I wanted to put some ideas into print, so this post is just a few ideas that I want to build into something useful, eventually.
We know that humans first started wearing clothes 180,000 years ago. We also know that we learnt to write 5000 years ago. Everything that has happened since, has been confirmed by written evidence. Besides writing, we also use stone buildings and artefacts as evidence.
The question is, what about developments which can’t be proven via scripts or stones? What happened between wearing clothes and the start of civilisation? When did we actually start living in the same place all year around?
Lots of my ideas are based on the idea that the reason we don’t have much of this evidence, is that its in plain sight. Using the British isles as an example, the Romans counted 22 cities on the Island when they turned up. The Romans built their cities in these places. So Deva became a Roman city, but what was it called before then?
Staying with the British Isles, there is evidence that the North Sea was created by a huge Tsunami from a Norwegian flood. Before this, it was possible to walk most of the way from Wales to Ireland, with only a river separating both land masses.
Why is this important? Because one of the Mabinogion stories, the Welsh myths, has a story where Bendigeidfran walks to Ireland. Could this story be based on fact? If this was a reported fact, that would mean the story was at least 8,000 years old. It would also mean other parts of the Mabinogion was also true, such as the social rules and statuses.
The bigger picture is that the British Isles doesn’t really have much history pre 10,000 years and so we need to look at other parts of the world for evidence of civilisation. This is where I get stuck, because I don’t have the evidence, although there is the novelty of North America. Here is a place that has no written history pre around 1000 years ago, although we know the Greeks were aware of it 2000 years ago.
We also know there are mounds in America which date back 10,000 years ago, so the chances are there will be evidence of other pre historical human developments, if we know what to look for. It won’t be stones, it won’t be words, and its unlikely to be cultural, so what else is there?
This question will help me fall asleep for the next few years!