Oldest obsidian bracelet reveals amazing craftsmen's skills in the eighth millennium BC

reply to post by Maxmars

As for the "how can they be sure it was a bracelet and not part of some other object?"... this has been a perennial kind of complaint by many critics of archaeology and their methodology. I don't doubt it was a bracelet; but that certainty is admittedly borne of the trust I have in scientific methods...

Your trust is better justified than the scepticism of the doubters, and here’s why: this is far from being the only such object found. Quite a number of Neolithic bracelets or fragments thereof have been found around the world. Many of them have survived intact, like the Javanese ones I mentioned earlier; they were photographed for a book I edited. And though I have never before seen an example made of obsidian, an experienced archaeologist would be able to look at a fragment like this, compare it to intact examples he has seen, and reach the proper conclusion.

The doubters are probably seeing something like this for the first time in their lives, so their incredulity is understandable – the more so since they, like most folk, probably think of stone age humans as ‘primitives’. Well, they were primitives in some ways (they don’t seem to have discovered writing, more’s the pity) but they weren’t in others.

The notion of craftsmanship and specialization of skills becomes reinforced as likely ancient workshops and trade centers are found.

Not to mention the objects themselves. Some of them are astoundingly sophisticated. Read this description of the clothing and equipment found on Ötzli ‘the Iceman’, a mummified Neolithic corpse found in an Alpine glacier. And lets not forget the incredible cave paintings made by people even more ancient than the ones who made your bracelet – the Lascaux paintings are over 17,000 years old, yet the artistic techniques and the technology involved were amazingly sophisticated. Not to mention the musical dimension – the most prominent paintings are nearly always found in caverns with excellent acoustics, showing that the cavemen sang or played musical instruments beneath their frescoed walls.

And think of this: all we have to know them by is whatever has survived. The best and most sophisticated works of stone age man are almost certainly lost to the ages. Imagine what they must have been like – the works of ancient Edisons and Leonardos!

Our ancestors of 30,000-10,000 years ago were far from the primitive, grunting morons portrayed by newspaper cartoonists and the like. They’d already had language for at least 100,000-200,000 years before the period we’re discussing. And they weren’t the only ones, either; even our extinct and much more primitive kin, Homo erectus, is thought to have had some language. They certainly had fire and stone tools.

I would imagine a good test would be to engage some engineering/manufacturing group to request a bracelet (or ring) of obsidian be produced to the same specifications which appear to apply to this object. I suspect that you will be told - it cannot be done without a great deal of investment in the process; if at all.

I’m not so sure. Two generations ago, amateur astronomers often had to build their own telescopes, starting with a block of optical glass and shaping it to amazingly fine tolerances by hand using techniques not much more sophisticated than the ones used to shape your obsidian bracelet.

It is only since the 1970s or thereabouts that the machines have taken over. Before computer-controlled design and computer-controlled manufacture (CCD and CCM in the jargon) came along, all machines were ultimately under human control and the final judge of precision and tolerance was always the human eye. How quickly we forget.

Originally posted by Maxmars
Now think about it.... 10,000 years ago....

Didn't an extremely large volcano go off like 10,000 years ago and the world went through a 10 year winter were the world wide human population got down to like 1,000 people???

(edit) sorry my bad that was like 70,000 years ago

The last point in which Homo sapiens sapiens hit a dangerous low, coming close to extinction, was at year 70,000 BC during the Toba catastrophe. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign estimates human world population (Homo sapiens in Africa) between 1,000 and 10,000 breeding couples

en.wikipedia.org...

10,000 years was about 5 million or so they think

reply to post by DaRAGE


Not speaking as any kind of authority on the subject, I too had heard that at some point the human population had dropped to a ridiculously low number in the thousands (I think).... ah...here it is...

The Toba event

Originally posted by mnmcandiez
Where is a real pic of the bracelet this is a 3D model?

There is no bracelet, only a fragment that is believed to have been part of a bracelet. The 3D model represents what they believe the bracelet would have looked like.

reply to post by EvillerBob


There is the possibility that we were wiped out once before.

Or it could be from the lost city of Atlantis.

reply to post by SL55T0T0

Or possibly something like this?


More information here.

In order to understand this object you need to read THE FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS by Graham Hancock, which is now available as a free of charge PDF eBook at this link eBook or even better this link instead eBook. My suggestion is that this 10,000 year old "bracelet" is probably not really an item of jewellery, but is more than likely some kind of industrial artifact passed down from a much earlier period of pre-history lost because of the catastrophic crustal displacement which is believed to have occurred in around 15,000 BC. That most recent crustal displacement thrust the continent of North America out of the polar circle to where it is now, thus putting Siberia much nearer the arctic than it used to be. Naturally Antarctica used to be in the temperate zone, but is now at the south pole instead. Graham Hancock believes that Antartica is the original "Atlantis".

AVE RAEGINA CAELINA LA DEUS NOSTRA CAELI LA VERA DEUS

Still looks like it is being assumed to be a bracelet (or something else we have a 21st century look-alike for). That goes with the logic of classic archaeology, where if you can't say outright what it is it must be 1) ornamental or 2) religious. The field of archaeology could make a huge step if it would just make official another category: 3) unknown. That would at least open conjecture to those who are more comfortable with things being unknown.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle applies here, at least insofar as realizing that what you attempt to explain will not remain explained when you're not looking in your own time. It's better to file these items as ornamental or religious because it is the first place future people will look for actual fundamental items that can solve future engineering problems.

Originally posted by alumnathe
Still looks like it is being assumed to be a bracelet (or something else we have a 21st century look-alike for). That goes with the logic of classic archaeology, where if you can't say outright what it is it must be 1) ornamental or 2) religious. The field of archaeology could make a huge step if it would just make official another category: 3) unknown. That would at least open conjecture to those who are more comfortable with things being unknown.

How condescending of you - I'm sure that thousands of archaeologists, their students, and the rest of hte industry will be grateful for knowing hat they should have an "unknown" category! :lol

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle applies here, at least insofar as realizing that what you attempt to explain will not remain explained when you're not looking in your own time. It's better to file these items as ornamental or religious because it is the first place future people will look for actual fundamental items that can solve future engineering problems.

That's meaningless twaddle

reply to post by CAELENIUM

In order to understand this object you need to read THE FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS by Graham Hancock.

How would it contribute anything to our understanding to read a book that uses nineteenth-century geological theories – amply and conclusively disproven by Charles Lyell and other founders of modern scientific geology way back in Victorian times – to build an implausible case for the existence of antediluvian civilizations?

There is no mystery about this archaeological find. We know that Neolithic tribespeople had the technology to create these artefacts. We have many examples of such artefacts. We know how they were made. Why do we need to bring in tall tales of Atlantis and Lemuria? Is it only because some people find such things exciting?

My suggestion is that this 10,000 year old "bracelet" is probably not really an item of jewellery, but is more than likely some kind of industrial artifact passed down from a much earlier period of pre-history...

Did you read the thread before posting on it? If you did, you would have learnt many things about this find – such as that it is not a bracelet, just a fragment of one, and that it was made out of fragile volcanic glass. Do go back and have a read. It’s quite an interesting tale.

...lost because of the catastrophic crustal displacement which is believed to have occurred in around 15,000 BC. That most recent crustal displacement thrust the continent of North America out of the polar circle to where it is now, thus putting Siberia much nearer the arctic than it used to be. Naturally Antarctica used to be in the temperate zone, but is now at the south pole instead. Graham Hancock believes that Antartica is the original "Atlantis".

This is false geology, the kind indulged in by people who want to believe in Atlantis and ancient civilizations. Why not learn about the real geological history of Earth instead?

By the way, the Latin for ‘goddess’ is not 'deus’ but ‘dea’. Best wishes for a happy and better-informed New Year.

Originally posted by Astyanax

There is no mystery about this archaeological find. We know that Neolithic tribespeople had the technology to create these artefacts. We have many examples of such artefacts. We know how they were made. Why do we need to bring in tall tales of Atlantis and Lemuria? Is it only because some people find such things exciting?

Yep - because this is ATS

The only thing significant about this find is that it is though to be from an earlier time than most obsidian artefacts, so it means we now think they were doing this great work earlier than we used to think they were doing it.

That's it...period.

The rest of the twaddle on here is illuminating as to why it is that ignorance NEEDS denying!