it has been approximately 12000 years since our ancestors constructed what are now the ruins at Gobekli Tepe. But saying it’s been exactly 12,000 years would be silly, so let’s toss in some variation and call it the present 12,024 years since then. I like this because it puts the history we presently call “ancient” into perspective. By this measure, the bronze age began around the year 6,800 and its collapse happened around the year 8,800. Two thousand years, our species toiled at working bronze. Yes, a lot of explosive progress (some of it literal) happened in the 11,900s, but it took us over eleven thousand years to get there in the first place. We’re really not so far from the 11,500s when we were just getting used to connecting the whole globe with transoceanic trade. It seriously stunts our achievements to write off everything that happened prior to year 10,000 as if it were irrelevant.
oh yes! Anatomically modern humans have been around for like 200,000 years before we developed agriculture and started to develop permanent settlements!
I think the number is 600,000 years for how long we’ve been around in total.
I completely agree with you. If you actually think about it seriously our history as a species is amazing. Things like the discovery channel with the “Aliens” guy piss me off. It’s a fundamental disrespect of what real people have done, and what we’re capable of.
The long ramp up to what we have right now today is fascinating. No other animal has ever done anything like we have. From loin clothes to fire to farming is mind blowing. Hell, just one of those things is already way past every other species to ever live.
They kinda seem like jerks. My 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘰s tended to get along best in groups of a dozen dozen, enjoyed gossip, killing Neanderthals, and their fave: magical thinking.
Just the fact that we’ve pushed back the point where early hominids were controlling and cooking with fire to some 2 million years in the past. Burying dead to 250,000 years.
I’m totally willing to believe there are much earlier signs of what we would call complex societal behavior like those temples and the infrastructure required to build them. We’re just going to get better at detecting and dating it as time passes imo.
It’s sad that we will likely never know why they did any of this stuff. It’s probably all very familiar to us even now, but wouldn’t it be fascinating to know how far back our “modern” behaviors go.
it has been approximately 12000 years since our ancestors constructed what are now the ruins at Gobekli Tepe. But saying it’s been exactly 12,000 years would be silly, so let’s toss in some variation and call it the present 12,024 years since then. I like this because it puts the history we presently call “ancient” into perspective. By this measure, the bronze age began around the year 6,800 and its collapse happened around the year 8,800. Two thousand years, our species toiled at working bronze. Yes, a lot of explosive progress (some of it literal) happened in the 11,900s, but it took us over eleven thousand years to get there in the first place. We’re really not so far from the 11,500s when we were just getting used to connecting the whole globe with transoceanic trade. It seriously stunts our achievements to write off everything that happened prior to year 10,000 as if it were irrelevant.
And humanity existed for hundreds of thousands of years before that.
oh yes! Anatomically modern humans have been around for like 200,000 years before we developed agriculture and started to develop permanent settlements!
I think the number is 600,000 years for how long we’ve been around in total.
I completely agree with you. If you actually think about it seriously our history as a species is amazing. Things like the discovery channel with the “Aliens” guy piss me off. It’s a fundamental disrespect of what real people have done, and what we’re capable of.
The long ramp up to what we have right now today is fascinating. No other animal has ever done anything like we have. From loin clothes to fire to farming is mind blowing. Hell, just one of those things is already way past every other species to ever live.
They kinda seem like jerks. My 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘰s tended to get along best in groups of a dozen dozen, enjoyed gossip, killing Neanderthals, and their fave: magical thinking.
Why Gobekli Tepe? Karahan Tepe is likely significantly older. We may find something older still.
Just the fact that we’ve pushed back the point where early hominids were controlling and cooking with fire to some 2 million years in the past. Burying dead to 250,000 years.
I’m totally willing to believe there are much earlier signs of what we would call complex societal behavior like those temples and the infrastructure required to build them. We’re just going to get better at detecting and dating it as time passes imo.
It’s sad that we will likely never know why they did any of this stuff. It’s probably all very familiar to us even now, but wouldn’t it be fascinating to know how far back our “modern” behaviors go.
Kurzgesagt Time! They have a 12,024 Human Era calendar (but it’s sold out :/ ). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czgOWmtGVGs
I enjoyed reading about this, thank you!
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210815-an-immense-mystery-older-than-stonehenge