The Neolithic Revolution...(What kick started it)

What the ancients discovered…

I was doing some research into paleo-acoustics and the ability of some ancient sites to generate “binaural beats” when instruments are played within their confines. (For those that don't know, binaural beats is a means to entered altered states of consciousness from sound effects and influences) I won’t go into the list of extraordinary sites I have found, suffice to say, if you are interested…do some homework. Fascinating stuff out there.

Anyway, while researching this, I inevitably came across references to ancient substance use and discovered some new theories I found to be absolutely fascinating.

When discussing the “Neolithic Revolution”, most archaeologists and anthropologists dodge the scrutiny bullet by saying “something happened” and people began to group together, make permanent shelters, (in Gobekli-Tepe, the Hunter gatherers started building temples). But no one dares a guess what that “something” was.

I came across some theories regarding a consistently appearing trace element in many Anatolian sites…Acacia wood.

Acacia contains an element called '___' (DimethylTriptamine) which is a hallucinogen. Consequently, Ayahuasca, popular in ancient and even modern south American Tribes…also contains '___'.

This theory, in as brief a description as I can say offers this possibility. When the '___' was ingested, it caused a hallucinatory experience…we all know this…however…as some modern research has shown…it does more than that.

Certain hallucinogens (I will not state them here to keep this an open conversation and not get nuked) have been classified as “mind expanding drugs”. They literally change the wiring of the brain. It is being postulated that perhaps…this…is why certain members of tribal units rose up above their peers and became leaders with a vision and a plan. They were suddenly able to chain together more complex ideas and more complex thoughts. (Remember now, Steve Jobs was a “hippie”).

Now back to the really amazing stuff. '___' experiences supposedly only last a few minutes (20 to 30)…unless…you include other natural elements that contain natural MAOI inhibitors. Properly prepared Ayahuasca…contains these…naturally. How did the ancients figure this out?…I have no idea but I find the fact that they did to be utterly amazing. (Not to mention if you DON”T do it right…it is poison).

Anyway, I found this explanation of the trigger mechanism for the “Neolithic revolution" to be extremely interesting and thought provoking….I don’t know if I agree 100% but I have to admit the old “something happened” explanation was getting a little worn…This offers a plausible and realistic explanation…that many modern aka...20th century and beyond researchers ...are validating....what are your thoughts?

Side note:

(Do some research into a fellow named Stanislov Graf. An immigrant professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins University in the earlier part of the 20th century…fascinating work.

Interesting

This idea has come up before

Shaman rave parties

Past use of '___'

Etc

Lot of other material hidden behind pay walls unfortunately which can be scratched at using google scholar

Interesting theory, however, I have a leniency towards another understanding.

Natural, innate intelligence that encompasses all life, existence, and energy.

Awe-inspiring and amazing is mankind's scientific and technological development. However, beyond a deeper want, desire, motivation, and contemplation... I do not see anything absolutely unique or mystifying about man.

Creatures from every domain create societies, packs, tribes, caste systems, and patriarchal or matriarchal systems. All sorts of animals create and utilize tools. Ants, bees, termites, and birds build cities and colonies. Beavers build dams. Ants are known to domesticate aphids as cows and farm fungal mushrooms.

Intelligence is universal.

reply to post by Sahabi


Very interesting point of view. Honestly...I was unaware of the aphid farming...THAT is nature at it's finest! I am dumb struck at the implications!

But that being said...if you read into Stanislov Graf and the research he did into extended use of mind expanding elements...it is jaw dropping....I would never have imagined some of the things he brought forth. Don't get this wrong, this is not like he was a researcher dabbling into the topic...he is...the most docum ented researcher on the topic....he did thousands of studies...not tens, not hundreds....he went on to accumulate the data from scores of other researchers into the most well established data base on the planet on the topic of "mind expanding" substances.

Maybe I am a little prejudice because I live in Maryland where the heart of Hopkins is....but these dudes were so smart and their curiosity was sooo big...I am stunned that their findings can still be found online...they are not going to win the CIA-DEA award for diminishment. Their studies show one thing....the brain...and the mind...are far bigger than we are yet to comprehend...and I find that exciting and awe-inspiring. WE are yet to define our limits....and that is so exciting....WE are the power behind the universe (at least as we understand it). We are the power behind the reality we comprehend...but some of these studies hint to the fact that their is a greater reality that we are not even in touch with...and I find that shiz to be awesome.

sadness

For '___' to be active there needs to be an MAOI involved. Were our ancestors smart enough to brew a concoction? By looking at indigenous cultures. I say the answer is yes.

Originally posted by Maddogkull
For '___' to be active there needs to be an MAOI involved. Were our ancestors smart enough to brew a concoction? By looking at indigenous cultures. I say the answer is yes.

They have been doing it for thousands of years.

Firstly, monoamine oxidase breaks down '___' in your digestive system before it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. An MAOI is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, which allows '___' to be taken orally. '___' can be smoked in freebase form (which makes it vapourizeable), or even snorted and injected in salt form (which makes it soluble in water at a certain pH). Now that that is out of the way...

This is how Ayahuasca works. The Ayahuasca vine is what we might call in English the Vine of the Dead, but it's more like the Vine of the Spirit World or something closer to that. 'Dead' brings connotations not intended. The visionary healer will receive a patient and after hearing his problems, brew the Ayahuasca vine, which contains harmine and harmaline, both MAOIs, into a tea. The healer will drink this brew while meditating on his patient's problem and then drink it. This brew allows him to communicate with the spirit realm where he is shown a specific selection of plants in the jungle. These plants will be retrieved by the healer and then brewed in another brew, maybe the next day, along with the Ayahuasca vine. The extra plants are called admixtures.

The healer and the patient then both drink this Ayahuasca and admixture brew and that's when the healing happens. It's a joint effort and is never only physical, but involves all aspects of the mind, body, and soul.

Many '___'-containing plants are admixtures. It is strange that '___'-containing plants were and are used because (as far as I know) they are not significant to the culture besides that they are used as Ayahuasca admixtures. It's easier to see why they might have discovered that these '___'-containing plants had power when brewed with Ayahuasca because the healer would go out into the jungle and bring many many different types of plants with the Ayahuasca. I am not here to say whether the spirits were actually guiding him or whether he was grabbing random plants, I don't want to bring that conversation up. But I do want to say that over 1000 years of brewing the Ayahuasca vine with various other plants, it is no stretch of the imagination to think that they might have stumbled upon any of the very numerous '___'-containing plants out there.

'___' itself causes an extremely profound experience, quite reliably. I won't go into that here but of all the drugs in the world, it is by far the most interesting, not just the experience but the molecule itself.

Harmine and Harmaline, which are hallucinogenic themselves, were originally called telepathine, because the scientist had at least heard the stories if not believed them. It might have been that only one of the chemicals was named that but I cannot remember. But then they discovered more about these interesting MAOIs and renamed them.

The Ayahuasca vine is Banisteriopsis caapi.
The most commonly used '___'-containing plant was Psychotria viridis. Very cool name.
Another '___'-containing plant is Mimosa hostilis, but to my knowledge it was not used much as an Ayahuasca admixture.

This is only one of many ways that '___' was ingested by ancient peoples.

There are _countless_ other '___'-containing life-forms (not just plants, it is in your brain right now in super tiny quantities! no joke look it up). It is a fascinating molecule. Seriously.

The shamans of the Amazon states that plants contains spirits. When Ayahuasca is used, the shaman can converse and learn from these plant teachers. Scientists were baffeled by the indigenous populations use of these substances. When asked where they got this information, they simply stated "the plants teach us how to prepare and use them." My theory is that psychedelics played a major role in almost ever major leap in counciousness. From cave men to the Elysium Mysteries in Greece. Read Graham Hancock's book Supernatural. It goes into detail about this topic.

Originally posted by Oannes
The shamans of the Amazon states that plants contains spirits. When Ayahuasca is used, the shaman can converse and learn from these plant teachers. Scientists were baffeled by the indigenous populations use of these substances. When asked where they got this information, they simply stated "the plants teach us how to prepare and use them." My theory is that psychedelics played a major role in almost ever major leap in counciousness. From cave men to the Elysium Mysteries in Greece. Read Graham Hancock's book Supernatural. It goes into detail about this topic.

I sincerely appreciate these references to Ayahuasca....i find it absolutely fascinating...but.....it is not that old in the grande scheme of what has been documented....it is cool...but it is really not that old....in the big picture I mean.

My real question originates much further back....I'm talking 10 to 12,000 BCE. Iti s known it was being used ('___' I mean)...they have found random pockets of Acacia wood in the ruins of Gobekli-Tepe and this is where the question first became obvious....which came first...the 'trip" or "the society". Methinks the "trip" came first and from that learned we needed to work together....thus forming a need or desire for expanded community.

I have no reason to think I am correct here...I am simply looking at the timelins and trying to rationalize why this or that happened....by all means, please add your opinions and info....

Originally posted by Damrod
. Iti s known it was being used ('___' I mean)...they have found random pockets of Acacia wood in the ruins of Gobekli-Tepe and this is where the question first became obvious....

Would you have a source for that finding of Acacia wood at GT? Thanks

Der


It is known it was being used ('___' I mean)...they have found random pockets of Acacia wood in the ruins of Gobekli-Tepe and this is where the question first became obvious....do I have a source?...no...do I need to or am i going to do a slacker disagreeing homework...F no....find it yourself...and stfu...I don't believe stupid was invited to this conversation

I will look. Hell it was the secondary curiosity to me. I had never considered the hallucinogenic path as a reason before so I didn't really mark down where the idea came from. Granted...Acacia is a pretty common wood and it's use for anything intellectual is a reach....I just found the notion interesting and allowed me a moment to think mankind was a clever and resourceful monkey....and then you posted this and made me realize that no one is going to appreciate the idea of a free monkey. "Get back to work Monkey...and stop talking so much". Yes, most of us know from which hilltop you bark...but it won't matter anyway.

yes... I believe this is the world you want to have propagated and preserved...sorry for allowing free thought to slip into your fantasy.....some of us will disagaree...some will do more than that....expect it.

Originally posted by Damrod
Snip a large amount of crazy.

edit on 4/17/2012 by Damrod because: (no reason given)

Ah dude, I simply wanted to know where you read this. I'm interested in GT and hadn't come across that statement before......You seem to have anger issues, lol

Originally posted by Damrod
Der


It is known it was being used ('___' I mean)...they have found random pockets of Acacia wood in the ruins of Gobekli-Tepe and this is where the question first became obvious....do I have a source?...no...do I need to or am i going to do a slacker disagreeing homework...F no....find it yourself...and stfu...I don't believe stupid was invited to this conversation

I will look. Hell it was the secondary curiosity to me. I had never considered the hallucinogenic path as a reason before so I didn't really mark down where the idea came from. Granted...Acacia is a pretty common wood and it's use for anything intellectual is a reach....I just found the notion interesting and allowed me a moment to think mankind was a clever and resourceful monkey....and then you posted this and made me realize that no one is going to appreciate the idea of a free monkey. "Get back to work Monkey...and stop talking so much". Yes, most of us know from which hilltop you bark...but it won't matter anyway.

yes... I believe this is the world you want to have propagated and preserved...sorry for allowing free thought to slip into your fantasy.....some of us will disagaree...some will do more than that....expect it.

edit on 4/17/2012 by Damrod because: (no reason given)

No need to be a jackwad,
Hans was asking a valid question because he is VERY INTERESTED Gobelki Tepe, being a archeologist and all.
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Hans thread on gobelki tepe.
I can appreciate your interest in this idea, I have read some on the subject of how psycho active have influenced human development, including one paper about how several compounds used by indiginous peoples, when used in just right dosage, dramatically increase visual,auditory and olfactory accuity. The best documented is the use of dmt.containing compounds by amazonian monkey hunters.
But I will disagree with you vehemently,,since humans have been ingesting some of these compounds for a lot longer than we have been building things.
Climate and environment and population density increase is the real reason for the big leap we made at the end of the last ice ages.

reply to post by punkinworks10


You state:
"Climate and environment and population density increase is the real reason for the big leap we made at the end of the last ice age."

Why didn't our species leap during the last interglacial, the Eemian, 115,000 years ago? The conditions of environment and climate were better or equal to this interglacial (holocene) and our technology was the same as ours was 10 kya...


So could population density really be the primary cause for the "leap"...

Yes that and building up enough people, and with domestication of animals an agriculture enough food they could then specialize - and travel, trade and contact with others spread new ideas. But remember this only happened in a few places. In most of the world the hunter-gathers continue to exist and do so to this day

Originally posted by Damrod
When discussing the “Neolithic Revolution”, most archaeologists and anthropologists dodge the scrutiny bullet by saying “something happened” and people began to group together, make permanent shelters, (in Gobekli-Tepe, the Hunter gatherers started building temples). But no one dares a guess what that “something” was.

Except not everyone was hunter-gatherers at the LGM. Many of the groups living along the Aegean coast were fishermen-gatherers already congregrating to one place: the coast.

Fishermen peoples already lived in groups, so they most likely already had some sort of housing unit system. The first boats in the Northern Aegean were around 10,500 B.C.E. The island of Gioura is the first island not connected to a mainland landmass that gets colonized. The Gioura group still lived or regularly visited the Cyclops Cave. They had all sorts of fishing hooks and grouped together on the island. That means that Gioura island was grouping together in the Paleolithic. Skyros island grouping together in the Paleolithic as well.

Gioura-Psathoura island: Colonized by Boat group at the Paleolithic c. 10,500 B.C.E.

Skyros Island: at the LGM and Paleolithic when Colonized by Boats c. 10,500 B.C.E.

On the island of Kythnos, they already had circular stone huts by 9500 B.C.E. Maroulas (at Kythnos)circular stone housing can actually be viewed on satellite if you want to Google it. Kythnos might have also had einkorn wheat, but I'm not certain on that one yet. That's a grouping together at the Mesolithic.

Kythnos island and Maroulas Stone Housing c. 9500 B.C.E.

The coastal groups were smarter than the inland groups who were still wandering around from place-to-place. And that's probably because fishermen people already congregated along the coasts. So it's not a "jump" into the Neolithic for the coastal groups. Actually the inland groups (like Gobekli-Tepe) were behind the coastal groups in technology.

As for larger-brains and technology, I always figured that it came from aegilopoides einkorn wheat, aka. "the bread of life." The modern wheat that we eat today is emmer wheat. But einkorn wheat is different. Einkorn wheat has a natural source of dopamine, which increases motor control and senses.

Since all einkorn wheat is endemic to Turkey, it's easy to track who is related to whom by which breed of einkorn became their first crop. Boeoticum einkorn was endemic to the region of Turkey south of the mountains around the Tigris-Euphrates. Boeoticum (a cold weather einkorn) and became the first crop in Mesopotamia. So while they were eating it in wild forms, they were actually changing their brains, increasing their dopamine levels and senses. The other cold weather einkorn was endemic to the region of Turkey north of the Caucaus mountains and it spread along the Danube.

But it's the warm-weather einkorn, Aegilopoides, that existed along the warm southwest bank of Turkey, or at least a warm region during the cold Ice Age. That particular one ended up on all the islands of the Aegean, mainland Greece, coastal Adriatic, Sicily and it also is the first crop in the British Isles. So everyone eating that dopamine-enhancing-increase-your-senses Aegilopoides einkorn, those are the groups that started the Neolithic. They were the ones to invent boats. They were the ones importing cats to islands for human colonization. And they were the ones who expanded colonies along every coast from Turkey through the Aegean, Mediterranean, and into the Atlantic...all the way to the British Isles by boat.

It was the people eating the warm-weather breed of einkorn that became the most advanced the fastest for some reason. Something about the dopamine in the warm-weather breed. Einkorn-- the original "bread of life."

Good theory but new evidence suggests the Neanderthals were also traveling by boat

Neanderthal's at sea

I'll comment more once I go thru all your links -done

So if this warm weather wheat was the secret why did the Americas develop civilizations prior to having it and why did the Chinese start up civilization before they had it too?

reply to post by MapMistress


That's awsome about proper traveling around the ageanx but the did not ivent boats, that honor would have to go to homo erectus, as they made it across the Wallace line to the island of flores.
And modern humans have been traveling by boat for at least 40k years as is attested to by tuna bones found at sites in indonesia.

reply to post by punkinworks10


Yes that's true too HE and of the course the Aboriginies of Australia would have had to cross water to get to where they ended up. I was restricting my reply to speaking of the Aegean

reply to post by Hanslune


Your link isn't working for me, so I dug up this article:

Neanderthals were ancient mariners


Thank you very much Hanslune, for bringing this to my attention. This is an incredible proposition!