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In what is quite an amazing discovery, scientists have confirmed that a bracelet found in Siberia is 40,000 years old. This makes it the oldest piece of jewelry ever discovered, and archeologists have been taken aback by the level of its sophistication.
The bracelet was discovered in a site called the Denisova Cave in Siberia, close to Russia's border with China and Mongolia. It was found next to the bones of extinct animals, such as the wooly mammoth, and other artifacts dating back 125,000 years.
The cave is named after the Denisovan people — a mysterious species of hominins from the Homo genus, who are genetically different from both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
[...] Strangely, however, DNA evidence also suggests that, at some point, the Denisovans must have interbred with an as yet unknown and undiscovered species of humans beings.
Skeletal remains show that the Denisovans were probably far more robust and powerful than modern humans, and were, until now, assumed to be a more primitive, archaic type of humans than us.
But, the discovery of the bracelet suggests this was far from true. Amazingly, the skill involved in making this adornment shows a level of technique at least 30,000 years ahead of its time.
It is an astonishing find, having been exquisitely crafted 30,000 years before the Stone Age, which is considered to have begun 10,000 years ago. It is like discovering a 747, made a thousand years before the Wright Brothers ever flew...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 17 2017, @01:25PM (12 children)
This seems like a really cool find. But... here I was, reading an informative and interesting article that mostly seems based on reasonable science. And then you get this:
The bracelet was very delicate and was probably worn at special occasions by some important person, such as a Denisovan princess. Shunkov explains; "All jewellery had a magical meaning for ancient people. Bracelets and neck adornments were to protect people from evil spirits, for instance." "But this item, given the complicated technology and "imported" material, obviously belonged to some high ranking person of that society."
How can we possibly know any of that, much less say what was "probable"? We know basically nothing about the "cultural" aspects of any possible society here, but hey, I guess imagining a "Denisovan princess" dressing up for the local ball with her "magical" bracelet makes for a more fun story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @02:13PM (2 children)
It is certainly good to retain some objectivity, but interpretation is what humans do. I would have preferred some more cautious phrasing than the initial "probably" but this is probably the only time this person will ever get international attention. Many such academics fall into grandiose predictions, they so desperately want their thoughts and theories to be validated.
Doesn't seem too far off either, lots of evidence surely points to such patterns, and imported products are often expensive. However, it could also have been a simple gift from a traveler to a cute girl. Mountains and mole hills, everyone should learn critical thinking since we can't guarantee egos will always stay in check!
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:42PM (1 child)
We know NOTHING!
Here this is demonstrated by a single find upsetting an established "factual" timeline of human history by some 30,000 years. Despite this obvious comeuppance for our supposed understanding of human origins and nature, what do the archaeologists and authors do? Immediately speculate on the function and status of the bracelet-wearer, with nothing other than our projections of elite hierarchies, which weren't manifest until the structuring of human communities around pastoralism and agriculture.
Then again? Maybe THESE go back another 30-40K years! We know nothing.
Nothing.
The really ludicrous "Denisovan princess" statement is a manifold absurdity. It was as likely to be worn by a "Denisovan RuPaul"! Or, more consistent with the anachronism and ignorance of this scholarly speculation, a "Denisovan Wilma Flintstone".
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:14PM
We know NOTHING!
True, but if we don't know what we don't know then how can we know not project our own biases? Where do we draw the line ... at the truth? Is that what science has come to? ;-)
The really ludicrous "Denisovan princess" statement is a manifold absurdity.
I've been called worse that "Denisovan princess" ... this week ... by members or my family ... and one of my cats.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @02:21PM
What we possibly know for sure it's that they elected Trump shortly before they went extinct.
Yuuuge mistake, he disclosed confidential info to those Russkies, who... err... (interbred is the term, yes)... so, who interbred in the ass the Denisovans in a very multicultural manner. Probably...
(Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Wednesday May 17 2017, @03:18PM
Disney's new movie: the Denisovan Princess, starring Kaitlin Jenner
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @03:24PM (1 child)
Or how did they even know the person was particularly important.
His next invention is a "Jump to Conclusions" mat.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 18 2017, @12:29PM
These are the commonly accepted jumps to conclusions, made in little steps by all the people who came before him in the field - he's just repeating the accumulated assumptions of his predecessors.
If you were to jump half that distance in a different direction, you'd be labeled a heretic idiot maverick outlier fringe junk scientist. But, if you've spent your life reading everybody else's published guesses, then you're well educated and entitled to make a tiny little assumption of your own that gets incorporated into the future group-think.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:26PM (3 children)
Far into the future, at a time when plastic stuff has long been forgotten. An archaeologist finds an archaeological site which comes from our time, much older than any other sites known at that time, and digs out a rubber duck.
Excerpt from the article he writes afterwards:
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:35PM (1 child)
If plastic is long forgotten, ducks are probably also long forgotten.
Writings about Donald Duck would make sense as a myth, since no such creature known as a duck would exist.
I wonder if at that point in time they would still use COBOL?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @07:56PM
Of course. But it will be Lisp all the way down underneath.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday May 17 2017, @08:30PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_Lesson [wikipedia.org]
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 18 2017, @12:21PM
When you start with "a mysterious species of Hominins... from 40,000 years ago" and you follow up with "All..." anything, the fantasy flag has been raised high.
As far as these guys know, the Atlantis myths could have descended from the Denisovans, they might have had a safe space to live with easy food and shelter and they could have spent a lot of their time making complex objects and travelling around to find interesting things to work with.
But, commonly accepted dogma has been circulated long enough that "experts in the field" have internalized it as fact, rather than widely embraced theories - and it comes out in quotes like the above.
🌻🌻 [google.com]