Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

She told her father, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola , an amateur archaeologist, who published an account in which he suggested that the paintings belonged to a very early time in our prehistory.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

At the time it was thought that prehistoric people could not have had the capacity or sensibility to produce such works.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

He was universally derided.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

He did not live to witness his vindication.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

But within a generation it was universally accepted that he had been right.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Nearly 340 caves have now been discovered in France and Spain that contain art from prehistoric times, some thought to date back over 40,000 years.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Among these images there is strong evidence of a shamanistic tradition that connects the caves to the present.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But even this is not the beginning.

 

 

Edited January 6, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

The beginning may predate our species, and possibly raises questions about what it is to be human.

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

The Shanidar cave In the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan contains archaeological evidence of neanderthal burials dating back perhaps 80,000 years.

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Among the nine graves found is Shanidar 5, the so-called flower burial. Found with the bones were pollen grains from numerous herbal flowers in some cases still used for medicinal purposes today.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Yarrow...

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Cornflower...

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

St. Barnaby's Thistle...

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Ragwort or Groundsel...

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Grape Hyacinth...

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Joint Pine or Woody Horsetail...

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

...and Hollyhock...

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

... were all represented in the pollen samples, and all have long-known curative powers as diuretics, stimulants, astringents as well as anti-inflammatory properties.This led to the - still controversial - idea that the man could possibly have had shamanic powers, perhaps acting as medicine man to the Shanidar Neanderthals.

 

There are varying theories about what happened to the Neanderthals.

 

 

 

 

 

Hollywood has it's own ideas.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2014 by Flex Mentallo

[Flex Mentallo]

Yet Shanidar may so far be the earliest evidence we have of proto-humans recognising an afterlife, thus seeking to order the world according to a system of belief.