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early humans

8 September 2017
Archaeology

It has been something of an anomaly that some Neanderthal remains have been dated less than 30,000 years ago – as far as a catastrophist explanation for their demise is concerned. At https://phys.org/print423814108.html … revised dating, using a new methodology making use of bone collagen, has now placed Neanderthal remains in a Croatian cave as occurring prior to 30,000 years ago. The problem at this point in time, as said on other occasions, is that between 40 and 30,000 years ago there was a massive plateau in C14, which is what has been causing the conflicting dates. The new technique brings the demise of Neanderthals prior to the arrival of modern humans.

At www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-ticker/stone-age-people-brazil-20000-ye… … excavations at a Brazilian rock shelter in the heart of northern South America suggest humans hunted giant sloths in the region around 23,000 years ago – during the Late Glacial Maximum (and therefore long before humans are thought to have entered North America by way of Alaska and Beringia). Sediments from the cave are thought to represent evidence of camp fires or hearths, and some pieces of worked sloth bone are thought to clinch the claim – but do they?

At www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/haifa-berlin-scientists-discover-connect… … evidence of food storage vessels in the Jordan Valley – going back 7000 years. This is said to be a surprise as only in ancient Egypt and Sumeria have such silos been found before – but the evidence is indisputable at Tel Tsuf. They are situated in the courtyards of buildings and are presumably a civil enterprise rather than an individuals effort. This suggests food was being stored for lean years, or simply as a civil controlled levy to be shared on an equal basis to avoid some sections of the community going without, or with little enough for a good diet. In Sumeria and Egypt the temples, focus of belief or propitiation, controlled the granaries and the distribution of food (mainly grains). The next step will be to assess who are what section of society controlled food distribution in Tel Tsuf. It is known that in the Bronze Age control of food was a civil function – but that was between 5000 and 3000 years ago. Now it looks like it began much earlier – in the Neolithic period.

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