The First Human Ritual: 70,000 Years and Counting

A startling discovery of 70,000-year-old artifacts and a python's
head carved of stone appears to represent the first known human
rituals.
Scientists had thought human intelligence had not evolved the
capacity to perform group rituals until perhaps 40,000 years ago.

But inside a cave in remote hills in Kalahari Desert of Botswana,
archeologists found the stone snake that was carved long ago.
It is as tall as a man and 20 feet long.

"You could see the mouth and eyes of the snake. It looked like a
real python," said Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo.
"The play of sunlight over the indentations gave them the appear-
ance of snake skin.
At night, the firelight gave one the feeling that the snake was
actually moving."

More significant, when Coulson and her colleagues dug a test pit
near the stone figure, they found spearheads made of stone that
had to have been brought to the cave from hundreds of miles
away.
The spearheads were burned in what only could be described as
some sort of ritual, the scientists conclude.

The scientists found a secret chamber behind the python carving.
Worn areas indicate it's been used over the years.

While cave paintings are common in the Tsodilo Hills, inside the
python cave there are just two small paintings, of an elephant
and a giraffe.
The images were painted at the exact spot where water runs
down the wall.


SOURCE:
LiveScience.com

This is a very interesting discovery.
I found the fact that this discovery means that humans were
capable of doing something 30,000 years before they were
thoguht to be able to be very cool.

It just goes to show that we don't know everything about our
own past, especially our beginnings.


Comments, Opinions?

Is there pics of this snake ?and as tall as a man and 20 foot long? doesnt make sense, is it in the striking position?

How do they know that they are 70,000 years old? I always wonder about this stuff. I read the articles but they never really explain how they come to the 70,000 conclusion.

They would need organic material to carbon date but that still doesnt give accurate dating.

Is there pics of this snake?

Not a very good picture of it admittedly.

and as tall as a man and 20 foot long? doesnt make sense, is it in the striking position?

From the picture, it does'nt look so, but it would'nt be
unusual for it to just be very large.

How do they know that they are 70,000 years old? I always wonder about this stuff. I read the articles but they never really explain how they come to the 70,000 conclusion.

I would suppose they are using RadioCarbon dating.
Though they may be using rock core smaples.

So what is the ritual? Carving big snakes? Burying spear points?
Was it a fertility ritual? A ritual to insure success in war against the tribe that carved raccoons?

Sorry I_K, the picture just shows a rock that "looks" like a snake.

However I do believe that humans 70,000 years ago had rituals but I don't think this is evidence of them.

Originally posted by whaaa
So what is the ritual? Carving big snakes? Burying spear points?
Was it a fertility ritual? A ritual to insure success in war against the tribe that carved raccoons?

From what I understand it's a ritual to destroy there used arrowheads,
there is something about a shaman performing something to in the
latter part of the article.

Sorry I_K, the picture just shows a rock that "looks" like a snake.

Like I said, not a very good picture, it's probably more impressvie
from another view.

really thats not a good picture....

Regards,
einfopedia