The Emergence of Pre-Religion 300,000 years ago, with Pre-Animism?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

The Emergence of Pre-Religion 300,000 years ago, with Pre-Animism?

Around a million years ago, I surmise that Pre-Animism, “animistic superstitionism”, began, Around 400,000 Years ago shows Sociocultural Evolution, and then led to the animistic somethingism or animistic supernaturalism, which is at least 300,000 years old and about 100,00 years ago, it evolves to a representation of general Animism, which is present in today’s religions. There is also Homo Naledi and an Intentional Cemetery “Pre-Animism” dating to around 250,000 years ago. And, Neanderthals “Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)” Mystery Cave Rings 175,000 Years Ago. Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, around 130,000 years ago at sites such as Krapina in Croatia.

“Religion is an Evolved Product”

In a general way, it all starts with Animism (a theoretical belief in supernatural powers/spirits) and this is physically expressed in or with Totemism (a theoretical belief in a mythical relationship with powers/spirits through a totem item), which then enlists a full-time specific person to perform this worship and believed interaction as Shamanism (a theoretical belief in access and influence with spirits through rituals). In addition, there is the further employment of myths and gods added to all the above, which is Paganism and is often a lot more nature-based than most current top world religions, thus hinting to their close link to more ancient religious thinking from which it stems.

My hypothesis is expressed with an explanation of the building of a theoretical house (modern religions development). It seems ancient peoples had to survived amazing threats in a “dangerous universe by superstition perceived as good and evil”, and human “immorality or imperfection of the soul”, which was thought to affect the still living and led to ancestor worship. Presumably, this ancestor worship led to the belief in supernatural beings, which some of these were turned into the belief in gods. This feeble myth called gods were just a human-conceived idea that was “made from nothing into something over and over, changing again and again, taking on more as they evolve, and all the while, they are thought to be special.” However, it is just supernatural animistic spirit-belief perceived as sacred.

Historically, around 5,000 years ago, in large city-state societies such as Egypt or Iraq culminated to make religion into something kind of new, a sociocultural-governmental-religious monarchy, where all or at least many of the people of such large city-state societies seem familiar with and committed to the existence of “religion” as the integrated life identity package of control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine. However, this juggernaut integrated religion identity package of Dogmatic-Propaganda certainly did not exist or if developed to an extent, it was highly limited in most smaller prehistoric societies as they seem to lack most of the strong control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine. These magical beliefs could be at times be added or removed and many people just want to see developed religious dynamics everywhere, even if it is not. Instead, all that is found is largely fragments until the domestication of religion.

Religions, as we think of them today, are a new fad, even if they go back to around 6,000 years in the timeline of human existence. This amounts to almost nothing when seen in the long slow evolution of religion that started at least around 70,000 years ago with one of the oldest ritual worship. This message of how religion and gods are intertwined with humans is clearly a man-made idea that was developed slowly as it was invented, reinvented, and implemented piece by piece, which discredits them all. This seems to be a simple point, which some are just not grasping how devastating this is to any claims of truth when we can see the lie clearly in the archeological sites.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

What we don’t understand we can come to fear. That which we fear we often learn to hate. Things we hate we usually seek to destroy. It is thus upon us to try and understand the unknown or unfamiliar not letting fear drive us into the unreasonable arms of hate and harm.

Religious beliefs often don’t stay in the “belief” category, as if it is something chosen temporarily if needed or changeable if required. No, what is most common is that religious beliefs are completely infused to the person’s identity, thus it’s not what they believe it is more a factor of who they are. What this means is if they are later challenged and given reason to let the belief go this is largely disrupted because they and the belief are mixed with the person’s identity making its loss, not just a possible belief loss but a perceived personal identity loss.

Religions continuing in our modern world, full of science and facts, should be seen as little more than a set of irrational conspiracy theories of reality. Nothing more than a confused reality made up of unscientific echoes from man’s ancient past. Rational thinkers must ask themselves why continue to believe in religions’ stories. Religion myths which are nothing more than childlike stories and obsolete tales once used to explain how the world works, acting like magic was needed when it was always only nature. These childlike religious stories should not even be taken seriously, but sadly too often they are. Often without realizing it, we accumulate beliefs that we allow to negatively influence our lives. In order to bring about awareness, we need to be willing to alter skewed beliefs. Rational thinkers must examine the facts instead of blindly following beliefs or faith.

Below is a collection of researched information such as archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, history, linguistics, genetics, art, science, sociology, geography, psychology, philosophy, theology, biology, and zoology. It will make you question your beliefs with information, inquiries, and ideas to ponder and expand on. The two main goals are to expose the evolution of religion starting 100,000 years ago and to offer challenges to remove the rationale of faith. It is like an intervention for belief in myths that have plagued humankind for way too long. We often think we know what truth is nevertheless this can be but a vantage point away from losing credibility if we are not willing to follow valid and reliable reason and evidence. The door of reason opens not once but many times. Come on a journey to free thought where the war is against ignorance and the victor is a rational mind.

If you are a religious believer, may I remind you that faith in the acquisition of knowledge is not a valid method worth believing in. Because, what proof is “faith”, of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion?

Aron Ra interviewing me on my “Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”

If you are a religious believer, may I remind you that faith in the acquisition of knowledge is not a valid method worth believing in. Because, what proof is“faith”, of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion?

Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)
Around a million years ago, I surmise that Pre-Animism, “animistic superstitionism”, began, Around 400,000 Years ago shows Sociocultural Evolution, and then led to the animistic somethingism or animistic supernaturalism, which is at least 300,000 years old and about 100,00 years ago, it evolves to a representation of general Animism, which is present in today’s religions. There is also Homo Naledi and an Intentional Cemetery “Pre-Animism” dating to around 250,000 years ago. And, Neanderthals “Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)” Mystery Cave Rings 175,000 Years Ago. Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, around 130,000 years ago at sites such as Krapina in Croatia.

Pre-animism ideas can be seen in rock art such as that expressed in portable anthropomorphic art, which may be related to some kind of ancestor veneration. This magical thinking may stem from a social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration, which cultivates kinship values such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity and it remains an important component of various religious practices in modern times.

Humans are not the only species, which bury their dead. The practice has been observed in chimpanzees, elephants, and possibly dogs. Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods, signify a “concern for the dead” and Neanderthals were the first human species to practice burial behavior and intentionally bury their dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 100,000 years ago with remains stained with red ochre, which show ritual intentionality similar to the Neanderthals before them. ref, ref

Animism (such as that seen in Africa: 100,000 years ago)
Did Neanderthals teach us “Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)” 120,000 Years Ago? Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct. 100,000 years ago, in Qafzeh, Israel, the oldest intentional burial had 15 African individuals covered in red ocher was from a group who visited and returned back to Africa. 100,000 to 74,000 years ago, at Border Cave in Africa, an intentional burial of an infant with red ochre and a shell ornament, which may have possible connections to the Africans buried in Qafzeh.

Animism is approximately a 100,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden animist.

The following is evidence of Animism: 100,000 years ago, in Qafzeh, Israel, the oldest intentional burial had 15 African individuals covered in red ocher was from a group who visited and returned back to Africa. 100,000 to 74,000 years ago, at Border Cave in Africa, an intentional burial of an infant with red ochre and a shell ornament, which may have possible connections to the Africans buried in Qafzeh, Israel. 120,000 years ago, did Neanderthals teach us Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism) as they too used red ocher and burials? ref, ref

It seems to me, it may be the Neanderthals who may have transmitted a “Primal Religion (Animism)” or at least burial and thoughts of an afterlife. The Neanderthals seem to express what could be perceived as a Primal “type of” Religion, which could have come first and is supported in how 250,000 years ago, the Neanderthals used red ochre and 230,000 years ago shows evidence of Neanderthal burial with grave goods and possibly a belief in the afterlife. ref

Do you think it is crazy that the Neanderthals may have transmitted a “Primal Religion”? Consider this, it appears that 175,000 years ago, the Neanderthals built mysterious underground circles with broken off stalactites. This evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. Other evidence may suggest the Neanderthals had it transmitted to them by Homo heidelbergensis, 350,000 years ago, by their earliest burial in a shaft pit grave in a cave that had a pink stone axe on the top of 27 Homo heidelbergensis individuals and 250,000 years ago, Homo naledi had an intentional cemetery in South Africa cave. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago)
Did Neanderthals Help Inspire Totemism? Because there is Art Dating to Around 65,000 Years Ago in Spain? Totemism as seen in Europe: 50,000 years ago, mainly the Aurignacian culture. Pre-Aurignacian “Châtelperronian” (Western Europe, mainly Spain and France, possible transitional/cultural diffusion between Neanderthals and Humans around 50,000-40,000 years ago). Archaic–Aurignacian/Proto-Aurignacian Humans (Europe around 46,000-35,000). And Aurignacian “classical/early to late” Humans (Europe and other areas around 38,000 – 26,000 years ago).

Totemism is approximately a 50,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden totemist.

Toetmism may be older as there is evidence of what looks like a Stone Snake in South Africa, which may be the “first human worship” dating to around 70,000 years ago. Many archaeologists propose that societies from 70,000 to 50,000 years ago such as that of the Neanderthals may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship in addition to their presumably religious burial of the dead. Did Neanderthals help inspire Totemism? There is Neanderthals art dating to around 65,000 years ago in Spain. ref, ref

Shamanism (beginning around 30,000 years ago)
Shamanism (such as that seen in Siberia Gravettian culture: 30,000 years ago). Gravettian culture (34,000–24,000 years ago; Western Gravettian, mainly France, Spain, and Britain, as well as Eastern Gravettian in Central Europe and Russia. The eastern Gravettians, which include the Pavlovian culture). And, the Pavlovian culture (31,000 – 25,000 years ago such as in Austria and Poland). 31,000 – 20,000 years ago Oldest Shaman was Female, Buried with the Oldest Portrait Carving.

Shamanism is approximately a 30,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals that can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden shamanist.

Around 29,000 to 25,000 years ago in Dolní Vestonice, Czech Republic, the oldest human face representation is a carved ivory female head that was found nearby a female burial and belong to the Pavlovian culture, a variant of the Gravettian culture. The left side of the figure’s face was a distorted image and is believed to be a portrait of an elder female, who was around 40 years old. She was ritualistically placed beneath a pair of mammoth scapulae, one leaning against the other. Surprisingly, the left side of the skull was disfigured in the same manner as the aforementioned carved ivory figure, indicating that the figure was an intentional depiction of this specific individual. The bones and the earth surrounding the body contained traces of red ocher, a flint spearhead had been placed near the skull, and one hand held the body of a fox. This evidence suggests that this was the burial site of a shaman. This is the oldest site not only of ceramic figurines and artistic portraiture but also of evidence of early female shamans. Before 5,500 years ago, women were much more prominent in religion.

Archaeologists usually describe two regional variants: the western Gravettian, known namely from cave sites in France, Spain, and Britain, and the eastern Gravettian in Central Europe and Russia. The eastern Gravettians include the Pavlovian culture, which were specialized mammoth hunters and whose remains are usually found not in caves but in open air sites. The origins of the Gravettian people are not clear, they seem to appear simultaneously all over Europe. Though they carried distinct genetic signatures, the Gravettians and Aurignacians before them were descended from the same ancient founder population. According to genetic data, 37,000 years ago, all Europeans can be traced back to a single ‘founding population’ that made it through the last ice age. Furthermore, the so-called founding fathers were part of the Aurignacian culture, which was displaced by another group of early humans members of the Gravettian culture. Between 37,000 years ago and 14,000 years ago, different groups of Europeans were descended from a single founder population. To a greater extent than their Aurignacianpredecessors, they are known for their Venus figurines. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, & ref

Paganism (beginning around 12,000 years ago)
Paganism (such as that seen in Turkey: 12,000 years ago). Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” around 12,000 years ago. Sedentism and the Creation of goddesses around 12,000 years ago as well as male gods after 7,000 years ago. Pagan-Shaman burial in Israel 12,000 years ago and 12,000 – 10,000 years old Paganistic-Shamanistic Art in a Remote Cave in Egypt. Skull Cult around 11,500 to 8,400 Years Ago and Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 10,000 years ago.

Paganism is approximately a 12,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals that can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife and who are guided/supported by a goddess/god, goddesses/gods, magical beings, or supreme spirits. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden paganist.

Around 12,000 years ago, in Turkey, the first evidence of paganism is Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” and around 9,500 years ago, in Turkey, the second evidence of paganism is Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”. In addition, early paganism is connected to Proto-Indo-European language and religion. Proto-Indo-European religion can be reconstructed with confidence that the gods and goddesses, myths, festivals, and form of rituals with invocations, prayers, and songs of praise make up the spoken element of religion. Much of this activity is connected to the natural and agricultural year or at least those are the easiest elements to reconstruct because nature does not change and because farmers are the most conservative members of society and are best able to keep the old ways.

The reconstruction of goddesses/gods characteristics may be different than what we think of and only evolved later to the characteristics we know of today. One such characteristic is how a deity’s gender may not be fixed, since they are often deified forces of nature, which tend to not have genders. There are at least 40 deities and the Goddesses that have been reconstructed are: *Pria, *Pleto, *Devi, *Perkunos, *Aeusos, and *Yama.

The reconstruction of myths can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and by additional research, many of these myths have since been confirmed including some areas that were not accessible to the early writers such as Latvian folk songs and Hittite hieroglyphic tablets. There are at least 28 myths and one of the most widely recognized myths of the Indo-Europeans is the myth, “Yama is killed by his brother Manu” and “the world is made from his body”. Some of the forms of this myth in various Indo-European languages are about the Creation Myth of the Indo-Europeans.

The reconstruction of rituals can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and is estimated to have been spoken as a single language from around 6,500 years ago. One of the earliest ritual is the construction of kurgans or mound graves as a part of a death ritual. kurgans were inspired by common ritual-mythological ideas. Kurgans are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots.

The speakers of Pre-Proto-Indo-European lived in Turkey and it associates the distribution of historical Indo-European languages with the expansion around 9,000 years ago, with a proposed homeland of Proto-Indo-European proper in the Balkans around 7,000 years ago. The Proto-Indo-European Religion seemingly stretches at least back around 6,000 years ago or likely much further back and I believe Paganism is possibly an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system.

The earliest kurgans date to 6,000 years ago and are connected to the Proto-Indo-European in the Caucasus. In fact, around 7,000 years ago, there appears to be pre-kurgan in Siberia. Around 7,000 to 2,500 years ago and beyond, kurgans were built with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia, which display the continuity of the archaic forming methods. Kurgan cultures are divided archaeologically into different sub-cultures such as Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish, and Kuman–Kipchak. Kurgans have been found from the Altay Mountains to the Caucasus, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. Around 5,000 years ago, kurgans were used in the Ukrainian and Russian flat unforested grasslands and their use spread with migration into eastern, central, northern Europe, Turkey, and beyond. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, & ref

Progressed organized religion (around 5,000 years ago)
Progressed organized religion (such as that seen in Egypt: 5,000 years ago “The First Dynasty dates to 5,150 years ago”). This was a time of astonishing religion development and organization with a new state power to control. Around the time of 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, saw the growth of these riches, both intellectually and physically, became a source of contention on a political stage, and rulers sought the accumulation of more wealth and more power.

*The First Dynasty* Date: 3,150 B.C.E. (5,150 years ago)

The Beginning Rise of the Unequal State Government Hierarchies, Religions and Cultures Merger

The Pharaoh in ancient Egypt was the political and religious leader holding the titles ‘Lord of the Two Lands’ Upper and Lower Egypt and ‘High Priest of Every Temple’. In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt and this reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later.
Around 4,890 years ago during the Second Dynasty, the King was linked with the divine and reign with the will of the gods. Following this, rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due to those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth, the intermediary between the gods and the people, and when he died, he was thought to become Osiris, the god of the dead. As such, in his role of ‘High Priest of Every Temple’, it was the pharaoh’s duty to build great temples and monuments celebrating his own achievements and paying homage to the gods of the land.

Among the earliest civilizations that exhibit the phenomenon of divinized kings are early Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by the king Menes (now believed to be Narmer). Menes/Narmer is depicted on inscriptions wearing the two crowns of Egypt, signifying unification, and his reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later. During the Second Dynasty of Egypt 4,890-4,670 years ago King Raneb (also known as Nebra) linked his name with the divine and his reign with the will of the gods. Following Raneb, the rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due to those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth. The honorific title of `pharaoh’ for a ruler did not appear until the period known as the New Kingdom 3,570-3,069 years ago. Monarchs of the dynasties before the title of `pharaoh’ from the New Kingdom were addressed as `your majesty’ by foreign dignitaries and members of the court and as `brother’ by foreign rulers; both practices would continue after the king of Egypt came to be known as a pharaoh. RefRef

CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)
Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago). Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. Christianity around 2,000 years old. Shinto around 1,305 years old. Islam around 1407–1385 years old. Sikhism around 548–478 years old. Bahá’í around 200–125 years old.

Early Atheistic Doubting (at least by 2,600 years ago)

Around 2,600 Years Ago, there is a confirmation of atheistic doubting as well as atheistic thinking, mainly by Greek philosophers. However, doubting gods is likely as old as the invention of gods and should destroy the thinking that belief in god(s) is the “default belief”. The Greek word is apistos (a “not” and pistos “faithful,”), thus not faithful or faithless because one is unpersuaded and unconvinced by a god(s) claim. Short Definition: unbelieving, unbeliever, or unbelief.

If you are a religious believer, may I remind you that faith in the acquisition of knowledge is not a valid method worth believing in. Because, what proof is“faith”, of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion?

Damien Marie AtHope: Atheist-Humanist Philosopher & Pre-Historical Writer/Researcher at  damien.marie.athope.com

• Damien AtHope: Pre-Historical Writer/Researcher chats with Lisa For Truth: Origins of Religion and Anthropology of Religion
• Damien AtHope: Pre-Historical Writer/Researcher chats with Legesse Allyn: Writer/Researcher in Ancient Languages and Ancient Scripts

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

 ref

430,000 years ago, Sima de los Huesos, “Pit of Bones”, Atapuerca, Spain, seeming evidence of intentional storing of 28 individuals in a cave chamber pit (a symbolic pseudo-womb?) and a reddish quartzite tool found with the bodies, seems like a kind of ritual funeral offering in this possibly early cemetery. Fossil remains of 430,000-400,000-years-old 28 individuals, 6,500 bone fragments, and 500 teeth, in one of several important sections of the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo cave system in north-central Spain. The bone pit is at the bottom of the cave, beneath an abrupt vertical shaft measuring between 6.5-13 feet in diameter, and located about .1/3 of a mile in down a 42.5 ft shaft and it is possibly an expression of mortuary practices. ref

Whit a high representation of adolescents and prime-age adults and a low percentage of adults between 20 and 40 years of age. Only one individual was under 10 at the time of death, and none were over 40-45 years old: statistically, say the scholars, there should be more children. ref

Sima de los Huesos represents a purposeful burial, based partly on the recovery of a single quartzite Acheulean handaxe and the complete lack of stone tool waste or other habitation waste at all. Moreover, evidence suggesting that at least one of the individuals in the pit died as a result of interpersonal violence. Cranium 17 has multiple impact fractures thus is believe to have been dead at the time s/he was dropped into the shaft and seemingly placing dead bodies into the pit was indeed a social practice of the community. ref

A large variety in cranial capacity and other characteristics were detailed possibly the population was evolutionarily related to Neanderthals as a sister group, and could best fit into the then-refined species of Homo heidelbergensis, or more likely it is thought the fossils represented an archaic form of Neanderthal, rather than Homo heidelbergensis. Studies highlight that the Sima de los Huesos population shares some DNA with the Denisovans, rather than the Neanderthals. 17 complete skulls have numerous Neanderthal-like characteristics so less likely to be a Homo heidelbergensis this groups dates are close to the age predicted for when the split in hominid species creating the Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages occurred. ref

This cave artifacts are dated to around 300,000 to as much as 400,000 to even maybe 500,000 years ago Acheulean stone tool culture made of red stone tool offering in the ear;y cemetery, was nicknamed, Excalibur. ref

Finally, genetic analysis of the Sima de los Huesos fossils seems to suggest that Homoheidelbergensis in its entirety should be included in the Neanderthal lineage, as “pre-Neanderthal” or “archaic Neanderthal” or “early Neanderthal”, while the divergence time between the Neanderthal and modern lineages has been pushed back to before the emergence of H. heidelbergensis, to about 600,000 to 800,000 years ago, the approximate time of disappearance of Homo antecessor. ref

An archaeological site in Schöningen, Germany contained eight exceptionally well-preserved ~400,000-year-old spears for hunting, and various other wooden tools. 500,000-year-old hafted stone points used for hunting are reported from Kathu Pan 1 in South Africa, tested by way of use-wear replication. This finding could mean that modern humans and Neanderthals inherited the stone-tipped spear, rather than developing the technology independently. mitochondrial DNA samples from three caves Sima de los Huesos revealed that they are “distantly related to the mitochondrial DNA of Denisovans rather than to that of Neanderthals.” ref

• In 2016 Nuclear DNA analysis determined the Sima hominins are Neanderthals and not Denisova hominins and the divergence between Neanderthals, Denisovans and Anatomically Modern Humans predates 430,000 years ago. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Pre-Animism: Portable Rock Art at least 300,000-year-old

The Origin of Us- Spread of Humans, Ancient African Languages, Stone Tools and Cognition

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Fossils from Morocco suggest the Homo sapiens lineage became distinct as early as 350,000 years ago, adding as much as 150,000 years to our species’ history, as before it was assumed our Human line emerged around 200,000 years ago. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref

Pre-Animism Emergence is No Accident at Least by 300,000-year Ago Was Aided by Evolution

Pre-Animism: “animistic superstitionism”, I surmise, leads to the animistic somethingism, or animistic supernatralism is presented in today’s religions and is a representation of general Animism that is at least 100,000 years old. ref

The Blue on the outside references the size difference to modern human brains and the inside to illustrate regions with surface size increase associated with this gradual shape changes. ref

300,000-year-old Moroccan, North African skulls look shockingly that of Modern Humans and these skulls hold a combination of advanced and archaic features suggesting that these skulls may represent the very root of our Modern Human species. This is further supported in how all Homo sapiens ever found even far beyond Africa trace their ancestral linkages to the Moroccan, North African skulls or at least point as it were in that direction. And seemingly Homo sapiens could have been living across Africa and sem9ingly engaging in extensive movement, which could have involved exchange both in ideas, technology as well as even genetics. ref

300,000-year-old wolf tooth pendant from Repolust Cave, Austria. ref

Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)

• Around 500,000 – 233,000 years ago, Oldest Anthropomorphic art (Pre-animism) is Related to Female
• 400,000 Years Old Sociocultural Evolution
• Pre-Animism: Portable Rock Art at least 300,000-year-old
• Homo Naledi and an Intentional Cemetery “Pre-Animism” dating to around 250,000 years ago?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref , ref, ref, ref

. Jebel Irhoud, Morocco 300,000 years ago. ref

. Omo Kididh, Ethiopia 195,000 years ago. ref

. Misliya, Isreal 194,000 years ago. ref

. Herto, Ethiopia 160,000 years ago. ref

What Relations are There with Neanderthal

DNA taken from a Neanderthal leg bone found in a German cave hinted at much earlier encounters between the two species, dating back more than 200,000 years. Neanderthal DNA sequences from Altai Cave in Siberia, as well as from Spain and Croatia, that show evidence of human-Neanderthal interbreeding as far back as 100,000 years ago. Approximately 1-4% of the genomes of non-African modern humans, although a modern human who lived about 40,000 years ago has been found to have between 6-9% Neanderthal DNA. ref, ref

Although all of the early fossils of Homo sapiens are found with Middle Stone Age artifacts, it is unlikely that our species was the exclusive author of MSA lithic technology. On present evidence, the oldest Middle Stone Age sites are in eastern Africa, at around 276,000 years ago, such as at Gademotta, Ethiopia. The overlap between age estimates for the earliest MSA and the latest Acheulian sites supports the hypothesis of a prolonged shift to MSA technologies. The youngest reported Acheulian artifacts are surface collected from the Herto Member of the Bouri Formation of Ethiopia, dated to around 154,000–160,000 years ago, and in situ material around 125,000 years ago from Abdur, Eritrea, in northeast Africa. The Acheulian attribution of the material from Abdur results suggest around 100,000–150,000 years overlap between Acheulian and MSA technologies in eastern Africa. There remains the possibility that the Acheulian artifacts from the Herto Member are older than the dated sediments by an unknown but possibly large interval. ref, ref

However, L0 most likely has a southern African origin on the basis of its prevalence in indigenous Khoe (both herder and hunter-gatherer) and San (Ju- and Tuu-speaking “Bushman” hunter-gatherer) populations, as well as in exclusively southern African Bantu speakers – although one of the main subclades of L0 (L0a’b’f) may have an eastern African origin. Thus from the time after the main African clades have evolved they can prove highly informative; but the final path back to the human mtDNA root remains mysterious. Furthermore, it is not clear that different systems are informing us about the same phenomena. “Modern” features in human anatomy, appear ~150,000–200,000 years ago, and predominate in Africa after 130,000 years ago, but there is no indication in the fossil record of a speciation event at this time, and Homo sapiensemerges gradually from more archaic specimens in Africa over the preceding few hundred thousand years. ref

Oldowan stone tool Culture (2.6–1.7 Million years ago)

• Acheulean stone tool culture (1.76–0.1 Million years ago)
• Acheulo-Yabrudian stone tool culture (400-200,000 years ago)
• Mousterian stone tool culture (160,000–35-30,000 years ago)
• Aterian (145,000–c. 20,000 years ago)

First, there was Pre-Animism: Portable Rock Art

Around a million years ago, I surmise that Pre-Animism, “animistic superstitionism”, began and led to the animistic somethingism or animistic supernaturalism, which is at least 300,000 years old and about 100,00 years ago, it evolves to a representation of general Animism, which is present in today’s religions.

Anthropology states that Pre-animism is “A stage of religious development supposed to have preceded animism, in which material objects were believed to contain spiritual energy.” ref

To me, it is a kind of “Primal Pre-Religion (Pre-Animism/Proto-Animism” or at least burial and thoughts of an afterlife, may have been transferred from the Neanderthals to arcane humans when they bred with them. Neanderthals, also interbred with Homo erectus, the ‘upright walking man,’ Homo habilis, the ‘tool-using man” and possibly others, which means they could have possibly learned some pre-animism ideas from one of the other hominids thas is expressed in portable anthropomorphic art, which could have been related to some kind of ancestor veneration as well. ref

Around 500,000 to 400,000 years ago, the earliest European hominin crania associated with Acheulean handaxes are at the sites of Arago, Atapuerca Sima de los Huesos, and Swanscombe. The Atapuerca fossils and the Swanscombe cranium belong to the Neandertals whereas the Arago hominins have been attributed to Homo heidelbergensis or to a subspecies of Homo erectus, which is an incipient stage of Neandertal evolution. A cranium (Aroeira 3) from the Gruta da Aroeira (Almonda karst system, Portugal) dating to 436,000 to 390,000 years ago provides important evidence on the earliest European Acheulean-bearing hominins as well as could show a transfer of ideas. ref

Homo erectus, the “upright walking man,” lived between 1.89 million and 143,000 years ago, whereas early African Homo erectus and sometimes called Homo ergaster are the oldest known early humans to have possessed modern human-like attributes. The earliest evidence of campfires occurred during the time of Homo erectus. While there is evidence that campfires were used for cooking, and probably sharing food, they are likely to have been placed for social interaction, used for warmth, to keep away large predators, and possibly even relating to Primal Religion, “Pre-Animism,” which may have included Fire Sacralizing and/or Worship. ref

Neanderthals used fire 400,000 years ago and there is evidence of a 300,000-year-old ‘campfire’ from Israel, which is not that surprising since our human ancestors have controlled fire from 1.5 million to 300,000 years ago and beyond. The benefits of fire are not only to cook food and fend off predators, but also extended their day and added to the community by how a fire in the middle of the darkness mellows and also excite people, which possibly inspire pre-animism’s “animistic superstitionism.” ref

Forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) is implicated in human speech and language playing important roles in the plasticity of the developing brain and that of modern populations suggests that it has been the target of positive (Darwinian) selection during recent human evolution. The first mutations in exon 7 more than around 400,000 years ago, prior to the human-Neandertal split, and impacted FOXP2 function. The second event, beginning within the last 200,000 years, did not involve further FOXP2 amino acid changes (because the Neandertal and human FOXP2 are identical) but might have instead affected FOXP2.

Overall, there was strong evidence of selection of FOXP2 targets in Europeans, but not in the Han Chinese, Japanese, or Yoruba populations. Analyses of ancient DNA samples have revealed that the amino acid differences were shared with Neandertals, who split from modern humans 300,000–400,000 years ago, and the haplotypes extended across the amino acid changes. And, Neanderthals and humans share two changes in FOXP2 compared with chimpanzees and the possibilities range from interaction gene flow to that of a common ancestor to both or changes and selective sweep occurred before the divergence that could mean Neanderthals had language and or other type capabilities. ref, ref

There was a primitive Homo sapiens skull found at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco dated to around 300,000 years ago. With remarkable similarities between the Moroccan skull and one found in China dated to around 260,000 years ago. ref, ref

Sun-worshipping baboons rise early to catch the African sunrise and race each other to the top for the best spots. Thus, we may rightly ponder how much did fireside tales aid to the socio-cultural-religious transformations or evolution. In the dark under flickering lights from the stars above and the fire below was the scene of wonder, fear, and mystery. Was superstition expanded and religion further imagined? It would seem that superstition was expanded and religion further imagined because both heavenly lights and flickering fire have been sacralized. This does seem to be somewhat supported by a researcher who spent 40 years studying African Bushmen who gathered evidence of the importance of gathering around a nighttime campfire as a time for bonding, social information, and shared emotions with fireside tales. This may provide a correlation that our prehistoric ancestors likely lived in a similar way to how the Bushmen currently do. Although, we cannot directly peer into the past or fully know the past from the indigenous Bushmen, these people do live in a way that our ancient ancestors lived for around 99% of our evolution.

Fire, as sacred or magic, can be seen in:

• Consuming fire as volcanos/lightning as gods and gods’ power/vengeance.
• Holy fire as a means of transformation or magical purification.
• A magical being as used in worshipping the sun or punishment such as hell/lake of fire, which could be seen as mixing fire and water, if only symbolically.
• Ceremonies such as bonfires, eternal flames, or sacred candles/incense/lights/lamps are in one form or another incorporated in many faiths such as judaism, christianity, islam, hinduism, buddhism, sikhism, bahaism, shintoism, taoism, etc.  ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

All this worship of fire/sun is hardly special to humans since many other primates worship thunderstorms, others fire, or sunrises. We have forgotten how nature worship, animistic superstitionism, animistic somethingism, or animistic supernatralism is presented in today’s religion. The mega religions now think they are removed from animistic superstitionism, which they are not. Their rituals, beliefs, and prayers have a connection to animism nature worship but are more hidden or stylized such as burning candles, which is worshipping fire.

Archaeology reveals that the world’s oldest sculpture was enhanced by hominid hand. To date, the oldest known human three-dimensional representation is the Tan-Tan sculpture, which is an anthropomorific human form from Morocco was found in ancient river deposits of the Draa river. It is Acheulian and has been dated between 500,000 to 300,000 years old. 500,000 to 233,000 years ago, in Israel, another sculpture, which may be the oldest Stone Age Art was found at the Berekhat Ram site on the Golan Heights that consist of a small quartzite pebble, which resembles a human female figure with magical believed qualities or representing something that was believed to be magical. ref

Is this just art or a form of ancestor veneration? 

Pre-animism ideas can be seen in rock art such as that expressed in portable anthropomorphic art, which may be related to some kind of ancestor veneration. This magical thinking may stem from a social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration, which cultivates kinship values such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity and it remains an important component of various religious practices in modern times.

Humans are not the only species, which bury their dead. The practice has been observed in chimpanzees, elephants, and possibly dogs. Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods, signify a “concern for the dead” and Neanderthals were the first human species to practice burial behavior and intentionally bury their dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 100,000 years ago with remains stained with red ochre, which show ritual intentionality similar to the Neanderthals before them. ref, ref

“300,000 years ago: the first possible appearance of Homo sapiens, in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.

• 270,000 years ago: age of Y-DNA haplogroup A00(“Y-chromosomal Adam“).
• 250,000 years ago: the first appearance of Homo neanderthalensis (Saccopastore skulls)
• 250,000-200,000 years ago: modern human presence in West Asia (Misliya cave)
• 230,000–150,000 years ago: age of mt-DNA haplogroup L (“Mitochondrial Eve“)
• 195,000 years ago: Omo remains (Ethiopia), the emergence of anatomically modern humans.
• 160,000 years ago: Homo sapiens idaltu
• 170,000 years ago: humans are wearing clothing by this date.
• 150,000 years ago: Peopling of Africa: Khoisanid separation, an age of mtDNA haplogroup L0
• 125,000 years ago: the peak of the Eemian interglacial period.
• 120,000–90,000 years ago: Abbassia Pluvial in North Africa—the Sahara desert region is wet and fertile.” ref

The North African Neandertal descendants

The distribution of Neandertal similarity outside Africa increases with distance from Africa and suggested this could be explained by SNP ascertainment bias plus a strong genetic drift in East Asian populations. ref

Neanderthals used Mousterian tools and it seems these tools were also being used in Africa as early as 130,000 years ago, thus seemingly this places Neanderthals in North Africa. The Neanderthal tools found at Jebel Ighoud and Haua Fteah resemble contemporaneous European Neanderthal tools. The presence of Mousterian tools suggest that Neanderthals mixed with Africans because we know that anatomically modern humans were living in the area at the time. The North African Neanderthal people used the common Levoiso-Mousterian tool kit originally discovered in Europe. Ki-Zerbo said the Neanderthal skeletons came from Djebel Irhoud and El Guettar in Morocco. Later Neanderthal people used the Aterian tool kit. It was probably in Morocco that Neanderthal and Khoisan interacted. Khoisan Africans share more alleles with Altaic Neanderthal than Denisova. ref, ref

About 125,000 years ago the hand-axe was replaced by the Levallois or Prepared-Core technique. Evidence from this period indicates humans were well familiar with fishing techniques, and painted their faces with red ochre. The most important Neanderthal site from Libya is the Cave of Haua Fteah’, near Marsa Sousa, in eastern Libya; other North African sites include Jebel Irhoud, Temara and Tangier. One of the best evidences that humans have existed continuously in one site in Libya for 100,000 years. ref

Personal Shell ornament have been found at Grotte des Pigeons in North Africa, dated to ca. 82 and in Blombos Cave in South Africa, dated to around 77 ,000 years ago, possibly even with regional artifact styles, including personal adornment of beads and ornaments, as well as their associated connection with use of pigment, to me, could demonstrate religious clans, reflected in the shells and ochre at Qafzeh Cave. As incurring the shells would likely involve some amount of ‘‘risk taking’’ to obtain them, adding to the precevied meaning to the wearer of them, and may express religious affiliations of some kind. Thus, it can be assumed they could be more than simple art decoration. And we need not discard the un-perforated shells seen at other sites may also express more than a collection of beauty but instead relate to a somewhat cultist type symbolic purpose (charms?) could be an additional category to be considered. ref

Evidence for bead use comes from the 100,000 years old Mousterian levels at Qafzeh Cave in Israel where four water-worn Glycymeris spp shells with perforations interpreted as beads, or alternatively, pigment containers. ref

The three shells from Skhul and Oued Djebbana belong to Nassarius gibbosulus and display, like in the Blombos beads. Skhul findings of two Nassarius shells from the chemical composition of sediments adhering to the shells come from the same layer B as the modern humans ranging from 100,000 to 135,000 years years ago. Similarly, Glycymeris shells from Qafzeh where found in the layers with modern human burials though not directly associated with the burials, but they come 26 miles away from the sea. ref

Furthermore, red pigment on one unperforated and nine perforated marine shells for personal adornments from Taforalt date to around 82,000 years ago. In the MSA of southern Africa, the use of ochred shells also is recorded at Blombos. Taforalt (Morocco North Africa) finds compared to others from Djebbana (Algeria, North Africa), Skhul (Israel), but together with Blombos (Southern Cape coastline, South Africa), this implies that, after 100,000 years, and possibly even earlier, material culture indicative of one aspect of behavioral modernity is expresses each of these regions, personal ornamentation became a widespread practice in Africa and adjacent areas of southwest Asia suggesting some amount of homogeneity in the early phases of this phenomenon. The same species of marine gastropod is used at Taforalt, Djebbana, and Skhul, and morphologically similar to shells used at Blombos. In contrast to the Upper Paleolithic of Europe in which >150 bead types are recorded for a single cultural entity yet only one or possibly two types, and those from Qafzeh indicates that the role beads played in African and southwest Asian Middle Paleolithic societies may have been different from the personal ornaments had in the Upper Paleolithic of Europe. ref

Neandertals, Stone Age people may have voyaged the Mediterranean

Stone tools on the Greek island of Crete dating back at least 130,000 years and researchers have built up a convincing case for Neandertal seafarers. In fact, there is a growing inventory of stone tools and the occasional bone scattered across Eurasia (Wooden boats and paddles don’t typically survive the ages) possibly first seen with Homo erectus who are now known to have crossed several kilometers of deep water more than a million years ago in Indonesia, to islands such as Flores and Sulawesi. Modern humans braved treacherous waters to reach Australia by 65,000 years ago. Furthermore, the discovery of hundreds of stone tools near the southern coastal village of Plakias on the south coast of the Greek island of Crete were so plentiful that a one-off accident seems unlikely, and since these artifacts resemble Acheulean stone tool culture developed more than a million years ago by H. erectus and continued with Neandertals as well, used until about 130,000 years ago. ref

Not to mention that it is possible Neandertal artifacts have turned up on a number of islands, including at Stelida on the island of Naxos around 155 miles north of Crete in the Aegean Sea; even during glacial times, when sea levels were lower, it was likely accessible only by watercraft. The hand axes and blades resemble the so-called Mousterian stone tool culture, more sophisticated than Acheulean types which Neandertals and modern humans made from about 200,000 years ago until 50,000 years ago. Other Paleolithic tools taken as a cohesive whole seem to imply movement back and forth to islands much earlier than thought it would appear to be from the Mousterian culture have been recovered on the western Ionian islands of Kefalonia and Zakynthos islands (west of mainland Greece). ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref ,ref ,ref ,ref ,ref, ref, ref

Homo Naledi

“Homo Naledi is a species of archaic human discovered in the Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimens, representing 737 different elements, and at least 15 different individuals. Despite this exceptionally high number of specimens, their classification with other Homo remains unclear.” ref

“Along with similarities to contemporary Homo, they share several characteristics with the ancestral Australopithecus and early Homo as well (mosaic anatomy), most notably a small cranial capacity of 465–610 cm3 (28.4–37.2 cu in), compared to 1,270–1,330 cm3 (78–81 cu in) in modern humans. They are estimated to have averaged 143.6 cm (4 ft 9 in) in height and 39.7 kg (88 lb) in weight, yielding a small encephalization quotient of 4.5. Nonetheless, Homo Naledi’s brain anatomy seems to have been similar to contemporary Homo, which could indicate equatable cognitive complexity. The persistence of small-brained humans for so long in the midst of bigger-brained contemporaries revises the previous conception that a larger brain would necessarily lead to an evolutionary advantage, and their mosaic anatomy greatly expands the known range of variation for the genus.” ref

“Homo Naledi anatomy indicates that, though they were capable of long-distance travel with a humanlike stride and gait, they were more arboreal than other Homo, better adapted to climbing and suspensory behavior in trees than endurance running. Tooth anatomy suggests consumption of gritty foods covered in particulates such as dust or dirt. Though they have not been associated with stone tools or any indication of material culture, they appear to have been dextrous enough to produce and handle tools, and likely manufactured Early or Middle Stone Age industries. It has also been controversially postulated that these individuals were given funerary rites, and were carried into and placed in the chamber.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Homo Naledi and an Intentional Cemetery “Pre-Animism” dating to around 250,000 years ago?

 To me, it seems likely Homo Naledi did have an intentional cemetery as seen at Dinaledi Chamber, in South African, thus “Pre-Animism” dating to around 250,000 years ago. Mysterious cache of bones from several Homo Naledi were recovered from a deep chamber in a South African cave, seeming to express a cemetery far from the cave entrance, accessible only through a narrow, difficult passage impossible place to live, and not by accident this purposefully cave chamber was most likely kind of graveyard. ref

Age of Ape-Human Species Homo naledi from Rising Star cave system in South Africa.

Original chamber: Dinaledi with over 1,500 Homo naledi specimens were found deep underground and behind narrow passageways. ref

New chamber: Lesedi with over 100 Homo naledispecimens have been found here, including one partial skeleton and several small mammals. ref

“Though there were some who have been skeptical at first with the addition of another set of remains in another cave area some vindication for one of its most hotly contested hypotheses: that in some form or fashion, H. naledi used the Rising Star cave system as a place to dispose of its dead. The further fossil remains of Homo naledi have been found within the Rising Star cave system in South Africa. The new chamber, named Lesedi, or “light,” lies 475 feet from the chamber where Homo naledi was originally discovered is more than 300 feet from the Dinaledi Chamber.” ref

“Much like the Dinaledi Chamber, which requires passing through a seven-inch-wide slot to enter, the Lesedi Chamber also poses unique challenges to archaeological excavations. Marina Elliott, the Wits exploration scientist who led excavations in both chambers, says that while Lesedi isn’t quite as hard to reach as Dinaledi, it’s harder to excavate. Neo was found in a narrow “blind” alcove less than two feet wide. “I basically excavate lying on my chest or in the fetal position, with both my shoulders pinned in by rock on either side,” she says. “It’s extremely physically difficult; I’ve tried to do a lot of yoga to get myself to be able to do it.” Berger himself hasn’t set foot in Dinaledi, and only once has he ventured into Lesedi. During his return to the surface, he got stuck for nearly an hour, requiring his colleagues to pull him out by ropes around his wrists. Team members now call the squeeze the Berger Box. In light of the Lesedi Chamber’s discovery, Berger’s team has claimed some vindication for one of its most hotly contested hypotheses: that in some form or fashion, H. naledi used the Rising Star cave system as a place to dispose of its dead.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Neanderthals, diverged from Arcane Humans around 500,000, with several likely occurrences of interbreeding after that. Evidence from Neanderthal DNA found in a German cave expresses early interbreeding, dating back more than 200,000 years. Moreover, a 200,000 years old prehistoric jawbone was found in an Israeli cave. Then there is DNA evidence for interbreeding around 100,000 years ago from the Altai mountains on the Russia-Mongolia border. An early modern human population left Africa much earlier and met with Neanderthals, possibly those moving from Europe towards the East, sometime around 100,000 years ago. Anatomically modern humans migrated massively from Africa into the Middle East and later Europe, starting some 65,000 years ago. Anatomically modern humans migrated massively from Africa into the Middle East and later Europe, starting some 65,000 years ago. A 55,000-year-old incomplete skull found in Israel may belong to a human group that interbred with Neanderthals. And then there is interbreeding with modern humans about 65,000-47,000 years ago, With East Asian populations, genetics relating to Neanderthals emerging around 45,000 years ago. Modern Humans share 99% their genes with Neanderthal “proto-humans.” DNA analysis of one of the oldest Homo sapiens skeletons in Europe, also found in Romania and dated to around 40,000 years ago, has shown that this individual’s ancestors had interbred with Neanderthals between four to six generations earlier. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Genome studies of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and of both ancient and contemporary H. sapiens suggest that the two species interbred somewhere in the Middle East between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. But no remains of anatomically modern humans have been discovered in the Middle East from this crucial period, after H. sapiens left Africa and before it colonized Europe and Asia. ref

Neanderthal introgression within the chromosome 3p21.31 region, occurring with a high frequency in East Asians (ranging from 49.4% to 66.5%) and at a low frequency in Europeans. We also detected a signal of strong positive selection in this region only in East Asians. Our data indicate that likely candidate targets of selection include rs12488302-T and its associated alleles—among which four are nonsynonymous, including rs35455589-G in HYAL2, a gene related to the cellular response to ultraviolet-B irradiation. Furthermore, suggestive evidence supports latitude-dependent selection, implicating a role of ultraviolet-B. Interestingly, the distribution of rs35455589-G suggests that this allele was lost during the exodus of ancestors of modern Eurasians from Africa and reintroduced to Eurasians from Neanderthals. The introgressive haplotypes were positively selected in only East Asian populations, rising steadily from 45,000 years ago until a sudden increase of growth rate around 5,000 to 3,500 years ago. They occur at very high frequencies among East Asian populations in contrast to other Eurasian populations (e.g. European and South Asian populations). The findings also suggests that this Neanderthal introgression occurred within the ancestral population shared by East Asians and Native Americans. ref

Analyzing chromosome 21 of the Altai (Siberia), El Sidrón (Spain), and Vindija (Croatia) Neanderthals, it is determined that—of these three lineages—only the El Sidrón and Vindija Neanderthals display significant rates of gene flow (0.3–2.6%) into modern humans, suggesting that the El Sidrón and Vindija Neanderthals are more closely related than the Altai Neanderthal to the Neanderthals that interbred with modern humans about 47,000–65,000 years ago. Conversely, it is also determined that significant rates of modern human gene flow into Neanderthals occurred—of the three examined lineages—for only the Altai Neanderthal (0.1–2.1%), suggesting that modern human gene flow into Neanderthals mainly took place after the separation of the Altai Neanderthals from the El Sidrón and Vindija Neanderthals that occurred roughly 110,000 years ago. The findings show that the source of modern human gene flow into Neanderthals originated from a population of early modern humans from about 100,000 years ago, predating the out-of-Africa migration of the modern human ancestors of present-day non-Africans. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Three, 200,000 years old fragments of ostrich-eggshell beads, connecting to Late Acheulian of El Greifa E, Libya which are similar to beads found at two Upper Palaeolithic sites in India. ref

What is the meaning of early beads and pendants? Well, for sure some beads, in which production has been pushed to the limits allowed by the medium, seem to express a sense of perfection, and it is contended that beads are among the most informative forms of exograms that could possibly have survived from these very early times. A key requisite for the use and appreciation of all beads and pendants is a level of hominin self-awareness that essentially expresses full cognitive modernity. Beads can be used in a number of ways or for several purposes and provide various forms of information about the wearer and the possible status in their society/culture. One might believe that beads are simply a body adornment, but this is almost certainly an oversimplification that is limited as o the original meaning (if they relate to stars it could be thought to represent the ancestors. The concept of “Personal Adornment” itself is rather anthropocentric; we do not assume that other animals perceive the information imparted by the beads as meaningful. ref

Estimates for the date at which early migration out of sub-Saharan Africa occurred vary from 200,000 to 80,000 years ago, evidence is elusive, but the excavation of what is being called ‘the deepest archaeological trench in North Africa’ has now proved that modern humans were living on the north coast of Libya at least 80,000 years ago; the question now is just how much further back they go but it is thought that the deepest archaeological trench in North Africa has potentially a 200,000-year-old story to tell. Moreover, modern humans (Homo sapiens) did not arrive in North Africa until around 40,000 years ago, which is about when they reached Europe. ref

There are shell ornaments in a limestone cave in Eastern Morocco dating to around 72,000 years ago along with evidence of shells, already known from as old as 110,000 to 82,000-year-old Aterian deposits in the cave occupations include pre-Mousterian, Aterian, and Iberomaurusianlithic industries. ref, ref

Evidence for Modern Human Behavior 250,000–300,000 years ago?

“There have been a number of theories proposed regarding the development of modern human behavior, but in recent years the mosaic approach has been the most favored perspective in regards to the Middle Stone Age (or MSA), especially when taken in consideration with the archaeological evidence. Some scholars including Klein have argued for discontinuity, while others including McBrearty and Brooks have argued that cognitive advances can be detected in the MSA and that the origin of our species is linked with the appearance of Middle Stone Age technology at 250,000–300,000 years ago. The earliest remains of Homo sapiens date back to approximately 300 thousand years ago in Africa and the continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers.” ref

“In the archaeological record of both eastern Africa and southern Africa, there is immense variability associated with Homo sapiens sites, and it is during this time that we see evidence of the origins of modern human behavior. According to McBrearty and Brooks, there are four features that are characteristic of modern human behavior: abstract thinking, the ability to plan and strategize, “behavioral, economic and technological innovativeness,” and symbolic behavior. Many of these aspects of modern human behavior can be broken down into more specific categories, including art, personal adornment, and technological advancement, yet these four overarching categories allow for a thorough, albeit significantly overlapping, discussion of behavioral modernity.” ref

Possible cultural complexes and Symbolic behavior may have begun around 300,000–250,000 years ago

“The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50,000–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of particular MSA stone tools have their origins as far back as 550,000–500,000 years ago and as such some researchers consider this to be the beginnings of the MSA. And as early Homo sapiens began to diversify the ecological zones that they inhabited during the MSA, the archaeological record associated with these zones begins to show evidence for regional continuities. These continuities are significant for a number of reasons. The expansion of Homo sapiens into various ecological zones demonstrates an ability to adapt to a variety of environmental contexts including marine environments, savanna grasslands, relatively arid deserts, and forests.” ref

“This adaptability is reflected in MSA artifacts found in these zones. These artifacts display stylistic variability depending on zone. During the Acheulian, which spanned from 1.5 million years ago to 300,000 years ago, lithic technology displayed incredible homogeneity throughout all ecological niches. MSA technologies, with their evidence for regional variability and continuity, represent a remarkable advance. These data have been used to support theories of social and stylistic development throughout the MSA. In southern Africa, we see the technocomplexes of Howiesons Poort and Stillbay, named after the sites at which they were first discovered. Several others have not been dated or have been dated unreliably; these include the Lupemban technocomplex of central Africa, the Bambatan in southeast Africa, 70,000–80,000 years ago, and the Aterian technocomplex of northern Africa, 160,000–90,000 years ago.” ref

“Symbolic behavior is, perhaps, one of the most difficult aspects of modern human behavior to distinguish archaeologically. When searching for evidence of symbolic behavior in the MSA, there are three lines of evidence that can be considered: direct evidence reflecting concrete examples of symbols; indirect evidence reflecting behaviors that would have been used to convey symbolic thought; and technological evidence reflecting the tools and skills that would have been used to produce art. Direct evidence is difficult to find beyond 40ka, and indirect evidence is essentially intangible, thus technological evidence is the most fruitful of the three. Today there is widespread agreement among archaeologists that the world’s first art and symbolic culture dates to the African Middle Stone Age. Some of the most striking artifacts, including engraved pieces of red ochre, were manufactured at Blombos Cave in South Africa 75,000 years ago. “Pierced and ochred Nassarius shell beads were also recovered from Blombos, with even earlier examples (Middle Stone Age, Aterian) from the Taforalt Caves.” ref

“In addition, ostrich eggshell containers engraved with geometric designs dating to 60,000 years ago were found at Diepkloof, South Africa, beads and other personal ornamentation have been found from Morocco which might be as much as 130,000 years old, and the Cave of Hearths in South Africa has yielded a number of beads dating from significantly prior to 50,000 years ago. At Panga ya Saidi in Kenya, marine shell beads appear perhaps as early as 67,000 years ago and certainly by 33,000 years ago, and engraved ochre by 48,500 years ago. Arrows and hide working tools (including a needle-like tool) have been found at Sibudu Cave dating between about 70,000–60,000 years ago. as evidence of making weapons with compound heat-treated gluing technology. Evidence for the making of paints by a complex process also exists dating to 100,000 years ago in South Africa, and for the use of pigments in Kenya dating to about 320,000 years ago.” ref

“A series of innovations have been documented by 170–160,000 years ago at the site of Pinnacle Point 13B on the southern Cape coast of South Africa. This includes the oldest confirmed evidence for the utilization of ochre and marine resources in the form of shellfish exploitation for food. Based on his analysis of the MSA bovid assemblage at Klasies, Milo reports MSA people were formidable hunters and that their social behavior patterns approached those of modern humans. Deacon maintains that the management of plant food resources through deliberate burning of the veld to encourage the growth of plants with corms or tubers in the southern Cape during the Howiesons Poort (c. 70,000–55,000 years ago) is indicative of modern human behavior. A family basis to foraging groups, color symbolism, the reciprocal exchange of artifacts, and the formal organization of living space are, he suggests, further evidence for modernity in the MSA.” ref

Lyn Wadley et al. have argued that the complexity of the skill needed to process the heat-treated compound glue (gum and red ochre) used to haft spears would seem to argue for continuity between modern human cognition and that of humans 70,000 years ago at Sibudu Cave. In 2008, an ochre processing workshop likely for the production of paints was uncovered dating to ca. 100,000 years ago at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Analysis shows that a liquefied pigment-rich mixture was produced and stored in the two abalone shells, and that ochre, bone, charcoal, grindstones, and hammer-stones also formed a composite part of the toolkits. Evidence for the complexity of the task includes procuring and combining raw materials from various sources (implying they had a mental template of the process they would follow), possibly using pyrotechnology to facilitate fat extraction from bone, using a probable recipe to produce the compound, and the use of shell containers for mixing and storage for later use.” ref

Evidence of Abstract thinking and innovation can be seen around 300,000–250,000 years ago

“Evidence of abstract thinking can be seen in the archaeological record as early as the Acheulean–Middle Stone Age transition, approximately 300,000–250,000 years ago. This transition involves a shift in stone tool technology from Mode 2, Acheulean tools, to Mode 3 and 4, which include blades and microliths. The manufacture of these tools requires planning and the understanding of how striking a stone will produce different flaking patterns. This requires abstract thought, one of the hallmarks of modern human behavior. The shift from large cutting tools in the Acheulian to smaller and more diversified toolkits in the MSA represents a better cognitive and conceptual understanding of flintknapping, as well as the potential functional effects of distinct tool types.” ref

“The ability to plan and strategize, much like abstract thinking, can be seen in the more diversified toolkit of the Middle Stone Age, as well as in the subsistence patterns of the period. As MSA hominins began to migrate into a range of different ecological zones, it became necessary to base hunting strategies around seasonally available resources. Awareness of seasonality is evident in the faunal remains found at temporary sites. In less forgiving ecological zones, this awareness would have been essential for survival and the ability to plan subsistence strategies based on this awareness demonstrates an ability to think beyond the present tense and act upon this knowledge. This planning depth is also seen in the presence of exotic raw materials at a variety of sites throughout the MSA. Procurement of local raw materials would have been a simple task to accomplish, yet MSA sites regularly contain raw materials that were obtained from sources over 100 km away, and sometimes farther than 300 km. Obtaining raw materials from this distance would require an awareness of the resources, a perceived value in the resources, whether it be functional or symbolic, and, possibly, the ability to organize an exchange network in order to obtain the materials.” ref

“The ability to expand into new environments throughout Africa and, ultimately, the world, displays a level of adaptability and, consequently, innovativeness that is often seen as characteristic of behavioral modernity. Middle Stone Age sites are found in a wide range of environments, including coastal and inland areas of southern and eastern Africa, and in at least one case MSA foragers were exploiting high-altitude glaciated environments, at Fincha Habera in Ethiopia. This, however, is not the only evidence of innovativeness that can be seen in early Homo sapiens. The development of new, regionally relevant tools, such as those used for the collection of marine resources seen at Abdur, Ethiopia, Pinnacle Point Cave, South Africa, and Blombos Cave, South Africa. The use of fire demonstrates another innovative aspect of human behavior when it is used in order to create stronger tools, such as the heated silcrete at Blombos, Howiesons Poort, and Still Bay, and the heat-treated bone tools from Still Bay.” ref

“Hafted tools are further representative of human innovation. The large cutting tools of the Acheulian technocomplex become smaller, as more complex tools are better suited towards the needs of highly diversified environments. Composite tools represent a new level of innovation in their increased efficacy and more complex manufacturing process. The ability to conceptualize beyond the mere reduction of stone cores demonstrates cognitive flexibility, and the use of glue, which was often processed with ochre, to attach flakes to hafts demonstrates an understanding of chemical changes that can be utilized beyond the simple use of color. Adhesives were used to construct hafted tools by 70ka at Sibudu Cave in South Africa. Other technological innovations of the period include specialized projectile weapons found at various sites in Middle Stone Age Africa such as: bone and stone arrowheads at South African sites such as Sibudu Cave (along with an early bone needle also found at Sibudu) dating approximately 60,000–70,000 years ago, and bone harpoons at the Central African site of Katanda dating to about 90,000 years ago. Evidence also exists for the systematic heat treating of silcrete stone to increase its flake-ability for the purpose of toolmaking, beginning approximately 164,000 years ago at the South African site of Pinnacle Point and becoming common there for the creation of microlithic tools about 72,000 years ago.” ref

“Characteristically modern human behaviors, such as the making of shell beads, bone tools, and arrows, and the use of ochre pigment, are evident at Panga ya Saidi in Kenya from 78,000–67,000 years ago. Evidence of early stone-tipped projectile weapons (a characteristic tool of Homo sapiens), the stone tips of javelins or throwing spears, were discovered in 2013 at the Ethiopian site of Gademotta, and date to around 279,000 years ago. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, at the Kenyan site of Olorgesailie, of the early emergence of innovations and behaviors including: long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. It is observed by the authors of three 2018 studies on the site, that the evidence of these behaviors is approximately contemporary to the earliest known Homo sapiens fossil remains from Africa (such as at Jebel Irhoud and Florisbad), and they suggest that complex and modern behaviors had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens.” ref

“Ochre is reported from some early MSA sites, for example at Kapthurin and Twin Rivers, and is common after c. 100,000 years ago. Barham argues that even if some of this ochre was used in a symbolic, color-related role then this abstraction could not have worked without language. Ochre, he suggests, could be one proxy for trying to find the emergence of language. Formal bone tools are frequently associated with modern behaviour by archaeologists. Sophisticated bone harpoons manufactured at Katanda, West Africa c. 90,000 years ago, and bone tools from Blombos Cave dated c. 77,000 years ago may then also serve as examples of material culture associated with modern language. Language has been suggested to be necessary to maintain exchange networks. Evidence of some form of exchange networks during the Middle Stone Age is presented in Marwick (2003) in which the distance between the source of raw material and the location in which a stone artifact was found was compared throughout sites containing early stone artifacts.” ref 

Five Middle Stone Age sites contained distances between 140–340 km and have been interpreted, when compared with ethnographic data, that these distances were made possible through exchange networks. Barham also views syntactic language as one aspect of behavior that in fact allowed MSA people to settle in the tropical forest environments of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many authors have speculated that at the core of this symbolic explosion, and in tandem, was the development of syntactic language that evolved through a highly specialized social learning system providing the means for semantically unbounded discourse. Syntax would have played a key role in this process and its full adoption could have been a crucial element of the symbolic behavioral package in the MSA.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Neanderthals “Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)” Mystery Cave Rings 175,000 Years Ago

Neanderthals “Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)”, Mystery Cave Rings 175,000 Years Ago, possibly a chapel or sacred space? Well, we do know it had meaning in some symbolic way, and they easily predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe. Thus, likely, they were built by Neanderthals, the only hominins in the region. The stalagmite structures are 50 centimeters high in places, says Jaubert. They are built from around 400 individual stalagmites with a combined weight of about 2 tonnes which must take time [to shift] and thus some time and effort to arrange the structures. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Neanderthal Mousterian: Animism/Totemism?

The Mousterian (stone-tool culture/industry) of flint lithic tools associated primarily with the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia, as well as with the Neanderthals in Europe from 160,000 to 40,000 years ago. ref

“The earliest tools of this kind were found at the Le Moustier site in southwestern France and tools of that kind are now called Mousterian tools. Neanderthal flaked toolmaking skills remained largely unchanged for 100,000 years. Moustierian tools were more sophisticated than Acheulean hand axes and were made of stones that had been carefully trimmed before flakes were struck to shape it into a tool. To make them doesn’t require fine, precise toolmaking skills but they were difficult to make nevertheless.” ref

“Examples of Mousterian tools have been found in Europe and Africa. Near the end of their existence, Neanderthals developed more sophisticated tools with shafted points and handles (Châtelperronian technology) and Aurignacian blade tools generally associated with early modern humans. Aurignacian tools are named after the French site of Auriganc where the tools were first found. They consisted of blades and advanced bone tools. Because the oldest Aurignacian tools predate the earliest modern human fossils, some scientists think they have been made by Neanderthals. Neanderthal tools found in Israel and the Middle East were virtually identical to those used by Homo sapiens there. One possibility is that the technology spread to Neanderthals in Europe from modern humans who were already in the Middle East as the tools used by Neanderthals in Europe were markedly inferior to those used by Homo sapiens living in Europe at the same time. A third is that Neanderthals invented the tools and early modern humans adopted them when they arrived. Though it was
Neanderthals who produce the first glue as early as 200,000 years ago.” ref

“Levantine Mousterian assemblages occur in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Jordan in contexts dating to between 47,000–250,000 several Levantine Mousterian assemblages and found evidence for a variety of functions on Middle Palaeolithic stone tools, including spear point use. And a methodology derived from breakage patterns of Palaeoindian projectile points to pointed implements from two Zagros Mousterian sites, finds no evidence for Middle Palaeolithic stone-tipped spears. Documented experimental studies are surprisingly scarce in the recent debate over Middle Palaeolithic spear points. This gap in experimentation stands in marked contrast to the abundance of experimental studies on spear, dart, and arrow tips from Upper Palaeolithic.” ref

“For Kebara, Rosh Ein Mor, Tor Faraj, and Yabrud, these values cluster within the lower part of the ‘‘spear point optimal zone’’, indicating that most Levallois points from these sites are relatively short and broad. This distribution supports the ‘‘spear points’’ hypothesis and contradicts the prediction of the ‘‘multipurpose knives’’ hypothesis. ‘Ain Difla exhibits values outside the optimal zone, suggesting that Levallois point production associated with this assemblage may have emphasized the production of knives, rather than spear points. This interpretation is supported by the results of Roler & Clark’s (1997) microwear analysis of Levallois points from ‘Ain Difla. While our data suggest Levallois points were designed for use as spear points, previous microwear studies of Levallois points from the Levantine Mousterian suggest that these tools were also used for a variety of tasks.” ref

If its predecessor, known as Levallois or “Levallois-Mousterian” is included, the range is extended to as early as c. 300,000–200,000 years ago. Moreover, Mousterian continued alongside the new Neandertal Châtelperronian industry during the 45,000-40,000 years ago. ref

“There are numerous sites in Europe and Asia which contain Levallois or proto-Levallois artifacts dated between Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 8 and 9 (~330,000-300,000 years ago), and a handful as early as MIS 11 or 12 (~400,000-430,000 years ago): although most are controversial or not well-dated.” ref

“The Levallois, or more precisely the Levallois prepared-core technique, is the name archaeologists have given to a distinctive style of flint knapping, which makes up part of the Middle PaleolithicAcheuleanand Mousterian artifact assemblages. Levallois technology is thought to have been an outgrowth of the Acheulean handaxe. ” ref

“Experimental archaeology, attempting to achieve a perfect Levallois flake requires a level of skill that can only be identified under very specific circumstances. These tools might have been used as arrowheads.” ref

“Later Levantine Mousterian assemblages dating to between 47,000–130,000 years ago, such as those from Tabun Unit I, Skhul B, Qafzeh I–XXIV, and Kebara VIII– XIII, feature shorter and broader points. Experiments suggest these kinds of points were more likely designed for use as spear points than as knives. Some of the later Levantine Mousterian contexts are dominated by a few species, such as aurochs (89·5% at Skhul), fallow deer (71–73% at Ksar Akil 29–36), and gazelle (62% of Kebara, 86% of Hayonim). This seemingly correlated shift in the lithic stone tools and animal evidence from these specific time and regions may reflect more frequent use of hunting strategies in which reliability-enhancing stone weapon would have been most useful. The particularly large number of relatively short and broad Levallois points recovered from Kebara Cave may reflect intensified hunting in the context of decreased mobility.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref

130,000 years ago – Earliest undisputed evidence for intentional burial and it is Neanderthals…

Evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead and possibly doing cannibalism which could be evidence of a death ritual, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. 130,000 years ago – Earliest undisputed evidence for intentional burial. Neanderthals bury their dead at sites such as Krapina in Croatia. There was a total of 876 single Neanderthal fossil remnants found at the Hušnjak hill. The Bones belonged to several dozen different individuals, of different sex, from 2 to 40 years of age. Over a thousand pieces of various stone tools and weapons from the Paleolithic era were found, all witnessing to the material culture of the Krapina proto-human. This rich locality is approximately 130.000 years old.

Numerous fossil remnants of the cave bear, wolf, moose, large deer, warm climate rhinoceros, wild cattle, and many other animals were also found. Moreover, there is bird skeletons, with some of the parts modified, are found in association with the Neanderthal bones. Here are some talons and foot bones from the white-tailed eagle. There appears to be cut marks in the talons and foot bones to which they were attached, suggesting that Neanderthals were using the talons and bones as jewelry. This is supported by recent findings of gut “fiber” tied around part of a talon. Here are a foot bone and a talon that have been modified by having grooves cut in them. Neanderthals were largely carnivores, though we know they also used medicinal plants. ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Did Neanderthals teach us “Primal Religion (Pre-Animism/Animism?)” 120,000 Years Ago?

Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct. Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct. Tabun Cave Mousterian (stone tool) culture (about 200,000 45,000 years ago). Small flint tools, made of thin flakes, predominate here, many produced by the Levallois technique. ref, ref

Mousterian is found in Morocco, Africa North and that means there could have been interactions between Homo Sapiens and Neandertals. Evidence is commonly known for interbreeding between Neandertals and non-African modern humans. Ganetic evidence from North African populations shows a significant excess of DNA with Neandertals, compared to sub-Saharan Africans which did not mix with Neandertals. Furthermore, local, pre-Neolithic North African ancestry holds a higher Neandertal’s genetic signal, thus not due to recent Near Eastern or European migrations. Sub-Saharan populations are the only ones not affected by the admixture event with Neandertals. ref

“Evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. 130,000 years ago – Earliest undisputed evidence for intentional burial. Neanderthals bury their dead at sites such as Krapina in Croatia. ref

Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct. Homo sapiens – is known to have reached the Levant between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago, but that exit from Africa evidently went extinct. ref, ref

A population that diverged early from other modern humans in Africa contributed genetically to the ancestors of Neanderthals from the Altai Mountains roughly 100,000 years ago. By contrast, we do not detect such a genetic contribution in the Denisovan or the two European Neanderthals. In addition, to later interbreeding events, the ancestors of Neanderthals from the Altai Mountains and early modern humans met and interbred, possibly in the Near East, many thousands of years earlier than previously thought. ref

In 2005, a set of 7 teeth from Tabun Cave in Israel were studied and found to most likely belong to a Neandertal that may have lived around 90,000 years ago. And another Neandertal (C1) from Tabun Cave was estimated to be in northern Israel. The limb bones are characteristic of Neanderthals, whereas the lower jaw has a combination of Neanderthal and earlier features. These fossils date from more than 150,000 years ago ref, ref

A fossilized human jawbone in a collapsed cave in Israel that they said is between 177,000 and 194,000 years old. The Tabun Cave contains a Neanderthal-type female, dated to about 120,000 years ago. It is one of the most ancient human skeletal remains found in Israel. Objects at Tabun suggest that ancestral humans used fire at the site on a regular basis since about 350,000 years ago. ref, ref, ref

The remains of seven adults and three children were found, some of which (Skhul;1,4, and 5) are claimed to have been burials. Assemblages of perforated Nassarius shells (a marine genus) significantly different from local fauna have also been recovered from the area, suggesting that these people may have collected and employed the shells as beads as they are unlikely to have been used as food. Skhul Layer B has been dated to an average of 81,000-101,000 years ago with the electron spin resonance method, and to an average of 119,000 years ago with the thermoluminescence method. ref, ref, ref

Skhul 5 had the mandible of a wild boar on its chest. The skull displays prominent supraorbital ridges and a jutting jaw, but the rounded braincase of modern humans. When found, it was assumed to be an advanced Neanderthal, but is today generally assumed to be a modern human, if a very robust one. ref, ref

It is possible that Neanderthals and early moderns did make contact in the region and it may be possible that the Skhul and Qafzeh hominids are partially of Neanderthal descent. Non-African modern humans contain 1-4% Neanderthal genetic material, with hybridization possibly having taken place in the Middle East. ref

It has been suggested, however, that the Skhul/Qafzeh hominids represent an extinct lineage. If this is the case, modern humans would have re-exited Africa around 70,000 years ago, crossing the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb strait between Eritrea and the Arabian Peninsula. ref

Modern humans were present in Arabia and South Asia earlier than currently believed, and probably coincident with the presence of Homo sapiens in the Levant between ca 130,000 years ago and 70,000 years ago. This is the same route proposed to have been taken by the people who made the modern tools at Jebel Faya. This Neanderthal girl’s toe bone had ancient DNA her ancestors picked up by mating with modern humans more than 100,000 years ago. ref, ref, ref

If the Skhul burials took place within a relatively short time span, then the best age estimate lies between 100,000 – 135,000 years ago. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that the material associated with the Skhul IX burial is older than those of Skhul II and Skhul V. These and other recent age estimates suggest that the three burial sites, Skhul, Qafzeh, and Tabun are broadly contemporaneous, falling within the time range of 100,000 years ago to 130,000 years ago. The presence of early representatives of both early modern humans and Neanderthals in the Levant during Marine Isotope Stage 5 inevitably complicates attempts at segregating these populations by date or archaeological association. Nevertheless, it does appear that the oldest known symbolic burials are those of early modern humans at Skhul and Qafzeh. This supports the view that, despite the associated Middle Paleolithic technology, elements of modern human behavior were represented at Skhul and Qafzeh prior to 100 ka. ref

As some of the first bands of modern humans moved out of Africa, they met and mated with Neanderthals about 100,000 years ago—perhaps in the fertile Nile Valley, along with the coastal hills of the Middle East, or in the once-verdant Arabian Peninsula. These early modern humans’ own lineages died out, and they are not among the ancestors of living people. But a small bit of their DNA survived in the toe bone of a Neanderthal woman who lived more than 50,000 years ago in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, Russia. ref

Stone Tools Point to Two Distinct Neanderthal Cultures

A study of 1,300 stone hand axes found at 80 Neanderthal sites in France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, and the Netherlands shows that two cultural traditions existed among Neanderthals living in what is now northern Europe between 115,000 to 35,000 years ago. Three hand-axe traditions of Mousterian an Acheulean Tradition in south-western France as well as Britain, the Keilmessergruppen Tradition in Germany including further to the East, and the melting pot of ideas seen in Belgium and the Netherlands that demonstrates a transition between the Germany and France which appears to be two separate hand-axe traditions. ref, ref, ref

Keilmesser is the type fossil of the late Middle Paleolithic Keilmessergruppen or Micoquian of central and eastern Europe. Keilmesser stone tools are typically of the Micoquien (about 100,000 to 45,000 years ago). This is evidence that these cultures were passed on from generation to generation and indicate strong social learning within Neanderthal groups expressing stability as well as connectivity of distinct Neanderthal populations. Where the western region Neanderthals made symmetrical, triangular, and heart-shaped stone tools, while during the same time period, in the eastern region, Neanderthals made asymmetrically shaped stone tools. ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref

The Tabun Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel, occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic (500,000 to around 40,000 years ago). Tabun suggests that ancestral humans used fire at the site on a regular basis since about 350,000 years ago and this likely would have shaped our culture and behavior. The material remains from the upper strata of the cave are of Levallois technique and the Mousterian culture (about 200,000 – 45,000 years ago). The Middle Palaeolithic of the southern Levant involved Neandertals and early modern humans, occupying the region at that time. Tabun Cave held fossil remains involved Neandertals and early modern humans but not an absolute chronology of the Levantine MP fossils though could indicates that an enamel fragment from the Tabun C1 could be as old as 143,000 years ago nearly double Tabun BC7.  Moreover, a Neanderthal-type female, dated to about 120,000 years ago around the time early modern humans existed there which was between 120,000 – 90,000 years ago and again from 55,000 years ago on. ref, ref, ref, ref

Moreover, Tabun BC7 identified as a probable Neanderthal from Layer B, preliminary around 82,000 – 92,000 years ago Neandertals mainly existed in that region between ca. 80,000 – 55,000 years ago. Genomic flow evidence from early modern humans to the eastern Altai Neandertals around 100,000 and from Neandertals to early modern humans between ca. 60,000 – 50,000 years ago. In the Levant, the archaeological record cannot distinguish between these two as the two populations left similar material culture remains. In addition, at Tabun, Neandertal and early modern human populations used the same cave with possible shared changes occurring over a period of similar time, expressing a resemblance in burials, the Levallois stone tool culture settlement, and mobility patterns in respect to the use of caves for habitation. ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Inbred Neanderthals left humans a genetic burden

“Ancient mitochondrial DNA from a Neanderthal woman who lived about 100,000 years ago in southwest Germany, resembles that of early modern humans’ mitochondrial DNA. This shows that an arcane early modern human female that gave rise to modern humans in Africa mated with a Neanderthal male more than 220,000 years ago—much earlier than other known encounters between the two groups.” ref

“Theoretically, a woman’s immune system might attack a male fetus carrying Neanderthal H-Y genes, which would explain its absence in modern humans. The immune systems of modern women are known to sometimes react to genetic incompatibility in male offspring.” ref

“100,000 to 50,000 years ago, groups of early anatomically modern humans left Africa and moved to the homelands of their distant Neanderthal with a continually small population and incest among close relatives seems common. Neanderthal DNA revealed they were much more inbred and less genetically diverse than modern humans. Estimates seem to show that at the time of interbreeding, closer to 10% of the human migrants’ genome would have been Neanderthal. Because there were around ten times more humans than Neanderthals. For thousands of years, the Neanderthal population size remained small, and mating among close relatives seems to have been common. Explaining why the Neanderthal genome included harmful mutations that made the hominids around 40% less reproductively fit than modern humans.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Animism: an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system?

“Qafzeh Cave held early modern human remains dating to the Middle Paleolithic period which is the oldest levels are dated to the Mousterian culture period, about 80,000-100,000 years ago. At the site there were hearths, and stone tools use the Levallois technique on the stone tools. various layers at Qafzeh were dated to an average of 96,000-115,000 years ago and the Qafzeh cave contains some of the earliest evidence for burials in the world and includes 27 anatomically modern humans, with some archaic features dating to around 92,000 years ago and were directly associated with Levallois-Mousterian assemblage, appear to have been purposefully buried: dated to around 92,000 years ago. The remains are from anatomically modern humans, with some archaic features; they are directly associated with Levallois-Mousterian assemblage. Modern behaviors indicated at the cave include the purposeful burials; the use of ochre for body painting; the presence of marine shells, used as ornamentation, and most interestingly, the survival and eventual ritual interment of a severely brain-damaged child. Moreover, deer antlers at Qafzeh 11 seem to be associated with burials unlike the marine shells which do not seem to be associated with burials, but rather are scattered more or less randomly throughout the site, possibly as a sacred offering, one that sanctifies an area? Or kind of blessing the aria?” ref

“By 100,000 years ago early modern humans migrated to the middle east from Africa then the fossil record of these early modern humans’ migration ends after 100,000 years ago either died out or more likely they returned to Africa. 100,000 to 50,000 years ago – Increased use of red ochre at several Middle Stone Age sites in Africa. Red Ochre is thought to have played an important role in ritual. The human skeletons were associated with red ochre which was found only alongside the bones, suggesting that the burials were symbolic in nature.” ref

“Within Israel’s Qafzeh Cave, researchers found evidence of a sophisticated culture and remains of modern humans that are up to 100,000 years old. About 100,000 years ago, tall, long-limbed humans lived in the caves of Qafzeh, east of Nazareth, and Skhul, on Israel’s Mount Carmel. The Skhul-Qafzeh people gathered shells from a shoreline more than 20 miles away, decorated them, and strung them as jewelry. They buried their dead, most likely with grave goods, and cared for their living: A child born with hydrocephalus, sometimes called water on the brain, lived with a profound disability until the age of 3 or so, a feat only possible with a patient, loving care. The Qafzeh humans were around 92,000 years old, and the Skhul people were even older, averaging about 115,000 years.” ref, ref

“Around 75,000 years ago, close to the time, the Homo sapiens of Skhul and Qafzeh disappear from the fossil record, the climate in the Levant shifted in Neanderthals’ favor. Rapid glaciation left the region both cooler and drier. Steppe-deserts advanced, and forests retreated. Neanderthal bodies were adapted for colder conditions. Their stocky, barrel-chested build lost less heat and offered plenty of insulating muscle, and their systems were streamlined to extract calories from food and turn them into body heat. The Skhul-Qafzeh people’s slender physiques were better at getting rid of heat than making it. Or, as Shea says, “Neanderthals liked cold and dry. Our ancestors liked warm and wet. It got cold, and humans retreated.” ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Animism (beginning around 100,000 years ago)

Animism (such as that seen in Africa: 100,000 years ago)

• Aterian Culture (North African 145,000–20,000 years ago)
• Sangoan Culture (sub-Saharan African 130,000-10,000 years ago)
• Animism: an approximately 100,000-year-old belief system?
• Rock crystal stone tools 75,000 Years Ago – (Spain) made by Neanderthals
• Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago
• Similarities and differences in Animism and Totemism
• Did Neanderthals Help Inspire Totemism? Because there is Art Dating to Around 65,000 Years Ago in Spain?
• History of Drug Use with Religion or Sacred Rituals possibly 58,000 years ago?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Animism: a belief among some indigenous people, young children, or all religious people!

Over 100,000 years ago or so, Southern Africa, in the Land before and the beginning Time of Animism: LINK

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Adapted from: ref

Here we see the tracings of the engraved ochres from the Blombos cave site’s in South Africa, from its Middle Stone Age layers and their stratigraphic locations where they were found in the dirt and the years they relate to. M1 dates to around 73,000 years ago, M2 around 85,000 to 77,000 years ago, and M3 dates to around 100,000 to 99,000 years ago. Middle Stone Age generally started around 280,000 years ago and ended around 25,000 years ago or so. Therefore, amazing as it is, here we have proof that “Symbolic Meaning,” seems to be clear at the beginning of Animism, as seen in Africa 100,000 years ago. In a landmark study, it was demonstrated, for the first time, that there are seeming tradition in the production of geometric engraved representations, includes the production of a number of different patterns and this set of evolving traditions have roots that go back in time to at least 100,000 years ago (around a time I say Animism begins in Africa). The fact that they were created, that most of them are deliberate and were made with representational intent, strongly suggests they functioned as artifacts within a society by symbols with meaning. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Our origins originate from Southern African (NOT THE FIRST ANCESTORS EVER AS THAT WOULD BE NORTH AFRICA AROUND 300,000 YEARS AGO TO EAST AFRICA AROUND 200,000 YEARS AGO OR SO BUT RATHER OUR LAST MAIN COMMON ANCESTORS AROUND 100,000 YEARS AGO), with a population divergence around 120,000 to 110,000 years ago and this is after the two other main areas of North and East Africa either migrated south or largely went extinct around 100,000 years ago. This is the most recent glacial era that consisted of a larger pattern of glacial and interglacial periods beginning around 115,000 which may have influenced both the migrating south and possibly could connect to some of the influences relating to the extinctions as well. Moreover, as these Ancient Southern African peoples developed over time, they also expanded out from there to populate the globe, and the DNA of us all points to a southern African origin. Furthermore, it seems as they expanded back out, they either replaced the other populations in central and east Africa that may have been left or absorbed any remaining individuals. ref

Southern African Middle Stone Age sites:

(Ap) Apollo 11; (BAM) Bambata; (BBC) Blombos Cave; (BC) Border Cave; (BGB)Boegoeberg; (BPA) Boomplaas; (BRS) Bushman Rock Shelter; (BUN) Bundu Farm; (CF)Cufema Reach; (CK) Canteen Kopje; (COH) Cave of Hearths; (CSB) Cape St Blaize; (DK)Die Kelders Cave 1; (DRS) Diepkloof Rock Shelter; (EBC) Elands Bay Cave; (FL) Florisbad; (≠GI) ≠Gi; (HP) Howiesons Poort; (HRS) Hollow Rock Shelter; (KD) Klipdrift; (KKH) Klein Kliphuis; (KH) Khami; (KK) Kudu Koppie; (KP) Kathu Pan; (KRM) Klasies River Main Site; (L) Langebaan; (MBA) Mumbwa Caves; (MC) Mwulu’s Cave; (MEL)Melikane; (MON) Montagu Cave; (NBC) Nelson Bay Cave; (NG) Ngalue; (NT) Ntloana Tšoana; (OBP) Olieboomspoort; (PC) Peers Cave; (POC) Pockenbank; (PL) Plover’s Lake; (POM) Pomongwe; (PP) Pinnacle Point; (RCC) Rose Cottage Cave; (RED) Redcliff; (RHC) Rhino Cave; (SCV) Seacow Valley; (SFT) Soutfontein; (SEH) Sehonghong; (SIB)Sibudu Cave; (SPZ) Spitzkloof Rock Shelter; (SS) Sunnyside 1; (STB) Strathalan Cave B; (STK) Sterkfontein; (TR) Twin Rivers; (UMH) Umhlatuzana; (VR) Varsche Rivier 003; (WPS) White Paintings Shelter; (WK) Wonderkrater; (WW) Wonderwerk; (YFT)Ysterfontein 1; (ZOM) Zombepata Cave. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

 ref, ref, ref, ref

Prehistoric Child Burials Begin at Least Around 78,000 Years Ago

“Mtoto’s burial, to experts it is believed the child was around three years old when they died and was likely wrapped in a shroud and had their head on a pillow. Besides the seemingly deliberate position of the body, the team noticed a few clues that suggested the child was swaddled in cloth, possibly with the intention of preserving the corpse. They also speculate the body was placed in a cave fissure — known as funerary caching — before being covered with sediment.” ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

 ref, ref, ref 

At Border Cave, a “savanna-woodland” vegetation community is implied before 100,000 years ago and the matching density of stone tools vary considerably through time, with high frequencies of stone blades occurring before 100,000 years ago. ref 

Around 74,000 years ago, Border Cave, South Africa, burial of a 4 to 6-month-old child was found in a pit with a personal ornament, a perforated Conus shell. ref

Border Cave is the only African site covering a time span of 250,000 years, with Middle Stone Age human remains, and also records the first emergence of key cultural innovation such as things like grass bedding dated between 70,000 to 30,000 years ago. ref 

In South Africa, some of the oldest beads are made of marine shells that come from the Still Bay layers of Blombos Cave date back to around 72,000 years ago, and engraved ostrich eggshell dated to around 60,000 years ago from Diepkloof in South Africa. Some of the oldest beads made of non-marine shells involve ostrich eggshells and from Border Cave, there are some that date to around 42,000 years ago. Beads were also collected from the late MSA/early LSA context of similar age at Apollo 11 and from layers associated with MSA at Boomplaas Cave. Furthermore, beads were also reported from the MSA at Cave of Hearths. Other sub-contemporaneous beads have been recovered north of South Africa. ref

The pulses of occupation seem to have occurred between about 200,000 to 38,000 years ago, with Middle Stone Age 1 Polokwane/Pietersburg industries accumulated between 227,000 to 77,000 years ago, Middle Stone Age 2 Howiesons Poort between 74 and 60 kya, Middle Stone Age 3 post-Howiesons Poort between 60 and 39 kya, and Early Later Stone Age after about 39,000 years ago. ref

Pietersburg has been identified at sites such as:

Besides Cave of Hearths, Bushman Rock Shelter, Mwulu’s Cave, Olieboomspoort Shelter, Rainbow Cave, and several others, which suggests this stone tool tradition may represent a regional expression occurring in the interior of South Africa, south of the Limpopo River. Pietersburg is seen first at the Bushman Rock Shelter on the north-eastern fringe of the Drakensberg mountain range, in the Limpopo Province which could possibly tell us something about population movements, with dates from 97,000-75,000 years ago to 91,000- 73,000 years ago. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

Explaining the Earliest Religious Expression, that of Animism (beginning 100,000 to 70,000 years ago?) to Totemism (beginning 30,000 to 3,000 years ago?) in Southern Africa: LINK

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

77,000 years ago, at Blombos Cave in South Africa, 49 intentionally perforated shell beads found in clusters of 2 to 17 with similar wear patterns suggesting they were strung together and some beads holding ochre inside them. Moreover, Similar shell beads have also been found in caves in North Africa and the Middle East dating to between 100,000 – 70,000 years ago. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

The “Mask” of La Roche-Cotard, France, found at layer 7c within the Mousterian level dating to around 75,600 years ago. This is a flint object with a striking likeness to a human face may be one of the best examples of art by Neanderthals ever found ref, ref

A Few Mousterian Sites

• Levant: Israel: Qafzeh, Skhul, Kebara, Hayonim, Tabun, Emeireh, Amud, Zuttiyeh, El-Wad; Jordan: ‘Ain Difla; and Syria: El Kowm
• North Africa: Morocco: Rhafas Cave, Dar es Soltan
• Central Asia: Turkey: Kalatepe Deresi; Afghanistan: Darra-i-Kur; and Uzbekistan: Teschik-Tasch
• Europe: Gibraltar: Gorhams Cave; France: Abric Romani, St. Cesaire, Grotte du Noistier; Spain: L’Arbreda Cave; Siberia: Denisova Cave; Ukraine: Moldova Sites; and Croatia: Vindija Cave. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Was it Just Us, at Origin of Modern Mind 75,000 Years Ago?

The oldest skulls of early modern (arcane) humans, dating back 300,000 years, with elongated brains that were more like those of Neanderthals than Modern humans. However, the Skulls from Modern humans dating about 120,000 years ago show that brains had gotten somewhat rounder by then, but were still outside the range observed in people today. ref

It doesn’t look so, thus we need to rethink our ideas about the evolving mind of the Neanderthal skulls (right) are elongated from front to back like a football. Modern human adult has a basketball-like shape skulls (left) and Modern human infants also have somewhat elongated skulls, but by the time they reach adulthood, their heads have rounded out into a basketball-like shape. Analyzing Neanderthal DNA in Europeans identifies two Neanderthal gene variants linked to the head shape and also influence brain organization, in evolution acting on the brain might have reshaped the skull. Therefore, the Neanderthal DNA had a direct effect on brain shape and, presumably, brain function in humans today but infants start life with elongated skulls, somewhat like Neanderthals. ref

Evidence shows that Neanderthals had a complex culture although they did not behave in the same ways as the early modern humans who lived at the same time. Neanderthal dead were often buried, although there is no conclusive evidence for full ritualistic behavior, though at some sites, objects have been uncovered that may represent grave goods. ref

Neanderoid neurons also make fewer synaptic connections, creating what resembles an abnormal neuronal network which is somewhat similar to neuronal development in the brains of individuals with autism. Modern humans, with these types of changes are linked to defects in brain development that are needed for socialization, probably demonstrating why Neanderthals had smaller family clans than the larger groups that Modern humans. ref

Neanderthal skulls demonstrate that they were not short on brains with brains that were as big as ours and commonly even bigger though their brains did not mimic ours. Before they disappeared about 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals left behind signs of sophistication: spears used to hunt big game, for instance, and jewelry made of shells and eagle talons. ref

Neanderthals also increased in brain size through their evolution, but in different ways to Modern humans, relatively better vision. And by 150,000 years ago, both Neanderthals and early modern humans had brains about three times larger than chimpanzees, our closest modern (arcane) humans. ref

Early modern humans had relatively larger cerebellar hemispheres but a smaller occidental region in the cerebrum than Neanderthals long before the time that Neanderthals disappeared. And abilities such as cognitive flexibility, attention, the language processing, episodic and working memory capacity were positively correlated with size-adjusted cerebellar volume. ref

Origin of Modern Mind 75,000 Years Ago

South African around the Middle Stone Age cultural periods known as Still Bay techno-tradition (75,000-71,000 years ago) and Howiesons Poort techno-tradition (65,000-59,000 years ago), and establishes the region as the primary center for the early development of human behavior. In these periods of many innovations including, for example, the first abstract art (engraved ochre and engraved ostrich eggshell); the first jewelry (shell beads); the first bone tools; the earliest use of the pressure flaking technique, that was used in combination with heating to make stone spear points and the first probable use of stone-tipped arrows launched by a bow. ref

Lastly, Neanderthals may not have used their brains they way modern humans do as modern human brains have expanded parietal and cerebellar regions which develop in the first year of life (Neanderthal infants appear to miss this stage of development) and are linked to key functions like the ability to integrate sensory information and form abstract representations of surroundings. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Rock crystal stone tools 75,000 Years Ago – (Spain) made by Neanderthals

75,000 Years Ago – (Spain), found evidence of rock crystal stone tools made by Neanderthals in Navalmaíllo rock-shelter Pinilla del Valle, Madrid, Spain. We can assume these never used tools are thus not tools and rather sacred stones or ritual items. These rock crystals are surprisingly, not so good for tools as flint or other similar stone minerals which were available which seem to suggest a sacred/ritual use or purpose than any utilitarian-practical function. Thus, due to there being no scarcity of quality raw materials, the reason for this behavior, of making stone tools that don’t work well and Neanderthals don’t use anyway expresses a sacred item. Moreover, the cores found at the Navalmaíllo site intentionally worked to a very small size and are also reported for other European stone tool cultural assemblages of similar age. Quartz cobbles are also common locally, but this material was usually avoided during the Middle Paleolithic period going back around 100,000 years ago until these were made. The few exceptions are always in rock shelters or caves. The best known are Jarama VI cave and Peña Capón rock shelter in central spain.

This use of rock crystal or quartz also is seen in Europe such as in southwestern France such as at the Les Merveilles rock shelter. At prehistoric sites in the Austrian alps, quartz or quartzite was generally used very frequently as raw material for stone tools, about 68 % of the stone tool artifacts from Repolusthöhle (Repolust), Austria was made of quartzite. More than 99 % of the lithic artifacts from the Drachenhöhle (Dragon’s Cave), Austria were made of quartz or quartzite and about 90 % of the artifacts from the Tunnelsteinhöhle, Austria were made of quartz. This is evidence of the collection by Neanderthals of highly crafted objects of no great use, except for their beauty or specialness possibly ritual as seems odd it was only seen as a standard tool. Thus, a use-wear analysis was done to prove that quartz artifacts really were regarded as tools which it seems they may not have been.

This further highlights a possible ritualism because there seems to be a low frequency of mechanical damage on the quartz artifacts. However, evidence of quartz tools goes back 500,000 years ago as numerous pieces of quartz crystal found with remains of ‘Peking Man’ and some fragments of white quartz in tabus, a mineral not native to the area raises the importance of this find. In fact, more than 10,000 stone tools have been recovered coming from 44 different raw materials used by the ancient inhabitants of the cave, and 89% of this raw material is quartz and the remainder of the raw materials used includes 5% rock crystal. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago

Evidence from Rhino Cave, in Botswana, produced results that revealed a very special set of behavioral patterns which best fit ritualized behavior. There were colorful non-local stone tools carefully and often elaborately made just to be offered to the stone snake; burned and smashed beyond use then abandoned. ref

Ritualized Behavior in the Middle Stone Age: Evidence from Rhino Cave, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana

ABSTRACT

Rhino Cave, located at the World Heritage site of Tsodilo Hills, is one of the three main Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in Botswana. Initial investigations during the mid-1990s left unanswered a number of key questions regarding the early use of the cave. This prompted the current investigations, which have unearthed a wealth of MSA artifacts from a lag deposit. Results of a selectively employed chaîne opératoire analysis have revealed a very special set of behavioral patterns. It will be argued that the best-fit interpretation of the results from this investigation lies within the realm of ritualized behavior. The assemblage is characterized by an unexpectedly large number of MSA points, which are for the most part produced in non-locally acquired raw materials. These points are colorful, carefully and often elaborately made, and, once complete, never left the cave. They were either deliberately burned to the point where they could no longer be used, abandoned, or intentionally smashed. These artifacts were found together with tabular grinding slabs and pieces of the locally available pigment, specularite. This assemblage was recovered directly beneath a massive, virtually free-standing rock face that has been carved with hundreds of cupules of varying sizes and shapes. A section of the carved rock face was recovered from well within the MSA deposits in association with handheld grinding stones. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Around 74,000 years ago, in Border Cave, South Africa, the burial of a 4 to 6 month-old child was found in an oval pit with a personal ornament, a perforated Conus shell. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

73,000 years old example of meaning consisting of a few simple red marks adorn a pattern made with an ochre crayon found at Blombos cave in South Africa. The fragment of rock is part of a larger symbolic design drawn on the cobble. Researchers believe the cross-hatches were originally part of a larger design but are perplexed as to what it might represent. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref

“This is the oldest stone bracelet in the world, believed to have been made by the extinct Denisovan species of early humans, dated as being between 40,000 – 50,000 to be 65,000 – 70,000 years old, long before ancient people were believed to be capable of making such remarkable objects. The bracelet is thought to have adorned a very important woman or child on only special occasions. And it is unlikely it was used as an everyday jewelry piece. I believe this beautiful and very fragile bracelet was worn only for some exceptional moments.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Did Neanderthals Help Inspire Totemism? Because there is Art Dating to Around 65,000 Years Ago in Spain?

“What About Neanderthals and Religion?”

Scientists have found the first major evidence that Neanderthals made cave paintings, indicating they may have had an artistic sense similar to our own. A new study led by the University of Southampton and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology shows that paintings in three caves in Spain were created more than 64,000 years ago – 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe. This means that the Palaeolithic (Ice Age) cave art – including pictures of animals, dots, and geometric signs – must have been made by Neanderthals, a ‘sister’ species to Homo sapiens, and Europe’s sole human inhabitants at the time. It also indicates that they may have had a similar artistic sense, in terms of thinking symbolically, to modern humans. ref

Published in the journal Science, the study reveals how an international team of scientists used a state-of-the-art technique called uranium-thorium dating to fix the age of the paintings as more than 64,000 years. Until now, cave art has been attributed entirely to modern humans, as claims to a possible Neanderthal origin have been hampered by imprecise dating techniques. However, uranium-thorium dating provides much more reliable results than methods such as radiocarbon dating, which can give false age estimates. Results show that the paintings we dated are, by far, the oldest known cave art in the world, and were created at least 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa so it is assumed – therefore they may have been painted by Neanderthals. ref

All three caves contain red (ochre) or black paintings of groups of animals, dots, and geometric signs, as well as hand stencils, handprints, and engravings. According to the researchers, creating the art must have involved such sophisticated behavior as the choice of a location, planning of light source, and mixing of pigments. There is evidence that Neanderthals in Europe used body ornamentation around 40,000 to 45,000 years ago, but many researchers have suggested this was inspired by modern humans who at the time had just arrived in Europe. Study co-author Paul Pettitt, of Durham University, commented: “Neanderthals created meaningful symbols in meaningful places. The art is not a one-off accident. ref

Neanderthals are our closest extinct relative, but for a long time, they had a reputation for being pretty backward. Early modern humans, for example, made cave paintings. But even though Neanderthals used pigments and decorated themselves with eagle claws and shells, there was no clear proof that they painted caves. One theory goes that Neanderthals developed their rudimentary culture only after early modern humans arrived in Europe some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. The most recent painting is at least 64,800 years old, according to this technique, and the oldest is more than 66,000 years old. ref

The Neanderthal was the only proven Human of Europe at the time, but was his or her brain up to the job? Or did modern humans reach Europe tens of thousands of years earlier than thought? The ancient art forms are symbolic but not figurative, explain their finders. In Spain, a cave in Maltravieso features hand stencils more than 66,000 years old, Prof. Dirk Hoffmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and others report in their paper, published in Science. The La Pasiega Cave in Cantabria features a ladder form composed of red horizontal and vertical lines that were created more than 64,000 years ago, they say. Further supporting the Neanderthal-as-artist theory, a related paper published Thursday in Science Advances reports that dyed and decorated seashells found in a Spanish cave dated to more than 115,000 years ago. ref

Perforated shells found in sediments in Cueva de los Aviones that date to between 115,000 and 120,000 years. There’s no argument that there were Neanderthals in Europe 64,000 years ago. Homo sapiens, on the other hand, was thought to have reached Europe only 45,000 to 40,000 years ago. There is no evidence for modern humans in Iberia before 41,000 years ago, and there is evidence for Neanderthal presence until about 36,000 years ago in southern Spain and Portugal. Neanderthals existed for twice the time modern people have, if not more, and were once the dominant hominin in Europe. While Neanderthals may have etched a crisscross and perhaps carved a flute, look what Homo sapiens achieved, Coolidge says. The Paleolithic record is replete with exquisite works, from cave paintings to carvings done tens of thousands of years ago – such as the Lion Man sculpture found in a German cave and made of mammoth ivory some 38,000 years ago. ref

Neanderthal ritual or religious practice at around 50,000 years old burial in Sima de las Palomas in Murcia, Southeast Spain of a female covered with rocks inturned with a cut-off panther paw, suggesting that Neanderthals—much like today’s bear hunters—ceremoniously cut off panther paws and kept them as totemistic trophies. This 50,000-year-old Neanderthal burial ground actually includes the remains of at least three individuals intentionally buried, with each Neanderthal’s arms folded such that the hands were close to the head. Remains of other Neanderthals have been found in this position, suggesting that it held meaning. The remains of six to seven other Neanderthals, including one baby and two juveniles, have also been excavated at the site. The tallest individual appears to have been an adult who stood around 5 feet 1 inch tall. ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

65,000 years ago, at Panga ya Saidi was some of the oldest beads in Kenya, East Africa. The site held a mix of technological innovations dated to around 67,000 years ago and after, however, has a and no radical break of behavior can be detected at any time. After around 60,000 years ago there was a noticeable increase in populations. Between around 48,000 to 25,000 years ago, carved bone, carved tusk, a decorated bone tube, a small bone point, and modified pieces of ochre were found, which indicates behavioral complexity and symbolism. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Ref

60,000 years old fragments of engraved ostrich eggshells from the Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa. 

Symbolic meaning expressed in art or designs and patterns, starting with animism at 100,000 years ago and more so around 50,000 years ago with the emergence of totemism and shamanism 30,000 years ago which I think all connect in a general way to religious thinking or mindsets that create the art or patterns and are not only a much older phenomenon than previously thought and has its roots in the African continent. Such early symbolic expression is seen in things like personal ornamentation and engraved designs, traditions that go far back into African prehistory. The patterns are symbolic and could have been used to express religious clan connections, group relations, or personal expression. The patterns may indeed have a meaning and while abstract in representation they are unequivocal evidence for symbolic thought and one step closer to language. Ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

“There were at least several “out-of-Africa” dispersals of modern humans, possibly beginning as early as 270,000 years ago, including 215,000 years ago to at least Greece, and certainly via northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula about 130,000 to 115,000 years ago. These early waves appear to have mostly died out or retreated by 80,000 years ago.” ref

“The most significant “recent” wave out of Africa took place about 70,000–50,000 years ago, via the so-called “Southern Route“, spreading rapidly along the coast of Asia and reaching Australia by around 65,000–50,000 years ago, (though some researchers question the earlier Australian dates and place the arrival of humans there at 50,000 years ago at earliest, while others have suggested that these first settlers of Australia may represent an older wave before the more significant out of Africa migration and thus not necessarily be ancestral to the region’s later inhabitants) while Europe was populated by an early offshoot which settled the Near East and Europe less than 55,000 years ago.” ref

• “An Eastward Dispersal from Northeast Africa to Arabia 150,000–130,000  years ago based on the finds at Jebel Faya dated to 127,000 years ago (discovered in 2011). Possibly related to this wave are the finds from Zhirendong cave, Southern China, dated to more than 100,000 years ago. Other evidence of modern human presence in China has been dated to 80,000 years ago.” ref
• “The most significant out of Africa dispersal took place around 50–70,000 years ago via the so-called Southern Route, either before or after the Toba event, which happened between 69,000 and 77,000 years ago. This dispersal followed the southern coastline of Asia, and reached Australia around 65,000-50,000 years ago, or according to some research, by 50,000 years ago at earliest. Western Asia was “re-occupied” by a different derivation from this wave around 50,000 years ago, and Europe was populated from Western Asia beginning around 43,000 years ago.” ref
• “Wells (2003) describes an additional wave of migration after the southern coastal route, namely a northern migration into Europe at circa 45,000 years ago. However, this possibility is ruled out by Macaulay et al. (2005) and Posth et al. (2016), who argue for a single coastal dispersal, with an early offshoot into Europe.” ref

Prehistory of Australia

“The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonization of Australia in 1788, which marks the start of consistent written documentation of Australia. This period has been variously estimated, with most evidence suggesting that it goes back between 50,000 and 65,000 years. This era is referred as prehistory rather than history because of the lack of written documentation of human events. As no metal technology was developed, the whole period falls into the Stone Age. Australia, in contrast to New Guinea, has generally been held not to have had a Neolithic period, with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle continuing until the arrival of Europeans, although there is evidence of land management by practices such as cultural burning, and in some areas, agriculture, fish farming, and permanent settlements.” ref

“Archaeological findings have revealed the lives of early Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu potentially as early as 65,000 years ago, from the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia by about 50,000 years ago, and the Flinders Ranges of South Australia by around 49,000 years ago. But how was it even possible for people to get to Australia in the first place? And how many people must have made it to Australia to explain the diversity of Aboriginal people today? In a study published in Quaternary Science Reviews this week, we use new environmental reconstructions, voyage simulations, and genetic population estimates to show for the first time that colonization of Australia by 50,000 years ago was achieved by a globally significant phase of purposeful and coordinated marine voyaging.” ref

“The earliest evidence of humans in Australia has been variously estimated, with most agreement as of 2018 that it dates from between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago. There is considerable discussion among archaeologists as to the route taken by the first migrants to Australia, widely taken to be ancestors of the modern Aboriginal peoples. Migration took place during the closing stages of the Pleistocene, when sea levels were much lower than they are today. Repeated episodes of extended glaciation during the Pleistocene epoch resulted in decreases of sea levels by more than 100 metres in Australasia. People appear to have arrived by sea during a period of glaciation, when New Guinea and Tasmania were joined to the continent of Australia. The continental coastline extended much further out into the Timor Sea, and Australia and New Guinea formed a single landmass (known as Sahul), connected by an extensive land bridge across the Arafura Sea, Gulf of Carpentaria, and Torres Strait.” ref

“Nevertheless, the sea still presented a major obstacle so it is theorized that these ancestral people reached Australia by island hopping. Two routes have been proposed. One follows an island chain between Sulawesi and New Guinea and the other reaches North Western Australia via Timor. Rupert Gerritsen has suggested an alternative theory, involving accidental colonization as a result of tsunamis. The journey still required sea travel, however, making them some of the world’s earliest mariners. Scott Cane wrote in 2013 that the first wave may have been prompted by the eruption of Toba, and if they arrived around 70,000 years ago, they could have crossed the water from Timor, when the sea level was low – but if they came later, around 50,000 years ago, a more likely route would be through the Moluccas to New Guinea. Given that the likely landfall regions have been under around 50 meters of water for the last 15,000 years, it is unlikely that the timing will ever be established with certainty.” ref

“The minimum widely accepted time frame for the arrival of humans in Australia is placed at least 48,000 years ago. Many sites dating from this time period have been excavated. In Arnhem Land Madjedbebe (formerly known as Malakunanja II) rock shelter has been dated to around 65,000 years old. According to mitochondrial DNA research, Aboriginal people reached Eyre Peninsula (South Australia) 49,000-45,000 years ago from both the east (clockwise, along the coast, from northern Australia) and the west (anti-clockwise). Radiocarbon dating suggests that they lived in and around Sydney for at least 30,000 years. In an archaeological dig in Parramatta, Western Sydney, it was found that some Aboriginal peoples used charcoal, stone tools, and possible ancient campfires. Near Penrith, a far western suburb of Sydney, numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in Cranebrook Terraces gravel sediments having dates of 45,000 to 50,000 years ago. This would mean that there was human settlement in Sydney earlier than thought.” ref

“Archaeological evidence indicates human habitation at the upper Swan River, Western Australia by about 40,000 years ago. Tasmania, which was connected to the continent by a land bridge, was inhabited at least 30,000 years ago. Others have claimed that some sites are up to 60,000 years old, but these claims are not universally accepted. Palynological evidence from South Eastern Australia suggests an increase in fire activity dating from around 120,000 years ago. This has been interpreted as representing human activity, but the dating of the evidence has been strongly challenged. Charles Dortch has identified chert and calcrete flake stone tools, found at Rottnest Island in Western Australia, as possibly dating to at least 50,000 years ago. This seems to tie in accurately with U/Th and 14C results of a flint tool found embedded in Tamala limestone (Aminozone C) as well as both mtDNA and Y chromosome studies on the genetic distance of Australian Aboriginal genomes from African and other Eurasian ones.” ref

“A 2021 study by researchers at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage has mapped the likely migration routes of the peoples as they moved across the Australian continent to its southern reaches of what is now Tasmania, but back then part of the mainland. The modeling is based on data from archaeologists, anthropologists, ecologists, geneticists, climatologists, geomorphologists, and hydrologists, and it is intended to compare the modeling with the oral histories of Aboriginal peoples, including Dreaming stories, as well as Australian rock art and linguistic features of the many Aboriginal languages. The routes, dubbed “superhighways” by the authors, are similar to current highways and stock routes in Australia. Lynette Russell of Monash University sees the new model as a starting point for collaboration with Aboriginal people to help uncover their history. The new models suggest that the first people may have first landed in the Kimberley region in what is now Western Australia about 60,000 years ago, and had settled across the continent within 6,000 years.” ref

“Recent genetic evidence suggests that Australo-Papuans (or Australo-Melanesians) formed from two distinct lineages, which merged in the Oceania at about 37,000 BCE. According to the genomic data, as well as archeologic evidence, Australo-Papuans (such as the indigenous people of New Guinea) formed from an basal lineage, closer to Africans, sometimes referred to as South-Eurasian, and an East-Eurasian lineage (represented by Basal-East Asians, such as the Andamanese (Onge) or Tianyuan man from modern-day China). Australo-Papuans, therefore, form an outgroup to other Eurasians (West-Eurasians and East-Eurasians) and split from them between 55,000 to 61,000 BCE, although being shifted towards East-Eurasian populations. A Holocene hunter-gatherer sample (Leang_Panninge) from South Sulawesi was found to be genetically in between East-Eurasians and Australo-Papuans. The sample could be modeled as ~50% Papuan-related and ~50% Basal-East Asian-related (Andamanese Onge or Tianyuan). The authors concluded that Basal-East Asian ancestry was far more widespread and the peopling of Insular Southeast Asia and Oceania was more complex than previously anticipated.” ref

Madjedbebe

“Madjedbebe (formerly known as Malakunanja II) is a sandstone rock shelter in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia, said to be the site of the oldest evidence of human habitation in the country. Archaeological excavations conducted by Clarkson et al. (2017) yielded evidence to suggest that Madjedbebe was first occupied by humans possibly by 65,000 +/- 6,000 years ago and at least by 50,000 years ago. While the age of 50,000 years ago has been widely accepted since the 1990s, this latter estimate (of ca. 65,000 years ago) has, as of 2017, been questioned by some experts. The date sets the minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, and by extension for the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa. More than 100,000 artifacts have been excavated (including >10,000 artifacts from the lowest dense occupation layer termed ‘Phase 2’), including flaked stone artifacts, ground stone ax heads, grinding stones, animal bones, shellfish remains, ground ochre, charcoal, seeds, and human burials. Some of these were buried more than 2.5 meters below the surface. Archaeobotanical investigations have demonstrated the exploitation of plant foods, including seeds, tubers, and pandanus nuts. Fuel wood was also sourced from local eucalyptus and monsoon vine thicket forests.” ref

Lake Mungo remains

“The Lake Mungo remains are three prominent sets of human remains that are possibly Aboriginal Australian: Lake Mungo 1 (also called Mungo Woman, LM1, and ANU-618), Lake Mungo 3 (also called Mungo Man, Lake Mungo III, and LM3), and Lake Mungo 2 (LM2). Lake Mungo is in New South Wales, Australia, specifically, the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. Mungo woman (LM1) is one of the world’s oldest known cremations. The remains designated Mungo man (LM3) are dated to around 40,000 years old, the Pleistocene epoch, and are the oldest Homo sapiens (human) remains found on the Australian continent.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Some of the oldest burials seem to express a belief in life after death can be placed in the period between about 52,000 and 32,000 years ago. ref

The earliest human burial practices in Eurasia varied widely, with some graves clearly more lavish while the vast majority were fairly plain. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref

Cave Bear Hunting by Neanderthals 50,000 years ago

50,000 years ago, at least, Neanderthals were hunting the “now-extinct” and ferocious cave bears (weighing 1,300 lbs, twice that of grizzlies), seen in Neanderthals’ bite marks spotted on cave bear bones. Furthermore, the remains belonged to a total of 50 cave bears that lived 50,000 to 43,000 years ago. Bands of Neanderthals would regularly ambush sleeping bears (belonging to male and female adults, cubs, and fetuses) as they awoke from their annual targets for their pelts, meat, and living quarters. Among the fossils, remains are penis bones, showing that Neanderthals did hunt the seeming hardest to kill, the adult male cave bear. Cave bears may have spent more time in caves than the brown bear, which uses caves only for hibernation. ref, ref, ref

800 specimens were collected throughout western Eurasia, and dated between 80,000 and 20,000 years ago. The team documented incidents of skull trauma, perceived sex and age at death, degree of skeleton preservation, and geographical location of each sample. Based on 836 cranial elements analyzed from 204 individuals, researchers found no differences in injury rates between Neanderthals and contemporaneous humans, Gizmodo reported. ref, ref

The walls of France’s Chauvet cave, occupied 32,000 years ago, are painted with lions, hyenas, as well as bears, and the floor is covered with 150 cave bear skeletons. Most dramatically, a cave bear skull was perched on a stone slab in the center of one chamber, placed deliberately, possibly the skull was put on the rock evoking a religious significance. ref

Neandertals seem to have possibly had an ancient bear cult in Western Eurasia during the Middle Paleolithic and it is well documented that bears feature often on many totems throughout northern cultures that carve them. Neanderthals would have worshiped the cave bear discovered in several different caves and the not mere presence of bones but their arrangement in a way not naturally possible. An ancient bear cult may be expressed in cave bear remains in Switzerland and at Mornova Cave in Slovenia. Bear skulls were found arranged in a perfect circle in Saône-et-Loire; an act which has been attributed to Neandertals and is assumed to have been a part of some sort of ceremony. ref

Bear worship or bear cults involve a religious worshiping of bears) is found in many North Eurasian ethnic religions such as the Sami, Nivkh, Ainu, pre-Christian Basques, and Finns. There are also a number of deities from Celtic Gaul and Britain associated with the bear, and the Dacians, Thracians, and Getians were noted to worship bears. The Ainu people, who live on select islands in the Japanese archipelago, call the bear “kamuy” in their language, which translates to mean “god”. While many other animals are considered to be gods in the Ainu culture, the bear is the head of the gods. The Ainu people willingly and thankfully ate the bear as they believed that the disguise (the flesh and fur) of any god was a gift to the home that the god chose to visit. ref

Neanderthals and modern humans likely last interbred as recently as 47,000 years ago. ref

A “female Neanderthal who mated with Moreno Human male” relates to a 40,000-30,000 years old human/Neanderthal hybrid. Modern humans and Neanderthals, therefore, lived in roughly the same regions for thousands of years, but research hints at modern humans possibly raping female Neanderthals so this and other evidence supports a slow process of replacement by the invading modern human populations, as well as additional evidence of the Neanderthals’ continuing a relatively continual cultural identity. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Denisovan Totemism 50,000 years ago?

Suspicion is that this male tiara or diadem (mammoth ivory) was made by Denisovans and hints at the depth of Denisovan technology 50,000 to 45,000 years ago. Expression for family, clan, or tribe, So maybe early Totemistic behaviors. ref

Denisovan technology is at least by 50,000 years ago, such as their making elegant needles out of ivory and a sophisticated and beautiful stone bracelet. It appears to have had a practical use: to keep hair out of the eyes; its size indicates it was for male, not female, use. Interestingly tiaras made 20,000 to 28,000 years later by people living in the Russian Far East, around the Yana River in Yakutia and they could have denoted the family, clan or tribe, So maybe early Totemistic behaviors. ref

A tiara is an ornamental crown traditionally worn by women, often used interchangeably with the word “diadem.” A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty. ref, ref

Neandertals, evolved out of later populations of Homo heidelbergensis. At the end of the last glacial period, the Neanderthals enlarged their originally exclusive European settlement area, expanding into the Near East, parts of Central Asia, and even as far as the Altai region in Siberia. Neandertals, north of the Ebro divide, and the “IUP ϭ Bohunician hypothesis” of a Danubian wedge of modern human settlement dated to around 45,000 years ago. The cultural continuity between the Bohunician and the regional Middle Paleolithic remain are still open due to the lack of associated human remains. Circles: latest Ch ˆtelperronian, Micoquian, and Uluzzian sites. Triangles: Neandertal remains dated to around 45,000 years ago. Squares: Neandertal remains in Ch ˆtelperronian, Micoquian, Szeletian, Uluzzian, or late Middle Paleolithic contexts. 1. Caune de Belvis, 2. Abri Dubalen, 3. Grotte XVI and Roc-de-Combe, 4. Saint-Cesaire, 5. Chtelperron, 6. Grotte du Renne, 7. Kleine Feldhofer Grotte (Neander valley), 8. Sesselfelsgrotte, 9. Vindija, 10. Cavallo, 11. Klisoura 1, 12. Lakonis I. ref, ref

The earliest connection concerns the Levantine IUP/Emirian and Central European Bohunician and similar assemblages in Eastern Europe and North Asia. Similarities have also been documented between the Levantine Early Ahmarian (EUP) and the European Proto-Aurignacian. Therefore, identifying the first occurrence of technologically similar lithic industries in the Levant and Europe holds potential information about dispersal. ref

“In the realm of culture, the archeological evidence also supports a Neandertal contribution to Europe’s earliest modern human societies, which feature personal ornaments completely unknown before immigration and are characteristic of such Neandertal-associated archeological entities as the Chatelperronian and the Uluzzian.” – (PDF) Neandertals and Moderns Mixed, and It Matters: Link

Cave art dated at least 64,800 years ago to more than 66,000 years old are likely Neanderthal cave paintings as Modern humans presumed to be less than 50,000 years ago in Europe, as well as possibly Neanderthal cave paintings dated in 42,000 years, have been discovered in southern Spain when it is not though Modern humans were in the area thus seeming to show they may have started such thinking first as well.

Neanderthals manufactured Châtelperronian amid cultural diffusion

 Grotte du Renne there are good reasons to suspect admixture of Mousterian age elements within the Châtelperronian contexts (layers X-VIII, from the lower to the upper). The Châtelperronian habitation activities entailed digging into the earlier Mousterian deposits including postholes and hearths, which caused the removal and redeposition of Mousterian components within the depositional processes of the later layers. In addition, the earlier layers near the cave walls are often higher then in the central area, thus one may expect a continuous, although reduced, Mousterian contribution from these layers to the later, Châtelperronian deposits in the central area. ref

Thus, possibly a portion of the ornaments in the early Châtelperronian layer can be interpreted as the result of the newcomers’ activities in the cave on top of the Mousterian deposits, which produced their own lithic and bone artifacts including ornaments, and nowhere across Europe did late Mousterian contexts contain the same kind of ornaments as found in the Châtelperronian layers of the Grotte du Renne. In addition, these ornaments were made by the same technique as that employed in the production of the Aurignacian ornaments and thus testify to a local regional production tradition that continued through time. In sum, it seems that the Châtelperronians were the likely ancestors of the Aurignacian. The two groups were contemporaries and possibly encountered and confronted each other. Inter-group relationships of hunter-gatherers, especially if they belonged to different ethno-linguistic entities, could have been friendly, indifferent, or conflict. Therefore, in this general time frame as long as we do not have an intact, articulated Neandertal burial in a clear Châtelperronian context, it is quite possible that this prehistoric culture was the product of modern humans. ref

The European Mousterian is the product of Neanderthals. It existed roughly from 160,000 to 40,000 and the younger Châtelperronian deposits during around 45,000-40,000 years ago of bone tools and body ornaments were produced by Neanderthals. Châtelperronian stone industries are a blend of earlier tool types from the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian style tool types. However, since these late Neanderthals only seem to have manufactured Châtelperronian body ornaments seemingly after modern humans arrived in neighboring regions, possibly suggests that cultural diffusion might have taken place between modern humans and Neanderthals. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Neanderthal ritual or religious practice at around 50,000 years old burial in Sima de las Palomas in Murcia, Southeast Spain of a female covered with rocks inturned with a cut-off panther paw, suggesting that Neanderthals—much like today’s bear hunters—ceremoniously cut off panther paws and kept them as totemistic trophies. This 50,000-year-old Neanderthal burial ground actually includes the remains of at least three individuals intentionally buried, with each Neanderthal’s arms folded such that the hands were close to the head. Remains of other Neanderthals have been found in this position, suggesting that it held meaning. The remains of six to seven other Neanderthals, including one baby and two juveniles, have also been excavated at the site. The tallest individual appears to have been an adult who stood around 5 feet 1 inch tall. ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Totemism is less holistic and somewhat masculine in nature compared to Animism with the heavily supported taboos and clan structure (things are separated and must stay separated with sacred and profane, off-limits and allowed, or clean and unclean running one’s entire lives. Things in nature are to be controlled or feared, things in nature have danger and can be evil, but it is also can be used for good and can be helpful for protection. There are spirits that I made thinner than Animism as it has to share space with the metaphorical clan ancestor there is also supernatural beings both animal and human-like Animism, but where animisms animals are calmer and less harmful like the bird that is a stork referencing life, and the shake is smiling. Whereas, in totemism, this same template is changed through similar. The totemism bird is a vulture referencing a thing of death, not life, and the snake has its teeth barred as a threat. Like Animism, there are nonhuman supernatural things or being but in general would be attributed to a somewhat nonpersonal shared clan ancestor grandmother/grandfather or great grandmother/grandfather, not as much of what we think about like a god today.

“The Totemism, system of belief in which humans are said to have kinship or a mystical relationship with a spirit-being, such as an animal or plant. The entity, or totem, is thought to interact with a given kin group or an individual and to serve as their emblem or symbol. The term totemism has been used to characterize a cluster of traits in the religion and in the social organization of many peoples. Totemism is manifested in various forms and types in different contexts and is most often found among populations whose traditional economies relied on hunting and gathering, mixed farming with hunting and gathering, or emphasized the raising of cattle. The term totem is derived from the Ojibwa word ototeman, meaning “one’s brother-sister kin.” The grammatical root, ote, signifies a blood relationship between brothers and sisters who have the same mother and who may not marry each other. In English, the word totem was introduced in 1791 by a British merchant and translator who gave it a false meaning in the belief that it designated the guardian spirit of an individual, who appeared in the form of an animal—an idea that the Ojibwa clans did indeed portray by their wearing of animal skins. It was reported at the end of the 18th century that the Ojibwa named their clans after those animals that live in the area in which they live and appear to be either friendly or fearful.” ref

“The first accurate report about totemism in North America was written by a Methodist missionary, Peter Jones, himself an Ojibwa, who died in 1856 and whose report was published posthumously. According to Jones, the Great Spirit had given toodaims(“totems”) to the Ojibwa clans, and because of this act, it should never be forgotten that members of the group are related to one another and on this account may not marry among themselves. Totemism is a complex of varied ideas and ways of behavior based on a worldview drawn from nature. There are ideological, mystical, emotional, reverential, and genealogical relationships of social groups or specific persons with animals or natural objects, the so-called totems. It is necessary to differentiate between group and individual totemism. These forms share some basic characteristics, but they occur with different emphases and in different specific forms. For instance, people generally view the totem as a companion, relative, protector, progenitor, or helper, ascribe to it superhuman powers and abilities, and offer it some combination of respect, veneration, awe, and fear. Most cultures use special names and emblems to refer to the totem, and those it sponsors engage in partial identification with the totem or symbolic assimilation to it. There is usually a prohibition or taboo against killing, eating, or touching the totem. Although totems are often the focus of ritual behavior, it is generally agreed that totemism is not a religion.” ref

“Totemism can certainly include religious elements in varying degrees, just as it can appear conjoined with magic. Totemism is frequently mixed with different kinds of other beliefs, such as ancestor worship, ideas of the soul, or animism. Such mixtures have historically made the understanding of particular totemistic forms difficult. Social or collective totemism is the most widely disseminated form of this belief system. It typically includes one or more of several features, such as the mystic association of animal and plant species, natural phenomena, or created objects with unilineally related groups (lineages, clans, tribes, moieties, phratries) or with local groups and families; the hereditary transmission of the totems (patrilineal or matrilineal); group and personal names that are based either directly or indirectly on the totem; the use of totemistic emblems and symbols; taboos and prohibitions that may apply to the species itself or can be limited to parts of animals and plants (partial taboos instead of partial totems); and a connection with a large number of animals and natural objects (multiplex totems) within which a distinction can be made between principal totems and subsidiary ones (linked totems). Group totems are generally associated or coordinated on the basis of analogies or on the basis of myth or ritual. Just why particular animals or natural things—which sometimes possess no economic worth for the communities concerned—were originally selected as totems is often based on eventful and decisive moments in a people’s past. Folk traditions regarding the nature of totems and the origin of the societies in question are informative, especially with regard to the group’s cultural presuppositions.” ref

“For example, a group that holds that it is derived directly or indirectly from a given totem may have a tradition in which its progenitor was an animal or plant that could also appear as a human being. In such belief systems, groups of people and species of animals and plants can thus have progenitors in common. In other cases, there are traditions that the human progenitor of a kin group had certain favorable or unfavorable experiences with an animal or natural object and then ordered that his descendants respect the whole species of that animal. Group totemism was traditionally common among peoples in Africa, India, Oceania (especially in Melanesia), North America, and parts of South America. These peoples include, among others, the Australian Aborigines, the African Pygmies, and various Native American peoples—most notably the Northwest Coast Indians (predominantly fishermen), California Indians, and Northeast Indians. Moreover, group totemism is represented in a distinctive form among the Ugrians and west Siberians (hunters and fishermen who also breed reindeer) as well as among tribes of herdsmen in north and Central Asia. Individual totemism is expressed in an intimate relationship of friendship and protection between a person and a particular animal or a natural object (sometimes between a person and a species of animal); the natural object can grant special power to its owner. Frequently connected with individual totemism are definite ideas about the human soul (or souls) and conceptions derived from them, such as the idea of an alter ego and nagualism—from the Spanish form of the Aztec word naualli, “something hidden or veiled”—which means that a kind of simultaneous existence is assumed between an animal or a natural object and a person; i.e., a mutual, close bond of life and fate exists in such a way that in case of the injury, sickness, or death of one partner, the same fate would befall the other member of the relationship.” ref

“Consequently, such totems became most strongly tabooed; above all, they were connected with family or group leaders, chiefs, medicine men, shamans, and other socially significant persons. Studies of shamanism indicate that individual totemism may have predated group totemism, as a group’s protective spirits were sometimes derived from the totems of specific individuals. To some extent, there also exists a tendency to pass on an individual totem as hereditary or to make taboo the entire species of animal to which the individual totem belongs. Individual totemism is widely disseminated. It is found not only among tribes of hunters and harvesters but also among farmers and herdsmen. Individual totemism is especially emphasized among the Australian Aborigines and the American Indians. Among the Wiradjuri, an Aboriginal people who traditionally lived in New South Wales (Australia), totem clans are divided among two subgroups and corresponding matrilineal moieties. The group totem, named “flesh,” is transmitted from the mother. In contrast to this, individual totems belong only to the medicine men and are passed on patrilineally. Such an individual totem is named bala, “spirit companion,” or jarawaijewa, “the meat (totem) that is within him.” There is a strict prohibition against eating the totem. Breach of the taboo carries with it sickness or death. It is said: “To eat your jarawaijewa is the same as if you were to eat your very own flesh or that of your father.” The medicine man identifies himself with his personal totem. Every offense or injury against the totem has its automatic effect upon the man who commits it. It is a duty of the totem to guard the ritualist and the medicine man while he is asleep. In the case of danger or the arrival of strangers, the animal goes back into the body of the medicine man and informs him. After the death of the medicine man, the animal stands watch as a bright flickering light near the grave. The individual totem is also a helper of the medicine man. The medicine man emits the totem in his sleep or in a trance so that it can collect information for him. In this tradition, sorcery may also be practiced by the medicine man. By singing, for instance, the medicine man can send out his totem to kill an enemy; the totem enters the chest of the enemy and devours his viscera.” ref

“The transmission of the individual totem to novices is done through the father or the grandfather, who, of course, himself is also a medicine man. While the candidate lies on his back, the totem is “sung into” him. The blood relative who is transmitting the totem takes a small animal and places it on the chest of the youngster. During the singing, the animal supposedly sinks slowly into his body and finally disappears into it. The candidate is then instructed on how he has to treat the animal that is his comrade, and he is further instructed in song and the ritual concentration that is necessary to dispatch the totem from his body. Among the Nor-Papua of New Guinea, patrilineal, exogamous groups (consanguineous sibs) are spread over several villages and are associated with animals, especially fish. They believe that they are born from totems, and they make them taboo. Children are given an opportunity to decide during their initiation whether they will respect the paternal or maternal totem. Each group of relatives has a holy place to which the totem animal brings the souls of the dead and from which the souls of children are also believed to come. Totem animals are represented in various manifestations: as spirit creatures in sacred flutes, in disguises, and in figures preserved in each man’s house. At the end of initiation ceremonies, the totems are mimicked by the members of the group. Among the Iban of Sarawak (Malaysia), individual totemism has been the tradition. Particular persons dream of a spirit of an ancestor or a dead relative; this spirit appears in a human form, presents himself as a helper and protector, and names an animal (or sometimes an object) in which he is manifested. The Iban then observe the mannerisms of animals and recognize in the behavior of the animals the embodiment of their protector spirit (ngarong). Sometimes, members of the tribe also carry with them a part of such an animal. Not only this particular animal, but the whole species, is given due respect. Meals and blood offerings are also presented to the spirit animal. Young men who wish to obtain such a protector spirit for themselves sleep on the graves of prominent persons or seek out solitude and fast so that they may dream of a helper spirit. Actually, only a few persons can name such animals as their very own. Individuals with protector spirits have also attempted to require from their descendants the respect and the taboo given the animal representing the spirit. As a rule, such descendants do not expect special help from the protector spirit, but they observe the totemistic regulations anyway. The Birhor, a people that were traditionally residents of the jungle of Chotanagpur Plateau in the northeast Deccan (India), are organized into patrilineal, exogamous totem groups.” ref

“According to one imperfect list of 37 clans, 12 are based on animals, 10 on plants, 8 on Hindu castes and localities, and the rest on objects. The totems are passed on within the group, and tales about the tribe’s origins suggest that each totem had a fortuitous connection with the birth of the ancestor of the clan. The Birhor think that there is a temperamental or physical similarity between the members of the clan and their totems. Prohibitions or taboos are sometimes cultivated to an extreme degree. In regard to eating, killing, or destroying them, the clan totems are regarded as if they were human members of the group. Moreover, it is believed that an offense against the totems through a breach of taboo will produce a corresponding decrease in the size of the clan. If a person comes upon a dead totem animal, he must smear his forehead with oil or a red dye, but he must not actually mourn over the animal; he also does not bury it. The close and vital relationship between the totem and the clan is shown in a definite ceremony: the yearly offering to the chief spirit of the ancestral hill. Each Birhor community has a tradition of an old settlement that is thought to be located on a hill in the area. Once a year, the men of each clan come together at an open place. The elder of the clan functions as the priest who gives the offering. A diagram with four sections is drawn on the ground with rice flour. In one of these, the elder sits while gazing in the direction of the ancestral hill. The emblem of the particular totem is placed in one of the other sections of the diagram; depending on the circumstances, this emblem could be a flower, a piece of horn or skin, a wing, or a twig. This emblem represents the clan as a whole. If an animal is needed for such a ceremony, it is provided by the members of another clan who do not hold it as a totem. The Birhor show great fear of the spirits of the ancestral hill and avoid these places as far as possible. Among the Kpelle people of Liberia there is not only group totemism but also individual totemism. Both kinds of totems are referred to variously as “thing of possession,” “thing of birth,” or “thing of the back of men.” These phrases express the idea that the totem always accompanies, belongs to, and stands behind one as a guide and warner of dangers.” ref

“The totem also punishes the breach of any taboo. Kpelle totems include animals, plants, and natural phenomena. The kin groups that live in several villages were matrilineal at an earlier time, but during the 20th century, they began to exhibit patrilineal tendencies. The group totems, especially the animal totems, are considered as the residence of the ancestors; they are respected and are given offerings. Moreover, a great role is played by individual totems that, in addition to being taboo, are also given offerings. Personal totems that are animals can be transmitted from father to son or from mother to daughter; on the other hand, individual plant totems are assigned at birth or later. The totem also communicates magical powers. It is even believed possible to alter one’s own totem animal; further, it is considered an alter ego. Persons with the same individual totem prefer to be united in communities. The well-known leopard confederation, a secret association, seems to have grown out of such desires. Entirely different groups produce patrilineal taboo communities that are supposedly related by blood; they comprise persons of several tribes. The animals, plants, and actions made taboo by these groups are not considered as totems. In a certain respect, the individual totems in this community seem to be the basis of group totemism.” ref

Totemism as seen in Europe: 50,000 years ago, mainly the Aurignacian culture

• Pre-Aurignacian “Châtelperronian” (Western Europe, mainly Spain and France, possible transitional/cultural diffusion between Neanderthals and humans around 50,000-40,000 years ago)
• Archaic–Aurignacian/Proto-Aurignacian (Europe around 46,000-35,000)
• Aurignacian culture to me arose possibly from Châtelperronian diffusion between Neanderthals and humans and the European Bohunician culture in South-Central and East Europe dated at 48,000 years ago, thought to be related to Levant Emiran dated to around 50,000—40,000 years ago. Ahmarian culture in the Levant dated at 46,000-42,000 years ago and is thought to be related to Levantine Emiran and younger European Aurignacian cultures which began spreading from the Middle East. Such as, in the likes of the Manot Cave, occupied from about 55,000 years ago to at least 30,000 years ago some of who moved toward Europe at least by 45,000 years. ref, ref
• Aurignacian “classical/early to late” (Europe and other areas around 38,000 – 26,000 years ago)

“The most significant “recent” Out of Africa wave took place about 70,000 years ago, via the so-called “Southern Route”, spreading rapidly along the coast of Asia and reaching Australia by around 65,000–50,000 years ago. While Europe was populated by an early offshoot that settled the Near East and Europe less than 55,000 years ago.”  ref

All populations before around 40,000 years ago were way more inbred and then after that is has been a great decrease, to which I hypothesize could be genetic evidence of the emergence of INCEST-PROHIBITION hints at the taboo in Totemism. ref

“Totem and Taboo”

“The Horror of Incest” concerns incest taboos adopted by societies believing in totemism.

Totemism is a belief system scattered world-wide mainly by hunting and gathering peoples, which seems to diminish when agricultural becomes predominant. Totemism seems expressed all over the North American especially the west cost indigenous peoples, in Peru, in Guiana, what was the African Gold Coast, in India, the South Seas islands, Australia, Siberia, Egypt, and Semitic regions. It is thought that the current true totemism is found only among Australian Aborigines, North, and South American indigenous peoples, in New Guinea, and parts of Africa and India. But it is Australia, America, and Africa that are the three main areas where totemism has been found in its most highly developed and widespread forms. ref

Totemism is approximately a 50,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden totemist.

Totemism may be older as there is evidence of what looks like a Stone Snake in South Africa, which may be the “first human worship” dating to around 70,000 years ago. Many archaeologists propose that societies from 70,000 to 50,000 years ago such as that of the Neanderthals may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship in addition to their presumably religious burial of the dead. Did Neanderthals help inspire Totemism? There is Neanderthals art dating to around 65,000 years ago in Spain. ref, ref

• 50,000 years ago: the earliest sewing needle found. Made and used by Denisovans.
• 50,000–30,000 years ago: Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa. The Sahara desert region is wet and fertile. Later Stone Age begins in Africa.
• 45,000–43,000 years ago: European early modern humans.
• 45,000–40,000 years ago: Châtelperronian culture in France.
• 42,000 years ago: Paleolithic flutes in Germany.
• 42,000 years ago: earliest evidence of advanced deep sea fishing technology at the Jerimalai cave site in East Timor—demonstrates high-level maritime skills and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large numbers of big deep sea fish such as tuna.
• 41,000 years ago: Denisova hominin lives in the Altai Mountains.
• 40,000 years ago: Aurignacian culture begins in Europe.
• 40,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art the zoomorphic Löwenmensch figurine.
• 40,000–30,000 years ago: human settlement (Aboriginal Australians) in Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne.
• 40,000–20,000 years ago: oldest known ritual cremation, the Mungo Lady, in Lake Mungo, Australia.
• 35,000 years ago: one of the oldest known figurative art of a human figure as opposed to a zoomorphic figure (Venus of Hohle Fels).” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref

The so-called “transitional industries” are a key for understanding the replacement process of Neanderthals by modern humans in western Eurasia at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago. While in Europe the older Mousterian industry of the Middle Paleolithic can be clearly attributed to Neanderthals and the later Upper Paleolithic assemblages to modern humans, the nature of the makers of the transitional Châtelperronian (CP) industry has long been disputed. ref, ref, ref

Haplogroup O-M175 is a descendant haplogroup of Haplogroup NO-M214, and first appeared according to different theories either in Southeast Asia approximately 40,000 years ago (or between 31,294 and 51,202 years ago. This haplogroup appears in 80-90% of most populations in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and it is almost exclusive to that region: M175 is almost nonexistent in Western Siberia, Western Asia, Europe, most of Africa, and the Americas, where its presence may be the result of recent migrations. Certain subclades of Haplogroup O-M175 do achieve significant frequencies among some populations of South Asia, Central Asia, and Oceania. The significant presence of Haplogroup O-M50 have been found in Bantu-speaking populations of the Comoros along with a single instance of O-MSY2.2(xM50) while both O-M50 and O-M95(xM88) occur commonly among the Malagasy people of Madagascar. O-M175(xM119, M95, M176, M122) Y-DNA in 1/18 Iranians from Teheran, 2/37 Tajiks from Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan, and 1/97 Mongols from northwest Mongolia, while finding O-M176 only in 1/20 Mongols from northeast Mongolia. ref

K2b probably is around 50,000 years old is the ancestor of Haplogroup K2 (K-M526), which is found in southeast Asia around 30,000-40,000 years ago. Splitting into: K3(P79), M(P256), NO(M214), P(M45), and S(M230). Y- DNA Haplogroup M (P256) is a descendant of Haplogroup K2b1, and it presumably first mutated between 32,000 and 47,000 years ago in south Asia. Most populations (50%-100%) in West Papua and western Papua New Guinea belong to haplogroup M (P256). Haplogroup M (P256) likely originated in Melanesia and then spread into Indonesia, Micronesia, and New Guinea. Haplogroup S-M230 is found primarily in populations in Papua New Guinea with lower frequencies in Melanesia and Indonesia. The possible time of origin is 28,000-41,000 years before present and possibly originated in New Guinea or Indonesia. K2b1, its subclades, and P* are virtually restricted geographically to South East Asia and Oceania. Whereas, in a striking contrast, P1(P-M45) and its primary subclades Q and R now make up “the most frequent haplogroup in Europe, the Americas, and Central Asia and South Asia“. The estimated dates for the branching of K, K2, K2b, and P point to a “rapid diversification” within K2 “that likely occurred in Southeast Asia”, with subsequent “westward expansions” of P*, P1, Q, and R ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

After the dispersal of modern humans Out of Africa, around 70,000 years ago or so. Modern Humans appeared in the Western Eurasian fossil record around 45,000 years ago or so, then begins the transition from Neandertals occupation to Modern Humans expansion and one of these early people was Ust’-Ishim (Western Siberia, around 45,000 years ago, Kostenki (Russia, 39–36,000 years ago), Grotta di Fumane (Italy, 41,000–39,000 years ago) and Peştera cu Oase (Romania, 37,000–42,000 years ago). Around 6-9% of the genome of the Oase individual is derived from Neanderthals, indicating that this individual had a Neanderthal ancestor as recently as four to six generations back. The origins of Europeans used to seem straightforward: The first modern humans moved into Europe around 45,000 years ago or more, perhaps occasionally meeting the Neandertals whose ancestors had inhabited Europe for at least 400,000 years. Then, starting 10,000 years ago, farmers came from the Middle East and spread rapidly throughout Europe. ref ref, ref

The Bacho Kiro site in is one of the earliest known Aurignacian burials. Among one of the earliest known Aurignacian burials (layer 11), two pierced animal teeth were found and ordered into the distinct Bachokiran artifact assemblage. Radiocarbon dated to over 43,000 years ago, they currently represent the oldest known ornaments in Europe. With an approximate age of 46,000 years, human fossils consist of a pair of fragmented mandibles. Whether these early humans were in fact Homo sapiens or Neanderthals is still disputed. Important Aurignacian sites such as, Ksar Akil northeast of Beirut in Lebanon dated to approximately 45,000 years ago or earlier.  Bacho Kiro cave (Bulgarian: пещера „Бачо Киро“) is situated 5 km (3.1 mi) west of the town Dryanovo, Bulgaria dated to 46,000 to 43,000 years ago. Hohle Fels Germany, 42,000 to 35,000 years ago. ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref

Zagros Mountains, Kurdistan, Iraq, located in north-east Iraq held the first evidence for possible skull modification among our ancestors comes in the form of some 45,000-year-old Neanderthal skulls. The Shanidar Cave was inhabited by Neanderthal for over 30,000 years (from 60,000 – 35,000 BC) until the arrival of Modern Humans. The Shanidar skeletons and their burials suggested complex socialization skills including care for other members of the group. Archeologists believe that Shanidar 1 was taken care of by the other Neanderthals in his social group. It would have been very difficult for him to live long enough for his injuries to partially heal without help from others. Both Shanidar 1 and 5 both exhibit what seeming evidence of artificial cranial deformation. The most striking aspect of these skulls is their combination of frontal flattening and unnatural curvature at the back. Shanidar 5 shows significant forehead flattening—4.5 standard deviations from the population mean. There is also a report of a 20,000-year-old skull found near Beijing in China that may have been modified. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Kow Swamp, possibly to as early as 22,000 BP. At least 40 individuals were buried with grave goods, some of which were mussel shells, stone artifacts, marsupial teeth, and ochre. There is also a report of a 20,000-year-old skull found near Beijing in China that may have been modified. The Cohuna cranium came from the Kow Swamp site, from southeast of Cohuna was low, broad, and elongated and the forehead has been flattened artificially dated to between 14,000-9,000 years ago. Australia’s ancient inhabitants were among the first in the world to deliberately transform the shape of their own skulls. Such as, the Coobool Creek remains were about 14,000 years old near the Wakool River in New South Wales, Australia. ref, ref, ref, ref

The earliest examples of intentionally deformed skulls in the Americas were found in Peru and date to between 9,000 to 8,000 years ago. The practice put down deep roots in Peru, spreading throughout Andean communities and the rest of the continent from there. Excavations of ancient Peruvian remains have found that a vast majority of them—as many as 90 percent on some digs—have deformed skulls. ref

Who were the indigenous people of Indonesia before the Chinese and Indians came?

“Early human migrations“

Sequencing of one Aboriginal genome from an old hair sample in Western Australia revealed that the individual was descended from people who migrated into East Asia between 62,000 and 75,000 years ago. This supports the theory of a single migration into Australia and New Guinea before the arrival of Modern Asians (between 25,000 and 38,000 years ago) and their later migration into North America.

This dispersal is separate and I think is around the time totemism enters the region from Arcane Early Europe by way of Siberia and thus Aisa, the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. It is surmised from DNA that a split between Europeans and Asians dating to 17,000 to 43,000 years before the present. ref

Mitochondrial haplogroups A, B, and G originated about 50,000 years ago, and bearers subsequently colonized Siberia, Korea, and Japan, by about 35,000 years ago. Several phenotypical traits associated with Mongoloids with a single mutation of the EDAR gene, dated to c. 35,000 years ago. A Paleolithic site on the Yana River, Siberia, at 71°N, lies well above the Arctic Circle and dates to 27,000 radiocarbon years before present, during glacial times. This site shows that people adapted to this harsh, high-altitude, Late Pleistocene environment much earlier than previously thought. ref

Moreover, the mitogenome of a 35,000-year-old Homo sapiens from Europe (Peștera Muierii 1 individual from Romania) supports a Palaeolithic back-migration to Africa. The Peștera Muierii 1 individual mitogenome was a basal for haplogroup U6*, not previously found in any ancient or present-day humans.

The derived U6 haplotypes are predominantly found in present-day North-Western African populations. Concomitantly, those found in Europe have been attributed to recent gene-flow from North Africa.

The presence of the basal haplogroup U6* in South East Europe (Romania) at 35,000 years ago confirms a Eurasian origin of the U6 mitochondrial lineage. Consequently, we propose that the Peștera Muierii 1 individual lineage is an offshoot to South East Europe that can be traced to the Early Upper Paleolithic back migration from Western Asia to North Africa, during which the U6 lineage diversified, until the emergence of the present-day U6 African lineages.

After the dispersal of modern humans Out of Africa, hominins with similar morphology to present-day humans appeared in the Western Eurasian fossil record around 45,000–40,000 years ago, initiating the demographic transition from ancient human occupation (Neandertals) to modern human (Homo sapiens) expansion on to the continent.

The first insights of the genetics of early Eurasian modern humans were recently provided by four ancient human genomes: Ust’-Ishim (Western Siberia, 45,000 years ago), Kostenki (Russia, 39,000–36,000 years ago), Fumane 2 (Italy, 41,000–39,000 years ago) and Peştera cu Oase (Romania, 37,000–42,000 years ago). Population genetic analyses of modern-day human mitochondrial haplogroup distributions suggest that in conjunction with the Eurasian expansion, some populations initiated a back-migration to North Africa.

Although the first genome of an ancient African individual (Ethiopia, 4,000-5,000 years ago) identified a back-migration from Eurasia to Africa within the at last 4.500 years, the scarcity of older human remains in North Africa has prevented researchers from obtaining direct evidence of such a migratory phenomenon during the Paleolithic period. We present the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the Peştera Muierii 1 (PM1) remains from Romania, directly dated to 35,000 years ago, which sheds new light on the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) migrations in Eurasia and North Africa. ref

Haplogroup U6 has a very wide geographic distribution across the northern half of Africa, the Middle East, and most of western and southern Europe. It has been found at low frequencies as far north as the Baltic and as far east as Central Asia and Iran. It is most common in North-West Africa, especially among the Mozabites (28%) and Kabyles (18%) of Algeria, as well as Mauritanians (14%) and Canary Islanders (13.5%).

Other regions with frequencies of U6 exceeding 1% include 6-8% in Morocco and coastal Algeria, 5% in Tunisia, 4% in Libya, 2.5% in Lebanon, Portugal, Egypt, and Oman, 2% in Cyprus, Sudan, Ethiopia and Guinea-Bissau, 1.5% in Saudi Arabia, and 1% in Syria, Jordan and in Spain. Isolated pockets of high U6 frequencies have been reported in Iberia, notably 8.5% in Huelva (western Andalusia) by Hernández et al. 2014, 7% in northern Portugal by Pereira et al. 2000, 4.3% in northern Portugal, 4% in central Spain and 2.5% in central Portugal by Ottoni et al. 2011, and 2.6% in Catalonia by Garcia et al. 2011. U6 is only found at trace frequencies among Ashkenazi Jews and in most of Europe. The highest frequencies observed in Europe outside Iberia are in south-west France (1.4%), Brittany (0.7%), in Tuscany (0.6%), Sicily (0.5%), and southern Italy (0.5%). Therefore, although now found primarily in western, northern, and north-eastern Africa, haplogroup U6 descends from the western Eurasian haplogroup U, and therefore represents a back migration to Africa. Secher et al. (2014) estimated that U6 arose very approximately 35,000 years ago (±11 ,000 years ago), during the Early Upper Paleolithic, and prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. ref

Neanderthals ‘kept our early ancestors out of Europe’ 

Two Paleolithic harpoons, at least 60,000 years old, decorated with geometric figures discovered at Veyrier near Geneva. Which is younger than a beautifully-carved 90,000-year-old bone harpoon used to hunt giant catfish in present-day the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ref

Our ancestors had interbred with Neanderthals 55,000 years ago, possibly in the Middle East. Modern humans and Neanderthals interbred in Europe, an analysis of 40,000-year-old DNA suggests. ref

50,000-year-old Skull May Show Human-Neanderthal Hybrids Originated in Levant, not Europe as Thought

Research into ancient genomics and archaeology has shed light into the first humans in Europe, who appear in the record approximately 45,000 years ago. Neanderthals disappeared from the region 5,000 years later. The nature of their relationship is being revealed with every new discovery and breakthrough. ref

Neanderthals and modern humans belong to the same genus (Homo) and inhabited the same geographic areas in Asia for 30,000–50,000 years; genetic evidence indicates while they may have interbred with non-African modern humans, they are separate branches of the human family tree (separate species). ref

So, around the time we fully interact with Neanderthals in Europe Totemism emerges about 50,000 years ago. And, around the time all interact with Neanderthals is over we see Shamanism emerge about 30,000 years ago, could this just be a coincidence, I don’t really think so.

Upper Paleolithic (totemism in Europe between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago)

“Cultures Aurignacian Associated with Paleo-humans/Paleolithic lifestyle“

The Levantine Aurignacian: a closer look

Ust’-Ishim man 45,000-year-old remains of a male hunter-gatherer,

(I presume a totemist or connected to the firsts totemic peoples by around 50,000 years ago

then by 30,000 years ago are shamanistic-totemists)

one of the early modern humans to inhabit western Siberia.

Ust’-Ishim man has been classified as belonging to Y-DNA haplogroup K2a*, and belonged to mitochondrial DNA haplogroup R*. Before 2016 they had been classified as U*. Both of these haplogroups and descendant subclades are now found among populations throughout Eurasia, Oceania, and The Americas. When compared to other ancient remains, Ust’-Ishim man is more closely related, in terms of autosomal DNA to Tianyuan man, found near Beijing and dating from 42,000 to 39,000 years ago; Mal’ta boy (or MA-1), a child who lived 24,000 years ago along the Bolshaya Belaya River near today’s Irkutsk in Siberia, or; La Braña man – a hunter-gatherer who lived in La Braña (modern Spain) about 8,000 years ago. ref

World’s oldest, 29,000-year-old net sinkers found in Korea

From a cave in South Korea have found evidence that suggests human beings were using sophisticated techniques to catch fish as far back as 29,000 years ago. Pryor to the South Korean find, the oldest fishing implements were believed to be fishing hooks, made from the shells of sea snails, that was found on a southern Japanese island and said to date back some 23,000 years. ref

Zagros Aurignacian from Yafteh cave, Iran, Early Baradostian culture at Yafteh cave in the Zagros mountains dated around 40,000-35,000 years ago. The Baradostian culture was an Upper Paleolithic flint industry culture found in the Zagros region in the border-country between Iraq and Iran. The site held a rich collection of ornaments made of marine shells, tooth and hematite have been discovered in the early Upper Paleolithic deposits with dates clustered around 28,000–35,000 thousand years ago. Yafteh cave has clear evidence pointing to an Aurignacian connection dating back to about 35,5000 years ago possibly providing a culture link from West Asia to Europe, I would propose by way of Siberia. ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Mammoth bone dwellings are a very an early type of housing constructed by Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers mainly in central Europe. ref

Mammoth Bone Dwellings range from around 44,000 to 14,000 years ago, likely expressions of Cultist Culture and maybe some “Totemism” socio-religious-symbolic meanings. These ritual structures seem to have begun with Neandertals and then continued with Modern Human Hunter Gather groups like the Gravettian and connected Epi-gravettian cultures. ref

Gravettian and Epigravettian mammoth bone dwellings range from: Pavlovian (Early Gravettian of Moravia), Gagarino and Pouchkari (Gravettian of Eastern Europe), Kostienki 11/1a (Zamiatnine culture), and Mezinian. ref

The 44,000-year-old site from Molodova in eastern Ukraine was a Neanderthal “Mousterian Culture” Mammoth Bone Dwelling with possible “Totemism” connections due to how some of the bones used to build the ritual structure home had decorative carvings and added pigments. It was an incredible 26 foot wide circular building believed to be earliest bone-built cultural structure and where they lived for extended periods of time. ref ref

The 44,000-year-old Neanderthal bone structure near Molodova was constructed with 116 large deliberately selected mammoth bones including skulls, jaws, tusks, and leg. Inside there was at least 25 fire pits and from the artifacts found Neanderthals made many decorated carvings in addition to the symbolic adding of ochre pigments to the bones. ref ref

The painting in red on the front of mammoth skull may represent the flames and sparks of a fire and as bones were found burned in fire pits so there could be a ritualistic representation connection, which I think it is. It could be a prehistoric “drum” consisting of a mammoth skull, which may relate to a change from totemism to shamanism and was set at the entrance as well as contained a painted pattern of red ocher dots and lines. The top of this skull bears depressions where it seems to have been beaten by “drumsticks,” the animal’s long bones that were found to bear corresponding damage on their ends. It is possible that the building may have served some ritual or communal function at which the mammoth bone rhythms were beaten out, although many Ukrainian huts of a similar size seem to have been ordinary living places.  ref ref ref

Even more telling to its ritualistic relevance is that is was found at the entrance to one of the mammoth hunter’s huts, which could also hold a vaginal/womb reference, and as there was also an oddly placed signal tusk pointing in and hugging the head sticking upright out of the ground almost as if it represents a phallus entering the vaginal/womb thus fertility hunting cult suggestions as well as maybe fire worship. ref ref

Inside the Mezherich building, there were some remarkable finds: amber ornaments and fossil shells, transported an estimated 218 to 310 miles from their source, and the remains of one of the earliest percussion instruments ever found. The middle Dnepr basin is the origin of amber is well known near Kiev where it was collected throughout the Upper Palaeolithic. Amber objects have been used as pieces of small adornment in the Upper Palaeolithic sites of the Dnepr basin: Gontsy, Dobra-nichivka, Mejiriche, Semenivka 2, Ioudinovo, Chulatovo 2, Mezine, Osokorivka (level 2), and Kaistrova balka 2 ref ref

A spectacular prehistoric art is visible in the dwellings of the Mezinian, in the grouping in the outer wall of jaws and long bones showing a geometric pattern of lines, chevrons, and zigzags, which are also figured in the painted bones of the dwellings and in the mobile art of the statuettes, tools, and various artifacts, confirming they are the manifestation of a socio-symbolic system of the Mezinian culture. ref

A mammoth bone dwelling hold a common form of a circular or oval structure with walls made of stacked large mammoth bones often modified to allow them to be lashed together or implanted into the soil. Within the interior is typically found a central fire pits or several scattered fire pits. External fire pits, butchering areas, and flint workshops are often found in association with the hut: scholars call these combinations Mammoth Bone Settlements (MBS). ref

The mammoth bone dwellings are not random. And they seem to express a pattern, thus this may demonstrate cultural/religious transfer inclinations and consistency in tradition over thousands of years. Similarly, they are composed of several hundred bones and tusks arranged in a rough circles with a diameter of 20 to 33 feet. Even more interesting is that the first Neanderthal mammoth bone dwelling at 44,000-year-old was also in the range at 26 feet, thus it too is consistent with all the rest seeming to hit that they share some deep possible connection. ref

Such bone houses have been found in considerable numbers, often clustered together in little “villages” of four or five houses in the fertile valleys of Ukraine and the same method of construction has appeared as far west as Kracow, in Poland, with three rings of mammoth bones exactly similar to those in Russia and dating to about 20 000 years ago. ref 

Relatively all of the mammoth bone dwelling sites date to the Upper Paleolithic period (Gravettian or Epi-Gravettian), with the sole exception of Molodova 1, which dates to the Middle Stone Age and is associated with Neanderthals. ref

Most huts in central Europe date between 20,000 to 14,000 years ago:

Ukraine: Molodova 5, Molodova I, Mezhirich, Kiev-Kirillovskii, Dobranichevka, Mezin, Ginsy, Novgorod-seversky, Gontsy, Pushkari, Radomyshl’

Czech Republic: Predmosti, Dolni Vestonice, Vedrovice 5, Milovice G

Poland: Dzierzyslaw, Krakow-Spadzista Street B

Romania: Ripiceni-Izvor

Russia: Kostenki I, Avdeevo, Timonovka, Elisseevich, Suponevo, Yudinovo

Belarus: Berdyzh ref

Some archaeologists, have argued that they possess religious or ritual social significance and have been described as the earliest examples of ‘monumental architecture’ as well as evidence of increased social complexity and status differentiation. ref

Ritual Adornments

Mobile art  adornment in the Upper Palaeolithic ( between 50,000-10,000 years ago) in the form of ivory sculptures, preferably female representations, was present in the settlements of Dobranichivka, Mejiriche, Mezine, and Elisseevichi 1. Several types of ivory adornments are present in Gontsy, Mezine, Mejiriche, Elisseevichi1, Ioudinovo, and Suponevo. The clear preference for the use of ivory in the manufacture of different types of ornament (pearl, pendant as well as a bracelet) and figurative statuettes, as also utilitarian or non-utilitarian objects, occurs in many residential settlements. ref

A Complicated Lunar Mythology was Indeed Developed in Paleolithic Times

Artifact finds dating to Upper and Middle Paleolithic times (around 100,000 to 14,000 years ago). Among the finds unearthed at Gontsy and Kiev-Kirillovskaya were mammoth tusk fragments which feature engraved patterns that have been interpreted as tables of lunar phase observations. More remarkable are two mammoth ivory bracelets from the site of Mezin which contain elaborate engraved ornamentation that also has been connected with a lunar calendar. Not to mention astronomical finds at Paleolithic sites on the Crimean peninsula, including the famous solar petroglyph at Chokcurcha-1 and a possible star map‘ engraved on a mammoth shoulder bone that was found at Chokurcha-2. ref

Ivory beads and pendants are known in Gontsy, Mezine,Mejiriche, Ioudinovo, Elisseevichi 1, and Suponevo, but one site, Ioudinovo, has  ivory beads in large quantities. The tiny beads with a hole in the center have varied shapes: square, rectangular, oval, and circular. Their dimensions vary. ref 

“A totem is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe.” – Wikipedia

Totemism | religion | Britannica.com

43,500 – 42,300 Years Ago – Malaga (Spain), found evidence of Neanderthal red looking cave paintings as well as charcoal remains found beside six of the paintings. Modern humans are believed to have also been in the area at the time, arriving about 41,500 years ago and although this does add credence to the case for Neanderthal art it does not prove that it was made by Neanderthals. ref, ref

43,000 Years Ago – “Lion Cave” Swaziland (southern Africa), found evidence of one of the oldest known mines and in contrast to the majority of prehistoric mines, was a red ochre mine not mined for materials for standard utilitarian items for tool making but can and where used in ritualistic concepts. This is leads us to ponder the motivation of such a mine red ochre which although it had widespread use in prehistoric it was often in what could lend some support to a religious connotation when used in burial rituals and shamanistic cave art. There are similar age flint mines in Hungary and chert (lower quality flint) mine in Bulgaria believed to be connected to our cousins the Neanderthals who shared about 99.84 % of their DNA with us and seemed to have mined for weapons and tools.

Many Neanderthal sites show them to be more masteries then we typically think such as how such Neanderthal archeological sites include red ochre sometimes worn down in a way that could have been used in an artistic or ritualistic way but we may never know. For too long the term Neanderthal has been conceived as a label of slow thinking brutish nonhuman creatures with human looking features. However, quite the opposite Homo sapiens Neanderthalensis, although still largely unknown, mysterious, or unidentified do show themselves to be more like fellow humans should no longer be seen as mentally inferior to modern humans. The support for this rational involves evidence seeming to show advanced thinking beyond just the craftsmanship of tools belong to utilitarian evidence they had or seem to demonstrates abstract thinking with ritualistic graves, made body ornaments (fathers, animal-tooths or claws and shells pendants), engraved symbols or spots and hand stencils like those in El Castillo cave, Spain as well as others.

Although it must be understood that there is in general only limited evidence relating to Neanderthal culture. There are good circumstantial reasons for thinking that Neanderthals not only had advanced thinking they possibly had some form of language, as some of their advanced technology, rituals and hunting tactics would have been difficult to learn and execute without some form of language, though this is not some full proof it is interesting. Moreover, Neanderthal do also have relatively advanced brains with such things as a well-developed Broca’s area, and in their DNA we find the FOXP2 gene involved in speech production and by the way is carried by modern humans and in us too is required for proper development of speech and language. The FOXP2 gene is more active in females than in males, and mutations of FOXP2 in humans causes a severe speech and language disorder. Versions of FOXP2 exist in similar forms in animals such as in songbirds.

Unfortunately, none of this reveals anything specific about Neanderthal language, socio-cultural, or religious for that matter. And although the full extent of socio-cultural-driven gene-culture coevolution (interaction between genes and culture) is unknown some evidence suggest that such effects were and likely are profound. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

42,000 – 35,000 Years Ago – Hohle Fels (Germany), found a mammoth ivory female figurine called “The Venus of Hohle Fels” may have had some fertility connection and was discovered among flint chips and burnt animal bones. This figurine is about two and a half inches and has a polished nob with a hole like a hoop in place of a head. This top hoop could demonstrate that it may have worn some kind of amulet or pendant. Also a 35,000 years old flute was found made of vulture bone and is thought to be one of the oldest crafted musical instrument in the world. ref, ref, ref

42,000 – 17,000 Years Ago – Ucagizli Cave (southern Turkey), found evidence includes the production and use of large numbers of ornamental shells showing evidence of extended use and appearing to be selected for quality rather that as just as food. There are hundreds shell ornaments alongside well-defined stone, bone tools, and one incised talon probably frim a vulture. A focus on basket-shaped shells changed little over thousands of years, despite significant changes in other technology which almost certainly reflecting the influence of cultural norms suggesting elements of design traditions or symbol systems reflective expression of human communication. ref, ref

40,800 Years Ago – El Castillo Cave (Spain), found evidence of cave paintings that could have been made by Neanderthals. Red colored cave art consisting of hand stencils and disks made by blowing paint onto the wall of the cave, possibly showing more evidence that Neanderthals were possibly some of the first cave painters. ref

Timeline of Prehistory

“This timeline of prehistory covers the time from the first appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa 315,000 years ago to 12,00 years ago just to give a quick run down of the important facts and thus an easy grasp of the evolution as a whole. Prehistory covers the time from the Middle Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) to the very beginnings of ancient history. All dates are approximate and subject to revision based on new discoveries or analyses.” ref

• “∼320,000 to 305,000 years ago: Populations at Olorgesailie in Southern Kenya undergo technological improvements in tool making and engage in long-distance trade. 
• 315,000 years ago: approximate date of appearance of Homo sapiens (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco).
• 270,000 years ago: age of Y-DNA haplogroup A00 (“Y-chromosomal Adam“).
• 250,000 years ago: first appearance of Homo neanderthalensis (Saccopastore skulls).
• 230,000–150,000 years ago: age of mt-DNA haplogroup L (“Mitochondrial Eve“).
• 210,000 years ago: modern human presence in southeast Europe (Apidima, Greece).
• 200,000 years ago: oldest known grass bedding, including insect-repellent plants and ash layers beneath (possibly for a dirt-free, insulated base and to keep away arthropods).
• 195,000 years ago: Omo remains (Ethiopia).
• 194,000–177,000 years ago: modern human presence in West Asia (Misliya cave in Israel).
• 170,000 years ago: humans are wearing clothing by this date.
• ∼164,000 years ago: humans expanded their diet to include marine resources
• 160,000 years ago: Homo sapiens idaltu.
• 150,000 years ago: Peopling of Africa: Khoisanid separation, age of mtDNA haplogroup L0.
• 125,000 years ago: the peak of the Eemian interglacial period.
• ~120,000 years ago: possibly the earliest evidence of use of symbols etched onto bone.
• ~120,000 years ago: use of marine shells for personal decoration by humans, including Neandertals
• 120,000–90,000 years ago: Abbassia Pluvial in North Africa—the Sahara desert region is wet and fertile.
• 120,000–75,000 years ago: Khoisanid back-migration from Southern Africa to East Africa.
• 100,000 years ago: Earliest structures in the world (sandstone blocks set in a semi-circle with an oval foundation) built in Egypt close to Wadi Halfa near the modern border with Sudan.
• 82,000 years ago: small perforated seashell beads from Taforalt in Morocco are the earliest evidence of personal adornment found anywhere in the world.
• 80,000–70,000 years ago: Recent African origin: separation of sub-Saharan Africans and non-Africans.
• 75,000 years ago: Toba Volcano supereruption that may have contributed to human populations being lowered to about 15,000 people.
• 70,000 years ago: earliest example of abstract art or symbolic art from Blombos Cave, South Africa—stones engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns.
• 67,000–40,000 years ago: Neanderthal admixture to Eurasians.
• 50,000 years ago: earliest sewing needle found. Made and used by Denisovans.
• 50,000–30,000 years ago: Mousterian Pluvial in North Africa. The Sahara desert region is wet and fertile. Later Stone Age begins in Africa.
• 45,000–43,000 years ago: Early European modern humans.
• 45,000–40,000 years ago: Châtelperronian cultures in France.
• 42,000 years ago: Laschamps event, a geomagnetic excursion with major implications for humans at the time.
• 42,000 years ago: Paleolithic flutes in Germany.
• 42,000 years ago: earliest evidence of advanced deep-sea fishing technology at the Jerimalai cave site in East Timor—demonstrates high-level maritime skills and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large numbers of big deep-sea fish such as tuna.
• 41,000 years ago: Denisova hominin lives in the Altai Mountains.
• 40,000 years ago: extinction of Homo Neanderthalensis.
• 40,000 years ago: Aurignacian culture begins in Europe.
• 40,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art is the zoomorphic Löwenmensch figurine.
• 40,000–30,000 years ago: First human settlements were formed by Aboriginal Australians in several areas which are today the cities of Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne.
• 40,000–20,000 years ago: oldest known ritual cremation, the Mungo Lady, in Lake Mungo, Australia.
• 35,000 years ago: oldest known figurative art of a human figure as opposed to a zoomorphic figure (Venus of Hohle Fels).
• 33,000 years ago: earliest evidence of humanoids in Ireland
• 31,000–16,000 years ago: Last Glacial Maximum (peak at 26,500 years ago).
• 30,000 years ago: rock paintings tradition begins in Bhimbetka rock shelters in India, which presently as a collection is the densest known concentration of rock art. In an area about 10 km², there are about 800 rock shelters of which 500 contain paintings.
• 29,000 years ago: The earliest ovens found.
• 28,500 years ago: New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia.
• 28,000 years ago: oldest known twisted rope.
• 28,000–24,000 years ago: oldest known pottery—used to make figurines rather than cooking or storage vessels (Venus of Dolní Věstonice).
• 28,000–20,000 years ago: Gravettian period in Europe. Harpoons and saws were invented.
• 26,000 years ago: people around the world use fibers to make baby carriers, clothes, bags, baskets, and nets.
• 25,000 years ago: a hamlet consisting of huts built of rocks and of mammoth bones is founded in what is now Dolní Věstonice in Moravia in the Czech Republic. This is the oldest human permanent settlement that has yet been found by archaeologists.
• 24,000 years ago: The cave bear is thought to have become extinct.
• 24,000 years ago: Evidence suggests humans living in Alaska and Yukon North America.
• 23,000-21,000 years ago: The earliest known human footprints in North America are left at what is now White Sands National Park, New Mexico. It is also the earliest known evidence of the Oasisamerica civilizations, which eventually became the cultures in modern Northern Mexico and Southwestern United States.
• 21,000 years ago: artifacts suggest early human activity occurred in Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
• 20,000 years ago: Kebaran culture in the Levant: beginning of the Epipalaeolithic in the Levant
• 20,000 years ago: theorized the earliest date of development of traditional Inuit skin clothing
• 20,000–10,000 years ago: Khoisanid expansion to Central Africa.
• 20,000–19,000 years ago: earliest pottery use, in Xianren Cave, China.
• 18,000–12,000 years ago: Though estimations vary widely, it is believed by scholars that Afro-Asiatic was spoken as a single language around this time period.
• 16,000–14,000 years ago: Minatogawa Man (Proto-Mongoloid phenotype) in Okinawa, Japan
• 16,000–11,000 years ago: Caucasus hunter-gatherer expansion to Europe.
• 16,000 years ago: Wisent (European bison) sculpted in clay deep inside the cave now known as Le Tuc d’Audoubert in the French Pyrenees near what is now the border of Spain.
• 15,000–14,700 years ago (13,000 to 12,700 BCE): Earliest supposed date for the domestication of the pig.
• 14,800 years ago: The Humid Period begins in North Africa. The region that would later become the Sahara is wet and fertile, and the aquifers are full.
• 14,500–11,500: Red Deer Cave people in China, possible late survival of archaic or archaic-modern hybrid humans.
• 14,200 years ago: The oldest agreed domestic dog remains belongs to the Bonn-Oberkassel dog that was buried with two humans.
• 14,000–12,000 years ago: Oldest evidence for prehistoric warfare (Jebel Sahaba, Natufian culture).
• 13,000–10,000 years ago: Last Glacial Maximum, end of the Last Glacial Period, climate warms, glaciers recede.
• 13,000 years ago: A major water outbreak occurs on Lake Agassiz, which at the time could have been the size of the current Black Sea and the largest lake on Earth. Much of the lake is drained in the Arctic Ocean through the Mackenzie River.
• 13,000–11,000 years ago: Earliest dates suggested for the domestication of the sheep.
• 12,900–11,700 years ago: The Younger Dryas, a period of sudden cooling and return to glacial conditions.
• c.12,000 years ago: Volcanic eruptions in the Virunga Mountains blocked Lake Kivu outflow into Lake Edward and the Nile system, diverting the water to Lake Tanganyika. Nile’s total length is shortened and Lake Tanganyika’s surface is increased.
• 12,000 years ago: Earliest dates suggested for the domestication of the goat.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref 

Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey 

“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Low Gods “Earth” or Tutelary deity and High Gods “Sky” or Supreme deity

“An Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth. Earth goddesses are often associated with the “chthonic” deities of the underworld. Ki and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi/Bhūmi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religion. Egyptian mythology exceptionally has a sky goddess and an Earth god.” ref

“A mother goddess is a goddess who represents or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother. In some religious traditions or movements, Heavenly Mother (also referred to as Mother in Heaven or Sky Mother) is the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky father or God the Father.” ref

“Any masculine sky god is often also king of the gods, taking the position of patriarch within a pantheon. Such king gods are collectively categorized as “sky father” deities, with a polarity between sky and earth often being expressed by pairing a “sky father” god with an “earth mother” goddess (pairings of a sky mother with an earth father are less frequent). A main sky goddess is often the queen of the gods and may be an air/sky goddess in her own right, though she usually has other functions as well with “sky” not being her main. In antiquity, several sky goddesses in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East were called Queen of Heaven. Neopagans often apply it with impunity to sky goddesses from other regions who were never associated with the term historically. The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.” ref

“In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a “father”, often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of “sky father” may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an “earth mother“. “Sky Father” is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter and Germanic Týr, Tir or Tiwaz, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity’s name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref

Tutelary deity

“A tutelary (also tutelar) is a deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of “tutelary” expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship. In late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the genius, functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Korean shamanism, jangseung and sotdae were placed at the edge of villages to frighten off demons. They were also worshiped as deities. Seonangshin is the patron deity of the village in Korean tradition and was believed to embody the Seonangdang. In Philippine animism, Diwata or Lambana are deities or spirits that inhabit sacred places like mountains and mounds and serve as guardians. Such as: Maria Makiling is the deity who guards Mt. Makiling and Maria Cacao and Maria Sinukuan. In Shinto, the spirits, or kami, which give life to human bodies come from nature and return to it after death. Ancestors are therefore themselves tutelaries to be worshiped. And similarly, Native American beliefs such as Tonás, tutelary animal spirit among the Zapotec and Totems, familial or clan spirits among the Ojibwe, can be animals.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Austronesian beliefs such as: Atua (gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori or the Hawaiians), Hanitu (Bunun of Taiwan‘s term for spirit), Hyang (Kawi, Sundanese, Javanese, and Balinese Supreme Being, in ancient Java and Bali mythology and this spiritual entity, can be either divine or ancestral), Kaitiaki (New Zealand Māori term used for the concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land), Kawas (mythology) (divided into 6 groups: gods, ancestors, souls of the living, spirits of living things, spirits of lifeless objects, and ghosts), Tiki (Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne and represents deified ancestors found in most Polynesian cultures). ” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Mesopotamian Tutelary Deities can be seen as ones related to City-States 

“Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Uruk and Ur; Ancient Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the Phoenician cities (such as Tyre and Sidon); the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-states of the Garamantes; the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth); the Roman Republic (which grew from a city-state into a vast empire); the Italian city-states from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, such as Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Milan (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and Genoa and Venice, which became powerful thalassocracies; the Mayan and other cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including cities such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copán and Monte Albán); the central Asian cities along the Silk Road; the city-states of the Swahili coast; Ragusa; states of the medieval Russian lands such as Novgorod and Pskov; and many others.” ref

“The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BCE; also known as Protoliterate period) of Mesopotamia, named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization. City-States like Uruk and others had a patron tutelary City Deity along with a Priest-King.” ref

“Chinese folk religion, both past, and present, includes myriad tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals, highly cultivated sages, and prominent ancestors can be deified and honored after death. Lord Guan is the patron of military personnel and police, while Mazu is the patron of fishermen and sailors. Such as Tu Di Gong (Earth Deity) is the tutelary deity of a locality, and each individual locality has its own Earth Deity and Cheng Huang Gong (City God) is the guardian deity of an individual city, worshipped by local officials and locals since imperial times.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Hinduism, personal tutelary deities are known as ishta-devata, while family tutelary deities are known as Kuladevata. Gramadevata are guardian deities of villages. Devas can also be seen as tutelary. Shiva is the patron of yogis and renunciants. City goddesses include: Mumbadevi (Mumbai), Sachchika (Osian); Kuladevis include: Ambika (Porwad), and Mahalakshmi. In NorthEast India Meitei mythology and religion (Sanamahism) of Manipur, there are various types of tutelary deities, among which Lam Lais are the most predominant ones. Tibetan Buddhism has Yidam as a tutelary deity. Dakini is the patron of those who seek knowledge.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) The Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places: for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion:

You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me … . This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.” ref

“Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion. The tutelary deity of a man was his Genius, that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult. An emperor might also adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo. Precedents for claiming the personal protection of a deity were established in the Republican era, when for instance the Roman dictator Sulla advertised the goddess Victory as his tutelary by holding public games (ludi) in her honor.” ref

“Each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection was considered particularly vital in time of war and siege. Rome itself was protected by a goddess whose name was to be kept ritually secret on pain of death (for a supposed case, see Quintus Valerius Soranus). The Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva were also tutelaries of Rome. The Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno often had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and the Etruscan city of Veii, and was often housed in an especially grand temple on the arx (citadel) or other prominent or central location. The tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna, whose oracle was renowned.” ref

“The Roman ritual of evocatio was premised on the belief that a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside the city, perhaps by the offer of superior cult at Rome. The depiction of some goddesses such as the Magna Mater (Great Mother, or Cybele) as “tower-crowned” represents their capacity to preserve the city. A town in the provinces might adopt a deity from within the Roman religious sphere to serve as its guardian, or syncretize its own tutelary with such; for instance, a community within the civitas of the Remi in Gaul adopted Apollo as its tutelary, and at the capital of the Remi (present-day Rheims), the tutelary was Mars Camulus.” ref 

Household deity (a kind of or related to a Tutelary deity)

“A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity – typically a goddess – often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia.” ref

“The second type of household deities are those that are not one singular deity, but a type, or species of animistic deity, who usually have lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the Lares of ancient Roman religion, the Gashin of Korean shamanism, and Cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoy.” ref

“Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represented by small idols (such as the teraphim of the Bible, often translated as “household gods” in Genesis 31:19 for example), amulets, paintings, or reliefs. They could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a small shrine to the household god(s); the lararium served this purpose in the case of the Romans. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals, or be given offerings of food and drink.” ref

“In many religions, both ancient and modern, a god would preside over the home. Certain species, or types, of household deities, existed. An example of this was the Roman Lares. Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period. Some examples of these include:

• Brownie (Scotland and England) or Hob (England) / Kobold (Germany) / Goblin / Hobgoblin
• Domovoy (Slavic)
• Nisse (Norwegian or Danish) / Tomte (Swedish) / Tonttu (Finnish)
• Húsvættir (Norse)” ref

“Although the cosmic status of household deities was not as lofty as that of the Twelve Olympians or the Aesir, they were also jealous of their dignity and also had to be appeased with shrines and offerings, however humble. Because of their immediacy they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. Vestiges of their worship persisted long after Christianity and other major religions extirpated nearly every trace of the major pagan pantheons. Elements of the practice can be seen even today, with Christian accretions, where statues to various saints (such as St. Francis) protect gardens and grottos. Even the gargoyles found on older churches, could be viewed as guardians partitioning a sacred space.” ref

“For centuries, Christianity fought a mop-up war against these lingering minor pagan deities, but they proved tenacious. For example, Martin Luther‘s Tischreden have numerous – quite serious – references to dealing with kobolds. Eventually, rationalism and the Industrial Revolution threatened to erase most of these minor deities, until the advent of romantic nationalism rehabilitated them and embellished them into objects of literary curiosity in the 19th century. Since the 20th century this literature has been mined for characters for role-playing games, video games, and other fantasy personae, not infrequently invested with invented traits and hierarchies somewhat different from their mythological and folkloric roots.” ref

“In contradistinction to both Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its origin in totemism. In reality, this distinction is somewhat academic, since totemism may be regarded as a particularized manifestation of animism, and something of a synthesis of the two positions was attempted by Sigmund Freud. In Freud’s Totem and Taboo, both totem and taboo are outward expressions or manifestations of the same psychological tendency, a concept which is complementary to, or which rather reconciles, the apparent conflict. Freud preferred to emphasize the psychoanalytic implications of the reification of metaphysical forces, but with particular emphasis on its familial nature. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component.” ref

“William Edward Hearn, a noted classicist, and jurist, traced the origin of domestic deities from the earliest stages as an expression of animism, a belief system thought to have existed also in the neolithic, and the forerunner of Indo-European religion. In his analysis of the Indo-European household, in Chapter II “The House Spirit”, Section 1, he states:

The belief which guided the conduct of our forefathers was … the spirit rule of dead ancestors.” ref

“In Section 2 he proceeds to elaborate:

It is thus certain that the worship of deceased ancestors is a vera causa, and not a mere hypothesis. …

In the other European nations, the Slavs, the Teutons, and the Kelts, the House Spirit appears with no less distinctness. … [T]he existence of that worship does not admit of doubt. … The House Spirits had a multitude of other names which it is needless here to enumerate, but all of which are more or less expressive of their friendly relations with man. … In [England] … [h]e is the Brownie. … In Scotland this same Brownie is well known. He is usually described as attached to particular families, with whom he has been known to reside for centuries, threshing the corn, cleaning the house, and performing similar household tasks. His favorite gratification was milk and honey.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. ref

 Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago Khirbet Qeiyafa is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Elah Valley. And many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed around 2,500) ref, ref

Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)

“Judaism is an Abrahamic, its roots as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Some scholars argue that modern Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, by the late 6th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions.” ref

“Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel, essentially polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah, with his consort, the goddess Asherah; below them were second-tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their own priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees, and a third and fourth tier of minor divine beings, including the mal’ak, the messengers of the higher gods, who in later times became the angels of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yahweh, however, was not the ‘original’ god of Israel “Isra-El”; it is El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon, whose name forms the basis of the name “Israel”, and none of the Old Testament patriarchs, the tribes of Israel, the Judges, or the earliest monarchs, have a Yahwistic theophoric name (i.e., one incorporating the name of Yahweh).” ref

“El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning “god” or “deity“, or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ‘ila, represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, meaning “god”. Specific deities known as ‘El or ‘Il include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia’s Early Dynastic Period. ʼĒl is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, ʼĒl played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, ʾil mlk is understood to mean “ʼĒl the King” but ʾil hd as “the god Hadad“. The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic ʾAlāh, ʾElāh, Hebrew ʾelōah) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning “gods” is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm “powers”. In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for “god” by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis for the Old Testament (corresponds to the Jewish Torah) developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.” ref

Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. ref

Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. ref

Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. ref

Christianity around 2,o00 years old. ref

Shinto around 1,305 years old. ref

Islam around 1407–1385 years old. ref

Sikhism around 548–478 years old. ref

Bahá’í around 200–125 years old. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Expressions of Atheistic Thinking:

• Around 2,600 years ago, Ajita Kesakambali, ancient Indian philosopher, who is the first known proponent of Indian materialism. ref
• Around 2,535 to 2,475 years ago, Heraclitus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor or modern Turkey. ref
• Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, according to The Story of Civilization book series certain African pygmy tribes have no identifiable gods, spirits, or religious beliefs or rituals, and even what burials accrue are without ceremony. ref
• Around 2,490 to 2,430 years ago, Empedocles, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. ref
• Around 2,460 to 2,370 years ago, Democritus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher considered to be the “father of modern science” possibly had some disbelief amounting to atheism. ref
• Around 2,399 years ago or so, Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher was tried for sinfulness by teaching doubt of state gods. ref
• Around 2,341 to 2,270 years ago, Epicurus, a Greek philosopher known for composing atheistic critics and famously stated, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god?” ref

This last expression by Epicurus, seems to be an expression of Axiological Atheism. To understand and utilize value or actually possess “Value Conscious/Consciousness” to both give a strong moral “axiological” argument (the problem of evil) as well as use it to fortify humanism and positive ethical persuasion of human helping and care responsibilities. Because value-blindness gives rise to sociopathic/psychopathic evil.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

The “Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries”

Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ Atheist Leftist @Skepticallefty & I (Damien Marie AtHope) @AthopeMarie (my YouTube & related blog) are working jointly in atheist, antitheist, antireligionist, antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and humanist endeavors in our videos together, generally, every other Saturday.

Why Does Power Bring Responsibility?

Think, how often is it the powerless that start wars, oppress others, or commit genocide? So, I guess the question is to us all, to ask, how can power not carry responsibility in a humanity concept? I know I see the deep ethical responsibility that if there is power their must be a humanistic responsibility of ethical and empathic stewardship of that power. Will I be brave enough to be kind? Will I possess enough courage to be compassionate? Will my valor reach its height of empathy? I as everyone, earns our justified respect by our actions, that are good, ethical, just, protecting, and kind. Do I have enough self-respect to put my love for humanity’s flushing, over being brought down by some of its bad actors? May we all be the ones doing good actions in the world, to help human flourishing.

I create the world I want to live in, striving for flourishing. Which is not a place but a positive potential involvement and promotion; a life of humanist goal precision. To master oneself, also means mastering positive prosocial behaviors needed for human flourishing. I may have lost a god myth as an atheist, but I am happy to tell you, my friend, it is exactly because of that, leaving the mental terrorizer, god belief, that I truly regained my connected ethical as well as kind humanity.

Cory and I will talk about prehistory and theism, addressing the relevance to atheism, anarchism, and socialism.

At the same time as the rise of the male god, 7,000 years ago, there was also the very time there was the rise of violence, war, and clans to kingdoms, then empires, then states. It is all connected back to 7,000 years ago, and it moved across the world.

Cory Johnston: https://damienmarieathope.com/2021/04/cory-johnston-mind-of-a-skeptical-leftist/?v=32aec8db952d  

The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist (YouTube)

Cory Johnston: Mind of a Skeptical Leftist @Skepticallefty

The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist By Cory Johnston: “Promoting critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics by covering current events and talking to a variety of people. Cory Johnston has been thoughtfully talking to people and attempting to promote critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics.” http://anchor.fm/skepticalleft

Cory needs our support. We rise by helping each other.

Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ @Skepticallefty Evidence-based atheist leftist (he/him) Producer, host, and co-host of 4 podcasts @skeptarchy @skpoliticspod and @AthopeMarie

Damien Marie AtHope (“At Hope”) Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.

Damien is interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman’s Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ageism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, “Anarcho-Humanist.”

I am not a good fit in the atheist movement that is mostly pro-capitalist, I am anti-capitalist. Mostly pro-skeptic, I am a rationalist not valuing skepticism. Mostly pro-agnostic, I am anti-agnostic. Mostly limited to anti-Abrahamic religions, I am an anti-religionist. 

To me, the “male god” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 7,000 years ago, whereas the now favored monotheism “male god” is more like 4,000 years ago or so. To me, the “female goddess” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 11,000-10,000 years ago or so, losing the majority of its once prominence around 2,000 years ago due largely to the now favored monotheism “male god” that grow in prominence after 4,000 years ago or so. 

My Thought on the Evolution of Gods?

Animal protector deities from old totems/spirit animal beliefs come first to me, 13,000/12,000 years ago, then women as deities 11,000/10,000 years ago, then male gods around 7,000/8,000 years ago. Moralistic gods around 5,000/4,000 years ago, and monotheistic gods around 4,000/3,000 years ago. 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism

My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com