What Are The World's Oldest Stories? - Documentary

[@Fireoflearning]

You may enjoy the audio in this video more by turning off KZbin's "Stable Volume" setting, located by pressing the cog symbol (The circle with notches around it).

[@LongFingeredEgalitarian]

Australia is generally considered a continent now. Or the beautiful dangerous Land of Oz by those who know her well.

[@ariavachier-lagravech.6910]

My favourite part about Pleiades myth is that it is implied that human always keep track of the constellation before the (possible) dimming of the seven star, you cannot say something disappear unless you noticed its existence in the first place. The way I see it Pleiades myth shows that human are always fascinated by celestial bodies and like to keep track of it, and well we still do it we are still fascinated by stars, we still love observing it.

[@Freddisred]

They were always a big help for navigators, sailors needed the stars to survive.

[@yoeyyoey8937]

They paid such close attention that they even figured out procession

[@cyberpunkfalangist2899]

it's fascinating stuff to be sure

[@joscrase9564]

Venus was originally a comet that almost hit earth thousands of years ago (the ancient Egyptians talked about it going on to hit Mars). People watched the skies in case something similar should happen again

[@KenikoB]

@@joscrase9564 No... That's a claim in a single 1950 book, which was rejected both at the time and by modern science. Venus formed 4.5 billion years ago, before the first life appeared on Earth at all.

[@aarspar]

I live in Indonesia and there's an old and popular story titled Sangkuriang about the city of Bandung. The story is mainly the origin story of Mount Tangkuban Parahu, which now formed the northern parts of the city. Interestingly, there are mentions in the story about a huge lake situated in the current city of Bandung. Then, around 1935, geological studies were conducted about the area in Bandung and there was found remnants of lakebeds and rock outcrops so large it encompasses the entire city. And the lake is believed to have existed between... roughly 126,000 and 20,000 years ago, which is absolutely nuts.

[@deguilhemcorinne418]

My indonesian husband who lived in Bandung just explained me that Tankuban Parahu means "overturned bark"...which makes sense if there were a lake before the mountain

[@dubbula]

My oma was from banding and told me about little hairy men who lived in the hills rainforest. Possibly homo florensis or a early home species encounter passed down over generations

[@DutchBane]

​@@dubbulawait you use the dutch word for grandma there? I thought the dutch language never permiated into the language there.. interesting!

[@sealyoness]

How intriguing!

[@wdyt_21]

​@@DutchBane The Indonesian language have a lot of common words of Dutch origin, but Dutch words contributed mostly as legal terminologies. It used to dominate science and technology too, but now English is more adopted than Dutch.

[@mbvoelker8448]

You've done an excellent job of balancing reasonable skepticism without dismissing genuine possibilities.

[@imean5399]

I didn't even notice how tricky that line is until reading this, he did a fantastic job

[@juliusnepos6013]

Indeed

[@rooknado]

Brilliant compliment!

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

The Connections (2021) [short documentary] ❤

[@SandyWolf-]

Nailed it

[@samgunn12]

It’s not surprising that so many ancient cultures were minutely familiar with the positions and luminosity of stars. It was the only thing on tv.

[@uncletiggermclaren7592]

They couldn't even get the static yet ! ( If you are not old enough to remember cathode ray tvs, between the tv channels, you got "static" , a fuzzy non-picture. And that was actually the cosmic background microwaves.

[@vaska1999]

For many of them, it was a matter of survival as both navigation and agriculture depend on astronomical observation and knowledge.

[@incredifunk]

Minutely familiar? Are you kidding? They knew about the skies more than we do.

[@incredifunk]

​Cathode rays were used as computer monitors not televisions

[@uncletiggermclaren7592]

@@incredifunk Hahahahahahaha. OK kiddy. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂🙃

[@eliasvonbrille]

Sentences like: "To be fair there is no evidence... " And: "You would expect a few lucky guesses. This could also be a coincidence... " Etc are sentences for which I subscribed immediately. Finally a KZbinr that enlightens topics with something of a Scientific Standard, giving multiple possible explanations and also pointing out the "boring" ones. Nowadays it seems like every KZbinr just pushes the most outrageous and startling explanation possible as absolute fact in order to click bait it and catch viewers. It's what 99% of KZbinrs do which is why their Videos are worthless for actual information bc you never knew the context and other explanations. Thank you for this.

[@Fireoflearning]

Thank you!

[@utuberaptor]

Ditto, 100%. I also just subscribed for the same reason. And they didn’t just say it once at the end in a hasty disclaimer like so many conspiracy videos and History Channel shows, they said it multiple times, which keep listeners mind sharp and on its toes, preventing it from latching on too hard to what would be a pretty story because that would be unscientific. Color me impressed!

[@Hippiechick11]

I wrote a paper in my North American Archeology class when I was in college where I tried to find any evidence of the ice age and coming into a newer land. I remember finding several that looked like they could be describing walls of ice, walking through a long corrider and coming out into a new land where they settled. It was fascinating to research.

[@asteroidkatfacts1036]

That makes sense but remember even today a bunch of North America such as Alaska and Canada are still frozen so it could be something super recent. Could you give some more info on what you said?

[@rupnishadas9814]

I would love some resources on these myths if they are in anyway accessible I am utterly fascinated by “New World” cultures

[@sealyoness]

I volunteered years ago for a local dig looking for the foundations of a trader's house. We found indications, but the professor who was overseeing the dig was delighted when one of us found clay pot shards from about 11k years ago! I learned a lot that coincided with my college geology class. Fascinating doesn't cover it!

[@Hippiechick11]

@@asteroidkatfacts1036it was 45 years ago. I just found all the creation myths of multiple groups and read them. I don't remember much more than that. Sorry I can't give you any more information.

[@walterspaceman5592]

Here is how we know we know next to nothing. How many sides does the pyramid of Gaza have ? 4, you say, it's obvious. Nope. The pyramid has 8 sides. Invisible from ground level. If in a plane directly overhead, on the Equinox, and at dusk, you too can photograph the eight sides. Why did you not know this gem of information ? Well,,, some diaper heads, with only crude copper chisels, human brute labor, twine, shadow, stars, water, and reed boats with zero advanced mathematics did not make this millenia old edifice without some big time intervention. That's why. Make a 4 sided pyramid, well maybe ? But knock off an invisible 8 sided trip for the pharaoh ? I don't think so.

[@CoolCoolYams]

Aboriginal Australian nations have incredibly good processes and rules around sharing full stories with the right people within their communities and short versions with everyone else. There's a big mindset of "this isn't my story to tell" for those who aren't privy to it. I think that's a really good way for them to preserve culture, while having some of it remain private to their cultures.

[@Fireoflearning]

Interesting, thank you

[@FreedomToRoam86]

My tribe, the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, immediately recognized elephants when the circus brought them in the late 1800’s, calling them in our language, Ni-ta, which means water meat. They come very early in our history, as there are few stories of them. But they would not have been recognizable just from skeletons. As trunks do not fossilize. And argues for earlier settlement by humans and later persistence by mammoths in the lower portion of North America

[@vaska1999]

That's fascinating!

[@Michael-sb8jf]

Mammoths have just recently gone extinct less than 10000 years ago. Very plausible

[@KingArthurWs]

The Khoi-San people of South Africa have songs with no words, which they say have no words because they were made before words. Additionally, they have a creation myth that involves a God that came from the ground, while the more recently arriving Bantu peoples have stories of a God that came from the sky. I have read of a legend from a Zulu Shaman, the Zulu being primarily ethnically Bantu, living in a land that was likely once inhabited by people related to the Khoi-San, which says that they believed in a god from the ground until demons came from the north and taught them how to farm (The Bantus had agriculture, unlike the Khoi-San) and some other technology. The shaman also said that these people forced upon the Zulu their god from the sky. There's probably so many more of these stories, which are really oral history, than we currently know.

[@zakzulu6147]

Each one teach one right? So izulu means the sky, ezulwini means heaven, amaZulu means the people of the heavens/sky. The Zulu creation myth has been told for centuries. We believe the original amaZulu were children/ people of the sky who came down to earth to play regularly. They traveled on a large flying leaf. One day on such a trip down to earth. A giant ape/monster destroyed the flying leaf. And so the children/people of the sky amaZulu were trapped on earth. That's how we tell it.

[@rooknado]

@@zakzulu6147I destroyed the leaf, I am sorry everybody. ❤

[@cecileroy557]

@@zakzulu6147Extraordinary!!!

[@GiselleJamieson]

I'm surprised this video didn't mention Sirius the dog star. It's a dog in many stories across the world as well. Loved this episode.

[@notaseriousbeaver]

Let's not forget Ursa Major, the great bear Also universal for most civilizations, including the new world.

[@martabachynsky8545]

@@notaseriousbeaver In Ukraine (at least, Western Ukraine where my father comes from), it's known as the "Great Wagon". 😊

[@notaseriousbeaver]

@@martabachynsky8545 that constellation is part of the great bear, it's the great bear's 7 brightest stars. Apparently a wagon in Mesopotamia in 1100 BCE too, and Odins or Thor's wagon for the Vikings etc. We in Sweden call it Carl's wagon now. Nobody is sure why, but even the Old English said Charles' wagon.

[@martabachynsky8545]

@@notaseriousbeaver Interesting to know. I wonder why in the US, it's called "the Big Dipper".I would love to be in a night sky where I could see Ursa Major.I can barely make out Orion's Belt or "The Big Dipper" because of city lights. 🙁

[@terryhunt2659]

@@notaseriousbeaver "King Charles' Wain" was a common name used for it in the English countryside, that only began to decline after WW2.

[@intrepidus3378]

Really demonstrates the power of oral tradition in the formation and success of human civilization. The stories they hold contain the seeds of the formation of a new society in the event of the collapse or destruction of the old.

[@Reesezhatena]

Really appreciate the emphasis on these ideas being theories instead of fact. Many people aren’t responsible with their words when discussing ancient myths so this was rather refreshing to hear.

[@glenchapman3899]

Indigenous people in Australia collectively describe these myths as the "Dreaming" or coming from the "Dream Time" A few years ago now, some Dreaming was discovered to be a pretty accurate description of an event some 700 years ago. It talked of the day the sea fell from the sky. Geologists discovered a large Tsunami had hit the part of the coast the Dreaming came from. The tribe telling the story had lived slightly inland and were describing the wave over topping a coastal range of hills in flooding a valley inland.

[@Soundofwindonsand]

Sounds so similar to the " giant Thunderbird fighting The giant Orka", wich feel back into the Pacific ocean Causing the Largest Tsunami ever recorded on the Washington coastline...

[@macawism]

The Dreamtime is a colonial term that is neither used by many surviving Australian communities that still have significant traditions that are practiced, nor does it describe anything usefully about the deep past, as perceived by Australian indigenous peoples. A great example of “lost in translation”. Another simple observation is that Australian Aboriginal peoples were not of a monolithic culture, as suggested here. A story from the north east that I came across, relates that turtles speared by people from a canoe dragged the shore along drowning the previous shorelines… Another story from the Sepik River in New Guinea tracks the movement of a village up a mountain side, as the waters rose…

[@glenchapman3899]

@@macawism Dreamtime is a catch all colonial word for all the various concepts native Australians have for deep time. And yes the stories dont carry any practical value, they have enormous value from an anthropological perspective. It gives us a window into how oral traditions worked before the invention of writing. So by listening to these stories, locating the event that may have triggered them, we learn a little more about ourselves as a species.

[@cecileroy557]

@@macawism Interesting!

[@rebeccamckinlay8517]

It would make sense for aspects of myths featuring prominent stars to be highly conserved since these were essential for navigation.

[@glenchapman3899]

It is one of the reasons so much of Australian mythology was able to survive. Most of the physical features described served as important landmarks for them to navigate through their environment

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

The Connections (2021) [short documentary] ❤

[@UKMDI]

can already tell this is a great one

[@Tokinjester]

Same.. and I'm barely 20 seconds in!

[@octavianova1300]

What's interesting about the case of Crater Lake, is one Klamath chief who was interviewed about the legend in 1865 was actually the first person recorded to put forward the idea that it was formed by a particularly violent volcanic eruption, decades before European scientists started looking into the idea.

[@TheMysteryDriver]

Yes. That's what the video said.

[@b5fremdet]

​@@TheMysteryDriver Did it? Well, I missed it I guess

[@TheMysteryDriver]

@@b5fremdet it's pretty close to the beginning

[@Rhaenarys]

​@@b5fremdeti missed it too, apparently lol. Tbf, i was driving when i started it.

[@EvilLeRoy]

I had been living in Washington state and visited crater lake and did a little research after a guide told me that and found that local (to Washington state) native populations had stories from around that time as long as 30000 years ago about a massive explosion that darkened the sky for months. It wouldn’t be the first time this would have happened as the supposed worst two years on earth the planet was darkened by an ash cloud for two years while a massive plague outbreak happened.

[@Soundofwindonsand]

I have never heard such an excellent description for a Ground Sloth... Perfect...

[@Ndw1995]

Gunya: “Oh boy I caught dinner!” The Gods: *”AW HELL NAW”* 🌊

[@ReverendMeat51]

Your narration is always so comfy. You should have a B channel where you narrate the ingredients on junk food wrappers for sleepy time

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

The Connections (2021) [short documentary] ❤

[@borkabrak]

There's at least one vid that is several hours of a very comforting voice reading old (not as old as these star tales, but still) myths and legends of Germany. It's great for voluntary, impermanent consciousness termination (i.e. sleep).

[@al145]

Isn't one of the first lines of Gilgamesh something like "in the earliest days, those old days before bread existed" or something?

[@DevinDTV]

yeah which by the same logic justifying the other stories would make the epic at least 10,000 years old

[@jeffreymanary1976]

Back in the time when Tigers smoked...

[@jasondaveries9716]

"When the ovens were first lit"

[@muffledreality]

UUUUUUUUDREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHH

[@RealAlbertoOrozco]

​@@DevinDTVat least

[@Tachometrically]

Im an Oregonian Geologist, super glad to see the story of Mt.Mazama on here! Only thing I have to say is that it is pronounced Kla-math, not Kla-moth

[@KayGee-r5o]

The story of Mazama is too deep for me

[@paulapridy6804]

The scope of debris from Mt Mazama would seem like the world was being blown up. I have hiked miles away with geologists and seen the evidence

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

The Connections (2021) [short documentary] ❤

[@richdiddens4059]

And Sha-stuh not Shaw-staw

[@HamMack600]

Glad to see someone mentioned it. It’s like they were trying hard to pronounce it awkwardly.

[@CantusTropus]

Researchers in general underestimate oral tradition and the importance that nonliterate societies place on them. Nonliterate societies often have better memories than literate societies specifically because they can't rely on written documentation to pick up the slack for them. It's similar to how memory has generally degraded even in the last couple of decades because modern technology makes it increasingly unnecessary to remember things yourself.

[@AriaIsara]

Exactly!

[@daltonslayton6766]

Some dude ate a fish, and there was a tidal wave, and now he's blamed for eternity for the rising sea level.

[@razk8756]

First time here... i (unfairly) half expected this to be another Simon Whistler edutainment channel. Great video. Cheers

[@stevenlee3278]

Shh don’t say that too loud. Simon and his infinite channels is everywhere!

[@EShirako]

@@stevenlee3278 His basement is full...I think he just hires more writers nowadays. :D

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

The Connections (2021) [short documentary] ❤

[@KayGee-r5o]

Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" from the 1970's finding the same stories among disconnected cultures was seminal reading for ethnobiologists and then screenwriters like George Lucas who used Campbell's "Universal Myth" The Hero's Journey map as a 12-step screenplay structure.

[@rooknado]

Every man should read that book (And of course watch Star Wars)

[@ChrisFarrell]

This book is widely considered extremely problematic today for many reasons, one of which is its eurocentrism. Which is fine, but it’s not any kind of a universal myth or monomyth. And while George Lucas did read it and thought about it, Lucas drew on a ton of influences and how Campbell influenced Star Wars is not really clear-cut - especially not beyond the first movie. Also, the book is from 1949, it was just hot in the 70s.

[@KayGee-r5o]

@@ChrisFarrell How is research of ANY kind "extremely problematic"? Campbell lived in Hawaii he wasn't "euro" anything. You sound like an AI bot where someone entered "argue" and then gave you bad data.

[@cecileroy557]

@@KayGee-r5o You attacked someone's comment... without realizing that "research" and the resulting "findings" are constantly being questioned whether the research is current or much older. Seems your supposed points are mistaken - yet you come across as thinking that YOU have all the answers while speaking down to someone else's opinion.

[@dhoward8816]

I've always thought that "oral history" could be just as reliable as "written history." Human beings, even those living 50,000+ years ago, have always wanted to pass on their wisdom and experiences to their children, grandchildren, etc.. Lacking writing, they had to rely on careful memorization.

[@uncletiggermclaren7592]

When Baron Hochstetter came to New Zealand in 1858 on the Novara expedition, he had the typical renaissance man approach to science, so, though a geologist, he brought astrological survey tools and text books with him. He had an interested and older Maori Tohunga ( priest ) as a self volunteered companion. Hochstetter and he talked about various stars and their ritual purposes was what interested the Tohunga, he thought the Europeans were learning about ritual, which to Maori the stars were mostly about. Even the navigation was done through ritual practices. Only four years before, Sirius the dog star had been calculated to be a binary. Hochstetter began to explain this concept, and the Tohunga interrupted excitedly to say something like "You guys know they are "The sisters !" and was very satisfied by the explanation of binary stars, but already knew it was two sisters holding hands. He went on to point out that there were a number of "family" or "sister stars" and pointed out three binary star systems that had been observed with telescopes or calculation, but were not considered detectable as binaries with the naked eye. :)

[@ashleysmith9516]

My Inupiaq family has a story from when Alaska was still warm enough to not need any clothes, potentially 100,000 years old

[@happytofu5]

What is the story?

[@novaace2474]

Is it possible the Inupiaq come from a warmer environment, and applied their old myths to their new home?

[@ronallens6204]

This is where your world view comes in... if u r an evolutionist then you placate ur god by making billions of years ago... young earth has no problem with the ice age 4000 years ago, and instead og global warming, its drying up... considering there is plenty of evidence the sahara use to be a swamp, the amazon was a huge lake, atlantis has been found in the sahara and the grand canyon was an earthen dam and had a massive lake cut out the canyon in a very short time

[@SymphonyZach]

@@novaace2474that was my thought. Southern Asia, in the more humid and warm areas. Migrating north and eventually across

[@airgunnut1487]

is this documented?

[@brettcurtis5710]

The Pleiades are known to the Polynesian Maori people of New Zealand as Matariki, their rising in our southern skies in June mark their New Year, the time to plant kumara (sweet potato), remember family lost, and celebrate new life! It is also our newest Public Holiday celebrated on the first weekend of June.

[@hans7856]

You forgot to mention the Rgveda, which has been orally transmitted since 1500 BC and retains elements of even older periods when the people telling the story were still nomadic. Note that the Rgveda has mostly retained its original form, including grammar, and is thus very important for historical linguists as well.

[@rohanharridge5579]

Can't cite the source from 20 odd years ago but I read that one passage describes a contemporary account of people who were on the banks of the Saraswati river but in a location that late C20th-C21st satellite assisted archaeology/(geology?) had recently determined the river hasn't flowed for about 10k years. Some of the numbers in ancient Indian texts I've read translations of are pretty wild, the 'days of Brahma' thing making the universe about 4.5 billion years old being the one that really stuck in my mind because it's about the age of the planet. I suspect some of the really huge numbers are due to the fact Indians mastered the concept of zero & base ten numbering at a very early stage & just used what they had because creativity is like that sometimes but the Saraswati location thing seems very plausible because there's genetic as well as etymological evidence of migrations of Aryan tribes at around the time.

[@hans7856]

@@rohanharridge5579 That seems unlikely as the Indo-European migrations did not start till 6000 years ago. But who knows, maybe in the future there will be another consensus among historical linguists.

[@sagnikchatterjee2946]

​@@hans7856 there was no migration from Europe it was the opposite we Indians ( banished ones after the great dashraaj war that approximately took place around 7000 to 7500 years ago ) migrated towards Europe as Yamnaya.

[@sagnikchatterjee2946]

​@@rohanharridge5579 What rubbish Aarya means noble man it's not a race or something . There was no migration from Europe it was the opposite , Indians (banished ones after the great dashraaj war mentioned in Rigved) migrated towards Europe and caused the Yamnaya massacre.

[@hans7856]

@@sagnikchatterjee2946 Anti-scientific nonsense. Sanskrit and all other Indo-Aryan languages descend from Proto-Indo-European, spoken on the Pontic-Caspian steppe by people of the Yamnaya culture.

[@The_Bookser]

I do like the idea that mythological creatures may have influenced ancient creatures. The ancient version of the telephone game and the splitting of groups of people would be why there are different versions of creatures. It is a fun idea that might have some nugget of truth but it isn't the sole answer unless we have hard evidence to prove otherwise. How some stories about Australia and other places' geographical features might stem from stories based on an actual event but just changed over time to what we get today. Such as flood stories, any ancient volcano eurption, and even the stars would be pass down and would changed over time.

[@aubreyleonae4108]

Excellent video, very informative. Klamath is pronounced like "clam - math" Shasta is like hat and a. Shasta soda is still a popular soft drink brand. As a kid in the 60s - 70s they had a commercial jingle that went "Shasta 'cuz it has ta." Didn't expect my home town in the video. Then there's Mt. Shasta, a whole video in itself. Thank you for your work on this and other videos.

[@Fireoflearning]

Thank you for correcting my pronunciation, we will remember for next time

[@Alex-yy5wo]

Fellow Oregonian here, they’re absolutely right

[@nedludd7622]

I had to listen several times to decipher what he said trying to pronounce "Klamath".

[@marymeyer8185]

I remember the old cans that said simply, “It hasta be Shasta”

[@matthewschiffer4649]

Justin, you are a national treasure. Thank you for all of your quality videos!

[@stevenlee3278]

International*

[@matthewschiffer4649]

@@stevenlee3278 Yes!! Thank you for the update!

[@dont-call-me-et-al]

Thank you for creating and maintaining this channel. You're doing such an important part of ensuring that these hundred-thousand years-old stories (based on once-truths) continue to be passed down in the same way they always have been. ♥️

[@yokothespacewhale]

20:27 it is insanely wild that everyone across the planet saw six stars and were like naw there was seven at one point I know it

[@antokarman2064]

20:27 the last one must've been so grounded by his mom, lol

[@NanaBren]

What a shame that people’s before written history have lost their rich and ancient stories. Some are preserved in oral form, though we have no way of knowing how much they vary from actual events that spurred them.

[@HumanBeing1974]

100% Agree

[@bananahpolkadot]

I would love to see more videos on this topic!! This video was great!!

[@ctwasus2738]

Buddha's lifetime was about 2500 years ago. We know that there were nothing was written down during Buddha's time. The earliest writing about Buddha and Buddha's teachings came a few hundred years after Buddha's death. Yet many scholars believe that the biography of Buddha and records of his teachings have been accurately preserved through oral tradition.

[@shadowshots9393]

Thank Ananda For that

[@Musick79]

And yet how many refuse to believe the New Testament was really written by men who knew Jesus.

[@tweezy5804]

Yea, same thing with Muhammad, it was 150 to 200 years after that people starting writing about him and they lived 700 to 2000 miles away from where he lived. Yet people have a hard time believing the bible, when we know those are first hand account written as early as 15 to 30 years after jesus live and death.

[@buddhaspriest]

If you know how, you know it's doable. His teachings are lyrical, rhythmic and numerically categorized, just like the warrior poets and sages did across the world. The teachings are songs, their telling, a spell.

[@buddhaspriest]

​@@Musick79but why don't you believe the dead sea scrolls?

[@Skanking-Corpse]

I really enjoyed the critical thinking and skepticism in this video when analyzing these stories. It's really refreshing to hear a well balanced take rather than a biased one.

[@warhawkjah]

The fact that the big dipper looks nothing like a bear implies it would be difficult for many different cultures to coincidentally describe it as such. Also some think that legends of Northern European "Wildmen" might be based on Neanderthals.

[@asteroidkatfacts1036]

AKA the frost giants.

[@Johnny_Appleweed]

It's a big, square body. Bears, tigers, and eagles are some of the most common animals cited in mythology. Which of those do you think fits to a big, square body... theveagle? No. The tiger? No. The bear. There ya go. That's why. Nothing mysterious about it.

[@Theodore-g7f]

There's an entire episode of the Naked Archaeologist (free on Tubi, AWESOME series!) where he arguably suggests that Biblical phrases like "the Elohim", "there were giants in the Earth", "people who looked like men but had no souls" etc. might be based on stores passed down by people who originally confronted Neanderthals.

[@KenikoB]

@@Theodore-g7f Except Neanderthals weren't giants... they were on average 5'-5'5", and at the time of their extinction humans would have been the same or taller.

[@Haydenny]

​@KenikoB cool fact, before the Neolithic revolution, the average human male was taller than today's average American males height at 6'0-6'2. It was only after farming that our diets changed and we grew shorter, now where in the process of getting taller again

[@jonathanweinberg2874]

i really really appreciate that you also present evidence that doesn't fit the coolest explanation. It makes me able to trust what you tell me in a way that is rare on youtube

[@VYBEKAT]

I am so psyched for this !!!! Gotta watch on my lunch break

[@Numba003]

I love this channel! Thank you for this video! I once wrote a research paper for a class using ancient oral traditions as one piece of evidence to back up the possibility of a prehistoric cometary impact in the Indian Ocean (based on some work by a group of geophysicists). The deep culture of humanity is a fascinating study. God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)

[@alfredopampanga9356]

There’s a simpler confounding factor Researchers interviewing people with a lesser knowledge of English unconsciously “ help” the story or unconsciously suggest the “right answers :”. Clairvoyants use this to fool clients by picking up involuntary clues about a deceased person and astonish the client with their mystical powers You see this with Aboriginal stories of the “ Rainbow Serpent”. The Aboriginal word for “ serpent” would be “ snake” Their vocabulary was sparse But the interviewer would have inserted “ Serpent” to help the tale.

[@Fireoflearning]

This is a good and very important point, although I believe in the first story, the paper we cited mentioned that the researchers they drew from tried to avoid this specifically, and the second was recorded before there was reason to direct the story one way or another. We're less certain about how much of a factor this was for the rest, though. Thank you.

[@StephBer1]

I'm not sure if this is true for Aboriginals. The complete oral history is entrusted to a few individuals within each tribe and they become the official keepers of the song line, spending many years learning it. Only they are allowed to impart the knowledge. They sang their oral histories, and held them in dances as well, and they are very specific about them. Song and dance are also better memory holders than actual speech. They were extremely reticent about imparting their histories for a long time as it belongs to their people and no other.

[@alfredopampanga9356]

@@StephBer1 There’s a strand of Western thinking that imparts an exaggerated reverence to primitive people Many things that are accepted facts about Aboriginal life are romanticised fiction. I have direct experience in modern Aboriginal communities. The news is not good.

[@seanfaherty]

You do realize the word snake and serpent mean the same thing right ?

[@alfredopampanga9356]

@@seanfaherty Do tell. You missed my point

[@emilpierce4340]

20:00 i'm apart of the the Haudenosaunee nation, we have a story about the Pleiades as well. it involves 7 boys dancing into the sky and their mom gets to keep one boy every year in the winter. my head shot right up when you talked about the Cherokee's story because their story is very similar to ours it seems.

[@ChrissieBear]

We know for a fact oral histories DO change, because we have oral stories that were later written down, such as the Torah and the Illiad, which we can compare to archaeological fact to see the changes.

[@suzanneparoski4467]

Oral histories were told by story tellers to people who also knew the stories so could correct deviations to the story inadvertently inserted by the story teller. Modern archeology is more often proving biblical stories down to extraordinary details rather than debunking them.

[@peterfireflylund]

@@suzanneparoski4467only for things written down shortly after they happened - and minus all the god stuff, of course. Things in the Old Testament that are supposed to have happened just a few hundred years before they were written down are full of errors or are entirely made up.

[@kendallbyrd9875]

They change but the stories stay the same. The narrative is intact and oral traditions can last much longer than anything written down.

[@Galic44]

@@suzanneparoski4467 Although it's less common, not all oral histories were necessarily told by a single storyteller. Some have been shared through songs that everyone sang together and that has kept them more consistant than people would expect, like in Australia for example.

[@brandonjohnson7685]

Oral traditions are better and more accurate over time than written accounts. Something about requiring memory helps keep standard deviations out of things, while writing for 'posterity' encourages someone to paint a story the best way they can because they do not know who will read it one day.

[@JUNKYJESUS89]

As a Caucasian who has lived On an Indigenous reservation for over twelve years. These are amazing The speculation On facts or not is Quite intriguing. Thank you so much. Love hearing all of them all

[@bengagnon5452]

Top tier content as always

[@aimeeripley3812]

Oral tradition stories being passed down verbally I believe was accurate. Remembering song lyrics or poetry is easier than remembering conversation. Especially during a time when the story tellers took the duty seriously. Then the next generation would pass on the story at a time when there was no radio. Just my thoughts on it

[@pablowentscobar]

Oh heck yea. I've been wanting a long form Flames of Studying video.

[@emielhoekstra]

thanx, as a life long mariner i've been fascinated by navigation and to find out how ancient and deep our shared knowledge of the sky's is, is truly amazing

[@doronron7323]

Thank you for this absorbing account, which impressed with its candid honesty.

[@Sb129]

Once, my grandma told me an old story that I could tell was an impact from a meteorite. She was a full blood of the Hopi tribe.

[@DaNxYsmells007]

Not only dose my tribe have story's of a ice age, or even a great flood, but we have songs about the creator banging his staff on the ground in heaven causing a spark that make a big bang creating the world we live in.

[@Johnny_Appleweed]

Obviously they've heard modern ideas and incorporated them into myth.

[@happymonkeyoohoohahah]

Thank you so much for sharing this 😊

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

Excellent story telling, carrying on the very human tradition quite well.

[@deanporter3509]

Absolutely fascinating! Instant subscribe

[@DerekHowden]

The Sumerian King List spans 241000 years and tells of nine kings lives spanned 241000 years. If the reigning kings were dead kings (but perceived as alive in spirit and imagination) then it would show that the Sumerians counted 241000 years which would imply that they were watching the sky for 241000 years and we would have to accept is as a ball park figure. The bottom line is that the Kings List could be documentation of the counting of years which would have been done accurately as they did. After all they counted in base 60 which is where we get 360 degrees which boils down to minuits, hours and years which we count time and map to the sky in degrees. I'd say that 100,000 years is short estimation and we have been watching the sky long enough that seven stars were visible in the sky 🙂 Thanks for the video :-) isn't it great to know life is amazing?

[@mitslev4043]

Honestly I would say it's less time for the kings. It is common in the ancient neir east to use symbolic numbers with each number having a meaning.

[@babyblue3717]

i'm brazilian. i 100% believe the Mapinguari is a description of ground sloths. i have written a paper on some of the different mythical beings, or cryptids, of Brazil, and lots of them relate to actual real-life animals, extinct and otherwise. My father grew up terrified of legends of huge birds that would swipe and eat children; the Harpy Eagle is a real animal, and there is some evidence of them actually feeding off small apes and humans.

[@johnwilliams2711]

The Bunyip story has been taken out of context by colonists excited by cryptological/pparanormal yarns and have also conflated it with different aquatic creatures and legends of different Australian indigenous peoples. It's not that mysterious though, large seals occasionally travel up rivers far inland into the fresh water. Bunyip or Banip was the word for leopard seal for the Wadawurrung (Wathaurong) people around Geelong and was recorded by colonists in the19th Century.

[@aidanmagill6769]

Except sea level rise wasn't a sudden cataclysmic event. If you lived to be forty, you would experience a sea level rise of about 12 inches. That doesn't comport with stories of sudden, catastrophic floods.

[@jonwallace6204]

Subscribed. Good research and fascinating topic.

[@teovladescu8138]

There's a book called When they severed earth from sky by Elizabeth Wayland Barber about how before the invention of writing we used to tell stories about real events and how these became myths. It's very interesting and close to the ideas in this video.

[@SKULLKR3W]

My tribes origin story talks about how we lived in the woods before building our Pueblo and some archeologists found hunter gatherer artifacts that were 4000+ years old in the areas we said we used to live in oral histories are way more accurate than we think

[@nkhamoza1]

The Pleiades also has the brightest star in the whole sky, I'm sure that's a factor somehow....really enjoyed this video.

[@ferretyluv]

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. What are you on about?

[@nkhamoza1]

@ferretyluv oh my bad that's right...calm down dude, everyone makes mistakes. You sound like a "a know it all", a real pain to be around.

[@lesjones6745]

Fascinating video! Many subjects like this are discussed in the book 'Hamlet's Mill' by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend - it is indeed a deep subject!

[@TheEarl777]

It is very strange the astronomical knowledge known by very early primitive tribes. Such as The Dogon tribes knowledge of Sirius being a binary star system.

[@ThomasPalm-w5y]

Read the wikipedia article 'The Sirius Mystery". While it is hard to prove either way there are simpler explanations than ancient astronomicla knowledge.

[@KenikoB]

Apparently that was only documented by a single man and nobody who's talked to them since has heard that they know anything about the stars

[@nedludd7622]

I have read a couple of volumes of collections of Aboriginal stories and they are fascinating and worth looking up.

[@Stillwaman1]

Thanks!

[@Fireoflearning]

Thank you!

[@oceancowboy]

23:54 But why seven? It leads to the possibility that at one time there WERE seven. Maybe it went supernova & over time they had to explain the loss. Something they couldn't do.

[@Awesomewithaz]

It's behind one other

[@Hello-CE0]

I love coming to this channel after being the Internet successfully frustrates me

[@mmminno]

I subscrives as soon as i saw your link to sources. Beatiful, truly 😍

[@cesz1]

Haven't clicked anything faster

[@thecolorred8368]

Meh... I hesitated.

[@pantaloney]

Really fascinating video!!

[@edwardroche2480]

I like this video particularly the stories about the Seven Sisters which were related to me when I was a child, and when I counted the Stars I thought I could see 7 but now that I am older and my vision is much worn. I don't remember how many I've seen when I last looked, so I refer to them as the 7 sisters

[@shayanthis]

I'm partly convinced that the modern Australian drop bear myth is inspired by the marsupial lion. The lion fits the description of a dangerous animal that drops out of trees. In my heart, I know it's very unlikely to be true, but, it's fun to think about

[@charjl96]

What an extremely fascinating subject

[@brisk_gift]

The people that traveled far did so on their creative whim of remebering themselves and their old stories

[@Johnny_Appleweed]

What?

[@robfut9954]

The Younger Drias happened 10k years ago… makes sense.

[@lordzerakin8106]

Ive also been around Back then 😊 good old time

[@coyote4237]

I very much enjoyed this - thank you.

[@hollandp9606]

The story of Budj Bim, a volcano in South Australia, dates back 37,000 years ago.

[@pencilpauli9442]

With regard to Orion chasing the Pleiades in both hemispheres, assuming that the rotation of the constellations is what led to the story, the latter would have to be seen to the left of Orion as the rotation of the stars is counter-clockwise. In the northern hemisphere, the sisters are chasing the hunter. In the southern hemisphere, where the rotation is clockwise the chase across the skies is more convincing. This raises another question, in that the story suggests a patriarchal mythos imho. We have no idea how much older societies organised themselves and what their mythologies were based upon.

[@DeanDayton-gk6le]

As far as I can tell, the oldest stories would be those told by our forefathers of their trips to and from school, followed by "The one that got away". Lol

[@cecileroy557]

Great channel - just subbed!!!

[@patriciapaul6905]

Some of my family’s stories say the big animals will return, they went into the mountains, into the big caves. When you go into the caves you can feel the cold winds that blow outa them, yep we know what caves and its special. Newe

[@mad7fisher]

In our lifetime we may see Betelguese go supernova- that would really be something to see !- The Chinese wrote in 185 AD about a new star that suddenly appeared. You could see it in the daytime for a while and it was very bright in the sky for 8 months and scientists now know that to be SN 185. They said it was a star that went supernova between the constellations of Circinus & Centaurus. That's pretty cool.

[@RedXlV]

If we do see Betelguese go supernova in our lifetimes, that will mean it actually already happened about 500 years ago. Since its estimated distance is 500 light-years. It's estimated that the Betelguese supernova will be seen on Earth (if any humans are left to see it) sometime in the next 100,000 years. So it's rather unlikely to happen in our lifetimes, but it's possible. Especially if Betelguese's mass turns out to be on the upper end of the estimates (since the bigger star is, the shorter its life will tend to be).

[@eefaaf]

The number 7 has a special meaning in many cultures. So when they came up with a story around the Pleiades, they thought: "A shame that there are only six. Let's say that there were seven but one went missing!"

[@RedXlV]

That is a possibility, I suppose.

[@mysteryblankdspace4342]

The simplest explanation for the seven sisters is that the origin story just told it that way, and the missing sister continued on as part of the core story but mainly as dramatic embellishment.

[@ThePhatrooster1]

One of my favorite theories is that germanic dwarves were stories our ancestors passed down about neanderthals. That there are hairy short but stout men weilding hammers and axes and are dangerous and live in caves This would put the myth back at least 40k years

[@RedXlV]

Meaning that anatomically modern humans are elves.

[@ThePhatrooster1]

@@RedXlV No, we're humans. The denisovans were

[@nilsgensert5814]

After watching RealLifeLore's video on the amazon canopy just an hour ago, the story about the groundsloth rings suddenly very familiar :D

[@GG-ou8hz]

Very well done. Subscribed

[@bjrockensock]

The Ojibwa have a historical chief, who fought the battle of Sugar Point, Chief Bug-o-nay-ge-shig, Chief Hole-in-the-sky, a quick web search reveals the name for Pleiades, in the Greek sense, the Seven Sisters. But to the Ojibwa, it was an opening in the sky that reveals thousands of stars--and indeed, about 600 are countable, the rest obscured by the brightness of the cluster. Modern astronomy reveals that it is an area of star formation. How the ancients could see such things is amazing even though their skies would have been much clearer. There's a town named for Chief Bug-o-nay-ge-shig in Northern Minnesota. It was one of my favorite things to say when I was a kid, and to learn the history of Chief Bug-o-nay-ge-shig, his feats, his negotiations with the Feds, and how he fell from grace even though he was a successful businessman. Named for a constellation that looked like a hole in the sky.

[@thebookofclyde1822]

A possible explanation for the disappearance of a seventh bright star in the Pleiades is that a very large and bright star underwent a supernova explosion and collapsed into a black hole. If the star was large enough it might have collapsed directly into a black hole without a supernova. In that case it would have been the brightest star in the group and would simply have disappeared without any associated cosmic fireworks.

[@RedXlV]

Even if there was a visible supernova, that would only last for a few months before ceasing to be visible to the naked eye. So the same people who saw it happen would also see it vanish, and they could easily interpret that as just being the way a star dies. Which would be partially correct, but only for very large stars.

[@RemusKingOfRome]

Great video. Imagine ancient cave peoples, what could they do at night while huddling around the camp fire, other than look up at the stars and make myth stories about the stars . So we could be going all the way back to command of Fire period. h

[@stuartlawler2411]

Authoritarian government: "GUINIUAS! DONT EAT THAT!" Guinias: "Calm down ffs...oh, shit." *Natural disaster occurs*

[@GaiaCarney]

I enjoy night-sky watching and the connections to our ancient ancestors ✨ I will look at geography now with a similar thought . . .

[@tomsitzman3952]

for 99.999% of human history there was darkness after the sun went down. there was a lot of time to dream the fire and study the sky. Every group had a story teller who could recited stories after dark. Stories that went on not for 30 minutes but for night after night. Since the only way to record the past was through story telling, someone had to learn the groups past and pass the information on with accuracy. Passing the stories on were important for their safety. In the stories there had to be useful information, Where to find water during a long and prolonged drought or where the group came from and their relatives still live and they can return to live and have food and water.

[@Awghan]

I’m from Afghanistan and I was told that the seven stars are seven brother star. I’ve been looking for Seven stars remembering my mothers story but I could never find seven stars.