Bonus video: What happened to the hunter gatherers that already lived in Southeast Europe?? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-a1aJ_UBBwE4.html
I'm a sling shooter here in Spain. Even today, there are contests or shooting meetings with "honda" in Malaga and balearic islands. It's a "weapon" that requires a lot, a lot of training, practice and skill. In many parts where there are still Neolithic tribes they still do tournaments and games with many types of weapons such as bows ... even when they no longer need to hunt. In short: fun. That's why they would have so many arrowheads and projectiles for slingshot.
@@tsopmocful1958 Maybe the men folk died whilst away from the settlements and their remains carried off by scavengers. That would be one reason why there are more female burials.
I know this video is like 2 years old, and I have no idea how to even see if you replied to this so essentially this is for nothing but: are you at George Rogers park filming? I grew up a 5 minute walk from there. Love all the videos you do sir.
The lack of buried bodies is not that odd. Cremation, and scavengers would account for it, cannibalising of the corpses shouldn't be overlooked either. Grim as that seems, it still happens in this day and age as any one who has watched that movie with the soccer team can attest.
If they had cremated the bodies, would there be evidence of that? Like charred remains all found in the same spot? Also, do you think the bodies located under floors in simple graves could have been murder victims hidden by the person who killed them? I know that’s a bit dramatic, but it makes sense to me considering that we still see that behavior happen now.
Hello, sir :) I'm an archaeology student and I watched your video with great pleasure. If it is not so much to ask, would you be so kind to share your main sources for this content with me? I'm currently doing a college project (the final one, so it's pretty important to me) and I would find it very helpful if you could share with me the source of some of the images you reference in this video, and also some of the sources you use to document it. The main topic I'm interested in is neolithic cookery and ceramics used to it, so everything related to animals/vegetables and ceramics is much of my interest. I know fairly well that sometimes it's hard to recall every source from wich you extracted your knowlledge adquired over time, but maybe you could recomend me some paper of use to this topic? I would be very greatful to you (eternaly). And, apart of that matter, can I ask you wich is the paper (or papers) that I could quote to talk about the preferential burrials of women? This topic is very interesting and I'm also very interested in neolithic ritual and symbolism. Thank you very much for your content, I hope I don't bother you with my questions, but I was very charmed by your video and the ellocuence with wich you exposed in a few minutes very difficult aspects of archaeological interpretation. And, sorry for the gramatical errors that may have slided, for english is not my main lenguage and I could have commited some mistakes. If someone in the coments can recomend me some paper of book on these topics I'd be very very grateful to you. Thank you very much!!!!!
Being an archaeologist, it shouldn't surprise me that you're reference to metal (music) would be the furthest back we've discovered yet. The album that started it all.
LOL. Just watching this video again (cuz it’s an awesome topic, your vids are excellent, and my memory is shite) ... and I just noticed: the clip art lady representing the “specialist trades” looks hopelessly depressed! How bad must your life be that you’d pine for the good ol’ days of farming without tools?!? ... although: she could just be thinking about much better her life would have been if she’d run off with Dirk Beefchest, the hunky hunter-gatherer that came to trade knicks-Knacks last spring instead of marrying Snotly McDirtfarmer so she could have his 50 babies and work herself to death by 32.
My family actually lived on a self sustainable subsistence farmstead and sheep ranch built along the banks of the Green river. We often ate what we grew in the gardens, we kept chickens, we made all kinds of dairy products from the sheep milk, and occasionally ate the sheep. Grandma made wool clothing, grandpa made all kinds of leather goods. We subsidized it with fish from the river and what little money we made from farmers markets and off season jobs. What you learn very quickly is that everyone needs everyone in the community to thrive because there's not enough time in the season to do everything alone, so everyone tends to pick a few things they do well and everyone else shares and benefits from it. The second thing you learn is that the work is really hard for about 4 months, then life is really hard for about 4 months, and then you get 4 months where there's nearly nothing to do. Of course we had modern machinery and tools and science and husbandry, etc. And we didn't have to make our own clothes and hand grind flour and that sort of thing. I'd imagine that even with the added difficulty of doing things by hand, they would have functioned together in diverse groups with diverse jobs and skills and they would have had more free time than you might imagine. Certain enough free time to develop things like art, pottery, jewelry, weaving, basketry, reading and writing, interpersonal relationships, tool and technology advancements, etc. Not saying it would have been easy, but it wouldn't have necessarily been overwhelmingly or insurmountably difficult either. A manageable but never ending work load that sustains your life sounds hard but eventually it becomes a very rewarding part of daily life. This is often what people find prolonged wilderness survival situations as well. The work is often extremely difficult but the days are often long and largely filled with a whole lot of nothing.
Which Green River? I know of a few of them and I'm curious if it's one near(ish) me. Sounds like a really interesting lifestyle to have in this day and age. I'd love to give it a shot, but I don't know how long I'd last if I'm being honest. Lol
@@semaj_5022 It was the Green river on the Uintah Ouray Reservation in Central Utah. It actually no longer exists, there is currently a complex of oil derricks where our families land used to be.
@@douglasyoung927 Ohh, okay. The one near me is in Kentucky, feeding the Ohio. That's really sad, though. I can't imagine how upsetting it must be to know the land you and your family used to live off of has been essentially destroyed. On a reservation, no less. One would hope land with such cultural value would be protected from destructive resource extraction.
I'm a poor uni student, but I'll be giving 3 dollars a month to your patreon. It's the least I could do after you have brought me so much joy with these fascinating videos! I feel like what you're doing is the internet at its best- education, discourse, and building communities based on common interests. Thank you so much!
While on tour in Iraq, I noticed may names of locations beginning with Tel- (Tel Afar for one also ever heard of Tel Aviv) and learned later the word translation Tel = hill. Your video proves this. While in Iraq I have seen several Tels rising up in villages out of the flat ground. These were sometimes 500-1000 feet in diameter. I thought - possible graves for the last millemia.
Imagine how big a tel would have to be to bury a million Dead innocent Iraqis murdered by dumb child war criminals on behalf of haliburton's private corporate profit.
You shape a hand split board to be the plow to the outside you affix a mortar board to turn the soil out to create attach to a framework. It works almost as well as an iron or steel one except you might need to clean it more often.
Ok, I just need to take a moment and say: Stefan, I looooooove your practice of footnoting. Is it your own devising? If so, you should be commended on making a contribution of profound value to this medium. A way to not only textually but visually note that "there is a source/rabbit hole here" is huge, and allows for a common ground of practice in terms of supporting one's views with the work of others as or more knowledgeable on the topic. Thanks for this!
When you said: “Imagine having to do every single thing by hand”… you described my grandparents. Grandpa had to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to milk the cows and sow the fields. Grandma woke up at the same time to cook and care for her 12 children and any of the workers. My mom was the oldest, so she had to learn to saw to make clothes for everyone.
Rice was harvested and processed right there. And my oldest uncle was forced to marry young and stay there to take over. Any meat eaten came from butchering at the farm as well.
Every single word associated with agriculture in Europe is of Indo-European origin. There are also many maritime words as well such as "sail". Suggesting the Indo-Europeans were seafarers.. "Scythe" "Plough" "Wheat" "Bread" "Milk" "Cattle" "Goat" "Sheep" "Swine" "Wine" "Beer" "Mead" "Wool" "Hull" "Paddle" "Sail" "Axe" Every one of these words came from and with the Indo-Europeans....Suggesting the Indo-Europeans wrere synonymous with the advent of agriculture in the fertile crescent... Explanation Real European History : Haplogroup R1b,R1a (Indigenous Europeans)(Basques, Gaels, Poles) Haplogroup I (Neolithic Indo European wave from Anatolia.Stone monuments, Polytheism, Pottery,Longhouses, Axes,Sailing ships)(Bosnians,Scandinavians,Sardinians) Haplogroup J2b (Bronze Age Indo European wave. Ancient Greece, Rome. Writing, Metallurgy) (Modern Cretans) And some lesser sporadic influxes of Haplogroup E (North Africa) and Haplogroup G (Western Caucasus)
I paused to respond re: Stew. My personal theory is that stew is an essential step in developing civilization. I don't know if you have addressed this already--I'll search--but if not, please do!
Making stew is easy. All you need is a semi waterproof container. You heat rocks in the fire, make sure they are granite of some sort, and when they are hot you drop them into the container with the water, vegetables and meat. Repeat until the stew is cooked. The container can be hide or a basket lined with clay or a real pottery vessel.
Also, cooked food is much more easily digested so you get more nourishment out of your food. It also made new types of food possible, like porridge, something even babies could eat. Which meant they didn't necessarily die if their mother did --> more people!
Are Hansen - All true; good points! Also, before the advent of cooking, mothers had to thoroughly masticate hard foods in order to render them digestible and palatable for very young children. This simple but necessary task alone took up considerable time and energy; apart from the many other benefits it afforded, cooking permitted women more time for other productive activities like foraging, food processing, weaving, etc.
The Sava river basin still floods a lot even today, back then all of what is Slavonia in Croatia heading towards Serbia where the Sava joins the Danube would have been flood-plains. This is why there were ancient obvious farming communities there, and also I believe some of the oldest bronze work found. Centuries later it is one of the reasons that kept Vienna from falling into Ottoman hands. The Ottomans could not move their largest cannons in time before winter and safely from Turkey to Austria due to the flooding, spring rains, mud, etc. And every fort within Croatia and Hungary on the few dry paths were like little mini-Vienna sieges themselves. Feeding an army of over 100,000 that has halted for weeks in a flooded plain because the only dry path is blocked by a fort manned by 200 Croatian or Hungarian farmers was a constant problem. Which consecutively led Ottoman invasions further up north into what is today Checkoslovakia and having control of the Crimean region. They thought it would be a better path for their largest cannon to go all the way around the flood basins of the Balkans around Croatia, Serbia, Sava/Danube plains. By then Western Europe caught up with Ottoman cannon technology and improved their fortifications. Point is there is a lot more going on in that regions that got washed away by the Sava and Danube a thousand times over and over again by now, probably taken out into the black sea from the Balkans
Thanks a lot for these explanations. Geography, indeed geology, have so much to do with what happened where, and I think they are sadly often somewhat neglected, at least when vulgarizing research on prehistoric eras, indeed on historic ones as well. I would hope the experts take them seriously into account. The wider Eastern European/Western Eurasian area is largely unfamiliar to W. Euro and American ordinary people so I find your remarks very helpful.
Marko Uremovic, thanks for sharing your knowledge of historical past of Balkans. My extended family arrived into River Sava district of Slavonia in 1930-35 into villages of Zbjeg, Bebrina, Kanjiza and couple of other villages. All approx 14kilometars from Slavonski Brod. We're Karpatski Rusini, most from a village of Kopasnovo in what is now Ukraine From my extended family folklore, Swamp called Mirosheva was the life saver when things got tough. Should you have any historical information about this geographicial area, please share 😋
@@trim90str88How can Serbs and other Slavic people do "barbaric invasion" of Europe when they were N/E of Europe? But all other tribes "came democratically and civilised" into Europe from Pontiac steppe?!? WTF man :)
Stefan If the homes were being burnt creating the Tells maybe the bodies were being burnt at the same time. As an architect it seems a great way to start a new life, and keep the family nearby.
to burn a human body to ash you need a good amount of hardwood for prolonged heat. Bushes flash hot and short and would leave the body there. Try cutting one tree even neolothic time then divide it into logs etc... too much waste and work. What if burial was practiced in the water of the river, sending the loved one on his or her's last journey? Sort of what Moses is said to have been sent away as a child, sort of like the viking king burial at the sea. It might have been just practicality
@@michaelhull1813 Pest infestation was my thought too. Ive had bed bugs and you have to just burn everything to get rid of them. They can live up to a year without blood. I know with Fleas certain plants will repell them. Not sure if that technic cant be used with bed bugs.
@@ShrekMeBe I know "sky burials" were used in the Turkey around that time. Which is just leaving the body out for scavengers. I'd bet it was a common method back then.
All this while suffering incomprehensible illness, dental decay, 3 kinds of lice, mice, rats, fleas, ticks, internal parasites and avoiding or fighting off marauders and other tribes - good times
@@kyu7238 "The first concrete evidence we have of soap-like substance is dated around 2800 BC.....Soap wasn't made and use for bathing and personal hygiene but was rather produced for cleaning cooking utensils or goods or was used for medicine purposes." www.soaphistory.net/
And not to mention the wives nagging about coming home with enough grains that day and complaining that you hang out with your buddies practicing rock slinging
Jozz Wheeden HLA genes in Macedonians and the sub saharan origin of Greeks. Go read the study by the Spanish analysists who done tests not only on Greeks and Macedonians but on other nations also, and no one else complained about the other results. When Greeks do DNA tests, usually their origins are outside of Greece, out of the Mediterranean. Go see all the popular DNA tests... they show the “Greek” DNA along North Africa and Asia minor in the origin shade. Macedonians show in the Balkans shaded and it’s called “Balkan” DNA not to offend Greeks 😂. How can we be Slavs from other places if our thousands of years origins show balkans??? Our thousands of years origins are the same amount of years as Greeks and everyone else’s thousands of years back origins. So the Spanish HLA test as well as other tests that show Macedonians origins in the Balkans and most Greeks majority origins out of Europe show that WE MACEDONIANS 🇲🇰🇲🇰 we here BEFORE THE GREEKS!!!
You do not mind us readind from the original texts do you? In latin and greek. Just as oxford cambridge leipzig universities teaches that you are a lot of b@@@@
On the question of deaths and bodies, I know that some of the ancient peoples of Anatolia practiced assure burials, where they would put corpses as high up as was practical, mountaintops, tall trees, whatever, as long as it was high up and exposed to the elements. In the more arid environment of Anatolia and Persia, it's entirely possible, though rare, for some skeletons to survive to modern times, in the much wetter and more hospitable Balkans, that's highly unlikely, so all that remains were those who were buried under the floors of buildings which were frequently burned and rebuilt. That happening repeatedly could easily destroy fragile human bones.
You absolutely must research the Varna necropolis! It's on the coast of the Black Sea and as far as we know the oldest gold in the world, found in several graves, some with buried bodies, others symbolic, dating back to around this time period
@Panter Panta said by a true scolar. Fortunately I can read from the original texts. Cycero Seneka Herodotus and a few hundred others makes your claims, cause there is no historical thesis here established, a lot of @@@ ( put yourself an adjectif whenever you ll find the physical and mental ability to study, let `s say a university course in history.
Perhaps they just burnt the bodies? Cremation was rather common in ancient Greece & Mesopotamia, so perhaps it was just tradition your average folks to be cremated, while only the important posh people got burials?
Yup. This is the first thing that came to mind! They burned their homes. Not too far to speculate they may have also burned their dead. If not that ... then perhaps they threw them in rivers? Structures of fish could show fish and perhaps water was very important to these people also.
There's a lot of drawbacks but they also don't have to pay taxes to support a noble class. I'd bet subsistence farmers in this time period lived a better lifestyle than peasants taxed into poverty.
4:57 Near Niš (Serbia), there is a Tell that's unfortunately destroyed by construction of near by roads and highway. Lots of findings of stone spears and figurines. River shells, tooths of small carnivores etc
@@bulevarknjiga6691 Well Serbs immigrated in 600Ad so that can only mean since they are that old they can only belong to the illyrians or the pelasgians.This last one being older and being the Ancestors of Illyrians and Hellens.
@@makavelirip8343 Yeah, Illyrians were an Indo-European group so if it's a pre-IE site it wouldn't have been them neither. The Pelasgians may have been just an umbrella term for pre-Hellenic populations living in the southern Balkans, there's not enough known about them to claim that they were a culture.
0:54 ...If you were alive back then you would have lived in a rectangular house with possible stone foundations and possibly mud brick or clay walls... watching this in Europe in 2020... I still am! Although mine is from 19th century AD.
My favorite part was when your video supposedly was on "pause", interesting to hear about just how hard every-day life was back then. Greetings from Hungary! ;)
Just wanted to add that it's possible to cook in animal skins or stomachs as long as there is liquid seeping through the skin/stomach. Could have had stew. And different preservation environments preserve different materials. So it is possible to find preserved wool, but maybe not from the Neolithic. Love your stuff, btw. Keep the prehistory videos coming!
When and where on Continental Europe would the last hunter-gatherers have converted to agriculture? I would tend to think the last Europeans to do so would have been in the British Isles, but I'm wondering about Continental Europe.
Depending on how you define the boundaries of Europe, it would either be the people or Ireland or the ones in and around the Ural mountains. EDIT: As others have pointed out, Scandinavia is also probably one of the lay places to get agriculture, I want thinking of it at the time because when I think of Scandinavia, I tend to think of the more southern parts, like Denmark or the southern parts of Sweden and Norway, which have been agricultural productive for a long time, but to be completely accurate, there are parts of the world today that still haven't adopted agriculture, even in Europe. The Sami of Northern Scandinavia are to this day primarily nomadic reindeer herders, as are similar groups of people throughout northern Russia. Agriculture with currently domesticated plants is effectively impossible north of a certain point without far more expense in forcing it to work than the food is worth to grow.
Nice documentary, but you should also check Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, is a Neolithic-Eneolithic archaeological culture (c. 5500 to 2750 BCE) of Eastern Europe.
Strangely enough, the farmers ate very little fish. The same pattern persisted all the way up to Britain and Scandinavia. Seems really weird, such an easy source of high quality protein and minerals. Even the Vikings who much later emigrated from Iceland to Greenland didn't eat the marine mammals (seals, whales,...). They tried to live as they had back in Iceland or Norway, bringing cows, sheep and goats. They held on for a quite a while, but then starved and died out. Also they didn't have anything nearly as advanced as the technology of the Iniuts, who continued to thrive eating fish, seals, whales, karibou and the occasional polar bear. With excellent clothes to keep them warm and dry, fast dog sleds and kajaks, etc
13:00 Archeologists in 3000 years: we've discovered these massive piles of ammunition in North America. Couldn't have been used for hunting alone, because why would you need to stockpile so much? :D
Traces of DNA recovered from unusually high male to female ratio of mummified bodies buried clinging to their weapons showed low genetic diversity indicating high rate of incestuous inter-breeding.
War: Thessaly, Macedonia and Serbia particularly (with some extension to Bulgaria, Slavonia and parts of Hungary in various times) were INVADED c. 5000 BCE by a second Neolithic wave (Dimini-Vinca) from beyond Anatolia, clearly related to Tell Halaf (Halafian) culture of North Syria. In my interpretation, the first Neolithic wave were Vasconic speakers (i.e. Basque is the sole survivor of their languages), while the invaders were Pelasgo-Tyrsenian speakers (i.e. precursors of Etruscans and other groups we find in ancient Greece either alive like Lemnians or still remembered: Pelasgoi, etc.) This "Pelasgian" invasion had a limited impact in parts of SE Europe, was clearly violent (repeated signs of destruction in many villages), had a greater role for some male god (first male icons, maybe Kronos) and survived in Thessaly (and probably other areas) all the way to the Greek-Indoeuropean invasion c. 2000 BCE. By this I don't mean this was the sole cause of war but it is important to understand such a major ethno-demographic shift as a cause for war and increased conflict, and has anyhow left one of the most notorious evidence of violent destruction in the area.
Couldn’t we say that Greeks are also partly speaking this pre-Indoeuropean Language, Pelasgian? I am asking because the Greeks of today are the direct ancestors of the Ancient Greeks and thus the Mycanean Greeks, who came from an amagalm of Proto-Greeks and Pre-Greeks, part of which were Pelasgians. There is a very large portion of the Ancient Greek Language, and especially Vocabulary, which comes from Pelasgian. Such words are still in use today. For example in Attica, where the Ancient Athenians boasted for their Ionian and Pelasgian origin, many many Pelasgian place names still survive, such as «Ιλισσος» (Ilyssus), «Βριλισσος» (Vrilissus) and it’s derivative «Βριλισσια» (Vrillissia), «Κηφισσος» (Kifissus) and it’s derivative «Κηφισσια» (Kifissia), «Υμηττος» (Ymettus), «Λυκαβηττος» (Lykabettus), «Αρδηττός» (Ardettus) and many others. It is interesting that they have a similarity with the Luwian Citie names ending with double words like Salagassus
@@paulmayson3129 - It may be indeed, it may even be that both Pelasgian (Tyrsenian?) and Vasconic have permeated Greek from below. I certainly see (with more or less doubts) some Vasconic (Basque-like) elements, for example the name of (Grand)Mother Goddess GAIA is almost certainly Vasconic to me, as gai (gaia declined in the simplest nominative sing. form) means both (1) matter, substance and (2) potential, capacity in Basque, what fits like 200% the name of the Goddess (also strong parallels in Basque mythology). Other words I suspect vasconic are oikos/ekos (Basque etxe), okhi (Basque ez), bios (Basque bizi)... Pelasgian is not well attested, although Tyrsenian is somewhat, but it's very possible that pre-IE Greece had both Pelasgian and Vasconic regions, otherwise I find it difficult to understand what I perceive as Vasconic persistence. Pelasgian regions would be Thessaly and West Macedonia (Dimini-Rakhmani culture area), probably also Crete but less clear and surely also areas of Anatolia and a Aegean scatter. But for all I know Peloponese and Epirus could well be Vasconic all the way to the IE invasions. Maybe a defining marker could be Y-DNA: areas strong on G2 and E1b would be Vasconic (first Neolithic), areas strong in J would be Pelasgo-Tyrsenian instead (an educated guess in any case).
@@paulmayson3129 - It's very difficult to be sure of what is what but, when you happen to speak Basque you "see" stuff other people don't see in toponimy and language (provided you are also intelligent and language-interested and critical), what of that you see is real and what is coincidence and capricious pattern seeking? One can never be sure but... Also is difficult to reinterpret words that have been altered, for example, in Greek is convenient to drop consonantic endings (masculine) for etymology, so ekos is actually *eko or even *ek-, just as keltos is Celt (and probably Basque keldo = uncouth, but this is not substrate but borrowing at Marseilles or Ampuries). So I see Knossos and on first sight it's nothing like Basque but if I take off the -s ending and imagine a vowel inside "kn-", then it becomes kanosso = ganetxo (small hill or elevation) and can be interpreted as Vasconic. Is it? Can't say. Or is it Athens, Athína, derived from Vasconic ate = door, gate (notice also the similitude ate = gate) or just a coincidence? Well it's labyrinithine and only in depth professional research may be able to say, I lean for it because there are strong reasons to imagine Vasconic substrate but case on case may be impossible to discern with any certainty. So among the words you mention, I recognize clearly "ili" (Ιλισσος), which is actually neither Vasconic nor Pelasgian but a Wanderwort of West Asian origins meaning city. Variants of it are "iri" (Iriko = Jericho, Eridu), "ili" (Ilion-Troy, Ellis), "uli", "uri", "uru" (Ur, Uruk, etc.) We see "ili" in Ancient Iberian toponimy (Iliberi, Ilerda, etc.) its variant "eli" in ancient Basque-Aquitanian ones (Elimberis, instead of Iliberi, same thing: "new city"), "hiri" or "hiri" in modern Basque (with Hiriberri = new town as common toponimy) but also "uli", "iru" and "uri" in toponimy (Ulia, Uribe, Irun, etc.) We see "urbs" (from "uru" or "uri" probably in Latin, from which urbanism, urbanization, etc.). We see "uru" in Dravidian languages with the same town/city meaning (per my Dravidian sources, I don't speak those languages). For me this is a clear wanderwort, pre-Indoeuropean but not attributable to any single clear origin other than Ancient West Asia. Brulissius and Brulissia could also include the element "ili" or "uli" but I can't say for sure. "Υμηττος" (umettos) to me sounds Vasconic: umetxo = little kid. Similarly "Αρδηττός" (ardettos) could be arditxo = little sheep. This one can also be the same as Ardèche = Ardetxe = sheep-house (i.e. shepherd's barn). But as said before uncertain.
@@TheGentry000 - No, sorry, but I'm pretty sure that Albanian deserves much more attention from linguists than it usually gets. Even if it is an Indoeuropean language it seems to be a rather divergent one and that I'd say it is very interesting. Also because of the rough geography of the Western Balcanic lands and the paleohistorical fact of the Adriatic Balcans being of a distinct Neolithic branch (and later also experiencing intriguing local Megalithism), I strongly suspect that the wider "Illyrian" or "Dinaric" area deserves some attention but I have only so much time and attention span in my life...
So basically they lived just like our Native Americans here until very recently in a historical sense. I bet there are many parallels that can be learned simply by looking at these North American cultures. And particularly the spirituality. People are people. Their religions were necessary to explain why and how we got here. Paleolithic Europe or 17th Century North America. People are people.
I collect native American artifacts from the farm fields and creeks in central Indiana. I noticed the tools and pottery is a lot like what s found here from close to the same time periods. It seems new technology travelled around the world faster than humans could. On the other hand some one had to share it with a neighbor.
Absolutely. It's just such studying of the few extent or many only recently exterminated stone-age level cultures that archeologists and others develop their hypotheses on how things went down in other regions where all that disappeared long ago. The indigenous peoples of Papua-New Guinea (only discovered in the 1930's), Amerindiens throughout the Western Hemisphere, semi-nomadic Siberian tribes, et al. have all served as inspiration and models as their customs and oral traditions often jive very well with the archeological evidence and ancient histories.
It channels like yours that don't get enough praise, so here have some of mine: I've watch this for years always interesting and I've never left a video i started unfinished. Love the topic of early human migration and development, and I often use your show as a means to keep updated on the ever expanding topic. You don't just gloss over highlights for clicks but dive deep into the new evidence and help me keep up with the current understanding of our history on earth
Archaeologist student here, very cool video and i would like to point out some stuff "Tell" is an arabic word for "hill", because usually what's left of an ancient settlement is a hill with dirt mixed with pottery and the remains of the homes. It's usually more used for the context of the middle east, for example in Turkey that word is substituited with "tepe" which is turkish for, again, hill As for their deads, expecially in Anatolia it's thought that the bodies of the ruler/head of the family/head of the community was buried under the floor of their houses probably as a cult of the ancestors, and the common people were probably left outside the village, probably not buried at all I'm months late but in my defense i just found your channel xD
Archaeologist here, I have to say I don't agree with you in regards to the "tell" subject. Although it's indeed an arabic word, it's not used especially in the context of the middle ages, it's actually used quite extensively in Europe as well. Since the late 60's and early 70"s (approximately), the term "tell" has become a common word in the terminology arsenal of the average european archaeologist, especially when discussing the Neolithic/Eneolithic/Bronze Age settlements from Central Europe, South-East Europe and the Balkans. So, what I'm trying to say is that the term "tell" is used very often in the european context of prehistoric settlements.
@@parkerthanyou Cheers. Maybe it's not in your area of study, if you are from France for example, i doubt you would use the term "tell" that often,but if you'r from Hungary or Serbia, it's as common as the term "storage pit". Good luck with your studies, i hope it's soon enough you'll be a fully fledged archaeologist.
Pretty sure there were always at least a few smart, inciteful people who figured that out and when so, such knowledge would have been passed down through their group's oral traditions.
I've never heard a satisfactory explanation for why the houses are continually burnt down and rebuilt, but I'm going to go ahead and say it is because of flea/tick/lice/bedbug infestations that they had no other idea how to deal with. Whaddaya think?
It`s a shame you didn`t say more about the Romanian artefacts and pottery from those times, but you mentioned Hungary a few times... Hungarians settled in the Panonic Planes about 1000 years ago, Romanians/Dacians were there for millennia...
My theory as to why there were slightly more women buried is because men engaged in more dangerous activities, and sometimes their bodies were not able to be retrieved or even be able to be buried on the spot where they died.
8:20 We can't say that the ancestors of of Neoeuropeans were from Göbekli Tepe (GT), we ca trace their origins only to Southern Anatolia (Çatalhöyuk and such) but not that far east. GT is not even Anatolia: it is Kurdistan, the Zagros Fold or Upper Mesopotamia! The diversity of Neolithic cultures in West Asia is a fascinating and seldom touched subject. We can associate the Mother Goddess icons of Europe to those of Çatalhöyuk but we cannot at this stage trace them to GT. Also GT is pre-Neolithic (maybe this is the mos striking about it). When the locals finally became sedentary GT was buried and small copies of it appeared in the local villages instead. GT was the sanctuary of semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, not of farmers.
Hence the theory that religion (binding heretofore separate groups together in a transcendant endeavor preceeded agriculture/civization and perlmitted indeed fostered them. The earliest Göbekli Tepe seems contemporary with the premices of agriculture as practiced by those still semi-nomadic HG.
@@cathjj840 - GT is pre-Neolithic: farming or herding were not yet a thing in that specific region of the Upper Euphrates and all the food found is characteristic of hunter-gatherers, what is astonishing. For all I've ever read and watched on Göbekli, once the locales became farmers and herders (by influence of other regions to their southwest and their east respectively), they ceased to use GT, they buried it solemnly and built small scale copies in their new villages. GT may have been some sort of knot between diverse Mesolithic peoples but there's no evidence of any Mesolithic proper (wild cereal gathering, excess of sheep/goat meat, etc.) It's very hard to explain but that's what archaeology says. Probably the hunter-gatherer nation of that central area just gathered yearly or every several years in order to perform "national activities", which included a lot of weird religious stuff, possibly also astronomy. Nothing like that is seen in nearby peoples, not even later on. We know of Nabta Playa, a Mesolithic astronomical stone ring in Nubia but it is much more modest in size and does not require the social complexity that GT seems to require. I'd personally imagine GT's causation in terms of "potlach", because it can be somewhat compared to the massive woodworks (totem poles) made by NW American Natives in regions rich in salmon, but with a greater permanence because of being worked on stone. Maybe each temple was the product of a potlach in which different clans or social networks competed for glory in crafting those statues under some sort of shamanic or priestly direction. Unsure... In any case GT iconography is not represented, with minor exceptions such as bull and lion, extremely common totemic animals even in the Middle Ages, in nearby cultures. The vulture seems very prominent in GT but not elsewhere (except maybe in later Egypt with their obsession with death). We cannot really track any posterior culture to GT except the local communities at most. I'm not 100% certain but it's probable that even that local continuity was eroded in Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (there's no A so far north) and maybe fully discontinued with the arrival of Halafian culture, which may be intrusive.
Thanks for all those precisions, Luis. Göbekli Tepe really is an extra-ordinary, literally, occurrence in our human timeline, and I am eager to learn more about it. Yet it's not the only stupendous advance or achievement that eventually petered out without a suite, at least not directly. I think their demise can often come down to violence, but this violence is not only human, it can be climatic or geological in nature as well. I also have to remember, when I get to regretting things irreparably lost and especially destroyed on purpose, that they often did last hundreds if not thousands of years, such as Mohenjo-Daru, the Incan and predecessor civilisations etc.
@@cathjj840 - That's not what prehistorians say: they say GT was buried by its own builders (the same communities, surely many generations after its construction). This practice of burying temples is not unheard of, for example recently a Nordic temple was unearthed in Norway and had been buried the same way, surely upon the advance of Christianization, and maybe prior to more or less forced emigration to Iceland, the last Pagan bastion of Scandinavia. It is an act of respect and protection. But in GT's region, what prehistorians find is the replication at smaller scales of similar iconography in the sedentary villages instead, so there was no foreign nor sectarian threat, just a change in lifestyle, change that corresponds with the arrival and consolidation of Neolithic (farming and herding). My impression is that Neolithic West Asia had a quite complex network of ethnicities and cultures in the Mesolithic and early Neolithic and that we should endeavor to further understand that complexity because almost without doubt the modern and historical, not just West Asian, but also European, Indian and North/NE African cultures and surely languages (and a good deal of genetics, ancestry) derive from them. In the case of Europe we can track what I call the "Vasconic Neolithic" (mainline European Neolithic) to Asia Minor, probably to the cattle-domestication area of Southern Turkey (Çatalhöyuk and such), which is a relatively late Neolithic area, further relations in the Fertile Crescent are so far not clearly discernible except maybe via linguistics (Basque appears to have some deep connections with Proto-Indoeuropean but, in my own independent preliminary analysis also with Nubian languages, part of Nilo-Saharan, to my surprise), so IMO it's quite possible that there was a Neolithic sprachbund that we should strive to understand better. In the case of South Asia, we can almost certainly track the "Dravidian Neolithic" (including IVC) to Iranian (proto-Elamite) Neolithic instead. In the case of Indoeuropean genesis in the Volga or North Caucasus, it seems apparent from genetics that there was a major impact from populations of the Kurdistan Neolithic or very similar ones. More research is needed, especially to unravel the Afroasiatic conundrum (is it Mesolithic flow from Africa to the Levant or viceversa, or both?)
We know the women were weaving weaving weaving weaving but everything that comes before it too, raising feeding minding and shearing ... and grinding grinding grinding wheat etc for bread bread bread ... and don't forget to do other cooking and raise the kids and pick fresh things. TIRED yes!
They might have had a religious role in society too as they were largely represented in neolithic sculpture of the area and were therefore considered more worthy of a decent burial in lign with their spiritual potency. Or they might have been more likely to die in the confines of the village contrary to the men who went outside more frequently, had a higher risk of meeting death and for that reason were left to decay in the bush. Sharing some ideas but pretty sure I don't have a clue ! Fascinating subject really ^^
I wonder if the repeated burning of houses had something to do with death rituals. The Māori had a tradition of holding a body in the house the first night after someone died, and carrying it to the whare nui, the great house of the marae, the next day for the tangihanga, or funeral. The house was then burnt because it had become tapu after having housed a dead body.
At 1:22 : Nea Nikomedea is today in "Greeks" border since 1913 A.D, it belonged to Macedonian territory !!! but 6200 bce, it was not Greece at all !!!! C'mon !!! Very childish !!
11:11 While on pilgrimage in Spain, I did a medium walk of 15 km per day. The Merriweather and Lewis expedition had no roads most of their way, their average was c. 6 km per day. First trip to a place for obsidian probably 100 km / 6 km/day = 17 days. Tenth trip to the place, perhaps 100 km / 15 km/day = 7 days. Each direction. Obviously.
My family is from that region. We lived in a subsistence farm and ate and drank pretty much only what our garden and our animals produced. Sometimes we bought fish from the fishermen because we lived next of the Danube. I don't live like that anymore, and same is true for most of my family. I'm now a full stack developer in Spain. But it's cool to hear what my ancestors were up to, and also cool to know some things haven't changed yet. Hello to my fellow balkaners!
It's BEYOND ridiculous to consider 110 slings a massive surplus. Sure, that may be the case if you can date them all to the same decade. But the much more likely scenario is that they accumulated over a vast period of time....
Much more likely that no one thought it would be a good idea to need 10 more and not have 10 more. So you made as many as you could, all the time. It's not like you could go to the store and buy more in an emergency. FFS some of you people aren't intelligent enough to wipe your own ass.
It is so frustrating that western science is avoiding mention of word "Serbia" but they will call thsi civilization Danubian or old Wuropean. The Vincha people were predominantly I2a and G2 haplogorups and today I2a largest representation is still in former Yugoslavia. Stefan mentions here "Greece and the Balkans" but there was no Greeks there at that time. Those people were proto-Pelasgians / proto-Serbs/Thracians/Ilirians. So, it is OK to say Greece when there was no Greeks for another 4000 years there, but it is not OK to say Serbia although the center of the civilisation was in Vincha (Serbia).
Just wanna say I love your channel. You have an authenticity that makes it feel like a unique form of entertainment rather than just TV-lite that you get from a lot of RU-vidrs these days. Thanks for climbing down that hill into that river. I definitely had a good chortle.
On the northeastern side of Kithnos island, near the village of Loutra was excvated the mesolithic settlement of Maroulas (9,000 - 8,000 BC). Maroulas site is the only open air settlement of this period that has been found in Greece. It consists of circular residences and graves. Among the findings there are tools made of flint, obsidian and quartz, as well as human skeletons one of which was found intact. During the excavation, about 30 paved floors were found which belonged to lodgings. Moreover there were found two semi subterranean circular construction in rock cavities. The burials (about 15 in number) were found beneath the paved floors. The skeletons were placed in a cross legged position. The fact that there are burials and lodgings in the same area shows that the people living there were hunters - gatherers probably living from shellfish collection and fishing.
It is possible primitive neanderthals used animal stomachs to cook in stew. Like how the modern Scottish make haggis which is meat and vegetables to cooked in lamb stomach.
Privacy inside the bedroom from the rest of the home is rather a modern invention and often completely failed today. Generally privacy is wanted for sexy fun times and those participating try to be quiet but their moans and heavy breathing can be heard through walls and doors. Everyone in the house will know what's happening in one room just like everyone in a mud brick hut will know what's happening under some animal skin blankets. Those using the hides for privacy probably thought they worked just like people today think their wall and door does but doesn't. And then there's the issue with sex itself, it was the christian, jewish, and muslim religions that made it taboo in one way or another but all make it taboo for children to see. And what would a child see when seeing two consenting adults having sex? Nothing that would harm them for sure, educate them yes. Some kid in a mud brick hut hears mom and dad boning each other wont be bothered by it... they are mating like deer or rabbits do, they love each other and going at it. they wouldn't be traumatized just like they wouldn't be traumatized by seeing dogs go at it. Just less funny seeing dad with his O face on than Rover. Being commonplace in mud brick huts it wouldn't be taboo, it would simply be go back to bed JR, mom and I are having parental fun time together if JR woke up and asked what's going on considering the lack of lights. JR would be all Oh OK, goodnight. Religion says he would be traumatized. Maybe if there were lights and he got to see mom and pops naked doing the deed... Nobody wants that.
