vikings

[bubu26]

heathfield that was realy good to know but unfortunatley i didnt get to see that program about the current day spanish going there 20,000 yrs ago mate. my question now is 20,000 yrs ago did we have the technology or the thinking to do that then i was under the impression that we were clobbering each other over our heads with lumps of wood you know .

[spudqueen]

It would be better if you could post any futher queries relating to one of your questions under the original question (just click on Post an Answer). This keeps the continuity. Also there can be quite a few questions between your new one and the original one which can be confusing!

[jno]

that was in the ice age, so they could have walked (occasionally stopping to clobber each other)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean

[heathfield]

(Good link, Jno!). Bubu, put it down to the arrogance of historians who consider that real civilisation has only come about since writing was invented, and anything before that must have been positively Neanderthal.

In a low-population hunter-gatherer society, people tend to get on with each other. Sure, there might be some clobbering if things are scarce, and another bunch try to move in. But if you're 'just passing through, folks' you'd be welcome to do so, and while you're here, what's the news from where you come from?

(Notice how all those pre-historic fortifications only came into being once agriculture had become established?)

[heathfield]

Historians who dismiss the travels of ancient peoples seem to forget a very basic trait in human beings, namely, that they have an inbuilt curiousity. They're not going to remain tied to the limits of their immediate horizons, but are much more likely to say 'I wonder what's over that next hill?'

As to the technology, again, historians seem constantly to downplay the idea that they had any skills at all, beyond making some (exceptionally fine) flint implements, and drawing some art masterpieces on cave walls. I tell you, those guys were good!

[jno]

heathfield, I don't know how much of human travelling can be attributed to curiosity. I read somewhere (can't remember where) that early wanderings happened at about the rate of 20ft a year. In other words, barely travelling at all: it might mean no more that a second son would start cultivating new grounds on the edge of a settlement because the first son had inherited the old farm in the centre. Obviously this wouldn't be constant; those who lived by hunting would go wherever the animals went and no doubt plenty of people would indeed wonder if the grass was greener on the next continent. Others might be expelled from their tribe and have to get themselves out of sight. But I wouldn't swear that a spirit of exploration (like the Vikings, say) was common to all peoples.

[heathfield]

Right, Jno. But if the present theory than mankind originated in a small corner of South Africa is correct, they sure wandered about a bit over the next several million years!
'Eden in the East' by Stephen Oppenheimer is a great book on the spread of peoples from the area of what is now the South China Sea, but which was once dry land.

[jno]

oh, undoubtedly, heathfield. But over several million years, that's not many millimetres a year. Incidentally, the waters have just been muddied a bit:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6937476.st m