Djade archaeological site, 11,000 thousand year old wall painting

reply to post by eriktheawful


Yes Pompeii is a good place to wander and think about the way things were....

The inhabitants of Djade al-Mughara lived off hunting and wild plants. They resembled modern day humans in looks but were not farmers or domesticated

I dont see how the people who lived in this village were hunter/gatherer types.
Surely a hunter/gatherer tribe would not bother to build a village with stone walls and decorative art.
I think these people would have had domesticated animals goats, chickens etc
as well as basic grain crops of wild wheat.
Unless they had built more villages and traveled between them seasonally

Isn't it curious that those are the "Colors" of the Giza Pyramids.... Amazing isn't it.

The Tura Stones.

PS: You should also post in BIG LETTERS ... This:

NORTHERN SYRIA

"French archaeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old wall painting underground in NORTHERN SYRIA which they believe is the oldest in the world.

FRANCE is an important contributor to excavation efforts in SYRIA, where 120 TEAMS ARE AT WORK. Syria was at the crossroads of the ancient world and has thousands of mostly unexcavated archaeological sites.

mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com...

Now tell me ... what do you think they are looking for ? And why do you think the ONU/USA/FRANCE etc... are in Syria ?

Originally posted by Lastone

Now tell me ... what do you think they are looking for ? And why do you think the ONU/USA/FRANCE etc... are in Syria ?

Ah, the French have doing archaeology in Syria since the 19th century, bolstered somewhat by a short stint as the colonial overlords. In the earlier time there was a great deal of competition between them and archaeologists from England and later Germany.

Are you supposing that the French under Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 and Syria in 1799, which led to an increased interest in archaeology and therefore to two centuries of archaeological research in the area so they could spy on Syria in 2012?

~

Hans are you single-handedly trying to recruit a new generation of archeologists? Anyhow another great post, this area in particular just seems to have an endless supply of fascinating ancient sites.

reply to post by Hanslune


its possible that those colors in the painting could represent binary code. what do you guys think about that?

Thank you very much for sharing.AwesomeI can never get enough of ancient civilizations.Especially art work.

*sigh* i hate how archeologists force their preconceived notions of how things were onto us.

it would be damn near impossible to build stone structures like that, and have time for elaborate paintings and art without an agricultural society.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
Hans are you single-handedly trying to recruit a new generation of archeologists? Anyhow another great post, this area in particular just seems to have an endless supply of fascinating ancient sites.

We always need a fresh supply of bodies! When I've queried students on this I find that about 65%* come to archaeology from an initial interest in fringe subject, they come looking for answers, just like people who are nuts and want to understand themselves, become psychologists, lol

*edited to add; this would apply to US students, 80% for European, 20% for Asian, and 0.05% for Arab students

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
*sigh* i hate how archeologists force their preconceived notions of how things were onto us.

it would be damn near impossible to build stone structures like that, and have time for elaborate paintings and art without an agricultural society.

This is the place and time where agricutlure arose, they were probably gathering and perhaps planting crops but the seeds themselves don't show modification - yet

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by Biliverdin

Well you say that, but bronze making does too, and it also meant travelling thousands of miles to get the tin necessary to get the required result...so as I was saying...

Copper is easier to melt that iron and doesn't require carbon infusions to make it 'better'

Certainly. The truth of the matter being, as you demonstrate, that the early metal workers needed to first perfect the art, via bronze smelting, in order to have the technical expertise to move onto working iron.

I therefore concede the point.

Originally posted by LeLeu

The inhabitants of Djade al-Mughara lived off hunting and wild plants. They resembled modern day humans in looks but were not farmers or domesticated

I dont see how the people who lived in this village were hunter/gatherer types.
Surely a hunter/gatherer tribe would not bother to build a village with stone walls and decorative art.
I think these people would have had domesticated animals goats, chickens etc
as well as basic grain crops of wild wheat.

It would depend upon the size of the group. The size of the group would then depend upon how many children and infants it could support. And what predators they needed to defend those children from. At some point the roles of men and women polarised, and men went off, seasonally, to hunt, and left the women, with stores, to raise the children. It was as likely that those left behind would have needed to defend themselves from other humans, as well as from other mammalian predators.

I know the abouriginals in australia needed about two hours a day to take care of all the hunter gathering, the rest is time to do what ever.

building permanent structures takes more time..

if they had hunting and fishing and they probably did, and not much of a winter they would have had it soft
they may have sent out hunting parties but would not have travelled much..comparable to maybe the hohokem or the anastasi types in NA...the river likely was the hiway

Originally posted by Danbones
I know the abouriginals in australia needed about two hours a day to take care of all the hunter gathering, the rest is time to do what ever.

building permanent structures takes more time..

It takes more time, but then usually, once it is done...well it is permanent. So a one-off (assuming the techniques are sound) venture, that will last longer than the temporary seasonal structures. And, once you have invested that time, then you are hard-pressed to leave it.

The utility of temporary shelters ofcourse far outweigh permanent ones. You are less likely to be a victim of natural disasters, they are heathier, and you are less likely to deplete the local fertility. But, you know, we as a species seem to prefer the familiar, not to mention the fact that we have a very possessive nature.

reply to post by Biliverdin


yeah, if you don't have pressure why move?
but say the weather pattern changes then everything changes or a rampant social group invades then maybe they would head for the hills...pemanent structure indicates a knowledge base a little bigger then a nomad might need and so does the artwork

re Iron they may have meteorite iron, copper, a couple of shared tools could make the whole village..
If you catch big animals in the streamside mud a small wooden pithing stick between the vertebre is enough to kill a big animal

Originally posted by Danbones
reply to post by Biliverdin

 

yeah, if you don't have pressure why move?
but say the weather pattern changes then everything changes or a rampant social group invades then maybe they would head for the hills...pemanent structure indicates a knowledge base a little bigger then a nomad might need and so does the artwork

It is all very gradual. And we know that climatic change pushed groups of hominids together in the Middle East from time to time. The art work in the caves in France and Spain is 30,000 years old in some places, and highly stylised. Those caves must have served at times as permanent residences, particularly during nuclear winters for example. The early settlements can be equated to constructing caves where there were no caves in some senses.

the bodies buried under the buildings indicate at least a few generations of ownership, and maybe even ancestor worship too

What a coincidence, i never heard of Djade before, but today i saw a documentary on german tv 3sat.

There is a online version of the movieJenseits von Eden, Lifestyle in der Steinzeit

really mindblowing stuff, 3 story buildings and the first built dams to save water, 11 000 year old!!

As well the pictures in the burial sites, depicting huge birds and bulls.

the documentary is in german, but i think it s even worth watching, if you do not understand the language.

here is a great video on the site
i watched all 4 instalements of this programme and was fascinated by some things and skeptical of others but a very good series on the BBC

www.youtube.com...

12,000 years old!
and just look at the high relief carving in the stone
S+F OP