It's nothing short of a miracle that these delicate and so skillfully crafted objects have survived in such good condition and survived for such an enormous length of time at all to ever be found again especially when one considers the vast expanse of the area and the extremely low population density at that time. How admirably attentive, unrushed and observant they were.
You're told the objects are " prehistoric " ... so you believe it ... even though the true timeline for the cataclysm is documented in historic records ... Please find the time to care about the truth instead of licking the feet of morons and imbeciles, idiots and lunatics. Thank you.
@mickdun7294 If you look at the cars going past the Heritage they're whizzing by too it was probably filmed at 200 or more frames a sec to steady the static long shot image of a hand held camera while filming.
RUclips, now owned by Google... Is BRUTAL, they will place an ad in the middle of Beethoven night symphony. No decency when profits is the only objective.
@@Coyotehello the links for other videos I think are chosen by the uploader. And you can choose not to have any if you want. Some channels also add about 10 seconds of dead time for the links to appear and not cover up the content. So it's quite possible to avoid this problem if they wanted.
they don’t make any money on their channel if they don’t. the whole point of uploading the video to get a pinch of money off of ads. the primary is not education. money is the primary. education along the way? ok cool.
Tony : Johny, your wife is wonderful. At 30, when you got married 20 years ago, she looked 30. 10 years ago, she looked 30. Even now, she looks 30. Johny : When we got married, she took 15 minutes to look 30. Ten years ago, she took an hour to look 30. And now, she takes 3 hours to look 30.
The reason for this "explosion of art" could be very simple: 1. one cannot venture outside when it's very cold. 2. being inside with nothing to do is extremely boring. Compare with the classic Icelandic wooden inside of a house, that sits in the National Museum of Iceland. Every surface of this dwelling is absolutely covered in wood carvings. Becasue being locked inside by the weather without television is EXTREMELY BORING.
I was thinking the same thing. Even today I find the winter months, ie short days, sort of force you to be creative, to keep from dropping into winter torpor
"Charms"- Why is everything the ancient people made considered to have some "magical" significance? They could just be art, decoration, or even, toys for their children. I feel that assuming everything was magical is a reflection of modern prejudices, that people of the past cannot have been interested in art, that they were lesser beings, driven by fear and ignorance.
@@edmundkockenlocker4672 Please re-read my post again, and you will see you misinterpreted it. I was ascribing the belief... the "assumption" that they "could not be interested in art", to the anthropologists who decide these things, it was NOT a position I hold. I was ready to re-write it for clarity after seeing your misunderstanding, but after re-readaing it a couple of times I see it is phrased correctly... and think you probably just read it to fast. Or something, IDK.
Hell, they probably were huddled in cave, igloo, or hut for most of the winter. What are they going to do, stare at the wall for 6 months or whittle away at that chunk of waste mammoth tusk?
Id say the small blades were used for surgically skinning animals and cutting those hides for expertly made winter cloths, sometimes people forget that mothers needle was just as important as dads spear
Yes! And tiny blades would have been used for such tasks as slitting hole in a hide so a sinew could be laced through it to make close clothing to protect against intense cold. Life needed more than striding off to kill mammoths, it needed fruits and berries and edible roots, eggs,fish and those required nets and baskets,. Leading to the invention of weaving
@jandrews6254 there's a documentary on RUclips called tuktu which is a multi part series which shows how the Eskimos used to live through the eyes of a Eskimo boy, it shows how his father made weapons, shelter and things but also showed his mother and her making the whole family cloths and sewing up the skins for a kayak, I highly recommend watching it
The swans were the most intriguing relics to me; given their understood context, they strike me as almost votive in nature, as if the wearers are making a plea through them for the swans to return. Also, the process of the rash of artistic expression found seems quite reasonable to me as well; even in the modern day (at least in the “pre-screen era”) if we were cooped up inside for long periods of time due to inclement conditions outside, what did we turn to in order to stave off boredom, should all of the preparations for such conditions have been done already? Some form of self-entertaining artistic expression. I don’t see any reason why ancient man would be much different, given the same and worse inclement climate conditions where they might be largely cooped up for significant periods of time as well.
I make a large jabbing spearhead for hunting mammoths. Eventually it breaks so I turn it into two smaller knife blades. At some point it is an arrowhead and so on. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
That mammoth ivory with all the holes may be symbolic or of mystical importance, or it could be made for some of game. Maybe ice age cribbage? ;-) Fascinating materials.
Why could the swan carvings not just be that. Beautiful little carvings. Perhaps suggested by the original shape of the stone? Are the microliths similar to those found elsewhere? Are they of a similar date? I gather the reason for them is they were used to make composite weapons. As they were widespread 35000 yrs or so ago why do the archeologists have a different explanation for these ones?
The pair bonding and return in spring that are both associated with swans make me think that it's possible, if not likely, that the pair of swan charms, one larger than the other, are a kind of wedding gift
While stationed in London UK, I was lucky enough to visit the Hermitage in 1991. We went on a 7 or 8 day tour of the Soviet Union. The city was still Leningrad back then. We flew (aeroflot) from London to Moscow. Then took overnight trains to Vologda (famous for lace making) and finally Leningrad to visit the palace and flew back to London. Yes the food was terrible!
How many holes are there on the spiral artefact? The arrangement of numerous holes suggests some record of some kind, perhaps number of full moons which have passed. The direction of the spiral, anti-clockwise or clockwise will also assist in identifying the phenomenon they were keep a record of.
Not "fertility figures", those are kids toys. Unless Barbie Dolls are somehow religious fertility symbols? If you've had kids it's hard to understand how they will make toys or be given huge quantities of toys by family members. And those toys are left all around a home or even village. Long cold winter nights are going to have increased need for child entertainments.
The water bird to this day is an important cultural symbol to FinnoUgric speaking peoples in Eurasia. The bird is thought to carry the souls of the deceased to the Afterlife. It is a stretch, because of the vast amount of time between these people today, and when these birds were made, but it is feasible that the people who made these birds , were the Ancestors of those who live in these same places today.
I wonder if portraying their lives as being of desperate "stress and struggle" is a projection on our part. The fact that had art might indicate that it wasn't all struggle.
Yes, stress, pain and struggle and overcoming them is what living is about. Quality art is often a way of overcoming difficult times. Stress and struggle is only half of the picture. The other half can be beauty and happiness, if you don't let the struggle to win.
Totally brilliant. Beautiful fascinating..... The artifacts and prof. Alice Roberts.... Thank you for showing such wonderful items from history we wouldn't get to see otherwise.
was she not a high paid escort before she studied history ?my ex knew her in early ninties she could tell a few tales if she was alive which thankfully she isent
Those swans! My cousin collected SW native American artifacts; arrow heads, spear points, grinding stones, but one of the most intriguing was a decayed and heavily eroded thunderbird, flat like those but with a very W shape with broad wings. We see these artifacts now, centuries later and time scarred but in their time they had to be the most beautiful things they could hold.
Like many have said, why does everything have to have some significant or spiritual meaning? Couldnt it just be that making them was something to occupy themselves with while sitting round the fire?
That mammoth bone plate with all the holes in it appears to contain 12/13 holes in the first spiral, perhaps suggesting a lunar year. It might have 36 holes in the 2nd spiral, but it is hard for me to count. At the end of the video you get to see it in context (it looks pretty small) and there are other smaller spirals of holes off to the side. Looks like a calendrical device to me.
I found the small stone tools the most intriguing. I have always wondered why stone tools became smaller. The possible explanation brings into focus the environmental context and illuminates the harsh living conditions our ancestors had to endure. Fascinating.
@@lesjones6745 - The Mal’ta-Buret’ culture artifacts excavated from the Mal’ta site are most often dated to 23,000 to 24,000 years before present, although some scholars are inclined to give more weight to a radiocarbon date of 15,000 years before present. (See Robert G. Bednarik, “Pleistocene Palaeoart of Asia,” 2 (2) Arts 46, 48 (2013).)
Does the mammoth ivory map have a name or wikipedia page? I can't seem to find it. That should not be hidden away in the basement. It should be centerpiece of an atrium.
We can make educated guesses about the meaning of, and reasons for this ancient art, but one thing we can be absolutely certain of is that it comes from the human desire the create.
In a world where food security was a pipe dream, and the climate made mobility extremely difficult, life was extremely grim and hard. Life expectancy was about 30. Childbirth deaths extremely common, injury and infectious disease an automatic death sentence. Deaths and injuries could easily destroy the ability of a group to sustain itself. An infectious disease could wipe out a communities' ability to produce food and so everyone starves to death. PTSD would have been the default state of mind. The only source of joy and hope would have been interpersonal relationships and collective identity. Resources were so precious that everything was multipurpose and reused. The very concept of an artefact intended for a single purpose would have been exotic. Such special objects either did not exist, or were VERY rare. It is more likely that every tool could double as a child's toy, a ceremonial object with symbolic meaning, or repurposed material for a composite object that could never survive in the archeological record. Like a lump of coal used for the eyes of a snowman, we can never know the context of artefacts or appropriated natural objects that were part of something that was ephemeral.
(2:18) Drop spindles, for making cord from fiber. Fibers tied to the hole in the tail and the necks left thin and rounded so it can be spun with the fingers.
@@sforza209 Yes, misidentified artifact. They don't think practical. If they have no working knowledge for the use of the tools they find, just because its shaped like a bird effigy, they make a speculation about it being a charm. The idea behind animal effigy in tool making is to capture the spirit of the animals you hunt, so you become more successful. Bird feathers are essential when making arrow and atlatl projectiles "Feathering the knock". Cordage for nets. The hunting tools that takes the life of the animals you hunt. You don't feed the family by going hunting with a hand full of charms.
COUNT THE HOLES - The plaque at 2:43 is a menstrual chart/gestational calendar (around the edges- are the lunar cycles) and when you miss your period, start your peg on the outside hole of the inner circle and count down daily till estimated birth at center hole. Count the holes, people - I knew this maybe 40 years ago….
The Ivory with the Spiral holes in it does look as though it could be a calendar of sorts from a specific location(Large Hole). Now whether it's a solar or lunar calendar is hard to say. If it is not a calendar perhaps it is a record of time(Days) spent at that location because of the weather. Also, the corners appear to have smaller spirals. Perhaps those are other locations the group has stayed at and the record of the time spent there at each location. On the other side it resembles a map with the larger hole through the piece denoting that location on the map. Those incised lines could symbolize water ways or mountains, or just high ridgelines. In other words a river valley.
Fascinating. The figurine at 3:14 reminds me of a Rab Men's Neutrino Pro Down Jacket. Also, at 2:41 this dot pattern will turn into an animated spiral when a stick is put through the hole in the center and the piece is spun. I just made a paper model to verify this and I bet it really looks cool in the firelight. Ice Age cartoons to pass the time. I also think cave paintings would become more animated with flickering light, simulating firelight, than with a steady beam like a flashlight. What do you think? Thanks Professor.
Underlining the importance and difficulty of panning out so you can see the entire artifact from the front and the back gee what a novel idea huh instead of having a zoomed in So Close you can't see it
Huh? _You weren't already FIRMLY CONVINCED that Ice Age people living in the COLDEST regions weren't sewing up some very warm animal skin clothing?_ Exactly how long does a slightly hairy man live wearing a pelt over his shoulder in Siberia in the winter?
As much as I'm fascinated by the topic of this show, it is hard to watch the introduction without thinking of Philomena Cunk...and indeed expecting her to pop out of a closet, trip and fall down that staircase.
I thought the small arrowheads would be used for small game. If deer knives are not used on squirrels then deer arrows would not be used on squirrels. They made the perfect tool for the perfect kill. They were not stupid or wasteful.
2:36 A set of screwdrivers... joke aside. Everything humanly possible should be done to prevent wars, especially nuclear ones. Such precious samples of early human art will be forever lost, along with life on Earth as we know it.
Fertility Symbols I've learned that even in better times half of children died before the age of five. So in harder times one could easily see the infant mortality rate being much higher. And of course, in severe rough climates where living was very difficult, women would likely have a harder time conceiving and bring a pregnancy to term. It's no wonder at all why fertility symbols existed back then.
Some archaeologists seem to be over-fond of ascribing meanings and explanations to artefacts on the basis of no evidence whatsoever... Exquisite things, though, and what, 20,000 years old?
Be careful when claiming items are "fertility" symbols, since most people assume these ancient people KNEW that one type of sexual contact caused pregnancy. They didn't. However, they did know that women were The Creators, pulling new life into This Realm from Another Realm in a cosmic battle so challenging that women bled every month as a consequence. I discuss all this in depth in my book, Pitiless Bronze.
It's nothing short of a miracle that these delicate and so skillfully crafted objects have survived in such good condition and survived for such an enormous length of time at all to ever be found again especially when one considers the vast expanse of the area and the extremely low population density at that time. How admirably attentive, unrushed and observant they were.
WHAT IS ? ALICE OR THE THOSE OBJECTS ?
You're told the objects are " prehistoric " ... so you believe it ... even though the true timeline for the cataclysm is documented in historic records ... Please find the time to care about the truth instead of licking the feet of morons and imbeciles, idiots and lunatics. Thank you.
@@MrDaiseymay I assume the people who found those rare objects.
Freeze the video at 4 secs. What the hell is that flying across the screen?
@mickdun7294 If you look at the cars going past the Heritage they're whizzing by too it was probably filmed at 200 or more frames a sec to steady the static long shot image of a hand held camera while filming.
Please don’t cover up the display items with ads for other videos!
RUclips, now owned by Google... Is BRUTAL, they will place an ad in the middle of Beethoven night symphony.
No decency when profits is the only objective.
@@Coyotehello the links for other videos I think are chosen by the uploader. And you can choose not to have any if you want. Some channels also add about 10 seconds of dead time for the links to appear and not cover up the content. So it's quite possible to avoid this problem if they wanted.
they don’t make any money on their channel if they don’t. the whole point of uploading the video to get a pinch of money off of ads. the primary is not education. money is the primary. education along the way? ok cool.
if they wanted to educate instead of make money they would demonetize the video. think about it.
@@Coyotehellonow owned?😂 been owned by google for twenty years.
Great presenter, her delivery is so good and comes across as sincere
OF COURSE. YOU DON'T GET ALL THOSE LETTER'S AFTER YOU NAME, WITHOUT BEING, 'SINCERE'.
@@MrDaiseymayyou'd be surprised. Anyways, her ability to present isn't because of her education. It's a skill she's cultivated in parallel.
Oh my really? This is what you think is a good presenter😳🤦♀️😳
@@AsiaOceans-nx5lr for a science educator? yes, she's top notch
@@AsiaOceans-nx5lr Bait used to be believable.
Does Alice Roberts age... shes 51?! Shes been on the BBC for what seems like years and still looks great
This was in 2009, as explained in the description....
@@Travis_22 Ok then... well sorry but I'm not gey?!?
She's such a wonderful Host 👍
Who knew, the fountain of youth was a BBC
Tony : Johny, your wife is wonderful. At 30, when you got married 20 years ago, she looked 30.
10 years ago, she looked 30. Even now, she looks 30.
Johny : When we got married, she took 15 minutes to look 30. Ten years ago, she took an hour to look 30. And now, she takes 3 hours to look 30.
CORRR ! ALICE, HOW COME YOU NEVER AGE, AND THESE ARE THE CLOSEST IMAGES OF YOU, IN THE 20 YEARS I'VE BEEN WATCHING YOUR WONDERFUL PRESENTATIONS. X
this video is from 15 years ago, maybe that's why.
She’s still sexy though
2009...
She's clearly a vampire
It's the hair dye wot does it!
I'm already longing for spring...some things never change.
You should carve something😉
The reason for this "explosion of art" could be very simple: 1. one cannot venture outside when it's very cold. 2. being inside with nothing to do is extremely boring. Compare with the classic Icelandic wooden inside of a house, that sits in the National Museum of Iceland. Every surface of this dwelling is absolutely covered in wood carvings. Becasue being locked inside by the weather without television is EXTREMELY BORING.
I was thinking the same thing. Even today I find the winter months, ie short days, sort of force you to be creative, to keep from dropping into winter torpor
@@jarniwoop So true. There is a reason for the christmas tree
"Charms"- Why is everything the ancient people made considered to have some "magical" significance? They could just be art, decoration, or even, toys for their children. I feel that assuming everything was magical is a reflection of modern prejudices, that people of the past cannot have been interested in art, that they were lesser beings, driven by fear and ignorance.
@@edmundkockenlocker4672 Please re-read my post again, and you will see you misinterpreted it. I was ascribing the belief... the "assumption" that they "could not be interested in art", to the anthropologists who decide these things, it was NOT a position I hold.
I was ready to re-write it for clarity after seeing your misunderstanding, but after re-readaing it a couple of times I see it is phrased correctly... and think you probably just read it to fast. Or something, IDK.
Hell, they probably were huddled in cave, igloo, or hut for most of the winter. What are they going to do, stare at the wall for 6 months or whittle away at that chunk of waste mammoth tusk?
@@edmundkockenlocker4672Your reading comprehension skills are poor.
@@reekinronald6776 That’s what I do.
@@proto57 yes your statement was quite clear, valid point as well
Id say the small blades were used for surgically skinning animals and cutting those hides for expertly made winter cloths, sometimes people forget that mothers needle was just as important as dads spear
Yes! And tiny blades would have been used for such tasks as slitting hole in a hide so a sinew could be laced through it to make close clothing to protect against intense cold.
Life needed more than striding off to kill mammoths, it needed fruits and berries and edible roots, eggs,fish and those required nets and baskets,. Leading to the invention of weaving
@jandrews6254 there's a documentary on RUclips called tuktu which is a multi part series which shows how the Eskimos used to live through the eyes of a Eskimo boy, it shows how his father made weapons, shelter and things but also showed his mother and her making the whole family cloths and sewing up the skins for a kayak, I highly recommend watching it
Alice is a great presenter. Bringing the past to life.
That’s what I do.
That’s a great expression.
The swans were the most intriguing relics to me; given their understood context, they strike me as almost votive in nature, as if the wearers are making a plea through them for the swans to return.
Also, the process of the rash of artistic expression found seems quite reasonable to me as well; even in the modern day (at least in the “pre-screen era”) if we were cooped up inside for long periods of time due to inclement conditions outside, what did we turn to in order to stave off boredom, should all of the preparations for such conditions have been done already? Some form of self-entertaining artistic expression. I don’t see any reason why ancient man would be much different, given the same and worse inclement climate conditions where they might be largely cooped up for significant periods of time as well.
Thank you for sharing and showing us a glimpse of that stunning building as well..
I make a large jabbing spearhead for hunting mammoths. Eventually it breaks so I turn it into two smaller knife blades. At some point it is an arrowhead and so on. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
That mammoth ivory with all the holes may be symbolic or of mystical importance, or it could be made for some of game. Maybe ice age cribbage? ;-)
Fascinating materials.
1:49 No one thinks that the original price is still on the blade is significant?
😅😅😅
Man, prices sure were cheaper back in 10,000 BC!
Never get tired of Alice and her beautiful speech.
Just a hint of West Country in there. Lovely.
GRRRR.
@@MrDaiseymay RP = effeteness personified.
Love her red hair too!
her camel toe is a think of wonder to be sure 😎
Thanks Alice
As a resident of Arizona i was most intrigued by the ice.
AL ICE SURELY
Please more documentaries from this presenter! She could be the next Attenborough
I did not know that stone was ever a precious resource. I assumed it was always abundant. Fascinating.
Certain types of stones, such as flint or obsidian.
Depends what kind of stone you need!
Thank you!
Professor you are quite beautiful with a lovely british accent which is hard to find online these days . ❤
@@niazikhan456 Yes I agree, far too many uneducated American Influencers on here. You can always block them though and just leave your favourites.
Fascinating examination of a lost world. Beautiful to watch as always.
Why could the swan carvings not just be that. Beautiful little carvings. Perhaps suggested by the original shape of the stone?
Are the microliths similar to those found elsewhere? Are they of a similar date? I gather the reason for them is they were used to make composite weapons. As they were widespread 35000 yrs or so ago why do the archeologists have a different explanation for these ones?
@@helenamcginty4920 Very good questions.
Just love Alice's work. Always so intriguing.
Always love the brazen speculations concerning "meaning" of artefacts.
Yeah, it's almost humorous, but I'm sure it gets the eyeballs and the grant money.
Pure fantasy
Admirable.......... but it will fall on deaf ears........ blind eyes...... and close minds..................
The pair bonding and return in spring that are both associated with swans make me think that it's possible, if not likely, that the pair of swan charms, one larger than the other, are a kind of wedding gift
What an intriguing idea that adds another aspect to their charm. Nice thought.
What are the years you are talking about?
Those “ornaments” look like pins that could be used to pin those fur clothes.
While stationed in London UK, I was lucky enough to visit the Hermitage in 1991. We went on a 7 or 8 day tour of the Soviet Union. The city was still Leningrad back then. We flew (aeroflot) from London to Moscow. Then took overnight trains to Vologda (famous for lace making) and finally Leningrad to visit the palace and flew back to London. Yes the food was terrible!
How many holes are there on the spiral artefact? The arrangement of numerous holes suggests some record of some kind, perhaps number of full moons which have passed. The direction of the spiral, anti-clockwise or clockwise will also assist in identifying the phenomenon they were keep a record of.
Those faces were utterly artistic. Wow.
Not "fertility figures", those are kids toys. Unless Barbie Dolls are somehow religious fertility symbols? If you've had kids it's hard to understand how they will make toys or be given huge quantities of toys by family members. And those toys are left all around a home or even village. Long cold winter nights are going to have increased need for child entertainments.
Wonder what future archaeologists will make of that GI Joe we left in the sandbox :)
Well, a deliberately sexualized doll designed by a man (Jack Ryan) makes you wonder about specialized toys for girls...
The water bird to this day is an important cultural symbol to FinnoUgric speaking peoples in Eurasia. The bird is thought to carry the souls of the deceased to the Afterlife.
It is a stretch, because of the vast amount of time between these people today, and when these birds were made, but it is feasible that the people who made these birds , were the Ancestors of those who live in these same places today.
I wonder if portraying their lives as being of desperate "stress and struggle" is a projection on our part. The fact that had art might indicate that it wasn't all struggle.
HARDSHIP FEAR AND ANXIETY, CANNOT BE A' MODERN ' RESPONSE, ANCIENTS DIDN'T JUMP OFF A CLIFF DELIBERATELY, TO FIND OUT IF IT HURT.
Yes, stress, pain and struggle and overcoming them is what living is about. Quality art is often a way of overcoming difficult times. Stress and struggle is only half of the picture. The other half can be beauty and happiness, if you don't let the struggle to win.
The conjecture is astounding.
She can study my ancient relic anytime.
🤭
Totally brilliant. Beautiful fascinating..... The artifacts and prof. Alice Roberts.... Thank you for showing such wonderful items from history we wouldn't get to see otherwise.
You're welcome, we are really glad you enjoyed the clip and we have a lot more from this series coming soon!
was she not a high paid escort before she studied history ?my ex knew her in early ninties she could tell a few tales if she was alive which thankfully she isent
Love love love Alice Roberts.
I couldn't see any historical artifacts. Your beauty blinds me, my dear.
Have some respect
Lol, we all appreciate beauty but come on. Right place right time?
😂😂🤦🏻♂️
Those swans! My cousin collected SW native American artifacts; arrow heads, spear points, grinding stones, but one of the most intriguing was a decayed and heavily eroded thunderbird, flat like those but with a very W shape with broad wings. We see these artifacts now, centuries later and time scarred but in their time they had to be the most beautiful things they could hold.
Look, people were not stupid in those days. But, times have changed, listening to these BBC comments.
If anything fascinates this woman, it fascinates me also.
Like many have said, why does everything have to have some significant or spiritual meaning? Couldnt it just be that making them was something to occupy themselves with while sitting round the fire?
That mammoth bone plate with all the holes in it appears to contain 12/13 holes in the first spiral, perhaps suggesting a lunar year. It might have 36 holes in the 2nd spiral, but it is hard for me to count. At the end of the video you get to see it in context (it looks pretty small) and there are other smaller spirals of holes off to the side. Looks like a calendrical device to me.
I thought the same, fill each hole with a little clay as each day ends...
Which Ice Age relic did you find the most intriguing and why? Let us know below 👇
The Ice Age lasted a very long time. Do you have any idea when these figurines were made?
I found the small stone tools the most intriguing. I have always wondered why stone tools became smaller. The possible explanation brings into focus the environmental context and illuminates the harsh living conditions our ancestors had to endure. Fascinating.
@@lesjones6745 - The Mal’ta-Buret’ culture artifacts excavated from the Mal’ta site are most often dated to 23,000 to 24,000 years before present, although some scholars are inclined to give more weight to a radiocarbon date of 15,000 years before present. (See Robert G. Bednarik, “Pleistocene Palaeoart of Asia,” 2 (2) Arts 46, 48 (2013).)
The swans. They aren't crude; they look like actual swans.
Does the mammoth ivory map have a name or wikipedia page? I can't seem to find it. That should not be hidden away in the basement. It should be centerpiece of an atrium.
We can make educated guesses about the meaning of, and reasons for this ancient art, but one thing we can be absolutely certain of is that it comes from the human desire the create.
It would be key to mention an approximate date for all these artifacts...there were a couple "ice ages" lasting a fairly long time.
In a world where food security was a pipe dream, and the climate made mobility extremely difficult, life was extremely grim and hard.
Life expectancy was about 30. Childbirth deaths extremely common, injury and infectious disease an automatic death sentence. Deaths and injuries could easily destroy the ability of a group to sustain itself. An infectious disease could wipe out a communities' ability to produce food and so everyone starves to death. PTSD would have been the default state of mind.
The only source of joy and hope would have been interpersonal relationships and collective identity.
Resources were so precious that everything was multipurpose and reused. The very concept of an artefact intended for a single purpose would have been exotic. Such special objects either did not exist, or were VERY rare.
It is more likely that every tool could double as a child's toy, a ceremonial object with symbolic meaning, or repurposed material for a composite object that could never survive in the archeological record. Like a lump of coal used for the eyes of a snowman, we can never know the context of artefacts or appropriated natural objects that were part of something that was ephemeral.
where can I find the full episodes from the timestamps ?
Many NA Indigenous peoples used surprisingly small chips as scrapers and cutting tools.
I make these going into the winter so im prepared
(2:18) Drop spindles, for making cord from fiber. Fibers tied to the hole in the tail and the necks left thin and rounded so it can be spun with the fingers.
lol, if that’s the case it’s pretty funny how archeologists made up the story of “hunting charms”. Hahaha
@@sforza209 Yes, misidentified artifact. They don't think practical. If they have no working knowledge for the use of the tools they find, just because its shaped like a bird effigy, they make a speculation about it being a charm. The idea behind animal effigy in tool making is to capture the spirit of the animals you hunt, so you become more successful. Bird feathers are essential when making arrow and atlatl projectiles "Feathering the knock". Cordage for nets. The hunting tools that takes the life of the animals you hunt. You don't feed the family by going hunting with a hand full of charms.
Fascinating 👍
fascinating pieces indeed, even without the context of the struggle of climate change they were facing.
Stop at 3:20, see all images in reflection?
There much you will miss unless you're looking for it.
Cor blimey Alice tell me more about them there artifacts, even make it up if you have to
COUNT THE HOLES - The plaque at 2:43 is a menstrual chart/gestational calendar (around the edges- are the lunar cycles) and when you miss your period, start your peg on the outside hole of the inner circle and count down daily till estimated birth at center hole. Count the holes, people - I knew this maybe 40 years ago….
Kinda ironic for "Timestamp", but you didn't tell us how old the objects seem to be -- 12kya? Or 100kya?
No, the smaller blade meant lighter arrows, thus, faster, good for flying or tiny prey
The 1 with all the holes was a game, it's still played.
I agree. She is as exquisite as the items she’s talking about. Long time smitten.
BRAINS AND BEAUTY, SO RARE.
"No no no no no no I'd give her one!" - Jim
The Ivory with the Spiral holes in it does look as though it could be a calendar of sorts from a specific location(Large Hole). Now whether it's a solar or lunar calendar is hard to say. If it is not a calendar perhaps it is a record of time(Days) spent at that location because of the weather. Also, the corners appear to have smaller spirals. Perhaps those are other locations the group has stayed at and the record of the time spent there at each location. On the other side it resembles a map with the larger hole through the piece denoting that location on the map. Those incised lines could symbolize water ways or mountains, or just high ridgelines. In other words a river valley.
what year is this from like, 2010?
How old are these?
Dates. When is this? When?
those mysterious "hunting charms" look more like airplanes or geese than anything
2:15 - Migrating geese, or swans. Clearly important.
Video is too short!
That's why halfway through they started at the beginning, again. It's really only two minutes.
@@jamesjaudon8247 you are making this video really short! ☺
home to some of the most celebrated stolen works of art
Stolen? From whom?
Take me to a National museum that isn't.
How come I never heard of this channel
I'm surprised Dr Roberts wasn't wearing gloves while handling these ancient objects, especially considering they're organic in origin.
It looks like a photo of the Polar Star with all the stars spinning around it. Also looks like a sink hole.
Alice in Wonderland!!!!
Droll.
@@thomasdykstra100 troll
ME TOO
The clay tablet with the holes is most certainly a calendar of some kind, possibly a type of sundial watch.
she is hypnotic beautiful
Fascinating. The figurine at 3:14 reminds me of a Rab Men's Neutrino Pro Down Jacket. Also, at 2:41 this dot pattern will turn into an animated spiral when a stick is put through the hole in the center and the piece is spun. I just made a paper model to verify this and I bet it really looks cool in the firelight. Ice Age cartoons to pass the time. I also think cave paintings would become more animated with flickering light, simulating firelight, than with a steady beam like a flashlight. What do you think? Thanks Professor.
4 seconds into this video does anybody else see the flying disc!
I am surprised they didn't steal it from somewhere, as usually Russian do.
Underlining the importance and difficulty of panning out so you can see the entire artifact from the front and the back gee what a novel idea huh instead of having a zoomed in So Close you can't see it
Huh? _You weren't already FIRMLY CONVINCED that Ice Age people living in the COLDEST regions weren't sewing up some very warm animal skin clothing?_
Exactly how long does a slightly hairy man live wearing a pelt over his shoulder in Siberia in the winter?
As much as I'm fascinated by the topic of this show, it is hard to watch the introduction without thinking of Philomena Cunk...and indeed expecting her to pop out of a closet, trip and fall down that staircase.
I thought the small arrowheads would be used for small game. If deer knives are not used on squirrels then deer arrows would not be used on squirrels. They made the perfect tool for the perfect kill. They were not stupid or wasteful.
They used boiled tree resin as glue at this time, I can see some of those tiny blades bonded to a handle.
Freeze the video at 4 secs. What the hell is that flying across the screen?
Alice, those birds in flight may be depicting cranes. Flying cranes are still good omens. Just a thought.
The video explains why they are Swans.
I think some of the figurines are clothed in rain gear and not fur. Looks like the whale intestine used by Inuit for rainwear.
Siberia been wormer than Europe in last ice age.
I assume this was made prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Alice Roberts made most of her paleontology videos 10-15 years ago.
2:36 A set of screwdrivers... joke aside. Everything humanly possible should be done to prevent wars, especially nuclear ones. Such precious samples of early human art will be forever lost, along with life on Earth as we know it.
Why do they look more beautiful when you hold them? :)
Fertility Symbols
I've learned that even in better times half of children died before the age of five. So in harder times one could easily see the infant mortality rate being much higher. And of course, in severe rough climates where living was very difficult, women would likely have a harder time conceiving and bring a pregnancy to term.
It's no wonder at all why fertility symbols existed back then.
3:26 is she supposed to be photographing old stuff with her flash on?
Yes
Just what I thought.
No dates?
Im tired of “the ice age” being considered a past age. WE ARE LIVING IN THE ICE AGE RIGHT NOW.
When the poles disappear the ice age is over.
Some archaeologists seem to be over-fond of ascribing meanings and explanations to artefacts on the basis of no evidence whatsoever...
Exquisite things, though, and what, 20,000 years old?
Be careful when claiming items are "fertility" symbols, since most people assume these ancient people KNEW that one type of sexual contact caused pregnancy. They didn't. However, they did know that women were The Creators, pulling new life into This Realm from Another Realm in a cosmic battle so challenging that women bled every month as a consequence. I discuss all this in depth in my book, Pitiless Bronze.
I still wonder why no neolithic art or cave painting show the moon or its phases🌙.?
Was there no moon in the night sky in that epoch.?
3:46 Charlie’s Angels 20,000 BC.
Would have liked a better look at the artifacts.