Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum

thesweetcheat

6216 posts

Re: Neanderthals v Humans

Nov 07, 2012, 20:15

Interesting stuff LS. Of course in this country there are known Mesolithic "seasonal" camps like Starr Carr and the wetlands on the Severn shore, but nothing particularly structural as far as I know (unless you count fish traps!). Plus some caves were no doubt occupied regularly/seasonally before and after the last Ice Age.

So yeah, examples of places being used regularly even if not in the form of permanent homesteads, etc. But little to compare with the Australian stone patterns you refer to (although fro something like that to have survived 10,000 years plus would be quite an achievement, even for something constructed from stones).

I still can't help but feel that the bigger ceremonial monuments reflect an awareness of seasonal cycles that would be more relevant to people based in one place and trying to create a permanent, sustainable life from farming (grain and livestock), where celestial cycles and territorial "ownership" become more important than they would to a hunter/gatherer group that essentially follow the herd, as it were. So much is speculative, it's impossible to get a real grasp before any theory slips away into unknowns.

My own view (until better - any - evidence comes along) is that Neanderthal people could have created very simple funerary monuments (e.g. slab over grave) as we know they respected the dead from the archaeology available, but that they probably did not build any more structurally complex monuments, as such behaviour is not generally exhibited by any Hominid species - as far as we know - until a period when subsistence shifted from pure hunter/gatherer to something more settled. Could easily be wrong, obviously.

In reply to:
Re: Neanderthals v Humans (Littlestone)

Replies:
Re: Neanderthals v Humans (Sanctuary)

The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Neanderthals v Humans	Log In to post a reply

137 messages	Topic View: Flat \| Threaded