Stone age tools & cultures with tons of info

[old3bob]

Incredible (!) collection of pictures and tons of info on left side bar. (for clicking on)

 

https://www.donsmaps.com/tools.html

Edited August 27, 2021 by old3bob

[Nungali]

Cool, I will check this out later .

 

I am reminded of those wonderful days when I could go and stay at  that Aboriginal camp.  Up river was out of bounds  - 'sacred area ' .

 

When I asked 'the boss' how far I could go up, where was I not allowed to go, he said " Oh You.    Dont matter, you can go up there, but do not take anyone with you . "  Now I know these guys where fairly well educated in their culture, and would go off and live in the bush traditional lifestyle , at times.  But this was a big surprise ;

 

I knew when I was getting into the special area , as everything changed - including the energy I could feel .  The river widened and  braided out onto many streams, rivulets and cascades around the rocks , there where  clear pools and little river sand beaches behind the bigger rocks . The bottlebrush growing about was bonsai  and twisted from floods  in bloom , various honey eater little birds where flitting about .  I saw what looked like a pile of river driftwood  - much like one sees piled up against the trees from floods in little island mid river .  As I got closer , I saw it was a 'gunya' a shelter made from  woven together driftwood, branches and dry  vegetation.   outside was some evidence of camp  and in the middle where some stone tools, in process of working, and the  tools used to do that and chips scattered about .   WOW !  IT was like going through a portal into the past .  I later realised it was the work of 'Tooly', one of the 'lads' that specialised in such matters .

 

Still being made   .... today !

[Nungali]

This just in ;

 

( 'possible return migration from Australia '   .... !  )

 

 

First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route

Sulawesi has some of the world’s oldest cave art, but ancient human remains have been scarce — now a fossil with DNA hints at a mysterious lineage of people

 

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02319-7

 

 

[old3bob]

13 hours ago, Nungali said:

This just in ;

( 'possible return migration from Australia ' .... !  )

 

First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route

Sulawesi has some of the world’s oldest cave art, but ancient human remains have been scarce — now a fossil with DNA hints at a mysterious lineage of people

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02319-7

 

 

It is amazing the work being done, along with the results!!  And thanks for posting parts of your adventures and observations on site! 

[old3bob]

a more modern device in comparison to stone age ones...

 

 

[old3bob]

oops, a pdf doesn't work...

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by old3bob

[Nungali]

Most people do not understand the real principles and use of a boomerang . We have been conditioned  by the throw return back and catch  trick .   Its done to practice usage, control and to show off but has little practicality .   If you hit something, it will not come back, and if it comes back , you didnt hit anything  ( which could be handy if you where a bad shot  ) .

 

A 'killer boomerang' is a weapon and is not thrown, it is more like a curved club , designed to get around a 'parrying shield' .  The real skill and use of the boomerang is to be able to throw it to a specific location and then it will hover there . .   As a demo, I have seen it be thrown, return to near the spot it was thrown from and   then spin in an 'off centre' looking way , and just hover above the ground , still . It looks really strange and rather impossible 

 

The idea is, you wait for a flock of birds to pass , throw the boomerang above them, it hovers above them 'fluttering ' , the birds dive down to safety  ( thinking it is a predator ) and are then netted by hunters on the ground .

 

( and of course now I cant find a youtube to demonstrate this as all films of hovering boomerangs are now 'fidget spinners' and various white guys with American accents  doing  modern boomerang tricks     )

 

https://www.kullillaart.com.au/dreamtime-stories/The-Boomerang

 

 

.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Nungali

[old3bob]

Neolithic and Upper Paleolithic people used millstones to grind grains, nuts, rhizomes and other vegetable food products for consumption.^[1] These implements are often called grinding stones. They used either saddle stones or rotary querns turned by hand. Such devices were also used to grind pigments and metal ores prior to smelting.

In India, grinding stones (Chakki) were used to grind grains and spices. These consist of a stationary stone cylinder upon which a smaller stone cylinder rotates. Smaller ones, for household use, were operated by two people. Larger ones, for community or commercial use, used livestock to rotate the upper cylinder. Today a majority of the stone flour mills (Atta Chakki) are equipped with Emery Stones which are made from abrasive emery grains and grits, with a binding agent similar to Sorel Cement. These stones are made from two types of emery abrasives - Natural Jaspar Red Emery or Synthetic Calcined Bauxite Black Emery. The emery flourmill stone-manufacturing industry is a growing and competitive industry.

Millstones were introduced to Britain by the Romans during the 1st century AD and were widely used there from the 3rd century AD onwards.

 

  (The Neolithic period is the final division of the Stone Age, with a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. It is first seen about 12,000 years ago when the first developments of farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and l... Wikipedia)

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by old3bob

[Nungali]

The early type ;

 

Some are huge . I always assume they would have been left  at various camps around the place . But one time I saw an old photo of women with a curious headdress , like a moulded flaring tower on their head , on top was attached a  flat grinding stone . Moving camp, carrying some supplies , tools, baby ... and balancing a huge rock on your head  walking long distances cross country !

 

 

 

I have found a few of these around my place ;

 

 

 

 

 

 

[old3bob]

making a stone dagger demonstration:  pretty long video so one may want to skip some sections

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by old3bob

[manitou]

On 8/26/2021 at 3:34 PM, Nungali said:

This just in ;

 

( 'possible return migration from Australia '   .... !  )

 

 

First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route

Sulawesi has some of the world’s oldest cave art, but ancient human remains have been scarce — now a fossil with DNA hints at a mysterious lineage of people

 

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02319-7

 

 

 

 

Really interesting, Nungers.  

 

If anyone knows what a torus is, I have one on the roof of my mouth.  Plural is tori.  I have wondered if this trait isn't somehow a remnant of a skull shaped a little differently.  The torus is a unusual bone growth.  I am fully prepared to accept the fact that I am most likely descended from a Neanderthal.    

[Nungali]

But we all are .   Homo Sapiens sapiens is a blend  of all different  types of  hominids, including Neanderthal   ,  right from the earliest .    The people who became Australian Aboriginals where some of the first to leave Africa and then seem to have 'rushed'  to the east as far as they could go .  There, some type of  'culture' evolved   (some claim an early 'civilisation' , but  that is highly dependant on how one defines the word 'civilisation' ) , on the mainland but also through a vast island network , whose eastern boundary was the shores of Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) *  .  But already  these people had a significant mix of Neanderthal, Denisovan, etc . ( ie. a third 'unknown hominid )

 

 

* still trying to get this book ;

 

https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/books/eden_in_the_east.php

 

Here is an interesting stone age   'tool ' ..... or  nearly a 'machine'  -   'automatic fishing rod '  ;     a stream is blocked with a 'dam' made of woven sticks (to allow  small fish to swim through) , it has a 'race' which  lets bigger fish through and in that is a noose. A fish tries to make its way through, its head gets thorough but not the wider body, so it backs out to try and find another way through but the noose snares its gills, causing the fish to jerk and flip about. This pulls on the noose and releases a slip knot and allows a bent over stick, secured into the bank ( which the  noose is tied to ) to flip straight up, pulling the line and fish out the water and flipping it up onto the bank . 

[manitou]

So I wonder which species had the tori?  

[Michael Sternbach]

23 hours ago, manitou said:

 

 

Really interesting, Nungers.  

 

If anyone knows what a torus is, I have one on the roof of my mouth.  Plural is tori.  I have wondered if this trait isn't somehow a remnant of a skull shaped a little differently.  The torus is a unusual bone growth.  I am fully prepared to accept the fact that I am most likely descended from a Neanderthal.    

 

More likely from an Asian. Oral torus is found in a full 20 to 30 percent of humans, most of them being of Asian origin, though.

[old3bob]

Starting a tangent off of the stone age peoples and how the women were often treated...

 

One might say not all that well in many cases, with some of following things apparently taking place:

1. as in having to take various orders from the men

2. as in being like property of the men, (including being traded off or forced into sex) 

3. as in being over burdened with work the men did not want to do

 

Granted that in some groups things were probably or had to be worked out to the satisfaction of both parties, (and in a some groups women had power and important rights) then again it seems that most women have been fighting for their rights and respect since the stone age...  I wonder how accurate the conditions  are the  along these lines since that was pre-historic times with most information coming from stories passed down through cultures of only a few thousand years old that finally developed written records ?