Archaeologica.org

There's a lot of hoo-haa in the archaeology news about Homo sapiens being in India 14,000 earlier than they were supposed to be there. This is as a result of Michael Petraglia's dig in Andhra Pradesh which is finding evidence of Homo sapiens there 74,000 years ago, buried under the ash of the Toba e...

The 'cathedrals' for the Hopi were the natural pyramids of the Grand Canyon. The 'stained glass windows' were the rock art ~ cave paintings and petroglyphs found in profusion all over North America. The Gothic arches and pillars were originally inspired by the groves and forests where they practised...

EP, I have now found the source of that story on the 1.83 million year old hand axes and it's here: USM discovers concrete evidence that will change the history of man It gives much more information. It says that the handaxes were found embedded in suevite rock, which was formed as a result of the i...

Actually, Min, I am going to posit an Out-of-India-Into-Africa-Out-of-Africa-Into-Australia-Out-of-Australia movement, after which we have what's technically known as the hokey-kokey ... in out, in out, shake it all about.. around the South Pacific islands, followed by a steamy Argentine tango acros...

Perhaps if ET lands here in five million years time and, by some miracle of technology, this post has been preserved for posterity, they might come to the same conclusion ~ that as a member of this primitive race, I was just trying to show you how good I am. :D Well, you were, weren't you? :lol: :l...

This is the first time that I've seen a conventional archaeologist (with a grant to find out) consider this possibility, and it is from Australian archaeologist Mike Morwood as he begins further excavations of Homo floresiensis related finds on Flores. It starts off with all the usual stuff about ho...

That's all true, but you apply it to the premise that those patterns have an intentional, considered, and composed meaning , that they are a conscious, reasoned effort to communicate something, a composed message, to others that might see it. And exactly that is a bridge too far, imo. Odds are that...

I apologise for jumping to that conclusion, Rokcet. I was obviously wrong in that assessment. Mea culpa. :oops: But interestingly, I think this discussion highlights the nub of our problem in our trying to understand early man and how he thought. For instance, let's analyse what we call writing and ...

So where does the 'communication' bit come from? That, Roy, is an exquisite example of wishful thinking/projection. And that Roy, is an exquisite example of wishful thinking/projection by Rokcet boy that early man was cognitively impaired. :P Eggshell fragments from the oldest sediment layers at Di...

Plus when ever Homo crossed that line other species could have also crossed at that time. Why did they not? I don't know, but I'm guessing it may have something to do with fauna not knowing about rafting/boating/sailing, while homo did... :lol: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a91/gillharley/Palaeo...

Don't quite follow you, Roy.

As I understand it, the oldest handaxes in Africa are dated to 1.6 million years old, compared to the 1.83 million year old Malaysian ones.

So for now I peg the beginning of hominid (HE) boating/sailing at around 1 mya. Well, we have Malaysian handaxes dated to 1.8 million years old. So if you subscribe to the view that every single type of hominid came out of Africa at some point, which we know the Club does, you could be looking at p...

I leave the jokes about heads in the sand and such like to Min, whose sense of comic timing has always way surpassed mine. http://www.archaeologydaily.com/news/fotos/image3443_b.jpg Researchers say a cache of ostrich eggshells engraved with geometric designs demonstrates the existence of a symbolic ...

Yes ... but I'm afraid you didn't, Rokcet man .... so I'm boiling up an extra special brew for you.

Thought you guys might want to take a look at our Maps and Migrations thread, which has maps showing the outlines of landmasses as they were thought to be during the last LGM, with much lower sea levels. For instance, this one showing the British Isles is quite enlightening: http://i59.photobucket.c...