Darley Dale forum 2 room
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Darley Dale

St Helen's church

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It has been fun and I'll close with this:

I believe a lot more credit should be given to the mesolithic peoples. A pattern of very detailed knowledge of there domain is coming to light. It seems that there was a cycle to their roamings that was very organised, travelling in a circle (ish) throughout the year and returning to the same location a year later.

As much as the farmers came to rely on the sun, stars and moon for harvests, the mesolithic people also needed to know when flocks would fly over or when herds would pass by a certain place.

There is a train of thought that says that aspects of their 'uncivilised' way of life, that of subsistance and not raping the land through agriculture etc., was far more civilised than many aspects of our lives today.

It's been fun.

Have to agree on the Mesolithic hunter gatherer lifestyle having little impact on the landscape. There's even evidence from Neolithic bones that the hunter gatherers had a better, more balanced diet than the early farmers. Though i think i read in one of Francis Lynch's books that he thought they made 'clearings' to attract animals to a convenient place to be killed, rather than roaming all over after the herds (makes sense really i suppose ,saves energy expenditure).
I'm not gonna argue the toss about proto feminist societies, you've both done a masterful job on that, though i don't think there's much evidence for or against to be honest. I'm not sure the female 'figurines' can be construed as evidence for or against. Various recent interpretations make them out to be prehistoric porn (though not sure on that one either). Maybe they were just lucky 'charms' to help females through the hazards of childbirth ?