WHY ARE THINGS WHERE THEY ARE? We explore some unusual perspectives.

[@GordonJohnson-lc6fq]

Stonehenge's dating shows it to be the most recent of the many stone circles in the British Isles. The earliest is now proved to be in the Orkney isles, with the idea of stone circles moving soth over time.

[@ruthcherry3177]

Hahaha, when I was a teenager, we'd often stand on a corner, looking intently up at the sky, sometimes pointing upwards. When enough people joined us we'd melt away... ... I really thought it was a thing kids did! Thanks again, guys - keep up the good work!

[@roxiepoe9586]

When I lived in Skelmersdale England during 1985, one evening everyone went out and went up the path around the hill to the top. Then everybody went down. I was told that I was not to use my flashlight going up, but should use it going down. (I was told to 'bring my torch'. Having read a good bit of Agatha Christie, I knew it meant flashlight. My roommate, who was also an American, was not very interested in literature and spent some time worrying about where he was going to find a torch.) This went on all evening and I saw almost everyone I knew. Nobody could tell me why we were doing this. The guy, my boss, who insisted that I join in also had no lucid idea why. We all just did it.

[@kayleighllyn8253]

😂aren't we all 🐑

[@kennedyjames007]

Elephants, Water, Stone Keep in mind they hadn’t yet invented paper and scissors.

[@estherlwhittle7568]

I love the special effects fun on Mike's camera. 🥳🥳🥳💫💥💭🗯🖐☀️⭐️🪐🌞🌝❄️💧❄️🌟⭐️🌞🌝

[@Jane-nc2fr]

Love the way you two are so harmonious together and give us so much great content. Thank you both.

[@vestafairie]

when you were talking, especially about the Waiting Room Experiment, i was thinking of a story a friend told me. she was in a Wiccan coven where they cut their brooms to a specific length. everyone's broom. finally, after decades of this, a brand new student asked why. when they went back to the coven's originator, who was in her 80s by this point, she was surprised by this. she had merely cut her broom to fit in her magical cabinet!

[@paulinemegson8519]

I think every walk of life has that story, cooks tell the one about the lady teaching her daughter to roast a leg of lamb, and the first step was , “cut off the end of the leg”. When the daughter asked why, she just said, “this is what mum always used to do” so she did it too and when the time came that she was teaching HER daughter she said the same thing. But this girl wanted to know why, so she went to her great grandmother and asked for her roast lamb recipe. The recipe was the same as the one her mother had given her except, no chopping off the end of the leg. So she asked, “why aren’t you cutting the end off the leg? “Well, it’s because I have a bigger oven now” the old lady looked at her surprised “I had to do it with my old oven because a whole leg wouldn’t fit in that one”

[@MajiSylvamain]

35:54 Great analogy 👍... the conflict arises when those few who don't conform to the "norm" programing knock head, swords with those that do, there is always some that will be conflicted or find what othere do so bonkers they are adament in their refusal, diversity follows and the differences between groups, however small the difference, grow and grow until there are different tribes, nations and eventy war, that is the prosess of culture diversity as old as time. 🐱🐈👍

[@BrentJJ]

Thank you gentlemen...for sharing your work.

[@joandarrah478]

What an enjoyable conversation. Yes, please talk about Dartmoor😊😂😂😂😂

[@Archangelm127]

This whole podcast was fascinating, but the biggest takeaway for me was learning about the Waiting Room Experiment. I'll put that alongside The Smoke-Filled Room, the Milgram Shock Box, and the Stanford Prison Experiment in the back of my mind.

[@toniwilson6210]

Never turn off the emoting 👍 💥 🎉

[@lesleygrain2120]

Extremely thought provoking. Within the mining communities (and others) there was a line of conditioning “Don’t get above your station”. Do things other than the norm and you risk being ostracised. Do you know Sting’s work The Last Ship. There is one piece “These Boots Are Made for Walking” which explores this imprinting and the issues of going against the norm. You loose your home and community and are not necessarily welcomed if you return.

[@jonkayl9416]

Yes to Dartmoor. Amazing place.

[@tarotwithjae6426]

Stone rows ..big fan.

[@chappellroseholt5740]

Good afternoon from the glorious SF Bay Area. Thanks for another interesting and even entertaining podcast.

[@helenamcginty4920]

Im saving the rest to listen to on podcast later. Thanks.

[@HypaBumfuzzle]

Oooooooo! What's this? A new video from fabulous chaps I adore? 🎵oh happy daaayyyy

[@hArtyTruffle]

I can’t help thinking it might be possible that every activity in pre-history was felt, by those long ago people, as sacred though. Even things we consider to be mundane, could have had a sacred aspect to them. With the ever increasing kinds of distractions we have had in the last 2000 years or so, it’s possible is it not?

[@1916JAD]

Time in good company chaps as always. Keep up the good work.

[@brendanryan6740]

gentlemen...you are home....relax and tell me all

[@janetmackinnon3411]

Really liked the fireworks!

[@elizabethmcglothlin5406]

Adding a more practical insight to the temptation to assign to 'ritual' every larger structure or puzzling site! And I was just reading about Grimes Grave.

[@forestdweller5581]

It' s a crazy tendency and it is not just about larger structures. Ever since the early days in archeology there are ridiculous attempts to assign ritual and religion to basically everything. The cave art, the tools and so on. Even if they would find a million year old piece of excrement some folks will probably say it was there for ritual purposes lol :)

[@joelledurben3799]

I think habit/tradition/nostalgia are good reasons for continuing to do something. It's a problem if the behaviour is - or becomes - harmful. I mean, if erosion makes the path unsafe, or there is social/emotional 'blackmail.' If it takes high risk or effort, we should re-evaluate, but psychological comfort has survival benefits, too.

[@deMylistrahil]

Maybe flint from Grimes Graves was just the "designer" flint of its day? The flint you just gotta have? Everybody knows it's the best, never mind the rest, sort of thing? Just had the best sales people, the best advertising team...?

[@jamesbosha2475]

Has no one proposed that Stonehenge was actually a hunting blind-analogous to the desert kites-a pit trap and protective pillar formation for trapping and hunting aurochs? I know I’d want a lot of stone between me and a horned, justifiably angry, 3,000+ pound animal that I was trying to subdue with a pointy stick.

[@fennynough6962]

Flint & these early hand tools are one of the best ways to understand Ancient History. Fron the Clovis, & Sultrian Cultures came very distinct knappings of Flint. What really impresses me most though is a Quartzasite hand knife, or cutting tool that is a 9 on the MOH Scale, & is unknappable, is found in Structures 100,000's of years earlier.

[@mr.d6987]

Awesome, cheers!

[@medievalladybird394]

I was born in Grasmere. We then moved to High Close, our phone number being "Langdale 212". And yes I am most definitely weird, whether I qualify or not. Great show guys! 🎉❤

[@garafanvou6586]

The west was for foraging and the east for settling. The seasons affecting availability of food and safe space. Perhaps the west was were animals went to procreate and forage, and then went east to raise their young. The areas of pilgrimage served as a meeting space in which they marked the changes of the seasons.

[@anemonevej77]

Thankyou so much for your podcast and films... I did not read all the comments: what about bretagne and carnac they really have megalitic works! Menorca have t pillar like pillars..its like the culture has been pushed against west- endig in west europa ireland and back to stonehenge..

[@cdb081258]

A 'modern' example is the Vatican that is built upon a pagan burial site

[@ianrosie4431]

I'm sure I remember seeing a photograph of a Land Rover parked atop the stones of Stonehenge. Which makes me think of our sense of humour. It seems so intrinsic to being human. Have you come across any hints at humour on your latest travels?

[@ThePrehistoryGuys]

Hello Ian, that's a great question and one that's surprisingly difficult to answer. Most of the definite examples of humour come from graffiti. Pompeii and Herculaneum have a good amount. Then there's the Viking graffiti at Maeshowe, about who did what to whose wife... Michael and I have often wondered whether some of the carvings at sites might be later whimsy. A particular example is a very small set of carvings at Gobekli Tepe which seem to illustrate a running wild boar with piglets in hot pursuit. In comparison with the other carvings, they are shallow and crudely executed, so let's say they look 'unofficial' to say the least. R

[@ianrosie4431]

Thanks Rupert.@@ThePrehistoryGuys

[@blkrs123]

[@LandscapeArchitecture]

In summary, how was the Gobekle Tepi site chosen?

[@black5f]

I wanted to ask you this question for a long time. I live in an area of Northamptonshire that lacks archaeology, most of the county extensively mined for ironstone and the top soils removed and used as refill. But the field behind me was never mined and is full of flint nodules when ploughed? It must have been a source of flint? There is so much it must have been? Ive picked up limestone full of fossils for my son. I'm going to take a look next time it gets ploughed.

[@forestdweller5581]

Flint sources are always valuable and rare but people generally knew them and used them. But they did have preferences as well because there is a lot of different qualities. For the source you mention then, it would depend on quality and availibilty of other sources nearby possibly to have an idea of how much it would have been used. One other big factor is transport. You have to carry everything on foot so grabbing and taking whole cobbles with you would only be possible if you live very near to that material source. Otherwise you would see evidence of knapping debris where people made tools on the spot or at least preforms of tools to reduce the weight they had to carry as they moved on.

[@black5f]

@@forestdweller5581 It raises another question in my mind, out crops of limestone sticking out the ground literally 100m from iron ore sticking out the ground. I know quite a lot about the "recent" local history of where I live. There is also a spring which is marked on the oldest maps I can find. We have an annual fair that dates back 800 years. But I know almost nothing about it's pre history which has started to fascinate me. Next time it's ploughed I might have a rootle.

[@forestdweller5581]

@@black5f Hope you find a bunch of 20 thousand year old points haha 😁

[@seang-d]

It might not be the place that is important it might be the date , like at Easter we go to mass because of the day not where the church is built , if they followed the herds of animals they would be in this place each year and the date is why the area might just be random ?

[@tonyb8660]

lol! I thought I was seeing things...

[@davidknight5537]

As to riitual vs secular. nq such concept existed in prehistory, indeed in early history. everything was intertwined. gods were everywhere. in prehistory terms, archeology would be viewed as ancestery worship on a fanatical levels.Yuo guys are in the prehistory cult.

[@forestdweller5581]

What a nonsensical statement. Did you fantasize that together all by yourself?

[@SkyeBlue1212]

The elephants became irrelevant. Say that five times fast.

[@stevenwbrubaker]

Glacial striations.

[@dianespears6057]

I want to say it was Michael Parker Pearson (something like that) and he dug it and had it analyzed and had to admit it was a striation. The big Stonehenge Project in 2008ish . My dates and name are possibly way off. But, I remember watching it on Time Team.

[@stevenwbrubaker]

You do realize, that from now on, all your videos will have to contain fake pyrotechnics and confetti. If you figure how to turn them off in the future, something intangible will be missing.

[@acfanter]

It’s Settings/ Gestures… but i do dort of like 👍🏻

[@estherlwhittle7568]

😂😊😂❤😂😊🎉🎉🎉

[@billolson4020]

So many words... So little meaning and value. Start digging and stop talking. Uncover the sites and discover the use of each site. Bloody worthless blather.😢

[@jonerlandson1956]

evolution did occur... the people of gobekli tepe were the Natufians...

[@forestdweller5581]

What a brilliant hypothesis. And you managed to formulate it in just 11 words. You are clearly an anthropological genius!

[@jonerlandson1956]

@@forestdweller5581 it saves you the people who do not read the effort...

[@jonerlandson1956]

@@forestdweller5581 a man... holding his penis... equates to one thing... or two... he is either peeing or ejaculating... the ancient Egyptian narrative of creation... all things in our existence project themselves into the future with what they leave behind themselves... their sense... their culture... and the shit they is able to gather...

[@jonerlandson1956]

@@forestdweller5581 where my hypothesis and you peoples branches off is that i do NOT believe all creation came from a single dot... i believe the dot showed up and disturbed the fucking pond....

[@jonerlandson1956]

@@forestdweller5581 it isn't my hypothesis... i made NOTHING up... NOTHINGNESS... is the void... where there isn't reality....

[@willcollier2878]

Hey, the mac bringing things up on screen is 'reactions' there will be a green video box at the top when you're on a video call. When clicked reactions will be at the bottom. You can click it to turn them off. Had it on for work calls for a week without understanding why! Great work on the channel, really enjoyable and interesting content.

[@aussie405]

The fireworks were brilliant! 😂

[@genier7829]

I left my Grime's Graves pilgrimage story in a comment on a recent video. I heartily recommend it, as a previously less than ardent archeology fan. Maybe a conversion experience?

[@reubenaberlin]

Brilliantly interesting ty (I vote you keep the fun effects)

[@dianespears6057]

Very interesting, Guys.

[@deormanrobey892]

😎

[@maggiemaloney8599]

Wonderful discussion! It always begins with the practical necessity for survival.

[@MarthaJamsa]

Interesting conversation! Please do more of the topics you mentioned at the end. Thank you. 🎉🎉🎉

[@differous01]

Africa's savannahs would have more trees if elephants didn't routinely knock them down. Forest elephants maintain trails and clearings the same way. The mammoths littering the bed of the North Sea, swept away when Doggerland became Dogger Bank, were capable of (responsible for?) cultivating Salisbury Plane, & the Pre-Roman course of Watling St need not be man-made.

[@ChrisShortyAllen]

Mammoths did neither road building or agriculture. SP was woodland.

[@differous01]

@@ChrisShortyAllen SP, for SOME reason, had "not as much trees as we were led to believe" [19:37]

[@stumccabe]

A bit of information I think people will find interesting: About 47 years ago I lived for a few years in South Africa. The Kruger National Park would, if necessary, cull elephants when their numbers grew too high to be sustained. The meat was not wasted but (at least some of it) cooked and canned and sold for human consumption. I was given a large can of braised elephant. Here's what you want to know - it tastes almost exactly like beef ! PS I believe that culling no longer takes place, but it was considered necessary at the time.