Biases May Be the Main ObstaclesTo Our Understanding of the Prehistoric Past
The famous ceiling of bison paintings in the Cave of Altamira in Spain.Replica of multi-colored (Polychrome) rock paintings, done with a kind of spray technique, (Wikimedia.org)
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Walt Kelly, Pogo comic strip
IN GENERAL TERMS, THIS MEANS:
Freeing ourselves from our modern point of view and instead looking at the past with an open mind, plus trying to see the past in the same way that a person in that time period would see it.
FOR MY ACADEMIC READERS
I have listed only a few citations in this article,
and instead refer you to an earlier article with full citations.
and instead refer you to an earlier article with full citations.
OVERVIEW
SUMMARIES OF THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS
#1: THE CEILING PAINTINGS IN THE CAVE OF ALTAMIRA
-- CHARGES OF A HOAX WITH NO PROOF
These accusations continued for 20 years after the Paleolithic paintings on the ceiling of the Cave of Altamira in Spain were discovered. Experts dismissed any possibility that primitive people could creat such art, even though none of the experts went to the cave to see the paintings in person. After 20 years, the lead expert published a 'Mea Culpa' admitting that he was wrong and apologizing.
#2: BASKET WEAVING IN THE PALEOLITHIC?
-- RESEARCH PREVENTED DUE TO AN INCORRECT ASSUMPTION
Research about the possibility of basket weaving before the Neolithic era was prevented for 90 years because experts assumed weaving required a sedentary, settled Neolithic culture, which would not work with a hunter-gatherer nomadic lifestyle that existed earlier in the Paleolithic. All this was shown to be false. Today, some researchers feel that woven-fiber technology developed along with stone tool technology and is crucial to understanding human cultural and technological evolution but for 90 years, research has been stymied.
#3: NEOLITHIC POLISHED STONE TOOLS
-- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
Beautiful polished stone tools gave this historical period its name, i.e., the New Stone Age, and the Museum of Stone Tools estimates that hundreds of thousands of stone axes, in particular, have been found in Europe. Yet the reason for the polish technology remained a mystery for about 150 years. Most assumed it was for aesthetic reasons and never tested the tools until archaeologists actually used them to cut down trees. Then it was found that they were an advanced technology that was vastly superior to earlier Paleolithic stone tools.
#4: REED TECHNOLOGY AND THE REED INDUSTRY
-- A CRITICAL INDUSTRY IN MESOPOTAMIA THAT HAS BEEN IGNORED
An almost endless supply of quality wild reeds grew in abundance. The reed industry, reed technology, and reed items such as reed boats were essential for the rise of the great city states in Mesopotamia, the rise of civilization, and the Mesopotamians were highly skilled with their use. Yet this has not been recognized even though the evidence is clear.
#5: MAKING FUN OF PTOLEMY'S EPICYCLES
-- SCIENTISTS WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS
Once the Copernican system had been adopted, some scientists demeaned the earlier Earth-centered (geocentric) system of Ptolemy as inaccurate, complex and cumbersome. They made jokes about the many circles within circles known as epicycles that Ptolemy mapped out. However, they failed to understand that Ptolemy's calculations were off by only one day every 100 years, plus epicycles were about the only way to make his calculations before the invention of calculus. Furthermore, his geometry accurately described a precise gearing that became the basis for early clocks, which in turn became the model for machines. So Ptolemy is, in a sense, the father of the modern machine age.
INTRODUCTION
In this article, I will detail biases that have hampered our understanding of the past.
I will examine academic ideas from four different historical and prehistoric time periods that were affected by researchers' biases and that affected our ability to gain an understanding of the past.
Then I will attempt to outline how we can gain a more accurate view of the past by shedding our biases and attempting to be objective with the evidence and indirect evidence we find.
However, to paraphrase what my friend Barbara Blake, a PhD in Anthropology, said: our culture is so much a part of each of us that it is virtually impossible to rid ourselves of its influence.
FOR STARTERS
Instead of a modern viewpoint I suggest the following:
--- Early to Late hominins were much smarter than we have understood
- In particular, I believe the Neolithic era was much more sophisticated than previously thought
--- Technology took a long time to develop for several reasons.
- People did not live very long, and survival demands took up most of their time
- Technology and new lifestyles were being invented from scratch on a trial-and-error basis -- with almost no earlier models to follow
- Limited communication between tribes meant that significant advances took a long time to be communicated and then to become established
- Unlike modern technology, we cannot assume that once something was invented, it was adopted by everyone and then improved
- Some technologies were developed and then abandoned, such as agriculture, when it appears that some tribes, after adopting agriculture, returned to the hunter-gatherer way of life
FINDING EVIDENCE
Since much of the distant past is buried, decayed, or hidden from us, we need to use other tools to reveal the nature of the past. This time has been called prehistory because there are no written records.
But, just as important, new ideas need to be thoroughly tested and examined. They do not get a free pass -- on the contrary, they must prove that they are superior to older ideas or ideas that have been long held.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
Attributed to Carl Sagan.
New ideas that challenge accepted ideas should be considered extraordinary and subjected to thorough testing and debate. With prehistory, for example, where indirect evidence is the norm, many different types of indirect evidence should support the new idea and/or point in its direction.
THE NATURE OF BIASES
There are many different types of biases. And there are many different ways that a subject can be viewed in a distorted way. I made a list of some of the terms that describe this but you can probably come up with many more. Often, more than one bias will apply.
BIAS
A poiht-of-view that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation
E.G., Neolithic buildings appear crude and rough rather than stable and well built, but many have lasted longer than the pyramids
PARTIALITY
An inclination to favor one group, view or opinion over alternatives
MISCONCEPTION
An incorrect abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
Something that is so common and banal that it may not be taken seriously
E.G., baskets exist in all societies all over the world
FAMILIARITY
If something looks like something you know it can be easy to read things into a theory or evidence that should be looked at objectively. And the same goes for the opposite. If something looks foreign, it may be rejected for that reason.
BLINDSPOT
A subject about which you are ignorant or prejudiced, and fail to exercise good judgment
E.G., port receipts for large numbers of reed bundles in Mesopotamia were ignored
KNOW-IT-ALL
We've all known these guys; with a wave of their hands, they dismiss well-made arguments as nonsense and refuse to discuss anything further
PREJUDICED
Being biased or having a belief or attitude formed beforehand
E.G., belief that Upper Paleolithic humans were incapable of complex skills
BLIND
Not seen or understood
LONG HELD BELIEFS
This refers to beliefs that prevented any discussion
E.G., an early origin for basketry
ENTRENCHED BELIEFS
Established firmly and securely -- these are some of the hardest ideas to dislodge because they are believed by so many people for a long time
DENIAL
Often just a flat-out avoidance of an idea or facts that a person does not want to deal with
SIMILARITY
We tend to see things that are similar to our modern life
E.G., such as this picture of Babylon that almost looks like a modern city but ignores the much larger farming area that surrounded Babylon and made the city possible with surplus grain
A view of ancient Babylon.
Artist's concept of reed homes outside an early city
VOCABULARY
Words themselves can often limit our ability to understand or conceptualize, such as the words "civilization" or "stone age," which are entrenched and have a long history.
ABOUT THESE BIASES
The problem with misconceptions and such is that they take us down the wrong road. They take us further from the truth which then takes time to backtrack and put us back to the more likely road.
Furthermore entrenched ideas have a life of their own and are often resistant to new ways of thinking. The worst assumptions are the ones we are unaware of because we don't realize they are assumptions.
Science is not just about discovering new ideas and evidence. New ideas that become accepted could, for example, change our concepts of how the past evolved and how we modern people and modern culture and technology became what it is today.
Science is a journey of discovery with many twists and turns; we don't always go forward, sometimes we step back. Yet, in any case, we need to factor out our assumptions and misconceptions. And we need to be aware of their presence.
EXAMPLES OF BIAS/ASSUMPTIONS/MISCONCEPTIONS
#1: THE CEILING PAINTINGS IN THE CAVE OF ALTAMIRA
A TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE OF BIAS
AND A REFUSAL TO ACCEPT NEW EVIDENCE
"The great hall of polychromes (multi-colored paintings of bison) of Altamira, published by M. Sanz de Sautuola in 1880."
In 1879 Maria, the eight-year-old daughter of Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a noted prehistorian, would in a moment change our perception of prehistoric humans forever. "Toros,toros" (Bulls, bulls) she screamed when she looked up at the dim ceiling of the Altamira Cave in Northern Spain. On that ceiling was what has now been described as the "Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic art." What Maria thought were paintings of bulls (toros) were instead bison that were extinct.
The famous ceiling of bison paintings in the Cave of Altamira in Spain.Replica of multi-colored (Polychrome) rock paintings, done with a kind of spray technique. (Wikimedia.org)
In hindsight, the spectacular ceiling, the well-preserved precise paintings, and the polychrome technique were more than Paleolithic experts could absorb in 1880. It was too perfect, so much so that the authenticity of the paintings was rejected by almost every expert and authority. This led to a bitter controversy that lasted over 20 years, even suggesting that they were a hoax and bringing into question the honesty of the highly respected historian, de Sautuola.
TOP: A single bison from the replica of the bison ceiling (cited earlier)
in the Cave of Altamira in Spain. This bison is now extinct.
in the Cave of Altamira in Spain. This bison is now extinct.
BOTTOM: A photograph of a modern bison, showing the remarkable similarity
and precision with the Altamira painting above.
and precision with the Altamira painting above.
The main critical expert, Émile Cartailhac who was widely respected, dismissed the paintings as inauthentic since he believed that they were impossible and therefore he would not discuss the issue further. Yet he never visited the cave even though he condemned it. Then he was able to gain the support of almost all contemporary anthropologists and archaeologists to also condemn the work, even though none of them had seen the paintings in person. This controversy continued for 20 years, during which time de Sautuola died, due in part to the stress that had been caused by damage to his good name.
But by about 1900, several similar caves with paintings of animals had been found in Spain and southern France, and this was the evidence that finally confirmed the authenticity of the paintings in the Altamira cave. They were not unique.
"In 1902 Emile de Cartailhac was forced to publish -- with some humility -- an article entitled “Les cavernes ornées de dessins, La Grotte d’Altamira (Espagne). Mea culpa d’un sceptique”. (Mea Culpa = an acknowledgment of one's fault or error. (Oxford Dictionary)) In this article, he admitted being part “of an error, committed twenty years ago, of an injustice which is necessary to recognize and publicly put right...It is necessary to bend before reality and, for my part, I must see justice is done to M. de Sautuola”. In the same year, Cartailhac visited Altamira for the first time.
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Lasheras, José Antonio. THE CAVE OF ALTAMIRA: 22,000 YEARS OF HISTORY
Director, Museo de Altamira
Santillana del Mar 39330 Cantabria
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The announcement for an event in which Émile Cartailhac now supported, promoted and explained the paintings in the Altamira Cave that he had once disparaged.
Then he went one step further with lectures and publications about the Altamira paintings, which he now promoted.
"A modern interpretation of [one of] the bison from the Altamira cave."
COMMENT:
This is a classic example of what happens when a long held assumption comes up against new ideas and/or new evidence. Because of the long held opinion that the 'primitive' people of the Upper Paleolithic were not capable of such advanced artistic work, there was only one conclusion that could be made. These works must have been made more recently, even though everyone agreed that the cave itself was occupied during the Upper Paleolithic. This led to charges of fraud, or a complicated hoax and dishonesty by de Sautuola who up to then had been above reproach.
In hindsight the twenty years it took to resolve this dispute in favor of de Sautuola may have been necessary for expert prehistorians to come to terms with a different idea of primitive man. And make no mistake, this find was crucial. It changed everyone's idea about our past and human evolution.
No one could deny that the cave was a prehistoric site, as indicated by the discovered materials, but they could not accept the authenticity of the Altamira paintings because that would mean accepting that primitive prehistoric man...was capable of a high artistic and spiritual development.
TAKING THE UNDERSTANDING OF BIAS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Altamira is a textbook case of bias. But in many ways, the story has not been told properly. More important that the discovery of the paintings and their ancient origins, archaeologists were asked to reject their existing beliefs and live with a new set of questions about the nature of man.
This was a legitimate concern that should have been addressed directly but was more or less unspoken.
Nevertheless, we have to recognize that these were legitimate concerns that needed to be dealt with. It required a complete change in the accepted worldview, which was a lot to ask for.
#2: BASKET WEAVING IN THE PALEOLITHIC?
FINDING EVIDENCE OF BASKET-WEAVING
ASSUMPTIONS AND THE PROBLEM OF FINDING EVIDENCE
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan
After reading an almost forgotten book by noted French archeologist Gustave Chauvet, Dr. Paul Bahn wrote in 2001 that, “It is a long overdue development that, 90 years after Chauvet’s publication, prehistory seems ready to at last accept the probably HUGE IMPORTANCE OF BASKETRY [ED: my emphasis] and simple weaving in the Upper Palaeolithic.”
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Bahn, Dr. Paul. (2001). "Palaeolithic weaving – a contribution from Chauvet." Antiquity, 75:271-272.
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The book Dr. Paul Bahn is referring to is by Gustave Chauvet
French
Os, ivoires et bois de renne ouvrés de la Charente: Hypothèses Palethnographique
English
Bones, ivories and reindeer wood of Charente: Palethnographic hypotheses
(Publications de la Soc. arch, et hist, de la Charente), 1910.
Book cover
Chauvet, Gustave. Os, ivoires et bois de renne ouvrés de la Charente: Hypothèses Palethnographique
English: Bones, ivories and reindeer wood of Charente: Palethnographic hypotheses
(Publications de la Soc. arch, et hist, de la Charente), 1910.
The problem was and still is: how to find evidence of basket material and constructions that leave few traces.
Page of found Paleolithic tools from Chauvet's book.
"In whichever way archaeological remains are interpreted, one must always be aware that the vast majority of the materials with which prehistoric people were surrounded and with which they worked is lost to us today. ...organic materials start to decay as soon as they are deposited in the ground."
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Grömer, Dr. Karina. "An Introduction to Prehistoric Textiles." Brewminate.com, Natural History Museum, Vienna, March 01, 2016,
https://brewminate.com/an-introduction-to-prehistoric-textiles Accessed 09/23/2020.
"This lack of archaeological visibility contrasts with the importance attributed to these perishable materials and techniques in some [contemporary] ethnoarchaeological studies, which highlight the extremely high proportion of objects made with them and the techniques compared to those made from stone and bone."
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Aura Tortosa, J., Pérez-Jordà, G., Carrión Marco, Y. et al. "Cordage, basketry and containers at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary in southwest Europe. Evidence from Coves de Santa Maira (Valencian region, Spain)." Veget Hist Archaeobot 29, 581–594 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-019-
--- While almost all researchers agree that plant and vegetation was used to create a technology along with stone tools, there has been very little agreement about that technology..
--- Some experts believe that technologies based on plant material comprised the vast majority of the tools hominins used -- but due to decay very little evidence has survived.
--- Therefore research and theories have been biased when it come to evidence. Stone tools have survived, while plant tools have not. So theories about the past have been based on stone artifacts, but their importance may be exaggerated.
The further we go back in prehistory the harder it is to find evidence. We must be creative and most of that evidence will be indirect. The problem was and still is that authorities have insisted instead on clear evidence.
"The conventional wisdom has been that a time-consuming task like weaving would only be practiced by sedentary, agrarian cultures. [ED: i.e., Neolithic societies]" said Dr. Adovasio in an interview with Discovery Magazine. Until thee was evidence to the contrary, prehistorians believed that basket weaving began in the Neolithic era.
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Menon, Shanti. "The Basket Age." Discovery Magazine,
January 1996 Issue, http://discovermagazine.com/1996/jan/thebasketage619
However, this was only an assumption which was not based on facts. Even around 1900 there was contemporary evidence that this opinion was wrong. Nomadic hunter-gatherers, North American Apache Indians, were known for their highly skilled basket making: this was documented in detail in 1904 (6 years before the publication of Chauvet's book) in a US Smithsonian publication.
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Aboriginal American Basketry: studies in a textile art without machinery. Contributors: Mason, Otis Tufton; Coville, Frederick Vernon. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; Report of the U.S. National Museum. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904.
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"Basket, Apache people, Arizona, ca. 1900,
coiled willow and devil's claw - Chazen Museum of Art."
In addition there has always been considerable indirect evidence because basketry has a long history and ancient traditions. Baskets were/are made by virtually all societies on all continents (except Antarctica). They were/are made with different kinds of weaves that each culture developed using a wide variety of local materials including roots, bark, branches, needles, etc. These are used to make a wide a full range of baskets such as soft bags, hard carry baskets and large back (burden) baskets, for example. Also the weave could be open to make nets or fish traps, or tightly closed to make baskets for carrying water. There were even baskets for cooking; hot rocks were put into a specially designed basked with food and allowed to cook. Furthermore baskets often played a role in mythologies, indicating that they were an old technology.
While many think of basketry as humble and banal, they do not grasp its simple complexity.
The Encyclopedia Britannica spelled it out quite well in the following (https://www.britannica.com/art/basketry)
"Though it would appear that basketry might best be defined as the art or craft of making baskets, the fact is that the name is one of those the limits of which seem increasingly imprecise the more one tries to grasp it. The category basket may include receptacles made of interwoven, rather rigid material, but it may also include pliant sacks made of a mesh indistinguishable from netting—or garments or pieces of furniture made of the same materials and using the same processes as classical basket making. In fact, neither function nor appearance nor material nor mode of construction are of themselves sufficient to delimit the field of what common sense nevertheless recognizes as basketry."
In addition, I believe there were other biases, which were never articulated, but prevented researchers from believing in the importance of basket weaving.
ASSUMPTION: BASKETS ARE NOT TOOLS.
This is an example of misconception. Baskets are tools. By every definition I can find, baskets are tools but they have rarely been given the "tool" status that stone tools have been given. Woven-fiber technology was capable of making a complete range of tools which were strong, durable and light. These tools could be very small or vary large and custom made for different tasks.
AA.jpg)
This Native American Indian Coastal-Pomo woman is gathering seeds
using a paddle made with woven-fiber technology.
This paddle is a tool designed to hit and free the seeds
on the plant so that they fall into the large basket.
ASSUMPTION: IT WAS ASSUMED THAT BASKETRY WAS, IN ANY CASE, NOT IMPORTANT
and certainly not as important as stone tools. This is an example of hiding in plain sight.
Speaking about the lack of archaeological interest in basketry, mats and textiles, Grace M. Crowfoot wrote the following in A History of Technology, Volume 1. "In considering gaps in the knowledge of textiles, it must be remembered that there are vast areas where little archaeological study has been undertaken...Surviving pieces of rag were often rejected as without interest...Determination of the exact botanical origin of the fibres used in basketry and weaving has only quite recently been recognized as of archaeological importance."
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Charles Singer, E.J. Holmyard, A.R. Hall. A History of Technology, Volume I: From Early Times to Fall of Ancient Empires. Oxford University Press, 1954. (Kindle location = 8905)
FACT: Basket making and woven-fiber technology were critical for not only baskets but rope and thread. This technology was also used to make hats, shoes, and even suspension rope bridges. The technology was versatile and a mainstay of just about every culture.
ASSUMPTION: BASKET MAKING WAS WOMEN'S WORK
and therefore not important.
and therefore not important.
FACT: Yes, in many cases baskets were made by women, which should have nothing to do with the value of their work. Native American Indians revered the highly sophisticated processes and creations of their women and many baskets were handed down for generations.
Dr. Adovasio, a world leading expert on basketry, had this to say. Not only did he learn to appreciate "the incredible technical diversity of prehistoric basketry, but [he also developed] an ever-escalating appreciation of what one of [his] colleagues, Bob Bettinger, call[ed] "soft technology." Significantly, and in sharp contrast to lithic [e.g. stone tools] or durable technology--which is usually the province of males--basketry, cordage, netting, and related plantfiber-derived products are often the work of females. Almost unconsciously, at least at first, I was developing a view of past societies and their actions that was by default far more oriented to female activities as opposed to the macho-male orientation derived from stone tools."
(Adovasio, 2006, p. 37)
Also simple basic logic was ignored. Since baskets are and have been so pervasive in virtually all cultures and allowed people to carry and gather much more food or material, it is only logical to explore the possibility that this might have been another technology that developed along with stone tools.
Bahn (2001) discovered when rereading the book of the French archaeologist Gustave Chauvet that "some of these early French excavators both found and interpreted several items as related to advanced textile manufacture. In his book Chauvet has a special section on the possibility of basketry and weaving in the Magdalenien (from around 17,000 to 12,000) context. Well aware of the fact that he could not hope for finding direct textile remains, he turned to both possible tools and textile engravings in bones e.g. from the Grotte de Placard" (Bahn, 2001:272).
"Chauvet also relied on observations done by other contemporary archaeologists e.g., the discovery that a bone tool could have been used for splitting flexible bark. Bark and bast from the lime (linden) tree were still used as raw material for making cords in the medieval time in France."
MasterOneYearWigforss20140401.pdf
Thus Chauvet put together a number of indirect observations that he believed supported the idea of basketry before the Neolithic era. And this became the basis for his hypothesis.
But all this fell on deaf ears. Authorities made clear that unless irrefutable evidence was found, evidence that could be dated, prehistorians would assume that basketry began in the Neolithic. So for 90 years, that opinion did not change.
FINDING EVIDENCE
Then a miracle occurred. It was not actual baskets, but it was clear distinct impressions of weaving in fired clay that could be accurately dated.
Drs. James M. Adovasio and Olga Soffer discovered woven fiber impressions in fired clay fragments at the Paleolithic site of Pavlov in the Czech Republic.
Gustave Chauvet had suggested with his basket weaving hypothesis, that basketry might have begun around 17,000 (BCE) but this find now pushed the timeline back another 10,000 years. These fragments, dating at 27,000 years, revealed distinct woven patterns likely from plant fibers "like milkweed, nettle, or the fibrous bark of yew or alder." The discovery clearly indicated that weaving was practiced by hunter-gatherer cultures, not just settled, agrarian societies. And it did not first occur in the Neolithic time period but instead in the Upper Paleolithic ear.
And there was more. They discovered evidence of more than one kind of weave. In particular one weave was a 'plain weave' which almost always required a loom, such as a simple basic 'hand loom.'
But this discovery by Drs. Soffer and Adovasio has even greater implications. Accepting the fact that hunter-gatherers utilized basket-weaving and simple textile weaving opens the door to a much greater time span for the development of these technologies. Before this the assumption had been that a sedentary Neolithic lifestyle was required. However, now this barrier has been overcome, I believe the entire Paleolithic period of the hominin hunter-gatherer existence should be examined -- meaning Upper, Middle, and even Lower Paleolithic.
I began this section with this quote from Dr. Paul Bahn who wrote in 2001 “It is a long overdue development that, 90 years after Chauvet’s publication, prehistory seems ready to at last accept the probably HUGE IMPORTANCE OF BASKETRY [ED: my emphasis] and simple weaving in the Upper Palaeolithic.”
So, you might ask, what is the huge importance of confirming that sophisticated basketry existed in the Upper Paleolithic? It means that perhaps there was a "soft technology" that developed along with stone tools for a million years or so. This discovery may rewrite many ideas about the human development of technology and also culture and even human evolution.
FROM BASKETS TO SHIPS:
IT MAY HAVE TAKEN 100s OF 1000s OF YEARS
[TOP] A carry basket. using a simple design, made by the Xerente (Sherenté),
an indigenous people in Brazil.
It may have taken more than half a million years for the skills needed to make this basic basket to evolve into the skills needed to make this seagoing ship made of reeds that could carry 50 tons of cargo and sail the Persian Gulf.
[BOTTOM] "Model of the reed boat Tigris, boat of Thor Heyerdahl."
This recreation of a Mesopotamian reed ship could carry 50 tons of cargo. Thor Heyerdahl built the full-scale ship to prove the seaworthiness of reed ships. He sailed the Tigris with no problems for 5 months in the Persian Gulf.
#3: NEOLITHIC POLISHED STONE TOOLS
I'm not sure what to call this bias. It is partly a blindness. What should have been obvious was not, even though proof was readily available.
But it also involved a lack of understanding about the Neolithic era, which was much more advanced than people realized.
Thousands of Neolithic stone axes have been found during the last 150 years. But apparently no one thought to actually try them to see how they worked and handled. This seems very odd to me considering that the name for this period was based on these good looking polished New Stone Age tools.
When they were finally tried out, they showed that the New Stone Age technology was a great leap forward from Upper Paleolithic tools.
When I was in college I asked my history professor, who taught our required Western Civilization course, the reason for polished stone tools in the Neolithic era, the technology that defined the era and gave it its name, the New Stone Age. He did not have an answer. I asked another knowledgeable person several years ago and they did not know either.
Those people who did have an opinion said they were polished for aesthetic reasons. But it was obvious to me that a culture would not do this much work unless there was a practical benefit.
For more than an 150 years these tools had not been understood. Then recently some archaeologists used actual ancient Neolithic axes to cut down some trees, axes that had not been sharpened in 4,000 years. It turned out that these axes were not just slightly advanced, they were a major advance. They could clear a small area of trees in a day. In addition, they worked well when it came to carving and shaping wood to make a variety of items. However, they worked differently from modern axes.
LEFT: Paleolithic 'flake tools'.
RICHT: Neolithic polished tools.
Page 280, Volume 15 of the German illustrated encyclopedia Meyers Konversationslexikon, 4th edition (1885-1890).
"The Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age, the age of the ground tool, is defined by the advent around 7000 BCE of ground and polished celts (ax and adz heads) as well as similarly treated chisels and gouges...A ground tool is one that was chipped to rough shape in the old manner and then rubbed on or with a coarse abrasive rock to remove the chip scars...Polishing was a last step, a final grinding with fine abrasive. That such a tool is pleasing to the eye is incidental; THE REAL WORTH OF THE SMOOTHING LAY IN THE EVEN CUTTING EDGE, SUPERIOR STRENGTH, AND BETTER HANDLING. [ED: My emphasis.] The new ax would sink deeper for a given blow while delivering a clean and broad cut; its smooth bit, more shock resistant than the former flaked edge, had less tendency to wedge in a cut."
(Britannica, Neolithic Tools)
This ax looks crude but it was state of the art for thousands of years. It not only could quickly clear a forested site, it and similar stone tools could cut and shape wood better than any tools before it. It led to a new 'wood' technology that had not been possible before in Europe.
"A Neolithic stone ax with a wooden handle. Found at Ehenside Tarn, now in the British Museum."
"The polished Neolithic ax, a heavy implement, was in sharp contrast to the delicate small-rock work of the last stages of the Paleolithic period.
"In a revealing experiment, 4,000-year-old polished rock axes, furnished by the Danish National Museum and carrying the sharpness left after their last use 4,000 years ago, were fitted with ash handles modeled after that of a Neolithic hafted ax preserved in a bog, giving the ax an overall length of nearly 63 cm (25 inches). (A modern steel felling ax has a 91-cm [36-inch] handle.) When these were used in a Danish forest, it was soon found that the violent action of the modern technique of swinging a steel ax and putting shoulder and weight behind the blade to give long and powerful blows was disastrous, either ruining the edge or breaking the blade. Proper handling meant short quick strokes that chipped at the tree...
"After getting into form, the men found it possible to fell an oak tree more than 0.3 metre (1 foot) in diameter in half an hour or a pine 61 cm (2 feet) in diameter in less than 20 minutes. One-eighth acre (600 square yards, or 0.05 hectare) of silver birch forest were cleared by three men in four hours. One axhead cut down more than 100 trees on its original (old) sharpening."
(Britannica, Neolithic Tools)
TOP: La Hougue Bie entrance and chapel, Jersey
BOTTOM: Detail of entrance and wall
"La Hougue Bie is a Neolithic ritual site which was in use around 4000-3500 BC. [Older than the pyramids at Giza in Egypt.] In Western Europe, it is one of the largest and best-preserved passage graves."
This is an example of sophisticated Neolithic technology, but which has not been understood because it looked "crude" to the modern eye.
#4: REED TECHNOLOGY AND THE REED INDUSTRY
Please go to these links for my references and citations.
MESOPOTAMIAN MISCONCEPTIONS:
Incorrect Assumptions
The Crucial Importance
of Basket Weaving Technology
for the World's First Civilizations
Our image of an early Mesopotamian city is usually one of a compact complex central city made of brick with impressive tall religious buildings. This is not inaccurate but it ignores the big picture.
A view of ancient Babylon.
A much larger agrarian population that was interconnected with a network of fields, canals, and villages lived outside the city and supplied the city with essential grain and food. The cities could not have existed without their support. And these farms could not have flourished without a sophisticated reed technology that had been developed and passed down from earlier Neolithic Ubaid cultures.
Artist's concept of reed homes outside an early city.
Fleets of various types of reed boats, large and small, served each urban area providing travel, transportation, and communication. They were trucks and taxis that rode the water highways of complex canals.
"Southern Mesopotamia was a land dominated not only by the Euphrates and its branches but by a substantial number of artificial canals as well, many of which were navigable. Not surprisingly, therefore, a great deal of travel, transport, and communication was waterborne, and indeed some scholars consider the facilitation of trade and transport by Mesopotamia's canals (whether so intended or not) to have been as important a role as irrigation."
A basic map of Mesopotamian irrigation and canaks.
(Postgate, Early Mesopotamia)
The farmers often lived in what have been called reed huts, but were sophisticated reed buildings made entirely (including rope!) from reeds. Large impressive ceremonial buildings were also made entirely of reeds and were built for community gatherings.
Both the boats and the huts were constructed from high quality reeds that grew wild and in abundance in Mesopotamia. In addition reeds were used in the construction of levees and dikes, along with baskets used for dredging which was a constant job. For water proofing and binding, reeds could be mixed or coated with bitumen (modern term = tar) which occurred naturally in Mesopotamia.
Large reed baskets were used for harvesting and farm chores along with many farm implements.
I now use the term 'reed industry' because it is clear to me that it was a large industry. I also now use the term reed technology or woven-fiber technology because reeds along with other fibers became a sophisticated technology.
Reeds and the reed industry were everywhere in Mesopotamia. Even in the central city reeds were essential. They were used for palisades, to reenforce mud-brick walls, and to reinforce mud bricks, making them more durable. Mesopotamia was noted for its baskets. Carry baskets of all kinds, containers, mats and furniture would have been part of every day life.
However, this wide spread dependence on reed technology has been ignored by historians. Other than passing references in a list of Mesopotamian materials, I have found very little mention of the importance of reeds.
So that I can make my point, here is a brief list of the products that were made with reeds and reed technology in Mesopotamia with the rise of civilization.
-- Reed technology was used to dredge and manage the intricate canals and levees; reeds were used as part of levees, for example
-- Agriculture: reed baskets and tools were used for a variety of tasks including irrigation
-- Heavy duty baskets were used also for delivering clay that was used for brick-making and tablets for writing; they were also used for transporting finished fired and sun baked bricks to a building site
An almost endless supply of high quality reeds grew wild.
"2 people in a mashoof (Arab canoe) surrounded by reeds."
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Reed boats are still being made.
They can be made much larger as well.
"Traditional reed boat on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia."
-- Each city depended on fleets of reed boats of different designs that were small, medium and large; the largest ones were seafaring ships. Mesopotamian cities were based on a network of canals and water highways so these boats were essential.
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TOP: Mudhif construction details. Image used with permission.
(Almusaed et al., "Building Materials in Eco-Energy houses from Iraq and Iran")
BOTTOM: Mudhif Reception Hall
Rabas or homes for the average person.
-- Many family homes and large ceremonial buildings were made entirely of reeds, including the rope; it appears likely that thousands of domestic reed homes, in some cases a majority of homes, were built in the farm lands outside the central city
-- Used to make rope
-- Mats -- an all purpose item used for flooring, walls, curtains etc. -- very much like a tarp today but more versatile
-- Fences
-- Household items such as carry baskets and containers
-- Furniture
Examples of ancient reed pens.
Reed pens from the Roman Era.
Reed pens from the Roman Era.
The Sumerian invention of the reed pen was used
for thousands of years up to the present day.
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Detail from the: "Ritual for the Observances of Eclipses, Babylonian, Mesopotamia, Seleucid period, c. 3rd-1st century BC, baked clay."
Cuneiform writing on a clay tablet.
Morgan Library & Museum, New York City.
-- Reed pens for writing on clay tablets in cuneiform (the world's first writing); the Sumerian word for stylus was "tablet-reed," (GI DUB(-BA), Akkadian qantuppi). Writing was used primarily for accounting and receipts so reed pens were essential for smooth city operations when civilization emerged
ANCIENT EVIDENCE
--- In addition, there is clear evidence from port receipts that reed bundles (the way that reed material was packaged for transport) were one of the main cargoes delivered to ports.
--- There were more than one hundred words relating to reeds and reed items in a lexicon of Mesopotamian words.
--- The "Craft of the basket weaver" is specifically mentioned in the list of Sumerian MEs, a basic list of essential cultural elements that made up civilization and were decreed by the gods.
-- And even the Gods had something to say about reeds and basketry
In an important myth "The Creation Of The Pickax"; a major god, Enlil, who is associated with civilization, declares
"The pickax and the basket build cities."
-- The King's Basket Bearing-Ritual: during the consecration of a new religious building, the king performed a basket ceremony with the basket on his head.
LEFT: Detail of a statue of an Assyrian king performing
the basket-bearing ritual circa 700 BCE.
the basket-bearing ritual circa 700 BCE.
RIGHT: One of many Foundation figures
showing the king with a basket on his head
that was buried in the construction when a ziggurat was built.
showing the king with a basket on his head
that was buried in the construction when a ziggurat was built.
DIRECT EVIDENCE FROM MESOPOTAMIA
Continued use of reed boats for thousands of years
BOTTOM: Bas-relief: "The Assyrian military campaign in the marches of southern Iraq. This campaign was conducted against the Chaldeans in 700-699 BCE...Assyrian soldiers captured fled enemies on a reed boat."
TOP: Drawing made from that same bas-relief.
(King, Leonard. A History of Babylon. London, Chatto and Windus, 1915, p. 201.)
This bas-relief shows that thousands of years after the end of the Ubaid Neolithic era, reed boats were being built and used.
(King, Leonard. A History of Babylon. London, Chatto and Windus, 1915, p. 201.)
This bas-relief shows that thousands of years after the end of the Ubaid Neolithic era, reed boats were being built and used.
Image of reed building.
This image of a reed house on a Sumerian ceremonial trough from the 3rd Millennium shows that these houses were still an important part of the Mesopotamian landscape even as many buildings were being constructed of brick.
(The British Museum, WA 120000, neg. 252077)
"Babylonian cuneiform tablet with map of Nippur 1550-1450 BC. "
This cuneiform tablet with a map of Nippur 1550-1450 BC includes the canals and water courses that were critical to the life of this city.
#5: MAKING FUN OF PTOLEMY'S EPICYCLES
MODERN ARROGANCE
This bias, is in a sense, a collective modern know-it-all bias.
Frontispiece illustration from Ptolemy's Almagest, Venice, 1496,
depicting Ptolemy instructing Regiomontanus under an image of the zodiac encircling the celestial sphere.
depicting Ptolemy instructing Regiomontanus under an image of the zodiac encircling the celestial sphere.
My favorite example is the discredited astronomy of Ptolemy whose calculations were used for about 1500 years. His astronomy was Earth centered, known as geocentric, in which the Sum and planets orbited the Earth.
When I was in college taking the required history course, the professor explained that this theory had to be replaced and rejected because it was inaccurate. The theory was based in part on complicated epicycles, which wee circles within circles and there were 40 of them in Ptolemy's universe.
"A simple illustration showing the basic elements of Ptolemaic astronomy.
It shows a planet rotating on an epicycle which is itself rotating around a deferent inside a crystalline sphere. "
It shows a planet rotating on an epicycle which is itself rotating around a deferent inside a crystalline sphere. "
So as we all know, Ptolemy's system was replaced by the heliocentric (Sun centered) astronomy of Copernicus, Galileo,Kepler and Isaac Newton -- all of which took about 150 years along with the contributions of Tycho Brahe who provided the most accurate data at the time. So in other words, it took the work of five geniuses and 150 years to dislodge the Ptolemaic system.
However, objections to this new Sun centered system were quite understandable. People had to believe that the Earth was constantly turning at 1000 miles an hour which we did not feel and in addition it was orbiting the Sun at an astounding 67,000 miles per hour.
Eventually a picture of the solar system emerged without epicycles. Instead the planets and Earth moved in straight lines described by ellipses. And so the Sun centered view of Copernicus won out.
Since that time, Ptolemy's astronomy has been thought of as an early system that was imprecise and flawed and scientist joked about the absurdity of the epicycles.
BUT WAIT, THERE IS SO MUCH MORE
There was only one problem that my college professor forgot to mention, or perhaps did not know. Ptolemy's system was inaccurate, yes, but only by 1 day every 100 years! It was off by 0.0027378% In other words it was a damn good system.
But what really seems to have irked modern scientists is that the system relied on dozens of epicycles which were complicated.
So his system has become a kind of whipping boy for what I call modern superiority.
THE BASIC FLAW OF THE KNOW-IT-ALLS
The Know-It-Alls made the basic novice mistake which I stated at the beginning of this series of bias articles.
They did not free themselves from their modern point of view and look at the past with an open mind. In other words they needed to see the world as Ptolemy saw it with the same knowledge and lack of knowledge that he had, and the same assumptions and the same technology.
In our modern day, it has been forgotten that Ptolemy's science was restricted by two major requirements. His astronomy had to be Earth centered as everyone always assumed. And the movement of the Sun and planets had to be described in perfect circles as Aristotle had mandated. The fact that Ptolemy could invent such an accurate system under these conditions was remarkable.
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"Simplified diagram of Ptolemy's model of planetary and solar movement
around the Earth."
Ptolemy solved this problem by basing his system on epicycles and when he needed to tweak his system he might add another epicycle, although this has been greatly exaggerated. Epicycles, which were perfect circles within perfect circles, were the main technique Ptolemy had to describe objects in motion and rates of change such as planets, until the invention of calculus. They also solved the difficult problem of retrograde motion when planets appeared to go backwards at times.
After Copernicus published his theory, it took about another 150 years to show that his idea might be correct. But Copernicus had only come up with the basic idea that the planets orbited the Sun and not the Earth and it would take another 150 years to discover exactly how the solar system was put together.
To begin with it took another 50 years to accurately describe the system. Kepler was able to simplify the math for the orbits of the planets by discarding thousands of years of scientific thought to solve the problem. He discovered that the planets did not move in perfect circles as everyone had assumed since Aristotle but instead in ellipses.
Then calculus was invented in the late 17th century by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz about 70 years after Kepler's theories. Calculus essentially replaced epicycles which had been the best way to solve problems related to motion and rates of change such as the planets, the moon and the sun. In fact, Newton invented it, in part, so that he could make those calculations. This means it is best to think of epicycles as pre-calculus rather than a complicated way to describe the orbits of the planets.
It is my guess that our Know-It-Alls did not know that epicycles were essentially a pre-calculus tool and the best such tool at the time. Instead many modern scientists have made fun of the numerous epicycles that Ptolemy mapped out with phrases such as
"Adding Epicycles" as a Critique:
The phrase "adding epicycles" has become a shorthand for the idea that a scientific model is becoming overly complex and losing predictive power, rather than making progress.
Modern Interpretation:
Today, "adding epicycles" is often used as a metaphor for clinging to a failing theory by making ad hoc modifications rather than embracing a new, more accurate paradigm.
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But our Know-It-All modern superiority is deeply flawed as there is even more to this story. Their criticism shows that they did not know the complete history.
When Copernicus proposed that the Earth went around the Sun, he too used perfect circles and epicycles -- in fact he used more epicycles than Ptolemy, 48 to be exact instead of 40 that Ptolemy used. So epicycles did not disappear with the theory of Copernicus, they increased.
It was not until about 70 years later that Kepler determined that epicycles could be discarded and even so it took about another 80 years before Isaac Newton figured out how to do the math.
It was then and only then that the Heliocentric world was accepted and the world of Ptolemy was rejected.
But almost 200 years before Copernicus published his ideas, large mechanical clocks started to be built. They began around 1360 and at least ten of these clocks are still in operation today.
Now here is the kicker! The clocks were built on the Ptolemaic system as the gearing of epicycles, i.e., circles within circles, worked extremely well for clocks and the geometry was very precise. Ptolemy's geometry of epicycles was the way they were constructed hundreds of years before the sun centered system was generally accepted.
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Prague Astronomical Clock
"The Prague astronomical clock was installed in 1410...and is the oldest functioning Astronomical clock in the world."
This 600 year old clock and ones like it became central to European societies. This mechanism was made with gears and gearing that was derived from Ptolemy's astronomy that he developed around about 1200 years earlier. It shows not only the time but the position of the Sun and Moon and the movement of the Zodiac (see next image).
"Functions noted"And there is still much more to this story. Clocks and their gearing became the basic model for machinery.
Clocks were the
"key machine of the modern industrial age."
"key machine of the modern industrial age."
Strandh, Sigvard, A History of the Machine.
So we could say that Ptolemy was the father of the machine age, and even our modern age.
CONCLUSION
So this concludes out 'tour' of scientific biases. We will probably never completely free ourselves from bias but this is a start. It is at least a recognition of the problem which, as we all know, it where a study like this has to begin.
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