Really old Europe:
Although excavations over the last century uncovered traces of ancient settlements and the goddess figurines, it was not until local archaeologists in 1972 discovered a large fifth-millennium B.C. cemetery at Varna, Bulgaria, that they began to suspect these were not poor people living in unstructured egalitarian societies. Even then, confined in cold war isolation behind the Iron Curtain, Bulgarians and Romanians were unable to spread their knowledge to the West.
The story now emerging is of pioneer farmers after about 6200 B.C. moving north into Old Europe from Greece and Macedonia, bringing wheat and barley seeds and domesticated cattle and sheep. They established colonies along the Black Sea and in the river plains and hills, and these evolved into related but somewhat distinct cultures, archaeologists have learned. The settlements maintained close contact through networks of trade in copper and gold and also shared patterns of ceramics.
It’s amazing how much we still don’t know about so much.
My working theory is that there is nothing new under the sun, and everything has been around longer then you’d believe. The only exception is microprocessors.
My favorite example is a stone tablet from 8,000 BC that was illegible for many years until a new imaging tech came along. When decoded they figured out it was a sales receipt for horses with a money back guarantee if the purchaser was unsatified.
Like the huge “mound biulder sites around the mid west. NO ones got a clue who they weer or what they did – except they lefct these huge artificial mounds.
Hell folks assumed no one got to the midwest much before 10,000 years ago, no one found any sign of people ni the Americans before 13,000 years ago, adn that was a pacific coastal village – then in Kenosha Wisconsin they found the Schaefer mammoth with cut marks from butchering – about 14,500 years ago.
Guess you can lose a lot over a few millenium.
All this has happened before, and it will happen again…again…again…again…again…again…again…again…again
The Empires of the Silk Road book referenced in James McCormick’s review here (http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/10497.html) overlaps with the same topic.
There’s a whole field of Y-DNA research that’s going on to get a better understanding of this time period and before. You can purchase a DNA test kit from a number of companies for under $100 that will tell you your DNA haplotype and where your ancestors fit in to the migration of people out of Africa. Every father passes an exact copy of his Y chromosome to his sons. There are occasional mutations over the years that allow rsearchers to put together the changes over time. There’s a strong possibility that the people in this article are my ancestors based on my DNA.
http://www.haplozone.net/wiki/index.php?title=E-V13
To me the striking thing is that there is a tremendous story–and lesson–because if one thinks about it, these societies, already appraently possessing that thing called “civilization”–probably had histories of rise and fall as great and heroic and tragic as any other–but we just don’t know about it because those societies did not ever develop the gift of leaving something of themselves so posterity could understand them, like cuneiform or hieroglyphics or epic poems written down.
But think about it–we always concentrate on what we know–ancient Egypt, a little Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome. But there was an entire other humanity that crawled out onto the large canvas of the world that is Euarasia, and where for millennia people would settle into a prosperous area, thrive–and then, unprotected by geography, would be wiped out by something from over the horizon. We have forgotten the cycle of rise and overthrow, repeated again and again, that has happened so much throughout human history. We know of Troy because it was written about–how many other Troys throughout the last 12,000 years have gone unrecorded, deeds of doomed and noble Hectors left unremarked? And what cries out to me is the question: Is all vanity? I think not, but nevertheless–let us never be too proud of the technological terrors we have today built. If our civilization is to last for ages, it will be because it earns the right, not because it is an immutable law of physics.
For civilizations can rise. They can thrive. And they can be destroyed, and sometimes in a mere flash of time, as the page is turned and history goes on to the next chapter.
For what I am really saying is that those villages, this early civilization, were overthrown at some point, based upon where they are located.
And their conquerors were overthrown.
And their conquerors conquerors were overthrown.
And their conquerors conquerors conquerors were overthrown.
And so on, in a long string till we get to the Bulgars and whoever makes up the Romania people. Ten thousand years after man may have first pushed into the area, still nomadic hunter gatherers.
This is why I never get too wrapped up about the so-called unique American “sins” of the past, for I am well-aware of what has come before, and my argument is that if are forefathers did things that were commonly human–taking others lands and lives, for they did–they also did something that was not–they moved forward on building a world where perhaps these evils need not ever exist again. They did something uniquely unhuman, and for that they should be honored.
“our” forefathers, too.
“When decoded they figured out it was a sales receipt for horses with a money back guarantee if the purchaser was unsatified.”
So, there really was a Horsemax — nifty!
Brock,
I’m sure you know this already, but your “working theory” isn’t new either. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” -Ecclesiastes 1:9
Pretty smart, those ancient philosophers.
Frankly, I’m amazed that people “are amazed” when a new archeological find discovers that people are pretty much the same then as now. I had this same thought a few weeks ago when Rand posted something about a new Mayan dig. Should it surprise us that the ancients used markets and that market forces drove their economies? It would be more surprising if they didn’t. As the saying goes, “We hold these truths to be self evident…” Capitalism is as much a natural trait of mankind as raising aphids is to farmer ants. I think it is THE trait that has made us the successful species that we are.
But think about it–we always concentrate on what we know–ancient Egypt, a little Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome
The old Bulgarians did not have Zahwi Hawass as a press agent.
“Dennis Wingo Says:
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:41 am
The old Bulgarians”
I understand the shorthand, but if you think about it, it’s a little like someone a few thousand years from now calling the Pequots or Mohicans “the old Yankees”.
Though these villagers and what became the Bulgars could have been related on the same branch, if we look far back enough. I mean, someone had to first migrate *to* Central Asia before their descendants could then migrate *out* again in waves. And if elements stopped here and there on the way, well, it makes sense.
Steve A, it’s “my” theory in the sense that I use it, not that I wrote it. Not only have I read Ecclesiastes I’ve also read Hamlet. 🙂
Hi All,
The road to civilization started when Ugh the caveman learned he could make a better living by making and selling spearheads to kill Mammoths then hunting them himself. The rest was just a by product of commerce.
BTW the really interesting archaeology story that is developing under the radar scope is that the first Americans actually came from Europe, not Asia.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11451616/
Did first Americans come from Europe?
Archaeologist suggests prehistoric hunters from Spain sailed west
By Bjorn Carey
[[[ST. LOUIS – The first humans to spread across North America may have been seal hunters from France and Spain.
This runs counter to the long-held belief that the first human entry into the Americas was a crossing of a land-ice bridge that spanned the Bering Strait about 13,500 years ago.]]]
Archaeologist suggests prehistoric hunters from Spain sailed west
Does this mean that I can claim restitution from those evil Siberian Indians that wiped out my ancestor/cousins?
🙂
My working theory is that there is nothing new under the sun, and everything has been around longer then you’d believe. The only exception is microprocessors.
No, the ancients had these, too, although they were larger, more expensive, and required more maintenance than what we now use. But theirs were at least as capable as ours, and they’re still in use in some parts of the world. They’re called “slaves.”