SMARTER THAN WE THOUGHT PART 2
Posted: 11 Sep 2015, 06:14
SMARTER THAN WE THOUGHT! 02
The general view up to now is that farming culture spread across Europe from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East and started to reach us in Britain by about 7.000BC. Once it arrived it was quickly taken up and instead of being nomadic hunter-gatherers we changed to settled agriculturalists. As so often happens, those pesky archaeologists have been hard at work, particularly in the field of underwater research and have come up with evidence that means we have to revise this simple view.
The first lot of evidence is that while researching hunter-gatherer sites they asked themselves why it was that so many seemed to be centred round small bodies of standing water. Eventually they came to the conclusion that by staying in one place near the water they had more chance of snaring or killing animals because they would come there to drink. They were using the landscape to manage their lives and this meant that any nomadic activity was likely to be infrequent and seasonal. This was evidence of a form of settlement starting far earlier than we thought.
Then landscape archaeologists became aware of deposits of charcoal on what are now high moors but 9,000 years ago were a wooded environment. They found flints and other artefacts associated with these deposits which suggested habitation and came to the conclusion that these people had noted that animals tended to gather in clearings made by burning and this made it easier for them to have a reliable source of food. This was the same effect as the ponds, they were artificially changing the environment to increase their food supply and once the investment was made, tended to settle in that place. Both these findings demonstrate forethought, planning and intelligent decisions. These were not savages, they were managers!
We had another assumption, that during the transition period when settled agriculture was being established, the hunter-gatherers separated from the farmers and there was no interaction between the two cultures. We now know that both cultures lived in the same sites together and not only that but DNA results of remains have shown that they interbred! Usually it was the women that hopped across to the farming community and took a mate there.
These findings have been made across Europe and we are forced to the conclusion that the same processes were at work in our area. Our previously clear cut view of a rapid change in Barlick has to be re-tuned. It is almost certain that while many started to enclose fields and domesticate beasts and crops, other members of the community clung to the old ways and no doubt interacted with their neighbours. We can well imagine a haunch of venison or a brace of rabbits changing hands by barter in exchange for a bag of cereals or some vegetables. This is the start of local trade and a market economy. All this done by people who fifty years ago we were convinced were savages! I'm glad, because I always had a sneaking suspicion they were smarter than we thought!
Craven Harriers in 1932. Hunter gatherers alive and well?
The general view up to now is that farming culture spread across Europe from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East and started to reach us in Britain by about 7.000BC. Once it arrived it was quickly taken up and instead of being nomadic hunter-gatherers we changed to settled agriculturalists. As so often happens, those pesky archaeologists have been hard at work, particularly in the field of underwater research and have come up with evidence that means we have to revise this simple view.
The first lot of evidence is that while researching hunter-gatherer sites they asked themselves why it was that so many seemed to be centred round small bodies of standing water. Eventually they came to the conclusion that by staying in one place near the water they had more chance of snaring or killing animals because they would come there to drink. They were using the landscape to manage their lives and this meant that any nomadic activity was likely to be infrequent and seasonal. This was evidence of a form of settlement starting far earlier than we thought.
Then landscape archaeologists became aware of deposits of charcoal on what are now high moors but 9,000 years ago were a wooded environment. They found flints and other artefacts associated with these deposits which suggested habitation and came to the conclusion that these people had noted that animals tended to gather in clearings made by burning and this made it easier for them to have a reliable source of food. This was the same effect as the ponds, they were artificially changing the environment to increase their food supply and once the investment was made, tended to settle in that place. Both these findings demonstrate forethought, planning and intelligent decisions. These were not savages, they were managers!
We had another assumption, that during the transition period when settled agriculture was being established, the hunter-gatherers separated from the farmers and there was no interaction between the two cultures. We now know that both cultures lived in the same sites together and not only that but DNA results of remains have shown that they interbred! Usually it was the women that hopped across to the farming community and took a mate there.
These findings have been made across Europe and we are forced to the conclusion that the same processes were at work in our area. Our previously clear cut view of a rapid change in Barlick has to be re-tuned. It is almost certain that while many started to enclose fields and domesticate beasts and crops, other members of the community clung to the old ways and no doubt interacted with their neighbours. We can well imagine a haunch of venison or a brace of rabbits changing hands by barter in exchange for a bag of cereals or some vegetables. This is the start of local trade and a market economy. All this done by people who fifty years ago we were convinced were savages! I'm glad, because I always had a sneaking suspicion they were smarter than we thought!
Craven Harriers in 1932. Hunter gatherers alive and well?
