aghogday shows the drive that following the migration on the Mammoth Steppe took. He does much more than others, and gains energy from it.
Garbage piles from southern France show that the cave painters ate 90%-95% Reindeer. They ate young males and old females. Even back then the domestic species varied from the two wild species. They were domestic selected, but they still migrated.
North was a wall of ice, so east into the rising sun, past the Urals then north to summer pasture. Reindeer on the move are faster than humans, so the humans would spend their days jogging to keep up. Besides keeping up, they had selected the herd for being mostly young females, and had to take the protection role of the males. Leading and flanking the herd, through lions, tigers, Ligers, bears.
The herd would leave the winter grounds early, to reach their favored birthing grounds, where the herd would almost double. Calves need day and night protection. It was all the food of the people, they could not fail.
There were places along the way where some people stopped. Czech Republic, North of the Black Sea, Caves in the Southern Urals, and only the strongest went into Siberia following the herd. A lot of it was a swamp with black flies and mosquitos. Those who stopped along the way gathered plants, there were fish runs, and the pigments and binders to paint.
Reindeer left early, traveled farthest, summered along the Arctic Ocean, and were the most cold hardy of the migrating animals. With lower sea level there were some sheltered basins north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun was in the sky all summer. Reindeer is a lean meat, but the Artic is filled with fat seals.
These places are now covered in water, but later sites along the White and Baltic Seas have holes chopped in the rock, vats, that were heated by rocks heated in a fire, and used to render seal oil. Wear it, eat it, cook with it, fuel a lamp, seal oil is good stuff, and their skins make oil bags. Later it was a major industry.
Living as they did they at least ate as much as they could. It is possible that the camps along the line hauled sleds of seal oil back during the summer.
Along the way is Salzburg, salt mountain. Very old antler picks and leather sacks are still found, even after another 30 thousand years of mining. Salt to preserve food, hides, for the reindeer, and gifts for the Mammoths.
In France there are step holes dug deep in limestone, down to beds of flint. Then tunnels lead out in all directions to follow the beds of flint. The tunnels are so small that only a child could fit. They reach in fifty foot and are less than a foot high. The ground is littered with shards of sharp flint. They were all mined out as far as they could reach.
Shocking, making children work, but in 1900 small children were used to mine narrow seams of coal.
Herds, salt, seal oil, flint, and genetics shows that our domestic grains were selected long before farming. North of the Black Sea is a natural grain region, and genetics show selected traits were gathered and used to reseed, 38,000 years ago. Useful plants were moved around.
Also 38,000 years ago the invention of the spear thrower. Adding another joint to the arm, it increased contact time with a smaller, lighter spear, thereby increasing speed, thrust, and range. Until the bow and arrow appeared 25,000 years later, it was the ultimate projectile weapon.
As these people were creating technologies where there were none, they deserve credit. Besides tech, besides developing industry, they dressed well, decorated their well made tents, sleds, and did major scale art where it would last forever.
It is said that if you have a thousand word language, you still will in a thousand years. Somewhere around 1200-1500 words, you will have more words next year. Indo-European was the first large vocabulary language, they had the words to tell stories.
There are great pictures of other animals, very few stick figures of humans. They could, as shown in a figure called The Shaman, a man dressed in a deer head and covered in the hide, like Native Americans hunted, has very well drawn arms and legs. All of their major art is about the other animals.
Something about their place in nature, something about comparing themselves with the other animals.
After 38,000 years ago all human camps have wolves living with them. Some got buried like humans. Cattle, start as the Ahroch, black with a white stripe down the back, the Hall of Bulls shows the other colors that come with an inbred domestic herd. Sheep and goats show signs of being domesticated at the same time. Their tools, weapons, are being made from the antlers of the domestic reindeer.
Keeping water is a common problem. Water gets bugs, grows green slime, or sometimes, bubbles. Putting in some grass seed, it will bubble, and remain drinkable for a long time. It is thought this was a first use of grass seed, soaking it to soften, discovering bubbles, no bugs or green slime, and after a few adjustments, toast and crush the seeds, Beer. Also the waste from making beer can be heated, made into porridge, and fed to small children before they climb into a flint seam.
They were aware they were changing the world, making friends of other animals, who changed and were no longer like the Ahrochs of the wild, or the wolves that you did not know.
We are less aware of how we are changing the world, and are yet to invent something better than beer.
20 May 2015, 11:58 am
