11,000 year old pendant...

[sandbender]

I have yet to read the article, but it is a pretty wee thing....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...ave-had-prehistoric-secret-code-a6896596.html

 

[mrcharly]

looks like a map to me . . .

 

[boatman]

Lines on rocks, logboats and pendants over thousands of years. hardly secret to those using them but a baffling intriguing mystery for us. Perhaps they are a sort of narrative map. I people viewed themselves as passing through the landscape, or going to then these are their proposed or current jouneys. Speculation of course and maybe the lack of indications of self, no matchstick men, shows that the day and the journey passed in front of them because that is what happened almost without human intervention. Experiental archaeology or fantasy? Love it either way.

 

[mountainm]

I think it's funny how people always look for meaning in these things - look at modern graffiti, most of it is meaningles tags or doodles - if archeologists 2000 years from now saw it they'd try and ascribe religious, ritualistic or practical purpose to it.

For once I'd love to hear someone say - yeah they were just doodling...

 

[boatman]

I think it's funny how people always look for meaning in these things - look at modern graffiti, most of it is meaningles tags or doodles - if archeologists 2000 years from now saw it they'd try and ascribe religious, ritualistic or practical purpose to it.

For once I'd love to hear someone say - yeah they were just doodling...

But you would be no nearer the truth than those of us trying to find meaning. Point is that there are similarities between these things so it reasonable to look for reasons beyond them passing an idle hour.

 

[mountainm]

But you would be no nearer the truth than those of us trying to find meaning. Point is that there are similarities between these things so it reasonable to look for reasons beyond them passing an idle hour.

But it is never given as a hypotheses. It's just as valid an assumption.

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[Stew]

I think it's funny how people always look for meaning in these things - look at modern graffiti, most of it is meaningles tags or doodles - if archeologists 2000 years from now saw it they'd try and ascribe religious, ritualistic or practical purpose to it.

For once I'd love to hear someone say - yeah they were just doodling...

funnily enough I was pondering the same sort of thing earlier. These days people wear all sorts that have no REAL meaning to them. Why can't that be the same back then?

 

[boatman]

Randomness is a possible interpretation for many things from the past. We assume a strategic location for a castle but, like Tintagel it could be a mainly vanity project. Not to attempt to assign a reason gets us nowhere. Even doodles have a meaning, if only to say that the doodler is bored to distraction by a meeting.

 

[mountainm]

Randomness is a possible interpretation for many things from the past. We assume a strategic location for a castle but, like Tintagel it could be a mainly vanity project. Not to attempt to assign a reason gets us nowhere. Even doodles have a meaning, if only to say that the doodler is bored to distraction by a meeting.

"Decoration" is a reason.

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[Dave]

Only in Yorkshire, where we're all old Celts.

I wonder why so many one off celtic treasures have been found in Yorkshire? Full chariot burials etc.

Im quite proud of it really.

 

[boatman]

"Decoration" is a reason.

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Of course but there you have given yet another reason beyond random doodling.

 

[mountainm]

Of course but there you have given yet another reason beyond random doodling.

No I haven't.

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[dwardo]

funnily enough I was pondering the same sort of thing earlier. These days people wear all sorts that have no REAL meaning to them. Why can't that be the same back then?

Agreed, why is it always "probably worn by a shamen" could have been a present for a girlfriend, mother or father. Any one of the other pretty much endless possibilities yet its always a shamen!

Rant aside I would love to own something like that, alas given the nature of such an object.

 

[Tengu]

Yes, sometimes we read too much into stuff.

doing experimental archaeology, sometimes I think "Well, would the original maker have fretted over this? Why am I losing sleep?"

 

[boatman]

How is intent to decorate random?

 

[mountainm]

How is intent to decorate random?

The content of the doodle is random, the intent is not.

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[Janne]

Some years ago there was a spoof article from 3000 AD where historians and Archeologists discussed the meaning of a toilet ring with lid.
Hillarious pics of it as a religious neck ornament for a High Priest, or an offering implement and so on.

It is a well known fact that as soln as the expert can not understand an object, it turns to an object used in worshipping.
I think that is just an amulet where the owner inscribed a cool pattern.

 

[boatman]

A pattern that might have a meaning either consciously or unconsciously if similar, even very similar, to other contemporary inscriptions then the patterns might be capable of "decryption". Why would this not be worth investigating? It is also a myth that ritual is the fallback position for the unknown in archaeology.

 

[mountainm]

It is also a myth that ritual is the fallback position for the unknown in archaeology.

Given there is very little "proven" in archeology i'd like to know how you can back that up?

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[Janne]

When I look on an unknown object, I always ask myself:
What would I use it for?
The mind of humans have not changed for thousands of years, we solve problems today in the same way we did 100 years ago and 10 000 years ago. The only difference is available technology.