"the time Homo sapiens arrived on the scene some 300,000 years ago, we were the ninth homo species, joining habilis, erectus, rudolfensis, heidelbergensis, floresiensis, neanderthalensis, naledi, and luzonensis."
Did you know all that? Married to an archaeology lecturer for 27 years, I did. We emerged from the Rift Valley in Africa and our Eve was called Lucy, she was at a certain time considered the 'mother of us all'. When I say certain time I mean that was the thinking at a particular timeline, explanations may have changed but this 'walking upright creature' from more than 3.2 million years ago may have been your forebearer.
What am I talking about, well Andrew gave me a book for Xmas - The Dawn of Everything - A New History of Humanity. So with the aid of my light round my neck, I read the first chapter this morning with the cat bleating in my ear.
It will be fascinating to read about such things as 'is capitalism a good thing?' do we necessarily need to be governed and policed by the state and most funny of all is our Western Society the good thing it is supposed to be? Considering we have raped and pillaged across the world in our greed for power and goodies.
That is only the first chapter;) But something has always struck me about the artwork, say 20,000 years ago compared to the dull brown (it's the varnish) Dutch portraits of the great and the good. One of the books I once owned was a Victorian album of photos of the treasures you could find at the Uffizi Gallery, amongst them was this Roman boar. You can find more information about him here and his restoration after a fire. He reminds me of the great Welsh Celtic Twrch Trywth boar.
He dates a mere 2000 years back, give or take a decade or two.
The following female and male bison from the Tuc D'Audoubert Caves 14 thousand years ago. a replica of which lies in the front entrance of the British Museum.
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| Chauvet Cave |
No. Capitalism is NOT a good thing. It never is. Wherever it is incorporated, it becomes the driving force of the enterprise. It is not about good, or helping your fellow citizens or working together to achieve a common aim...it is about profit. It taints everything.
ReplyDeleteYet Debby that is what has driven America to its present stage. Most of capitalism is dreadful it hasn't a heart as you say. Its problem is that it can't always sustain itself and has to experience a chart that goes up and down.
DeleteThose artists, all that time ago! And yet in the age of the universe it is nothing. It bothers me.
ReplyDeleteIt should at least make you look at so called 'ignorant peasants' with new eyes Tasker. You can get the book on Audible by the way. Though of course they were trading in the Neolithic age, with superior hand axes and amber beads, the market was already being created.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so interesting, Thelma. My library has it so I will check it out. We've always been led to believe that we are so superior but that's hogwash, I think.
ReplyDeleteThe mural from the Chauvet Caves is enthralling. I don't think I have ever seen that image before. 32,000 years ago is like last week in the entire panoply of human history.
ReplyDeleteThe genes of some of those cave artists probably went on to become the Michael Angelos and Titians of the future . . . The artistic gene, like the music gene, is very strong. The Chauvet cave takes some beating. Though I do have a soft spot for Altimira. It was fascinating how deep into the cave systems some of these paintings were - we were taught that it was about initiation. The animals have their eyes shut so I imagine they are drawn from death and not from life.
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