A friend turned me on to Billy Carson. I like listening to him; very intelligent guy. I don't know what to make of some of the things he says, but he too says that civilization as we know it so far is at least 200,000 years old and that there are tablets called the Emerald Tablets that have written history on them.
I can't help but wonder what was going on when these little children or people were buried in such a careful and arduous way so that no one could find them. Whatever it was, it must have been catastrophic.
I was excited right along with the explorer - because we learn much from these digs. But also disturbed and conflicted. With the technology we have today, i wonder if digs could become obsolete and we could leave things in the ground; LIDAR and all... amazing stuff. That would be a win-win-win I think.
Very interesting Joyce. The more we learn, the more empty an open mind might seem. So many questions including - what happened to the Homo naledi line? Were the parents an exception or were most of the species exceptional in a most wonderful way? Knowing nothing about Atlantis , could this finding be related? So many questions and such a complicated world.
Since we only use about 10-15 percent of the human homo sapiens brain, "size doesn't matter" in the case of Homo naledi- maybe they used more of their brains than we do... Just a thought!
Interesting thought. I've often wondered if my brain would serve me well if I were back in a time where I wasn't surrounded by the brilliance and inventiveness of all who came before me. I'm not sure I could even make fire or feed myself.
This is the kind of 'dig' that I love and enjoy - thank you for it. I am heartened that they keep finding older and older species disproving our anthropocentric exceptionalism. I'm grateful for your write, for your open minded wonder, for our right size in vast universes, and the thought that every being who came before us can be our ancestor - that includes animal, vegetable, mineral; everything that makes up Life on Earth and probably beyond Earth. I believe all molecules are alive in whatever form. This idea supports my own cosmology - the only one that makes sense, for me - and I've looked at many.
I hope they left that child's bones down there in the sacred site, though! If not, it's desecration of those parents' wishes and actions. Many tribal peoples believe that the bones need to stay in the burial sites. Here where I live, they never remove the bones. If someone just 'has' to build (due to land use laws that don't respect Tribal Law), the Tribes usually just tell them to build right over the site without desecrating the bones. It is that important to them that the bones not be removed or 'recovered.' They're not ours, or the archaeologists', to 'recover.'
It was disturbing to watch that video made at the Explorers Club - which seems like a group that comes from privilege and wealth. All the colonization that has been done in the name of exploration. I get it that archaeology may be the only way to discover ancient civilization,s but it still bothers me - the removal of bones and artifacts - I feel conflicted about it a lot - and at the same time, fascinated by how little we know and how much older civilizations are than is imagined.
Thanks for watching it and sharing your opinion. I'm afraid I watched it through westernized eyes and mainly saw the adventure. You're giving me a lot of food for thought.
Thanks for your note ... I'm afraid they did take the bones back through the mere inches of the long tunnel. I am sorry for the desecration while at the same time appreciating the knowledge gained. I believe it was in the lab that they made a lot of discoveries including the rock tool folded into the hand of the child. Life is filled with conflicted choices.
I am fascinated by cave painting articles that keep popping up, and going back farther in time. This article came up recently about a grooved wood structure. Made quite a while ago...
"...these logs were once part of a platform or the base of a structure. If true, that would make this site by far the oldest example of human beings building with wood – stretching back some 476,000 years."
Your goal to stimulate my curiosity was successful. Thank you!
I read the first bedtime story.
I love this quote:
“We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.”
A friend turned me on to Billy Carson. I like listening to him; very intelligent guy. I don't know what to make of some of the things he says, but he too says that civilization as we know it so far is at least 200,000 years old and that there are tablets called the Emerald Tablets that have written history on them.
I can't help but wonder what was going on when these little children or people were buried in such a careful and arduous way so that no one could find them. Whatever it was, it must have been catastrophic.
I was excited right along with the explorer - because we learn much from these digs. But also disturbed and conflicted. With the technology we have today, i wonder if digs could become obsolete and we could leave things in the ground; LIDAR and all... amazing stuff. That would be a win-win-win I think.
Very interesting Joyce. The more we learn, the more empty an open mind might seem. So many questions including - what happened to the Homo naledi line? Were the parents an exception or were most of the species exceptional in a most wonderful way? Knowing nothing about Atlantis , could this finding be related? So many questions and such a complicated world.
Yes. Enough to keep so many of us curious folks wondering for a very long time. Thanks.
Since we only use about 10-15 percent of the human homo sapiens brain, "size doesn't matter" in the case of Homo naledi- maybe they used more of their brains than we do... Just a thought!
Interesting thought. I've often wondered if my brain would serve me well if I were back in a time where I wasn't surrounded by the brilliance and inventiveness of all who came before me. I'm not sure I could even make fire or feed myself.
This is the kind of 'dig' that I love and enjoy - thank you for it. I am heartened that they keep finding older and older species disproving our anthropocentric exceptionalism. I'm grateful for your write, for your open minded wonder, for our right size in vast universes, and the thought that every being who came before us can be our ancestor - that includes animal, vegetable, mineral; everything that makes up Life on Earth and probably beyond Earth. I believe all molecules are alive in whatever form. This idea supports my own cosmology - the only one that makes sense, for me - and I've looked at many.
I hope they left that child's bones down there in the sacred site, though! If not, it's desecration of those parents' wishes and actions. Many tribal peoples believe that the bones need to stay in the burial sites. Here where I live, they never remove the bones. If someone just 'has' to build (due to land use laws that don't respect Tribal Law), the Tribes usually just tell them to build right over the site without desecrating the bones. It is that important to them that the bones not be removed or 'recovered.' They're not ours, or the archaeologists', to 'recover.'
You took the words right out of my mouth regarding the - honoring the parents wishes and dedication to their child's "welfare"
It was disturbing to watch that video made at the Explorers Club - which seems like a group that comes from privilege and wealth. All the colonization that has been done in the name of exploration. I get it that archaeology may be the only way to discover ancient civilization,s but it still bothers me - the removal of bones and artifacts - I feel conflicted about it a lot - and at the same time, fascinated by how little we know and how much older civilizations are than is imagined.
Thanks for watching it and sharing your opinion. I'm afraid I watched it through westernized eyes and mainly saw the adventure. You're giving me a lot of food for thought.
Thanks for your note ... I'm afraid they did take the bones back through the mere inches of the long tunnel. I am sorry for the desecration while at the same time appreciating the knowledge gained. I believe it was in the lab that they made a lot of discoveries including the rock tool folded into the hand of the child. Life is filled with conflicted choices.
"Life is filled with conflicted choices." - That would be a books worth of truth!
Indeed!
True.
This is fun stuff to think about! I want to encourage you to keep going down this path whenever you can make space for it, Joyce.
Thanks ... and I've just made a commitment to stay on this course as long as it's fun. ;-)
“This left me free to drift back to the beginning.” I love this and the concept that we could trace ourselves back to the first single cell.
And I love this reminder that shedding, exceptionalism, in all its forms is a wisdom we could use more of.
Thanks, Joyce!
Thank you, Holly!
I am fascinated by cave painting articles that keep popping up, and going back farther in time. This article came up recently about a grooved wood structure. Made quite a while ago...
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/09/22/1200975292/worlds-oldest-wooden-structure-defies-stone-age-stereotypes
"...these logs were once part of a platform or the base of a structure. If true, that would make this site by far the oldest example of human beings building with wood – stretching back some 476,000 years."
Thanks for sharing ... I'm going to check that out. This stuff fascinates me also.
Your goal to stimulate my curiosity was successful. Thank you!
I read the first bedtime story.
I love this quote:
“We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.”
– Haile Selassie
So glad we share this curiosity and love the Selassie quote.
Fascinating post Joyce! I agree 100% with Elizabeth Gilbert on follow your curiosity!