Fields Recordings From The Sea

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TomBo T
TomBo Apr 19, 2004 23:15:56
Replying to FourWinds

Of course, the abundant food supply that AQ mentions would provide exactly that spare time. I feel ignorant now, though, because I've no idea when those abundant conditions began and ended. Perhaps it was the onset of this period of abundance which resulted in a shift in people's consciousness? Having time to sit down and think?

H Hob
Hob Apr 19, 2004 23:24:29
Replying to TomBo

a bit like this:
Shellfish are particularly rich in certain long chain fatty acids needed to promote neuronal development in small children. That abundant shellfish diet may have produced alterations in conciousness as a result of the seafood. This may be part of any change in thinking on a wider scale.

N nigelswift
nigelswift Apr 20, 2004 10:14:56
Replying to TomBo

Because wood rots, and stone doesn't, isn't there a danger that speculation is based on apparent evidence that's misleading?

I mean, yes stone began to be used at some point in different places but if it was a follow-on from timber it could signal merely the spread of a new technical idea, a new and better way of doing things rather than a change to pastoralism or changes in mindsets. Better ways of doing things can be embraced by all cultures once the idea takes hold without it necessarily being evidence that the culture has changed.

A Annexus Quamm
Annexus Quamm Apr 20, 2004 18:57:38
Replying to TomBo

As Fitz somewhere says, the Deluge was real. Not only is Starcarr one of these Mesolithic sits but Ower Bank is in the middle of the North Sea, when Britain was joined to the Continent and folks went up and down in search of prey. Around 5,000 BCE the temperature was even warmer than it is today and it was then that forests spread and there was a general blossoming of plants creating one of the richest ecosystems in the Western Atlantic. Once this happened, there was no more impending need to follow the wild herds, and many Proto-Megalithics began to settle. After all, isn't getting shellfish some sort of proto-farming?