OT Silliness Re: SC - introduction

[Alderton, Philippa]

"ana l. valdes" wrote:
> 
> PS: But we must be aware when we come to the Prehistoric Times, we must
> speak about interpretation of facts, and not "scientific truth". In
> fact, we found a lot of skulls in the floors of the caves. Why was the
> skulls and not the other bones there, what use had the skulls, from who
> cames the skulls, from themselves or from their foes? A lot of arousing
> thinking for anthros and paleos...

Ummm, at the risk of being grotesque, because an entire human corpse
smells worse than just the head of one? Because the head of your enemy
takes up less room than his entire body? Possibly even because not all
cultures seem to have believed the heart was the repository of the soul
or other assumed immortal entity?

Are these large numbers of skulls in any way treated or processed to
suggest how they are being used (for example, are crania being separated
from orbital bones, mandibles, etc.)?

I'm thinking of, what, was it Caesar's Gauls (actually a fairly late
Celtic culture as far as mainstream European assimilation goes) and
their heads (or rather their conquered enemies' heads) preserved in
cedar oil. Not as an explanation for piles of skulls, necessarily, but
perhaps an indicator that using them for bowls _might_ be  a little too
simplistic an answer.

I believe I've mentioned this in the recent past: any student of
archaology should go and read David MacCauley's (sp?) "Motel of the
Mysteries" as a whimsical (read screamingly funny) reminder of the
pitfalls archaeologists can fall into when they proceed from assumption
to assumption. [For those who've never heard of this, it's a wonderfully
written and illustrated satire positing a future archaeological dig into
a recently discovered temple and burial chamber, The Happy Rest Motel
(or whatever it was), as I recall somewhere off Route 80, all modelled
on the Carter-Carnaervon Expedition in the Early 1920's. "Can you see
anything?", the archaeologist is asked as he looks through a keyhole
behind the little "Do Not Disturb" sign. "Yes," he says. "Things!
Wonderful things!"

Adamantius 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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