Prehistory

Prehistory is the time before writing. Writing first appeared in Mesopotamian 5500 BC.  My interest in prehistory was ignited by a special exhibit I saw at the British Museum on my last visit there in 2022, ‘View of the World of Stonehenge:.  When I lived in London in the early 70’s I worked across from Harrods at the Associated Television Studios and most weeks walked to the British Museum eating a quick lunch so I could use the time to wander through the extraordinary exhibits.  It’s quite likely my love of museums began there resulting in me seeking them out the rest of my life. I’ve also had a life long love for history.  

Right now I’m immensely enjoying the Oxford Online Course, Prehistory:Ritual and Religion in archeology with delightful learned academic tutor Francesca Fulminante, PHD.  The British Museum exhibit and this course and my reading around the subject these last couple of years has thoroughly expanded my knowledge of this period.  I think seeing Lucy, the 3,2 million year old Homo Australopithecus (homo erectus)at the National Museum of Ethiopia when I visited there in 2019 and thanks to Lesan Hailu as tour guide (Lesanu.che@gmail.com)  my excitement was further excited.  

I had heard of Neanderthal’s like most but I didn’t know that Homo Sapiens is the 9th human  Jason’a Hodzic published a succinct article in Big Think 2022 listing our predecessors. H.habilis the handyman 2.4 millions to 1.4 million years ago.  H. Erectus : the enduring hiker (1.89 million to 110,00 years ago),  H. Rudolfensis, the stranger 1.9 million to 1.8 million years ago H, Heidelbergensi, the hunter (700,000 to 200,000 years ago), H. Flores insists, the Hobbit, (100,000 to 500,000 years ago),  H. Neanderthalensis :  The Neanderthal thinkers, (400,000 to 40,000 years ago), H. Naledi: the enigmatic newcomer (335,000 to 236,000 years ago)  H. Luzonensis: a polemic finding (at least 67,000 years ago).  Wee actually share 1 to 8% DNA with the Neanderthals.  

I read the Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade travelling in Scotland curious about the lessons from genetic studies of human migration learned secondary to the findings of the Human genome project completed in 2003.  

The whole of history has been expanded for me. 

In the course we develop a time line 

Paleolithic 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago.  The advent of stone tools was 2.5 millions years ago. Neanderthals moved out of Africa 100,000 years ago.  Shell beads were found in Israel 100,000 years ago and in South America 76,000 years ago.  The last Ice Age began 100,000 years ago and lasted until 25,000 years ago 

Mesolithic is 15,000 to 5000 years ago and they find graves where the cranium has been removed at an exhumations and secondary burial. This is thought to be related to the origin of the ancestor cult. 

The Neolithic Period was 10,000 to 22,000 .The Neolithic(or New Stone Age)  was the beginning of settled human lifestyle.  The Venus of Willendorf dates from 29,000 years bc and was found in Austria 

The Çatahöyük Research Project in Turkey is an amazing site where they have found so many goddess figurines.  It is about 7500 years old.  I confess I’ve seen these often in museums and liking breasts myself been pleased that my aesthetic appreciation is at least 20,000 years old, Jung would no doubt argue it relates to the child within. 

I also listened to World Prehistory by Brian n and Nadia Durante because I enjoyed the course book from Black Land to Fifth Sun by Brian Fagan. The idea of spirituality is intuited by rituals seen as early as the Neanderthals,  We are in the course looking for the origins of religion in these sacred rituals that are differentiated from domestic rituals.  Where the hearth goes in a hut is a kind of ritual in some digs but the placeing of cave staleglites in a circle and ultimately the Stonehenge and Pyraminds clearly aren’t necessary for everyday life.