tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post1251438450156274661..comments2023-11-02T08:42:23.947+00:00Comments on The Subversive Archaeologist: Inauguralthesubversivearchaeologisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02730417511321512990noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-13011884942775261262012-05-23T02:47:49.172+01:002012-05-23T02:47:49.172+01:00As promised, I've put up something about the K...As promised, I've put up something about the Kebara Cave Neanderthal. It's at http://thesubversivearchaeologist.blogspot.com/2012/05/oy-vey-late-breaking-news-kebara-cave.htmlthesubversivearchaeologisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02730417511321512990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-25869328515791974142012-05-22T21:44:57.428+01:002012-05-22T21:44:57.428+01:00Dear Anonymous. Unless you're extremely old, I...Dear Anonymous. Unless you're extremely old, I'm guessing by the terminology you're using that you're talking about Moshe, the Kebara 2 Neanderthal. If you have read my 1989 paper on that putative burial you'll know that there is nothing straightforward about what you and the others have called the margin of the pit. If you an be a little patient, I'd like to blurt about this on the Subversive Archaeologist, since I have some photographic evidence that has, I think, rarely seen the light of day, and which might convince even you of the ambiguity that's associated with the so-called margins of the so-called pit. And, even if I'm wrong and you're not referring to Kebara 2, please visit when I post. I'll leave a link here when it's ready. Thanks for taking the time to drop in and comment. Anonymity is fine with me. As you know, I'm well aware of the social pressure that exists in our discipline, and I can empathize. Robthesubversivearchaeologisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02730417511321512990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-73101178901895752712012-05-22T21:02:32.551+01:002012-05-22T21:02:32.551+01:00As an grad student I excavated a Neandertal burial...As an grad student I excavated a Neandertal burial. Clear margins around the grave, and flexed position (fetal position), as in so many other cases. We all know about your interpretive caution, but you have to had been there to understand how clear it was. As hard as it might be to swallow, the 'armchair' critique that has been aimed at you must be factored. <br /><br />Anonymous for privacy...sorry!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-49759366791117097432011-10-31T16:36:01.489+00:002011-10-31T16:36:01.489+00:00@sbestel
Well, no, I concluded that there is insuf...@sbestel<br />Well, no, I concluded that there is insufficient evidence to claim, unequivocally, that Shanidar IV was a purposeful burial, and plenty to suggest that its location and depositional circumstances were ripe to bury it naturally, along with the other skeletal bits above and below it. As for the plant macrofossils, etc., Mme. Leroi-Gourhan also found charcoal, a portion of a butterfly wing, wood and other detritus in the soil that she examined. For some reason she and Solecki apparently decided not to include those in their flower burial scenario. I could go on...Rob Gargettnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-58175493347696009122011-10-30T20:24:33.567+00:002011-10-30T20:24:33.567+00:00So what about the Shanidar IV 'flower burial&#...So what about the Shanidar IV 'flower burial'? Was this also not a burial? I gave a lecture on it this week, as an early Middle Paleolithic possible piece of evidence for plant use and paleoethnobotany. But I did at least balance it out with a theory I read somehwhere about a rodent called the Persian 'jird' taking seeds and flowers (how quaint!) into its burrow and that this is what caused the flowers-on-the-grave theory... Do I have to update my students on Neanderthal burials?sbestelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-8363795905600070832011-10-06T01:39:47.618+01:002011-10-06T01:39:47.618+01:00Congratulations and well said. By all means push ...Congratulations and well said. By all means push on! Your work was and remains extremely relevant. If we do not truly understand our past, we have no true hope of shaping our future. Our "family trees" have repeatedly grown misshapen and twisted, allowing the least evolved and most voracious of our species to flourish at the expense of the rest. The cycles repeat. Over time the dominants become increasingly isolated, in-bred, and dependent upon the less fortunate below, and are ultimately sustained only through some form of inhuman and often cannibalistic slavery. Meanwhile increasingly large sections of the population in the lowest branches fail and fall from the protective environment to either die of starvation or fall prey to the carnivorous perils of the ground, huddling together for safety and survival in growing numbers around the base of the trunk. Eventually the entire structure becomes so unbalanced and unstable that cataclysm is inevitable. Sometimes those in the lower branches rise up and eject the the dominants who fall to their collective deaths only to be replaced by their behavioral counterparts from the insurgency. Sometimes those on the ground and hanging dangling from the lowest branches poison the tree, dig up its roots and tear away at its trunk until it topples, killing many in the upper branches and creating a chaotic scramble to the nearest sturdy tree where the whole process repeats itself. Sometimes the tree itself simply collapses, killing almost everyone inside and beneath it and the cycle begins from scratch elsewhere. But in every case, the growth of the tree and the its primate population is a disorganized, accidental, and unintelligent process. Archeology and history give us an opportunity to understand that process and its failures, and to cultivate new trees in a way that can withstand our weight and provide safety and sustenance for all. Only then will we break this idiotic cycle of imbalance and injustice. Only then can we begin migrating to a permanent future where all are safe and can flourish, and so doing abandon those creatures at the top who, for the first time in natural history will be forced to either join the human race or rapidly fade into extinction at their own hands, at which time we carefully memorialize for future generations and then dismember the old "family tree", lest it fall upon us from the past and once again damage and misdirect our future.JRickardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10740290157277278247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-7475737041872671092011-10-05T22:13:04.509+01:002011-10-05T22:13:04.509+01:00Good one Rob!Good one Rob!Katrina MacDonaldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040099150725637733.post-88680554185287895102011-10-05T20:10:31.996+01:002011-10-05T20:10:31.996+01:00Yay.Yay.Iain Davidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14097687576640352857noreply@blogger.com