old stone age 2

This week in the Historical Fact-Checking Department… Warm Weather The weather was warm? Not necessarily. The stone age took quite a long time, much of which (especially in the Pleistocene epoch) would normally be referred to as ‘The Ice Age’ Completely Nude Clothing? Depends on the weather, surely. “Early man was small and weak?” Depends which early man you’re talking about. Some early human species like Homo floresiensis were shorter; other prehistoric tribes like the Gravettians were taller. There’s evidence to suggest that the earliest humans on the African savannahs were tall and skinny. Britain Was France “They could do this because Britain was still joined by land to France” - actually it was joined to Belgium and the Netherlands, via a stretch of now-submerged land we call Doggerland. The most popular theory suggests Doggerland was obliterated by a tsunami caused by the Storegga Slide - a succession of three submarine landslides that occurred in the North Sea around 8200 years ago (roughly 6225-6170 BCE). It does seem like climate had a part to play in which animals lived in Britain, but whether we could say they emigrated across Doggerland is another matter. No one actually knows. Probably a Woman’s Job The beginnings of institutional sexism in my schoolwork - copied from a school textbook: His wife used a scraper to clean the inside of animal skins. Ignoring for the moment we don’t even know if early humans even had such concepts as marriage - the type of social structures we recognise as families didn’t even exist until the Neolithic, which the same author is just about to tell me in a few pages’ time - who decided on this gender-focused division of labour, and why? It seems to have been an assumption made by anthropologists who studied hunter-gatherer groups in the 19th century, viewing gender division through their own societal lens, and doesn’t seem to bear any relation to the evidence we keep turning up. But people keep reprinting these outmoded assumptions. This one says all women gathered nuts, cooked, made clothes and looked after the kids, while all men hunted animals and made art. It specifically says women did not make art. And that their jobs were EASIER than the male jobs. Wow. Good luck with that simple career as a nut-gathering, child-minding tailor-chef.

November 1979

People in the Old Stone Age (3) >

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People in the Old Stone Age (2)

People in the Old Stone Age Guy Fawkes People in the Old Stone Age: 2 People in the Old Stone Age: 3 The New Stone Age People of the Bronze Age The Story of Nelson: 1 The Story of Nelson: 2 The Story of Nelson: 3 Florence Nightingale The Story of Nelson: 4 The Story of Nelson: 5 The Story of Nelson: 6 The Story of Nelson: 7 Christopher Columbus: 1 Christopher Columbus: 2 The Soldier Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon’s Mother The Queen of Spain The French Revolution The Surrender of Toulon Upon Return From Italy The Armed Revolt Josephine de Beauharnais The Thin Young Man The Little Corporal The Most Famous Man in France A Proposal About Egypt Master of France Weary of War Hero of the People Emperor at 34 Danger Across the Sea Wherever Wood Can Float An Empire in Decline

String Orchestra A visit from the North Yorkshire County Council Orchestra

Great Space Battles Three mighty empires take their first steps into outer space

TERM 1 A day-by-day account of Waen’s first term at Fairburn School

TOPIC 1 He knows the names of all the dinosaurs

TOPIC 2 The one where it all kicks off

Waen Shepherd 2 Waen’s heroic antics in the far-flung future of 2007 AD!

The Fugitive A man runs - but who is he? And what is he running from?

The Flame in the Desert An evil fire threatens the safety of the world

This week in the Historical Fact-Checking Department… Warm Weather The weather was warm? Not necessarily. The stone age took quite a long time, much of which (especially in the Pleistocene epoch) would normally be referred to as ‘The Ice Age’ Completely Nude Clothing? Depends on the weather, surely. “Early man was small and weak?” Depends which early man you’re talking about. Some early human species like Homo floresiensis were shorter; other prehistoric tribes like the Gravettians were taller. There’s evidence to suggest that the earliest humans on the African savannahs were tall and skinny. Britain Was France “They could do this because Britain was still joined by land to France” - actually it was joined to Belgium and the Netherlands, via a stretch of now- submerged land we call Doggerland. The most popular theory suggests Doggerland was obliterated by a tsunami caused by the Storegga Slide - a succession of three submarine landslides that occurred in the North Sea around 8200 years ago (roughly 6225-6170 BCE). It does seem like climate had a part to play in which animals lived in Britain, but whether we could say they emigrated across Doggerland is another matter. No one actually knows. Probably a Woman’s Job The beginnings of institutional sexism in my schoolwork - copied from a school textbook: His wife used a scraper to clean the inside of animal skins. Ignoring for the moment we don’t even know if early humans even had such concepts as marriage - the type of social structures we recognise as families didn’t even exist until the Neolithic, which the same author is just about to tell me in a few pages’ time - who decided on this gender-focused division of labour, and why? It seems to have been an assumption made by anthropologists who studied hunter-gatherer groups in the 19th century, viewing gender division through their own societal lens, and doesn’t seem to bear any relation to the evidence we keep turning up. But people keep reprinting these outmoded assumptions. This one says all women gathered nuts, cooked, made clothes and looked after the kids, while all men hunted animals and made art. It specifically says women did not make art. And that their jobs were EASIER than the male jobs. Wow. Good luck with that simple career as a nut- gathering, child-minding tailor-chef.

People in the Old Stone Age (3) >

< Guy Fawkes