mojo
04-07-2008, 10:21 PM
This recent discovery gives us more of an insight on how our ancestors lived day to day. It is thought that because of the implements found that gender specific duties may not have been the case for male and females.
The sickle in particular is a rare find in such good condition.
14000 year old toolkit found (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/13/ancient-toolkit.html)
Before the end of the last ice age, a hunter-gatherer left a bag of tools near the wall of a roundhouse residence, where archaeologists have now found the collection 14,000 years later.
The tool set -- one of the most complete and well preserved of its kind -- provides an intriguing glimpse of the daily life of a prehistoric hunter-gatherer.
The sickle, constructed out of two carefully grooved horn pieces, was fitted with color-matched tan and grey bladelets. It would have been a marvel of form and function for its day and is the only tool of its kind ever linked to the Natufian people.
Page 2 (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/13/ancient-toolkit-02.html)
But the bag's owner wasn't necessarily a man; women are thought to have been in charge of plant gathering. The tools, therefore, either belonged to a woman hunter-gatherer, or work activities were more gender-blind than thought during prehistoric times, Edwards theorized.
The Natufian Culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natufian_culture)
The Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. It was an Mesolithic culture, but unusual in that it established permanent settlements even before the introduction of agriculture. The Natufians are likely to have been the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world.
Among the first cultures to recognise "mans best friend". :D
It is at Natufian sites that the earliest archaeological evidence for the domestication of the dog is found. At the Natufian site of Ein Mallaha in Israel, dated to 12 000 BP, the remains of an elderly human and a four-to-five-month-old puppy were found buried together.[3] At another Natufian site at the cave of Hayonim, a man was found buried with two canids
The Hunter Gatherer way of Life (http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/archhunt.html)
Wadi Hammeh 27 site (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/wl/digsites/Transjordan/Pella_04/)
Broad excavation of the uppermost occupation phase has revealed large oval limestone dwellings, which enclose an array of stone features such as hearths, postholes and pavements and boulder clusters. Beneath this lie two further superimposed architectural phases, the whole underlain by a layer with human burials.
The site is notable for a series of exquisitely preserved artefact clusters, such as a unique bone double-sickle cached with other sets of stone tools, bone beads and colored pebbles; and several sets of carefully stacked basalts and mortars (Figure 1). It has yielded a rich and varied repertoire of rock-art ranging from large rock slabs incorporated into the walls of a dwelling, to small incised limestone plaques
An interesting look at an ancient culture and how they lived.
Enjoy.
mojo. :D
The sickle in particular is a rare find in such good condition.
14000 year old toolkit found (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/13/ancient-toolkit.html)
Before the end of the last ice age, a hunter-gatherer left a bag of tools near the wall of a roundhouse residence, where archaeologists have now found the collection 14,000 years later.
The tool set -- one of the most complete and well preserved of its kind -- provides an intriguing glimpse of the daily life of a prehistoric hunter-gatherer.
The sickle, constructed out of two carefully grooved horn pieces, was fitted with color-matched tan and grey bladelets. It would have been a marvel of form and function for its day and is the only tool of its kind ever linked to the Natufian people.
Page 2 (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/13/ancient-toolkit-02.html)
But the bag's owner wasn't necessarily a man; women are thought to have been in charge of plant gathering. The tools, therefore, either belonged to a woman hunter-gatherer, or work activities were more gender-blind than thought during prehistoric times, Edwards theorized.
The Natufian Culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natufian_culture)
The Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. It was an Mesolithic culture, but unusual in that it established permanent settlements even before the introduction of agriculture. The Natufians are likely to have been the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world.
Among the first cultures to recognise "mans best friend". :D
It is at Natufian sites that the earliest archaeological evidence for the domestication of the dog is found. At the Natufian site of Ein Mallaha in Israel, dated to 12 000 BP, the remains of an elderly human and a four-to-five-month-old puppy were found buried together.[3] At another Natufian site at the cave of Hayonim, a man was found buried with two canids
The Hunter Gatherer way of Life (http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/archhunt.html)
Wadi Hammeh 27 site (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/wl/digsites/Transjordan/Pella_04/)
Broad excavation of the uppermost occupation phase has revealed large oval limestone dwellings, which enclose an array of stone features such as hearths, postholes and pavements and boulder clusters. Beneath this lie two further superimposed architectural phases, the whole underlain by a layer with human burials.
The site is notable for a series of exquisitely preserved artefact clusters, such as a unique bone double-sickle cached with other sets of stone tools, bone beads and colored pebbles; and several sets of carefully stacked basalts and mortars (Figure 1). It has yielded a rich and varied repertoire of rock-art ranging from large rock slabs incorporated into the walls of a dwelling, to small incised limestone plaques
An interesting look at an ancient culture and how they lived.
Enjoy.
mojo. :D