Debunking Prehistory

Prehistory - when was that?

... it's all a question of perspective

I'm not at all sure what passes for prehistory these days, after all, when I was younger an item wouldn't be considered "antique" until it was at least 100 years old, now it seem to take far less time to become an "antique".

The other night I was watching a documentary and the 'expert' referred to the period being discussed as prehistory - let me point this out, 1000 years ago is not in any way, shape or form "prehistory".

What is your concept of prehistory?

I have a much longer view than most non-experts, as far as I am concerned, prehistory doesn't even begin to come into matters until you have turned the clock back more than 3000 years.

Ok, so there may not be so much recorded history at that time - you will find the earliest recorded history in fact is far more than 3000 years old so I have an arbitrary cut off point where recorded history is so thin for me to consider it broken.

And it is still perfectly possible that we will be able to fill those gaps in the records in time.

Oh, what a loss the ancient library at Alexandria was. A true setback for humankind with an enduring effect which still echoes in the present day.

The Roman, Greek, ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese, the list of civilisations goes on and on, all have recorded history which stretches far back into time and which is still available - in its most enduring forms - to us to study today.

So, what is prehistory? How far do we have to go back to find that time? These are piece of string questions.

How long is a piece of string? Well, this one is ever-growing as we make further discoveries about our ancestors and their ways of life.

Were people different then?

... what makes anyone think we are more intelligent than 'prehistoric man'?

Take an ordinary individual from a community at any point in history, are they fundamentally different to us?

What were their daily concerns? Keeping a roof over their family's heads, putting food on the table, aspiring to improve their lot so that their children might see advantages which were not available to their parents?

Exactly that. Protection and nurture of their families - co-operation and security within extended families - striving for something 'better', nomatter how far back in history you travel, these are the impulses which have always driven humankind. It is no different today.

Just because we have been 'educated' in schools, does not mean we are more intelligent than the people living several thousand years ago but we can certainly say we know more trivia.

Think of how primitive man would survive in our World ... how would we survive in theirs?

Stone Age, Bronze Age etc

... when history is thin on the ground

Now that's what I call prehistory.

Of course, more sophisticated societies did not erupt simultaneously across the planet. There are parts of the globe where well organised and regulated societies were beginning to emerge while others were still quite primitive.

It seems to be only in recent years that archaeologists have "discovered" that trading took place over great distances in prehistorc times, whereas it seems absurd to me that it should not always have been recognised - or did these experts believe that the import export business was something of modernity?

A degree of common sense (that most uncommon of attributes) is all that need be applied to see that trade would have been an important part of daily life long before history was recorded. But perhaps the experts thought that prehistoric man was some kind of savage who simply took what he wanted if he was able to steal it or kill its owner.

It stands to reason that if that had been the case the human race would never have got very far but we have, in fact if anything, we are too successful.

Why now?

... what's this rant all for?

Why have I been prompted to start this lens right now?

This morning (09.22.08) on the news I was hearing all about how the archaeologists have discovered a whole lot of stone chips and flakes buried at Stonehenge, so instead of believing it's a place of ritual death, they now think it might have been a place of healing and the stone chips were somehow talismans taken from the blue stones for luck or for assumed healing properties.

At least there was one man who said 'those stones are carved' and obviously, when you dress a stone you will be chipping pieces from its face and you need to get rid of them somewhere.

What they have found is an ancient stonemason's waste pit ... but the standard archaeologist looks for airy fairy rituals in everything. Why so? Because they are somehow convinced that's how our ancestors lived, tied to some round of worship and obeisance to a host of primitive deities to whom they made sacrifices.

So how was it then?

... what was prehistoric life like? How did they communicate over distances?

The majority of individuals from that time period would have had their work cut out providing for their families. Their lives would have been governed by the farming calendar in the main but within the family there would have been many tasks to be carried out daily.

Tending crops, maintaining their dwelling, grinding the corn, baking bread, gathering herbs, gathering firewood, fetching water, making clothes, drying and curing skins, hunting or fishing may have been partially seasonal since it wouldn't take much to learn that there is no point in bringing down a pregnant doe or taking the fish before they have spawned. Please don't forget, these people were not stupid, uneducated may be a valid word to use but they did have every bit as much reasoning power as you and I.

And they had to make every tool and every piece of equipment, you want a new dish - make the axe to cut down the tree first.

Where in their lives did they fit in all this ritual?

An 'expert' might say it was integral in everything these people did. Do you wash your hands before preparing food - ritual. If you wanted to eat meat but had to go out and kill an animal before eating, would you call it a ritual sacrifice? Careful, in a couple of thousand years an 'expert' will probably say that's what it was.

But what about all the standing stones?

... places of gathering, places of trade, places of storytelling and social get-togethers.

What, you never heard of a meeting place?

Clearly, not everyone could be good at everything and archaeologists are already aware that trading took place over great distances. This is not to say that one person travelled all over the World or even the country, selling their hand carved widgets, the widgets were probably exchanged or traded with someone else who then traded them for other goods and in turn, those he traded with may well have traded on.

In this way, our first individual's hand carved widgets travelled to far off lands and the goods he received in trading may well have come from places equally far off to him.

Clearly, at certain times of the year each family would have had surplus to trade. Whether it was a surplus calf or blanket, axe or quern, beads, shells and baubles, herbs, spices, anything you can name, all have their season and all surplus would be changed into goods not available locally.

A market is needed then. A communal gathering place where those with surplus to trade could meet, exchange news, feast together, celebrate good harvests and probably, on occasion, find a partner or make new alliances.

The long avenue at Callanish (Calanais)
The thin yellow line was caused by a fault on the film.

Stone circles are gathering places, nothing more, nothing less.

Some would have been more elaborate than others as some would have been more local than others. Wheareas you may have gone fairly regularly to a local stone circle to trade, you may not have made the journey to a major market more than once a year. Perhaps not even annually but only when you had, say, a horse to trade.

Suppose for one minute that Stonehenge was one such meeting place, a major one, perhaps the largest in the country. You would find around it other facilities, you might even find a permanent settlement close by. If it was one of the few places where you could get a really good trade for that horse then you would expect there to be somewhere close by where horses could be compared ... like, say, a racetrack. The fastest horse would clearly fetch the best price in some circles ... now isn't that an interesting turn of phrase.

And, if it isn't stating the obvious, there is evidence for this at Stonehenge.

So, can we inject a little logic and common sense into the debate please.

Well dressing

... passing on the message

And while I'm at it, let's dispel another myth, well dressing.

This is a tradition still carried on in various parts of the UK, usually each area where it occurs has a specific time of year when the wells are dressed. The reasons for this are lost in the mists of time (oh yeah) and it is all assumed to be some kind of ritual behaviour, possibly pagan etc etc.

St Boniface's Well, Highlands of Scotland

Long before we could read and write we travelled and traded. Picture this ...

You and your family are making your way to an annual gathering. Your route will take you, probably on foot, across the country and take several days to complete but you already know that along the way you will rest each night at or near where there is a well established supply of fresh water - a well or spring.

You know that a relative of yours who lives over to the west will join your route around the place where you will stop on your third night and so you have brought with you some strips of cloth - you weave this cloth yourself so it has a specific pattern which your relative will recognise - and on the third night, when you arrive at your stopover, you first check around the spring to see if you recognise any of the strips of cloth which are already there.

Should you find a piece you recognise as being your relative's weave you know they are ahead of you on the journey, should you not find it, you tie one of your cloth strips to a nearby branch and in the morning you move on knowing you have left a message for your family and friends.

Isn't it obvious?

Petals dress this well in Buxton in 1909

In more recent centuries, many localities adopted the practice of well dressing with flowers, Tissington in Derbyshire, England claims to be the origin of this of this tradition. There are still some wells, known as "Cloutie" (Scots for "cloth") wells, which carry on the tradition with cloth or rags (I saw a cardigan left once) and this undoubtedly predates dressing of wells with flowers.

Nor is this practice limited to the British Isles or even Europe but is as widespread as Nepal and South America.

Isn't it clear this is a practical method of communicating to others travelling the same route?

The Cloutie Tree by Madron Well, Cornwall.

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