@RedCedar @RedCedar Starting from some 20,000 years ago with cave paintings in France it gives a strong sense of what humanity has achieved in the blink of an eye in geological time.
And Australia boasts much longer time periods beginning some 50 or 60 thousand years ago.
you may well have the wrong idea there.
It is so easy to come to Europe and Africa and feel that Australian Aboriginals are old. Part of a very old land and have a very old culture involved with it.
Well, whilst they have been running about the place for maybe 50,000 years, perhaps 70,000 years - let's stretch the biscuit and say 100,000 years
this in fact, makes them very very new kids on the block.
I'll explain and only use one example - which is not all that old itself -
This site shows use all through the ages from modern man, back to about 2 million years and includes several species of hominoid
whilst the art is in the 20,000 range - as most is ------
2 million years of usage of this one area alone - compared to aboriginals - say 100,000 at most ---------- that's a factor of 20 -
aboriginals in Oz - comparatively, nowhere near it.
And this is one area, almost undeveloped - in France. This is not in China or Africa or other parts of Europe.
What is really difficult for me at least, to grasp is that when I'm in Europe -
it's like the total opposite of being in Australia -
when you stand in the outback - you are standing in an old worn land. In Europe, you are standing in a land where the Alps are still growing.
But, at the same time, in the outback of Australia - it's the land of the new kids, whereas in Europe - you are walking where hominids have walked for millions of years ------------ it's difficult go get a grip on it I find. Easy enough to intellectualise it, difficult to emotionalise it.
One other thing that begins to hit pretty soon when in Europe at least - is how much MORE advanced that aboriginal australian art is, compared to many places in Europe (possibly not all). If one looks at the depictions of humans in art - in France, compared to say some of the Bradshaw paintings - one finds that aboriginals were far more detailed. One also sees that apparently around 20,000 years ago - Aussie stone technology was in 'advance' of other groups.
Why? - I don't know. But IMO, it's probably got a lot to do with resources - the stone, and the land in which one ran about trying to poke sharp sticks into things that ran. But, I might have that wrong.
