8,000 year old undersea archaeological site is giving up its secrets.

[@elissajaguar]

How often is it possible for one to say "The lobster was throwing out worked pieces of flint"? Made my day!!

[@resh..]

I know it's an unrelated thing to say ( perhaps it's been said before )... But, I am so, SO happy for you both, that you're friends and in each other's lives. Aside from being obesessed with all things prehistory and archaeology ( which I am, and was why I was drawn to your channel in the first place ), it's just wonderful to see two such close friends... Being friends. Thank you for all that you are - Resh

[@jamesleonard2870]

That’s nice

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

What a wonderful thing to say. Thank you Resh. Touched and moved by your comment! M.

[@sillybeeful]

That is such a lovely comment 💚🙏🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃🥃🥃🥃

[@simpleiowan3123]

18:00 -- "It's the earliest that we've FOUND." Thank you. The finality with which most academics speak is nauseatingly haughty. Nice to hear a spirit of humility and open-mindedness from their rank in file.

[@trulymental7651]

Spot on

[@martinsanders5418]

The only problem with academia, is academics 😉 I just can't understand why the so called intelligencia of archeology and history work so bloody hard at limiting their beliefs to what they've found..... Why isn't that thoroughly embarrassing to the profession that works, by definition, on uncovering more stuff to gain further understanding of the past. They surely can't enter the profession with that attitude, it is obviously the dogma of the institution. The field of archeology and human history was absolutely controlled and restrained by the christian church, where any dissent as to the creationist view of man being created 6,000 years ago, were tied upside down to a stake and burnt as heretics. I feel that formed the dogmatic institution that exists today, and even though the church has lost a lot of it's grip on society, the academia of archeology and human history seems to have made its own bed, and stubbornly refuses to get out of it. They don't operate on the principle of "we've only found what we've discovered thus far", they operate with the frustrating smugness of spoilt children, on the basis of "We know all we need to know about the history and origins of civilisation .... Prehistory? There's nothing to see there, move right along" 🙄 If they spent half as much energy investigating prehistory, as they do suppressing it, we'd know a lot more now, than we do. Along with the reduction of sperm counts across the population, so has human inquisitivety diminished through indoctrination. They just don't get it, it's so much more fun not to know it all. If they did get it, they'd maybe get their sense of awe and wonder back 😊 ... but lose their funding 😂🙄

[@jeffebdy]

Trawlers still dredge up all manner of wonders in the Solent.... but that lobster deserves amnesty from the restaurant

[@randycompton5230]

Farming has been around for ages. I grew up on a farm and I can tell you that if a field has had wheat growing in it, what we call “volunteer” wheat will continue to sprout for several years. No cultivation needed. Experts agree the people were Hunter-Gatherers. I believe they were gathering vast bundles of wheat for thousands of years. They figured out that wheat would grow in other places after the seeds were moved. It’s a no-brainer to figure out that those bet seeds have a better chance of growing if the soil were disturbed thus cultivation and therefore agriculture Was born not long after the first wheat was gathered and carried back to the camp

[@oldernu1250]

Exactly right. Kernels grow, as do legumes, peas, other grains. Everything edible. And ancients observed everything that grew--their lives depended on noticing food sources. If it was edible, they would encourage it and eat the competition!

[@Ari-jj9op]

As a novelist with my books set in the very early Bronze age I absolutely love you guys. What you said bears much repeating, "It's the earliest that we've FOUND."

[@aresaurelian]

And the reason we do not find anything earlier is not because it did not exist, but because it has rotted away, and dissolved into the mud and silt by living things. The further back in time we go, the less remain to be retained. The oldest things still there will be opalized by now.

[@ianbruce6515]

Splitting wood radially yields the best possible, strongest and most stable planks--which is why the planking for Viking ships was split radially--as they are still doing on the replicas being built at the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde in Denmark. Radial splitting does yield wedge shaped planks that require further working to render them flat. The Norse did this with an iron adze. The best boatbuilding wood for planking and particularly for decks is quarter sawn to yield planks with similar grain to radial split planks. Tangential splitting would, perhaps be a labor saver for a mesolithic boat builder, as he would not have to remove as much wood to achieve a flat board--a great boon if you only have stone tools. The resultant plank would have grain like a 'flat-sawn' board. Flat sawing yields more usable planks from a given tree, but the stability and strength of the plank is inferior to a quarter-sawn or radially split board. Tangentially split boards would be more suitable for house building or walkway building. I hope I correctly understand what is being meant by tangential splitting in this context. As I understand it--it would be a more challenging technique, (well nigh impossible in the presence of knots)--if a labor saver

[@craigwhitaker3615]

i watched your recent series 3 days at Gobekli Tepe and was enthralled by what you fellas shared, i kept seeing one of ya just speechless and without breath which is impossible to explain to ppl that just.... are less cerebrally amused.... good to see the internet still has greater uses than OF.

[@chiperchap]

The earliest yet found. I totally concur! This view doesn't stop me being amazed excited or dumbfounded either it just means I'm not shocked. Like you chap I knew it! The scant evidence has us vastly underestimating our ancestors sophistication.

[@moreach13]

Been meaning to write for weeks. Hello from that other English (?) speaking place, the USA. Pacific NW to narrow it. Oregon. The other day you mentioned that Euro-centricity might be a problem, well I think you hit the nail on the head! Coming from an area that had hunter-gatherer societies in living memory, yes! I strongly suspect the journey from that to agriculture was very gradual. As a native woman said about 10 years ago on one of Oregon public broadcasting's specials, "Agriculture? Well we didn't have agriculture, but we sure had horticulture." Also, many decades ago I ran across a pioneer's story about her puzzlement at the native ladies who came by her garden every Spring and wailed and wept. Now she wouldn't have known but I surmise she planted her garden in a fertile spot and dug out many "weeds" those native ladies had treasured and spent many generations tending lovingly. They, in turn, would not understand what she was growing in their place was a food! The thing with the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is that it takes the valuable plants and animals where they grow naturally. Surely it wasn't that big a step to taking the plants and animals along? "Gee, it's a hundred miles back to those seeds we grind for that great bread, I wonder if they'd grow near our new camp?" Not really a leap, that... Also on other subjects, those three burials... if we can't easily tell the one fellow was a man, maybe they didn't know either? Maybe "she" was the "wife" or lover? Maybe "she" died trying to get "her" menses and the ocher tells us that? The other guy was just a helpful brother.... I have no idea about him being buried face down. As to obsidian: I come from an obsidian-rich area and have a pot of arrowheads found by my father in their fields (on a major bird flyway) and they obviously came from all over. I suspect good obsidian was like gold in the stone age. Please keep up the good work! I love your stuff!

[@Mrch33ky]

12:36 to see those T-pillars towering over people is quite impressive as I didn't think they were that large. Great perspective and camera work!

[@bortila824]

I love the passion you both show for this subject.

[@user-wk1mw9nj3i76]

Wow! Spurs the imagination. Survival of wood from 8,000 years ago, and ancient string preserved! Lobster moving the flint? Can’t help but laugh at the intersection of the banal and the extraordinary there. I enjoyed your Gobeckli Tepe videos! Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm and knowledge.

[@jenniferlevine5406]

This is such a fascinating site. Looking forward to potential updates and or interview? Anyway, wonderful video. Thanks so much for the new information.

[@fredadunne5382]

Your conversation gave me several ideas to talk about in writing class on Tuesday. I always assign science topics for the final story, but these are mostly first-year students who have no idea how to interview professionals yet. It’s a bit tough to get them to listen first, then ask more questions. Three minutes in and later just after 18 minutes, y’all had the marvelous moment describing the lobster and then later gave quiet cautionary advice on describing discoveries not as the oldest found, but as the oldest yet found. So, thank you! It’s early morning where y’all are, but just after midnight here in south Louisiana and I probably need to get some shut-eye before facing the youngsters. Just when I think they’re not paying attention, their questions stump me.

[@fredadunne5382]

My class loved y’all! We talked about writing to keep the future open for more surprises and they enjoyed watching the interaction between you. But the lobster archaeologist definitely won the day.

[@elizabethmcglothlin5406]

I am and have been subscribed but I haven't been getting notices coming, so I'm now happily bingeing on what I missed! Hurrah for lobsters!

[@oldernu1250]

Fascinating. Hemyock flint--about 50 miles from Bouldnor--was exported to Europe. Estuary protected from the channel is a good place to accumulate goods and wait for good weather before making the short voyage. Einkorn wheat find is the cherry on top! Who wouldn't barter flint for wheat? Who wouldn't grow it once you had it?

[@kiminnehalem8669]

Thank you for all the amazing content. I really love your analysis, conversation and very human perspective on ancient lives. You ask the questions I would ask....what's with the platforms?!!! There's nothing like out there and I look forward to each episode and find myself listening many times over. Wonderful!!!

[@PeachysMom]

I love you both so much! I just got home from a brutal day at work, to find that you’ve uploaded a video about two of my favorite topics! This will help me so much. Thank you

[@marcharsveld2914]

I watch your videos every time I see a new one passing by on YT. They just pop up. Thnx for reporting on this mesolithic site and thnx for asking to subscribe.. I was not. I am now. Keep up the good work and sharing your enlightening insights. The two of you are my indoor Indiana Jonessses.

[@neldahargo5933]

the image of you two being speechless is the best part

[@neldahargo5933]

the Gobekli-Tepi broadcasts were great

[@blkrs123]

Not the first time they'd gone down after a bump in the channel. I would wager.

[@climbingearlgrey]

Interesting and informative as always! Pondering the connection between pottery and farming, I was relistening (whilst on my turbo trainer) to an old History of the World in 100 Objects and I had forgotten that they had pottery in a part of Japan 10,000 years before farming. Like in Goblekli Tepi (?) the hunter gatherers were settled but unlike GT 'invented' pottery. Interesting?

[@jamesleonard2870]

Such a seminal series!

[@permabroeelco8155]

There’s ‘Mesolithic’ pottery all across Siberia and northern Russia, and it looks like wherever people used basketry that was made watertight with clay, eventually it got fired, resulting in pottery. Probably they used other products to seal their containers, like tar, or had enough stone containers in the Levant.

[@stevenwbrubaker]

For a second I thought that the lobster was working the flint! I was obviously doing two things at once, instead of paying undivided attention to you guys. Lesson learned.

[@kimblecheat]

The most Brilliant find!

[@spiritofanu3112]

Am checking out the Maritime Archeological Trust as you speak! Thanks for the reference.

[@patriciadean1649]

Watched them-absolutely amazing-thank you all-it was great to be there with you all

[@squirrly001]

haha tangenital! Made me LOL for real. Ahem but on a serious note, very interesting info.

[@theeddorian]

"...discovered 11 metres under the sea - by a lobster. ..." Here in California we pay close attention to ground squirrel bvurrows and gopher holes. They are often helpful to an archaeologist. I had the privilege of sampling a pile of fine obsidian debris piled up around a gopher hole. The poor animal probably moved three times its own body weight in obsidian bits. I kept wondering about the state of its paws.

[@randomcomputer7248]

shouldn't sampling a Gopher's hole mate

[@SmallWonda]

Didn't know about this - very interesting - if we don't LOOK we won't find - and of course much of the distant past - if only based on our current living habits - close to water & coast - is below the waves & sludge. I think we might need more sophisticated search methods - like Lidar, X-rays - where a drone perhaps could survey areas of coastline scanning for evidence of habitation & use. Obviously $$$, but there are folk out there with such burning a hole in their pocket who could get famous should they find definitive evidence for a genuine lost civilization! Thanks for sharing great thought-provoking content!

[@lenabreijer1311]

Lol as someone who spent a lot of time in her youth in canoes, you learn very quickly how to get in and out without tipping. You don't need docks or platforms of any sort.

[@denisovan1955]

Great Channel thankyou very much! Greetings from old Germany . 12,000 years ago, we were united in one continent, and then water was rising some 100 Meters and you left us...😅

[@tomgoff7887]

The first Brexit?

[@denisovan1955]

you nailed it .... however, we still have some German submarines hidden in the British Royal Household :) @@tomgoff7887

[@DevonClaireFlannery]

Your videos need more photos, graphics, maps, and illustrations that are shown on screen for longer periods of time. Thanks for your hard work.

[@dreddykrugernew]

I cant remember where I saw it what channel on youtube but there was a cave in Ireland and they found domesticated cow bones in the cave but its like 1500 years before farmers supposedly arrived in Ireland. Also in a cave far up in Norway they discovered the remains of a girl who was half EEHG and half neolithic farmer which dates to 7700 years ago. Im starting to think even the neolithic farmers had levels of development in their period where one farming group with more sophisticated techniques than another farming group. We have these outlying communities and then all of a sudden it was like a tsunami wave of farming with the pace of the spread across the British Isles. Its like these first groups that ventured out never became big enough to be their own distinct people and didnt get a good foothold in the land only to be absorbed by the incoming farmers from the continent who had bigger and more complex societies. Maybe the spread of farming wasnt done out of the need to farm land but out of the need to not become enslaved, the earliest records of societies that farm show they had slaves. What if families didnt go over the next hill to farm but because they didnt want to be subjugated and these outlying populations where people who where maybe defeated in conflict but survived and chose to get as far away from these people as possible...

[@oscargranda5385]

Noah floods was a real event!!!!

[@princecharon]

It's a good reminder that trying to give a firm start date for a period like the Neolithic in a given area is going to need a lot of caveats.

[@craigwhitaker3615]

the divits in the top of the T pillars.. i think perhaps ppl werte using them as grinding bowls as they are clearly heavy and time expensive to make?

[@gaufrid1956]

What's that word, guys? Tangentially? I think you are right in saying that people have been good woodworkers for a very long time. I guess how long is the question. If I remember rightly, the dating of this site in the Solent lines up with the likely seaworthy canoes in Italy that you did a video about, so while it is still a stretch to say people were building boats at this site, it's obvious they were using them. Unless any of those boats are preserved underwater there, we may never know.

[@kenjiwebb1509]

Here in California there is a lot of anecdotal word of mouth about artifacts being observed and left in place in about 30 feet of water. Many people feel that moving artifacts from their place can incur bad karma. Ancient spirits are still present.

[@GriffinParke]

Pretty impressive for Hunter Gatherers.

[@PeachysMom]

Hunter gatherers were modern humans and probably smarter than we are. They were the pinnacle of problem solving and ingenuity.

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

We think we should move away from such terms. There's a fixed idea about what a 'hunter gatherer' was and it's associated with some sort of primitivism. This is wrong and leads to a lot of confusion about how they actually lived their lives. We'll be saying more and more about this - watch this space! M.

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

They were certainly smarter than we would be at exploiting their environment. We'd be in deep trouble if we were suddenly dropped into theirs - but also I suspect they'd haver a tough time transported to ours! M.

[@astridadler6467]

I think humans where always growing stuff . As soon you stay at one place for a bit you deposit your waste around you. All food waste like bone, seeds, cleaning out firepits( charcoal) would go over the ditch, as well certainly children would go over the ditch to poo. So a perfect soil is created by itself with exactly the seeds from what you eat germinating there.

[@GriffinParke]

@@ThePrehistoryGuys maybe there needs to be a new term for this period. They must have impressed the incoming farmers as evidence suggests later generationswere trying to preserve or commemorate the Hunter Gatherer culture.

[@mr.d6987]

Oh there was a county in Colonial Virginia named isle of Wight

[@evestone5361]

😮😮 I just had a baking class making Einkorn shortbread cookies. Knew it was an old grain, but 8k is like whoa.

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

Wild einkorn was harvested in the Fertile Crescent as much as 30,000 years ago. Cultivation began around 10,000 years ago. M.

[@medievalladybird394]

So many channels from here to the US I'm subscribed to: I have never been unsubscribed, unless I did it myself. What does happen though is that I get notifications too late. And that's weird.

[@simpleiowan3123]

To borrow a phrase, "Stuff just keeps on getting older."

[@stevengirton3745]

It seems that considering sea levels rose significantly after the ice age. Thousands of sites are probably under water in oceans and probably lakes as well

[@medievalladybird394]

So round about the same time Doggerland disappeared under water?

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

Around the end of that process - yes. M.

[@spiritofanu3112]

Thinking the same thing.

[@billeib427]

Don't forget to say subscribing is "FREE!"

[@cindysaroya1251]

You really have no notion how delightful it will be, when they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea...

[@alexisdespland4939]

could you try and do a maritime history podcast interview about this site.

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

We agree. We have Gary Momber in our sights! M.

[@grazhopprr]

I can't be surprised at such things off the shore, as other human situations have been found offshore in other areas of the world, which would just be understandable, as the sea rises rather equally on Earth. The bits of grains are interesting, as was said, the source is not that far, other than the current understandings of trade routes and abilities from those times are limited, so some assumptions might be made of a lack of longer distancing trade. Not a final assumption, by any means. Another assumption that the domestication of grains and such, only started in the middle east, when there is a world of archetypes that might have happened along the same lines at generally the same times. As assumptive as the tree that humans were attached to stemming from one couple many years ago. I've long believed that the potential for primates was everywhere after the breakup into the continents, coming from a common mammal after the KT situation. Survivors have an interesting ability to surprise our minds. Assumptions are many, to be felled.

[@KokowaSarunoKuniDesu]

Looks like you learned that guitar trick from Rory'n'Alistair's interview with Antony Scaramucci. Though I surely understand yours is a proper antique .......

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

Seems Anthony's a Strat guy. I wouldn't call mine an antique. If you're into guitars - it's not quite what it seems at first glance. It's an Ibanez as153. Nice guitar but modest compared to a genuine Gibson 355. M.

[@KokowaSarunoKuniDesu]

@@ThePrehistoryGuys Still, one hollow body is worth any three strat types. I do Gretsch.

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

@@KokowaSarunoKuniDesu Nice. I have a white strat copy too - maybe I'll put that in the shot next time!

[@KokowaSarunoKuniDesu]

@ThePrehistoryGuys You really need 4 if you're going to out-Scaramucci Scaramucci.

[@jamesleonard2870]

Boat building is almost always done upstream from the sea. Like the big ship-works in Scotland eh?

[@radstar2185]

The lobster discovered it give it the due credit 😂

[@thomasesau2376]

11 meters underwater. This sounds like the earliest proof of mezolithic submarine construction.

[@garafanvou6586]

Vegetation rafts have come a really long way

[@LynneSheridan-ve2cm]

Why don't they find fish hooks at these sites on rivers/ sea? I am glad to hear that they did use rivers and water for communities as this is what seemed to be an initial focus of development for Maori in NZ. Rivers played an enormous role in moving people, providing food, Maori had a connection with them. This seems to be playing out more now in discoveries over in the Britain, but no one ever mentions fish hooks?

[@randomcomputer7248]

Maori were oafs

[@alicemilne1444]

Of course they find fishhooks. But this site has been under water for millennia. Bone fishhooks are light and can be swept away by sea currents. The Maori have only been in New Zealand for about 600 years. Obviously the sea level has not risen 100 meters in that time.

[@abisu5273]

Reminds me of the rabbit who unearthed a seal skin scraper on Skokholm. Come to think of it, could it not have been used to scrape a rabbit pelt. Sorry for gruesome irony. 🥴

[@44point5]

If I knew that I was going to live to 120, I would listen to these guys at normal playback speed. X 1.25 is okay. Otherwise, interesting discussion.

[@edelgyn2699]

LOL Tried this and they are still talking at a nice relaxed pace.

[@IanZainea1990]

9:12 we Americans avoid the issue altogether by turning the T into a SCH ... tangential = tan-gen-schull ... like the sound "su" makes in sugar.

[@braddbradd5671]

I wonder how your gona do it because Gobleki Tepi was so much more advanced than Stone Henge youl be like going backward in time but while going forward

[@moniquerigling3577]

Tomato/tomatoe😊

[@Reckless_Dragon]

Building "boats" using ship sized planks and hunter-gathering eincorn wheat. 😀

[@PeachysMom]

It would help a lot if a different lab were to be able to replicate the einkorn data.

[@jamesleonard2870]

That’s why boat builders where a cup, ever step on a board the wrong way? Or tangentially?

[@brianpamos49]

So down a lobster hole, not rabbit hole?

[@BenjaminJones-y4h]

Hunter gatherers were far more sophisticated in their social structures and use of low tech than we are. Once you realize this, none of this is surprising.

[@tonyb8660]

Fresh crispy crumpet morsels from the YouKay

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

🤣

[@julianharrigan9971]

so since this site was sunken 6000bc or what ever the sea level has risen 11 meters....Jh

[@napalmholocaust9093]

That a.i. nightmare is anatomically offensive.

[@PeachysMom]

I will be dreaming of that tonight lol

[@forestdweller5581]

Upper paleolithic sites were usually along rivers, so why not mesolithic sites as well...?

[@edelgyn2699]

People didn't limit themselves to the riverside locations - I worked in archaeology throughout the UK and ye olde folks had settlements everywhere.

[@forestdweller5581]

@@edelgyn2699 Ye olde folks? Britain was covered by ice while ye olde folks were around in other parts. The whole prehistory of humans is described as being near water for obvious reasons. And even near your neolithic stonehedhe they found a relationnship with water sources. Ye olde folks in Britain could only live there in interglacials at best. You have aurignacian, gravettian and solutrean in britain but all you seem to care about is the neolithic. You have footprints of Homo Antecessor.....all near water sources going back to over a million years. Of course people needed to be near water.

[@eaton55r]

I have a suggestion... Please use words more 'familiar' with the general public. This, I think, will help others (myself) to understand more. Example... They we now believe, were able to make a 'board', seems simple to us but you can't build a Large Boat unless you can make boards. Try making a board without electricity, steel or... math!?

[@Oddball5.0]

For most of history, wooden boats were built without electricity and using only simple proportional rules. Steel was useful for tools, but even it wasn’t available till long after the beginning of boat building.

[@bonitareardon5987]

I'll bet European farmers used to trade their eincorn wheat to hunter gatherers for a while before the hunter gatherers actually started growing it themselves.

[@edelgyn2699]

Really? Have you tasted eincorn? Stick the bbq ribs and root veg.

[@oscargranda5385]

Agriculture in europe 2thousands year before😮😮😮😮!!!excuse us Graham and other ancient civilizations suporters🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@deormanrobey892]

Snails and crawdad tails.

[@craigwhitaker3615]

tangenitle? lol u guys are laugh