A Historic Timeline
About Human Concepts of Time
That Includes Basket Weaving Technology
And the Development of Language
Based on the ideas of Rick Doble
--- Links to 40+ articles listed in chronological order ----- About 700 illustrated pages written during the last ten years --
Copyright 2022 Rick Doble
All articles that are linked to this document and written by Rick Doble
are licensed under the Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0
--- Links to 40+ articles listed in chronological order ---
-- About 700 illustrated pages written during the last ten years --
Copyright 2022 Rick Doble
All articles that are linked to this document and written by Rick Doble
are licensed under the Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0
All articles that are linked to this document and written by Rick Doble
are licensed under the Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0
BLOG-ARTICLE AVAILABILITY AND PAST READERSHIP
All of these blog-articles listed below are available online at my blog and most are available as separate PDF documents on academic sites that you can read online or download. All my work is copyrighted under a Creative Commons Copyright, meaning that you can reprint any of my work as long as I am credited.
I converted most of my later blogs to PDF documents which I then posted on three academic sites, Academia.edu. Figshare.com, and ResearchGate.net.
I have recorded over 100,000 views total from these three academic sites. At Academia.edu, in particular, I am in the top 1% of document views, with 695 followers, and over 25,000 views plus about 5000 downloads. My work has been read in about 80% of the countries in the world and 1479 readers of my work are 'highly engaged' meaning they have read and/or downloaded multiple documents. I have one co-author and 32 other papers have mentioned and referenced my work. In addition to the academic sites, my blog has recorded more than 124,000 views over the last ten years.
ABOUT AUTHOR/RESEARCHER/THEORIST: RICK DOBLE
I have a Master of Arts in Communication with a minor in Anthropology. And I have a B.A. in English with an Honors in Creative Writer, along with the equivalent of a minor in the Social Sciences. Both degrees are from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE READ MORE ABOUT
-- About Author/Researcher/Theorist: Rick Doble
Read about Rick Doble's background
-- The Point Of This Blog And Its History
-- The Reasons For Focusing On Basketry And Its Relation To Time
“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”Attributed to Albert Einstein
When I told friends that I was going to write a blog about the human experience of time, most said that there was very little to say. Time always flows forward and the sun will rise each day and set each night no matter what we humans do. As Geoffrey Chaucer wrote over 600 years ago "Time and tide wait for no man." But, as the above Einstein quote shows, our understanding of time and our perception of time is often very human. And, as I will argue, the way we perceive time and relate to time has changed considerably during our evolution. Furthermore, I believe that it is our modern ability to work with time, to plan, for example, and to coordinate with others that has made us the dominant specie on the planet because no other animal can do this. And because we have been so successful we are in danger of damaging the Earth's environment with the by-products of our technology.
After reading and researching I began to realize that time is not just simply time, as is often stated. Instead, time was probably quite different for human creatures a million years ago, for example. For example, I believe the experience of time was different for early hominins who were just emerging from the immediacy of animal existence. And it was also different for early Neolithic farmers who saw time as being primarily cyclical season after season and year after year and not totally linear as we do today.
ABOUT BASKET WEAVING AND WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY
For the last two and a half years, I have concentrated on basket weaving technology, which I believe started several million years ago with early Hominins such as Homo habilis. If this technology started that early it affected human evolution by providing more food and materials with baskets and containers. Basketry would also have had cognitive implications because making a basket required imagining the final product before starting and then constructing the basket in a certain order. And these considerations were all related to a sense of time.
Until about 30 years ago, basketry was not considered an important technology that developed only recently in the Neolithic era. This thinking occurred for two reasons. One reason was that the oldest known baskets were from the late Neolithic time period. The second, and I believe more important reason, was that there were a number of incorrect assumptions that prevented research into the possibility that basketry was a key technology even though virtually all experts agreed that there must have been a plant-based technology in addition to the stone tool technology, a technology that went back millions of years. However, because plant material decays very quickly there was no direct evidence. But now, in the last thirty years, a discovery of basket weaving impressions in clay was found that dated back to 27,000 years ago and recently a completely intact large basket was found in Israel that is at least 10,000 years old.
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QUICK OVERVIEW
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-- Millions of years ago:
Some early hominins acquired a unique part of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, which no other animal had with its capabilities. It allowed rudimentary decision-making about future actions thus bringing a sense of time into play. I have argued that because of this unique part of the brain, hominins had the early stages of a sense of time -- a sense like touch and smell. As the size of the hominin brain increased the ability to imagine future outcomes and to remember past events increased, both critical elements of sensing the passage of time. For example, the size of the hominin brain tripled when comparing Australopithecus afarensis of three million years ago to contemporary Homo sapiens. However, it is important to note that science is not yet certain which came first, the larger brain or the pre-frontal cortex.
LEFT: Weaverbird nests are well designed and strong. Abandoned ones fell down from Baobab tree limbs which early hominins could have collected. "Weaverbird (Southern Masked Weaver) nest of dry grass, near Pretoria, South Africa"
RIGHT: A random weave basket made from vines by Nan Bowles. It was constructed with green flexible vines that later dried to make a light, stiff, strong basket. (Basket/Photo by Nan Bowles)
-- About 2 million years ago:
According to fossil evidence, stone-tool-making hominins (perhaps Homo habilis) lived at the same time and in close association with weaverbirds who made intricate woven sturdy nests which may have served as a model for early containers. These early containers were probably made with a random weave structure that can be light and strong. They would have allowed hominins to gather more food and materials, thus enhancing their ability to survive. This may have been the beginning of basket making and weaving. Basket making was related to time because designing a basket required an initial idea of the basket's shape and purpose and then it required planning and a duration of time to make one.
A museum recreation of a building (Terra Amata, Nice, France)
probably made by Homo erectus and considered the oldest known human building.
-- About 300 thousand years ago (just a guess):
The structure of the building at Terra Amata (above) suggests that these hominins could have developed basketry so that it was constructed with a regular right angle or opposing structure, i.e., the horizontal and vertical strands created the basket form. Because this basket making required an idea of a final completed basket before starting plus the process of making a basket was accomplished in regular increments, basketry could have become a symbol and metaphor for time. In addition, basket making could have been taught and communicated via mimicry learning without language. The right angle innovation meant that strong, light, durable sophisticated baskets in a wide variety of configurations were now possible, made out of plants found in any environment in the world. This technology was also scalable so that large structures could be made in addition to smaller items. The regular shape and structure of a woven item plus the process of making them may have led, in part, to a more regular sense of time.
Known as burden baskets, these were used by nomadic hunter-gatherers on a daily basis and probably during the Neolithic time period as well for harvesting crops.
-- About 30 thousand years ago:
Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens may have begun to develop an early short-term sense of linear time that could be expressed in language. This sense of time was probably immediate and not unlike the Amazon tribe, the Piraha, who think of time only in terms of a couple of days. According to my theory, Upper Paleolithic tribes had by then developed basket-making and woven-fiber structures into a highly sophisticated technology. Based on evidence from Native American Indian nomadic hunter-gathers, large and small waterproof baskets were used to carry water, other baskets were used for cooking, and small boats were made from reeds. Large back-carrying burden baskets were used every day for gathering food or firewood. Most agree that language was well developed by this time. But it is my contention that this Upper Paleolithic language was based on short-term immediate time.
The Newgrange passage tomb Ireland.
"A photograph of the entrance to the Newgrange Monument."
Many large structures such as Newgrange in Ireland and wooden circular enclosures in Northern Europe were built to indicate when the winter solstice occurred. Most experts agree that they also indicated the importance of time in the Neolithic era.
-- About 10 thousand years ago:
The Neolithic way of life began with sedentary villages and agriculture. This was when modern long-term linear time was developed for agriculture and for complex processes. And basket technology continued to be developed. For example, for most of the early part of the Neolithic era, large back-carrying baskets must have been used to bring the harvest in from the fields since pottery was not invented until late in the Neolithic time period. And other large baskets were specially made to store grain for long periods. Even woven-fiber large boats and houses were possible at this time. A major part of the Neolithic revolution was about a new sense of time that was very different from the immediacy of the Upper Paleolithic. I believe that at this point Neolithic societies were able to conceive of long-term linear time that occurred within the yearly cycles of repeating time. This allowed them to develop very sophisticated processes, some of which were used until recently, and to plan agriculture from year to year.
-- About 5 thousand years ago:
The great civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt took hold. Baskets and woven-fiber items were a central part of their economies which included water-sealed baskets for irrigating the fields, reed and papyrus boats, a variety of woven items for processing grains, and woven sacks for carrying grain. The mythologies of Mesopotamia made clear that basketry was considered a key technology that had led to the rise of civilization. Dividing time into manageable segments such as hours and minutes became necessary for the smooth functioning of these large societies. It is possible that basketry served as a model for the divisions of time as the Babylonian map for the night sky with horizontal and vertical lines was similar to an upside-down basket.
Middle Ages Clock: Prague Astronomical Clock, installed in 1410..
Medieval clocks were built using the epicycle gearing of Ptolemy's geocentric astronomy. Ptolemy's astronomy and geography also used a vertical and horizontal 'grid' system probably inherited from the Babylonians. Ptolemy's gearing geometry would lead directly to the construction of machines and the Industrial Revolution.
(University of Minnesota Libraries,
-- Modern Time:
Starting with Isaac Newton, cosmological time was seen as linear. Today modern science puts the beginning of the Universe at 13.8 billion years ago when the Big Bang occurred. In industrial and consumer societies, time is seen as a commodity, so "time is money." Because of linear thinking people are encouraged to build a career or find a profession where they can advance. Public schools and widespread higher education are a fairly recent part of most societies. A major reason for this requirement is that a sense of modern industrial time has to be learned. It is my contention that thinking in terms of linear time has to be taught. A principal task of education from first grade on is to teach students about working with and working within the modern time frame of scheduling, planning, meeting deadlines, and being on time. Nevertheless, much of daily time is still cyclical, day to day, week to week, New Year to New Year.
-- Future Time:
If humans are to survive, they/we will need to come to terms with very long-term planning and thinking. The short-term consequences of the industrial revolution with CO2 and other by-products have put the global climate at risk, at least as far as Homo sapiens are concerned. A new kind of thinking, in which the planners may not live long enough to see the results of their planning is essential. Some have called this Cathedral Thinking, referring to cathedrals that often took 300 years to build so that most designers and workers never saw their buildings completed in their lifetime. This requires a new conception of time, to work for the sake of future generations and not immediate needs.
MY MOST POPULAR AND/OR WELL-RECEIVED ESSAYS
-- Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time
-- Evidence for a Basket Weaving And Woven-Fiber Technology in the Paleolithic Era
-- How Language Began and the Human Understanding of Time: Daniel Everett's New Theories About The Evolution of Language
-- Computing the Winter Solstice at Newgrange: Was Neolithic Science Equal To Or Better Than Ancient Greek Or Roman Science?
-- Mesopotamian Ancient Basket Weaving Technology
and the Sumerian Reed Industry
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EARLY HOMININS
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ANIMAL SENSES COMPARED TO THE HUMAN SENSE OF TIME
PDF VERSIONS
Many millions of years ago, the human sense of time began with the human brain and a unique part of the brain that only we Homo sapiens have, i.e., the pre-frontal cortex. This part of the brain allows decision-making, which means that possible moves can be contemplated and then enacted. The analogy that is often used is that of a chess player thinking about his or her next move. I was one of the first people to write about this aspect of the human brain and its relationship to time.
In my article, I suggest that we humans have an actual sense of time, just like touch or smell is a sense. And that we are the only animal that has the ability to understand 'when', when in the past, the present, and the future along with an understanding of duration. Scientific studies back me up.
It is my belief that a simple short-term ability to plan in early humans, such as Homo habilis, eventually evolved into an understanding of time on a larger scale. This probably took millions of years and required a larger brain, a brain that could also recall many memories, as memory is a crucial element to an understanding of the passage of time.
This is my most popular blog-article which has recorded 9,400 pageviews on the blog online and over 2000 views and downloads at my academic sites.
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TIME & CONSCIOUSNESS
PDF VERSIONS
Related to how the human brain functions is our unique ability to be conscious. Time perception appears to be a major element of conscious awareness.
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PATTERNS & MEMORY
The human ability to perceive patterns must have developed over a long period of time, Before we could perceive patterns, we must have had a clear memory and a detailed understanding of what we had seen and experienced so we could connect the dots.
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THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC ERA
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PALEOLITHIC EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT HOMO HABILIS COULD HAVE LEARNED WEAVING FROM WEAVERBIRDS (PLOCEIDAE)
PDF VERSIONS
Around 2 million years ago at the famous Olduvai Gorge in Africa, the first stone tools made by hominins, known as Oldowan stone tools, were discovered in what has been designated as Bed I which is the oldest layer at the Gorge. And in addition, fossilized remains of weaverbirds (Ploceidae) were found in Bed I. Weaverbirds are known for their elaborate and well-engineered nests which they placed in the open, so they were clearly visible. This means that Homo habilis (and probably other hominins) could have been aware of the nest constructions of these birds and could have used both the shapes and the weaving techniques as models for their own woven objects such as baskets. Baskets would have given them a survival advantage allowing them to gather more food, different food from further away, and also to gather materials.
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EVIDENCE THAT PALEOLITHIC HOMININS LIVED IN CLOSE ASSOCIATION WITH WEAVERBIRDS AND THEIR BASKET-MAKING SKILLS
PDF VERSIONS
I argue that early hominins, almost two million years ago, lived in close proximity to Weaverbirds. In this article, I cite specific scientific evidence, current mainstream thought, and expert opinions to make my case. And because of this, it is probable that hominins learned initial weaving and knot-making skills along with basket-making, derived from the complex and well-constructed nests of these birds.
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NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT BASKET MAKING MAY HAVE BEGUN 2 MILLION YEARS AGO
PDF VERSIONS
In one study it was found that early humans walked 12 km or 7.5 miles to gather specific stones that they used for making Oldowan stone tools and for putting together a toolkit. And these specific stones made up the majority of stones found.
I argue that to do this, they probably had containers or early baskets to help them carry a large collection of stones back to their settlements, since walking that far would have been counterproductive if they only gathered a few stones.
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THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC ERA
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TERRA AMATA: DOES THE OLDEST PALEOLITHIC BUILDING SITE INDICATE THE USE OF ADVANCED BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY?
PDF VERSIONS
The Middle Paleolithic site at Terra Amata in Nice France provides ample evidence that suggests the transition from random weave basket technology to modern regular basket weaving had occurred by 300 ka with hominins such as Homo erectus.
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THE INVENTION OF RIGHT-ANGLE CONSTRUCTION IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA
PDF VERSIONS
Right-angle construction is a human invention and not natural. Nevertheless, there has been virtually nothing written about this important discovery. When early humans began to understand the power of this concept, it was a major advance in their technology. When applied to basket weaving and related crafts, it led to the development of hundreds of products. It gave humankind a powerful tool that helped them survive and prevail and eventually build civilizations.
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A NATURE JOURNAL ARTICLE VALIDATES
RICK DOBLE'S HYPOTHESIS
ABOUT PALEO WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY
PDF VERSIONS
A recent article in the highly respected scientific journal, Nature, states that the authors have found direct evidence of Neanderthal woven-fiber technology in the form of cordage attached to a stone tool.
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GENERAL IDEAS ABOUT
THE PALEOLITHIC ERA
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THE IMPORTANCE OF PROCESSES IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA
PDF VERSIONS
Understanding processes is key to understanding early human development. Processes operate sequentially in time and require planning. The ability to implement processes and then expand and develop those processes to more sophisticated levels is one of the principal characteristics of human culture.
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THE TRIBAL-WIDE USE OF PROCESSES IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA
PDF VERSIONS
The use of processes was shared by the entire tribe. So it was not just men making stone tools, but women gathering food in baskets and children learning the language of processes.
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EVIDENCE FOR A BASKET WEAVING AND WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA
PDF VERSIONS
Starting with basket weaving, basketry and weaving developed into a powerful and diverse technology that would be used to make a wide range of items including shoes, clothes, hats, mats, fences, roofs, houses, boats, and even bridges.
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BASKET-WEAVING EDUCATION & ITS COGNITIVE ASPECTS
PDF VERSIONS
Basket-weaving classes, programs, and instruction books for ages 3 to 18 may provide insights into the cognitive demands of basket-weaving and the development of those skills.
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THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC ERA
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA::
INSIGHTS FROM PALEO-INDIAN ARTIFACTS AND ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY
PDF VERSIONS
It is my contention that by the Upper Paleolithic, many technologies were quite advanced. In particular, basket weaving or woven-fiber technology had reached a high point of development. A variety of basket weaving techniques had been mastered along with the manufacture of cordage and the beginnings of textiles.
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THE GENIUS OF CAVEMEN
The accurate and technically sophisticated paintings of bison in the Cave of Altamira in Spain by 'cave men' show that not only were they skilled but they had remarkable memories and powers of observation.
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HOW LANGUAGE BEGAN AND THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING OF TIME: DANIEL EVERETT'S NEW THEORIES ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE
PDF VERSIONS
Daniel Everett has proposed a revolutionary new theory about how language began. He believes it started more than a million years ago not with Homo sapiens, but with Homo erectus and then slowly evolved. I believe his theory works well with my ideas about time.
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THE NEOLITHIC ERA
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COMPUTING THE WINTER SOLSTICE AT NEWGRANGE: WAS NEOLITHIC SCIENCE EQUAL TO OR BETTER THAN ANCIENT GREEK OR ROMAN SCIENCE?
PDF VERSIONS
This blog has been reprinted
at the Newgrange website in Ireland
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STONE-AGE SCIENTIFIC & ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS:
NEWGRANGE & PORTUGUESE BURIAL TOMBS COMPARED
PDF VERSIONS
The passageways in Portuguese burial tombs were designed to enhance the view of a portion of the sky. This made it much easier to see the first appearance of a particular star just before dawn or just after sunset.
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NEOLITHIC SCIENCE:
A STUDENT HANDS-ON PROJECT
HOW TO BUILD A LARGE PORTABLE PINHOLE CAMERA OR CAMERA OBSCURA TO EXPLORE HOW NEOLITHIC OPTICS AT NEWGRANGE WERE ABLE TO ACCURATELY DETERMINE THE TIME OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE
PDF VERSIONS
The title explains this article's purpose.
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BASKET WEAVING AND WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY IN THE PRE-POTTERY NEOLITHIC (PPN)
PDF VERSIONS
It is clear from the fact that pottery had not been invented until late in the Neolithic era, that other tools and implements must have been fabricated during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN).
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THE NEOLITHIC COGNITIVE LEAP:
MORE THAN A REVOLUTION THE NEW STONE AGE INVOLVED A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF Time
PDF VERSIONS
While all agree that the Neolithic era was a revolution, the change was even more monumental. While I believe Upper Paleolithic people could work with and plan short-term projects and processes, their way of life was generally one of immediacy. They did not store and save food for times of scarcity, for example. But in the Neolithic era, an understanding of long-term linear time allowed the societies to radically change their way of life by planning their farming over a year's time and then developing a large number of processes that required long-term conceptions. It was this ability that allowed the Neolithic cultures to flourish.
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NEOLITHIC FERTILITY SYMBOLISM DURING THE WINTER SOLSTICE AT THE NEWGRANGE PASSAGE TOMB IN IRELAND
PDF VERSIONS ONLY:
A number of researchers have suggested that the winter solstice alignment at the Newgrange Passage Tomb in Ireland had a fertility purpose. In this article, I build on the knowledge of many experts to arrive at a possible reason for the monument and its meaning to these Neolithic people.
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THE ANCIENT MANIPULATION OF TIME: PART 1
PDF VERSIONS
This combined article explores the growth of human understanding about the nature of time, along with methods for measuring and controlling time. This article covers Neolithic methods from about 5000 BCE and ancient Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek methods which led to the development of the clock in medieval times.
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ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
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THE ANCIENT MANIPULATION OF TIME: PART 2
PDF VERSIONS - Combined
This combined article explores the growth of human understanding about the nature of time, along with methods for measuring and controlling time. This article covers Neolithic methods from about 5000 BCE and ancient Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek methods which led to the development of the clock in medieval times.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE WORLD'S FIRST CIVILIZATIONS
PDF VERSIONS
The rise of the world's first civilization, that of Sumer in Mesopotamia, could not have occurred without a fully developed basket weaving technology that was available from the beginning.
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MESOPOTAMIAN ANCIENT BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY AND THE SUMERIAN REED INDUSTRY
PDF VERSIONS ONLY
There was an extensive and important reed industry that existed from Neolithic times and continued with the Sumerian civilizations but this industry has not been properly identified.
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MESOPOTAMIAN MISCONCEPTIONS: INCORRECT ASSUMPTIONS AND
MISINTERPRETATIONS OF SUMERIAN TECHNOLOGY
A large reed industry was crucial to the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia. Housing made of reeds, for example, may have been much more widespread than previously thought and a huge fleet of reed boats and coracles made with reeds may have been just as important.
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ANCIENT BABYLONIAN SCIENCE GUIDED THE MARS ROVER TO ITS LANDING
PDF VERSION
The Babylonian map of the sky became the model for a grid on the Earth and on Mars and was used to navigate the Mars Rover.
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THE CLASSICAL ERA
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HOW THE DISCREDITED GEOCENTRIC COSMOS WAS A CRITICAL COMPONENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
OR
HOW PTOLEMY'S GEOCENTRIC ASTRONOMY HELPED BUILD THE MODERN WORLD
PDF VERSIONS
The clock became important during the Middle Ages. The gearing mechanism was based on Ptolemy's geocentric astronomy which later developed into modern machines in the Industrial Age.
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THE MODERN ERA
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A REVOLUTION IN TIME
In the industrial age time went through a major change. Time was now geared to railroads and modern machines.
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SCHOOL'S MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT: TIME
WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN SCHOOL TODAY?
PDF VERSION
While learning basic skills is essential, education from the first grade teaches an even more critical subject -- the subject of time. This illustrated paper examines the subtle and persistent ways that students from elementary school to graduate school are taught a conception of time.
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THE PROTECTIVE BUBBLE OF CIVILIZATION
Living in buildings and driving air-conditioned cars has shielded us from the outside world.
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MODERN TIME: TIME AS A COMMODITY
Time is money.
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HOW PHOTOGRAPHY CHANGED TIME: PART 1
PDF VERSIONS
Before photography, there were only written records, which were often subjective, along with paintings and drawings -- plus memories that were often flawed or that faded within a few years' time. Photography freezes time. Photography can record reality, objects, and details in the real world, independent of our memories. This objective ability can allow us to view the past without the mist of emotions, the rose-colored glasses that often tint our recollection of the past. But it also completely changed the perception of time.
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HOW PHOTOGRAPHY CHANGED TIME: PART 2
PDF VERSIONS
See the description above.
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THE FUTURE
Short articles about the environment
and thinking and planning for the future.
and thinking and planning for the future.
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THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE
It is interesting to view how the future was conceived in the past and what the future became in reality.
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THE WORK OF THE IMAGINATION
A CRISIS OF IMAGINATION:
WE MUST IMAGINE THE FUTURE TO SURVIVE
PDF VERSIONS
This paper examines works of the imagination in the past that have led to the ideas and technology of today.
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WHY WE DON'T OR WON'T DEAL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
PDF VERSIONS
We, humans, are adapting to our own man-made environment and not considering the larger effect that our overall civilized environment has on the Earth's climate.
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GLOBAL WARMING & THE FUTURE: PARTS 1 & 2
The irony is that while technology has caused these problems, technology can provide the solution by helping us design with the environment in mind.
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CLIMATE CHANGE & OUR AGE OF DENIAL
Since politicians do not often think beyond their four or eight-year terms, they feel no urgency to risk their political future to forge a fifty or hundred-year policy that may be required.
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HUMAN NATURE, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY
PDF VERSION
Recent research concludes that changing the environment is part of our human nature and has been a core trait for as long as humans have existed. Can we tame this aspect of our own nature to prevent damage to the Earth's environment?
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MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE PAST
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THE MODERNCENTRIC BIAS AGAINST PREHISTORIC CULTURES: PARTS 1 & 2
Paleolithic people were very smart. Given their brain size, they did the best with the technology they had. But their abilities have often been dismissed by scientists.
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OVERCOMING GENDER BIAS IN PALEOLITHIC RESEARCH:
GENDER BIAS MAY HAVE PREVENTED PALEOLITHIC BASKET-WEAVING TECHNOLOGY FROM BEING RECOGNIZED AND ACCEPTED https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2020/12/overcoming-gender-bias-in-paleolithic.html
PDF VERSIONS
A 60-page exploration of gender bias that affected research into 'women's arts' in the Paleolithic era. The blog focuses on Native American Indian basketry, made by women, that often was quite similar to Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures in Europe but was discounted because it was 'women's work'.
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THE HISTORY AND FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF A REJECTED IDEA:
BASKET-WEAVING IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA
PDF VERSIONS
This article outlines ideas about the history of viewing basket-weaving as a technology, ideas that were rejected for almost 100 years, and then finally accepted after irrefutable evidence was found. It then outlines my new ideas that take the origins of this technology much further back into the past.
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REPLACE THE TERM 'BASKET WEAVING'
WITH THE TERM 'WOVEN-FIBER TECHNOLOGY'
PDF VERSIONS
Basket weaving "can't get no respect." It is a joke on college campuses. Replace this term with 'woven-fiber technology' that will cover a variety of woven-fiber constructions.
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HOW PRECONCEPTIONS INTERFERED WITH DISCOVERY: UNDERSTANDING THE FIRST COMPUTER, THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM OF ANCIENT GREECE
PDF VERSIONS
Because authorities did not believe Ancient Greeks could have made a sophisticated geared device that could calculate celestial movements, the Antikythera Mechanism, found in a sunken Roman shipwreck, was ignored for 50 years.
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AFTERWORD
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR/RESEARCHER/THEORIST: RICK DOBLE
I am the writer/researcher/theorist of these blog-articles on this page. I have an M.A. in Communication, with a minor in Anthropology, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I also have a B.A. in English from UNC-CH with an Honors in Creative Writing. As an undergraduate at UNC, I had to take 6-8 courses that were not related to my major, and most of the ones I chose were in Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, and Political Science -- i.e., the social sciences. Nevertheless, I am not a professional Anthropologist just a person with a lifelong interest in the human condition. From the age of ten, I put together what I called my 'museum' which included Paleolithic stone tools, Neolithic stone tools, and Native American Indian arrowheads. When I attended Phillips Exeter Academy prep school, I took two courses in experimental physics and chemistry where, for example, we duplicated Galileo's experiments with gravity and an inclined plane. In college, I worked as a research assistant to a professor and I was always able to locate more than enough documents for his research. Later as a professional photographer in the pre-digital film era, I spent almost 15 years doing my own darkroom work, which gave me an in-depth understanding of processes. Process development is a key idea in this timeline of hominid/hominin evolution. As a digital photographer, my experimental ideas were published by one of the largest photographic publishers, Lark Books, in a book entitled "Experimental Digital Photography." I was also the team leader of a historic photographic project in Durham North Carolina which created a photo archive for the Durham library and we also created a timeline exhibit of photographs of Durham.
Nevertheless, I do not have the normal academic credentials for the kinds of ideas I have put forth. However, at the age of 78, I decided it was now or never. I would like to think that at the very least I have asked some worthwhile questions which could be useful in the ongoing conversation about human development, culture, and technology.
WHY DID I FOCUS ON BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY?
My wife has a small but varied collection of baskets, from very small to very large, and from different parts of the world and different cultures. These baskets are strong, light, and durable, and are still in good shape after forty years. In addition, my Dad gave me some Mexican furniture that had woven straw seats and backs that are over 70 years old. This furniture is as sturdy today as it was when my Dad tied them to the top of his old Ford and drove from Mexico City to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In other words, I knew that baskets in general are light, strong, and durable, making them a very useful technology.
When I started to write this blog, I discovered from my research that basket technology was present in virtually all cultures in the world, from 'primitive' to modern, using a wide variety of local materials. In addition, two Anthropological researchers compiled aspects that were common to all cultures, new and old, which included containers, cordage, and weaving.
Then again in my research, I found that many people believed that early humans may have gotten the idea for baskets from bird nests. And that is when things started to happen for me. With the incredible research ability of the Internet, I was able to show that Oldowan tools were found in the same Bed at Olduvai Gorge in Africa where fossilized weaverbird skeletons had also been found -- dating back almost two million years. And weaverbird nests are woven, incredibly well-made containers. Next, I was able to show that most experts believed that early Hominins spent much of their time around Baobab trees because the Baobab fruit was an important part of their diet. And Baobab trees were also the preferred habitat of weaverbirds. This means I could show that early Hominins lived in close association with weaverbirds and that logically they could have learned basket-making skills although it would take another two million years to develop basketry into a sophisticated technology that would eventually lead to building large houses and boats in Mesopotamia and also waterproof vessels to irrigate their fields.
As luck would have it, I also knew a local woman (Nan Bowles) who lived in the marshes with her husband and who often made things from natural materials. She, on her own, had made a number of random weave baskets which is what I believe early humans would have made initially. She was able to show me their construction and strength. I was amazed to find how light and strong they were, easily holding five kilograms. So with all these ideas about how basketry could have started, I was off and running. This would lead me to investigate ideas about the development of weaving in the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic, the Neolithic, the Ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the Classical thinking of Rome and Greece, right up to the modern-day.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
DECONSTRUCTING TIME
ABOUT THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF TIME
I have been writing this blog for ten years now. When I began, I only planned on exploring our contemporary human relationship to time, which has been ignored or not recognized as important.
Yet nothing happens, nothing exists outside of time -- time is ever-present. And nothing happens that did not happen in a moment of time: the passage of time only happens in the immediacy of the moment. Time is the most used word in the English language (and presumably other languages) showing how vital it is to our existence.
I believe our understanding of time and our relationship to time is not only crucial, it shaped our evolution and our development from early Hominins to modern Homo sapiens (us) of today. For example, an understanding of the times when animals migrated or plants flowered allowed early humans to hunt better and gather more food.
When I began this blog, I had no idea that I would be delving into such weighty matters, but inevitably one step led to another and after ten years I had mapped out one scenario of human evolution that included the developing technology of basket making (or woven-fiber technology) and its relationship to time, along with ideas about the development of language.
So in this blog-article, I lay out what I have written in chronological order, showing how the ideas I have discussed in this blog follow a fairly logical progression up to the present day.
However, when I began these articles, I had no idea that they would connect to each other and that a coherent timeline was possible. I wrote each one as the ideas came to me -- ideas that did not come in a logical order. It was only six months ago that I realized I had mapped out the beginnings of a chronology and at that point, I began to fill in the blanks to complete the overall picture.
WHY BOTHER?: Is this just an academic exercise or does it matter? I maintain that our understanding of linear time, with a past, present, future and a sense of duration, has made us the dominant species on the planet, since no other animal has this capability. So it could be very useful to gain a better understanding of how we evolved. And studying how this sense of time developed may offer insights into our current way of thinking. Working with horizontal and vertical strands to make baskets and woven structures, for example, maybe one of the reasons we developed the concept of the 'grid' which is everywhere in modern culture. But even more importantly is the fact that we will need to develop a new sense of long-term linear time because that is what it will take to come to terms with climate change. What some have called 'cathedral thinking' means that each generation must now plan and develop technologies whose outcomes they will never see in their lifetime. Short-term thinking of the past is what brought us to this crisis point with the environment. It is only with long-term thinking that we can come to terms with the effect our technology has on the Earth.
A Personal Note: I had written about five of these articles when the COVID pandemic hit. Since my wife and I stayed at home for about a year and a half, I used this time to research and write about this topic.
But I do not know if any of my ideas will become part of mainstream thinking in my lifetime. Of course, I would love it if they were, but that is not the point. In a sense, I have engaged in 'cathedral thinking' because my ideas might be accepted long after I am gone.
Nevertheless, I am confident that a discussion about the development of time concepts will become a major theme in the study of prehistory and later time periods.
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