The Gravettian Culture: Ice Age Mammoth Hunters

[@DanDavisHistory]

Claim your SPECIAL OFFER for MagellanTV here: sponsr.is/magellantv_dandavis Start your free trial TODAY so you can watch Sapiens, the New Origins about human evolution: www.magellantv.com/series/sapiens-the-new-origins Thanks for watching my video. Let me know if you'd like to see any other Paleolithic stuff.

[@lottesrensen8004]

Yea please the ANE CHG the people of the taklamakan dessert (White mummies people) yuzhi in Asia, the yuchitribe part of algonkin creek confederation in East USA, yezidies in iraq, the kalash better India and pakistan

[@wesspence]

😊😊❤v ĺ⁰😂1😂0😅ppq

[@zhcultivator]

Good video, I wish there were more Mammoths in popular fantasy and mammoth herding in fantasy in general.

[@nogins]

Ok.. So what language family would the "Gravettian culture " people belong to? Would be part of the Basque language family or something like it ? And if not then what ?

[@JIMMY-THE-JEW-FROM-PHILLY]

​@@noginsThe answer is probably PIE proto Indo European. Try reading the book The Horse, The Wheel, and Language. However PIE, Semitic languages and Dravidian all might share one origin because 33,000 BC is a long time ago compared to 3,000 BC when PIE theoretically died out. Basque is a good guess because it's a language isolate but PIE actually comes from the area of the Gravettian. Whatever the language was, it would have had very few words in it compared to bronze age languages but it's the iron age to antiquity with better writing materials that really allowed our species to develop more complex words and sentence structure. I just started studying prehistory over the last year but it's important to study the bronze age first before moving backwards in time...or at least it was for me. Try 1177 BC revised edition by Eric H Cline and I think these two books will ground you so you can read more sources to get a better picture of languages. Old Europe of the Basque could have been a very peaceful time in human history but it seems the population explosion in the steppes made resources finite leading to warfare and the development of better weapons after the wheel was invented around 4,000 BC allowing violent people to migrate more easily into Europe. These migrations started around 5500 BC and ended with the Turks invading the near east and Europe to create the Ottoman Empire. So, trying to predict language in 33,000 BC is definitely problematic but maybe AI can eventually give us a probability chart to predict how language sounded that far back in our evolution!

[@daddad8707]

Seeing the carving of the women with one eye damaged that was found near the grave of the woman with the same damaged eye made a great impression on me. These were real people, the same as you and me, they loved each other, as we do. It's just incredible that after so many tens of thousands of years we can reach back & get little snapshots of their lives.

[@donut3946]

They always were

[@alyssarodriguez9995]

They are us❤

[@Atlas3060]

The thing about archeology is how similar it is to us flipping through picture books of our family that have passed. We can point out grandpa and grandma, but we don't really know who that person over there in the picture is. We don't know the context of that party they are at unless it was written down. We don't understand the significance of a family member NOT being in a photo. Archeology is us flipping through these old, broken, books and just not able to hear our great grandparents chuckle "Oh your great great grand cousin here loved to act stupid near this one girl...". It just means we'll fall in love with their lives however we can, we miss them.

[@lindboknifeandtool]

@@Atlas3060exactly. I always think they’re basically exactly like us. If they had our language they’d like our jokes. We would like them. We also don’t see the negative. Fathers being fair to children is a new thing…😂

[@aakarshchaudhary7359]

homo sapiens hunted and ate neantherdals

[@Darkrunn]

Idk why, but the idea of finding a child's fingerprint in the clay is so touching to me. Milennia removed, yet an intensely relatable experience, excitedly waiting for, or even making, a special toy. 😊

[@karlbarros2849]

I once saw a piece of pottery or resin with a child size bite in it from 600+ years ago.

[@rustyhowe3907]

@@karlbarros2849 Ah that is cute, my mother kept a calculator I gnawed on as a baby and it has my teeth marks in it.

[@frijofroisdeern3783]

Maybe they were gifts to children for protection...when their real moms died

[@vibechecked7522]

​@@frijofroisdeern3783 I love this, and maybe the size of the body was to wish that they were always well fed, both with the body and the breast's as they grew, yk, since if the mother is well fed it means she has already fed her children well first???

[@minezweeper2976]

​@@frijofroisdeern3783That's beautiful

[@mydknight357]

When I see the Venus figurines I see a representation of a woman that has birthed several children. This seems consistent with the belief that fertility is what was being venerated with the figurines. One can only imagine why this was done but it's not hard to imagine that in a world where life was harsh and probably short, the women who brought new life into the world were held in high esteem. Thank you Dan for another excellent presentation of these fascinating ancient cultures.

[@jamesleonard2870]

Yeah, that makes sense. Considering that a girls probably procreated at a much earlier age than is common today and therefore had an even higher mortality rate because of of that =\

[@captainfury497]

The problem with equating obesity with fertility is that it poses a plethora of complications to pregnancy. Furthermore, obesity was extremely rare in the pre-industrial world (even in agricultural societies). Women had to do some hard work too and ofcourse they had to walk large distances according to their nomadic lifestyle so the figurines were possibly idealized than realistic

[@mydknight357]

@@captainfury497 I'm not equating obesity with fertility. I'm equating the appearance of the Venus figurines with the appearance of women I know in real life that have had multiple children.

[@Golightly354]

@@mydknight357 I don't see how you can possibly equate the appearance of the Venus figurines to contemporary women. Their lifestyles are unbelievably different in that women around centuries ago, most likely were hungry a lot of the time and had very physical, hard work to do.

[@mydknight357]

@@Golightly354 Allow me to explain it to you. It's my 20/20 vision that allows me to make that comparison. I don't see how you can possibly not see those similarities. I'm not comparing lifestyles, I'm comparing physical appearance.

[@Dsdcain]

The saddest part of archeology is we will never truly know the true answers to all these questions. I still love it though, keep it coming. I'm a history nerd, so I love these deep dive into ancient cultures.

[@novantha1]

We might never know the true answers, but over time, with new discoveries, we narrow the possibilities, and can build narratives, both plausible and relatable.

[@108wee]

The cool thing about humans is that although we have advanced our technology, the way we think is pretty much the same. Sure we may high a higher base knowledge to fall back on but dick jokes have existed for as long as humanity has existed. Basically we can make very good guesses on what early humans may have been thinking about because we too are human.

[@YungR.J.Fischer]

its late for me 11:59 pm, to be exact and how this can be deep dived, i will or wont know or understand

[@traktortarik8224]

But that's not the sad part, it's the best part! Looking at something you don't know about and wondering: that's one of the most beautiful experiences.

[@Bill-im6nt]

Thousands of years from now, someone is going to find a Cabbage Patch doll, and a Barbie, and the theories will be fascinating!!!

[@misshimejoshi]

Well, I feel like they won't because they'll have videos of historical context of the creation due to our current technology, but who knows, it could end up as lost media tbh

[@madge2114]

Paper and ink still last longer than any media more modern, even optical.

[@qoph1988]

Even most plastics would disintegrate over these time spans.

[@qoph1988]

@@misshimejoshi Digital media is the most short-lived format. Only things carved in stone will remain 4000 years from now. Exactly zero tiktoks will survive

[@aaronseet2738]

They’re going to find Megatron and Optimus Prime and think early humans could transform!

[@necro5000]

As far as I know, the self-portait hypothesis for the Venus figurines refers specifically to pregnant women, as the anthropologist who came up with it, was pregnant herself and noticed looking down at her own body, that the proportions of the figurines match the proportions she observed. She provided pictures taken from her perspective and replicated the same angles taking photos of the Venus... the side by side comparison was quite convincing to me, especially when considering that opportunities of looking at your own face for prolonged periods for reference, were rare when compared to later cultures with access to mirrors... It also seems quite convincing, that, given the active life style of the Gravettians, women in the middle and late stages of pregnancy, would probably have the most time to spend on exploring artistic expression? At least as a hypothesis for how those figurines were originally invented, I think it is still the most convincing one I've read so far... Of course, over thousands of years of continual making, it is likely, that these figurines would have had multiple purposes... possibly of representing a mother/fertility goddes, amulets for a safe pregnancy/birth, as well as an educational tool for girls, when reaching fertility and maybe even the earliest form of porn...

[@DanDavisHistory]

LeRoy McDermott wrote the article on Venus figurines being female self representation and he was a man.

[@necro5000]

I referred to a paper co-authored by Catherine Hodge McCoid and Leroy D. McDermitt published in June of 1996 in the American Anthropologist (Vol. 98)? McDermitt ideed had an earlier solo publication on the matter in April of 1996, I wasn‘t aware of (also one in 1985 appearently) 🤗 Also found that the English Wiki on the Venus of Willendorf only cites said article by Leroy McDermitt, despite the wiki mentioning Catherine McCoid as originator of the hypothesis (probably because she’s an anthropology professor while McDermitt is an art historian? 🤔) 🤗 Anyway, you were right, I stand corrected! 😁🙌

[@nyaatell]

Surely they had other women to reference from. Looking down was not the only option.

[@2adamast]

It's a weird theory, as it is anatomically correct not only from a top down perspective. In usage the heads and feet would be missing anyway, just like open armed (or maybe amputated) venuses are by now missing arms

[@katerinaglushak4563]

I don't think women had much time for art even in winter. Even now there are lots of folks living a life, not very different from then. So in my opinion every interpretation should be based not only on own fantasies but also on etnographic data.

[@annepoitrineau5650]

Why so much art? I am Swiss, I have the answer: in the winter, before global warming, the Swiss were very much shut indoors and bored. That's how they made toys, cuckoo clocks and a lot of smallish figurines and objects. Similarly, Inuits create smallish objects, and sailors who had a lot of time on their hands as the whole crew was needed when leaving port/coming back into port or during weather event, they were also making all sorts of objects, and so did the soldiers stuck in trenches during WW1. All these people used the material on hand: animal bones, antlers, stones, bombshells...cloth/fur/wood (but these 3 do not keep that well and none have survived from the Gravettians).

[@HomeFromFarAway]

absolutely. as I professional artist I can attest that a certain level of boredom is requisite to so many of us actually getting the creative process started. And a lot of the time the productivity in each medium is sesonal, even for those who don't work with natural or fresh materials

[@annepoitrineau5650]

@@HomeFromFarAway I am an artist too, by the way, and I agree completely. You need what I call "headspace". Once I have got it, I find the resources I need, because I also have the ingenuity to turn what I have, into what I need/want. But of course, not everybody has the vision to be creative when they are bored. This is why I believe art needs to be taught in school, and given more hours than it does because some people need to open their minds to the possibility of art, to discover what art they could do: music, dancing, writing, drawing, modelling, woodwork or metal work making pots or clothes, doing hair or body art. It would stop so many people being aggressive or destructive because they are bored and have not found their inner artist. xx

[@marcusmoonstein242]

Good point. The boredom must have been extreme in some cases. There was a tribe of Native Americans living on the Great Plains (a landscape very similar to Ice Age Europe, but warmer in summer). They hunted buffalo for food and would do a huge annual hunt at the end of every summer and preserve the meat for winter. Then they would settle in for winter and not move for about three to four months. Imagine being stuck in your mammoth-bone yurt with your family for months on end as you waited out the winter.

[@HomeFromFarAway]

@marcusmoonstein242 precisely. the whole "fertility idol" nonsense ignores the banal reality of life

[@annepoitrineau5650]

@@marcusmoonstein242 Exactly, same as the Swiss in the mountian villages. If you do not find sthg to do, you'll kill your nearest and dearest due to cabin fever!!

[@jeremyjacobite7630]

Nobody gives more life to our ancestors than you, Dan. Thank you.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you! That's just what I want to do, appreciate it 🙏

[@anchieta6467]

Amazingly good documentaries. Thank you very much.

[@christianbolze7092]

Well, do you go to a museum? :)

[@lizzy-wx4rx]

Except that we know *for a fact* through genetic studies that there were no white humans back then, so why do these channels all continue to use such inaccurate illustrations?? Even PBS does it in their "Eons" series.

[@jeremyjacobite7630]

@@lizzy-wx4rx wrong, White people existed in the Ice Age. You must be an Afrocentrist or scallywag.

[@rhwinner]

They prepared their burials for the next world. Lo and behold, they made it to another world: ours. Amazing journey! 😊

[@nathy0308]

So true!

[@leighearnshaw8353]

Wow, that is so profound, it is two different worlds, linked by endeavour and ingenuity. I wonder if they came to think of an afterlife, or were simply venerating their dead, its hard to imagine. Thank you so much for your comment.

[@ashleyadeline1537]

Damn that was deep

[@SurnaturalM]

This is the portray of a mother, who has many, many children. She was surely the mother of all humanity to these people. She took care of her children, and later, her children took great care of her too, and she survived to see our days.

[@rustyhowe3907]

It's good to see that respecting and cherishing grandmas goes across the ages. With the power of grandma's wisdom her now grown children could thrive and keep the tribes going, her body might be old but her caring nature lasted generations.

[@kwimms]

Most grandmas are evil... look at the world... didn't get this way because Grandma was a good person.

[@willbass2869]

To think they persisted for 10,000 years in that environment. Damn amazing.

[@Robostever]

They were there for hundreds of thousands of years.

[@ronalddunne3413]

@@Robostever No, not nearly that long, no more than 40,000 BP... 😎

[@Robostever]

@@ronalddunne3413 you’re categorically wrong. The Goyet study alone looked at UPMH 60 000-30 000 years ago. They were there for hundreds of thousands of years. And they likely came from north Eastern Asia. The melting pot for human like primates. Neanderthals, homo erectus and Denisovans all interbred there, likely how Homo sapiens evolved.

[@DarthVantos]

@@Robostever Are you a neanderthal? Because they dominated the region hundreds of thousands of years. Modern humans could barely migrate into europe because of them.

[@rudivomschauerberg6344]

they lived there for thousands of generations. For them it was normal, it was their whole life. And they were probably happier than you today

[@rollo6038]

I commented years ago i was injured at work and came across your channel since then mate im glad people have seen and appreciated what research and effort you put into these and your starting to take off. Your passion for history shines through, more power too you pal.

[@miles-thesleeper-monroe8466]

Clickbait

[@noterrormanagement]

I did NOT expect Gravettian men to be this tall! It definitely caught me by surprise, i had to do a double take to see if i misheard. Excellent video! Please do more of pre-anatolian farmers Europe!

[@dwijgurram5490]

It's probably due to oxygen levels.

[@dwijgurram5490]

And height difference between men and woman was probably due to selection

[@noterrormanagement]

@@dwijgurram5490 No i don't think so, it's very likely the diet. These people ate all sorts of megafauna meat high on protein and all the other good stuff. Even long after the paleolithic period in Europe, people who lived on a primarily meat based diet (Germanic tribes, Spartans etc) where generally taller than populations that relied mainly on grain and fish (Romans, Athenians etc).

[@lupusdeum3894]

A meaty diet & natural selection for hunting large game, spear chucking & the like. 😊

[@andrewbreding593]

Shortness was selected AF right?

[@DAYBROK3]

On the beads and art, when you are stuck inside during bad weather either you do something or you go mad

[@alicewilliams9301]

The people who don't believe that active women could ever be that big don't know about lipedema. It's not fully understood why, but a significant fraction of the female population will selectively deposit large amounts of fat in areas associated with hormonal change, such as legs, hips, buttocks, low belly, upper arms, and sometimes breasts. This fat is resistant to weight loss methods and is often gained without dietary excess. It is not harmful to the metabolism as the fat is in obesity, though it also is not very helpful for insulation as it tends to be colder than the rest of the body. I just learned I have this condition this year. It is why I gained weight extremely easily during puberty, early adulthood, and each of my five pregnancies. As soon as I become pregnant, weight loss is impossible, even before the baby is taking anything from my body for nutrition. I once failed to lose any weight after a three day fast, and only after that learned that I was about five weeks pregnant. This year I was fasting 16-20 hours daily and losing 1-2 pounds a week, but after starting hormonal contraception the weight loss stopped completely. Also, when I lose weight after pregnancy or other hormonal weight gain, it mostly comes off of the other places--torso, waist, calves, lower arms--and stays on my thighs and hips. While this is genetic, it is not likely to be a new phenomenon.

[@amicableenmity9820]

Very true. My mother in law and her daughters have that condition. She eats very healthy but she cannot rid herself of the weight. I hear the condition can be painful depending on the stage. The only "cure" is liposuction but she doesn't want to do that, and fair, to each their own. He daughters have to wear compression garments to prevent it from getting to her stage. I wish them the best.

[@eugenkt777]

@@amicableenmity9820 my gf is similar but not that extreme tho, she eats extremely healthy (we are in europe, lots of "organic" stuff too from family and what not) and she is healthy (multiple doctor checks for like sugar, cholesterol and whatever) but she cant lose weight/fat lol

[@CorinaSha]

There are plenty of women who look like that with no disabilities or medical issues who are active what are you on

[@artdyke]

It's a shame that our culture makes you feel "obese" instead of blessed by the ancient fertility goddess, which you clearly are.

[@kwimms]

It is also caused by an excess of doughnuts and cookies. You may not have heard about it, called: fattyedema. Nasty.

[@bernds1488]

i'm glad, that you have shown our ancestors as intelligent beings that were capable of abstract thinking and not as primitive, animal like hulks. this is the first time i've watched your channel and i will keep on following it. thanks for that.

[@jeffguarino2097]

Yes the men 30,000 years ago had larger brains and were more intelligent than people today. Humans now have smaller brains and are dumbed down. We cooperate and specialize , so we can be less intelligent. Those people had to be jack of all trades. They were also dark skinned and all the pictures in the video are wrong. Cheddar man had black skin and blue eyes. No white skin until about 8000 years ago and due to a lack of vitamin D in the farmers. White skin was caused by farming.

[@KozirDuck]

Both were our ancestors at some point

[@connorpollock6087]

One of my favorite theories regarding the Venus figurines is that they typically represent older women. Rather than illustrating voluptuousness and fertility, they represent a body thickened and sagging from age. This could then be thought to represent a mother (or grandmother) goddess, a tribal elder (being non-Indo-European, we don't know that they were so heavily patriarchal, even if they appear to have been patrilocal), or even a charm-carry an aged figure to channel magic that lets one reach so advanced an age.

[@JimmyMatis-h9y]

I like your point about us not knowing if they were patriarchal or not. a more recent example of non patriarchal cultures is the Iroquois federation who valued matrons and they were an integral part of the governance of the tribes.

[@lorrainevart8827]

Older women would probably have been 30. I would imagine most women had their first child at about 14

[@glory2cybertron]

@@lorrainevart8827Not necessarily: Girls in the past got their first periods later than today due to limited food, and starvation can halt periods altogether such that women of fertile age weren't always pregnant or breastfeeding as commonly believed.

[@Hfil66]

As you say, we cannot tell if they were patriarchal or matriarchal or something else. I can well imagine with hunting of large game, whom they could be tracking for long periods of time, being core to their culture that you could have almost separate societies with men being away from their womenfolk for long periods of time and only returning to the womenfolk after a major kill.

[@grsafran]

Naaaaaa

[@YoungGandalf2325]

Venus figurines were humans' first waifus.

[@magustrigger9195]

Uwu

[@whosaidthat5236]

lol that’s funny… because it’s true

[@Mantelar]

It was probably a chief’s wife.

[@ottoginafiel5468]

They are figurines made by hunters' female mates to remind the hunters of their woman while they were away on long hunts.

[@Mantelar]

@@ottoginafiel5468 they are figures hunters carved of the ideal body type, which could never be achieved because there wasn’t enough food.

[@mirrage42]

Jean Auel should be proud. She said most of this back in the early 80s.

[@leekoss7083]

I loved her books. Difficult at times, but good.❤

[@martha-anastasia]

I've read the first three over and over countless times....in English and French. Can't stand the later ones. I so want a Mammoth Hunters mini series very true to the book. Wolf? Little wolf??? When she is in the den ... In French, it's Loup, petite Loup???? Which is so durn cute

[@leekoss7083]

@ Ty for telling us; I'll look into Kindle French (I'm still working to build on my 6 years of school French from decades ago) edition and the Audible French edition, too. What is the first title, en français? Ty!

[@kwimms]

Oh, she's very proud. VERY proud, if you know what I mean.

[@daxxydog5777]

I love her books!

[@sircharlesmormont9300]

I like the Venus figures. I even like that there are some thin figures, too, so that it seems like multiple life stages and/or body types were depicted. What I like most about the figures is that they are so widespread. It seems like the the idea of a matronly woman - someone who was potentially very pregnant or had already given birth (likely more than once) or simply changed with age was not a taboo. It's nice to think that our ancestors gave mothers and/or otherwise voluptuous women their due instead of focusing nearly solely on youthful, maidenly forms. No matter what the figures meant, these women clearly weren't invisible, as their present day counterparts often seem to be. We will probably never really know what these dolls meant to people. It's probably a mix of all of our ideas plus several we've not imagined. We will always know, though, that matronly women had a place in their culture and were seen as worthy of depiction. We could probably take a lesson from that, ourselves.

[@SWOTHDRA]

A lot of projection of your own fears and beliefs onto these people

[@sircharlesmormont9300]

@@SWOTHDRA You think? Merely stating that more matronly figures were visible? Either way, isn't that what art is kind of for? Every piece of art, from a tiny statue to a handprint on a cave wall to a novel or a film or the Mona Lisa is filtered through the viewer's perception. The best art holds up through time because it still manages to speak to people through the ages. So maybe, if these figures say something to me thousands of years later, that's not a bad thing.

[@CatchingJeremy]

Absolute banger, as always. Paleolithic society vids always fascinate me, since it always seems that their cultures and ways of life persist for far longer periods of time than our cultures tend to in more recent times.

[@siasmuzic]

Never thought of that. That is pretty eye opening

[@Yourpallbilly]

Their technology advanced as they advanced, our technology now is advancing faster than us

[@eddybrevet6816]

If those figurines turn u on u might be a gravvetian

[@alexneigh7089]

They used VHS back then, so not so many videos have survived at the moment.

[@justanamerican9024]

Today, with the population bordering on obese, our models are SKINNY. In the depression when people were lean, the models were plump. With a physically strenuous life full of activity and limited caloric intake, maybe the plump figurines were a response to their conditions.

[@ninoska.noe.]

Ah, so beauty standards were never achievable all throughout history? 😢

[@justanamerican9024]

@@ninoska.noe. Not never achievable, just challenging

[@SandhillCrane42]

She's ready to give birth and supply milk in the lean times so your grave will have the rites of immortality for generations. That's hot.

[@braydenleis4735]

If everyone is beautiful, what is beauty then?

[@justanamerican9024]

@@braydenleis4735 In the eye of the beholder

[@Kieran_McNally]

Bingeing the paleolithic content at the moment. More please.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you very much. Yes perhaps I will.

[@BuddyCouch-c6t]

L

[@franceshuntington9044]

Thanks!

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you very much 🙏

[@barbaracunningham964]

The Venus figurine is exactly me!

[@cosmichemistry]

👌

[@LB-hi6zc]

And 80% of other women over the age of 50

[@Rickettsia505]

Me too. Elder female, wise grandmother.

[@inkybitz9254]

Quite a few under 50 too 😊

[@summrnigts]

​@@LB-hi6zc I'm 23 and look like that.

[@seansullivan8083]

Fantastic video! I have spent a lot of time replicating Gravettian, and Solutrean tools, art, and material culture. It is awesome to see these fascinating people getting some attention.

[@violenceislife1987]

Videos? Good work

[@cecileroy557]

Wow!!

[@oldmech619]

What amazes me is the repeated drilling of holes into the small shells.

[@nyaatell]

I think these figurines aren't only about women having many children, but also men being so successful at hunting they could bring enough calories AND spare their wives of hard physical labor. Walking long distances is only necessary when the current location no longer has enough resources. Good hunting = sedentary lifestyle for women + lots of calories.

[@DAYBROK3]

Don’t forget that most calories were gathered. Also many hunts were only successful when all helped.

[@hw436]

@@DAYBROK3 Most calories came from fat and meat. Tundra environments only have a few low-calorie berries to offer for gathering.

[@artdyke]

Classic mistake of hyper-focusing on the role of hunting and devaluing the hard work of women. Hunter-gather woman do/did often travel for MILES every day to collect firewood and water for cooking, not to mention gathering most of the food, as various plants and insects made up the VAST majority of our early diets compared to the relatively rare treat of meat. Hunter-gatherer women, even when hunting was plentiful, were by no means sedentary. That lifestyle is a purely modern invention.

[@magdalenahammer4600]

New research suggests that both men and women hunted, both small and large prey. I believe it was not gender-based, but rather a symbol of wealth in general. More food, healthier people, more babies = community grows, more time for art. :)

[@stephaniesimpson1150]

@@magdalenahammer4600 exackly....women hunted alongside men..

[@badmiker]

Fantastic! So good to see 'cave men" looking so stylish! Despite the difficult environment, I think that the Venus figures show that these people valued, and aspired to their best life: beautiful clothes, ornaments, bodies. Their stories, songs and partying must have been amazing too!

[@tracierendell4422]

It is a pleasure to listen and learn from you. You speak clearly and to the point. We also don't have to battle hearing you over background music that many channels do but are too loud. Thank you.

[@syriuszb8611]

One can be said for sure: those shapes represent good times for people who made them- plenty of food and possibly child being born or soon to be born. It may be anything that was mentioned in the video, amulet, toy, self portrait, but in any way, it most probably was source of comfort for people in dire times, to remind themselves, that those good times happen as well, and they have a figurine as a proof.

[@Sabiqoon-w8y]

Our ancestors lived such harsh lives breaks my heart

[@shelleyshelley247]

I hope the women weren’t raped and didn’t die after giving birth…ahhh what good times!

[@shelleyshelley247]

I hope the women weren’t raped and didn’t die after giving birth…ahhh what good times!

[@robscoggins]

Thank you Mr. Davis. Through your presentations I’ve embarrassingly learned more about prehistoric European archaeology from you than from my European Archaeology course in university. That’s not to say I had a bad professor, he was actually very good. But there has been so much more advancement in the field since those days.

[@KroM234]

I remember reading about this culture, referenced as a made up name, as a teenager from Jean M. Auel's amazing Earth's Children book series. Your video echoes very well to these memories. Thanks again for all your work!

[@ottoginafiel5468]

I alllmost got into those, saw them at the bookstore as a teen

[@sewingmom8713]

I'm currently reading book 2, Valley of the Horses. It's a beautiful written series

[@nyx3967]

I read Clan of the Cave Bear for the first time when I was 12. That was 40 years ago. I was obsessed with Ayla for a while. Such a powerful book, especially for a girl.

[@troterelante]

Hey @DanDavisHistory great quality content mate. As an Archaeologist myself specialised in Prehistory I wish we had a content like this back then at the University. Bringing the Gravettian to life is a remarkable feat, because you provide a full 365 degrees picture of it all. Thanks again for this. Jose

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thanks very much, Jose!

[@ashiyahcavan8776]

I loved this! The Venus figurines are so beautiful. I appreciated your captions adding a little bit more info throughout the video too.

[@NickNagel-g2t]

Very nicely done! Clan o the cave bear by Jean Auel was among my fav literarary pieces ever and your prehistory fills in a lot of missing pieces. Thanks for the great work!

[@carrdoug99]

These Venus figures are clearly matronly (post pregnancy, mothers). What's fascinating to me is that these figures almost certainly represent individuals that would have existed within the community (everyone today recognizes this body type). The fact that these individuals existed highlights how successful these Paleolithic hunters had to have been. (If we were scraping buy, waiting for someone to invent agriculture. It would have been impossible for these women to exist.)

[@jamesleonard2870]

So the Venus’ could be people’s mothers. Especially if children were promoted into adulthood as preteens. I’m thinking the boys especially would join men’s hunting bands as earlier as they were able and so lined for the mothers as they remember them. Just a thought =]

[@captainfury497]

There is only one problem obesity like that were extremely rare in the pre-industrial world. Especially among hunter gatherers. Women worked hard too so it was not likely they could become obese like that. furthermore it is hard to believe that women who were built like that would have been able to walk long distances in accordance with the nomadic lifestyle of these people

[@slappy8941]

I think they were earth goddess figurines.

[@carrdoug99]

@@slappy8941 I'm sure there's something to that line of reasoning (earth mother). They were clearly modeled/inspired by a body type we're all familiar with.

[@allanmason3201]

@@captainfury497 What you say here makes sense, but it seems to me that those who created the "Venus" figurines must have had some knowledge of what an obese woman looks like. The figurines correctly depict typical female fat distribution rather than them having, say, only exaggerated breasts and a swollen belly.

[@andresaltosaar9317]

Thanks kindly, Dan, for another spectacular installment!

[@bartholomewtott3812]

Televisual feast.

[@thomasv2577]

Could watch all day

[@gareystewart2260]

Great work putting this together, and your narration is wonderful! It makes me think about the stories and ways of life that come far before us and how different things are now. It makes me wonder in this high modernity, what we have gained and what we have forgotten. Let us honor the ancestors by honoring this planet and all the diverse lifeforms and people that make life here possible and beautiful.

[@W4iteFlame]

Idea of self portrait also makes sense

[@IvanPetrov-k2k]

I must say (anthropology is my hobby, not profession) I do not know many cultures, where women are allowed to carve with a knife. Usually, they create their images by sewing. Besides that, in the most native cultures there is an iconography and creating images outside this iconography is usually not very well seen.

[@BenStimpsonAuthor]

Dan you do such great high quality work, I really appreciate you do all of these narrations yourself and havn't gone down the AI route so many others have. Looking forward to listening to this!

[@patrickirwin3662]

YES!!

[@oesypum]

When I view with great interest what is known today, compared to when I took anthropology at university, some 50 years ago, it is amazing how far the discipline has come: During my period of study it was made patently clear that we were not to stray too far from the then held views, equally it was made clear to we erstwhile students, that following, and advocating new trends wouldn't bode well for us passing our exams. Like many of my fellow students we read and discussed the new information being made available, but hid the books and papers from our instructors, and made no reference to it. How they thought the study of man was going to advance, is beyond me. All it achieved was to ensure the then accepted pillars, and notaries of the science had a sinecure, their status upheld. I am very grateful to the likes of yourself, and others, who promote, and publicise new discoveries, and interpretation of the evidence gleaned, now, and that from the past. Only in this way can a science grow, and advance.

[@richardodonoghue]

yes, learn by rote, do think for yourself but for heaven's sake dont show THAT on your essays and never publish or write it on an exam paper unless you want to fail...... i now see the clear link between Anthropology and Molecular Physics ... it's the mentality of the Lecturers wanting tenure and requiring 'good results'....suddenly hearing pink Floyd's 'the wall' in my head for some reason. 🤐

[@matildamartin2811]

Ihave found, over the years that men reach a certain age and close their brain to anyone or anything that has moved on. My Daughter, on being given the job of taking over the running of a Lab. regrettably had to sack quite a few of the older scientists who would not accept the new findings and were holding back the research work. I have come across this, with Doctors, Opticians and Dentists. I give the older ones a wide berth.

[@kwitshadie6539]

It’s remarkably hardcore and awesome that Humans were able to adapt and survive past ice age Europe and Siberia. :)

[@comlitbeta7532]

Life, mmm finds a way...

[@SaraOrgana]

I’m loving that art predated functional pottery. Art is in our DNA!

[@MayaHiortPetersen]

Thank you for this. Really well made, I appreciate it. Super quality viewing and so damn interesting.

[@levongevorgyan6789]

That first portrait carving is so cool. And the beads too. Really sounds like they were a society, complex and skilled.

[@eparris2908]

Seeing the unmistakable similarities especially in the shell burials to the ones found predating the Asiatic and Polynesian arrivals of the tribes regarded as native today, I myself am fairly convinced these were the same people that lived in the US in the 35000s. I wish DNA could be compared. Human migration and development is so fascinating!

[@paulbindweed357]

Yet another excellent video Dan 🏆👍👍

[@jimmyhvy2277]

I See many ladies that look like Venus Figurines every day in Australia !

[@euhdink4501]

And they are all horribly and even terminally ill.

[@Grahamisthesword]

Including moi

[@conductingintomfoolery9163]

Sad

[@IvanPetrov-k2k]

It's interesting to know, whether there are similar women among the NATIVE Australians BEFORE the "civilised" world entered their territories.

[@jimmyhvy2277]

@@IvanPetrov-k2k I Don't Know , i wasn't there .

[@louisegogel7973]

fascinating and well put together!

[@JustGrowingUp84]

Loved the video! I really appreciate that stone age and copper/early bronze age societies receive so much attention on this channel.

[@kamilaferens682]

OHHHHH HOW I'VE WAITED FOR IT!! Thank you so much!

[@rustystarwood1]

I’ve been thumbing thru the replies looking for someone to mention Jean Auels “Clan of the Cave Bear” series of books called the Earths Children book series. I first read them back in the early 90’s and it sparked my interest in Paleo life and paleo climate ice age glaciation cycles and how humans lived and thrived thru those harsh periods. The voluptuous figurines, the bound up person burial site, the disfigured person remains, and the tool artifacts, and cave art are all discoveries that inspired Jean’s stories of how we possibly lived back in those times. Also, I used to be vegetarian for many years, but I’m now 100% carnivore and way healthier for it. The discovery of how human stature changed and teeth and bone problems since humans became more agrarian 6 to 8 thousand years ago and how grains and too much vegetation in our diet has had a negative effect on humans is fascinating and shows how we evolved as apex predictors to survive and thrive during those harsh times in earths geological history as primarily meat eaters.

[@marym6939]

Looking through comments too about Ayla and Jondalar. My favorite books. Auel was right on point.

[@marsupius]

If you were 100% carnivore, you would die from scurvy. Is it possible you are actually an omnivore?

[@str1987]

I loved these books! I have been on and off trying to remember the name of the author or books for years!

[@artdyke]

I was intrigued by Clan of the Cave Bear, but the weird sexual stuff really ruined it for me. :/

[@ezekielbreedlove7698]

It is well documented that the Ute Indians kept and keep their women fat as a sign of wealth while the men are typically very slender!

[@alexneigh7089]

Well noted. 10K years ago, they did not necessarily all look like this, but they were "beauty standards" in the hand-to-mouth circumstances. Such beauty standards still survive in some remote tribes whose lives are hard and whose food resources are limited, at least until relatively recently.

[@qoph1988]

Longhouse societies are unfortunately everywhere. Mexico is presently the exact same sort of feeder cult.

[@draconov_alt]

I LOVE BBW 🙏💖💖💖

[@basilbrushbooshieboosh5302]

Definitely interested in more ice-age and paleo content. Our beginnings. Thanks Dan. Love your work.

[@dozidac]

Mammoth Steppe sounds like a new music genre that i need to get into

[@Naturalook]

Simply superior work, Dan Davis.... Excellent research, and delivery... you painted a very clear image of the progression of humanity. I do take exception with the take of it being such a hard life. People under stress do continue being creative, but they do not make frivolous artifacts, even as they incorporate difficulty into play. ie; "Ring around the rosy, pockets full of possies, ashes, ashes, all fall down" is a kids rhyme about the black plague.

[@willbass2869]

Wikipedia: "...scholars regard the popular Great Plague explanation, common since the mid-20th century, as baseless."

[@HomeFromFarAway]

I agree, even with the exception of the rhyme. People with no free time or energy do not make toys, sculptures or even many religious artefacts. I think the "it's a ritual object" hooks so many academics because it assumes that life was awful fir these people and the only thing that could force someone to make art is fear, superstition or cult beliefs. And never would life be good enough that children got to play with dolls. whichbis utterly silly when you look at every single culture in human history and even modern tribal cultures

[@jeffguarino2097]

Yes but his pictures are all wrong. The people had dark or black skin. No white skin until about 8000 years ago.

[@HomeFromFarAway]

@jeffguarino2097 yep

[@irminjuarico2593]

Congratulations, Keep up the good work. Your narrative is poetic and the tone is relaxing but not leading to drowsiness but leading to reflection instead.

[@MontaukProjectDaughter]

16:03 I know this theory isn’t convincing to you. However, for the record…that’s exactly what we see when we look down. This makes perfect sense. Perhaps it would be easier if you could also see the resemblance first hand

[@oldschoolman1444]

I always feel that our ancestors have been underestimated for their abilities.

Yeah that's called historical bias, we aren't special

[@anchieta6467]

Eine sehr gut gemachte Dokumentation. Sehr gut !

[@beebeelicious]

Thank you for your amazing films.❤

[@sw6155]

14:48 sooo… I’m not sure this has been addressed, but… As a 40yo woman who’s doing her best NOT to look like that. I’d like to point out that those “Venus figurines” look like images of older women… That’s how everyone’s grandmas looked like, when I was little. I never met women with that physique that wasn’t 50yo or older until I came to America. Just saying…

[@quixotiq]

Sedentary homebound lifestyle

[@DumitruCoretchiD]

Excellent documentary! Thanks a lot for making it. Also very well narrated. :)

[@heiskanbuscadordelaverdad8709]

I love prehistoric societies these people had to endure so many hardships, just think cold winters, hunger, and diseases, but despite everything they survived and adapted, I was amazed at how low their numbers were, just goes to show how harsh was their environment

[@richardodonoghue]

i see freedom, communal living and shared welfare concerns, i see not having to be concerned with dress codes or 9-5 productivity,shared parental responsibility, not being stuck in a cold place as winter encroaches but just heading somewhere warmer, i see not working for 40 years to be able to provide for the last 15 as the body fails you...basically the life we all crave and work our asses off for in the hope that someday we might be able to have... and i feel that somewhere along the line we had it all and we really blew it.

[@CarbonatedBorger]

I wonder if the Gravettian culture chose who was buried based on how sudden the death was. Maybe when they had time to say goodbye to a sick person they had different funeral rights. The person knew they where dying and could distribute their 'grave goods' before actually dying. Those who died sudden deaths could not dictate inheritance so it was all seen as still theirs and arranged around them as everyone said goodbye. Maybe there was an element of self sacrifice when you knew it was your time; like an elder feeling they are a burden and leaving the camp to die alone after saying goodbye and gifting their belongings. Contagious diseases may have killed entire families leaving them all unburied. By the time one person has a near death fever, others are already infected.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Some researchers believe burials were reserved for people who had to be somehow separated from the living or other dead perhaps. Walled off within the earth, somehow. Those who had disabilities, diseases, or suffered a violent death. It's hard to know with what limited information we have.

[@jamesleonard2870]

I’ve wondered that too =] 🌊🏄‍♂️🪷😊

[@isabelled4871]

Re contagious diseases, it is said that they appeared after the domestication of animals (smallpox, tuberculosis...) So people were actually a lot healthier before agriculture and animal breeding. I don't know if there were some contagious diseases before or none at all.

[@ruththinkingoutside.707]

I’m rewatching for the 5th time.. already 😅 I tend to have videos on when I am doing other things .. but between you and the other handful of top quality history creators, I’ll just rewatch and rewatch until I actually get it all.. then 😂 I’ll put it on the playlist for eventual replay.. lol Absolutely LOVE early prehistoric content.. can’t get enough of it.. Especially really well done interesting stuff like you keep bringing us.. THANK YOU!!

[@jeffguarino2097]

His pictures are all wrong. These people had dark skin. Cheddar man from England was black with blue eyes. He looked east Indian. White skin is a recent development , only about 8000 years ago.

[@erickrooks904]

Thank you to all the people who researched this their whole lives to allow me to learn it in an hour❤

[@svenandersen1459]

Thanks for the Quality content. Love stuff like this.

[@petravazanska5707]

i am czech and Mr Burian was the artist that painted people from Dolni Vestonice, and its really Amazing. When I was small, I read many Books that were fiction, but these books were telling fascinating stories for us children about life in this era. I still have one book and illustrated by Burian, it holds a special memory. I wonder if I still have dna from these people...who knows...I tested my sons dna and its mainly eastern europian, then balkans, baltic and surprisingly english and italian❤ what a mix

[@jeffguarino2097]

These pictures he depicted are all wrong. The people all had dark or black skin. White skin started about 8000 years ago after farming started and the lack of vitamin D. Cheddar man had dark skin and blue eyes and looked east Indian. He was in England.

[@sailorjohnboy2325]

I saw something recently that said Neanderthal skeletal injuries were consistent with modern bull rider injuries. Now, I can't get the mental image of Thag and Zog riding mammoths and bison. LOL

[@erionnetic1626]

😂Bison riding contest to get the Venus-shaped girl cuz she has the best boobs in the land

[@M_Alexander]

I brought up the self-portrait hypothesis in an art class once and the professor looked at me like he really just wanted me to shut up so he could make his hipster point. But as a fat girl myself, I can relate to those figurines as seen from above

[@irminschembri8263]

Dear Dan Davis, if you ever make it to Southern Germany - in case you haven't - visit Blaubeuren. Their pre historic museum houses the mammoth and the lion man you showed in your vid. But what fascinates me most is the sound of the flute made of swan bones you can listen to there. We have quite a few caves besides the Hohle Fels where arefacts were found and even a replica of a tent/house to demonstrate what life might have looked like about 30 000 years ago. Greetings from a history teacher who lives in that area.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you, I have not been but I would love to see the lion man.

[@jackdelvo2702]

Arts, crafts and possibly religious beliefs and rituals I believe are the result of the human mind that evolved to solve complex survival problems moving to the north where ample game and long winters necessitated a way to keep the overly active human mind from imploding.

[@megret1808]

Remember, an ice age winter probably lead to having a lot time on your hands hence art

[@UATU.]

That man could be the extremely attractive ancestor of Jason Momoa. I can’t wait to watch!

[@UATU.]

@@HedonisticPuritan-mp6xv please don’t spoil it for me. 😆

[@karmaalstad5588]

​@@UATU. Leather, campfire smoke, sunbaked grass, moss, and pine. 🫠🫠🫠

[@UATU.]

@@karmaalstad5588 Yes!

[@ottoginafiel5468]

@@UATU. Your "yes!" reply was shadowbanned. It doesn't show up in the thread, but its listed as one of your posts on this channel when your avatar is tapped. YT cens0rsh1p in overdrive worse than twenty-twenty because Iz-ree-yill is about to invayde Raafaah.

[@ottoginafiel5468]

@UATU. Your "yes!" reply was shad0wbann3d. It doesn't show up in the thread, but its listed as one of your posts when your avatar is tapped. YT cens0rsh1p in overdrive worse than twenty-twenty because Iz-ree-yill is about to invayde Raafaah.

[@nami-namira]

Imagine people finding your weird inventory 30k years later

[@phrayzar]

Cultures living today that have signs of sexual dimorphism do tend to be from groups that have distinct lifestyle differences between the genders, all the way up to differing diets and calorific intake. Some African, New Guinea, and Asian cultures for example. I would say that the voluptuous forms being the ideal kind to withstand the harsh conditions is not a realistic proposition for pregnant women. There are a vast amount of health issues for both mother and child if obesity exists. Also there seems to be a tension between the sexual dimorphism of the genders, and the hypothesis that there were large amount of calories available for the women.

[@comradevincenti4708]

Awesome video! One about the Ancient North Eurasians would be dope!

[@user-fl8yv7rz6f]

Looking at the figurines, and, having seen a very old film of an Eskimo being interviewed where he stated that nobody wants a skinny wife because she won't survive the winter, and the sexual dimorphism shown by the skeletons it occurred to me that young girls might have been left to feed themselves for a time and those that managed to put on weight would be sought after for mating and their fat reserves basically serving as a visual CV for their ability to forage.

[@draker696]

Reading a bit about Early European Modern Humans(cro-magnons), supposedly they were the most robust humans ever analysed.

[@Irene-im8xi]

I think neanderthals were more robust than cro-magnons. They were shorter but stockier.

[@danielwarhaft2075]

In your dreams

[@danielwarhaft2075]

Europeans were savages and they were Gypsies. European claims that they found America, Australia and New Zealand and they were not the first people there. people already were living in those countries.

[@danielwarhaft2075]

Most uncivilized human being ever in the world and savages

[@jacobitewiseman3696]

Here is what I don't get, aren't they different variants of the same species? I mean if we came from breeding them and were fertile, then by definition we are the same species.

[@sqeekydemon]

I've always found the Venus statues fascinating, now i find them all the more fascinating. Thanks for this very informative video. So much to speculate

[@beceade3334]

What if the human figurines are a type of calendar, showing how plentiful or scarce food was by how lean or plump their bodies were in between the their huge multi clan. gatherings

[@Philmoscowitz]

Those figurines could be featured in the pages of Juggs magazine! Goddamn, son!

[@SWOTHDRA]

Hahaha

[@HeDi-p5z]

I instinctively miss these times, sometimes I get the feeling that the world We currently live in is both Boring and Too obsessed in forcing you to become a Slave, and simply doesn't want people to be free

[@privard89]

Everyone's got so many deep theories but it could simply be that the boys back then liked them THICK

[@bobvagene]

Still do..

[@Mozzarella-and-Tomato]

Wonderful video, thanks!

[@peteroland5389]

Better than usual Dan, good job

[@bigbensarrowheadchannel2739]

Our ancestors never cease to amaze me. I did not realize that many Venus have been unearthed. And the different subcultures of the Gravettian. Im just an excited history nerd. And I thank you for the awesome content.

[@jeffguarino2097]

These people were all dark skinned or black. Cheddar man had black skin and blue eyes from England. Other populations also swept Europe and mostly replaced these people depicted. So to think these are your ancestors is only partly correct. More like a tiny contribution to present day Europeans.

[@krowochron]

So the population of one small town, spread across all of Europe. They were harsh times, but not crowded times.

[@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods]

My peeps! Thanks, Dan!

[@JonTimi]

Excellent content, production and delivery, and a rigorous adherence to the science. Very glad I found your channel.

[@whistlingbadger]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@MrArsg13]

Greetings to the author, thank you for this material, very good informative video!

[@MrArsg13]

@@forestdweller5581 thanks

[@thatbeme]

In poor situations where food was valuable, weight was a prestigious, beautiful appearance. It still is today.

[@robincowley5823]

I noticed the illustration at 26:29, which depicts a young dog/wolf. Is there any evidence of domesticated canines in this society? Isn't it a bit early?

[@DanDavisHistory]

This is about the right era for dog domestication but it's hard to say for sure.

[@williamlitsch5506]

Before hoarding and storage technologies were more advanced, many human populations probably survived for weeks or more at a time on fat reserves. Humans, unlike many other mammals, have a fairly unique ability to store surplus fat and utilize it outside of hibernation. This was probably especially true for pregnant women.

[@kathywinkler9802]

Fascinating!! ... thank you for posting!!