6 ms·
Do we fully understand why prehistoric human wanted to live on these watery sites? I find it so hard to understand, since living on dry land and avoiding marsh
by akamaka 4y ago
Do we fully understand why prehistoric human wanted to live on these watery sites? I find it so hard to understand, since living on dry land and avoiding marshes is a strongly ingrained idea now.
But there are so many archeologic sites like this, is must have had a strong appeal. For example, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must_Farm_Bronze_Age_settlement https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must_Farm_Bronze_Age_settlem...
- pge 4y agoAccess to food sources, maybe? Compared to most terrestrial game, fish are easier to catch and provide a plentiful source of protein.
- malcolmwhite 4y agoThe Uros people moved from land to fabricated islands on Lake Titicaca to escape Incan conquest. The Aztecs created islands to have more productive farmland. Likewise the Incas when creating Cusco in a marshy valley.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoEvery American midwest town is on a river. Because the pioneers needed water, every day. Carrying water is a huge chore.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoIt is not only a huge chore, but you can only go a short distance from water before the time to transport is uses every productive hour of labor. No time to grow food or make things.
- bioemerl 4y agoWe still need water, and living on the river is still the most sustainable source of it, plus the incredible amounts of transportation you can do inland with rivers out matches roads by a thousand times. I would never not live on a river. The ocean is cool and all, but it's full of salt and you can't drink that.
- dredmorbius 4y agoRivers provided water, yes, but also transportation. Some prior to the development of steam, but especially with steamships, at which point major river systems, and most notably the Mississippi-Missouri, became the first great internal highway system. This is why the port of New Orleans was so significant in both the War of 1812 and the American Civil War: it controlled all commerce out of the North American / U.S. interior.
- brabel 4y agoCities are almost always built next to water, even today. Before long roads existed connecting distant places, waterways were also the only way to transport things faraway. It was much, much easier to load a boat with stuff and paddle it or use wind to move it, than it was to try to build much more complex horse-pulled vehicle that could move long distances in the absence of roads (imagine a charrot moved around on plant-covered terrain or even worse, sand).
- formerkrogemp 4y agoGiven how big shipping is for international trade, I'd say that being next to and having control of waterways is even more important today. Especially given this more or less global drought.
- Mikeb85 4y agoBecause early agriculture was all about planting things in flood plains... If you live on a flood plain you get automatic irrigation, all the nutrients in the soil get replenished every year, you get some fish, etc... Most ancient civilizations (and certainly the ones that became the most populous) were built on flood plains. It took quite a few technological advances (Rome's aqueducts for example) and new agriculture techniques before civilizations thrived in other locations.
- tastyfreeze 4y agoMore consistent access to water and protection from large cats. But that is just a guess.
- dredmorbius 4y agoKeep in mind that sea levels were rising during much this period as the last glaciation was ending. Such that regions which are presently brackish marshes would have been riverside developments, and quite possibly far less marshy.