This flower is similar to a rose but it marks a period of life in which man was not much of a farmer but a hunter gatherer.The
Natufian culture (
/nəˈtjuːfiən/) was a
Mesolithic culture that existed from 12,500 to 9,500 BC in the
Levant, a region in the
Eastern Mediterranean.The term "Natufian" was coined by
Dorothy Garrod who studied the
Shuqba cave in Wadi an-Natuf,
Israel, about halfway between
Tel Aviv and
Ramallah.(From wikipedia on Natufian culture)
Man sort of lived like they did on Gilligan's Island. They fished and gathered food. They had an oral language but didn't write words but did do a bit of carving and drawings of real life. The climate was pretty mild and the flower represents the area as having cold snowy weather.
How removed from nature was the Natufians? Well they are the first people to have dogs buried with them. Man's best friend goes back to this culture. The dogs means that they had spare food to share for themselves and for animals like the dog.
Still a hunter gathering culture is a hard life. The burial sites shows that they had a high child mortality rate. The winters must have been a harrowing experience because man could barely store much over winters long months. The seaside harvesting declines during winter, herds of animals migrate away during winter and man didn't have pottery to store excess grains.
Village/Town Life
The early Natufians did not have huge cities. But they had a village that could support a Shaman. The Shaman was important in order to remember other villages to trade with, Was wise enough to remember remedies and other tricks to survive and the Shaman/storyteller kept the records/history/myths to help tie the village as an important entity.
Some of the villagers were able to make beads, tools and weapons. More likely they were "Jacks of all trades" and almost anyone who wanted to learn could just watch the wiser villagers in order to copy whatever was made. However some villages were special. The village close to an Obsidian deposit usually had a healthy trade with other villages who do not have Obsidian. Similarly flint deposits were also a valuable asset for a village.
The end of the Natufian culture
I am speculating that climate change eliminated a lot of Hunter gatherers. Shamans can only help if the climate cycles repeat themselves. When herds of animals do not return, hunters tend to starve. Another speculation is that the farmer culture sort of pushed out the Hunter Gatherers. Setting fire drives away herds of animals and allows some crops to grow. Maybe mankind developed a habit of drinking, thus more grains had to be planted in order to have bread and wine. Men who drink tend to not go hunting because their portable bottles might be filled with a alcoholic drink instead of just water or some ordinary drink.
Comments (6)
Beautiful flowers... shiny yellow, pure white.
immigrates from Germany and Poland did grow more grains here in the states -I've been watching the PBS special on Prohibition the last few nights.
@Babyboomerjill - Germans were sort of slighted/slandered by their native desire to make and drink beer. Shh! don't let folks know that the Polish love their drink too.....
That is very interesting.
@PPhilip - lol we do. My grandfather's family had a flour mill and mother said that he made beer in the bathtub back in the 1920's -she said it was root beer.
They did not have our obesity problem, evidentally. Given a choice, I will fight my weight gains!!