3 ms·

I'm always suspicious of "it was religious" claims in archeology.

defrost 5mo ago
Neither the article nor the backing paper discussed made any such definite claim. Many casual readers confuse statements such as "which *may* have had symbolic or ritual significance." with meaning "this absolutely had to do with (a) religion" when no such thing is intended. Attribution of potential cause of inferred behaviour to "ritual" is a long standing practice in archaeology; it's code for "we don't know" and covers all manner of things that may simply have developed as habit over years, may have unknown and non supernatural causes / motivations, etc.
- sandworm101 5mo ago
  Ritual may also have practical/non-supernatural motivations that were simply incorrect. We do lots of things that we think are good practical things that, years later, we learn were mistakes. Uranium and radiation as a cure-all was a mistake. Dig up a 1950s house and one might think the uranium devices were kept for "ritual" when in fact they were kept for thier mistaken health benefits.
- vikramkr 5mo ago
  For examples from more recent history think giant scissors used for ribbon cutting ceremonies, the golden spike used to signal completion of the intercontinental railroad, or like all the stuff related to militaries like changing of the guard that are ceremonial. Or even something like leaving a celebratory emoji on the first or merged by a new hire or a box of donuts on someone's birthday. Or bringing out the champagne after closing on a house. Theres just a ton of ritual in day to day life, and even more surrounding big high impact moments that might leave behind a bunch of artifacts like weddings and funerals
chrisco255 5mo ago
It is like the go to explanation for things they don't have an answer to. What if the quartz arrow head was just a status symbol or was traded as a luxury item?
- fhars 5mo ago
  Then it would fall under "symbolic or ritual use".
goda90 5mo ago
Perhaps "symbolic significance" could simply by about signifying "I'm good at knapping cool looking material" or "I had enough resources to trade for this hard to knap tool". The symbol of status/skill, essentially. People like to show off.

Neither the article nor the backing paper discussed made any such definite claim. Many casual readers confuse statements such as "which *may* have had symbolic or ritual significance." with meaning "this absolutely had to do with (a) religion" when no such thing is intended. Attribution of potential cause of inferred behaviour to "ritual" is a long standing practice in archaeology; it's code for "we don't know" and covers all manner of things that may simply have developed as habit over years, may have unknown and non supernatural causes / motivations, etc.

sandworm101 5mo ago
Ritual may also have practical/non-supernatural motivations that were simply incorrect. We do lots of things that we think are good practical things that, years later, we learn were mistakes. Uranium and radiation as a cure-all was a mistake. Dig up a 1950s house and one might think the uranium devices were kept for "ritual" when in fact they were kept for thier mistaken health benefits.
vikramkr 5mo ago
For examples from more recent history think giant scissors used for ribbon cutting ceremonies, the golden spike used to signal completion of the intercontinental railroad, or like all the stuff related to militaries like changing of the guard that are ceremonial. Or even something like leaving a celebratory emoji on the first or merged by a new hire or a box of donuts on someone's birthday. Or bringing out the champagne after closing on a house. Theres just a ton of ritual in day to day life, and even more surrounding big high impact moments that might leave behind a bunch of artifacts like weddings and funerals

chrisco255 5mo ago

It is like the go to explanation for things they don't have an answer to. What if the quartz arrow head was just a status symbol or was traded as a luxury item?

fhars 5mo ago
Then it would fall under "symbolic or ritual use".

goda90 5mo ago

Perhaps "symbolic significance" could simply by about signifying "I'm good at knapping cool looking material" or "I had enough resources to trade for this hard to knap tool". The symbol of status/skill, essentially. People like to show off.