In the beginning

One of the most intriguing eras in the evolution of humanity exists within the few thousand years between the catastrophic meltdown of our recent Ice Age and the rise of the historic river civilizations. It is in fact a truly mysterious period known as the New Stone Age, or Neolithic - an era when people oddly built the village at Skara Brae (pictured) in northernmost Scotland.

People, like you and me, have existed for over 130,000 years. We are called Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Thus, prior to the oft-debated event that caused the destruction of the glaciers, our ancient ancestors grew up on the lush and fertile continents across Middle Earth for 100,000 years.

Other than Adam and Eve, there are a few other theories to consider about mankind's history: we grow up, achieve civilized status and then get annialated, though with a few of us left to carry forth the gene pool; we lived in caves (only saying "ug"), until one day we found intelligence alongside rivers; and finally supernatural aliens pushed along our evolution.

Take a moment to imagine how people lived 200 years ago and how we might live 1,000 years from today.

History teachers in the West still teach their students that following a few million years of wandering, 5,000 years ago humans finally began to talk and settle the valleys alongside the Nile, Tigris and Indus rivers. Approximately, 20,000 years ago the earth and its inhabitants suffered a tremendous blow.

Frankly, humans were more fortunate than Sabre Tooth Tigers and Wooly Mammoths and many other now-extinct species. Well, those lucky few who actually survived not only "the event", but also the subsequent massive volcanoes, earthquakes, droughts, floods and tsunamis that were spread over another few thousand years.

People are people, and among the survivors some chose to travel east, some west, some north and some south. Some were violent warriors and some were peaceful artists; some were industrious and some were lazy. Some were leaders and some were followers. Most simply wanted their children to enjoy a better life.

We are taught the Egyptians built at right angles in alignment with the sun and the stars in 3,000BC, approximately the same time as people in Iraq and Pakistan were also learning to speak, add and cultivate, as well as dance, draw and build. We are taught that specific metals define our modern ages, such as Bronze, then Iron.

Bronze is created by melting together copper and tin. After using clubs of wood and pieces of bone, we are taught that chipped stone tools enabled our survival in those preceding millennia. There are anomolies we must examine.

There are flint axe heads that are labelled neolithic, and from China very curiously there are Cong Tubes and Bi Discs made of jade. All three would have taken a very long time to craft. This doesn't take into consideration the massive monuments and structures that were created during the so-called Neolithic period.

This blog will examine these anomolies throughout the past 10,000 years.