Axial Precession and Rise of Civilization.

a reply to: Kammlersgrdaughter77

I agree that climate changed and forced changes in behavior that led to the rise of new civilizations, but I think evidence clearly points to a pole shift every 12-13,000 year

Half a kali yuga cycle. the change is cycles causes a change in the function of electricity.. time and human spiritual perception.

originally posted by: Degradation33
Around the EXACT time civilizations formed the Sahara and Arabian deserts dried up in a short 200 year period.

Anyway. That's my thought of the day.

The wobble of the axis was the main catalyst for the seasonal nomadic pastoral to civilized commercial society switch.

Can it be though that the early civilizations existed in the Sahara before it dried up, and got displaced to what is now Egypt and Iraq?

Maybe only the leaders were able to leave?

There are rock carvings in the Sahara portraying hunting large animals which no longer live there among wetlands that are now dry. What if the structures just weren't permanent enough to survive desertification?

University of Bristol, UK studies show that North African Humid Periods occurred every 21,000 years that are determined by changes in Earth’s orbital precession. Kudo's to you for working all that out with your mind.

www.bristol.ac.uk...

originally posted by: Solvedit2
Can it be though that the early civilizations existed in the Sahara before it dried up, and got displaced to what is now Egypt and Iraq?

Larger, settled communities developed during the last subpluvial. Civilisation was necessitated by the desire to maintain those larger communities because as the environment had changed they had made social and cultural adaptations in order to stay in the place that they had become attached to year-round even though it had become less habitable year-round. Those adaptations required a labour force that worked cooperatively towards a common goal and systems of distribution. That's the point at which civilisations arise. Where there is abundance, freely available to all, there is no need for it. The greater the need to overcome the environment's supposed hostility to civilisation the greater the need to control that population and it's natural desire to move to newer pastures.

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: Degradation33
a reply to: Degradation33

Addendum:

I also feel the rise of superstition was partly related to this loss of abundance at the end of the wet period. I'd imagine rain spirits became something very common to do rituals for.

It would be traumatic to have this vast area of lush abundance become uninhabitable rather quickly. No wonder they were extremely spiritual by the time of Old Egypt.

This is actually what they teach in anthropology courses at the university (or did in mine, some 30 years ago) -- as the climate changed, nomadic lifestyles were less sustainable and people gravitated toward areas of richer abundance like river valleys. Agrarian life involves villages and when you have a lot of villages interacting along a long area of waterways, civilization develops (exchange of ideas and culture, development of legal systems and writing.)

Can't recall who wrote it but there was an anthropologist who theorised that basic medical care was the birth of civilisation. The premise was that animals with a broken leg are basically dead and vulnerable immediately where as humans have the ability to care fr and nurse each other back to health. Partially eliminating the vulnerability factor by collaboration

a reply to: Saibot3052

As I recall, there is evidence that Neanderthals possessed some medical knowledge and cared for their sick in the form of bone breakages that would have impeded a person's ability to fend for themselves. I believe this is more usually used to evidence altruism rather than civilisation but it also suggests that systems of transferring knowledge were somewhat established at that point which is a factor that enabled civilisations to thrive.

I personally believe that we wouldn't have come even close to our success as a species if we hadn't developed midwifery. No other mammal experiences the difficulty that we do in giving birth. Controlling reproduction and assisting births, combined with semi-nomadism, helped us to overcome those difficulties that accompanied our somewhat rapid evolution to bipedalism (which is why the fetus has to get into position and navigate the birth canal as it does and can cause fatality to both mother and child if it does not).