A Tale of Two Wells

It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness.

So reads the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ classic A Tale of Two Cities. An age of wisdom, and an age of foolishness, where people cannot see the obvious even if it lies obvious and blatant before them.

Consider the following stories of two wells:  one in Leipzig, Germany, and the other “somewhere” in Africa.

The first well, in the greater Leipzig area, has been dated as about 7,500 years old, and is now officially the oldest known timber constructions in the world.

The wooden well walls were dated with the help of dendrochronology or growth ring dating. They were built by the Linear Pottery culture, which existed from roughly 5600 to 4900 BC.

According to a news report :

The four early Neolithic wells were constructed from oak wood. In addition to the timber, many other waterlogged organic materials, such as plant remains, wooden artifacts, bark vessels, and bast fiber cords, as well as an array of richly decorated ceramic vessels, have survived for millennia hermetically sealed below groundwater level. With the help of dendrochronology, the scientists were able to determine the exact felling years of the trees and thus also the approximate time at which the wells were constructed.

The tests revealed that the wood comes from massive old oak trees felled by early Neolithic farmers with stone adzes between the years of 5206 and 5098 BC. The farmers cleaved the trunks into boards, assembling them to make chest-like well linings with complex corner joints. Using state-of-the-art laser scanning technology, the scientists collected data on the timbers and tool marks and documented the highly developed woodworking skills of the early Neolithic settlers. The very well-preserved tool marks and timber joints testify to unexpectedly sophisticated timber construction techniques.

That is really remarkable. Seven and a half thousand years ago, Europeans were making advanced wooden walls for their wells, using “advanced” carpentry techniques.

Now I have to wonder—and all reasonable people should also wonder—why is it that organizations such as The Water Project still have to collect money from Europeans to dig wells in Africa in the year 2012?

According to that organisation’s website, 

You, your school, church or even a group of your friends can choose to fund an entire clean water project in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda, or Rwanda.

Cost and project availability vary, but on average a water project can be completed for at [sic] little as $7,000. The costs include preparing the community for a water project, actual construction and the long-term monitoring and evaluation needed to make sure your investment lasts a very long time.

Now I am not one to deny water to anyone, but is it only me who wonders why Europeans were able to dig wells for themselves 7,500 years ago and line them with oak, while Africans still need white people to dig wells for them today?

I mean really, how much more obvious can it all be?

The full first few lines of Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities become even more apt:

It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief,

it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light,

it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope,

it was the winter of despair.

Amazing Ancient Discoveries III: Welsh reindeer is Britain's oldest rock art

A reindeer engraved on the wall of a cave in South Wales has been found to date from at least 14,505 years ago – making it the oldest known rock art in the British Isles.

This photo shows the main part of an engraving of a cervid found in Cathole Cave on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales. 

The engraving was discovered in September 2010 by Dr George Nash from the University of Bristol's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology while he was exploring the rear section of Cathole Cave, a limestone cave on the eastern side of an inland valley on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales.

Found to the rear of the cave on a small vertical limestone niche, the engraved cervid – probably a stylised reindeer – is shown side-on and measures approximately 15 x 11cm. It was carved using a sharp-pointed tool, probably made of flint, by an artist using his or her right hand. 

The animal's elongated torso has been infilled with irregular-spaced vertical and diagonal lines, whilst the legs and stylised antlers comprise simple lines.

The reindeer was engraved over a mineral deposit known as a 'speleothem' (cave formation), which itself developed over a large piece of limestone. Extending over the left side of the figure is a flowstone deposit (speleothem cover) which extends across part of the animal's muzzle and antler set.

In April 2011, Dr Peter van Calsteren and Dr Louise Thomas of the NERC-Open University Uranium-series Facility extracted three samples from the surface of the speleothem covering the engraving. One of these samples produced a minimum date of 12,572 years BP (before present), with a margin of plus or minus 600 years. A further sample, taken in June 2011 from the same flowstone deposit, revealed a minimum date of 14,505 years BP, plus or minus 560 years.

Dr Nash said: "The earlier date is comparable with Uranium-series dating of flowstone that covers engraved figures within Church Hole Cave at Creswell along the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. However, the new minimum date of 14,505 + 560 years BP makes the engraved reindeer in South Wales the oldest rock art in the British Isles, if not North-western Europe."

Amazing Ancient Discoveries I: 9000 BC Cyprus Farming Village Upsets “Middle East Origin of Agriculture” Theory

A 9000 BC agricultural farm discovered on the island of Cyprus threatens to upset the “Middle East origin of agriculture” theory, or at least throw it out of kilter by several thousand years.

The communal building in Klimonas partially excavated. 

The settlement, Klimonas, has shown that organised agriculture was present on that island at least 2000 years before it was previously assumed that this technology spread out from the Middle East.

The findings, which also reveal the early development of maritime navigational skills by these populations, have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

Sedentary villagers of the Early Neolithic began cultivating wild grains in the Middle East in about 9500 BCE.

Recent discoveries have shown that the island of Cyprus was visited by human groups during that period, but until now the earliest traces of cereal crops and the construction of villages did not predate 8400 BCE.

The latest findings from the archaeological excavations of Klimonas indicate that organized communities were built in Cyprus between 9100 and 8600 BCE: the site has yielded the remnants of a half-buried mud brick communal building, 10 meters in diameter and surrounded by dwellings, that must have been used to store the village's harvests.

The archaeologists have found a few votive offerings inside the building, including flint arrowheads and green stone beads.

A great many remnants of other objects, including flint chips, stone tools and shell adornments, have been discovered in the village. The stone tools and the structures erected by these early villagers resemble those found at Neolithic sites from the same period on the nearby continent.

Remains of carbonized seeds of local plants and grains introduced from the Levantine coasts (including emmer, one of the first Middle Eastern wheats) have also been found in Klimonas.

An analysis of the bone remains found on the site has revealed that the meat consumed by these villagers came from the hunting of a small wild boar indigenous to Cyprus (the only large game on the island at the time), and that small domestic dogs and cats had been introduced from the continent.

This would indicate that these early farming societies migrated from the continent shortly after the emergence of agriculture there.

In addition, their ability to move a whole group of people long distances shows that they had already mastered maritime navigation at the dawn of the Neolithic period.

Source: First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago. Jean-Denis Vigne, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, May 7, 2012.