The Birth of Civilisation - Cult of the Skull (8800 BC to 6500 BC)

[@TheHistocrat]

General Sources: Chris Scarre (2018) The Human Past. Fourth Edition. Klaus Schmidt (2012) Gobekli Tepe: A Stone Age Sanctuary in South-Eastern Anatolia. James Mellaart (1967) Catalhoyuk, a Neolithic town in Anatolia. Ian Hodder (2006) The Leopards Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Catalhoyuk. Marc Van De Mieroop (2016) A History of the Ancient Near East. Third Edition. Amanda H. Podany (2014) The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction. Video References: Stefan Milo (2019) The Evolution of Farming in the Near East. References: Spivak and Nadel (2016) The use of stone at Ohalo II, a 23,000 year old site in the Jordan Valley, Israel. Journal of Lithic Studies. Liu et al. (2018) Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel: Investigating Natufian ritual feasting. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Arranz-Otaegui (2018) Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan. PNAS. Watkins (2010) New Light on Neolithic Revolution in south-west Asia. Antiquity. Kilian et al. (2010) Genetic Diversity, Evolution and Domestication of Wheat and Barley in the Fertile Crescent. In book: Evolution in Action. Rollefson et al. (1992) Neolithic Cultures at ‘Ain Ghazal, Jordan. Journal of Field Archaeology. Willcox and Stordeur (2012) Large-scale cereal processing before domestication during the 10th millennium cal BC in northern Syria. Antiquity. Vigne et al. (2012) First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago. PNAS. Arbuckle (2014) Pace and process in the origins of animal husbandry in Neolithic Southwest Asia. Bioarchaeology of the Near East. Arbuckle et al. (2014) Data sharing reveals complexity in the westward spread of domestic animals across Neolithic Turkey. PLOS ONE. Spencer (1995) Biological Changes in Human Populations with Agriculture. Annual Review of Anthropology. Stiner et al. (2014) A forager-herder trade-off, from broad-spectrum hunting to sheep management at Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey. PNAS. Pearson et al. (2013) Food and Social Complexity at Cayonu Tepesi, southeastern Anatolia: Stable isotope evidence of differentiation in diet according to burial practise and sex in the early Neolithic. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. Dietrich et al. (2019) Cereal Processing at Early Neolithic Gobekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey. PLOS ONE. Schmandt-Besserat (2013) Animal Figurines. Texas ScholarWorks. Martin and Meskell (2012) Animal figurines from Neolithic Catalhoyuk: Figural and Faunal Perspectives. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Kuijt (2008) The Regeneration of Life: Neolithic structures of symbolic remembering and forgetting. Current Anthropology. Gresky et al. (2017) Modified human crania from Gobekli Tepe provide evidence for a new form of Neolithic skull cult. Science Advances. Smith et al. (2010) Production systems, inheritance, and inequality in premodern societies. Current Anthropology. Salque et al. (2018) Evidence for the Impact of the 8.2-kyBP climate event on Near Eastern early farmers. PNAS. Wu et al. (2012) Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong cave, China. Science. Craig et al. (2013) Earliest evidence for the use of pottery. Nature.

[@bushyrho1674]

Thank you for providing your resources.

[@alexruddies1718]

Sources...*salivates*

[@hannyhawkins7804]

Fantastic bibliography. Thank you so much.

[@lindamaemullins5151]

Thank you so much for sharing this honey ❤️❤️❤️

[@edu21957]

Could you enable subtitles?

[@TheHistocrat]

Minor correction: As people have pointed out, there are domesticated dogs in the murals at Catalhoyuk, in fact you can see one at the right side of the frame right as I claim there aren't any. Apologies for the mistake.

[@niccoarcadia4179]

I believe dogs would have been man's best friend prior to any civilization. I think dogs would have been utilized/friended 100's of years before civilization even took root.

[@AntonioSilva-dn2yi]

@@niccoarcadia4179 maybe 20.000 years ago.

[@TheHistocrat]

@@niccoarcadia4179 See the previous video in the series for a brief discussion of this.

[@Tucker93669]

@@niccoarcadia4179 gobekli tepe shows civilization is much older than previously thought

[@GeckoHiker]

It simply wasn't civilization until we had cats. Jest sayin'...

[@josephlongbone4255]

The oldest story known to man, the Epic of Gilgamesh, opens with: "in the old days, before there was bread." The world is so old, and humanity was ancient and storied even in the bronze age and before... Humans are amazing. Edit: Do not Feed the Trolls.

[@jessicacollins4042]

Incredible

[@theCosmicQueen]

yes. before wheat was cultivated. hunter- gatherer, fish, and maybe fruit trees/ veggies. They had low- carb diet. Now we are finding that grains aren't our best nutrition sources.. They were just what people got used to, living in overly impacted, deforested, drying out lands.

[@redhidinghood9337]

@@theCosmicQueen lol why bring in nutrition into this all of a sudden. Also, living in forests is not "natural" for humans, as we evolved in the Savannah.

[@heresjohnny602]

@@theCosmicQueen Our ancestors ate carbohydrates in spades, even our monkey relatives are famous for over consuming carbohydrates and other food sources to the point of extinction.....just total new age superstition to say grains are not our friends.....it is the way carbohydrates are processed and treated that makes them unhealthy and not the food source itself....anyone telling you to cut out an entire food group which like protein we've evolved on is not to be trusted.

[@heresjohnny602]

"Ancient and storied" see I know in your brain you think this all tracks back to a super race of civilisation but it doesn't, there's a few thousand years before this to 13,500 BC with gobekli tepi but that's the oldest civilisation so far.

[@Lozosos]

I have finally found it. A video both boring enough to put me to sleep yet interesting enough to keep my attention so my intrusive thoughts don't win. 10/10 I've fallen asleep to this 13 times and counting!

[@rpm-f9w]

😂

[@NickTriHard]

Felt this so hard

[@sultanofswing7198]

Try “fall of civilizations”

[@mrdgenerate]

I keep falling asleep to the 1988 Russian animated English translation of Treasure Island. I never ever actually make it to the island. I get to Dr livesey house where Jim brings the map and thats as far as I get. At least 10-15 times.

[@mrdgenerate]

I saw that meme of Dr livesey walking and had to find the cartoon lol

[@Oberon4278]

I love that beer was one of the first foods they made as soon as they settled. Makes me think that fermentation must have already been known, and when they expected to stay in one place they did it in a basin instead of a portable container.

[@zach2158]

You need more beer when you have closer neighbors 🍺

[@kovona]

There's some archeological finds in China of depression and holes in boulders/rock surfaces that contain traces of fermented grain/fruit residue, dating back to 10,000-12,000 years ago. They think they might had been used for fermenting alcohol before pottery was available. Guess they could had fill and mashed ingredients in these holes, cover them up with something and leave it to sit for a few weeks to ferment.

[@Kobolds_in_a_trenchcoat]

Remember that the process for making beer involves boiling water, which rids it of bacteria.

[@jd-xe4rn]

The eating of fermented foods is theorized to be older than the genus Homo even, and evidence for this claim is the fact that many animals to this day seek out slightly rotted fruits for its inebriating effects.

[@havingfun9324]

I recently watched a video on PBS Eons talking about this and they think we used fermentation to make 🍺 before we decided to use it to make 🥖 which I find fascinating

[@ultimoguerreiro82]

Brazilian historian here. Cannot praise you enough for your work. Thanks for enriching our lives.

[@JJE18210]

You're welcome.

[@Replicaate]

Your videos remind me of a really intense university lecture, and I mean that in the best way - like I can just sit here with my lunch and just listen and absorb knowledge thanks to your wonderful delivery and serious research. Eagerly anticipating the news that final video of this amazing series has been uploaded...

[@crhu319]

Once you have pottery and copper tools you now have a very strong incentive to build around specialized kilns and forges, which you just cannot carry to nomadic locations. But that just makes irreversible the commitment to location from the "pre pottery Neolithic" that came from fields, mills, animal pens, etc. Once you make a pen to protect lambs from wolves or thieves at night, you are committed to place.

[@annawarren-sullivan7630]

Yup, it snowballs, imho. For better or worse. Nice observation

[@NoxLegend1]

Tell that to the mongols

[@irfannurhadisatria2540]

@@NoxLegend1 Neolithic cultures didn't have horses until the Proto-Indo-European domesticated then in late Copper Age, around 4000-3500BC. Well if someone Invented wagons and wheels earlier oxen and donkeys might drag those kilns around in 8000BC I guess...

[@wecx2375]

@@NoxLegend1 the mongols had a Capitol actually infact you had to return to it to choose a new great khan.

[@It-b-Blair]

Most metallurgical forges can be produced with earth easily. The tools to manipulate the metal are portable. It really doesn’t lock you down if you don’t want it too. Especially with the simple metals they were initially using, there weren’t doing tungsten or tool steel...

[@HistoryTime]

Just amazing work

[@cmurderfrumpbottoniv8647]

Both of you guys are must haves in any history buffs subscriptions

[@cmurderfrumpbottoniv8647]

@DARKO no

[@joeytputter1]

History time 3 adverts and then still plugging audible too. Fuck me what a squeeze

[@friedlemons5201]

-pizza- *history time

[@TheTrolliosis]

CROSSOVER

[@vsssa1845]

wow, i actually recognize similar house features in rural india, a hearth is placed exactly diagonally opposite to worshipping area. this area is decorated with Ochre and white clay paintings of animals and humans, and these are renewed every year on festivals. I myself do this ritual of painting as the eldest child. The festivals also mark the day the walls are supposed to be whitewashed. Animal products like dung and urine actually are used in rituals still. I can't say these are related but very similar nontheless.

[@deborahdean8867]

Fascinating. Is that southern india or all over india?

[@darkprince56]

Hy use animal waste? Won’t it make the house smell? It isn’t considered impure?

[@ratgrl81]

@@darkprince56 It's probably composted, and it's likely cow manure. The dung of omnivores aren't nearly as full of disease causing bacteria as that of carnivores. Once it's composted, it smells "earthy."

[@alzicario3466]

@@darkprince56 indians don’t care about smelling bad

[@maggiem.5904]

Dried animal waste was traditionally used as fuel in India, and as an ingredient in making building materials, there as well as in other places.

[@Mitch-kd1wb]

It’s wild that I hated learning about this stuff in school and now I use my free time to watch this.

[@righteousviking]

The key difference is that now, you WANT to learn about it.

[@violenceislife1987]

School is an oppressive environment on purpose

[@violenceislife1987]

​@@righteousvikingI'd argue that children need to be taught more practical subjects, and leave this stuff for adults.

[@elizabethbrandt8642]

@@violenceislife1987Even if this information is not practical in the way that learning a skill helpful for modern life is, it is still useful in forming a worldview that puts into perspective an individual’s place in the world. Children deserve to have opportunities to explore their identity and their origins. Granted, this video in particular might not be the best pedagogy for younger ages. But ancient history and the formation of civilizations can teach lessons that aren’t as tangible as others.

[@bustedkeaton]

Schools in my state did not go over this at all

[@natewikman]

In regards to the "why agriculture" question. Couldn't it have been a feedback loop? Nomatic tribes started to farm some early crops, which lead to more food, which lead to more people, which required more food, which required more agriculture... and if they stopped farming relatives and friends would die, because their population had exceeded the region's available resources in terms of hunting and gathering. Think if we tried to go back to hunting gathering today, there would be massive population die off cuz we've bred more people than the natural environment is suited for... it was probably a smaller version of that for them. So they worked harder because they had to... to keep each other from dying cuz theyd over populated the region's ability to sustain a hunter gatherer group of that size. Its been said "wheat domesticated humans" not the other way around

[@WR3ND]

That and probably to accumulate reserves for lean times as well as wealth and trading, so probably a combination of fear, uncertainty, and greed as well.

[@philcooper9225]

Celiac disease is most likely natural. We are supposed to hunt and gather!

[@reaganpratt2474]

@@WR3ND I think this is a good point. Power dynamics would change in these circumstances.

[@WR3ND]

@bina nocht It probably didn't start from that, as you'd need the grain and infrastructure for it. Also people were locally less diverse, so servitude or even slavery would be less of a segregated thing. But yeah, it likely developed into that with the village chieftain or the wider warlord's land they "protected" (I'm thinking maybe like mafias and "protection" money) from raiders or the like, so part of the division and specialization of labor and hierarchy, once there was enough surplus and population to support and control. Villages or tribes/clans likely raided each other too for any number of things, probably even wives and workers. They probably weren't seen so much as a different class and where probably treated with some respect, once they joined and were integrated into the local society and provided for it. Once the society gets big enough though where the population doesn't know each other family well (starting to see others as "them" instead of "us"), this is probably where things start to change with more layered class roles and hierarchy, and captured laborers are becoming more what we would typically think of as slaves.

[@redclayagain]

Archeologists keep making the same mistake because they don't understand ECONOMY: AGrculture not only allows for division of labor but produces a great wealth at harvest time, This wealth is made in open market places to sell it in...not temples or stone henges etc, people need to sell or trade what they produce and this still goes on.

[@cybair9341]

I really appreciate the illustrations ! They put all the archaeological clues together into a single picture for my imagination to sink in.

[@universeconsciouscitizensc592]

Consider the fear of real and imaginary threats as a real motivation to living together in greater numbers. Natural intra-tribal violence (and there was lots) plus ghost fear (from people having dreams about people who had died) played a great role in forcing people to want to live together in greater numbers. The psychological realities often have as much influence as the material realities.

[@gtbowhunter9086]

Great take. 👍

[@badtexasbill5261]

True dat

[@annawarren-sullivan7630]

Our abstract thinking probably is behind much of our choices... especially when we get the mystical experiences thrown in

[@CJM-rg5rt]

Civilization is so weird, fear is so weird. I guess it doesn't matter what we do until we get over fear and start actually using our prefrontal cortex. We are devolving and evolving at the same time in a awkward time.

[@5000mahmud]

@@CJM-rg5rt how do you define devolution? is it objective?

[@Zarboned]

Just a quick shower thought. When you decorate your house, do you want a bunch of cool interesting actions scenes, or a boring mural of your job to look at every night by dim glow of your hearth.

[@hombreg1]

Think about it in simpler terms. We tend to decorate the places we inhabit with pieces that represent things we like and know. It can be as dumb as "I bought this lamp because I like its shape" to something as elaborate as "I like music, so I have a couple of guitars, pedals, picks, strings and records". If you spent most of your days hunting for food, interacting with wildlife and humans and starting a fire, it'd make sense that you'd use those things, the only things you know, to decorate your dwelling.

[@Menaceblue3]

Humans in middle of the 4th millennium A.D.: "An early 2nd millennium human decorate his ritual room with figures depicting a stylized female form. Such items have large eyes, multicolored hair, large breasts, and are washed in what appears to be Male seminal fluids...."

[@HuhHa-pm8fc]

I rather some plaster skulls in my bookcase

[@march11stoneytony]

Your life would have been a lot more like an action scene back then

[@Ellie-vb9vm]

@Machina I'd like to propose a middle ground :) While the landscape we have today can seem like a quick oversaturation, that type of thinking must have come somewhere. And while it's not the same time frame probably talked about in this video (I'm not a history major don't kill me), humans, while making gods and goddesses, had them act out like they would in a play. Myths weave with constellations in the sky, and suddenly leaves, thrown stick patterns or scattered rocks on the ground can seem like a sign from god. We have many equivalents today. And who knows? We can only base conjecture on the things that have stood the test of time. There might have been ways to pass time (games, specific rituals, things like that) that were made of materials easily decomposable. Anyways that's enough of my rambling lol, just wanted to contribute :)

[@emilyruoff9442]

i absolutely love watching your videos while i work on homework i’m a secondary ed major who wants to teach history, and listening to these videos while i do homework helps me focus thank you

[@lesleeg9481]

Great series so far. I'm impressed. Also happy to hear that the music is not drowning out the narration. Excellent job.

[@Reziac]

"Ritual animal skulls"... have none of these people ever been inside a modern man-cave?

[@nobody8328]

I spend entirely too much time wondering how future archaeologists would interpret the remnants of modern culture in a similar situation. 🤓

[@Reziac]

@@nobody8328 "Digging the Weans" was a great seminal work. ;)

[@Datharass]

@@nobody8328 I had a conversation the other day revolving around graffiti and tagging being this time periods cave drawings. Certainly and interesting take and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

[@GreeneMotionPictures]

@@Datharass Just the most direct analog, probably. The categorizations can deduce the connection alone ... anthropologically, how many motives are there for drawing, particularly on pre-built walls rather than dedicated canvases or intentional mural spaces? But if you really make the comparison by available forms per period by those motives, all drawn art of any form modernly encompasses the purpose of cave drawings simply because they have their genesis in cave drawing. Most of us, at least in Western countries, have been socially-oriented to believe that they're for "entertainment" or "high culture" or to "produce thoughtfulness," while it's rarer to hear Western societies venerate drawing as "sigils" meant to influence the future or hieroglyphs meant to document the sigilizations of the past. However, for the latter idea, Carl Jung is the most open scientist in Western thought to view drawing as an act of hieroglyphic sigilization, and the concept of art-as-a-way-to-get-dinner remains generally within the realms of professional artists and the priest and monk classes of religious orders. Jung, though, combines all the above motives and suggests that art is primarily an expression of the unconscious mind, which at least partly then is always like a cave painting for at least the reason that when someone imagines a visual and projects it into a surface, then traces or forms it, they tend to be either 1) fantasizing about ideals, 2) projecting their plans for the future, and probably communicating them to a group, or 3) recording historical events from memory. There's a 4th category and motive being born more clearly, socially, that technically originates with religions, I guess, which is virtual reality-building, or right now "video games," where the other purposes coalesce into "physically interactive drawings," but I'd suggest that cave paintings are the original version of that too, much like filling in a story with your imagination while you play with toys as a child. You can see those same behaviors sublimated in religious and meditative practices, say, "playing" that a wafer and wine is the flesh and blood of God. Whether based on reality or not is unobservable presently in an objective sense, but the religious activity is much like an escape room, or a haunted house, where most of the art is meant to be filled in largely by the imagination of the practitioner to achieve the desired effect. (So, motive 4, "Virtual Reality") Modern graffiti doesn't always satisfy all these motives, but most of it does, making it a more advanced form, but certainly a demonstrable form of cave painting. Or that's what I continue to conclude from an artist's perspective. Might be missing some factor or other though. Apologies for the long reply.

[@Datharass]

@@GreeneMotionPictures No no, that was worth the time it took to read and I find Jung utterly fascinating. I've also noticed I tend to have a different or unusual outlook on various topics. A byproduct of a curious and analytical mind. That was a pleasure to read.

[@donhillsmanii5906]

Finally a reason to thank the KZbin algorithm- great work, especially recognizing prehistoric humanity was not all hunter-gatherers

[@tomgore9696]

A fascinating period in the rise of civilization. Thanks for the scholarly approach - and not an ancient astronaut in sight.

[@daphne4983]

In sight or insight :)?

[@siddharthbirdi]

But Ancient astronaut theorists say otherwise.

[@DillonRust]

Were the ancient pyramids created as a vehicle to perform an extraterrestrial hotbox? Ancient Astronaut Theorists say: YES

[@fitveganathleteintegrateda1695]

Oh no! There are the goofs that believe the silliest nonsense, okay fine for their consumption; it was an interplanetary invasion from Neptune, using Triton as a staging point.

[@MarcillaSmith]

@@fitveganathleteintegrateda1695 exactly. Any serious researcher will tell you it was Nibiru

[@thatguy22441]

Funny how we keep pushing that back. We humans advanced more quickly than we had thought before. I love all of these new discoveries. Fuckin' awesome.

[@grimgoreironhide9985]

Your voice sounds like a professional historian who make documentaries for the BBC.

Absolutely

[@kakalimukherjee3297]

Totally

[@alices7291]

Is he not💀

[@code4chaosmobile]

Great video. I cannot get enough of prehistory and I thank all of you for your hard work.

[@aloysha38]

settlements became large enough to establish territorial boundaries. Hunter gather societies could not longer wander wherever they wanted

[@whatabouttheearth]

Yeah thats bullshit. Nomad hunter gatherers remained way past the origin of sedentary society and even past that there were tons of nomadic peoples even up to more modern Bedouin nomads, Romani ("gypsy") and than more inter societal like the Irish "Travellers" and the "Traveller" subculture in North America which developed out of the early 20th century "hobos". The boundries of civilizations were not clearly defined initially. For a poetic interpretation you should read 'Against History, Against Leviathan' by Freddy Pearlman and 'A Peoples History of Civilization' by John Zerzan

[@stevenschnepp576]

Any civilization with anything remotely resembling a road was easy travel for hunter-gatherer societies, and at this stage there were barely cities, much less city-states, and they didn't control territory nearly that well. The wilderness persisted for some time afterwards, suggesting that hunter-gatherers didn't abandon their ways for want of territory to hunt and forage in.

[@thebrutusmars]

There would have been *vast* swaths of territory between policed territorial boundaries.

[@tsriftsal3581]

@@thebrutusmars good thing we left all that behind us when we became domesticated by our rulers. It's funny that so many think they are in control when they really are still stuck in the corral because of their domestication.

[@BluJean6692]

@@whatabouttheearth I know what you're trying to say but you're saying it wrong. Every example you listed after Bedouin is in fact completely reliant on settled civilization in some way. They didn't wear animal skins, and even if they foraged or bought or stole second-hand products they're still dependent on civilization for that surplus. They probably eat agricultural products too, and even pastoral nomads are known to swallow their mistrust of city folk long enough to buy some of their marvelous products and technologies. It's a worthy discussion but you're talking about something completely different than a hunter-gatherer, even the bedouins have livestock. Global civilization is arguably so encompassing that the only possible modern equivalents of hunter gatherers are hunter gatherers: the Koi of south Africa or the isolated natives of the Anadmans and the Amazon...

[@SgtxAnus]

oh thank god i thought my collection of skulls was weird or something

[@calska140]

Can I borrow a couple?

[@i-never-look-at-replies-lol]

Do you wanna compare collections sometime?

[@SonOfTheDawn515]

I hate how expensive they are going through legal means. Even replicas are pricey.

[@SgtxAnus]

@@SonOfTheDawn515 fr

[@tablescissors]

❤️

[@kimanilumsden]

This is excellent work. And your reading is steady, and even, yet captivating.

[@jquintosfootgolf4735]

This might sound like an insult but it's actually a great compliment - You're the best to fall asleep to! Thanks man.

[@DetroitGoldie]

Glad you said it in not me lol

[@DarkMoonDroid]

This is becoming very common. It's not an insult.

[@BarnabyBaltimoron]

Druids for 3 weeks straight. I usually make it about 10 minutes before I’m out. Much better than Ambien plus the subjects are fascinating. Thank you 🙏🏻

[@OhSnapAGirl]

Yes!! 👌

[@felldin]

It gives him much views though. It usually takes. Me 2-4 attempts to see an hour video at night.

[@williammeyer214]

Perhaps the animal skulls were evidence of hunter prowess or a memorable communal hunt celebration, or a record of a feast sponsored by a richer person. And higher status in the community was achieved this way

[@Discotekh_Dynasty]

I really liked how in the Horus heresy book “Master of Mankind” they had the emperor participating in the Skull cult in northern Anatolia ~8000 BC

[@joshuagoff7878]

Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! as to not make angron sad #:(

[@cloutmastermemes2007]

Dude I’m So happy seeing more ppl talk About war hammer

[@GregtheGrey6969]

I definitely need to look into that book. Guessing it all ties into 322 skull&bones "secret society"

[@michaelmillefanti6319]

@@GregtheGrey6969 No, it's part of a science fantasy tabletop gaming franchise

[@Discotekh_Dynasty]

@@GregtheGrey6969 nah no CIA secret society weird shit here, it’s warhammer 40000

[@TheHistocrat]

English subtitles should be up now.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

The San Bushmen, our original human culture, is still around and historically they had no war nor rape. Just read, "The Harmless People" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas or check out Dr. Bradford Keeney who goes visits the San Bushmen to take part in their healing training, the core of our original human culture. The N/om Snake Statute is 70,000 years old - N/om meaning energy like Qi or Prana or Aion.

[@sono1951]

Great! I couldn't understand a thing except Neolithic

[@emmacassady4518]

I’m learning so much! Would you consider making a playlist in chronological order?

[@nonyabeeznuss304]

What is fascinating is how many of the issues that are causing a lot of upheaval today are more or less the same as then. Environmental changes, wealth inequality, and unequal access to resources.

[@ldl1477]

Or we're projecting what we see as our current problems onto the past and going "could be possible." Environmental changes over millennia seems like a given. And the Pareto Principle shows up everywhere, so wealth/resource inequality has probably always been a given... And after thousands of years we still have no solution. :\

[@yani6913]

@@ldl1477 So are we projecting current issues or are they in fact the same issues as you stated? A bit of a mixed message there lol

[@madelinecesnalise76]

Life's a bitch!

[@resistor27]

Humans can't learn.

[@erindewan6758]

These three things have always existed and always will

[@issuma8223]

I can explain in one word why hunter-gatherers were willing to give up their leisure time and work very, very hard to adopt agriculture: B E E R

[@Nyctophora]

and cheese?

[@e.priest8937]

Plausible

[@damo5701]

Men have always (thoughout evolution) produced an excess to their own requirements if incentivized to do so (this is why capitalism works and communism does not). Women and God (religion) have been the main focus at various points in the past although beer would also be an appropriate incentive to many. Perhaps the focus on religion and god as an incentive is the reason so many archaeologists and historians attribute everything not understood to religion & worship, for example the pyramids and Gobekli Tepe.

[@omairsh8]

Time away from the missus?

[@ringo1692]

Sounds legit 😁👍

[@jameshill2450]

Why agriculture? In a word: control. Consistency/predictability of your food source, not having to rely on what you're able to find that day. If you learn to make the food happen, you don't have to worry about not finding any.

[@noahboucher125]

We saw the patterns, and sought to master them

[@politicallycorrectredskin796]

That's probably right. Not that early, or even modern agriculture and methods of storage are fully predictable or reliable. I tend to think it's a combination of the slightly less volatile nature of early crops and just the general desirability of the increase in population, which was the same as military strength in those days. The more people you had, the fewer other people were strong enough to plunder, kill and enslave you. So defensive first, then aggressive once you realized you were the strongest people you knew of and the one others should be afraid of. That's primate psychology for you...

[@matthewscott9739]

Self determination

[@manekin0360]

Unfortunately we got a bit to arrogant with our control that we started acting like we were gods over nature

[@politicallycorrectredskin796]

@@manekin0360 'We' didn't do anything. I know I didn't, at least. I refuse to accept collective guilt for what other people have done. Not me dumping chemicals in the water.

[@johnbowles5399]

Hats off to you, sir. This is truly great work. I've been hugely interested in history all my life and you really bring it to life with these documentaries.

[@matthewkerr1948]

I would love to see you do an attempt at a long world-history series. The fact that you cite your sources, do in-depth research and present nuanced takes on ideas tells me that you would do a great job at it.

[@adoredpariah]

The figure of the "seated woman" is interesting, I would first guess it represents a sort of "mother nature"; well fed, fertile, protector of her children, and in a position of sacred reverence. A way to explain why there are "monsters" like with the Jaguar/Lion imagery, a sort of religious explanation that would make sense at a very base level. The almost universal idea of a parent protecting their young violently, and how the world or nature and your environment does the same (explaining also potentially diseases and weather etc too).

[@kevin6293]

15:28 I think people are forgetting the amount of labor it takes to periodically pick up all your belongings and children and find new fertile areas to live, over and over again, for your entire life.

[@BrianMason3636]

Imagine it being your 478th birthday and it’s time to move again.

[@madelinecesnalise76]

Too tough for me. I wouldnt of probably made it to long. I like bein lazy😐🍖

[@Crab_Shanty]

Nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes are still a thing you know

[@IPlayWithFire135]

Not if you don't own a lot. As a hunter gatherer, you barely have even a conception of personal property. The really crazy thing is the cultures that burned their entire villages to the ground every few decades and rebuilt everything from scratch. Like the Trypillian culture of eastern Europe. We don't know why. We do know it wasn't from warfare.

[@krinkrin5982]

@@IPlayWithFire135 Totally speculating here, but fire is often seen as a cleansing force. Perhaps it was a weird form of disease control? Or just a ritual renewal with the change of 'government', the dying of the elders and some such.

[@stag6161]

You think people in these Chatal Huyuk houses bothered climbing down the ladder every time they had to piss? I wonder if they designated a spot, especially for night pisses

[@melelconquistador]

Chamber pot

[@ParisAlexandros]

What if it was like a tent whereby the threshold was raised to keep out water and snakes?

[@67lionsoflisbon37]

Out the window!?!?

[@jackcommonman1381]

ahh..these are the real questions lol

[@davidfl4]

Imagine if someone stole your ladder while you were still in your house

[@janiced9960]

What an interesting and informative series, and so good to have a narrator who can pronounce the names properly. Looking forward to the third episode; this was such a find, thank you so much/

[@stinky5242]

You should definitely have more subscribers! You actually provide sources, the videos are well edited, comprehensive, entertaining, educational and informative. I subbed!

[@illustriouschin]

It feels good to see what outside looks like.

[@madelinecesnalise76]

Lol😆😆😆

[@Comuniity_]

Something I find interesting about the domestication of dogs is a fairly popular hypothesis on how and why we domesticated them is we both were persistence hunters and during major food crisis during things like mega Volcano eruptions we would hunted together cause it was mutually beneficial for both of us and over time those wolves started hanging out with us more. Truly mans best friend. Every old world dog breed can be traced back to only a handful of wolf packs and the same for new world dogs. Also the only animal that we know for a fact was domesticated before goats.

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

Settlement filled with practical commercial and civic buildings. Archeologist: Look at all these RITUAL buildings!

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

Commercial practices and civic activities are little more than rituals themselves.

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

@@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself It's generalizations like that which sorta build upon what I was saying...

[@montanus777]

yeah, exactly. just how archeologists almost always interpret prehistoric toys as ritual objects.

[@clownworldhereticmyron1018]

@@montanus777 Future archeologists discover a ceramic doll. "Wow, this must've been a deity they worshipped!.." "No no, I believe it's an effigy used in sacrificial rituals.."

[@dawnlandspodcast8217]

Future Archeologist: Finds a dick scrawled on an ancient bathroom stall in sharpie "Fascinating, this same genital motif appears in so much of their artwork... What could it mean?"

[@MaGiCMushroomClouds]

Neolithic mound. Sounds like a good place to put a monolith.

[@verdadero5290]

Pre-pottery neolithic era boner jokes are the BEST boner jokes

[@Liphted]

Sounds like a bordello of neanderthal women.

[@Liphted]

@Rude Boy '69 you're going to need to cheat that way with the asswhooping y'all are getting.

[@Ian.Gostling]

@@Liphted if you think Biden got more votes than trump then your not thinking.

[@yeju5739]

@@Liphted he is saying that democrats are cheating cause they are

[@00MSG]

What a hero, give this guy a medal already

[@Nyctophora]

The Jericho skulls have always fascinated me more than just as rare finds. Is it because they were made to look more like the people they once housed? This time, and this place fascinates me. It feels like one of the deepest roots I have.

[@bushyrho1674]

Maybe it was a form of punishment and similar to hell in Christianity. Images of them running endlessly around and being eaten by vultures alive would be presented in specific houses. This it why I love archeology and anthropology because we will never be able to know the reason but we can still theorize.

[@Adino1]

Weird that the Jericho skulls would have been as ancient to the Biblical occupiers to them as they were to us, PLUS 2000 YEARS.

[@Eric-Truong]

@@Adino1 Imagine having the cultural equivalent of Jesus Christ’s skull as a icon of worship haha.

[@fulviopontarollo2952]

@@bushyrho1674conversely, since they took the skulls away, it could even be a representation of a “sky burial” for the rest of the body?

[@nickkangtaylorb]

YOU ARE THE BEST VIDEO HISTORIAN ON KZbin MY GOD YOURE SAVING AN ENTIRE GENRE

[@McShag420]

This is absolutely amazing and the most comprehensive source I have seen on youtube for the Neolithic. Great work.

[@michaelholloway8]

Well of course you're going to hang around, and if you're going to hang around you need food. What else are you going to do while the beer's brewing?

[@ImtihanAhmed]

Thank you for posting this. I'm rediscovering my childhood curiosity about old civilizations from your channel!

[@jacobburr7835]

I feel the same. I forgot how interesting these topics are to me. I've got so caught up in my job here lately, everything else seems to fall to the way side! I'm trying to save up to go to school, so it's all for a good cause. But I get home late and end up staying up until two o clock watching videos on these subjects haha

[@ImtihanAhmed]

@@jacobburr7835 it sucks though. Even when you are in school (I'm a grad student right now), there are so many topics outside what you're studying that are also interesting but it's difficult to balance learning about these things while maintaining everything else that life throws at you.

[@robertoaguiar6230]

Pre-Pottery Neolithic, or how my mother would call it if she ever heard this term 'The good old days'

[@frisbeetarian34]

Just stumbled upon this brilliant channel (previous episode). Work is flying by thanks to it. Many thanks for sharing these excellent presentations.

[@freerunAR]

Thank you for all your hard work! There are a lot of channels on youtube, but only so many provide content like this.

[@MercedesCruz-qe1nj]

Both, the great illustrations and your narration , makes ancient history interesting.

[@Lewislloy]

So glad you’re back! Best documentaries!

[@fitveganathleteintegrateda1695]

Brilliant work, and great connections through time, technology, climate and geography. Fabulous!

[@FromTheHeart2]

Independantly from the content of the comments, you have one of the best comment section on You Tube! A sign you are doing something right! I want to be like you when I grow up!!!! Thank you and thank you for the sources!

[@waterfallhunter9642]

46:08 casually chucking 8000 year old artifacts

[@tonywoutrs]

Each new video upload feels like Christmas morning.

[@rmt3589]

This video is amazing and irreplaceable! Thank you so much! In another note, those structures look a lot like the supports for highways. I know they can't be, but they're even lined up the right way.

[@user-tv2lj4bn2z]

I am absolutely excited and cant wait for you to make a video about the Sumerians

[@darrynmurphy2038]

Reject the heresies of Joshua of Bethlehem and Mohammad of Mecca, and embrace the cult of the skull

[@bogdanradulescu870]

:)) some ahmed will be looking for you

[@ZiggyWhiskerz]

🤣 imma Christian but this still made me laugh

[@darrynmurphy2038]

@Keebs Skulls for the skull throne!

[@Menaceblue3]

@Jackson Q Location: the targeting point of a US drone strike!

[@masonmorgan6753]

ALL HAIL THE SKULL!!!

[@milicaristic5800]

This is one of the best documentaries I watched.. Awesome work! I'm looking forward to more videos!

[@El-sr1id]

What I've never even heard of this before. Great find. Fascinating.

[@yoyo-jc5qg]

the mediterranean sea was the perfect place for humans to evolve, it was close to our origins in africa and was in a location which wasn't affected too much by extreme heat and cold, that sea never turned to ice during ice ages and never turned into a desert during global warming, and the diversity of people all around that body of water helped us learn from eachother keeping us from getting too isolated, the true cradle of civilization

[@zaab-yaoh9302]

The birthplace of mankind was the garden of eden, which is located in what is now known as the Philippines.

[@gabrielhashoul4369]

Damn could you elaborate? I’ve never heard this before

[@Tangerator]

@@zaab-yaoh9302 this is inaccurate. Look at sumerian tablets, it is shown that Eden was in syria/middle east

[@zaab-yaoh9302]

@@Tangerator Sumerian tablets also say the earth is flat, what's your point?

[@morgott13]

Except we arent originated in africa, that was debunked years ago

[@CinJyxxe]

It's interesting that bears played some form of ceremonial significance, and I can't help but think about why that might be the case. All other predatory or potentially dangerous animals are basically puppies and kittens compared to bears. Even today, it takes more than a few small firearms shots to take a bear down, so for hunter-gatherers armed with spears and bows, bears would have seemed basically immortal. Even the word "bear" is likely a bastardization of "björn" and "g"wér", which mean "brown one" and "wild animal" respectively in proto-indo-european languages, as it may have been believed that to say a bear's true name (something similar to "arktos") would call it to the area. Let's compare bears to other dangerous predatory animals in the area at the time: leopards, which would have been incredibly dangerous, but also relatively easy to kill compared to the much more massive bear species. Other cat species, including sabertooths, would have been met similarly, with caution and fear, but an understanding that they could be killed. Reptile species such as venomous snakes would have been associated with dark magics (death for 'no reason' after being bit), but they likewise could easily be killed. Buffalo and other large prey species were just that: prey species that had the means to defend themselves via size and horns. Now let's come back to the bears, brown bears to be specific: they are massive, powerful, fast, and tough. They are not a prey species, and will very much try to eat a human if they are hungry. They have claws, fangs, and lots and lots of muscle and protective fats. Grizzly bears have been known to take small firearms shots to the head and survive, so going for the head, the default way to kill anything at the time, would have been essentially useless for an early human. If you met a bear, you were essentially sentenced to death. Now, if you were to be completely aware of, have evidence of, and even see and encounter a species of creature that is A: able to kill you without much effort, B: much more massive and powerful than any human, C: appears to be essentially immortal when in combat, and D: is just as much of an opportunistic eater as humans would have been. I don't think it's any wonder that bears became deified and feared, much like their other early symbols of worship. Early humans would have noticed that as long as they respected, worshipped, and feared the bears, less people would approach them, and therefore less people would be killed by them. The pattern was noticed and perpetuated until the original word for "bear" was lost and was replaced with the aforementioned bastardizations that eventually became the word "bear" as we know it today.

[@KCUFyoufordoxingme]

A comparable reverence would be to jaguars. Locals would get destroyed by them with no defense. Horrifyingly strong and dedicated to killing rather than flee. If you had a spear, you would rather face 5 lions rather than 1 jaguar. When early hominids are found with 2 punctures in the skull, that is from jaguars. Lions have a 120,000 year history of backing off from early humans to even today. It can almost be said lions were the first loosely domesticated animal, long before wolves because of how ancient this relationship is, An African tribesman will throw dirt and shoo away a lion from it's fresh kill and calmly take it as they back off. When they sleep in the open and awaken to intruding lions, they wave them off and yell at them. This works. You get on the wrong side of a jaguar, you just dead. No hope. No chance. Dead.

[@jbobsession123]

this was the most interesting comment i’ve read in a while, thanks collin

[@elihobson7956]

Damn. I'm spoiled. You and Pete (History Time) both posted in the last day or so. Wonderful. Thanks!

[@Artur_M.]

My thoughts exactly.

[@elihobson7956]

@@Artur_M. My three favorite channels on YT are this one, History Time, and Business Blaze. The long form documentaries here, and Pete's stuff, are just brilliant.

[@justinwinter4908]

That's funny I love this channel, "history time", and "the study of antiquity and the middle ages" and for archaeology; "the oriental institute" and "penn museum"

[@elihobson7956]

@@justinwinter4908 Ha! You and I have VERY similar tastes, then.

[@ntrpk7296]

Chris Ryan's book "Civilized to Death" is highly recommended.

[@Andrew-lz6iv]

Against The Grain by James C. Scott is another good one

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

A better read is "The Harmless People" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas - our original human culture had no rape and no warfare

[@coreybaker9861]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 no one knows what our original human culture was like

[@coreybaker9861]

or when or where

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@coreybaker9861 Thank you for makinig a definitive statement of ignorance.. I happen to disprove your claim - as I've done a lot of research. Let me know when you're done practicing self-censorship and haven't taken your blinders off. It's a big world out there. good luck.

[@chocolartsofia4038]

Another lovely video, thank you! The flute feature was a nice touch, send regards to Milo :)

[@crowvii]

So happy for a new video!!! Love your dedication and hard work. Thank you so much for the good content - better then most current documentaries for sure!!!

[@Invisableman111]

This is such an amazing piece of work, it really is the same professional quality as the documentaries I grew up on. Thank you for the cozy knowledge content.

[@gucciflipflops6064]

Nooo! Please don't tempt me with a new video, I have a math test to study for :(( I can't wait to get my credit requirements out of the way so I can dedicate my time to things im actually interested in

[@lindamaemullins5151]

😂🥰

[@JohnRoscoeYT]

I'm currently working a university paper yet can focus on taking an hour to listen to something I enjoy. It's called time management.

[@gucciflipflops6064]

@@JohnRoscoeYT i can usually do that but my test was in a few hours and i much preferred watching this than getting at least an extra hour of study time, hence the temptation. it took a lot out of me to stay focused and watch this at a more reasonable time

[@gucciflipflops6064]

@@JohnRoscoeYT plus time management is a lot easier when you aren't dreading your work ಥ_ಥ

[@gucciflipflops6064]

@m norton buswell ngl i did feel like i was being patronized (・∀・ ) but thank you ^_^ I'm not exactly satisfied but I did better than I expected

[@nmcgunagle]

Excellent work. How do you only have 118k subs? You deserve way more.

[@patlivesley5398]

very interesting, and thought provoking. Big thank you for not playing loud music

[@TheTaoofEternalWar]

It's all about grain and flood plains. I've been experimenting with gardening and raising animals for meat and eggs in my back yard (quail and rabbits at the moment). I am producing a substantial amount of food from the animals, the garden is fun but a long way from actually keeping us alive in a pinch. I buy in feed and hay for the animals, so very little actual self sufficiency is taking place (though I could keep my rabbits alive by gathering grasses if I had to). It makes you think about where all your food is coming from, how much of it you actually need, and the history of the system which provides it. Bread, flour, corn based products, rice, oats etc, these are the base of the pyramid. Grains make the world go around as they have since the Neolithic. The idea of growing and processing my own does not particularly interest me (except maybe corn). If you look into it, it is very labor intensive without the help of modern machinery, and it is remarkable that the early pioneers of the system (The Natufians?) would ever have bothered with it in the first place. I am about to move to a little two acre homestead and start experimenting hard core. Beans potatoes meat and eggs will by my focus, that and growing a bit of pasture. It feels good. I feel a oneness with my long forgotten ancestors, a means of escaping this zeitgeist, which I have always found a bit obnoxious. Animism and Ancestor worship are preferable to the dark gods of civilization. Burn it down Baby, Burn it Burn it down. There is hope after all, I have been hearing war drums in the distance for a few years now. They seem to be growing louder every day. We'll see.

[@jonathancummings6400]

I think they simply may have experimented on a lark, as humans sometimes do. Some people like myself love to garden, it's fun even with the hard work, for 41 years now, since I was 8 I attempt to garden regardless of how busy my life is, It's just something I like to do when spring rolls around. I think some oddball person like myself started it as a hobby, then some crisis maybe forced the whole community to become more serious, and once they started doing it, they kept doing it even when good hunting and gathering times returned, then eventually, they stopped hunting and gathering and devoted all of their limited energy to farming and animal husbandry. Then they are on their way to Jericho. From there they are on their way to Catal Huyuk, then on their way to Uruk. Then they are in the "Bronze Age" and on their way to us!

[@prof.cecilycogsworth3204]

If you haven't discovered the joys of composting with raw kitchen scraps I recommend it.

[@prof.cecilycogsworth3204]

If you haven't discovered the joys of composting with raw kitchen scraps I recommend it.

[@Gunslinga13]

Could one crucial aspect for the development of agriculture be, the fact that after the last Ice age, majority of the megafauna became extinct, thus decreasing the dangers and the burden that people were meeting in their ways of survival. As you mentioned in the previous video of the series, agriculture actually emerged ~8000-10000 years earlier, but didn't catch on until after the last Ice age. Could it be that people were forced to live that hunter gatherer live style, just because there were far more dangerous and bigger animals in their habitats, and when that element is eliminated, they can settle down and fill in the gaps that emerged after megafauna diminishing.

[@theCosmicQueen]

well, in the settling of europe and recently North America by farmers, we definitely had to kill off predators! in order to be safe. And millions of those dangerous predators still roam our rural and wild lands.

[@z.p9997]

And/or hunting becomes more and more difficult because smaller animals would have much less pay off and probably be faster and harder to hunt.

[@chrisframpton7681]

This is such a good documentary. Everything about it is A++ professional

[@harrygary1052]

Cheers! Definitely tough to find such clear & comprehensive info on these incredible early sites. Subscribed!

[@yajurka]

I'm not an expert, but I'd say people switched to agriculture because it gave them reserves. Hunted meat and gathered fruits spoil fast, while you can can store wheat for years. That means agriculture kinda shifted life from living day by day to living year by year, which was obviously more reliable. And whatever remained could be used as surplus either for trade or for feeding extra population. And more people you have, less you have to rely on each one of them. For example, if hunter-gatherer group of 20sh people lost two in a hunt, and another two got sick, it lost 20% of it's active population and would have difficult time. For a population of 200 though, it would be a loss of 2% which doesn't change much.

[@yajurka]

Oh, and domesticated animals of course, those could be slaughtered at any time for a boost in food reserve if things were bad.

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

BTW, meat can last for months even years when prepared in a certain way, when chopped into small cubes, mixed with specially prepared butter and ghee, dried out in the sun for a day or two, and then fried and stored in container which has been cleaned with a mixture of herbs and charcoal then washed

[@yajurka]

@@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505 Yes, but they didn't have those methods back then (you need domesticated animals for butter and oil for frying).

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

@@yajurka Somalis were the first humans to domesticated the dromedary camel over 5000 years ago, we are also the earliest people to domesticated cows, sheep and goats, neolithic rock art caves dated to 5000 to 10,000 BC in northern Somalia, like laas geel and dhaymoole show this, as they have numerous artistic depictions of camels, cows, sheep, goats, horses, giraffes etc as well as having drawings of constellations of stars, the moon, and a cross which in the somali calender is a symbol for the four seasons Don't forget, somalis other cushites and the berbers of North Africa carry the highest frequency of e1b1b dna in the world, making up 100 percent of our paternal dna as all the genetic studies by academic experts show, the experts say this dna comes from a neolithic eurasian levantine people most likely the natufian culture as their remains excavated in Israel also carry high amounts of e1b1b dna, over 60 percent So yh, they did have domesticated animals, whose history goes back to our paternal genetic e1b1b carrying natufian culture ancestors Again as I said, meat can last for months, possibly even years when prepared in the way I described ..ancient and medieval somali warriors regularly went to campaigns of war lasting weeks or months, with preserved sun dried, fried, ghee and butter mixed meat, and a small amount of water (more water could be found in rivers)..this way, they could conduct war without needing to look for food

[@hassanabdikarimmohamed2505]

Domestication of animals happened after my paternal ancestors, the natufian culture whose e1b1b dna i carry in the highest frequency worldwide (google e1b1b dna distribution you'll see somalis and berbers carry thr highest frequency globally), invented agriculture, thereby resulting in a sedentary population which quickly resulted in certain animals also being domesticated like sheep goats cows camels and dogs, possibly horses too (I'm aware the oldest evidence of horses in Asia are in Kazakhstan or somwhere near that region)

[@allkindsofcrap]

Meanwhile listening to this and hearing the Age of Empires II music on the background, its great! You've done a great job! 👍

[@meisteremm]

Okay, this is my theory on why Animals like Gazelle and Deer would not have been suitable for domestication, and it has nothing to do with how dangerous or volatile they are. Simply put, it's a lot easier for a Gazelle or Deer to jump clear over the walls of an enclosure, such as what would have been common in early farming, than it is for Cattle or Swine to do the same thing. Anybody who thinks that wild Boar and the Aurochs, the ancestor of domesticated Cattle, are less dangerous than a Deer has not spent much time in the woods.

[@CNYKnifeNerd]

Animal jump over fence, build higher fence. You're severely underestimating our ancestors if you think they couldn't work that out. It's the same reason you don't see many pet zebras, they're just jerks. I'm also sure they understood risk vs reward

[@meisteremm]

@@CNYKnifeNerd Okay, but build a higher fence with what? Wood? A healthy stag can jump 12 feet into the air with a running start and needs about 1,000 square feet of space to maintain his health, so that would be one hell of a fence. Also, this all depends on environment; resources like wood might not be so readily available in deserts and on open plains. Anyway, considering that humans HAVE domesticated deer in some capacity (arctic Reindeer herders come to mind,) I think that it's more a matter of logistics than anything else. A human being is much more likely to be killed by a wild Boar or wild or even domesticated Bull than by a Deer, so I don't think that the reason would be down to the overall disposition of Deer.

[@paulmanson253]

​@@meisteremmI think you might be on to something. Having said that, essentially anyone zookeeping zebra state the animals are basically murderous. What then was the difference that allowed onagers,donkeys and horses to be domesticated ? No idea myself.

[@chrisdooley6468]

This epoch, say from the younger Dryas to 6,000BCE is my favorite to study about. I think there’s still so much to learn and with the continued excavation and discovery of wonderful things at Gobekli Tepe we are learning more every day

[@flintsky7706]

You think, Dooley?

[@profthoth2548]

Thank you, Mr. Histocrat, I've been looking for a deeper dive into this period for a while, I commend you for a quite informative and entertaining podcast. Yes, I'm subscribed and will be sharing. Can't wait to check out the rest of your content. Cheers.

[@The1Helleri]

I would say a more basal and concise definition of civilization would be a sedimentary surplus society. The criterion you mention are all trappings of the state of being I gave. Markers of it, certainly. But not core to what it is characteristically as apposed to the uncivilized (which I'd define as nomadic or migratory and a very much hand to mouth existence). This also couches the "why" of agriculture. Meat and wild fruits or vegetables, even dried and salted do not last nearly as long as grain kept under ideal conditions. It only takes one hunter gatherer to notice that their store of wild grains lasted so long that they were able to rely on it in times of hardship to then think "if I plant this grain in an organized manner and make sure I'm the only one that has access to it, I will get more of it than if I just pick it off the ground opportunistically out in the wilds." Even before wild grains were very productive as a food source. Merely having a monopoly on a set aside selection of the plants allows for greater harvesting. Also wild grain isn't just useful for food. The plant itself when the tops are dead and dried, as well as all the seeds it will give harvested can be used for roof covering for insulation and water proofing, floor insulation, bedding, basket weaving, and fire kindling. The goal may very well have been to grow it for all of these uses and that it also gave one some amount of seed might have just been a novel bonus to begin with. The seed may have initially only been regarded as a way to attract wild small game (grain will attract mice and birds, which in turn will attract those things that predate on them). Thinking that the goal was to get more food directly out of the plants seems unreasonable to me. There were plenty of other reasons to grow it before it's consideration as a food source.

[@crhu319]

I think you've nailed it. Clothing and shelter is in some ways more of a challenge than food.

[@The1Helleri]

@@crhu319 And when you say shelter it makes me think of something else as well. Mud brick. You need not only a good source of clay and sand. But grasses as well to make good mud brick. A migratory people that are revisiting the same areas over and over might choose an area that had a lot of grass and clay to begin with; That was also near a river with sandy banks. As a climate changes to be more favorable. They would find their stays in an area becoming longer and longer. That in turn would lead to more infrastructure that is being maintained more of the time. Which itself makes life easier and accelerates the process.

[@wattsy4468]

Your videos are amazing, and this content is better than mostly anything you’ll ever see produced on mainstream television today

[@brianminsk8]

Impressive writing. Well selected scenes. You just nailed it man.

[@esotericwarrior7261]

40 seconds in and I read the channel name and instant subbed.

[@Amc933]

Amazing. Thanks for mentioning Professor Binford. I studied under him at the University of New Mexico. He was pretty amazing...

[@isabellacoimbra5014]

Amazing work, video and quality of information. Thanks from Brazil

[@dustinmagner2039]

Another great video! I can already hear the hooves thundering from the north, in the next episode. I’m really interested to see if there is ever reconciliation between the Skull Cult theory and the ancient zodiac theory. Both could be true at exactly the same time.

[@chandlerblachut3878]

where is part 3? I've watched part one and two at least 6 times. I need more content

[@biedl86]

What a cliffhanger! Now I want to see your take on Uruk! Awesome video.

[@The4books]

Can’t wait to see your account of the transition from the Çatalhoyouk culture to the early Sumerian. The great-but-perhaps-not-too-extreme distance between the two, in terms of geography and time (1 to two millennia) makes it tempting to think that one consistent social-genetic “thread” of people or peoples might have produced both cultures. And yet, the cultures are radically distinct, with few or no common inconograpic or artistic elements that I know of. Çatalhoyouk of course has no writing or records and Sumerian, though the ultimate known ancestor of our present culture, is a language isolate. So one is compelled to ask: -is- the Sumerian culture itself an inheritor of Çatalhoyouk and the long line of cultures that precede it back to the dawn of the Holocene? Or was there instead a more or less complete societal collapse at the end of the Çatalhoyouk period, with the Ubaid-Sumerian developing as a more or less independent and unique cultural tradition?? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!

[@crhu319]

Maybe a new society built on fragmented stories from the old?

[@jonathancummings6400]

I agree. The Sumerians were AWESOME! They NEVER had the good situation the Ancient Egyptians had initially. The Egyptians only had to worry about peoples inferior in tech and level, such as Nubians, or Libyan desert tribesmen. The Sumerians had to deal with peoples who could quickly catch up with them and be effective rivals, the Akkadians and Elamites. In the end they succumbed to both in turn, first the Akkadians, then they outlasted the Akkadians, and were resurgent, only to be crushed between Amorites and Elam, and thus the fall of Ur, and Sumer. This opened the door for what I believe was a former Sumerian weak settlement that Amorites took over and it later became powerful under Hammurabi, the legendary city of BABYLON!!! Yes, I think the Ancient Egyptians were awesome too, but the Sumerians are often overlooked because there are so many people who are fascinated with the Ancient Egyptians.

[@ruben7801]

@Jonathan Cummings That is a very gamer comment lol

[@anpa934]

Regarding why H/G adopted agriculture: From an evolutionary perspective, my first idea was that controlling plants and producing a surplus of "easily" accessible food would lead to an increased number of reproducing offspring. Descendants of those applying such behavior would, over time and generations, automatically outnumber other individuals expressing behavior with lower reproductive output. A process that creates a new equilibrium at some point, with a larger human population requiring more resources to survive and eventually manifesting the need to continue agriculture.

[@pieternoordenbos]

I love this documentary. It taught me a lot. Thank you voor loading this up histocrat.

[@LordZeebee]

I mean i'd assume people in general kinda like being alive, even waaaay back then. The farmer trades their time for the safety of not having to participate in as many dangerous hunts, makes sense that a lot of societies would make that trade to keep grandpa alive for a bit longer.

[@ionia2376]

Not to mention not having to transport the ill or elderly everywhere.

[@benjamingrezik373]

I can explain agriculture. People were always tending nature as a garden itself to some degree forever. some started to develop that more over time alongside others. Probably disabled, pregnant, children, and elderly who were slightly more sedentary began to practice agriculture little by little, always a side thing as they moved etc. perrenial gardens, etc. eventually certain places were so fertile that certain smaller populations began having luck with maintaining more sedentary lifestyles and the sedentary lifestyle won out because its the lifestyle that provides more welfare to the disabled. People care about their disabled and will make arduous life decisions for such. Like you said, provide a feast for status, provide welfare to peoples families for status.

[@sydneygrace-oconnor3067]

One of my favourite videos. Well done.

[@Flint404]

I love your videos so much! You're doing a really good job with the research and the presentation. I could watch your content for hours.