Monday, July 29, 2013

Neanderthal Harbours II


Andre Willers
29 Jul 2013
Synopsis :
The Neanderthal-Homo hybrids spread all over the Mediterranean littorals. From North Africa to Levant .  !Click devolved into Proto-Nostratic.[1] .
 
Discussion :
1.The drying out of the Sahara at the end of the last ice age was the driving impulse . See Appendix I
2.Saharan populations splintered in all directions .
3.Southern ones became Bantu
4.Eastern ones became Egyptians and Natufian .
5.Western ones recolonized Spain .
6.Northern ones : Malta  and  Sicily .
7.Language (Nostratic)
See Appendix II .
This is fairly comprehensive , including the recreation of !Click languages .
Just substitute a !Click( teeth or tongue) for glottal stops (voiceless (teeth) or glottal (tongue))
See Appendix IV “Click Update” below -and other !Click posts in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com

Any echo-location person can use this framework to recreate the language .
This will enhanced their capability by orders of magnitude.
 
8.Note that these guys were all over the world .Especially around coastal areas and areas where the ice retreated.

 
Where to dig ?
 
How far could they paddle ?
This is 245.16 km in 24 hrs in optimal conditions .
Daylight hours give about 12 hrs on north African shore .
Error conditions gives about 1/3 of optimal .
Average km  245*12/24*1/3 = 40km .
Simply use a compass and measure likely camping sites within 40 km from any good camping site (eg water) on the North African littoral circa  the periods applicable .
This should give very good archeological sites . (The canoe had limited carrying capacity . Any superfluous weight like broken tools got jettisoned )
The whole of the North African shore at 40 km intervals is littered with archeological detritus .
So is the Southern Shores of Europe . But most of these have been overwritten by later civilizations .
 
Archaeologist’s paradise :
Old shores of the Aral Sea . Now land . Ground penetrating radar can be used. The same argument above applies .
Actually , could be seen from orbit .
 
Here looking at you  !kid.
Andre
 
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Appendix I
A timeline .
Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age.
Emirian culture was a culture that existed in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine) between the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic periods.
Emirian culture apparently developed from the local Mousterian without rupture, keeping numerous elements of the Levalloise-Mousterian, together with the locally typical Emireh point. Numerous stone blade tools were used, including curved knives similar to those found in the Chatelperronian culture of Western Europe.
The Antelian culture is an Upper Paleolithic phase of the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine) that evolves from Emirian. The most important innovation in this period is the incorporation of some typical elements of Aurignacian, like some types of burins and narrow blade points that resemble the European type of Font-Yves.

The Kebaran or Kebarian culture was an archaeological culture in the eastern Mediterranean area (c. 18,000 to 12,500 BC), named after its type site, Kebara Cave south of Haifa. The Kebaran were a highly mobile nomadic population, composed of hunters and gatherers in the Levant and Sinai areas who utilized microlithic tools.
The Kebaran is the last Upper Paleolithic phase of the Levant (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine). The Kebarans were characterized by small, geometric microliths, and were thought to lack the specialized grinders and pounders found in later Near Eastern cultures.
The Kebaran is preceded by the Athlitian phase of the Antelian and followed by the proto-agrarian Natufian culture of the Epipalaeolithic. The Kebaran is also characterised by the earliest collecting of wild cereals, known due to the uncovering of grain grinding tools. It was the first step towards the Neolithic Revolution. The Kebaran people are believed to have practiced dispersal to upland environments in the summer, and aggregation in caves and rockshelters near lowland lakes in the winter. This diversity of environments may be the reason for the variety of tools found in their toolkits.
Situated in the Terminal Pleistocene, the Kebaran is classified as an Epipalaeolithic society. They are generally thought to have been ancestral to the later Natufian culture that occupied much of the same range.[1]

“The Natufian culture /nəˈtjuːfiən/ was an Epipaleolithic culture that existed from 13,000 to 9,800 B.C. in the Levant, a region in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was unusual in that it was sedentary, or semi-sedentary, before the introduction of agriculture. The Natufian communities are possibly the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world. There is some evidence for the deliberate cultivation of cereals, specifically rye, by the Natufian culture, at the Tell Abu Hureyra site, the site for earliest evidence of agriculture in the world.[1] Generally, though, Natufians made use of wild cereals. Animals hunted included gazelles.[2]
The term "Natufian" was coined by Dorothy Garrod who studied the Shuqba cave in Wadi an-Natuf, in the western Judean Mountains, about halfway between Tel Aviv and Ramallah.[3]”
“More generally there has been discussion of the similarities of these cultures with those found in coastal North Africa. Graeme Barker notes there are: "similarities in the respective archaeological records of the Natufian culture of the Levant and of contemporary foragers in coastal North Africa across the late Pleistocene and early Holocene boundary".[6]”
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Appendix II
Language . See Appendix III
Language
Nostratic is a hypothetical language family (sometimes called a macrofamily or a superfamily) that includes many of the indigenous language families of Eurasia, including the Indo-European, Uralic and Altaic and Kartvelian languages. Usually also included are the Afroasiatic languages native to the North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Near East, and the Dravidian languages of the Indian Subcontinent (sometimes extended to Elamo-Dravidian, connecting India and the Iranian Plateau). The exact composition and structure of the family varies among proponents.
The hypothetical ancestral language of the Nostratic family is called Proto-Nostratic.[1] Proto-Nostratic would have been spoken in the Epipaleolithic period, close to the end of the last glacial period.[2]

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Appendix III
Neanderthal Harbours
Andre Willers
5 Apr 2012
“A girl in every port”
Synopsis:
Sea-going Neanderthals survived and merged into the Homo Saps , while their unsophisticated land cousins became extinct .
Discussion :
Evidence:
See NewScientist 3 Mar 2012 p10 “Neanderthals were ancient mariners”
Mousterian (ie Neanderthal) tools has recently been found on Greek islands (Lefkada , Kefalonia ,Zakynthos) that could only have been reached by boats in the last 300 000 years . Crete as well .
Nobody has really looked elsewhere , but Malta would be a good bet .
So would the Orkney Islands . See link below
Why go to sea ?
The Neanderthals faced two major challenges :
Overheating and short legs . (Their evolution did not include a period of cursorial raptors , but more cold-adapted , ambush hunters ) .
A dugout canoe solved both problems . Rapid transport and cooling via a quick dip over the side .
We can thus infer that Neanderthals were strong swimmers, with their cold-adaptation subcutaneous fat giving them extra buoyancy and insulation .
Don’t sneer at dugout canoes . Melanesians paddled all over the Pacific with them .
The Neanderthal build was ideal for a paddler . Strong upper body , with lots of fast-twitch muscles . And Europe abounded in trees suitable for the purpose . From big barks , to big hardwoods .
Population grew slowly and proceeded by growth at the peripheries . Living was easy by the shores , but lack of large food surpluses kept numbers down .
Still , they got around in the period 300 000 to 30 000 years before present .
They would have preferred the same sites for harbours as later civilizations . So you would have to dig deep to find traces .
The Neanderthal-HomoSaps meeting . (about 50 000 years ago)
This was not a collision , or even a competition initially . The Neanderthals had the best spots (water , harbours , hunting ,etc) . Small family groups of HomoSaps drifted in and joined them . They were cousins , after all (even if the HomoSaps dogs could smell the difference). Interbreeding started .
The Neanderthal civilization was a thin coastal layer , connected by canoe networks , coastal hopping . This was still faster than walking . Living was easy .
The good news spread east . HomoSaps plus dogs were more efficient hunters than Neanderthal ambush hunters . A population pressure developed towards the west , towards easier living (remember , agriculture had not developed yet , but Humans were even then territorial.)
The Neanderthals split into two groups :
1.The inland ones could not compete with HomoSaps plus dogs and became extinct . See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Death of the Neanderthals” Sep 2009 . Repeated in Appendix I for your convenience.
2.The coastal ones (the sophisticated ones) incorporated HomoSaps into their civilization , interbred with them . Initially Lords of the Manor , figuratively speaking , their descendants’ genes became mixed in the wash according to well-known genetic principles .
Sheer HomoSaps numbers meant that the present contribution of their genes varies between 4% – 10% , with even higher percentages in certain geographical locations where gene-pools have remained isolated . For instance , there is some evidence that Neanderthals were pale-skinned and red-haired (google it) . Geographical isolation of genepools in the North-Sea islands needs some investigation .
Think of it this way : “Cousin George couldn’t make a living anymore in the old family cave , so we invited him and his family to stay here in Cosy Harbour . We have plenty of lazy HomoSaps servants and he can work on one of my canoes.”

!Click speakers
Neanderthals were definitely !click speakers . Note their propensity for caves , and large stone heritages . See previous posts on Click language.


Interesting asides:
1.Red hair and temper .
Ambush hunters are known for hair-trigger , explosive adrenalin surges . Neanderthals would then have had an explosive temper that quickly flared and then burned out . Definitely not a cursorial raptor characteristic . Good for quick , decisive combats , but a weakness against a cursorial raptor .
2.Hairy Mediterraneans :
I have seen many Levants , Italians , etc who were extremely hairy . Shaggy is the word . I could never figure out where they came from . Even HomoSaps from cold climates were not that hairy . Now you know why . They had a heavy influx of neanderthal genes . Spread out all over the Med shores .

The Neanderthal Harbours :
A pesky question . They would have preferred the same sites for settlement that later humans did , with subsequent destruction of evidence .
But , there is one difference : Flint .
What is worthwhile transporting in a canoe and can be traded ? Worked tools . This meant Flint at the time . And work it they did . England was rich in flint and was extensively mined .
This happened in fits and starts over a period of at least 1 000 000 years , including the Neanderthal period . The flint had to be dug out , worked , transported. This meant logistics .
The miners might have been supported by local hunting , but the knappers were sophisticated technicians demanding luxuries (ie imports) . The end product had to be exported . This was done by water-transport . Canoes . A currency of some sort (markers of promise , supervised by priests) would be needed .
Fashion : initially , good old-fashioned , workmanlike Mousterian tools were sold all over the place , but the fashion shifted to lighter , fancier , more specialized tools .
So , before the Bronze-age civilization there was the Neolithic civilization , encompassing about the same trade-routes and using the same the same shippers . The Neolithic civilization did not collapse , except for some ports . It segued into the Bronze-age civilization .
But Bronze-age civilizations would not need the same harbours as Neolithic civilizations . These harbours should still be reasonably pristine .

Where to look in England :
There is a whole clutch of flint mines near the South Coast of England (Cissbury) . The coastline kept changing , so look for least-effort routes from Cissbury to the sea .
The harbour would probably be no more than an inlet that would allow a large canoes to ground safely . But there would be an associated warehouse and guardpost .
Pirates : a high-value shipment like worked arms and tools would attract pirates . The shipments would then pulse in well-armed convoys . The detritus from these land and sea-convoys would be fertile fields for archaeologists , especially since they would be untouched by later non-neolithic civilizations . So look for detritus middens at strategic points near a old harbour . While the coastline would have changed extensively , strategic lookouts and defensive points changes much slower . So , you could probably use Google-Earth to rule out indefensible positions (most of them) . The remainder can be done in detail .

This is an important question .
Were Neanderthals more fertile with HomoSaps than with other Neanderthals ?
This is a distinct possibility . Epigenetic factors that evolved to limit fertility were inoperative in the crossbreeds . If they had children , they had lots of them , with no built-in limitation .

Pandemic of Fertility :
Was the worldwide population explosion from 1700 AD onward related ?
The answer seems to be yes. The act of Union of Scotland and England in 1704 exposed the rest of the world to prions evolved on some Scottish Island . These prions (folded proteins) inactivated epigenetic controls on fertility . They were very infectious . The pandemic of Fertility followed the well-known principles . It should be possible to find Person(0) , where it all started . Some mixture of Neanderthal and HomoSaps genes required for any immune response . HomoSaps without Neanderthal genes will just remain switched-on into high-fertility .
The cure: now that you know what to look for , engineer a prion that locks it .

And the Denisovans?
The third type of humans . The same principle seems to hold . They spread over the Pacific Islands . Fertility controls were deactivated and some nasty things ensued . But there should be clues on how to re-activate the epigenetic controls , or at least de-activate the prions responsible for de-activating the epigenetic controls . Compare with Scottish example .

Come , ladies and gentlemen .
You have enough clues now to solve this problem .
But I will give you a further clue :
Look at the Plant-Herbivore Wars . Some Plants want more humans without limit . Look at the husks of the seeds , not the contents . Especially after boiling .
Malthus was wrong .
Overpopulation is an epidemical disease , not a natural condition .
The overpopulation is caused by a disease , usually plant-induced .
Plant Power , anyone ?
Andre

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Appendix I
Death of the Neanderthals .
Andre Willers.
5 Sep 2009

Synopsis:
The Neanderthals died out because their legs were too short .

Discussion :
See Scientific American Aug 2009 p34 " Twilight of Neanderthals"
Start quote p 39 :
"the energetic cost of locomotion was 32 percent higher in Neanderthals than anatomically modern humans."
End quote .

What does this mean ?
They ran slower . With a heavier body . Heavy infantry vs light infantry .

The multiplier :
Rapidly varying climatic effects pushed Neanderthal communities into 3 subgroups (p37) , Western Europe , Southern Europe and Western Asia . These types of communities survived the genetic isolation in previous episodes by the occasional migration of males . It only takes a few males to revitalize genetic diversity .
Males' role in the scheme of things . Cf equivalent occurrences in Pacific islands
circa 17th and 18th centuries .

But humans were cursorial raptors .
Adapted to long-distance chases .
They inderdicted enough Neanderthal males trying to reach other enclaves to ensure a genetic diversity collapse .

Dogs .
Dogs (wolves) were fellow travelers with humans . Not domesticated then (and some think never really domesticated . Dogs can still interbreed with wolves . There has been no fundamental genome change . Genetically , dogs are still undomesticated . Notice how fast they go feral .) .

Humans could run with them and the chase enforced a pack-leadership type of social organization .
Wolves were (and are)smart enough to change their behaviour to ensure their survival. Both humans and wolves ate better if they shared prey according to pack protocols .

Humans-Dogs (wolves).
This partnership proved fatal to Neanderthals .
1.Genetic diversity was fatally impaired by interdiction of groups of males trying to travel to another enclave . While a bunch of Neanderthals could see off a bunch of humans , they still had to eat . And the faster dogs and humans chased all game away .

Or , more likely , let the Neanderthals make the kill (usually whooly rhinocerous) , then chase them away from the carcase . They could do this because they could run faster and for longer and had projectile weapons (spears) . The really classical advantage of mobility .

These would have been small groups of adventurous humans . Juveniles . the equivalent of soccer yobbos.

2.The Human-dog system enveloped the Neanderthal enclaves and simply removed their food supply .

3. MHC and dogs .
Dogs (or semi-wild wolves) would have learned to recognize the scent of Neanderthals . These would have been exterminated as enemies of the Pack .
The only surviving Neanderthal genomic material would be in those with MHC tolerable to dogs .

For some reason , Anatolian Sheepdogs keep on popping up in my mind . These were and are actually the only surviving , working wolf-killers , but they might have learned to tolerate Neanderthal MHC . (On the principle of the enemy of my enemy is my friend .)

So , if you were looking for some Neanderthal genes , the wilds of Anatolia would be a good place to look . Especially if there are lot of Anatolian sheep-dogs around . The Neanderthal anatomical features would have been very diluted .
Ie , it would not have been genetic incompatibility that prevented miscegenation , but the dogs not tolerating an alien .

These would long predate Bronze age , Aryan , Celtic , Persian , Greek , Roman or Turkic populations .
Old , old .

4.Neanderthals could not compete
Because wolves would not adopt them into the pack . They were not cursorial raptors. Their legs were too short .

5. Now do you see why humans run ?
Running releases aromatic compounds (pheromones , MHC's , etc) that defines a person as human . Your dog requires walkies not just for exercise , but to reassure himself that you are still a member of the pack . Humans are now so washed , deodorized and scented that a poor dog can only recognize his fuehrer if he sweats a bit .

The same is true for inter-human reactions .
Huddling together in gymnasiums .

Or even intra-human reactions .
The parts of a human interacting with each other , defining boundaries .
But all your organs still need chemical communication to tell each other they are part of the same pack .

6. The loneliness of the long-distance runner .
Actually , he is not lonely at all . He is enveloped in a cloud of sweat and aromatic chemicals that tells his identity and position in the pack . His ancestors are all with him . His footfalls entrain him .

Hence the effects of even slight breezes . Washing away the effluvium . A top athlete will perform better with a slight breeze from behind (reinforcing) , while the others will perform better with a breeze to the side or from front . (Reducing self-limitation.)

A heavier breeze from behind will actually reduce performance of the top athlete . These boundaries can be calculated exactly .

See Tim Noakes on fatigue and other self-limiting mechanisms . Olfactory and aural mechanisms are major pack governing systems .

7. School curricula
Can you see why running fast or long is so important to humans ? It defines them .
Thousands of years later , and children are still measured by these skills . Major planet-wide competitions are held .

8. Click , Chi and running and breathing .
Pronounce Chi the correct , old way :
!xi : A tongue click on exhalation.
!xo : A tongue click on inhalation.

In long distance , endurance running this measures the amount of oxygen inhaled or CO2 exhaled , depending on the patterns of clicks and tongue conformations .

And all those Eastern Mystical Ways ?
The force of Chi ?
Just another click .

A running song would automatically evolve in click-language in optimal configurations . A fast chasing song , or a slowlong-chase song or a rushing song . All automatically balancing O2/CO2 with slow-twitch/fast twitch muscle requirements .

You can see how songs evolved . Nobody is going to sit around saying !xi - !xo at every inhalation-exhalation . (Except the demented priesthood) . The rest simply made up songs (working ditties ) . The origins of mantras .

"Om mane padme sum" a well known mantra .
"!xm !xm!xn !xp!xd(left twist of tongue) !xme(right twist of tongue) !xsm(a fat click with a left twist to the tongue,recovering from the previous right twist of the tongue )

Combat : They were formidable heavy infantry . See Etruscans below .

As you can see , not a language for faint-tongued .

9.Click-poetry .
From the Lescaux caves : a free translation :
"!xp-!xp-!xop joined the thunder of the hooves . But I still see her shy backward look and hear her in the hesitant patter of the wind in the trees ."

10. Etruscans .
The indications are that Etruscans were remnants of Neanderthal genetic mixtures that fled from Anatolia circa 1200 BC .

Markers :
1.Big noses .
Neanderthals were cold-adapted . Over at least 500 000 years of climatic vicissitudes . This is a very strong positive adaptation to dry climates , whether cold or hot . Genes for this would have spread rapidly .
Greek noses were straight . Roman noses were , well , Roman .
So the Etruscans came in before the Greek irruption .
Roman noses came from the Etruscans (like most else Roman) .

2. Click language
Note the puzzling lack of recognizable inscriptions on their many tombs .
The inscriptions are there , but just not recognized .
Try Click-resonances as described above and in previous posts .

3. Suffixes in Latin .
A typical result of a click ur-language . The vowels are the opening and closing of the jaw after click , with some twisting and guttural effects .

4. Combat styles .
Heavy infantry .Most telling . Most people assume that the Roman Heavy Infantry style comes from the Greek Hoplites . Actually, it comes from the Etruscan , and there is some evidence that the Greeks learned a lot about this from the Etruscans .

Why else trade with them ? Greeks were Yankee or Viking traders : they only traded if they could not take .

So , if you want Neanderthal genes , go to Tuscany .

PS. Tuscan hounds (ie Anatolian dogs) were renowned in Roman days .Still is .

Nice doggie .

Andre
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Appendix IV
Click Update
Andre Willers
5 Mar 2012

Synopsis:
Clicks have been found in all living English languages , and suspected in all others .

Discussion :
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com for Click related blogs from 2009 onward .
See ScientificAmerican Feb 2012 p 14 “Just a Click away” by A.Pycha
See “Journal of International Phonetic Association”
Work by Melissa Wright of Birmingham University , UK

She found clicks in complete conversations , indicating “anyway” or “so” , ie a bifurcation of meaning . Both in UK and American English .

In other words , a meta-indicator , organizing the spoken words in a way that cannot be confused with actual words .

This has immediate relevance to spoken computer commands .
Siri desperately needs this un-ambiguity .

We now find that spoken languages already have it built in .

Some conversions : (! indicates a click , usually elided from the sensorium)
Those old placers :
“um” = “!um”
“ah” = “!ah”
“eh” = “!eh”
“oh” = “!oh”
“ih” = “!ih”

are remnants of the old Click language .

Siri is a Smart system , and presumably has already learned this .

Congratulations to iPod users . They are resurrecting a totally dead language in a fashion that I have not even imagined .

A Siri-user can then deliberately develop !Click for meta-commands .
And Siri will learn them .

Now teach Siri in Neolithic caves or megalithic environments .

Siri will automatically resurrect an ancestral language fossil , written in the echoes of the stone .

Beautiful !

The first AI learning that humans could not have taught , even in principle .

An interesting aside :
People still using !Click sounds in a first language (eg !Xhosa) , noticeably uses “eh” and”ah”more frequently when speaking English than First language English speakers

Listen to any South African politician .

The hidden !click markers in English leads to confusion in translation in the language centers in the brain .

If Ms Wright's instruments could detect the subliminal !clicks , the brain also can .

There is another consequence .

It is nearly impossible to lie in !click . Thus , a speaker using !click sounds as a first language is at a distinct disadvantage in the lying game .
But this is also true for any English speaker .

LieDetector App
Any present Siri system can be trained to be a lie-detector . Steve Job's little farewell present .

I think it holds for tonal languages (eg Chinese) as well . Xhosa is a tonal language , and the !click meta-markers are there .

Liar App
An inevitable consequence of the LieDetection App . And we're off to the arms races .

All happening as we speak .

Isn't Presemt History exciting ?

Andre

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