prehistoric-archive

[prehistoric-archive]

VERGE OF THE WIDER SEA -

My Paleolithic character Nisse at the edge of the western ocean.

[old art]

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Megaloceros with Line of Dots, Lascaux Cave, France, c. 16000 -15000 BCE

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i wish i could talk to the artists of cave paintings. do you know! do you know that your art lasted thousands of years! do you know that it's still beautiful! do you know that you've left us a view of creatures and cultures that have been gone since before our history starts! do you know how many people look at what you've made and think, "this is what it is to be human"! do you know i'm still in awe of your skill and elegance and stylization even now in a world that would probably be unrecognizable to you! aaaaa

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Neanderthal Reconstruction and Skull, St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff, Wales

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the Lascaux cave art pins are now live at greerstothers.shop

I’ve loved these for ages, because of how they show the colourations of extinct animals! that’s something that is so hard to preserve through fossils, but now we know that prehistoric horses had Przewalski-esque coats, that giant elk had these dark shoulder humps, and that cave lions were tawny with dorsal stripes

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na bachlóga

the buds

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Hey! Eagle Scout coming at you with some words of advice!

To preface, you should never go hiking alone, especially in the back country or in the mountains.

Now a quick fun fact about Mountain Lions. They stalk their prey, so if you see one it has already decided against eating you or you've caught it by surprise!

If it doesn't immediately run off here's what you do.

First, stay calm.

 This will be easier said than done. Hold your ground or back away slowly. Face the lion and stand upright.

Do not approach a lion.

 Never approach a mountain lion, especially one that has cubs nearby. Most mountain lions will try to avoid a confrontation. Give them a way to escape.

Do not run from a lion. 

Running may stimulate a mountain lion's instinct to chase, it is still a cat. Instead, stand and face the animal. Make eye contact. If you have small children with you, pick them up if possible so they don't panic and run. Although it may be awkward, pick them up without bending over or turning away from the mountain lion.

Do not crouch down or bend over.

Biologists surmise mountain lions don't recognize standing humans as prey. On the other hand, a person squatting or bending over looks a lot like a four-legged prey animal. If you're in mountain lion habitat, avoid squatting, crouching or bending over, even when picking up children.

If you intend to take children with you, I recommend you have them practice climbing into your arms.

If the mountain lion moves in your direction or acts aggressively:

Do all you can to appear intimidating.

Attempt to appear larger by raising your arms and opening your jacket if you are wearing one. Wave your arms slowly and speak firmly in a loud voice.

If looking bigger doesn't scare the mountain lion off, start throwing stones, branches, or whatever you can reach in its direction without crouching or turning your back. Don't throw things at it just yet. It is still an important part of the local ecosystem so you want to avoid hurting the lion if possible.

With that said, your safety is of the utmost importance and the National Park Service won't necessarily prosecute you for harassment of wildlife if something you throw at an aggressive mountain lion does make contact.

During the initial stages of a mountain lion encounter, the idea is to convince the mountain lion that you are not prey and that you may be a danger to it.

This is also the time to get your hands on a force multiplier. Hiking sticks, rocks, even your hiking bag. Be prepared to use it to defend yourself.

If the mountain lion continues to move in your direction:

Start throwing things AT it. Again, your safety is more important than the mountain lion's.

If the mountain lion attacks you:

Fight back! A hiker in Southern California used a rock to fend off a mountain lion that was attacking his son. Others have fought back successfully with sticks, caps, jackets, garden tools, and their bare hands. Since a mountain lion usually tries to bite the head or neck, try to remain standing and face the attacking animal.

When you get out of the encounter, and you will if you follow this guide, report the encounter asap with Park Services. If you see a lion moving away from you, report the sighting to Park Services.

[prehistoric-archive]

Check out my extensive collection of bushcraft & survival PDF's.

Click here. 🏕️

[prehistoric-archive]

fav whump tropes for a whumpee lost or abandoned in the forest? forests are one of my fav whump settings but i'm from the city and have never been in an actual forest before

ohohoho hyperfixation: activated

I think one of my favorite things is the first time the character secures something they need for the first time, such as...

...a source of clean water.

A human can survive without water for like 3 days.

Dehydration symptoms include body aches, headaches, dizziness, confusion.

Salt water will kill you and a lot of freshwater water will kill you slower

Stagnant water is the worst; moving water like rivers is better. Naturally filtered moving water (such as water seeping through layers of moss and dirt) is even better. All of these sources of water should still be boiled for 7 minutes if possible. You'd only drink straight from the source if like, you're dying and need water in you immediately. Rainfall/snow, plants, and condensation are the safest options for unboiled water.

The relief of wetting your throat for the first time in days is incredible

...something filling to eat.

when you're hungry almost nothing else matters besides getting some food in you asap (hierarchy of needs etc etc)

Hunger dulls your mind and body and makes you prone to heightened emotion & irritation, so being unable to find food immediately makes finding future food an uphill battle. You’ll be constantly fatigued. You’ll make incredibly stupid mistakes and beat yourself up for them.

A lot of plants will feed you, but a lot will kill you, and some are edible but need proper prep. Worse yet, many edible plants have poisonous look-alikes!

Carbohydrates will keep your brain functioning, but protein is necessary for repairing stressed or wounded tissue; protein will keep your body working. However, protein’s very difficult to get from plants alone, especially plants you're not cultivating

Vegans/vegetarians will most likely die if they fail to prioritize themselves over animals. Specialized diets are a privilege.

I’d be remiss if I failed to mention refeeding syndrome! After a period of starvation/low caloric intake, a sudden glut of food may cause someone to be very sick.

but yeah the first successful hunt/trap/fishing is great. There’s deep emotion in knowing you’ll survive another few days.

...shelter.

A good shelter will shield you from wind, keep you dry and warm, and insulate you from the ground.

Building shelter is hard labor and should be one of the first tasks completed upon finding yourself in a survival situation, right after finding water. No shelter means no sleep, and no sleep means death.

A whumpee will find out very quickly that sheltering at the bottom of a slope or near a body of water in a rainy area will flood.

Caves are nice natural shelters but may already be inhabited. Same with any large dens/burrows.

...fire, which brings warmth, the ability to cook/sterilize, and keeps many animals at bay.

...a tool, like they manage to make a bow, or a net, or something else that will ease their ability to fulfill their basic needs. (Conversely, the loss of a tool in a survival situation is devastating.)

Some other favorites include:

falling into a trap--the bear trap, the net, the pit, or the rope trap.

Wounds of any sort, either preexisting or newly acquired. Being wounded can quickly become a death sentence when you’re alone in the wild.

whumpee being found by someone while on the brink of death and being nursed back to health

they find they’ve been going in circles. If the sun is your only guide but today is cloudy or the canopy is too thick to see it, you are out of luck. 

coming out the other side unrecognizable / feeling barely human

finally being found after a long stretch of surviving on your own

[prehistoric-archive]

Crowberry Flowers❤️

In a month or two these tiny little plants will be covered on black berries!

Food uses for the berries include being stewed and used for syrups, cakes, muffins, fruit leather, and savory jams and jellies. An ice-cream topping can be made by mixing stewed Crowberries with honey and lemon.

For medicinal purposes, Discovering Wild Plants by Janice J. Schofield says this:

“Infusions of crowberry twigs and stems have been administered for colds, kidney troubles, and tuberculosis. Dena'ina Athabascans drink the tea for diarrhea. Kobuk River Eskimos use crowberry juice in sore eyes torelieve snowblindness. Decoctions of the roots and bark have also been used for sore eyes and cataracts.”

Crowberries are often found in bogs, heaths, tundra, and high mountains (the latter being where I took these photos yesterday). They range from Alaska and the Yukon to California.

Also something to note is that when you find them, you often find them in bulk. This is a mountainside completely covered in Crowberry flowers :-)

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Betula alleghaniensis - The Yellow Birch

Also known as the Swamp Birch or Golden Birch. A beautiful tree with a myriad of uses for the adventurer. The outer bark of the tree is a potent fire starter even when wet. The oils found in it can be reduced down to create a Birch oil or Birch tar. These can be used for adhesives, waterproofing, wood treating, and hide conditioning. The young twigs can be scraped to reveal a wintergreen scent. A product of the Methyl Salicylate produced in them. The young twigs can be boiled for a wintergreen tea. The oils from the trees also have a background in traditional medicine, used as a topical relief for skin conditions. These trees can also be tapped for the syrup, which can be boiled down for a maple syrup alternative. Multiple types of useful fungi can also be found on these trees. Chaga, (Inonotus obliquus) The Birch Polypore, (Fomitopsis betulina) and the Oyster Mushroom, (Pleurotus ostreatus) to name a few. If harvested for the wood, it provides a strong, closely grained wood with a nice weight to it.

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As for the Hohle Fels “Phallus”, I’m reminded of a comment from a research paper I read:

For those ones proposing phallic cults and/or dildos (yes! I read this  suggestion somewhere) at that time, I will cite a phrase I read (I do not remember where): these interpretations say a lot about the mind of the  proposers (their own Rorschach-like test) than about reality.

Furthermore, the reason why the so-called phallus is called a flint knapper is due to the fact that microscopic analysis showed that the stone had been used as a hammer stone.

Female figurine from the Hohle Fels cave near Stuttgart, about 35,000 years old. Interpreted as a pornographic pin-up.

“The Earliest Pornography” says Science Now, describing the 35,000 year old ivory figurine that’s been dug up in a cave near Stuttgart. The tiny statuette is of a female with exaggerated breasts and vulva. According to Paul Mellars, one of the archaeologist twits who commented on the find for Nature, this makes the figurine “pornographic.” Nature is even titling its article, “Prehistoric Pin Up.” It’s the Venus of Willendorf double standard all over again. Ancient figures of naked pregnant women are interpreted by smirking male archaeologists as pornography, while equally sexualized images of men are assumed to depict gods or shamans. Or even hunters or warriors. Funny, huh?

Consider: phallic images from the Paleolithic are at least 28,000 years old. Neolithic cultures all over the world seemed to have a thing for sculptures with enormous erect phalluses. Ancient civilizations were awash in images of male genitalia, from the Indian lingam to the Egyptian benben to the Greek herm. The Romans even painted phalluses on their doors and wore phallic charms around their necks.

Ithyphallic figure from Lascaux, about 17,000 years old. Interpreted as a shaman.

But nobody ever interprets this ancient phallic imagery as pornography. Instead, it’s understood to indicate reverence for male sexual potency. No one, for example, has ever suggested that the Lascaux cave dude was a pin-up; he’s assumed to be a shaman. The ithyphallic figurines from the Neolithic — and there are many — are interpreted as gods. And everyone knows that the phalluses of ancient India and Egypt and Greece and Rome represented awesome divine powers of fertility and protection. Yet an ancient figurine of a nude woman — a life-giving woman, with her vulva ready to bring forth a new human being, and her milk-filled breasts ready to nourish that being — is interpreted as pornography. Just something for a man to whack off to. It’s not as if there’s no other context in which to interpret the figure. After all, the European Paleolithic is chock full of pregnant-looking female statuettes that are quite similar to this one. By the time we get to the Neolithic, the naked pregnant female is enthroned with lions at her feet, and it’s clear that people are worshipping some kind of female god.

Yet in the Science Now article, the archaeologist who found the figurine is talking about pornographic pin-ups: “I showed it to a male colleague, and his response was, ‘Nothing’s changed in 40,000 years.’” That sentence needs to be bronzed and hung up on a plaque somewhere, because you couldn’t ask for a better demonstration of the classic fallacy of reading the present into the past. The archaeologist assumes the artist who created the figurine was male; why? He assumes the motive was lust; why? Because that’s all he knows. To his mind, the image of a naked woman with big breasts and exposed vulva can only mean one thing: porn! Porn made by men, for men! And so he assumes, without questioning his assumptions, that the image must have meant the same thing 35,000 years ago. No other mental categories for “naked woman” are available to him. His mind is a closed box. This has been the central flaw of anthropology for as long there’s been anthropology. And even before: the English invaders of North America thought the Iroquois chiefs had concubines who accompanied them everywhere, because they had no other mental categories to account for well-dressed, important-looking women sitting in a council house. It’s the same fallacy that bedevils archaeologists who dig up male skeletons with fancy beads and conclude that the society was male dominant (because powerful people wear jewelry!), and at another site dig up female skeletons with fancy beads and conclude that this society, too, was male dominant (because women have to dress up as sex objects and trophy wives!). Male dominance is all they can imagine. And so no matter what they dig up, they interpret it to fit their mental model. It’s the fallacy that also drives evolutionary psychology, the central premise of which is that human beings in the African Pleistocene had exactly the same values, beliefs, prejudices, power struggles, goals, and needs as the middle-class white professors and students in a graduate psychology lab in modern-day Santa Barbara, California. And that these same factors are universal and unchanged and true for all time.

Hohle Fels phallus, about 28,000 years old. Interpreted as a symbolic object and …flint knapper. Yes.

That’s not science; it’s circular, self-serving propaganda. This little figurine from Hohle Fels, for example, is going to be used as “proof” that pornography is ancient and natural. I guarantee it. Having been interpreted by pornsick male archaeologists as pornography because that’s all they know, the statuette will now be trotted out by every every psycho and male supremacist on the planet as “proof” that pornography is eternal, that male dominance is how it’s supposed to be, and that feminists are crazy so shut the fuck up. Look for it in Steven Pinker’s next book. ***

P.S. My own completely speculative guess on the figurine is that it might be connected to childbirth rituals. Notice the engraved marks and slashes; that’s a motif that continues for thousands of years on these little female figurines. No one knows what they mean, but they meant something. They’re not just random cut marks. Someone put a great deal of work into this sculpture. Given that childbirth was incredibly risky for Paleolithic women, they must have prayed their hearts out for help and protection in that time. I can imagine an elder female shaman or artist carving this potent little figure, and propping it up somewhere as a focus for those prayers.

On the other hand, it is possible that it has nothing to do with childbearing or sexual behavior at all. The breasts and vulva may simply indicate who the figure is: the female god. Think of how Christ is always depicted with a beard, which is a male sexual characteristic, even though Christ isn’t about male sexuality. The beard is just a marker. Or, given the figurine’s exaggerated breasts, it may have something to do with sustenance: milk, food, nourishment.

The notion that some dude carved this thing to whack off to — when he was surrounded by women who probably weren’t wearing much in the way of clothes anyway — is laughable.

[prehistoric-archive]

We went to the Neanderthal museum yesterday, which is also the place where they discovered the first Neanderthal, or at least recognized it as such anyway. It was such a beautiful exhibition and the sculptures felt so alive. It gave me Big Feels and made me feel so close to these humans that once excisted.

Part 5

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Hey! I’ll finally be doing some Ice Age animals this year for some new ornaments! Starting things off with Megaloceros, aka the Irish Elk!

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👏👏👏

'people have always been people' goes for simple human compassion & humor but only if it also means understanding that historical people have always been as complex and nuanced and innovative as they are now. their food and clothing and language and tools, particularly of ordinary people, however different than you're used to, should not be assumed to represent cultural inferiority or that those people had inferior tastes or intelligence or capacity for feeling than you do

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