4 ms·

Rope making in the Aurignacian of Central Europe more than 35,000 years ago

43 points by Archelaos 3y ago

dash2 3y ago
If you're interested in cavepersons, there's a very good podcast called "Our Prehistory". It really expanded my mind. My image of people up to 10,000 years ago was basically like a Gary Larson cartoon – Oog hit thing with rock! I was completely wrong; people had amazingly sophisticated technology even by the mesolithic, they just didn't have metal but they were doing crazy stuff with stone, bone and wood.
- joseluis 3y ago
  And I'm sure they also did crazy useful complex things with rope, strings, fibers, textiles and skins.
  - 082349872349872 3y ago
    And while rope, etc. last far longer after death than (as ethologists lament) behaviours, they last nowhere near as long as metal items.
- AStrangeMorrow 3y ago
  It is a bias that many people with only a passing interest in history sadly have: that the more far back you go the dumber/less sophisticated people were. The more you look at historical evidence the more you see that, quite logically, people were very much like us. Complaining about the same stuff ("kids these days...") and so on. Sure a 12th century European farmer would probably struggle with a bit with a smartphone (same as many of our grandparents), but had likely a huge understanding of what plant required what environment to thrive, their growth cycles, what was edible and how to safely prepare it, how to do manual labor while keeping your clothes impeccable etc.
- whenc 3y ago
  "We come mentally of age when we discover that the great minds of the past, whom we have patronized, are not less intelligent than we are because they happen to be dead." -- Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave
sradman 3y ago
Here is a CBC article [1] with an embedded 17min Quirks and Quarks radio segment on the finding. You can watch how the tool works in the video embedded near the end of the article. The original .mp4 is available as a zipped attachment on the Science paper. Very cool :-) [1] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/homo-sapiens-braved-cold-made-rope-1.7103130 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/homo-sapiens-braved-cold-mad...

43 points by Archelaos 3y ago

If you're interested in cavepersons, there's a very good podcast called "Our Prehistory". It really expanded my mind. My image of people up to 10,000 years ago was basically like a Gary Larson cartoon – Oog hit thing with rock! I was completely wrong; people had amazingly sophisticated technology even by the mesolithic, they just didn't have metal but they were doing crazy stuff with stone, bone and wood.

joseluis 3y ago
And I'm sure they also did crazy useful complex things with rope, strings, fibers, textiles and skins.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  And while rope, etc. last far longer after death than (as ethologists lament) behaviours, they last nowhere near as long as metal items.
AStrangeMorrow 3y ago
It is a bias that many people with only a passing interest in history sadly have: that the more far back you go the dumber/less sophisticated people were. The more you look at historical evidence the more you see that, quite logically, people were very much like us. Complaining about the same stuff ("kids these days...") and so on. Sure a 12th century European farmer would probably struggle with a bit with a smartphone (same as many of our grandparents), but had likely a huge understanding of what plant required what environment to thrive, their growth cycles, what was edible and how to safely prepare it, how to do manual labor while keeping your clothes impeccable etc.
whenc 3y ago
"We come mentally of age when we discover that the great minds of the past, whom we have patronized, are not less intelligent than we are because they happen to be dead." -- Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave

sradman 3y ago

Here is a CBC article [1] with an embedded 17min Quirks and Quarks radio segment on the finding. You can watch how the tool works in the video embedded near the end of the article. The original .mp4 is available as a zipped attachment on the Science paper. Very cool :-) [1] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/homo-sapiens-braved-cold-made-rope-1.7103130 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/homo-sapiens-braved-cold-mad...