6 ms·

11,500 years is such a short time span. It is crazy how close to the dawn of man you find yourself living in.

wil421 7y ago
I was going to disagree with you until I broke 11,500 into generations. It’s only ~383 generations which isn’t as high as I thought it might be.
- crazydoggers 7y ago
  Non developed nation generations are usually closer to 20 years apart [1] and probably would be closer to that for much of human history. So it’s closer to 575 generations. Your point still stands though... it’s not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. BTW: The longest recorded family tree is that of Confucius which goes back 80 generations. [2] 1.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation 2.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree
  - jacobush 7y ago
    Not bad, almost 20% of generations since dawn of man!
davidw 7y ago
There are still stories among the Klamath indians regarding the eruption of Mount Mazama some 7700 years ago: https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/mt_mazama https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/mt_mazama
gdubs 7y ago
Have you read “Sapiens”? It’s fascinating. Edit: just to provide a little more color, “Sapiens: A brief history of humankind” is a brilliant book on our evolution as a species. One of the striking things about it, IMO, is how vividly it presents the timeline. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_...
- zeven7 7y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation. I just picked up the audiobook.
trhway 7y ago
>11,500 years is such a short time span. It is crazy how close to the dawn of man you find yourself living in. 500 years later, a HN user from Mars (or may be even a Belter): "12000 years is such a short time span. It is crazy how close to the dawn of man you find yourself living in."
- JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
  They would be right also!
  - quickthrower2 7y ago
    They might not be using HN, but maybe they'll be using Arc!
jessaustin 7y ago
This object is clearly not a one-off. The people who made it made similar objects, perhaps many similar objects, and probably made other objects with similar skill requirements. This is the only one we have, however. What else did they make? What sorts of tools, clothing, weapons, houses, wagons, etc? We can only speculate. Still, I doubt they were what we would consider cavemen. These were civilized humans living in a fashion most humans today would recognize as human. We have to go back quite a bit further to find anything I'd call "the dawn of man". Keep in mind, there are tribes living in "neolithic style", with little or no clothing, no tools besides rocks, etc. still today. The existence or even domination of such people doesn't determine the timing of the "dawn".

I was going to disagree with you until I broke 11,500 into generations. It’s only ~383 generations which isn’t as high as I thought it might be.

crazydoggers 7y ago
Non developed nation generations are usually closer to 20 years apart [1] and probably would be closer to that for much of human history. So it’s closer to 575 generations. Your point still stands though... it’s not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. BTW: The longest recorded family tree is that of Confucius which goes back 80 generations. [2] 1.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation 2.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree
- jacobush 7y ago
  Not bad, almost 20% of generations since dawn of man!

davidw 7y ago

There are still stories among the Klamath indians regarding the eruption of Mount Mazama some 7700 years ago: https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/mt_mazama https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/mt_mazama

gdubs 7y ago

Have you read “Sapiens”? It’s fascinating. Edit: just to provide a little more color, “Sapiens: A brief history of humankind” is a brilliant book on our evolution as a species. One of the striking things about it, IMO, is how vividly it presents the timeline. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_...

zeven7 7y ago
Thanks for the recommendation. I just picked up the audiobook.

trhway 7y ago

>11,500 years is such a short time span. It is crazy how close to the dawn of man you find yourself living in. 500 years later, a HN user from Mars (or may be even a Belter): "12000 years is such a short time span. It is crazy how close to the dawn of man you find yourself living in."

JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
They would be right also!
- quickthrower2 7y ago
  They might not be using HN, but maybe they'll be using Arc!

jessaustin 7y ago

This object is clearly not a one-off. The people who made it made similar objects, perhaps many similar objects, and probably made other objects with similar skill requirements. This is the only one we have, however. What else did they make? What sorts of tools, clothing, weapons, houses, wagons, etc? We can only speculate. Still, I doubt they were what we would consider cavemen. These were civilized humans living in a fashion most humans today would recognize as human. We have to go back quite a bit further to find anything I'd call "the dawn of man". Keep in mind, there are tribes living in "neolithic style", with little or no clothing, no tools besides rocks, etc. still today. The existence or even domination of such people doesn't determine the timing of the "dawn".