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Back to the MASTER Table of Contents of the Signposts Timeline
Approximately 10,000 BC: Virtually every human settlement in the world, both temporary and permanent, includes the presence of dogs| Source for the universal dog ownership: Man's trash was likely dog's lure by Phil and Nancy Seff, November 10, 1999, Deseret News Science/Technology, http://deseretnews.com/, Man's trash was likely dog's lure (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,125015089,00.html?) |
Keep in mind that rising sea levels worldwide over the past 5000 years may have resulted in such forced dislocations of large populations from established communities (making them more vulnerable to disease, starvation, predation, and stronger inland/higher altitude tribes) as to significantly reduce the world population as one result.
This environment may also have strongly encouraged humanity to drive and expand deeper inland on many continents too-- perhaps laying the groundwork for the mass extinctions of the megafauna in the Americas as one consequence.
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 10,000 BC: This is an especially cold period worldwide| -- Research suggests new way of predicting climate change By JEFF DONN, December 2, 1999, Nando Media/Associated Press, http://www.nandotimes.com |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 10,000 BC- 7,000 BC: It's very possible a privileged or lucky few worldwide now possess a reliable means of fire-startingThose few presently in the know regarding fire-starting likely guard their secrets closely, in order to maintain power and influence among their respective groups. In some cases the secret may be used during this period for military conquest, or to strengthen and spread a particular religion.
Thus, the secrets of fire-starting may serve to aid the creation or consolidation of a few religions and/or nation-states now.
| -- fire; Encyclop�dia Britannica, 1999 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 9,000 BC: Is there trans-Atlantic trade (possibly secretive and/or rare) involving cocaine and tobacco taking place between Africa and South America now? Is it only a coincidence that Plato will later speak of Atlantis existing prior to this time?
| -- "So where in the world is Atlantis?"By Aisling Irwin, International News, Electronic Telegraph, Telegraph Group Limited, 30 December 1997, Issue 949 |
Could it be that there are "...only a few million individuals..." on Earth now?
| -- 3.4 Human Population History and Future; Geography 210: Introduction to Environmental Issues, Created by Dr. Michael Pidwirny, Department of Geography, Okanagan University College, 12/20/99, Human Population History and Future (http://www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/conted/onlinecourses/geog_210/contents/210~3~3~4.html) |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 9,000 BC - 8,000 BC: Pigs are being domesticated in Turkey, goats in Iraq
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-- history.literate (a part of the Robot Wisdom WebLog)
Evidence indicates farmers were raising crops and animals (such as pigs, goats, and sheep) on the island of Cypress around 8300 BC. -- Child's neolithic remains oldest in Cyprus, 12/29/1999, Reuters/ABC News Internet Ventures, http://www.abcnews.go.com/ |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 9,000 BC - 3,500 BC: "Exchange of goods" is begun...and a three dimensional combination of an accounting/inventory system and medium of exchange may represent the earliest pseudo-writing technologySupply is ramping up to meet demand in the new human economic system, as people are developing cereal grasses and raising sheep, as well as creating much improved agricultural implements and constructing villages.
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-- Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Tiny sculpted 3D geometric primitives (balls, cones, disks and more) made of baked clay seemed to have been used in the Mideast for records-keeping and inventories related to commerce around 8,500 BC. Similar objects in Europe may have served purposes like these as well. -- FIRST WRITING MAY HAVE BEEN THREE-DIMENSIONAL From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #1, September 1977 by William R. Corliss, citing "From Reckoning to Writing," Scientific American, p. 58, August 1977 -- "Graven in Clay", page 14, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 2,500,000 BC- 8,000 BC: The Annamite Mountains of southeastern Laos serve as a long term refuge to various plant and animal species struggling to survive climate changes of the periodBy 2000 AD a surprisingly large number of previously unknown (or thought to be extinct) large living mammals will be discovered and documented in the area.
| -- Save the Muntjacs, PROFILE OF CONSERVATIONIST_ALAN R. RABINOWITZ , by Marguerite Holloway, Scientific American, found on or about 8-9-2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 8,000 BC- 4,000 BC: At various places in Turkey and Syria...Permanent villages are sprouting; property rights are being instituted; stone housing built (some rectangular and specialized in purpose); birds captured via netting; pigs and oxen domesticated; baking being done on a large scale; and embryonic kingdoms appearingThe Nevali Cori settlement (circa 8000 BC?) is constructed of rectangular buildings, some dedicated to a single purpose, much like many future examples of human architecture.
In Asikli, it appears property rights were governing construction over generations.
Around 7000 BC, the Gobekli village of stone buildings with fire hearths takes shape, with residents apparently using nets to catch birds, and domesticating oxen and other animals.
Roughly 4000 BC, Tell Hamoukar is a city spanning 500 acres, and boasting enormous ovens like future bakery businesses or instituional cafeterias. A definite hierarchy in government power also exists-- this may be a fledgling kingdom.
| -- Cities in the Sand By Josh Fischman and Rachel K. Sobel, [With Carol Salguero in Peru and Surekha Vajjhala], Cover Story 7/10/00, U.S.News & World Report Inc. |
A different article dates construction of Hamoukar in Syria (northern Mesopotamia) to as far back as 6000 BC, and expands its size to 750+ acres and a population of as many as 25,000 people. It also reports a form of air conditioning for inhabitants based on double-walled housing (two inch air space between the double walls).
| -- Air-conditioning found at 'oldest city in the world' By Mark Rowe, in Raqqa, Syria, 25 June 2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 8,000 BC: Humanity officially enters the Stone Age; Total world population may be under 10 million; Both Homo Erectus (one form of early human) and Carcharodon Megalodon (a giant prehistoric shark) may be going extinct; A long term melting of the Antarctic ice sheets is commencing|
-- "A positive perspective on population growth" by Mitzi Perdue, Scripps Howard News Service, Nando Media, http://www.nandotimes.com, September 28, 1999
A much lower estimate of 5 million people in 8000 BC comes from How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? By Carl Haub, found on or about 5-31-2000 -- SEARCHING FOR MONSTER SHARKS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #74, MAR-APR 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing Karl Shuker, P.N.; Fate, 44:41, March 1991 |
Humanity is exploiting an array of plant and animal life for food and other needs, specifically breeding them for desired qualities in some cases. Fixed communities are developing. Bows and arrows are in use, and stone pottery is being produced.
| -- page 789, "Stone Age", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
Homo erectus may only now be succumbing to extinction; his/her last stand may currently be occuring in the vicinity of Java.
Significant numbers of people are now beginning to be able to outlast their teeth: that is, continue to live on even after they have lost all their teeth. The availability of pottery and cooking is allowing the production of entirely liquid food diets for such people.
This effectively allows a significant lifespan extension for older people, making it much more common than before for a given child to possess living grandparents. The multiplication in grandparent numbers increases the chances of survival for children, as well as expands the range of living memory and wealth of total knowledge for a family or tribe-- in other words, the average intelligence quotient for a given human group rises significantly.
|
-- Paleoanthropology (revised 16 December 1999) by Francis F. Steen, Department of English, University of California at Santa Barbara, http://cogweb.english.ucsb.edu/EP/Paleoanthropology.html
Before now (for more than 99.9% of human history) our life expectancy at birth was just 30-40 years -- from book reviews about aging in Scientific American, found on or about 1-1-97 |
"Perishable" relics, or "soft technology" such as plant fiber-based articles of clothing, rope, etc., could tell us much more about prehistoric and ancient peoples than mere shaped stones can. But soft technology is almost always too fragile to last long except under extraordinary conditions.
What few items of soft technology have been found in the Americas seem to indicate fiber-based items accompanied stone accessories in virtually all migrations of peoples into the Americas-- including the earliest. What is more, ancient peoples likely used far more such stuff in their daily life than the stone-based artifacts upon which we base most of our knowledge about such peoples today. It seems likely the first sea crossings from Asia to Australia also included a high percentage of fibers-based technology.
In fact, in those cases where apparently comprehensive samples of all likely artifacts are available (sites dating back through 8,000 BC) the proportion of plant fiber-based technologies used to stone-based appears to be around 20 to one; or 95% of everything ancient peoples used in daily life was fiber-based, rather than stone. There were four wooden tools for every single stone tool, for instance.
It seems reasonable to project these ratios back still further into prehistory as well, well beyond the threshold at which fiber-based items tend to disintegrate to dust by 2,000 AD (date of origin 8,000 BC).
| -- The Need to Weave: The First Americans Used More Fiber Than Flint by J.M. Adovasio and D.C. Hyland, Discovering Archaeology First Americans, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/ found on or about 1-20-2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 8,000 BC-6,000 BC: Human beings in many locations are constructing villages and developing agriculture and various handcrafts; the secrets of fire-starting are emerging and spreadingHumanity in southwest asia lives in villages and farms animals and grains. Pottery and weaving is in evidence.
|
-- page 789, "Stone Age", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
-- WHERE DID AGRICULTURE REALLY BEGIN? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ##86, MAR-APR 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Leigh Dayton; "Pacific Islanders Were World's First Farmers," New Scientist, p. 14, December 12, 1992 |
Up to around 7,000 BC those people fortunate enough to possess a burning flame are forced to maintain/feed one or more nearby fires 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or else be forced to trade with someone else for a new lighting. The alternative of waiting for a natural fire such as one set by lightning can require years or decades, and is not really practical.
In large communities maintaining one or more continuous fires is likely a critically important function.
Finally, in approximately 7,000 BC, people in various regions begin to discover reliable ways to start fires from scratch-- though the process will remain difficult and inconvenient for centuries to come. Thus, the continually burning flames of community centers will continue to be important for many generations. The friction method of fire-starting (the fire drill) appears to have early on become the most popular technique.
So-called 'slash and burn' agriculture also begins around 7,000 BC-- and will continue to be practiced in some regions of the world until at least the early 21st century.
| -- fire; Encyclop�dia Britannica, 1999 |
Note that global sea levels continue to rise, forcing a perpetual creeping movement inland and/or to higher elevations for most coastal, island, and riverside communities. This incessant creeping migration (and attendent unexpectedly severe damage and death tolls from sporadic storms and tidal waves which rising seas intensify) cannot help but sap the productive and innovative efforts of the populace overall, as many communities of fixed location are higher maintenance now than they will be after 4,000 BC to 3,000 BC.
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 7,911 BC-7,090 BC: During this period there are perhaps seven substantial volcanic eruptions in various spots around the globeGiven that volcanically active areas are typically fertile and inviting to plant and animal life alike, and make for near ideal locales for human habitation, foraging, agriculture, and hunting-- and that humanity has been rapidly spreading over most of the world for thousands of years now-- there's a good chance these eruptions destroy one or more significant human settlements or cities.
| -- page 99, "Ice on the World", National Geographic magazine, October 1988 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 7,000 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: Massive earthquakes possibly stronger than magnitude 8 pulverize many sites of early human civilization in Europe and North America
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Monster earthquakes may be occuring in many places around the world as the glaciers disappear-- especially in Europe and North America. Scientists were shocked at the apparent severity of quakes taking place in geologically stable Scandinavia during this time (as large as magnitude 8.2). The finding suggests less stable areas may have been undergoing still worse shocks.
-- Demise of the ice age sparked great quakes by R. Monastersky, Science News Online, November 2, 1996, http://www.sciencenews.org |
Note that here is another possible enormous wave of destruction for emerging civilizations and their works, spanning perhaps a quarter of the world.
The likelihood of massive tsunamis accompanying or being triggered by these quakes has not yet been addressed by scientists. But tsunamis may actually have done more damage to fledgling civilizations during this time than the quakes themselves.
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 7,000 BC- 5,000 BC: Is the earliest form of the Great Sphinx of Egypt constructed sometime around now? If so, then by whom?| -- So how old do I look? The Great Sphinx stumps the experts again BY JAMES M. PETHOKOUKIS, U.S.News & World Report, found on or about 8-9-2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 6,200 BC-5,800 BC: The Northern Atlantic is cooled by 6 to 15 degrees due to collapsing ice dams in North America releasing enormous floods of icy water into the sea|
-- "Catastrophic draining of huge lakes tied to ancient global cooling event", 21 JULY 1999, Contact: Don Barber, [email protected], 303-492-7641, University of Colorado at Boulder
-- "Two Glacial Lakes Caused Ancient Freeze-Up -Study" Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/ News Science Headlines, July 21 1999 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 6,000 BC - 1 AD: Sometime during this period the Earth, along with the rest of the Solar System, enters a vast cloud of interstellar gas|
The cloud may be the residue of a super nova explosion in Scorpius-Centaurus around 250,000 years ago. Various effects upon the Earth could include climate and geomagnetic field changes around the time of entry.
-- THE EARTH HAS RECENTLY BEEN SWALLOWED BY A CLOUD OF INTER-STELLAR GAS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #98, MAR-APR 1995 by William R. Corliss, citing Priscella C. Frisch; "Morphology and Ionization of the Interstellar Cloud Surrounding the Solar System," Science, 265:1423, 1994, and I. Peterson; "Finding a Place for the Sun in a Cloud," Science News, 146:148, 1994 Seemingly excessive quantities of relatively short half-life aluminum-26 in interstellar space may indicate the solar system is moving through the debris cloud of a super nova explosion no older than 10,000 to a million years in age. Such a nearby explosion may have affected life on Earth when the blast first reached our vicinity, as well as the rest of the solar system (planetary interaction with the debris could be significant too). -- THE MESSAGE OF ALUMINUM-26 From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #39, MAY-JUN 1985 by William R. Corliss, citing "Are We inside a Supernova Remnant?" Sky and Telescope, 69:13, 1985 The solar system entered an expanding shell of gas several thousand years ago originating from the Scorpius-Centaurus Association. The density of material in this region could fluctuate greatly as we move through it. We might at some point find ourselves enshrouded in gas and dust thick enough to reduce the sunlight reaching the Earth-- perhaps to catastrophic levels. There's little indication of when we might encounter such conditions, or how long they might last when we did. But the possibility of such a dimming will exist for at least another 50,000 years beyond 1996. -- "NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER" From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #107, SEP-OCT 1996 by William R. Corliss, citing Ray Jayawardhana; "Earth Menaced by Superbubble," New Scientist, p. 15, June 22, 1996 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 6,000 BC: People in the vicinity of modern day Turkey are developing various techniques of metallurgy| -- "Metalwork In New World Older Than Thought - Study" By Michael Kahn, http://dailynews.yahoo.com//Reuters Limited, 11-6-98 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 6,000 BC: Long-time nomadic hunters of higher altitudes now move into the lowlands worldwide...perhaps because massive glacial flooding and rising sea levels have wiped out and/or so disorganized and demoralized the civilizations previously living in the lowlands that those regions are now rich targets for scavengers and raiders.
| -- history.literate (a part of the Robot Wisdom WebLog) |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 7,600 BC- 5,900 BC: Roughly once every 25 years (one human generation) several thousand people are drowned by 15 foot tidal waves/storm surges racing across regions which are transitioning from dry land to sea bottom over the long term as ocean levels rise
| -- Stone Age 'Atlantis' Found in North Sea By The Independent October 16, 2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 5,650 BC: The true flood of Noah's Ark fame? A region the size of Florida is submerged over a period of perhaps 25 years or lessThough this flood was by no means global in scope, still it was sufficiently immense and extraordinary to seem so to any witness of the time. Indeed, during the period of 15,000 to 3,000 BC there were quite a few terrifyingly spectacular floods in various spots around the world, usually brought about by catastrophic releases of water from melted Ice Age glaciers building up behind natural barriers and finally bursting through to wash away everything in its path.
This flood consisted of an old freshwater lake, lined with human settlements, suddenly being transformed within less than a single human generation into a vast inland saltwater sea (the Black Sea), around 5,650 BC. The change came about when a series of critical natural barriers between the lake and the Mediterranean Sea gave way. Apparently within hours or days peoples living near the eastern shores of the suddenly newborn sea were forced to flee their homes for higher ground-- since the water was rising a foot a day(!) Those nearer to the breakthrough point in the west probably experienced a still more terrifying flash flood early on. This exodus of peoples from ever higher locations about the seashore likely continued for decades, as the waters rose higher and higher, consuming vast regions of the countryside in its wake.
We're talking rapid filling of a sea that will in 1999 AD be as much as 7,364 feet deep, and cover about 160,000 square miles (according to the Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, second edition, 1989, page 90). Can you imagine how awestruck witnesses to all this would be? And how thankful they'd be to have survived? Could stories of this adventure have been carried down through generations that followed as the earliest Mesopotamian beginnings of the Great Flood and Noah's Ark, of later Christian biblical fame?
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-- "Noah's Flood?" by Philip Morrison and Phylis Morrison, Scientific American: Wonders: Noah's Flood?: February 1999
Around 5,600 BC a natural dam between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean broke, starting a process which would eventually sink some local beaches as much as 550 feet underwater. The total land area submerged in this event was roughly the size of Florida of 20th century USAmerica. -- In search of Noah's flood By ALEX SALKEVER, Nando Media/Christian Science Monitor Service, November 24, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com Myths and legends of great floods are common all over the world. Noah's Ark of Genesis is well known to the Christian west. But the middle-east boasts flood stories strikingly similar to Noah's which predate the creation of the bible's Old Testament, such as that of Utnapishtim, described in the Babylonian story of Gilgamesh. Roman and Greek myths also contain similar stories. The Bible's Book of Genesis seems to have been written around 500 BC. The filling of the Black Sea is estimated to have required some two years and made a racket which could be heard 300 miles away. The water level rose half a foot every day, and raced inland in some flatter areas as much as mile a day. -- Famed Explorer to Hunt for Noah's Ark By Barry Wigmore, February 15, 2000, Fox News |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 5,500 BC: Mesopotamia boasts farming villages, and potters' wheels are now in use; Global sea levels abruptly rise several meters around this time, but will later subside back to levels similar to 2000 AD
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-- history.literate (a part of the Robot Wisdom WebLog)
Sea level rises spurred by the meltdown of the Ice Age sometimes occurred rather suddenly, surely making for catastrophic ends to some prehistoric peoples and their coastal settlements. Perhaps the final such sudden rise was of several meters around 5500 BC, followed by a subsidence in levels afterwards to that approximating 2000 AD. -- An Atlantis in the Indian Ocean (Review of Stephen Oppenheimer: Eden in the East, 1998/1999) by Koenraad Elst; Sword of Truth, Issue# 1999.47 November 20th, 1999; found on about 11-28-2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 5,000 BC: World population may be 50 million; The "Red Paint" people seem to have established a trans-atlantic domain which includes North American Labrador to New York state, and the northwestern coast of Europe; Brain surgery is being performedThese people may or may not have been involved with the Celtic peoples of Europe, and responsible for some of the megalithic works of North America
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-- AMERICA B.C. AND EVEN EARLIER from Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #73, JAN-FEB 1991 by William R. Corliss, citing Public TV programming regarding North
America's Red Paint People, George F. Carter; "Before Columbus," Ellsworth American, November 23,
1990. Cr. R. Strong, "Megalithes d'Amerique du Nord," Kadath, no. 72, Spring 1990, and David H. Kelley; "Proto-Tifinagh and Proto-Ogham in the Americas,"
Review of Archaeology, 11:1, 1990
Pre-Columbus Carribean peoples possessed both the seamanship and watercraft (carrying capacities of as many as 80 people, in boats as long as 80 feet) necessary to reach Europe-- especially with favorable winds and sea currents. Several anomalous bits of European historical accounts hint at red peoples appearing in Europe from afar, and there seem to be signs of Eskimos reaching Ireland and Scotland before the historic journey of Columbus to the Americas. -- THE AMERICAN DISCOVERY OF EUROPE! From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #87, MAY-JUN 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Brian Kluepfel; "Native Americans May Have Found Europe, Says Scholar," Berkeley Voice, January 28, 1993. Cr. P.F. Young |
World population could amount to as much as 50 million.
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-- 3.4 Human Population History and Future; Geography 210: Introduction to Environmental Issues, Created by Dr. Michael Pidwirny, Department of Geography, Okanagan University College, 12/20/99, Human Population History and Future (http://www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/conted/onlinecourses/geog_210/contents/210~3~3~4.html)
It can often be necessary to create a hole in the skull after a severe head injury to relieve the pressure of excess fluids. Evidence of such surgical practices (termed trepanation) indicates its use may go back at least as far as 5,000 BC, in the vicinity of 20th century France. Effective measures against infection also seem to have been available. It may have helped the process that ancient flint knives were actually sharper than 20th century scalpels. -- Stone Age surgery, Discover Magazine September 1997 Section: Break throughs: ARCHEOLOGY |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 5,000 BC - 3,000 BC: Ostriches are apparently being used as caravan pack animals in Niger Africa| -- BIRDS OF BURDEN From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #72, NOV-DEC 1990 by William R. Corliss, citing Paul Bahn; "A Head in the Sands of Time," Nature, 346:794, 1990 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 4,700 BC - 3,500 BC: The vast grasslands of North Africa suffer a substantial drying and heating of their average daily climate compared to beforeThis is the beginning of the desertification of this region-- ultimately to lead to the creation of the Sahara desert. It's possible this process is pushing some natives into migrating to the region of the Nile in the east, thereby laying the groundwork for the rise of Egyptian civilization.
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-- "Sahara turned to desert in abrupt climate change", July 15, 1999,CNN/Associated Press
-- "Great civilization on the Nile may owe its start to climate change" By Robert Roy Britt, explorezone.com . 07.12.99, http://www.flycast.com |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 4,500 BC: Northern Europeans are chewing birch-bark tar for its anti-microbial properties
| -- Birch-Tar Gum for Stone Age Man by Lisa Parks, Scientific American Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/, January 20, 2000, Discovering Archaeology - Birch-Tar Gum for Stone Age Man (http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/webex13-tar.shtml) |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 4,463 BC - 4,279 BC: The Cerny peoples in europe are constructing enormous combination earth and wood boundary markers and tombs comparable to the Egyptian pyramids (which have not yet been built)| -- "BEFORE THE PYRAMIDS...Neolithic peoples in France constructed huge tombs that are today only visible from the air." BY FR�D�RIC LONTCHO, ONLINE FEATURES, the Archaeological Institute of America, April 28, 1999, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/neolithic/index.html |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 4,000 BC: Ancient Egyptian civilization is taking form; A surprisingly capable civilization is actively engaged in raising barley and is in apparent possession of domesticated livestock, and undertaking the construction of wood framed buildings of substantial size in Scotland
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-- page 760, "Arab Republic of Egypt", The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books
-- A 6,000-YEAR-OLD STRUCTURE IN SCOTLAND From Science Frontiers #5, November 1978 by William R. Corliss, citing "An Epic Find," Time, p. 64. June 26, 1978 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 3,500 BC -- 3,000 BC: Humanity enters the Bronze Age; 2-D writing begins; Crude sun-based clock devices are appearing; Honey is recognized today as an effective medicinal aid for certain ailmentsTools and weapons have been fashioned from metals (copper, bronze) for quite some time by now. Casting techniques are being used in the Middle East. Cities are rising, craftsmen learning their trade, and formal commerce evolving.
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-- page 110, "Bronze Age", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press]
-- "Noah's Flood?"by Philip Morrison and Phylis Morrison, Scientific American: Wonders: Noah's Flood?: February 1999 |
Some of the earliest known two-dimensional writing samples may have been unearthed in the Harappa region of Pakistan, dating back to 3,500 BC. They appear to be label markings for the contents of jars, or else signs representing dieties. Egyptian writings from 3300-3200 BC and Mesopotamian from 3100 BC have been uncovered in other expeditions.
| -- "'Earliest writing' found", Exclusive by BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse , Sci/Tech, May 4, 1999, BBC News |
Note that 2-D reading and writing, even severely limited to only a tiny elite among the population as it is now, still offers a tremendous potential for the expansion of human knowledge and memory and perspective. It's also a much more accurate memory-store over time than the memories and stories of elders.
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Honey is described as a healer's aid in the very earliest known written records. Modern medicine circa 2000 AD is verifying its helpful treatment properties in mitigating some of the otherwise most difficult to treat bacterial infections and other matters. Honey has proven anti-inflammatory and antibacterial characteristics, in some cases surpassing in effectiveness far more widely known and used modern medicines, such as silver sulphadiazine applied for infections of burns. It appears that honey may become the first treatment of choice in some types of injuries and infections in the future.
-- Honey as healer, 1 AUGUST 2000, EurekAlert!, Contact: Mary Ann Johnson [email protected] 415-268-5421 Zuckerman Fernandes & Partners |
The earliest known clock-like devices appear around 3,500 BC Egypt in the form of giant crude sundial-like monuments and grounds, with an obelisk at the center.
| -- Earliest Clocks, found on or about 3-31-2000 |
People are also showing some talent now for acoustical engineering: designing and building housing or theaters-of-sorts wherein the human voice or other sounds may be optimized or modified in various entertaining and impressive fashions.
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It appears sometimes that prehistoric and other artists intentionally created their artworks in spots where the acoustics were most favorable to the sound effects desired to accompany the art. The acoustic effects obtained from placement seem to include optimum volume, echoing, and other enhancements of sounds produced in the enclosure (such as misdirection of apparent sound sources so that an echoing voice may seem to be emanating from a painting on the rock wall before you).
-- ANCIENT ACOUSTICAL ENGINEERING From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #102 Nov-Dec 1995 by William R. Corliss, citing Robert G. Jahn, et al; "Acoustical Resonances of Assorted Ancient Structures," Technical Report PEAR 95002, Princeton University, March 1995 and Paul Devereux, et al; "Acoustical Properties of Ancient Ceremonial Sites," Journal of Scientific Exploration, 9:438, 1995 -- THE ACOUSTICS OF ROCK ART From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ##86, MAR-APR 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Leigh Dayton; "Rock Art Evokes Beastly Echos of the Past," New Scientist, p. 14, November 28, 1992 |
Keep in mind that ancient peoples possessed negligible means of entertainment and recreation compared to what will be enjoyed by people in the 20th and 21st centuries. No books, magazines, television, radio, CDs, computers, or automobiles. Heck, for 95% of the people over 95% of prehistory, the simple possession of a reliable light source allowing work, play, or travel during night-time hours or within dark caves was a rare entertainment or experience in itself.
Their seasonal or religious gatherings, feasts, public executions/sacrifices, or construction projects engaging entire communities, were all major attractions for their day.
In light of this, is it any wonder ancient peoples might expend astonishing efforts in their construction projects, sometimes instilling their designs with complex but subtle features like acoustical enhancements?
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Some ancient constructions exhibit extraordinary acoustic characteristics, largely ignored or unnoticed by researchers of the 20th century and earlier. Such properties appear to have been carefully planned for in many cases by the builders, in order to perhaps amplify or enhance a particular location's capacity to affect those attending ceremonies in its confines. In some cases sound would be transformed into low frequencies making them inaudible; more felt than heard by those present.
-- Hearing again the sound of the Neolithic by Aaron Watson, British Archaeology, no 23, April 1997: Features |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 3,400 BC: Beer is being made in Egypt| -- page 26, "Nectar of the Nile", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
3,300 BC: It's not uncommon for european travelers of this time to carry natural laxatives and antibiotics in medical kitsSuch a kit-carrying traveler from 3,300 BC will be found in mummified form in 1991 AD in the Tyrolean Alps of North Italy.
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-- "Peek Into the Iceman's Prehistoric Medicine Kit" By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, 12-8-98
The body of the Tyrolean Iceman also shows strong hints of the use of Chinese acupuncture techniques. This indicates cultural interaction across a vast area of Eurasia-- and a possible beginning for acupuncture itself somewhere west of China. -- ACUPUNCTURE 5,200 YEARS AGO? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #121, JAN-FEB 1999 by William R. Corliss, citing Leopold Dorfer, et al; "5200-Year-Old Acupuncture in Central Europe?" Science, 282:242, 1998 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 3,200 BC: A unified Egyptian state arises| -- page 760, "Arab Republic of Egypt", The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 3,500 BC - 3,100 BC: The wheel and plow make their debut.
| -- Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 4,000 BC -3,000 BC: Rising global sea levels finally stabilize at heights roughly equivalent to that of the late 1990s AD
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-- "Antarctic Ice Melt May Come In Next Generation" By Andy Soloman, Reuters/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/, 1-27-99
3000 BC is the date for sea level stabilization given by history.literate (a part of the Robot Wisdom WebLog) |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 3,000 BC: Asians are utilizing an early form of abacus for calculations; Some rich kids in western Asia are attending school; Farmers in the Americas are performing genetic engineering to create better crops......while Egyptians are creating their hieroglyphics and papyrus writing tools, and becoming the leading engineers and surveyers of their time, constructing pyramids and fleet ships.
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-- The digital century: Computing through the ages by the PC World staff, (IDG) /CNN, November 24, 1999
-- "Neolithic farmers grew modified maize", New Scientist, 20 March 1999, and Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel |
Complex social development and impressive architectural works are arising in the area of Peru in South America (3,000 BC - 1,500 BC), that seem to predate the better known civilizations of Central America by a healthy margin.
| -- NEW WORLD CULTURE OLD From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #67, JAN-FEB 1990 by William R. Corliss, citing William K. Stevens; "Andean Culture Found to Be as Old as the Great Pyramids," New York Times, October 3, 1989. Cr. J. Covey |
"High schools" similar to those of future 20th century America exist today in Sumer/South Mesopotamia to teach writing and other subjects to the children of wealthy citizens.
| -- "BC High", page 14, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 2,941 BC: A moon map
is carved inside a tomb in Knowth, County Meath, Ireland| -- "Prehistoric Moon map unearthed" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online: Sci/Tech, April 22, 1999 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
2,600 BC-1,700 BC: Indus Valley peoples in Asia are constructing sophisticated rectangular blocked cities with brick buildings and sophistocated indoor plumbing and sewage systems.
| -- Milestones in Technology, February 26, 1999, The Knoxville News-Sentinel |
The cities of Mohenjo-Daro (population 40,000 circa 2,000 BC) and Harappa formed the core of an empire for some 500 years. Most homes in Mohenjo-Daro possessed indoor bathrooms, complete with shower stalls and toilets.
Unfortunately, the city seems to have suffered repeated flooding from the elements, as well as finally an armed invasion. Soon after Mohenjo-Daro disappears from history...
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-- "The Bronze Age Manhattan", pages 64, 65, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
Universal dislike for discussing or considering the subject of human wastes may have left enormous gaps in the recording of waste management systems from not only historic times, but prehistoric as well. What we do know is that private toilets and community sewer drains similar in function and form factor to those of 2,000 AD were in use with regard to the homes of the Harappa civilisation of India in 2,500 BC. But with the fall of the Indus valley civilisation such technologies disappeared and people of the region reverted to more primitive and often public facilities once again. By 2,100 BC the sitting toilet had reappeared in Egypt. Rome too built basic toilet facilities. Toilet use in these places as well as Greece was often public rather than private. -- HISTORY OF TOILETS, The paper presented by Dr. Bindeswar Pathak, Ph.D., D.Litt., Founder, Sulabh Movement at International Symposium on Public Toilets held in Hong Kong on May 25-27, 1995 As of early 2000 AD the written language of these peoples still defies translation by modern methods and machines. At one time the civilization possessed over 1000 different settlements of various kinds within its borders. The reasons for the substantial depopulation of the major Indus cities around 1900 BC will remain a mystery into 2000 AD. -- The Indus Valley Mystery by Richard H. Meadow and Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Discovering Archaeology March/April 2000, ISSUE 8 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 2,520 BC- 2,494 BC: Is the Great Sphinx of Egypt created sometime around now, by the pharaoh Khafre? Or is it merely resculpted from an earlier form?| -- So how old do I look? The Great Sphinx stumps the experts again BY JAMES M. PETHOKOUKIS, U.S.News & World Report, found on or about 8-9-2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 2,354 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
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-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com
A chilling in the climate in the vicinity of Ireland and elsewhere by 2354 BC may have been caused by a comet impact. A collapse in various Bronze Age civilizations also appears to occur in the wake of the impact. The Comet Encke and Taurids meteor group could be leftover debris from the object which collided with the Earth at that time. Ancient astronomy and prophecy link objects like comets with catastrophe-- possibly due to the climatic effects they had on civilizations. Scientists have yet to determine a maximum size range for comets. Comets as large as several hundred km in diameter are presently known. -- BBC News | Sci/Tech | Clues to Bronze Age comet strike, May 25, 1998, http://www.bbc.co.uk |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 2,200 BC: A global climate shift takes place now
| Around 2,180 BC the Akkadian civilization in the vicinity of Syria disappeared. How Climate Shaped History By Kenneth Chang, ABCNEWS.com, found on or about 6-17-2000; original publication date may have been January 29, 1999 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents
Approximately 2,160 BC: The Old Kingdom of Egypt collapsesFor the next 170 years no new Egyptian monuments are built; the state may be suffering from a lower than usual flow in the Nile river.
| -- Scientific American: Wonders: Time Travelers in the Field by Philip and Phyllis Morrison, February 2000 |
Signposts 10,000 BC-2,001 BC Contents