Sometimes a story takes-on an element of survival. There must have even been a few stories of survival that have been lost or buried under layers of time. When I think about those lost stories I wonder, how much luck is at work in destiny? Especially for a race like ours. We are a pretty adaptable species but for all our gifts we need-to be cunning. We aren’t solitary hunters like most big-cats are. We are really more dog-like. But even though we are pack-hunters too, we aren’t distinctively predators. It’s almost a niche. While the bears and the dogs and the big-cats survive on their skills, we depend-on our tools.
Our story of survival begins with man-kind as the ‘game’. The wilder animals had already established their niches and left us to catch-up. We abandoned the plains and took-to the shelter of the forests. We must have grown-up some there because when we re-emerged as ground-dwellers we were ready for tools and fire. Tool crafting became a science. If tools could be “fashioned out of locally available raw materials”, they could level the playing-field. (Gamble – 286) We’ve still looked-over our shoulders for the bigger hunters but we had finally inherited a little bit of domain. We couldn’t venture far from our tools or fires but we finally had a strong-hold.
Tribes grew and colonized new turf and our race began to develop some culture. Dialects and cultural specialization distinguished one clan from another. Eventually, the resources of the sub-continent struggled to hold us all. There was still wilderness to the north. Clans broke-up and those willing to take-on big-game headed to the middle-east. “The Aurochs, or European-bison, appears to have been abundant in Western Europe.” (Avebury – 299) But, not all of the clans followed game to Europe. The exodus passed through the middle-east and then on to either the far-east or Gaul (western-central Europe), or to the steppes in the north between them. There aren’t many big settlements in the steppes of Eurasia, unlike the more ‘cosmopolitan’ frontiers to the east or west. I get the feeling that medicine (maybe because the far-east is the birthplace of gun-powder) was studied in the far-east. The euro-frontier was more industrial. Flint was quarried and knapped and turned into heavy tools and weapons.
The frontiers also turned their residents hard. While the tribes who remained behind in the south became more refined, the frontier clans evolved into brutish stock. Both the climate and game they hunted demanded it. But the whole race suffered from isolation. The generations of regional adaptation led to incompatibility. There really isn’t proof of the extent of the incompatibility. The proof we have just indicates competition among the breeds. I’m a romantic. I like to think that we preserved the best characteristics of all our ancestors. The competition is undeniable but genetic evidence is more subtle. If those early breeds of man-kind did merge, they didn’t advertise it.
Again the resources in the subcontinent ran short and new tribes moved-in from the south. These rival stone-age hunters were “still motivated by traditions they had inherited from the hunting communities of the Upper Paleolithic.” (Wymer - 268) There would have been some turf-wars. But, if anything could reunite the long-isolated clans it would-be trade or a hunt. Were our primitive ancestors capable of hunting in cooperation. There would have been a technological revolution if they had shared their knowledge on the subject. They may have been more likely to have traded between themselves. The material record just doesn’t decisively show proof of the technological-revolution that would accompany a more invested endeavor like cooperative-hunts. But, somewhere after they had settled their turf-wars they must have exchanged some material-culture.
Eventually, the archaic tribes of Europe were overrun by their modern counterparts. The culture of the Neanderthals was replaced by the customs and technology of the Cro-Magnon tribes that succeeded them. Europe wasn’t the wilderness it once was. The climate was more hospitable and the frontier had been explored. And whatever happened to Europe’s original settlers has been a mystery ever since. I keep waiting for proof that the Neanderthal bloodline carries-on in the populations of their old realms. It might be a pretty recessive trait, all but lost through the generations. At least until someone needs a cave man.
Our story of survival begins with man-kind as the ‘game’. The wilder animals had already established their niches and left us to catch-up. We abandoned the plains and took-to the shelter of the forests. We must have grown-up some there because when we re-emerged as ground-dwellers we were ready for tools and fire. Tool crafting became a science. If tools could be “fashioned out of locally available raw materials”, they could level the playing-field. (Gamble – 286) We’ve still looked-over our shoulders for the bigger hunters but we had finally inherited a little bit of domain. We couldn’t venture far from our tools or fires but we finally had a strong-hold.
Tribes grew and colonized new turf and our race began to develop some culture. Dialects and cultural specialization distinguished one clan from another. Eventually, the resources of the sub-continent struggled to hold us all. There was still wilderness to the north. Clans broke-up and those willing to take-on big-game headed to the middle-east. “The Aurochs, or European-bison, appears to have been abundant in Western Europe.” (Avebury – 299) But, not all of the clans followed game to Europe. The exodus passed through the middle-east and then on to either the far-east or Gaul (western-central Europe), or to the steppes in the north between them. There aren’t many big settlements in the steppes of Eurasia, unlike the more ‘cosmopolitan’ frontiers to the east or west. I get the feeling that medicine (maybe because the far-east is the birthplace of gun-powder) was studied in the far-east. The euro-frontier was more industrial. Flint was quarried and knapped and turned into heavy tools and weapons.
The frontiers also turned their residents hard. While the tribes who remained behind in the south became more refined, the frontier clans evolved into brutish stock. Both the climate and game they hunted demanded it. But the whole race suffered from isolation. The generations of regional adaptation led to incompatibility. There really isn’t proof of the extent of the incompatibility. The proof we have just indicates competition among the breeds. I’m a romantic. I like to think that we preserved the best characteristics of all our ancestors. The competition is undeniable but genetic evidence is more subtle. If those early breeds of man-kind did merge, they didn’t advertise it.
Again the resources in the subcontinent ran short and new tribes moved-in from the south. These rival stone-age hunters were “still motivated by traditions they had inherited from the hunting communities of the Upper Paleolithic.” (Wymer - 268) There would have been some turf-wars. But, if anything could reunite the long-isolated clans it would-be trade or a hunt. Were our primitive ancestors capable of hunting in cooperation. There would have been a technological revolution if they had shared their knowledge on the subject. They may have been more likely to have traded between themselves. The material record just doesn’t decisively show proof of the technological-revolution that would accompany a more invested endeavor like cooperative-hunts. But, somewhere after they had settled their turf-wars they must have exchanged some material-culture.
Eventually, the archaic tribes of Europe were overrun by their modern counterparts. The culture of the Neanderthals was replaced by the customs and technology of the Cro-Magnon tribes that succeeded them. Europe wasn’t the wilderness it once was. The climate was more hospitable and the frontier had been explored. And whatever happened to Europe’s original settlers has been a mystery ever since. I keep waiting for proof that the Neanderthal bloodline carries-on in the populations of their old realms. It might be a pretty recessive trait, all but lost through the generations. At least until someone needs a cave man.
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