What was life like 10,000 years ago?
Humans have existed for 300,000 years. Neanderthals went extinct 40,000 years ago. Denisovians went extinct 30,000 years ago. Archeologists…
Thoughts
What was life like 10,000 years ago?
Humans have existed for 300,000 years. Neanderthals went extinct 40,000 years ago. Denisovians went extinct 30,000 years ago. Archeologists have tracked the oldest civilizations to 3500–5000 BCE, 7,000 years ago.
I have finally found my people. The algorithms failed. In 2021, David Graeber and David Wengro published THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING. This book was written by an anthropologist/journalist and an archeologist, and this tomb is thick.
In the run-up to buying the book (I’m still going through its pages), I explored several talks by the aforementioned gentlemen.
Finally, here are actual Westerners speaking the truth that my gut has been spinning for my lifetime. I was 16 when I walked across the ruins of a stone pillar bridge. I was in Sri Lanka; these ruins were at the side of a temple my family was visiting. A creepy youth was trying to get my attention, and I was having none of it.
The stone bridge looked heavy. Many pillars had long since collapsed, and some had probably been carried away to construct newer temples. I had no way of knowing how old this bridge was. To my eyes, it predated the colonizers. Possibly pre-dating the kings. The victors write history. The conquered, or those who died by plague, are forgotten. Their ruins are taken apart and repurposed. A palace yesterday is a temple today.
When the monsoon rains come, homes built of clay and wood are washed away. Bricks erode. Cloth erodes. Metal erodes. Very little can withstand the passing of time.
Human memory lasts for how long? We’ll be lucky if we know our parents' story. I do not know the story of my grandparents or their parents. I know I had a great-grandmother and great-grandfather who were the principals of schools. This would have been during the country’s occupation by the Portuguese, or was it during the Dutch? Or did those happen at the same time?
What was it like to be alive during that time? Should parts of the island be isolated from western expansion? What was it like to be religious, have a family, and have a job? How was society structured? I know Buddhism nearly died on the island and was retrieved by monks journeying to Bhurma. I also know centuries before, a King of Sri Lanka annexed parts of South East Asia known as Myanmar. What was life like then, before the West arrived?
I’m speaking of the known historical years. Now, let’s wonder what happened 100,000 years earlier. People haven’t changed all that much in 100,000 years. We have forgotten what came before. We weren’t all hunter-gatherers. Nor were we farmers. I bet we were a combination of the two. When you look at the indigenous peoples around the world who still live off the land, you see villages and tribes. You see people who hunt, gather, and farm. They also trade with more advanced civilizations. There is collective knowledge and mixing. Some tyrants rise and must be suppressed. There is enslavement of the weak and then a return to balanced human rights.
What is justice and freedom? What is the role of women? Women were not oppressed in every culture. These are moments in time. I like envisioning a world where Xena, the warrior princess, walks in a world where gods still exist. Who are our gods?
In every generation, some are born more capable than others. To some, these are gods. In every generation, some are born more evil than others. To some, these are demons.
We live in those times. Nothing has changed. This world is today what their world was yesterday.
