Ice Age) is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700.
The Holocene (= Anthropocene Epoch) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years before present, after the last glacial period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene has seen the growth and impacts of the human species worldwide, including all its written history, development of major civilizations, and overall significant transition toward urban living in the present.
1) STONE AGE (PALEOLITHIC — NEOLITHIC — CHALCOLITHIC) (3,3 million-4000 BC)
2)
BRONZ AGE (3300-1200 BC)
3)
IRON AGE (1200-550 BC)
Quaternary is the current and most recent of the three periods of the CenozoicEra in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.588 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today). The informal term "Late Quaternary" refers to the past 0.5–1.0 million years.
The Quaternary Period is typically defined by the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets associated with Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that occurred.
In 1759 Giovanni Arduino proposed that the geological strata of northern Italy could be divided into four successive formations or "orders" (Italian: quattro ordini). The term "quaternary" was introduced by Jules Desnoyers in 1829 for sediments of France's Seine Basin that seemed clearly to be younger than TertiaryPeriodrocks.
The Quaternary Period follows the Neogene Period and extends to the present. The Quaternary covers the time span of glaciations classified as the Pleistocene, and includes the present interglacial time-period, the Holocene.
This places the start of the Quaternary at the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.6 million years ago. Prior to 2009, the Pleistocene was defined to be from 1.805 million years ago to the present, so the current definition of the Pleistocene includes a portion of what was, prior to 2009, defined as the Pliocene.
The 2.6 million years of the Quaternary represents the time during which recognizable humans existed. Over this geologically short time period, there has been relatively little change in the distribution of the continents due to plate tectonics.
The major geographical changes during this time period included the emergence of the Strait of Bosphorus and Skagerrak during glacial epochs, which respectively turned the Black Sea and Baltic Sea into fresh water, followed by their flooding (and return to salt water) by rising sea level; the periodic filling of the English Channel, forming a land bridge between Britain and the European mainland; the periodic closing of the Bering Strait, forming the land bridge between Asia and North America; and the periodic flash flooding of Scablands of the American Northwest by glacial water.
The climate was one of periodic glaciations with continental glaciers moving as far from the poles as 40 degrees latitude. There was a major extinction of large mammals in Northern areas at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. Many forms such as saber-toothed cats, mammoths, mastodons, glyptodonts, etc., became extinct worldwide. Others, including horses, camels and American cheetahs became extinct in North America.
Northern Hemisphere glaciation during the last ice ages. The accumulation of 3 to 4 km thick ice sheets caused a sea level lowering of about 120 m. Also, the Alps and the Himalayas were covered by glaciers. Winter sea ice coverage was much more limited in the south.
The Quaternary glaciation, also known as the Quaternary Ice Age or Pleistocene glaciation, is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period that began 2.58 Ma (million years ago), and is ongoing. It is one of five major glacial periods or "ice ages" in Earth's history since about 2.5 billion years ago; the preceding one, known as the Karoo Ice Age, lasted from about 360 to 260 Ma (Carboniferous to Mid-Permian). Outside of these ice ages, the Earth seems to have been completely ice-free, even at high latitudes.
During the Quaternary Glaciation, ice sheets expanded, notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland, and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere (for example, the Laurentide ice sheet). The major effects of the ice age were the erosion of land and the deposition of material, both over large parts of the continents; the modification of river systems; the creation of millions of lakes, including the development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins; changes in sea level; the isostatic adjustment of the Earth's crust; flooding; and abnormal winds. The ice sheets themselves, by raising the albedo (the extent to which the radiant energy of the Sun is reflected from Earth) created significant feedback to further cool the climate. These effects reshaped entire environments on land and in the oceans, and their associated biological communities.
Charles Lyell introduced the term "pleistocene" in 1839 to describe strata in Sicily that had at least 70% of their molluscan fauna still living today. This distinguished it from the older Pliocene epoch, which Lyell had originally thought to be the youngest fossil rock layer. He constructed the name “Pleistocene” (“Most New” or “Newest”) from the Greekπλεῖστος, pleīstos, “most,” and καινός, kainós(latinized as cænus), “new”; this contrasting with the immediately preceding Pliocene ("More New" or "Newer", from πλείων, pleíōn, "more", and kainós; usual spelling: Pliocene), and the immediately subsequent Holocene ("wholly new" or "entirely new", from ὅλος, hólos, "whole", and kainós) epoch, which extends to the present time.
The Pleistocene often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age) is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world's most recent period of repeated glaciations. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology.
The Pleistocene is the first epoch of the QuaternaryPeriod or sixth epoch of the CenozoicEra. In the ICS timescale, the Pleistocene is divided into four stages or ages, the Gelasian, Calabrian, Middle Pleistocene (unofficially the 'Chibanian') and Upper Pleistocene (unofficially the 'Tarantian'). In addition to this international subdivision, various regional subdivisions are often used.
During this last glacial period there were alternating episodes of glacier advance and retreat. Within the last glacial period the Last Glacial Maximum was approximately 22,000 years ago. While the general pattern of global cooling and glacier advance was similar, local differences in the development of glacier advance and retreat make it difficult to compare the details from continent to continent (see picture of ice core data below for differences). Approximately 13,000 years ago, the Late Glacial Maximum began. The end of the Younger Dryas about 11,700 years ago marked the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch, which includes the Holocene glacial retreat.
From the point of view of human archaeology, the last glacial period falls in the Paleolithic and early Mesolithic periods. When the glaciation event started, Homo sapiens were confined to lower latitudes and used tools comparable to those used by Neanderthals in western and central Eurasia and by Homo erectus in Asia. Near the end of the event, Homo sapiensmigrated into Eurasia and Australia. Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived the last glacial period in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover. The retreat of the glaciers 15,000 years ago allowed groups of humans from Asia to migrate to the Americas.
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers c. 95% of human technological prehistory. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene c. 11,650 cal BP.
The Paleolithic is followed in Europe by the Mesolithic [Middle Stone Age], although the date of the transition varies geographically by several thousand years.
During the Paleolithic, hominins grouped together in small societies such as bands, and subsisted by gathering plants and fishing, hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knappedstone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree.
About 50,000 years ago, there was a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts. In Africa, bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record. The first evidence of human fishing is also noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa. Archaeologists classify artifacts of the last 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools.
Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo—such as Homo habilis, who used simple stone tools — into anatomicallymodern humans as well as behaviorallymodern humans by the Upper Paleolithic. During the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humans began to produce the earliest works of art and began to engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burial and ritual. The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures. Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover.
By c. 50,000 – c. 40,000 BP, the first humans set foot in Australia. By c. 45,000 BP, humans lived at 61°N latitude in Europe. By c. 30,000 BP, Japan was reached, and by c. 27,000 BP humans were present in Siberia, above the Arctic Circle. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, a group of humans crossed Beringia and quickly expanded throughout the Americas.
In Old World archaeology, Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, mesos "middle"; λίθος, lithos "stone") is the period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and West Asia, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in Southwest Asia (the Epipalaeolithic Near East) roughly 20,000 to 8,000 BP. The term is less used of areas further east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.
The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broader hunter-gatherer way of life, and the development of more sophisticated and typically smaller lithic tools and weapons than the heavy chipped equivalents typical of the Paleolithic. Depending on the region, some use ofpottery and textiles may be found in sites allocated to the Mesolithic, but generally indications of agriculture are taken as marking transition into the Neolithic. The more permanent settlements tend to be close to the sea or inland waters offering a good supply of food. Mesolithic societies are not seen as very complex, and burials are fairly simple; grandiose burial mounds are another mark of the Neolithic.
Approximate centers of origin of agriculture in the Neolithic revolution and its spread in prehistory: the Fertile Crescent (11,000 BP), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9,000 BP) and the New Guinea Highlands (9,000–6,000 BP), Central Mexico (5,000–4,000 BP), Northern South America (5,000–4,000 BP), sub-Saharan Africa (5,000–4,000 BP, exact location unknown), eastern North America (4,000–3,000 BP).
The Neolithic, also known as the "New Stone Age"), the final division of the Stone Age, began about 12,000 years ago when the first development of farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world. The division lasted until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BC), marked by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age. In Northern Europe, the Neolithic lasted until about 1700 BC, while in China it extended until 1200 BC. Other parts of the world (the New World) remained in the Neolithic stage of development until European contact.
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. Neolithic stone artifacts are by definition polished and, except for specialty items, not chipped.
The Neolithic comprises a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and of domesticated animals.
The term Neolithic derives from the Greekνέοςnéos, "new" and λίθοςlíthos, "stone", literally meaning "New Stone Age". The term was coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.
Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC.
Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat,millet and spelt, and to the keeping of dogs, sheep and goats. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery.
Some archaeologists have long advocated replacing "Neolithic" with a more descriptive term, such as Early Village Communities, although this term has not gained wide acceptance.
In archaeology, the Epipalaeolithic or Epipaleolithic (sometimes Epi-paleolithic etc.) is a term for a period intervening between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic in the Stone Age. This position is also occupied by the Mesolithic and the two are sometimes confused, or used as synonyms. More often they are used for different areas: Epipaleolithic for the Levant (Middle East near the Mediterranean coast), and the Near East in general, as well as sometimes parts of Europe other than North and Western Europe, where Mesolithic is much more often used. A Mesolithic period is not usually recognized for the Levant or Near East; in Europe a period categorized as Epipalaeolithic is followed by a Mesolithic one in the same area, and will itself be described as Mesolithic by many archaeologists.
The Epipalaeolithic has been defined as the "final Upper Palaeolithic industries occurring at the end of the final glaciation which appear to merge technologically into the Mesolithic". The period is generally dated from c. 20,000 BP to 10,000 BPin the Levant, but later in Europe. If used as a synonym or equivalent for Mesolithic in Europe, it might end at about c. 5,000 BP or even later.
In the Levant the period may be subdivided into Early, Middle and Late Epipaleolithic, the last also being the Natufian. The preceding final Upper Paleolithic period is the Kebaran or "Upper Paleolithic Stage VI".
Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers, generally nomadic, made relatively advanced tools from small flint or obsidian blades, known as microliths, that were hafted in wooden implements. There are settlements with "flimsy structures", probably not permanently occupied except at some rich sites, but used and returned to seasonally.
The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the Oldowan ("mode 1") and Acheulean ("mode 2") lithics industries.
In African archaeology, the time period roughly corresponds to the Early Stone Age, the earliest finds dating back to 3.3 million years ago, with Lomekwian stone tool technology, spanning Mode 1 stone tool technology, which begins roughly 2.6 million years ago and ends between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago, with Mode 2 technology.
The Middle Paleolithic followed the Lower Paleolithic and recorded the appearance of the more advanced prepared-core tool-making technologies such as the Mousterian. Whether the earliest control of fire by hominins dates to the Lower or to the Middle Paleolithic remains an open question.
Acheulean (also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French acheuléen, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by distinctive oval and pear-shaped “hand-axes” associated with Homo erectus and derived species such as Homo heidelbergensis.
Acheulean tools were produced during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia, and Europe, and are typically found with Homo erectus remains. It is thought that Acheulean technologies first developed about 1.76 million years ago, derived from the more primitive Oldowan technology associated with Homo habilis. The Acheulean includes at least the early part of the Middle Paleolithic. Its end is not well defined, depending on whether Sangoan (also known as "Epi-Achaeulean") is included, it may be taken to last until as late as 130,000 years ago. In Europe and Western Asia, early Neanderthals adopted Achaeulean technology, transitioning to Mousterian by about 160,000 years ago.
This is a drawing of a replica of an Acheulean hand-axe found during the Lower Paleolithic period. The raw material this tool is made of in this drawing is black obsidian and is even worked on both sides
The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic broadly spanned from 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. There are considerable dating differences between regions. The Middle Paleolithic was succeeded by the Upper Paleolithic subdivision which first began between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago. Pettit and White date the Early Middle Paleolithic in Great Britain to about 325,000 to 180,000 years ago (late Marine Isotope Stage 9 to late Marine Isotope Stage 7), and the Late Middle Paleolithic as about 60,000 to 35,000 years ago.
According to the theory of the recent African origin of modern humans, anatomically modern humans began migrating out of Africa during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic around 100,000 or 70,000 years ago and began to replace earlier pre-existent Homo species such as the Neanderthals and Homo erectus. However, recent discoveries of fossils originating from what is now Israel indicate that our species (Homo sapiens) lived outside of Africa 185,000 years ago; some 85,000 years earlier than previous evidence suggests.
For instance the Middle Stone Age inhabitants of the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large 6-foot (1.8 m) long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago,and Neandertals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neandertal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point, in Africa.
Rhino drawings from the Chauvet Cave, 37,000 to 33,500 years old
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic, Late Stone Age) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of agriculture.
The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized settlements, in the form of campsites, some with storage pits. Artistic work blossomed, with cave painting, petroglyphs, carvings and engravings on bone or ivory.
Map of findings of Upper Paleolithic art in Europe.
Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals used the same crude stone tools.
It was as if the Neanderthals made stone tools, and were not much concerned about their final forms. He argues that almost everywhere, whether Asia, Africa or Europe, before 50,000 years ago all the stone tools are much alike and unsophisticated.
📹 Early Farming Communities (Agrarian Era) (VİDEO)
Early Farming Communities (Agrarian Era) (Great Courses) (LINK)
Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin.
It was not until after 9500 BC that the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax. These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) sites in the Levant, although wheat was the first to be grown and harvested on a significant scale. At around the same time (9400 BC), parthenocarpic fig trees were domesticated.
📹 Early Humans and Transition to Agriculture (VİDEO)
Early human migrations are the earliest migrations and expansions of archaic and modern humans across continents beginning 2 million years ago with the out of Africa migration of Homo erectus. This initial migration was followed by other archaic humans including H. heidelbergensis, which lived around 500,000 years ago and was the likely ancestor of both Denisovans and Neanderthals.
The Chalcolithic a name derived from the Greekχαλκόςkhalkós, “copper” and λίθοςlíthos, “stone” or Copper Age, also known as the Eneolithic or AEneolithic (from Latinaeneus "of copper") is an archaeological period that is usually considered to be part of the broader Neolithic (although it was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age). In the context of Eastern European archaeology, the term Eneolithic is often preferred to Chalcolithic and other alternatives.
The Chalcolithic was a period in which copper is predominant in metalworking technology. Hence it was the period before it was discovered that adding tin to copper formed bronze (a harder and stronger metal). The archaeological site of Belovode, on Rudnik mountain in Serbia has the oldest securely-dated evidence of copper smelting, from 7000 BP (5000 BCE).
An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by producing bronze by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Bronze itself is harder and more durable than other metals available at the time, allowing Bronze Age civilizations to gain a technological advantage.
Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the 3rd millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition. Although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas (such as Sub-Saharan Africa), the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic.
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age system, preceded by the Stone Age (Neolithic) and the Bronze Age. It is an archaeological era in the prehistory and protohistory of Europe and the Ancient Near East, and by analogy also used of other parts of the Old World. The three-age system was introduced in the first half of the 19th century for the archaeology of Europe in particular, and by the later 19th century expanded to the archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Its name harks back to the mythological "Ages of Man" of Hesiod. As an archaeological era it was first introduced for Scandinavia by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen in the 1830s. By the 1860s, it was embraced as a useful division of the "earliest history of mankind" in general and began to be applied in Assyriology. The development of the now-conventional periodization in the archaeology of the Ancient Near East was developed in the 1920s to 1930s. As its name suggests, Iron Age technology is characterized by the production of tools and weaponry by ferrous metallurgy (ironworking), more specifically from carbon steel.
Homo (Latinhomō "human being") is the genus that encompasses the extant speciesHomo sapiens (modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans (depending on a species), most notably Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The genus is taken to emerge with the appearance of Homo habilis, just over two million years ago.Homo is derived from the genus Australopithecus, which itself had previously split from the lineage of Pan, the chimpanzees. Taxonomically, Homo is the only genus assigned to the subtribe Hominina which, with the subtribes Australopithecina and Panina, comprise the tribeHominini.
Homo erectus appeared about two million years ago and, in several early migrations, it spread throughout Africa (where it is dubbed Homo ergaster) and Eurasia. It was likely the first human species to live in a hunter-gatherer society and to control fire. An adaptive and successful species, Homo erectus persisted for more than a million years, and gradually diverged into new species by around 500,000 years ago.
Among extant populations of Homo sapiens, the deepest temporal division is found in the San people of Southern Africa, estimated at close to 130,000 years.
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the “father of modern taxonomy.” Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus (after 1761 Carolus a Linné).
The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the development of the humanspecies, Homo sapiens, and the evolution of the human's ancestors. It includes brief explanations of some of the species, genera, and the higher ranks of taxa that are seen today as possible ancestors of modern humans.
A taxonomy of the Homo within the great apes is assessed as follows, with Paranthropus and Homo emerging within Australopthecus (shown here cladistically granting Paranthropus and Homo). The exact phylogeny within Australopithecus is still highly controversial. Approximate radiation dates of daughter clades is shown in Millions of years ago (Mya). Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, and Ardipithecus, possibly sisters to Australopithecus, are not shown here.
Overview map of the peopling of the world by anatomically modern humans (numbers indicate dates in thousands of years ago [ka])
Dispersal of early H. sapiens begins soon after its emergence, as evidenced by the Jebel Irhoud finds (dated to between 280,000 and 350,000 years ago). There is indirect evidence for modern human presence in West Asia around 270,000 years ago and Dali Man from China is dated at 260,000 years ago.
Map of the migration of modern humans out of Africa, based on mitochondrial DNA. Colored rings indicate thousand years before present.
In paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans, also called the "Out of Africa" theory (OOA), recent single-origin hypothesis (RSOH), replacement hypothesis, or recent African origin model (RAO), is the dominant model of the geographic origin and early migration of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens).
Aboriginal Australians are legally defined as people who are members "of the Aboriginal race of Australia" (indigenous to mainland Australia or to the island of Tasmania).
Scholars had disagreed whether the closest kin of Aboriginal Australians outside Australia were certain South Asian groups or African groups. The latter would imply a migration pattern in which their ancestors passed through South Asia to Australia without intermingling genetically with other populations along the way.
In a 2011 genetic study by Ramussen et al., researchers took a DNA sample from an early 20th century lock of an Aboriginal person's hair with low European admixture. They found that the ancestors of the Aboriginal population split off from the Eurasian population between 62,000 and 75,000 BP, whereas the European and Asian populations split only 25,000 to 38,000 years BP, indicating an extended period of Aboriginal genetic isolation. These Aboriginal ancestors migrated into South Asia and then into Australia, where they stayed, with the result that, outside of Africa, the Aboriginal peoples have occupied the same territory continuously longer than any other human populations. These findings suggest that modern Aboriginal peoples are the direct descendants of migrants who left Africa up to 75,000 years ago. This finding is compatible with earlier archaeological finds of human remains near Lake Mungo that date to approximately 40,000 years ago.
the earliest evidence of humans in Australia is at least 65,000 years old
the whole period falls into the Stone Age
no metal technology was developed
not to have had a Neolithic period
The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonization of Australia in 1788, which marks the start of consistent documentation of Australia. This period is estimated to have lasted between 40,000 and 60,000 years, or longer.
This era is referred as prehistory rather than history because there was no consistent written documentation of human events before 1788. As no metal technology was developed,the whole period falls into the Stone Age. Australia, in contrast to New Guinea, has generally been held not to have had a Neolithic period, with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle continuing until the arrival of Europeans. This view can be challenged in terms of the definition of agriculture, but "Neolithic" remains a rarely-used and not very useful concept in discussing Australian prehistory.
The last 5,000 years were characterised by a general amelioration of the climate and an increase in temperature and rainfall and the development of a sophisticated tribal social structure. The main items of trade were songs and dances, along with flint, precious stones, shells, seeds, spears, food items, etc.
The initiation of young boys and girls into adult knowledge was marked by ceremony and feasting. Behaviour was governed by strict rules regarding responsibilities to and from uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters as well as in-laws.
PREHISTORICAL CULTURES — 2
📹 Tribe meets white man for the first time 1/3 (VİDEO)
Tribe meets white man for the first time 1/3 (LINK)
An isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea meets the white man for the first time. This took place in the 1970s when there were more un-contacted tribes that today. However even today there are still a few tribes that have not yet met the rest of civilization.
📹 Tribe meets white man for the first time 2/3 (VİDEO)
Tribe meets white man for the first time 2/3 (LINK)
An isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea meets the white man for the first time. This took place in the 1970s when there were more un-contacted tribes that today. However even today there are still a few tribes that have not yet met the rest of civilization.
A nomad (Middle French: nomade "people without fixed habitation”) is a member of a community of people without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from the same areas, including nomadic hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), and tinker or trader nomads. As of 1995, there were an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world.
Nomadic hunting and gathering, following seasonally available wild plants and game, is by far the oldest human subsistence method. Pastoralists raise herds, driving them, or moving with them, as if with an Apuzzo, in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover.
A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a society in which most or all food is obtained by foraging (collecting wild plants and pursuing wild animals). Hunter-gatherer societies stand in contrast to agricultural societies, which rely mainly on domesticated species.
Hunting and gathering was humanity's first and most successful adaptation,occupying at least 90 percent of human history. Following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers who did not change have been displaced or conquered by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world.
In West Eurasia, agriculture lead to widespread genetic changes when older hunter gatherer populations were largely replaced by Middle Eastern farmers during the Neolithic who in turn were overrun by Indo-Europeans during the Bronze Age.
Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplement their foraging activity with horticulture or pastoralism.
From the earliest Jesuit accounts of the Aché in the 17th century until their peaceful outside contacts in the 20th century, the Aché were described as nomadic hunter-gatherers living in small bands and depending entirely on wild forest resources for subsistence. In the 20th century, four different ethnolinguistic populations of Aché were contacted and pacified. They are the Northern Aché, the Yvytyruzu Aché, the Ypety Aché, and the Ñacunday Aché. Each of these populations was an endogamous dialectal group, consisting of multiple residential bands, with no peaceful interaction between the groups.
The first archeological evidence of native peoples in Paraguay is represented by the "Altoparanense industry" of stone flaked tools found along the Paraná River, and Celt-type stone axes similar to those still used by the Aché of the same region (and dated to about 9,000 BP). About 500 CE Guarani horticulturists migrated into the area and began to persecute the Aché hunting peoples, perhaps causing them to move into forested hills, away from open country and navigable rivers, and adopt a more nomadic lifestyle.
Aché
Aché
Food acquisition The Aché economy was traditionally centered on hunting vertebrate game with bow and arrow, extracting wild honey, and exploiting palm starch and insect larvae. Numerous fruits were also exploited seasonally, but they constitute only a small fraction of the energy in the yearly diet. In the last half century before pacification, Aché groups occasionally raided their settled neighbors for manioc root (a starchy staple), domestic animals, and metal tools.
Hunting
Aché men hunt with bow and arrow, and by hand. They leave camp each morning as a group, walking in single file line, and after about a half-hour, they begin to spread out and search for game.
Gathering
Collected resources include mainly palm hearts and starch, insect larva extracted from palm trees felled to encourage infestation, wild honey, and various fruits that ripen mainly in summer months, between October and February.
Social organization
Aché foragers in the pre-contact period lived in small bands ranging from 3-4 families to a couple dozen families (median band size is approximately 50 individuals). But these residential units often subdivided for a few days, and occasionally coalesced into large gatherings, thus the composition of reported bands in systematic interviews ranges from 3 to 160 individuals. During club-fighting rituals, three or four bands might unite, resulting in temporary camps of 200 or more individuals that might camp together for 5–15 days before dispersal. More frequently bands of many families would break up into temporary task groups that would leave children and older band members in a permanent camp, while younger adults traveled to distant areas for a few days in search of specific resources that were depleted nearby. On such forays, successful task groups would return to the main camp laden with smoked meat and other goodies.
Band membership was highly flexible over time, and was based as much on affinal ties and friendships as on consanguineal relations. Some small groups of kin (a couple brothers, or brother-sister groups) usually formed the core membership of each band, but composition appears to be highly flexible when assessed over a period of years. Bands did not have territories, but did have favored home ranges from which they strayed only occasionally. Bands were not named, but often referred to by the name of the most influential male member (e.g., Tayjangi-the-killer's band). Aché societies were not organized into any specific kin or ritual groups, and leadership was informal and often context specific. There were no recognized chiefs, nor any other political-religious office. The Aché had no specialist shamans, but older individuals and pregnant women were often involved in healing activities. Decisions were reached through informal consensus, and strong dissent was expressed by abandoning a residential band. Women were involved in most discussions, but some men were clearly politically dominant, and men who had killed (called "jaychagi") were especially feared and "respected". These killers often sharpened their bowstave at one end to look like a spear point, and threatened others by their demeanor. Children were especially terrified of the killers who made a grand display of noise or growling, bluff and bluster (shaking tree branches and swaggering) when entering a residential camp after a day of hunting.
Social norms, ethnic signals, rituals and beliefs
Aché cultural conventions emphasize food sharing, regulated cooperation, group participation in raising and nourishing children, restrained violence, and marriage proscriptions for members of the ethnic group. Behaviors towards outgroup individuals is unregulated. The birth of a child introduces a series of lifelong obligations between the child, its parents, and those who take on ritual roles during the birth. The child's mother is helped during labor and later is ritually washed by some of the helpers. The child will be held immediately after birth by a “godmother” that is responsible for washing and caring for the infant during the first few days after birth while mother rests. The child and godmother adopt ritual terms for each other, and the child can expect food, help and support from its godmother throughout its life. A man cuts the umbilical cord of the child and becomes the “godfather” with similar lifelong obligations. Men who have provided the mother with game during her pregnancy also take on a ritual obligation to the child, and so do all the band members who hold the child and wash it soon after birth. The obligations through the life course are reciprocal such that the child is cared for by ritual "godparents" when young and later cares for them in turn when they become elderly. Both biological parents and all the ritual godparents retain lifetime obligations of mutual aid.
When a girl reaches menarche, she is held in the lap by adults in a ritual similar to that at birth. She is then partially secluded for some time, being covered with woven palm-leaf mats. After seclusion, she is cut with broken glass, and charcoal is rubbed into the wound to create a set of linear parallel tattoo marks. Men who have had sexual relations with her prior to menarche also undergoritual purification at this time. Women keep their hair cut short and wear seed and tooth necklaces as tribal ethnic identifiers.
When boys begin to show facial hair growth, they too undergo a puberty ritual, which is usually timed to coincide with a birth or female puberty ceremony. Their lower lip is perforated with a sharpened bone, and then a wooden labret is introduced. This adornment is worn only by younger men, but all men retain the perforation in their lip for life. After the lip-piercing ceremony, young men are cut and tattooed in the same fashion described for young women. The man who perforates their lip becomes a ritual godfather. Newly initiated young men usually accompany the ritual godfather for some time, often leaving their own nuclear families behind.
The most important northern Aché ritual was the club-fight. These events were organized by "big men" and took place once every year or two. Several bands would converge on a single camping area. Those who invited the others would prepare a cleared area in which to do ritual combat. Men prepared long hardwood clubs with sharpened edges (paddle-shaped), and decorated themselves with charcoal (mixed with honey and saliva) and vulture down. Although club fights consisted of hosting and invited teams of men, after the fighting began all men were free to choose opponents from either group. Men faced off and took turns swinging at each other's heads. Some men were hit directly on the top of the head and sustained fractured skulls, that later healed, but with tell-tale signs of combat. Other men dodged the clubs, but might be hit on the arms or shoulders. Some men died in almost every large clubfighting event. Sometimes clubfighting would also emerge spontaneously within a small residential band, when one man was caught having sexual relations with another man's wife. These types of duels were never lethal. In all clubfights, some bystanders (including women) would rush in and try to hamper or disarm men who were in combat with their father, sons or brothers.
Aché mythology is centered around Berendy, a flaming thunderous being that at times takes the form of a meteor, and at times has a body of flesh and blood. Berendy's son is the subject of several myths, which also include themes of the origin of jaguars, the sun and the moon, the origins of fire, and some moral tales about stingy old men and old women. Northern Aché emphasized the spiritual powers of a being that manifest itself as both shadow and wind. Southern Aché groups appear to have included a malevolent spirit that originates from the souls of angry deceased Aché. One of the four groups of Aché is reported to have practiced cannibalism occasionally,possibly as late as the 1960s, and the northern group sometimes euthanized and cremated elderly people thought to harbor dangerous vengeful spirits (possibly advanced dementia, or Alzheimers). All Aché believe in some types of hunting magic, and in the curative powers of pregnant women.
One man divides the monkey while another decides who gets what piece.
Religious Beliefs. Precontact Ache had no formal religion and no belief in a supreme deity or deities. They did have beliefs in certain spirits, three being most important. First, Kre'i was a shadow or gust of wind that could cure or help individuals in need. Second, Anjave was an evil spirit who often pushed people into the fire at night, knocked them out of trees, or generally caused harm to befall them. Finally, Berendy was a frightening spirit associated with meteors and falling stars, who could also take a human form. People are formed from the essence of the game that a mother eats while pregnant, and some part of the animals' spirits can linger in the spot where they died and cause harm to befall others. Myths fall into two categories — those that explain or are historical (origin of fire, origin of the moon, the flood myth, origin of night, why animals escape humans, why the Ache live in the forest) and those that have a moral (the mean old woman, the stingy man). Most reservation Ache have nominally converted to Christianity as taught by fundamentalistProtestant missionaries. They hold their own services several times a week.
Religious Practitioners. There were no religious practitioners in precontact society. Young, educated Ache men have become Christian preachers at the reservations.
Ceremonies. Important ceremonies are conducted at the birth of a child, at puberty for both sexes, at club fights, and after a killing. At birth, the man who cuts the umbilical cord of the child becomes a godparent, as do all those who hold the child in the first few minutes and the women who take care of the child on the first day while the mother recovers. Godparents have special obligations to their godchild and its parents, and often a child resides with a godparent later in life. Godparents and the parents of the new child are ceremonially washed with the bark of a vine a few days after the birth. The father of a newborn child enters a dangerous state where all animals, good and bad, are attracted to him. He may have great hunting success or be eaten by a jaguar.
Early descriptions of the Aché emphasized their white skin, light eye and hair color, beards, Asiatic features, and practice of cannibalism as identifying characteristics. (LINK)
At first menses, girls are held and massaged as if they were newborn children. They are then isolated under mats for several days and not allowed to show their faces. Later, parallel rows of body scars are cut onto their stomach, back, arms, and legs. All men who have engaged in sex with them are washed with bark and enter the previously mentioned state of attractiveness to animals.
Boys undergo a lip-piercingceremony between the ages of 14 and 18. When the wound is healed they often wear long wooden plugs in their lower lip. Club fights are often held at this time, and later the boys receive body scars. Boys form a special relationship with the man who pierces their lip. After club fights, women are lined up and men ceremonially hit their mothers and sisters while the women cry. Men who have killed others must be washed with bark and undergo severe food taboos.
Arts. Individual singing traditionally was common, particularly in the late evening. Men and women sing about relatives, events on their mind, or hunting, often in an ad-lib fashion. The Ache did not dance, but body painting and ornamentation were very common.
Medicine. There were no healers; traditional medical treatment was mainly limited to blowing on the affected part or an application of bark or smoke. Western medicine has been rapidly and enthusiastically accepted at the reservations, and some younger Ache have been trained in first aid.
Death and Afterlife. Beliefs about the afterlife appear to vary among the four Ache groups. The Northern Ache had no belief in an afterlife, but did believe that the spirit of a dead person could linger at the site of death and cause harm. For this reason they sometimes burnt the body of old, mean, wicked, or powerful people, or those who died in a violent manner. Most individuals were simply buried and a hut built above their grave. Small children were often sacrificed and placed in the grave with important individuals. The Ñacunday Ache may have a more developed concept of an afterlife, in which people could experience pleasant or unpleasant circumstances after death. Whether this is because of the influence of earlier contact with Jesuit missions is unknown.
Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings. For example, in Europe, the Celts and the Germanic tribes are considered to have been protohistoric when they began appearing in Greek and Roman sources.
Protohistoric may also refer to the transition period between the advent of literacy in a society and the writings of the first historians. The preservation of oral traditions may complicate matters as these can provide a secondary historical source for even earlier events. Colonial sites involving a literate group and a non-literate group are also studied as protohistoric situations.
It can also refer to a period in which fragmentary or external historical documents, not necessarily including a developed writing system, have been found. For instance, the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, the Yayoi and the Mississippian groups recorded by early European explorers are protohistoric.
The barbarian tribes mentioned by European and Asian writers
The barbarian tribes mentioned by European and Asian writers (W)
Civilizations and peoples
The best known protohistoric civilizations and ethnic groups are those for whom the term was originally coined: the barbarian tribes mentioned by European and Asian writers. Many of these peoples of course also experienced periods of prehistory and history.
he first human fossil assemblage described as Neanderthal was discovered in 1856 in the Feldhofer Cave of the Neander Valley, near Düsseldorf, Germany.
Neanderthal, (Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), also spelled Neandertal, member of a group of humans who emerged at least 200,000 years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) and were replaced or assimilated by early modern human populations (Homo sapiens) between 35,000 and perhaps 24,000 years ago. Neanderthals inhabited Eurasia from the Atlantic regions of Europe eastward to Central Asia, from as far north as present-day Belgium and as far south as the Mediterranean and southwest Asia. Similar archaic human populations lived at the same time in eastern Asia and in Africa. Because Neanderthals lived in a land of abundant limestonecaves, which preserved bones well, and where there has been a long history of prehistoric research, they are better known than any other archaic human group. Consequently, they have become the archetypal “cavemen.” The name Neanderthal (or Neandertal) derives from the Neander Valley (GermanNeander Thal or Neander Tal) in Germany, where the fossils were first found.
Until the late 20th century, Neanderthals were regarded as genetically, morphologically, and behaviorally distinct from living humans. However, more recent discoveries about this well-preserved fossil Eurasian population have revealed an overlap between living and archaic humans. Neanderthals lived before and during the last ice age of the Pleistocene in some of the most unforgiving environments ever inhabited by humans. They developed a successful culture, with a complex stone tool technology, that was based on hunting, with some scavenging and local plant collection. Their survival during tens of thousands of years of the last glaciation is a remarkable testament to human adaptation.
Well over 200 individuals are represented, including over 70 juveniles. These sites range from nearly 200,000 years ago or earlier to 36,000 years before present, and some groups may have survived in the southern Iberian Peninsula until nearly 30,000–35,000 years ago or even possibly 28,000-24,000 years ago in Gibraltar. Most of the sites, however, are dated to approximately 120,000 to 35,000 years ago.
Presumed ancestors of the Neanderthals were discovered at Sima de los Huesos (“Pit of the Bones”), at the Atapuerca site in Spain, dated to about 430,000 years ago, which yielded an impressive number of remains of all life stages. Sometimes these remains are attributed to H. heidelbergensis or archaic H. sapiens if one accepts Neanderthals as H. sapiens neanderthalensis—in other words, as a subspecies of modern humans. Presumed descendants of Neanderthals include a “love child” with both Neanderthal and modern human physical features from Portugal (Lagar Velho), dated to about 24,500 years ago.
Modern humans from Eurasia and Neanderthals apparently mated on subsequent occasions. Mating may have occurred both before and after some of the ancestors of Europeans and East Asians separated from one another.
... it was reported that Eurasians generally carry about 2 percent Neanderthal nuclear DNA, which suggests that modern humans and Neanderthals interbred and thus were not two different biological species, despite most classifications treating them as such.
Neanderthals were a cold-adapted people. As with their facial features, Neanderthals’ body proportions were variable. However, in general, they possessed relatively short lower limb extremities, compared with their upper arms and legs, and a broad chest. Their arms and legs must have been massive and heavily muscled. This body build would have protected the extremities against damage from cold stress.
Ancient DNA recovered from Denisova Cave (Aju-Tasch) in the Altai Mountains of Siberia revealed a population distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans. Provocatively, even older Neanderthal DNA was also recovered from the site, which suggests that Neanderthals expanded eastward into Siberia. The Neanderthals and the “Denisovans” are more closely related to each other than either group is to modern humans.
Until the early 2000s, it was widely thought that Neanderthals lacked the capacity for complex communication, such as spoken language. Supporting that hypothesis was the fact that the flattened cranial base of Neanderthals — similar to that of modern infants prior to two years old — did not provide sufficient space for the production of vowels, which are used in all spoken languages of modern humans. However, studies beginning in the late 1980s of the hypoglossal canal (one of two small openings in the lower part of the skull) and a hyoid (the bone located between the base of the tongue and the larynx) from the paleoanthropological site at Kebara, Israel, suggested that the Neanderthal vocal tract could have been similar to that found in modern humans. Moreover, genetic studies in the early 2000s involving the Neanderthal FOXP2 gene (a gene thought to allow for the capacity for speech and language) indicated that Neanderthals probably used language in the same way that modern humans have. Such a deduction had also been extrapolated from interpretations of the complex behaviours of Neanderthals — such as the development of an advanced stone tool technology, the burial of the dead, and the care of injuredsocial group members. It is not known, however, whether Neanderthals were capable of the full range of phonemes, or sound tones, that characterize the languages of modern humans. Handedness, which was inferred from dental wear resulting from items held in the mouth for processing, occurred among Neanderthals at a rate similar to that in modern humans and suggests a lateralization (functional separation) of the brain that is fundamental to language.
Mousterian tool made by the Levallois flaking technique, from Syria.
An advanced tool technology, the Mousterian industry, characterizes many Neanderthal sites, as well as those of some of the earliest modern humans at Skhūl and Qafzeh, Israel. Tools made by using the Levallois flaking technique are characterized by flakes knapped from prepared cores. The flakes were created by striking at the triangular base of the raised edges from previously knapped flakes. These Mousterian flakes, if acceptable to the maker, were then often retouched with hammer stones; more rarely, animal bones or premolar teeth were used for retouching work. Some late Neanderthal sites in Portugal and France, dated to after 40,000 years ago (the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic), preserve a blade tool technology that was similar to that of early modern humans from the same time period . This Upper Paleolithic technology, referred to as the Châtelperronian industry (the earlier of the two stages of the Perigordian industry), required much planning and precision to produce. The Châtelperronian demonstrates that early modern humans were not the sole makers of this sophisticated technology.
Neanderthals created tools for domestic uses that are distinct from hunting tools. Tools included scrapers for tanning hides, awls for punching holes in hides to make loose-fitting clothes, and burins for cutting into wood and bone. Other tools were used to sharpen spears, kill and process animals, and prepare foods. Hafted tools are found in the Châtelperronian industry.
Nonutilitarian artifacts have also been recovered with Neanderthal remains and Mousterian tools. These artifacts indicate cognitive function beyond that needed for basic survival. Some of these artifacts seem to have been collected because of their intrinsic value or beauty rather than for some utilitarian function. Studies have indicated the use of ornaments, colorants, bone tools decorated with designs, and manuports (natural, unmodified objects that have been moved by people), including fossils and geological curiosities, which were carried away from their original context and sometimes altered by using stone tools.
There is evidence for the burial of the dead among the Neanderthals at various locations.
Neanderthals had “wolfish” diets. An analysis of stable carbonisotopes in bone collagen showed that Neanderthal diets resembled those of carnivores, although fossilized fecal matter and dental calculus (tartar) suggest that abundant plant matter was also consumed.
Cut marks on bones found at El Sidrón in Spain and Goyet in Belgium may be evidence of cannibalism.
The evolution and geographic spread of Denisovans as compared with other groups
The Denisovans or Denisova hominins are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans in the genusHomo. Pending its taxonomic status, it currently carries temporary species or subspecies names Homo denisova,Homo altaiensis,Homo sapiens denisova, or Homo sapiens Altai.In March 2010, scientists announced the discovery of an undated finger bone fragment of a juvenile female found in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, a cave that has also been inhabited by Neanderthals and modern humans. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the finger bone showed it to be genetically distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans. The nuclear genome from this specimen suggested that Denisovans shared a common origin with Neanderthals, that they ranged from Siberia to Southeast Asia, and that they lived among and interbred with the ancestors of some modern humans, with about 3% to 5% of the DNA of Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians and around 6% in Papuans deriving from Denisovans.
A 2013 comparison with the genome of another Neanderthal from the Denisova cave revealed local interbreeding with local Neanderthal DNA representing 17% of the Denisovan genome, and evidence of interbreeding with an as yet unidentified ancient human lineage. Analysis of DNA from two teeth found in layers different from the finger bone revealed an unexpected degree of mtDNA divergence among Denisovans. Two teeth belonging to different members of the Denisova cave population have been reported. In November 2015, a tooth fossil containing DNA was reported to have been found and studied.
Denisovans and Neanderthals split from Homo sapiens around 600,000 up to 744,000 years ago and diverged from each other about 200,000 years later.
The history of writing traces the development of expressing language by letters or other marksand also the studies and descriptions of these developments.
In the history of how writing systems have evolved over in different human civilizations, more complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of ideographic or early mnemonic symbols. True writing, in which the content of a linguistic utterance is encoded so that another reader can reconstruct, with a fair degree of accuracy, the exact utterance written down, is a later development. It is distinguished from proto-writing, which typically avoids encoding grammatical words and affixes, making it more difficult or impossible to reconstruct the exact meaning intended by the writer unless a great deal of context is already known in advance. One of the earliest forms of written expression is cuneiform.
Sumer, an ancient civilization of southern Mesopotamia, is believed to be the place where written language was first invented around 3100 BC
It is generally agreed that true writing of language (not only numbers, which goes back much further) was independently conceived and developed in at least two ancient civilizations and possibly more. The two places where it is most certain that the concept of writing was both conceived and developed independently are in ancient Sumer (in Mesopotamia), between 3400 and 3300 BC, and in Mesoamerica by 300 BC, because no precursors have been found to either of these in their respective regions. Several Mesoamerican scripts are known, the oldest being from the Olmec or Zapotec of Mexico.
Independent writing systems also arose in Egypt around 3100 BC and in China around 1200 BC in Shang dynasty (商朝), but historians debate whether these writing systems were developed completely independently of Sumerian writing or whether either or both were inspired by Sumerian writing via a process of cultural diffusion. That is, it is possible that the concept of representing language by using writing, though not necessarily the specifics of how such a system worked, was passed on by traders or merchants traveling between the two regions. (More recent examples of this include Pahawh Hmong and the Cherokee syllabary.)
Ancient Chinese characters are considered by many to be an independent invention because there is no evidence of contact between ancient China and the literate civilizations of the Near East, and because of the distinct differences between the Mesopotamian and Chinese approaches to logography and phonetic representation.Egyptian script is dissimilar from Mesopotamian cuneiform, but similarities in concepts and in earliest attestation suggest that the idea of writing may have come to Egypt from Mesopotamia. In 1999, Archaeology Magazine reported that the earliest Egyptian glyphs date back to 3400 BC, which "challenge the commonly held belief that early logographs, pictographic symbols representing a specific place, object, or quantity, first evolved into more complex phonetic symbols in Mesopotamia."
(W) Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BCE. They used ideographic or early mnemonic symbols or both to represent a limited number of concepts, in contrast to true writing systems, which record the language of the writer.
Limestone Kish tablet from Sumer with pictographic writing; may be the earliest known writing, 3500 BC.
Limestone tablet engraved with pictographic writing. It comes from the mesopotamic city of Kish (Iraq), dated from 3 500 BC. It is drawn in real size, approximately. Probably, it is the earliest known evidence of writing, and contains pictographs of heads, feet, hands, numbers and threshing-boards.
Clay tablets
Clay tablets
THE MYSTERY OF THE HANGING GARDEN OF BABYLON / Stephanie Dalley 2013 / Oxford University Press
“... clay tablets written in cuneiform script by Babylonians and Assyrians, whether they have been freshly
excavated by archaeologists working in Iraq and Syria, or languish in
the great museums and collections of the world. Most of them were
only sun-dried, not baked, and they are usually damaged, often badly
broken. It is a slow job, with frustrations as well as excitements, to
piece together the material remains and their written contents. Some
ancient sites have yielded thousands of tablets within a few seasons, so
there is always new work to be done, and old interpretations have to
be revised in the light of new discoveries. A recent word-count
estimates that the body of known writings in Babylonian and Assyrian already matches that of the entire body of Latin texts, and there is
more to come from future excavations.”
Doğal bilinç önündeki nesne üzerine düşünmez, onu sorgulamaz, ona kuşku ile yaklaşmaz ve onu doğrudan doğruya kendi bilincindeki tasarımlar ile tanımlar. Tarihsel görüngüler durumunda da kendi alışıldık kategorilerini dosdoğru onlar üzerine yatırır, onları dilediği gibi biçimlendirir ve onlarda sık sık yalnızca kendi istediği şeyleri görür. Yazılı verilerin tam yokluğunda, tarihsel fenomenler sık sık ancak üzerine düşünme yoluyla, ancak görüngüye onun özsel kavramlarının uygulaması yoluyla anlam kazanır. Ya da — sözde "mistik" imgelemin uydurmaları ile.
Göçebe kültürler tanrılara gereksinmez. Büyü ve büyücü ile yetinirler. Göçebe çadırlarının kuruluşu için tanrılar gereksizdir. Ancak kentler tanrılara yaraşır. Göbekli Tepe kültürünün de tanrıları yoktur, çünkü kentleri, kralları ve yasaları yoktur. Mitolojik tanrılar ancak kentler kurmak, krallar atamak ve yasalar vermek için yeryüzüne inerler. Tapınma bir tanrıyı gerektirir — hangi biçimde olursa olsun. Ve göçebenin cinleri tanrısal değildir ve göçebe tapınmaz. Din kavramı Tanrı kavramını öngerektirir ve “ateistik din” gibi bir terim bir pleonazmdır. Ölüler için saygı da dinsel bir tutum değildir — aynı nedenle. Buna göre "paleolithik din" ya da "neolitihik din" gibi terimler geçersizdir. Neanderthal ayı-kültü Neanderthal'in ayıya inandığını imlemez — hiç olmazsa en yüksek gerçeklik olarak, sonsuz gerçeklik olarak, Bir olarak..
The Huli were not known to Europeans until November 1934, when at least fifty of them were killed by the Fox brothers, two Australian adventurers looking for gold.
The Huli have lived in their region for 1,000 years and recount lengthy oral histories relating to individuals and their clans.
Huli men are best known for their custom of wearing decorative woven wigs. (LINK)
Göçebe avcı-toplayıcı mistik değildir, çünkü henüz aptallaşmamıştır. Yalnızca bilgisizlik içindedir. Homo sapiensin kendinde ussallığı onu ilkin yalnızca bilgiye doğru iter, bilgisizliğini bir boşinanç nesnesi yapmaz. İbni Haldun'a göre, göçebe yabanıldır ve yaban hayvanı gibidir (ama kentlilerden daha yiğit ve temiz yüreklidir — ya da belki de yalnızca öyle görünür, çünkü bilmediği ve anlamadığı şeyler onun için olsa olsa korku kaynağı olabilir). Anlamadığı şeyer ile karşılaştığında onların "anlaşılamaz" olduğunu düşünmez, çünkü düşüncesi henüz soyut kavramları dilediği gibi biraraya getirerek saçmalamaya hazır değildir. Göçebe avcılık yapar ve besinin peşinden gider. Yazıya ve yasaya gereksinmez. Birey kendini ait olduğu kümeden ayrı olarak düşünemez. Hiçbir etik yapısı olmayan küme ya da ἔθνος henüz bir aile yapısından ve dolayısıyla bir ‘kan bağı’ denilen ilişki biçiminden de (akrabalık, evlilik, soy) yoksundur. Bir içgüdüsel ‘sürü’ olmasa da, istençli bir toplum da oluşturmaz, ve yalnızca aynı yere ait olma ve aynı dili konuşabilme, aynı gelenekleri paylaşma gibi etmenler kümeyi birarada tutan bağı oluşturur. Hiçbir moral doğru ve yanlış bilmedikleri için, yamyamlık ve ensest bu kültür için bütünüyle normaldir. Henüz gelişmemiş dilleri akışkandır, her zaman değişmeye ve kolayca yitmeye hazırdır. Göçebenin inancı animizm ve şamanizmden öteye geçmez, çünkü henüz dirimli olanı ve dirimsiz olanı ayırdedemez ve ölüleri de diri sayar. Ölüye tapınmaz, yalnızca onun anlamadığı bir yolda yaşamayı sürdürdüğüne inanır.
Algılayabildikleri herşeyi onlara cinler ve ruhlar ekleyerek dirimil kılarlar. Yaşamı anlamadıkları için ölümü de anlamaz ve ayıların ve maymunların yanısıra ölüye de saygı duyarlar. Ormanlar, gök gürültüleri, yerler ve taşlar, mağaralar ve göller ve ırmaklar, genel olarak tüm bitkisel ve hayvansal doğa tinler ve cinler ile dolup taşar. Ve bu doğaüstü kalabalığın yaşayanlar üzerinde güçleri ve etkileri olan ruhları ile ancak böyle "ilişkiler" konusunda uzmanlaşmış olan özel insanlar ilişkiye girebilirler.
Göçebeler her bir şeyde, ister doğal ister tinsel olsun her şeyde bulunan animistik cinler ile, onlarla iletişimin bir ürünü olarak büyü ile yetinmeyi bilirler. Bu ilkel tinsellik, yalnızca yaşam kapsayan bu doğaüstü öğe şeyleri büyük ya da küçük, önemli ya da önemsiz, değerli ya da değersiz, soyut ya da somut diye ayırmaz, tümünde bulunur, tümünü dirimli kılar (animizm). Henüz herhangi bir evrensel ile kaygılanmayan ilkel duyusal-algı için her bir tekil şeyin tekil bir cini ya da ruhu vardır. Ve özel insanlar — rahipler, büyücüler, şamanlar, ve daha sonra kutsal imamlar, dedeler, pirler — bu güçler ile iletişimin nasıl kurulacağını bilir ve insanlar ve cinler arasında aracılık yaparlar. Fetişizm ve animizm arasındaki yakın akrabalık doğaldır. Göçebe bir homo sapiensin tam beyin sığasını taşısa da, yaşam biçimi kafa yormasını gerektirmez.
Kent hiçlikten doğmaz ve kentlerinin doğuşuna tanık olan ve onun görkemi, gücü, düzeni, güzelliği, yetenekleri karşısında bir büyüklük ve yücelik duygusu yaşayan kuşaklar doğallıkla bu sonlu olgunun nedeni üzerine düşünürler. Nedenin şu ya da bu tikel birey olmadığını, bireysel, insansal bir tasarı aştığını düşünürler. Sümerler kentleri yalnızca tanrıların yaratısı olarak görmekle kalmadılar. Kurdukları kentleri tanrıların kendileri ile özdeşleştirdiler. Ve bu Mezopotamya'da moda oldu. Ancak daha sonra biraz daha derin düşünerek tanrıları ve kentleri ayırmaya başladılar ve her kent için özel bir kurucu ve koruyucu tanrı saptadılar.
Göçebenin deneyiminde büyük hiçbirşey yoktur.
Yiyeceğini, giyeceğini, barınağını vb. hayvandan türetir ve herhangi bir işleyim etkinliğine gereksinmez..
Göçebe hayvanları ile bilikte yaşar, ya da av ve otlak arayışı içindedir. Avlanacak hayvan sürülerinin yer değiştirmesi, mevsimlerin dönüşü, su kaynaklarının ve otlakların durumu göçebenin nerede olacağını belirleyen doğa etmenleridir.
Göçebelik bütün topluluğu yalnızca kan bağı ile birarada tutulan geniş bir aile olmaya belirler. Burada birey bütünüyle topluluğa soğrulmuştur, özel, kişisel hiçbirşey yoktur, bağlılık ve kabile duygusu topluluğun varoluşu için özsel etmendir. Moral ve etik herhangi bir gelişime yetenekli olmayan göçebe kabilenin duygusu kendi yerelliğinin ve tikelliğinin ötesine geçmez ve bu kültürde insanlık duygusu gelişmez.
Göçebe birimler arasındaki çatışmaların sürekliliği göçebe kabileleri birer savaş makinesine çevrir. Herhangi bir uygarlık ya da kentlilik duygusu tanımayan bu kültürler kabile imparatorluklarının terör araçlarıdırlar. Bağdad başta olmak üzere pekçok kent bu ilkel kültürlerin askeri güçleri tarafından yok edilmekten kaçamadı.
Historically, supernatural entities have been invoked to explain phenomena as diverse as lightning, seasons and the human senses. Naturalists maintain that nothing beyond the physical world exists and hence maintain skeptical attitudes towards supernatural concepts.
The supernatural is featured in paranormal, occult and religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts.
This is a pre-historic site dating from roughly 12000 years ago, near Sanliurfa, Turkey. These structures come from a pre-pottery society. The pre-Neolithic hill was discovered by Klaus Schmidt in 1994.
Pillar 27 from Enclosure C (Layer III) with the sculpture of a predatory animal
The sculpture of an animal (Fox? Wolverine? today the second one is a boreal mammal, but 12.000 years ago ?) at Göbekli Tepe.
It seems very unlikely that Stonehenge could have been made by earlier, Paleolithic, nomads. It would have been a waste to invest so much time and energy building a monument in a place to which they might never return or might only return infrequently. After all, the effort to build it was extraordinary. Stonehenge is approximately 320 feet in circumference and the stones which compose the outer ring weigh as much as 50 tons; the small stones, weighing as much as 6 tons, were quarried from as far away as 450 miles.The use or meaning of Stonehenge is not clear, but the design, planning and execution could have only been carried out by a culture in which authority was unquestioned. Here is a culture that was able to rally hundreds of people to perform very hard work for extended periods of time. This is another characteristic of the Neolithic era.
Göbekli Tepe ("Potbelly Hill") is an archaeological site in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, approximately 12 km (7 mi) northeast of the city of Şanlıurfa. The tell has a height of 15 m (49 ft) and is about 300 m (980 ft) in diameter. It is approximately 760 m (2,490 ft) above sea level.
The tell includes two phases of use believed to be of a social or ritual nature dating back to the 10th-8th millennium BCE. During the first phase, belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), circles of massive T-shaped stone pillars were erected – the world's oldest known megaliths. More than 200 pillars in about 20 circles are currently known through geophysical surveys. Each pillar has a height of up to 6 m (20 ft) and weighs up to 10 tons. They are fitted into sockets that were hewn out of the bedrock. In the second phase, belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), the erected pillars are smaller and stood in rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime. The site was abandoned after the PPNB. Younger structures date to classical times.
The details of the structure's function remain a mystery. It was excavated by a German archaeological team under the direction of Klaus Schmidt from 1996 until his death in 2014. Schmidt believed that the site was a sanctuary where people from a wide region periodically congregated, not a settlement.
All statements about the site must be considered preliminary, as less than 5% of the site has been excavated.
The surviving structures, then, not only predate pottery, metallurgy, and the invention of writing or the wheel, but were built before the so-called Neolithic Revolution, i.e., the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry around 9000 BCE. But the construction of Göbekli Tepe implies organization of an advanced order not hitherto associated with Paleolithic, PPNA, or PPNB societies.
Schmidt's view was that Göbekli Tepe is a stone-age mountain sanctuary. Radiocarbon dating as well as comparative, stylistical analysis indicate that it is the oldest religious site yet discovered anywhere.
Schmidt considered Göbekli Tepe a central location for a cult of the dead and that the carved animals are there to protect the dead. Though no tombs or graves have been found so far, Schmidt believed that they remain to be discovered in niches located behind the sacred circles' walls.
Göbekli Tepe is regarded by some as an archaeological discovery of the greatest importance since it could profoundly change the understanding of a crucial stage in the development of human society. Ian Hodder of Stanford University said, “Göbekli Tepe changes everything.” If indeed the site was built by hunter-gatherers as some researchers believe then it would mean that the ability to erect monumental complexes was within the capacities of these sorts of groups which would overturn previous assumptions. Some researchers believe that the construction of Göbekli Tepe may have contributed to the later development of urban civilization. As excavator Klaus Schmidt put it: “First came the temple, then the city.”
a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement
the largest and most sophisticated Neolithic site yet uncovered
discovered in 1958
the earliest city in the world (more properly described as a large village)
their rooftops were their streets
the ceiling openings also served as the only source of ventilation
Çatalhöyük
Çatalhöyük was inhabited 9000 years ago by up to 8000 people who lived together in a large town. Çatalhöyük, across its history, witnesses the transition from exclusively hunting and gathering subsistence to increasing skill in plant and animal domestication. We might see Çatalhöyük as a site whose history is about one of man’s most important transformations: from nomad to settler. It is also a site at which we see art, both painting and sculpture, appear to play a newly important role in the lives of settled people.
Çatalhöyük had no streets or foot paths; the houses were built right up against each other and the people who lived in them traveled over the town’s rooftops and entered their homes through holes in the roofs, climbing down a ladder. Communal ovens were built above the homes of Çatalhöyük and we can assume group activities were performed in this elevated space as well.
Ttypical neolithic house interior
Like at Jericho, the deceased were placed under the floors or platforms in houses and sometimes the skulls were removed and plastered to resemble live faces. The burials at Çatalhöyük show no significant variations, either based on wealth or gender; the only bodies which were treated differently, decorated with beads and covered with ochre, were those of children. The excavator of Çatalhöyük believes that this special concern for youths at the site may be a reflection of the society becoming more sedentary and required larger numbers of children because of increased labor, exchange and inheritance needs.
Art is everywhere among the remains of Çatalhöyük, geometric designs as well as representations of animals and people. Repeated lozenges and zigzags dance across smooth plaster walls, people are sculpted in clay, pairs of leopards are formed in relief facing one another at the sides of rooms, hunting parties are painted baiting a wild bull. The volume and variety of art at Çatalhöyük is immense and must be understood as a vital, functional part of the everyday lives of its ancient inhabitants.
people appear to have lived relatively egalitarian lives with no apparent social classes
both men and women receiving equivalent nutrition and apparently having relatively equal social status
cultivated wheat and barley, as well as lentils, peas, bitter vetch, and other legumes
herded sheep and goats
the beginning of cattle domestication as well
hunting continued to be a major source of meat
making of pottery and the construction of stone tools (weapons etc.)
buried their dead within the village (in pits beneath the floors, and especially beneath hearths, the platforms within the main rooms, and under the beds)
bodies were tightly bent before burial, and were often placed in baskets or wrapped in reed mats
(LINK) A striking feature of Çatalhöyük is its female figurines.
[They] represented a female deity. Although a male deity existed as well,
“…statues of a female deity far outnumber those of the male deity, who moreover, does not appear to be represented at all after Level VI” (Mellaart, 1967, p. 181).
These carefully crafted figurines were found primarily in areas Mellaart believed to be shrines. One, however—a stately seated goddess flanked by two lions—was found in a grain bin, which Mellaart suggests might have been a means of ensuring the harvest or protecting the food supply (Mellaart, p. 180). Heads of bulls and other animals are also much in evidence, many having been mounted on interior walls of buildings. Whereas Mellaart excavated nearly two hundred buildings in four seasons, the current excavator, Ian Hodder, spent an entire season excavating one building alone (Balter, 2005, p. 127). Nevertheless, Hodder, in 2004 and 2005, began turning up the same corpulent, carefully-made “Mother Goddess” figurines that Mellaart found in abundance. The 2005 female figurine was striking; according to the official Catalhoyuk website, it “…may force us to change our views of the nature of Catalhoyuk society…”
Hodder questions whether the figurines represent religious deities, but he says they are significant nonetheless.
Two leopards facing each other in combat.
Bull, hunting scene.
interior and exterior walls covered with vivid murals and figurines
images of groups of men in hunting scenes
heads of bulls and other animals were often mounted on walls
distinctive clay figurines of women
the graves, murals and figurines suggest that the people of Çatalhöyük had a religion that was rich in symbolisms
The Neolithic period is also important because it is when we first find good evidence for religious practice, a perpetual inspiration for the fine arts. Perhaps most fascinating are the plaster skulls found around the area of the Levant, at six sites, including Jericho. At this time in the Neolithic, c. 7000-6,000 B.C.E., people were often buried under the floors of homes, and in some cases their skulls were removed and covered with plaster in order to create very life-like faces, complete with shells inset for eyes and paint to imitate hair and moustaches.
The traditional interpretation of these the skulls has been that they offered a means of preserving and worshiping male ancestors. However, recent research has shown that among the sixty-one plastered skulls that have been found, there is a generous number that come from the bodies of women and children. Perhaps the skulls are not so much religious objects but rather powerful images made to aid in mourning lost loved ones.
Neolithic peoples didn't have written language, so we may never know (the earliest example of writing develops in Sumer in Mesopotamia in the late 4th millennium B.C.E. However, there are scholars that believe that earlier proto-writing developed during the Neolithic period).
ÇATALHÖYÜK
ANCIENT RIVER VALLEYS
Ancient River Valleys
Ancient River Valleys
CIVILIZATION
KÜLTÜR VE UYGARLIK
İnsanın doğanın ötesinde yaptığı herşeyi (sanatllar, eylemler, kurumlar) anlatan "kültür" teriminden ayrı olarak, uygarlık genel olarak kültürü olumsuz yanında yadsır ve olumlu yanında kapsar. Kültür çirkinliği, kötülüğü ve bilgisizliği de üretirken, uygarlık bunların olumsuzlanmasıdır. Uygarlık güzel sanatları, etik yaşamı ve bilimleri ilgilendiren bir kavramdır. Wikipedia'nın bir ygarlık ölçütü olarak ileri sürdüğü "toplumsal tabakalaşmanın kültürel elit tarafından dayatılması" klişesi kavramsız entellektüalizme özgü ideolojik bir artıktır. Bu görüş tarım, işleyim ve yönetim işleri ile ilgilenen sınıfların ortaya çıkışındaki zorunluğu gözardı eder ve onu "elit" denilen bir etmenin kaprisine ve komplosuna indirger. İnsanlığın tabakalaşması ya da sınıflara ayrılması kültürel-poitik bir fenomendir ve insan doğası ile özsel bağdaşmazlığı nedeniyle "uygarlık" kavramının dışına düşer. İnsanlığın tabakalara ya da sınıflara ayrılması tarihe ya da uygarlığın oluş sürecine ait bir ilkelliktir.
Kültür insan doğasına aykırı barbarlık öğeleri içerirken, uygarlık insan doğasının ereğini anlatır. Kültür değersiz olanı da kapsarken, uygarlık tinsel değerleri arılık ve eksiksizliği içinde kapsar. İnsanın hak, ahlak ve etik boyutlarında gelişim süreci olarak uygarlaşma süreci doğallıkla her gelişme sürecine özgü çelişkileri ya da uygarlığın gelişimsel karakterini sergiler. Süreçte haksız, ahlak-dışı ve etik-dışı yanlar ortadan kaldırılmakta olan boyutlardır. Kültür ve uygarlık arasındaki ilişki eksiksiz olarak gelişmiş kültürün uygarlık olmasını gerektirir. Bir süreç olarak kültür kendinde erekseldir ve insan doğasının tam açınımına, uygarlığa yöneliktir.
Göreli olarak ileri bir kültür (örneğin Aztekler ve Moğollar ya da Naziler ve Bolşevikler) uygar olmayabilir ve toplumsal olarak ve politik olarak barbarca eylemlere girişebilir.
Uygarlığın öncülü istenç ya da özgürlüktür ve buna göre uygarlık özsel olarak gelişim sürecidir. Kültür belirli bir yapıda takılıp kalabilir ve istençsizlik olarak kültürel süredurum tutuculuğun asıl zeminidir. İstenç özsel olarak özgürlük olduğu için özsel olarak olumsuzlamadır. Uygarlık kültürel gerilikleri tanımaz. Kendini yinelemek barbarcadır, çünkü özgürlük yoksunluğu olarak uygarlaşmayı durdurur.
"Uygarlıkların çöküşü" hüzünlü bir fenomen olarak, olmaması gereken bir olgu olarak sunulur. Tarih kavramı bu çöküşlerin zorunlu olduğunu gösterir. Hiçbir tarihsel uygarlık insan doğasının tam açınımına karşılık düşmez ve bu nedenle problem olan şey, olmaması gereken şey bu yarı-uygarlıkların ortadan kalkması değil, tersine sürmesidir (Asyatik uygarlıklar durumunda olduğu gibi). Çökenler "uygarlıklar" olmaktan çok "imparatorluklar"dır. İmparatorluk herşeyden önce uygarlığın bütününü temsil etmez ve evrensel insan haklarının bilincinin yokluğundan ötürü insan doğasına aykırıdır. Evrensel özgürlük bilincinin doğuşu tarihi modern gelişim evresine getirir ve bundan böyle çökecek hiçbirşey yoktur. Ön-modern despotizm modern döneme kendini ideoloji olarak uzatır ve özgürlük bilinci tarafından ortadan kaldırılır.
Devlet kavramı evrensel insan haklarını, duyunç özgürlüğünü ve yasa egemenliğini gerektirir. İmparatorluk olarak devlet yasa egemenliğini ve duyunç özgürlüğünü kapsar (bu iki bileşen bir devlet olarak Moğol İmparatorluğunda bile bölümsel olarak bulunur.) Ama imparatorluğun kapsamadığı ve onu tarihsel olarak zorunlu kılan şey evrensel insan haklarının bilincinin yokluğudur. Bu aynı zamanda genel olarak imparatorluğun problemi ve onu ortadan kalkmak zorunda bırakan koşuldur. İstençsiz halklar imparatorluğa gereksinirler. İstençlerinin ya da özgürlüklerinin bilincini kazanmaları demokrasiye geçiş ve imparatorluğun sonudur.
Kent-devleti ilkin imparatorluk değildir ve bölümsel demokrasi Yunan kent-devletlerinde olduğu gibi Sümer kent-devletlerinde de bulunur. Ve yasa egemenliği yine bu devletlerde mülkiyet ve sözleşme temelinde bir ekonomik etkinliğin sürmesini sağlar.
Tablo aynı zamanda bir süreç tablosudur ve uygarlıktan çok yarı-uygarlığı, yarı-kültürü betimler. Moral gelişim ve etik karakter gelişimi tarihsel olarak koşullu ve sınırlıdır.
Civilizations are intimately associated with and often further defined by other socio-politico-economic characteristics, including centralization, the domestication of both humans and other organisms, specialization of labour, culturally ingrained ideologies of progress and supremacism, monumentalarchitecture, taxation, societal dependence upon farming and expansionism. Historically, civilization has often been understood as a larger and "more advanced" culture, in contrast to smaller, supposedly primitive cultures.Similarly, some scholars have described civilization as being necessarily multicultural. In this broad sense, a civilization contrasts with non-centralized tribal societies, including the cultures of nomadic pastoralists, Neolithic societies or hunter-gatherers, but it also contrasts with the cultures found within civilizations themselves. As an uncountable noun, "civilization" also refers to the process of a society developing into a centralized, urbanized, stratified structure. Civilizations are organized in densely populated settlements divided into hierarchicalsocial classes with a ruling elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which engage in intensive agriculture, mining, small-scale manufacture and trade. Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over other human beings.
Civilization, as its etymology (below) suggests, is a concept originally linked to towns and cities. The earliest emergence of civilizations is generally associated with the final stages of the Neolithic Revolution, culminating in the relatively rapid process of urban revolution and state formation, a political development associated with the appearance of a governing elite.
The English word civilization comes from the 16th-century Frenchcivilisé ("civilized"), from Latin civilis ("civil"), related to civis ("citizen") and civitas ("city").
Information about the religious beliefs and practices of Neolithic societies are derived from the archeological record, as no there are no written accounts. The elaborate burial mounds, often, like Egyptian pyramids, containing implements, suggest belief in an afterlife. Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) who taught archeology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) developed the theory that Neolithic societies in Europe were matriarchal and worshiped the mother-goddess. This fits the archeological record although her theory was considered controversial, since she not only contrasted Neolithic goddess-worship with the more male-dominated religion of the Bronze period but suggested that the former societies were more peaceful and socially inclusive. She considered Neolithic societies to be goddess-centered and matriarchal ("gynocentric," or "gylanic"), and the Bronze Age Indo-European to be patriarchal ("androcratic." According to her, gynocentric / gylanic societies were peaceful; they honored homosexuals; and they espoused economic equality.
She also argued that androcratic people invaded Europe from outside, forcing patriarchal systems onto the conquered. This pattern of early mother or fertility deities yielding to male deities can be seem in several cultures, such as the Indus Valley Civilization and in ancient Nordic society. Some, building on Gimbutas' work, have developed the theory that all human societies originally revered the Mother Goddess, although the eminent anthropologist, James Frazer (1854-1941) also argued that European and Indian religion was originally mother-goddess centered. People at this time may have seen themselves more as 'one-with-the-land' (as do Australian Aborigines and many other aboriginal peoples whose cultures remain 'neolithic') than as separate from and superior to, the natural environment.
The building of quite complex henges, such as Stonehenge near Salisbury, England demonstrates a level of sophisticated knowledge of astronomy, which almost certainly had a religious association possible concerned with the influence of the stars on human life or representative of the human life-cycle. That the construction was hugely significant is suggested by the mere fact that so much energy and effort was invested in transporting the stones and in building and then in maintaining the monument, using only primitive technology. Some, perhaps sympathetic to the mother-goddess theory referred to above, see sexual imagery in the henge. It is generally accepted that the site had a ritual, religious significance. The degree of cooperation that would have been required to construct the Henge may suggest a more highly developed social system than has sometimes been thought characteristic of the period.
This clock representation shows some of the major units of geological time and definitive events of Earth history. The Hadean eon represents the time before fossil record of life on Earth; its upper boundary is now regarded as 4.0 Ga (billion years ago). Other subdivisions reflect the evolution of life; the Archean and Proterozoic are both eons, the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic are eras of the Phanerozoic eon. The three million year Quaternary period, the time of recognizable humans, is too small to be visible at this scale.
Radiometric dating or radioactive dating is a technique used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope within the material to the abundance of its decay products, which form at a known constant rate of decay. The use of radiometric dating was first published in 1907 by Bertram Boltwood and is now the principal source of information about the absolute age of rocks and other geological features, including the age of fossilized life forms or the age of the Earth itself, and can also be used to date a wide range of natural and man-made materials.
Different methods of radiometric dating vary in the timescale over which they are accurate and the materials to which they can be applied.
Accuracy of radiometric dating
The basic equation of radiometric dating requires that neither the parent nuclide nor the daughter product can enter or leave the material after its formation. The possible confounding effects of contamination of parent and daughter isotopes have to be considered, as do the effects of any loss or gain of such isotopes since the sample was created. It is therefore essential to have as much information as possible about the material being dated and to check for possible signs of alteration. Precision is enhanced if measurements are taken on multiple samples from different locations of the rock body. Alternatively, if several different minerals can be dated from the same sample and are assumed to be formed by the same event and were in equilibrium with the reservoir when they formed, they should form an isochron. This can reduce the problem of contamination. In uranium-lead dating, the concordia diagram is used which also decreases the problem of nuclide loss. Finally, correlation between different isotopic dating methods may be required to confirm the age of a sample. For example, the age of the Amitsoq gneisses from western Greenland was determined to be 3.6 ± 0.05 million years ago (MA) using uranium–lead dating and 3.56 ± 0.10 Ma using lead–lead dating, results that are consistent with each other.
Accurate radiometric dating generally requires that the parent has a long enough half-life that it will be present in significant amounts at the time of measurement (except as described below under "Dating with short-lived extinct radionuclides"), the half-life of the parent is accurately known, and enough of the daughter product is produced to be accurately measured and distinguished from the initial amount of the daughter present in the material. The procedures used to isolate and analyze the parent and daughter nuclides must be precise and accurate. This normally involves isotope-ratio mass spectrometry.
The precision of a dating method depends in part on the half-life of the radioactive isotope involved. For instance, carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years.After an organism has been dead for 60,000 years, so little carbon-14 is left that accurate dating cannot be established. On the other hand, the concentration of carbon-14 falls off so steeply that the age of relatively young remains can be determined precisely to within a few decades.
Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves.Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, whereas relative geochronology is provided by tools such as palaeomagnetism and stable isotope ratios. By combining multiple geochronological (and biostratigraphic) indicators the precision of the recovered age can be improved.
Geochronology is different in application from biostratigraphy, which is the science of assigning sedimentary rocks to a known geological period via describing, cataloguing and comparing fossil floral and faunal assemblages. Biostratigraphy does not directly provide an absolute age determination of a rock, but merely places it within an interval of time at which that fossil assemblage is known to have coexisted. Both disciplines work together hand in hand however, to the point where they share the same system of naming rock layers and the time spans utilized to classify layers within a stratum.
The science of geochronology is the prime tool used in the discipline of chronostratigraphy, which attempts to derive absolute age dates for all fossil assemblages and determine the geologic history of the Earth and extraterrestrial bodies.
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has two related subfields: lithostratigraphy (lithologic stratigraphy) and biostratigraphy (biologic stratigraphy).
Lithostratigraphy is a sub-discipline of stratigraphy, the geologicalscience associated with the study of strata or rock layers. Major focuses include geochronology, comparative geology, and petrology. In general a stratum will be primarily igneous or sedimentary relating to how the rock was formed.
Sedimentary layers are laid down by deposition of sediment associated with weathering processes, decaying organic matters (biogenic) or through chemical precipitation. These layers are distinguishable as having many fossils and are important for the study of biostratigraphy. Igneous layers are either plutonic or volcanic in character depending upon the cooling rate of the rock. These layers are generally devoid of fossils and represent intrusions and volcanic activity that occurred over the geologic history of the area.
There are a number of principles that are used to explain the appearance of stratum. When an igneous rock cuts across a formation of sedimentary rock, then we can say that the igneous intrusion is younger than the sedimentary rock. The principle of superposition states that a sedimentary rock layer in a tectonically undisturbed stratum is younger than the one beneath and older than the one above it. The principle of original horizontality states that the deposition of sediments occurs as essentially horizontal beds.
Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them. Usually the aim is correlation, demonstrating that a particular horizon in one geological section represents the same period of time as another horizon at some other section. The fossils are useful because sediments of the same age can look completely different because of local variations in the sedimentary environment. For example, one section might have been made up of clays and marls while another has more chalkylimestones, but if the fossil species recorded are similar, the two sediments are likely to have been laid down at the same time.
Four views of an Acheulean handaxe
This is a drawing of a replica of an Acheulean hand-axe found during the Lower Paleolithic period. The raw material this tool is made of in this drawing is black obsidian and is even worked on both sides
Rhino drawings from the Chauvet Cave, 37,000 to 33,500 years old
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_Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture (ca. 3200–2000 B.C.).jpg)
Jade cong from _-_Nationalmuseum.jpg)
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Bull, hunting scene.
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