yes, true. I have read somewhere that the Vikings believed that there was an end to the ocean and it spilled out into a void. BUT, i kinda doubt that they actually believed that. They did, after all, sail all the way the North America.
One method ( listed in Joe's LINK ) is to follow the birds. It was probably a gradual process over generations. Go out as far as you can and still get back. Try it again with more provisions. Map of some islands. Could there have been more islands 40,000 years ago (or fewer)? LARGER IMAGE (wipe dust off monitor screen and see little green dots)
Prehistoric women: Not so simple, not so strange By Germaine Greer 28 March 2007 "Jim Adovasio is the leading expert in the perishable artefacts of the Palaeolithic – baskets, cordage, woven fabric – all associated, if somewhat arbitrarily, with women. To correct the astigmatism that has hitherto seen prehistory as the story of early man, Adovasio – director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute in Erie, Pennsylvania – has joined with Olga Soffer, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and journalist Jake Page to produce The Invisible Sex. " "The roles of women even in our own time are not easy to define; yet our intrepid threesome has encapsulated more than 3 million years of human femaleness in fewer than 300 pages, rather too many of which are taken up with moaning about the sex bias of anthropologists of yore." Palaeontologists disagree just as often and as radically as economists do, and yet they insist on describing what they do as science. The trail of inference that leads from fossil fragments to conclusions about sex, gender and social structure has more in common with the Da Vinci code than with scientific method. The only way the authors of The Invisible Sex can uncover women’s true roles is by assuming that a certain class of objects is associated with women. At the same time they want to dispute the generally accepted notion that weapons are boys’ toys. "As it turns out, they neither have their cake nor eat it. They report that thousands of years ago women were buried at Indian Knoll, Kentucky, with bannerstones, which were used as weights on spear launchers, and interpret this as evidence that the women were champion hunters. Any ethnographer could suggest dozens of other possibilities." READ MORE
Isles of Scilly Iron Age warrior was probably a woman The remains were discovered alongside a 2000-year-old sword and mirror A decades-long mystery over whether an Iron Age warrior who lived on the Isles of Scilly was a man or woman has been solved. "Archaeologists had been baffled about the identity of the prehistoric skeleton since it was discovered by a farmer on the island of Bryher in 1999." "The remains were found with both a 2,000-year-old sword and a mirror. Researchers said new analysis of tooth enamel revealed the warrior was most likely a woman." "Historic England, which led the research, said the findings "provide evidence of a leading role for a woman in warfare on Iron Age Scilly. The body said the discovery of the sword and mirror is considered to be "highly unusual" as swords were normally found with men and mirrors with women in other burials of the same period." "The single site on Bryher, discovered in a stone-walled chamber in a potato field, contained both objects and the remains of just one person." READ MORE
I'd be hesitant to draw any specific conclusions based on a single grave. They may be correct. They may not be correct. I'd want to see evidence from multiple graves before I'd start to radically change my views of gender roles. We have been told that men were the hunter/warriors and women were the "gatherers" There is overwhelming evidence that this is the correct view. If we look at MULTIPLE ancient graves we find that the remains of male bones we find that the men very often had multiple healed broken bones. What does that say? Well, archeologists were stumped until someone began to compare ancient broken bones with the bodies of modern man. As it turned out, the remains of ancient man had a lot in common with modern rodeo riders. Modern rodeo riders very often have healed broken bones. That tells us that ancient man had close combat with large, dangerous wild animals. ie; hunters. Do we see the same in the remains of females ? 2nd, and perhaps the most telling is that females, obviously, are the ones who carry and give birth to the next generation. Is a female likely to engage in combat with wild animals and/or combat with men when she is pregnant ? Not too likely. 3rd, someone had to care for and protect the growing children. Since infants require FREQUENT feeding ie; breast milk, that could only come from the females. Is a nursing female likely to engage in combat if she is nursing ? Is it possible that a single female could become a queen/leader of an entire tribe/army ? Yes, of course. Joan of Arc, was the leader of the the entire French Army in the Hundred Years war with England. She is thought of as a fighter and heroine yet she never ever actually fought in combat. So, just because we find a single female grave with a sword buried with it does not conclusively prove anything.
Brutal Facts About Prehistoric Humans "In prehistoric times, Homo sapiens was deeply endangered. Early humans were less fleet of foot, with fewer natural weapons and less well-honed senses than all the predators that threatened them. Moreover, they were hampered in their movements by the need to protect their uniquely immature young—juicy meals for any hungry beast."—Robert Winston "The more that is uncovered from the past, the more we learn about how similar modern humans are to our prehistoric ancestors. From medicinal practices to tattoos to the DNA, even though technology has vastly changed, not much about who we are has. Covering a wide range of different Homo genus groups, prehistoric humans were able to survive through the toughest of times, yet only Homo sapiens were able to make it to modern day. Good job guys!" (READ ARTICLE)
Joan of Arc was a great warrior leader but not many of the women of her country and her time had the same skills. There have been great leaders and warriors of both sexes. Women took over men's jobs during wartime. Look at references of WWII. My boss of 45 years ago met us for brunch a couple of weeks ago and was laughing over my ability to lift things that I should not have been able to do. How well I did depended on how mad I was sometimes. Society developed as it needed to for the survival of the group. Women bore children. Men fathered and protected their families. Women needed to stay with the kids till 7? so men needed to go out and hunt. These are generalizations but necessary, basically. But if men were away and the group was attacked, the women would do what was necessary, Right? Sometimes creating a heroine.
Your post makes perfect sense. Survival of the group was paramount. I have no doubt that if necessary, women would have fought. Re: Joan of Arc. While it is true that she was a great war leader, it is also true that she never actually fought in any battles.
Lets please keep the topic on Prehistoric people's contributions, and NOT turn it into a look at todays role of the opposite sex. Start another thread on that subject. Thanks.