Reading about ancient people

[Clinton Huxley]

I can't believe no-one has referenced Pensioner yet.....

[FBM]

I can't believe no-one has referenced Pensioner yet.....

Dead ancient people aren't so likely to give you the finger...

[Clinton Huxley]

Mentioned this book in another thread, Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade. Curates egg - some interesting bits, some disagreeable and very speculative bits. Sometimes found his choice of language a little irritating.

http://www.amazon.com/Before-Dawn-Recov ... 55&s=books

[Clinton Huxley]

I've had this on the shelf for a few years - looks awesome, comprehensive but slightly daunting. Not read it yet...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Past-Preh ... b_title_bk

[Svartalf]

The Celt expert that compiled the Oxford book seems to be wrong about migrations in Europe. Only the college texts are up to date and include dna studies of the last 20 years. Wiki has those. See for example beaker culture, corded ware culture, battle axe etc.

When I used to see wikipedia, not usually quite a den of kooky theories, dominated for an extended period by articles describing Celtic languages as mainly divided between Island and Continental, with a view that the continuum between Galatian to Celtiberian, with the huge Gaulish mass in between, was only very distantly related to the Brythonic languages from the Isles, and that Gaelic developed solely in Britain and Ireland, with no relation to Celtiberian, in spite of the mythological ties between Ireland and Spain and the fact the Celtiberian was apparently a set of Q Celtic languages, so very distinct from the P Celt Gauls spoke North of the Pyrenees...

I still wonder if there is a paucity of real experts to write serious stuff, or if it's just that the cranks compensate being cranks by being absurdly vocal about it.

[Svartalf]

I can't believe no-one has referenced Pensioner yet.....

They DID mention battle axe culture.

[Clinton Huxley]

I can't believe no-one has referenced Pensioner yet.....

They DID mention battle axe culture.

[Tero]

You have to read the wiki entries line by line. Ignore data that has no published reference.

[Tero]

Hamburg Culture. way before the Bambi Kino and Reeperbahn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg_culture
they were at the edge of the glacier, following it as it receded. Hunted reindeer.
the Finnish text of the same is the longest
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampurin_kulttuuri

I don't know what to call them because it was past the first homos to Europe
this guy lived 40 000 years ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/scien ... wanted=all

[bdelugma]

I like to go back to the earliest points in recorded history and see what those people thought about things. Once you account for the temporal and technological differences, they were concerned about pretty much the same things we are today: how to get along without fighting any more than necessary, how to deal with the ruling elite, economics, sex, morality, politics, how to figure out what is knowledge and what isn't, etc.

You mean like the contents of Rationalia, only carved in stone or painted on cave walls....

I read the shite slung on the walls like a shaman reads chicken entrails...

You mean you provide nonsensical interpretations based on feigned competence?

[FBM]

I like to go back to the earliest points in recorded history and see what those people thought about things. Once you account for the temporal and technological differences, they were concerned about pretty much the same things we are today: how to get along without fighting any more than necessary, how to deal with the ruling elite, economics, sex, morality, politics, how to figure out what is knowledge and what isn't, etc.

You mean like the contents of Rationalia, only carved in stone or painted on cave walls....

I read the shite slung on the walls like a shaman reads chicken entrails...

You mean you provide nonsensical interpretations based on feigned competence?

cf. Ratz 101: Introduction to Ratz Culture
Unit 1: Survival Skills
Chapter 1: Surviving your first post
Page One: WTF is this shit?
Section One: "Gawdzilla"

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Ooooh, I want to the module on the Beaker Peoples.

[Pappa]

Ooooh, I want to the module on the Beaker Peoples.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Ooooh, I want to the module on the Beaker Peoples.

One New Year's Eve me and some friends did that with .50s. One of the guys had got a box of 8-tracks for Christmas. Every fucking one of them was classical music. (I think he killed his sister-in-law when he got back to the world. (I would have.))

[Tero]

And 8 tracks had no connection to classical, usually LPs.

Where did she find them?