Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Friday, September 18, 2015
A Human on this Earth, Business and Money
A long time ago, in one of my classes at the Trebas Institute in Toronto, I taught students the four stages associated with the Business Life Cycle, which are: Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Death. As surely civilizations come and go, from those now long-forgotten that preceded the Stone Age, despite the hard work and sacrifice of many people to keep them alive, so do products, brands, companies and industries. Over the past century there are many unique businesses now extinct, as each relied on the careful balance of selling new versus old product.
Success or failure relies on human decisions, based on opinion, deciding simply yes or no. Each decision has an impact. Businesses do not make decisions, people do. Businesses do not have a conscience, people do. People can easily impact businesses by the purchase decisions they make. In this sense, people can equally impact a business by choosing to be employed by it or not. Time is what matters, and people have little of it to spend.
By typically generating revenue quarter upon quarter, and thus delivering results, established product lines are trusted by ruling leaders of corporations, providing ownership the requisite confidence in their decision making ability and enabling them to keep their jobs year after year. It is a fact, however, the introduction of new product costs money, to not only introduce new product to the board and to its executives, and to the company on the whole, as well as to distributors and the vaunted media, but most importantly to the consumers expected to buy the product.
It is not an easy decision to introduce new product, and much can go wrong. Early discussions among chief decision makers include the numerous variables associated with an assigned finite budget, and whether - if successfully introduced - the business will actually be able to achieve sales projections and service the product by attracting, hiring, training and retaining a suitable workforce from the top down, while also writing an appropriate set of guiding principles for the company to assure growth and their ability to compete on several levels, locally and globally.
Prior to the introduction of new product, any business must be able to first define a quantifiable base of consumers that needs the product and therefore will buy the product, before determining a strategy to effectively and efficiently reach them wherever they live. Hence, it is incumbent for the marketers, or a third-party professional agency, after much deliberation to eventually offer not only a value proposition for the intended consumer but a comprehensive plan to succeed after evaluating all advertising, public relations, direct selling and promotional options.
Everything is a people business.
To compete and grow, the business must know its consumer can afford the new product. One step beyond, the business must know the consumer is willing to spend their money on a new product. At this stage, it must convince the consumer of their need and the (critical) value the new product will provide once purchased, given the competition and their new product on store shelves, not to mention other priorities facing the consumer. Adult humans have time to spend, and in return are paid for their time - if found productive and hence generate profit for the employer.
Although much can go wrong, people are the biggest risk for any business. But, by working, they do have disposable income, The majority of consumers, when it comes to the purchase decision process, will not take a risk on an unproven and unworthy product; if the product is deemed too expensive when compared to similar product, its days on the shelf are numbered. If a product is deemed bad or proven useless due to the introduction of one cheaper and featuring better technology - offering consumers an improved life and lifestyle - the inferior product will die.
At the end of the day, businesses must invest a lot of money in the introduction of new product to grow and survive and ensure they can remain competitive by being profitable, but if the product is competitive and generates a profit, they are assured a competitor will want a piece of the pie and introduce his own new product into the market cheaper and faster. People make these decisions.
Life is short for a human on this planet, in relative terms, especially if talking to a geologist. Upon surviving costly childhood and risky teen years, regardless of his employment, a productive adult could impact a community that might certainly enable his memory to live on in the community, until eventually swept under the proverbial carpet by more relevant people and their deeds. Sadly, but likely, these memories will be enveloped by a nation of people, and one day all lives and legacies will be forgotten, especially if the nation is swept away by the forces of nature.
There is always a realm of possibilities available to adults with respect to being productive and the responsibility of joining the workforce and accepting a wage in exchange for time spent on the job or doing something else, even nothing or as little as possible in order to live another day. Yet there are people in the corporate world who need to sell other people a job; companies need people after all. Companies also need to compete and to survive they need to remain profitable. Therefore, companies must continually increase revenue and decrease costs to compete and survive.
Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, a company cannot hire enough people and to compete must offer a higher wage to attract employees. Facing competitors employing cheaper labour, they become unprofitable and die. Sometimes, a company chooses not to invest it profits in new technology, and cannot compete against the competitor who does, and dies. Sometimes, a company will die if it cannot - given all the choices a company must make - afford to buy advertisements on television, not only in one city but across an entire nation and in fact globally, while the competitor can and does.
As a human eventually dies, while united under one banner for a moment in time, civilizations do not escape death either, and many - if not all - simply disappear from our history books, regardless of their impact, their innovations or collective deeds on behalf of humanity. Life for a soldier at war, while doing his duty, might be short, while life for his company might be a bit longer, as well as his battalion, though life for his army will end, if the war is lost. People, whether employers or employees, feel the need to make an impact; thus some purchase decisions are based on whether to support a local business or a major corporation.
In the music business today, artists compose songs, and these songs when collated comprise albums, and several albums recorded similarly comprise catalogues. In general, the lifespan of a song is short - as it climbs "the charts" and then falls within weeks - and, if followed by a series of equally popular songs, the album too will enjoy a lifespan of its own, maybe months, and given the success on radio and television and possibly online, the band may live on longer to write and record more albums over years, but if they break up and go their separate ways, the catalogue they leave behind will live on for decades, possibly forever. Maybe.
In general, the new artist does not care about album sales or touring revenue, though he or she does care about recognition, about being heard. They care about the impact they make through the statements found within each of their songs and collectively on their albums and ultimately their catalogue. This is the legacy of the artist across all civilizations: the impact they make on others, and the decisions these consumers make based on the opinions formulated upon hearing their music (or seeing their art) and responding to the message behind the music.
Artists are not afraid to introduce new product. Unfortunately, in most cases, it is the lack of capital that stops them from reaching their audiences across the world. Records labels, and they too have a lifespan, have only a limited amount of time and resources to devote to new product introductions, while balancing budgets based on catalogue sales. New songs, similar to the film industry, are released daily. Humans, however, only have enough time to listen to so much music, and watch so many films.
(This is also true of the investment industry, as there are new companies with new product appearing each day armed with business plans to do well, but only so many firms with so much money to invest in their introduction, based on their ability to assign humans to evaluate them. So, they rely on old "tried and true" product, a catalogue of investment product, graded and proven to generate results.)
Since the introduction of broadcast technology, and radio stations, and the new product each week that feeds the minds of their listeners around the world, it is important that while we recognize the lifespan of a song is short indeed, as is one's own life, it is thus the impact we make that matters the most, This is what we must do with our time over our life. Each business - owners and managers - as well must also reflect on the impact they make, and the impact of their profit, on people and our environment. It matters. Their decisions matter, despite how long or short we or they are here.
New media online still has the opportunity to make dinosaurs out of old broadcasters.
Success or failure relies on human decisions, based on opinion, deciding simply yes or no. Each decision has an impact. Businesses do not make decisions, people do. Businesses do not have a conscience, people do. People can easily impact businesses by the purchase decisions they make. In this sense, people can equally impact a business by choosing to be employed by it or not. Time is what matters, and people have little of it to spend.
By typically generating revenue quarter upon quarter, and thus delivering results, established product lines are trusted by ruling leaders of corporations, providing ownership the requisite confidence in their decision making ability and enabling them to keep their jobs year after year. It is a fact, however, the introduction of new product costs money, to not only introduce new product to the board and to its executives, and to the company on the whole, as well as to distributors and the vaunted media, but most importantly to the consumers expected to buy the product.
It is not an easy decision to introduce new product, and much can go wrong. Early discussions among chief decision makers include the numerous variables associated with an assigned finite budget, and whether - if successfully introduced - the business will actually be able to achieve sales projections and service the product by attracting, hiring, training and retaining a suitable workforce from the top down, while also writing an appropriate set of guiding principles for the company to assure growth and their ability to compete on several levels, locally and globally.
Prior to the introduction of new product, any business must be able to first define a quantifiable base of consumers that needs the product and therefore will buy the product, before determining a strategy to effectively and efficiently reach them wherever they live. Hence, it is incumbent for the marketers, or a third-party professional agency, after much deliberation to eventually offer not only a value proposition for the intended consumer but a comprehensive plan to succeed after evaluating all advertising, public relations, direct selling and promotional options.
Everything is a people business.
To compete and grow, the business must know its consumer can afford the new product. One step beyond, the business must know the consumer is willing to spend their money on a new product. At this stage, it must convince the consumer of their need and the (critical) value the new product will provide once purchased, given the competition and their new product on store shelves, not to mention other priorities facing the consumer. Adult humans have time to spend, and in return are paid for their time - if found productive and hence generate profit for the employer.
Although much can go wrong, people are the biggest risk for any business. But, by working, they do have disposable income, The majority of consumers, when it comes to the purchase decision process, will not take a risk on an unproven and unworthy product; if the product is deemed too expensive when compared to similar product, its days on the shelf are numbered. If a product is deemed bad or proven useless due to the introduction of one cheaper and featuring better technology - offering consumers an improved life and lifestyle - the inferior product will die.
At the end of the day, businesses must invest a lot of money in the introduction of new product to grow and survive and ensure they can remain competitive by being profitable, but if the product is competitive and generates a profit, they are assured a competitor will want a piece of the pie and introduce his own new product into the market cheaper and faster. People make these decisions.
Life is short for a human on this planet, in relative terms, especially if talking to a geologist. Upon surviving costly childhood and risky teen years, regardless of his employment, a productive adult could impact a community that might certainly enable his memory to live on in the community, until eventually swept under the proverbial carpet by more relevant people and their deeds. Sadly, but likely, these memories will be enveloped by a nation of people, and one day all lives and legacies will be forgotten, especially if the nation is swept away by the forces of nature.
There is always a realm of possibilities available to adults with respect to being productive and the responsibility of joining the workforce and accepting a wage in exchange for time spent on the job or doing something else, even nothing or as little as possible in order to live another day. Yet there are people in the corporate world who need to sell other people a job; companies need people after all. Companies also need to compete and to survive they need to remain profitable. Therefore, companies must continually increase revenue and decrease costs to compete and survive.
Sometimes, for a variety of reasons, a company cannot hire enough people and to compete must offer a higher wage to attract employees. Facing competitors employing cheaper labour, they become unprofitable and die. Sometimes, a company chooses not to invest it profits in new technology, and cannot compete against the competitor who does, and dies. Sometimes, a company will die if it cannot - given all the choices a company must make - afford to buy advertisements on television, not only in one city but across an entire nation and in fact globally, while the competitor can and does.
As a human eventually dies, while united under one banner for a moment in time, civilizations do not escape death either, and many - if not all - simply disappear from our history books, regardless of their impact, their innovations or collective deeds on behalf of humanity. Life for a soldier at war, while doing his duty, might be short, while life for his company might be a bit longer, as well as his battalion, though life for his army will end, if the war is lost. People, whether employers or employees, feel the need to make an impact; thus some purchase decisions are based on whether to support a local business or a major corporation.
In the music business today, artists compose songs, and these songs when collated comprise albums, and several albums recorded similarly comprise catalogues. In general, the lifespan of a song is short - as it climbs "the charts" and then falls within weeks - and, if followed by a series of equally popular songs, the album too will enjoy a lifespan of its own, maybe months, and given the success on radio and television and possibly online, the band may live on longer to write and record more albums over years, but if they break up and go their separate ways, the catalogue they leave behind will live on for decades, possibly forever. Maybe.
In general, the new artist does not care about album sales or touring revenue, though he or she does care about recognition, about being heard. They care about the impact they make through the statements found within each of their songs and collectively on their albums and ultimately their catalogue. This is the legacy of the artist across all civilizations: the impact they make on others, and the decisions these consumers make based on the opinions formulated upon hearing their music (or seeing their art) and responding to the message behind the music.
Artists are not afraid to introduce new product. Unfortunately, in most cases, it is the lack of capital that stops them from reaching their audiences across the world. Records labels, and they too have a lifespan, have only a limited amount of time and resources to devote to new product introductions, while balancing budgets based on catalogue sales. New songs, similar to the film industry, are released daily. Humans, however, only have enough time to listen to so much music, and watch so many films.
(This is also true of the investment industry, as there are new companies with new product appearing each day armed with business plans to do well, but only so many firms with so much money to invest in their introduction, based on their ability to assign humans to evaluate them. So, they rely on old "tried and true" product, a catalogue of investment product, graded and proven to generate results.)
Since the introduction of broadcast technology, and radio stations, and the new product each week that feeds the minds of their listeners around the world, it is important that while we recognize the lifespan of a song is short indeed, as is one's own life, it is thus the impact we make that matters the most, This is what we must do with our time over our life. Each business - owners and managers - as well must also reflect on the impact they make, and the impact of their profit, on people and our environment. It matters. Their decisions matter, despite how long or short we or they are here.
New media online still has the opportunity to make dinosaurs out of old broadcasters.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Choral debut of Toronto Valour Ensemble released
As many of you know it was the vocals that differentiated our many Raw Energy bands, and although many of you may wonder how I got involved in a choral album (it is a long story), be assured the vocals on Sacrifice and Solace will astound you, not to mention the overall message behind this project. Lest we forget. Free previews of each song are available via CD Baby and feel free to leave your comments.
Choral debut of Toronto Valour Ensemble released
Choral debut of Toronto Valour Ensemble released
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Cong Tubes and Bi Discs from China - a Neolithic Mystery
A group of Neolithic peoples known today as the Liangzhu culture lived in the Jiangsu province of China. Their jades, ceramics and stone tools were highly sophisticated. Cong tubes were extremely difficult and time-consuming to produce, as jade cannot be split like other stones; it must be worked with a hard abrasive sand. Yet the Neolithic is a period of hunting and cave living.
Due to their extraordinary and elegant workmanship, Liangzhu jade artifacts are always the most favorite collection items for professional collectors worldwide.
The Liangzhu people used two distinct types of jade objects: a disc, later known as a bi, and a tube, later known as a cong, of square cross-section, pierced with a circular hole. They clearly had great significance, but despite the many theories the meaning and purpose of bi and cong remain a mystery. They were (made and) buried in large numbers: one tomb had twenty-five bi and thirty-three cong.
The Lianggzhu were not the first Chinese people to create intricate jade products. Before them came the Hongshan Culture (3500-2200 B.C.). They lived in the areas of south-eastern of Inner Mongolia and western Liaoning Province of China.
But the Hongshan are unrelated to later dynasties and are now known as a distinct jade culture outside the central plains.
Hangzhou is the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province. Long regarded as the nation's paradise city, it is often associated with spots of natural beauty such as the resplendent West Lake, and has been the capital of many ancient Chinese dynasties.
Hangzhou is also home to sites containing relics of some of the earliest Chinese civilizations, such as the famous Liangzhu Culture and the more recently discovered Kuahuqiao Culture. Chinese historians generally regard the Liangzhu Culture as the first peak of Hangzhou's development, while the history of civilization in the city dates back 8,000 years, starting with Kuahuqiao Culture of the Neolithic Age in its suburb Xiaoshan district.
Named after the place where it was first discovered in 1936, Liangzhu is a late Neolithic (or Chalcolithic) culture dating back to 3310 - 2250 BC. Well known for its large number of marvelous jade artifacts, Liangzhu succeeded the Majiabang Culture and later became part of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th Century BC).
Over 5,000 jades have been discovered in the Liangzhu ruins to date. These jades, especially the congs, also have the earliest taotie mask designs as a part of their inscriptions.
The taotie mask is an image formed when the elaborate carvings on a jade are arranged in such a way that the image of a face can be seen in the macro image. These taotie designs were later used and stylized by the Shang and Zhou cultures.
In addition to the more widely known Liangzhu Culture, Hangzhou is also the place of origin of the much earlier Kuahuqiao Culture - a Neolithic Age culture that once thrived in its suburban Xiaoshan district.
Although it is lesser known than Liangzhu, Kuahuqiao Culture is no less and probably even more significant than the former.
The discovery of the Kuahuqiao relic site actually pushes the history of civilization in Hangzhou to 8,000 years ago, much earlier than the Liangzhu Culture.
Located in Xianghu Village in Xiaoshan District in the outskirts of Hangzhou, the Kuahuqiao relic site was first formally discovered in 1990, which led to the unearthing of large quantities of cultural relics such as sophisticated painted pottery, unglazed pottery, stoneware and jade artifacts.
A second excavation was carried out in 2001, with more relics discovered.
Kuahuqiao Culture, which was regarded as one of the Top 10 most important archeological discoveries in China in 2001, is also an unresolved mystery that still enthralls and puzzles archeologists.
While there were many wooden, stone and pottery utensils unearthed from the site, there were no tripods and stones with drilling holes, indicating that hunting may have been the main lifeline of the Kuahuqiao people.
"This means the site has got the characteristics of a very early age," said Yan Wenming, a Peking University professor and researcher at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
"The culture of Kuahuqiao is very unique," said Yan. "It can hardly be compared to any other ancient cultures discovered in the province, and we found it difficult to put it into the cultural chronology within our knowledge," he added.
Due to their extraordinary and elegant workmanship, Liangzhu jade artifacts are always the most favorite collection items for professional collectors worldwide.
The Liangzhu people used two distinct types of jade objects: a disc, later known as a bi, and a tube, later known as a cong, of square cross-section, pierced with a circular hole. They clearly had great significance, but despite the many theories the meaning and purpose of bi and cong remain a mystery. They were (made and) buried in large numbers: one tomb had twenty-five bi and thirty-three cong.
The Lianggzhu were not the first Chinese people to create intricate jade products. Before them came the Hongshan Culture (3500-2200 B.C.). They lived in the areas of south-eastern of Inner Mongolia and western Liaoning Province of China.
But the Hongshan are unrelated to later dynasties and are now known as a distinct jade culture outside the central plains.
Hangzhou is the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province. Long regarded as the nation's paradise city, it is often associated with spots of natural beauty such as the resplendent West Lake, and has been the capital of many ancient Chinese dynasties.
Hangzhou is also home to sites containing relics of some of the earliest Chinese civilizations, such as the famous Liangzhu Culture and the more recently discovered Kuahuqiao Culture. Chinese historians generally regard the Liangzhu Culture as the first peak of Hangzhou's development, while the history of civilization in the city dates back 8,000 years, starting with Kuahuqiao Culture of the Neolithic Age in its suburb Xiaoshan district.
Named after the place where it was first discovered in 1936, Liangzhu is a late Neolithic (or Chalcolithic) culture dating back to 3310 - 2250 BC. Well known for its large number of marvelous jade artifacts, Liangzhu succeeded the Majiabang Culture and later became part of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th Century BC).
Over 5,000 jades have been discovered in the Liangzhu ruins to date. These jades, especially the congs, also have the earliest taotie mask designs as a part of their inscriptions.
The taotie mask is an image formed when the elaborate carvings on a jade are arranged in such a way that the image of a face can be seen in the macro image. These taotie designs were later used and stylized by the Shang and Zhou cultures.
In addition to the more widely known Liangzhu Culture, Hangzhou is also the place of origin of the much earlier Kuahuqiao Culture - a Neolithic Age culture that once thrived in its suburban Xiaoshan district.
Although it is lesser known than Liangzhu, Kuahuqiao Culture is no less and probably even more significant than the former.
The discovery of the Kuahuqiao relic site actually pushes the history of civilization in Hangzhou to 8,000 years ago, much earlier than the Liangzhu Culture.
Located in Xianghu Village in Xiaoshan District in the outskirts of Hangzhou, the Kuahuqiao relic site was first formally discovered in 1990, which led to the unearthing of large quantities of cultural relics such as sophisticated painted pottery, unglazed pottery, stoneware and jade artifacts.
A second excavation was carried out in 2001, with more relics discovered.
Kuahuqiao Culture, which was regarded as one of the Top 10 most important archeological discoveries in China in 2001, is also an unresolved mystery that still enthralls and puzzles archeologists.
While there were many wooden, stone and pottery utensils unearthed from the site, there were no tripods and stones with drilling holes, indicating that hunting may have been the main lifeline of the Kuahuqiao people.
"This means the site has got the characteristics of a very early age," said Yan Wenming, a Peking University professor and researcher at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
"The culture of Kuahuqiao is very unique," said Yan. "It can hardly be compared to any other ancient cultures discovered in the province, and we found it difficult to put it into the cultural chronology within our knowledge," he added.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Value of Ancient Discoveries in Turkey
A few years ago, an awesome archeological discovery was made in southern Turkey, just north of the border with Syria. Three megalithic stone circles that were deliberately buried thousands of years ago on a hilltop were located at Göbekli Tepe. What is astounding is the date and context. These megalithic stone circles are several thousand years older than the first stone circle built at Stonehenge, and they were built by a hunter-gatherer society.
It was always assumed that the workforce required to construct a megalithic stone circle could not be organized until human society had reached the village stage of development in the early Neolithic, when local chieftains need not have looked very far for enough serious muscle power to build a large stone structure. Most stone pillars at Göbekli Tepe weigh 10 to 20 tons, the largest are 50 tons and the most distant quarry was 500m distant. The stone T-shaped monoliths are 3m high, although the one in the center of each circle is taller. The largest pillar is 9m high and was found unfinished in the nearby quarry.
Göbekli Tepe is now under study by Turkish and German archeologists, having been first excavated in 1994. The hill had long been used for agriculture by local farmers and the site is on private land. Monolithic T-shaped pillars are connected by crudely built walls to form oval structures. A low bench runs around the exterior walls. Four such units with diameters between 10m and 20m are the oldest structures built at the site and are dated to ~9,000 B.C.
The second period of construction dates to 7500-6000 B.C. which places it within the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B era. Several rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime have been found dating to this period. Similar stone circles and T-shaped monoliths are found at Karahan Tepe located near Sogmatar on the Harran Plain c.9,000 B.C. and at Nevalý Çori which is 500 years younger than Göbekli Tepe. The T-shaped pillars supported a roof but there is much more to their story. Small domestic structures aside, the Göbekli Tepe hilltop appears to be a cult center that could accommodate a great many people.
The society that built these stone circles utilized a hunter/gatherer economy and must have lived in villages for at least part of the year. It is relevant to note that a few villages have been found in Upper Paleolithic Europe built by cultures of ice age hunters that lived long before the advent of agriculture. What likely did allow for a population concentration – and the necessary manpower – to build Göbekli Tepe were the enormous herds of game documented to exist in the Göbekli Tepe region at the time of megalithic stone circles. Large numbers of butchered deer, gazelle, pigs and geese at Göbekli Tepe suggest ritual feasting and testify to the huge herds of game. Although only a few domestic structures have been found at Göbekli Tepe, villages were built at this time in eastern/southern Turkey to preserve and store large amounts of game.
It is also not necessary to postulate a stratified class society, with elite royalty and priestly castes. One strong leader could mobilize the necessary workforce, and with a few respected friends organize the stone circle construction, particularly as we can assume community agreement as to the ritual and its meaning. A workforce of 500 strong men would have been needed to extract and move the stone pillars, then construct the ritual stone circles. Think of large, ritual stone circles as the ultimate Lego build out.
No traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found at Göbekli Tepe or in the adjacent region. Earliest proto-agricultural experiments are known from Upper Mesopotamia c.9500-10,000 B.C. and even earlier at 13,000 B.C. on the banks of the Upper Nile. A wild ancestor of domestic wheat has been found on a mountain only 20 miles away from Göbekli Tepe. Was wheat first domesticated in this region – an activity that promoted village life and population concentration from which a workforce for the hilltop sanctuary could be recruited? Earliest human activity at Göbekli Tepe may go back to 11,000 B.C., and the period of time when the megalithic stone circles were used is much earlier than evidence for the first agriculture in the region.
Ideas that Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding region is the historical reality behind the biblical Garden of Eden may not be as far fetched as they first seem. Archeology in Syria and Turkey has established that the region later known as the ‘fertile crescent’ was very lush immediately after the last Ice Age ended. The environment was exceptionally rich, herds of wild animals were huge, and plants and food were easily obtained. Gazelle herds might number 100,000, and permanent settlements were erected by 12,000 B.C. by nomadic hunters to store dried meat.
English archeoastronomy researcher Andrew Collins identifies Eden as a large region encompassing Upper Mesopotamia (Southeast Turkey, Northern Syria and Northern Iraq). He believes that the Biblical Garden of Eden in the Old Testament is a transformed memory that persisted throughout the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia. This memory of the extremely lush environment of this region of the fertile crescent immediately after the Upper Paleolithic ended and the glaciers retreated north may have been deliberately and carefully preserved by the priesthoods of Sumer, Egypt, Bablyon and Assyria. This ‘legend’ became the Garden of Eden in the Christian Old Testament.
Full article and pictures posted here: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/mystery-deliberate-burial-ancient-megalithic-stone-circles/9949
It was always assumed that the workforce required to construct a megalithic stone circle could not be organized until human society had reached the village stage of development in the early Neolithic, when local chieftains need not have looked very far for enough serious muscle power to build a large stone structure. Most stone pillars at Göbekli Tepe weigh 10 to 20 tons, the largest are 50 tons and the most distant quarry was 500m distant. The stone T-shaped monoliths are 3m high, although the one in the center of each circle is taller. The largest pillar is 9m high and was found unfinished in the nearby quarry.
Göbekli Tepe is now under study by Turkish and German archeologists, having been first excavated in 1994. The hill had long been used for agriculture by local farmers and the site is on private land. Monolithic T-shaped pillars are connected by crudely built walls to form oval structures. A low bench runs around the exterior walls. Four such units with diameters between 10m and 20m are the oldest structures built at the site and are dated to ~9,000 B.C.
The second period of construction dates to 7500-6000 B.C. which places it within the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B era. Several rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime have been found dating to this period. Similar stone circles and T-shaped monoliths are found at Karahan Tepe located near Sogmatar on the Harran Plain c.9,000 B.C. and at Nevalý Çori which is 500 years younger than Göbekli Tepe. The T-shaped pillars supported a roof but there is much more to their story. Small domestic structures aside, the Göbekli Tepe hilltop appears to be a cult center that could accommodate a great many people.
The society that built these stone circles utilized a hunter/gatherer economy and must have lived in villages for at least part of the year. It is relevant to note that a few villages have been found in Upper Paleolithic Europe built by cultures of ice age hunters that lived long before the advent of agriculture. What likely did allow for a population concentration – and the necessary manpower – to build Göbekli Tepe were the enormous herds of game documented to exist in the Göbekli Tepe region at the time of megalithic stone circles. Large numbers of butchered deer, gazelle, pigs and geese at Göbekli Tepe suggest ritual feasting and testify to the huge herds of game. Although only a few domestic structures have been found at Göbekli Tepe, villages were built at this time in eastern/southern Turkey to preserve and store large amounts of game.
It is also not necessary to postulate a stratified class society, with elite royalty and priestly castes. One strong leader could mobilize the necessary workforce, and with a few respected friends organize the stone circle construction, particularly as we can assume community agreement as to the ritual and its meaning. A workforce of 500 strong men would have been needed to extract and move the stone pillars, then construct the ritual stone circles. Think of large, ritual stone circles as the ultimate Lego build out.
No traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found at Göbekli Tepe or in the adjacent region. Earliest proto-agricultural experiments are known from Upper Mesopotamia c.9500-10,000 B.C. and even earlier at 13,000 B.C. on the banks of the Upper Nile. A wild ancestor of domestic wheat has been found on a mountain only 20 miles away from Göbekli Tepe. Was wheat first domesticated in this region – an activity that promoted village life and population concentration from which a workforce for the hilltop sanctuary could be recruited? Earliest human activity at Göbekli Tepe may go back to 11,000 B.C., and the period of time when the megalithic stone circles were used is much earlier than evidence for the first agriculture in the region.
Ideas that Göbekli Tepe and the surrounding region is the historical reality behind the biblical Garden of Eden may not be as far fetched as they first seem. Archeology in Syria and Turkey has established that the region later known as the ‘fertile crescent’ was very lush immediately after the last Ice Age ended. The environment was exceptionally rich, herds of wild animals were huge, and plants and food were easily obtained. Gazelle herds might number 100,000, and permanent settlements were erected by 12,000 B.C. by nomadic hunters to store dried meat.
English archeoastronomy researcher Andrew Collins identifies Eden as a large region encompassing Upper Mesopotamia (Southeast Turkey, Northern Syria and Northern Iraq). He believes that the Biblical Garden of Eden in the Old Testament is a transformed memory that persisted throughout the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia. This memory of the extremely lush environment of this region of the fertile crescent immediately after the Upper Paleolithic ended and the glaciers retreated north may have been deliberately and carefully preserved by the priesthoods of Sumer, Egypt, Bablyon and Assyria. This ‘legend’ became the Garden of Eden in the Christian Old Testament.
Full article and pictures posted here: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/mystery-deliberate-burial-ancient-megalithic-stone-circles/9949
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Art for art's sake alive and well in the Neolithic
"Art history" typically begins to follow a prescribed course: Iron and bronze are discovered; then, ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt arise, make art, and are followed by art in the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome.
After this, we civilized people of the world hang out in Europe for the next thousand years, eventually moving on to the New World, which subsequently shares artistic honours with Europe. This route is commonly known as "Western Art", and is often the focus of any art history and/or art appreciation syllabus.
However, the sort of art that has been described in this article as "Neolithic" (i.e.: Stone age; that of pre-literate peoples who hadn't yet discovered how to smelt metals) continued to flourish in the Americas, Africa, Australia and, in particular, Oceania. In some instances, it was still thriving in the previous (20th) century.
During the Neolithic period, the "new" arts to emerge were weaving, architecture, the construction of megaliths and increasingly stylized pictographs and so people were well on their way to writing.
The earlier arts of statuary, painting and pottery stuck with (and still remain with) us. The New Stone Age saw many refinements to each. Statuary (primarily statuettes) made a big comeback after having been largely absent during the Mesolithic age.
Its Neolithic theme dwelt primarily on the female/fertility, or "Mother Goddess" imagery, (quite in keeping with agriculture, and paganism). There are animal statuettes, however these weren't lavished with the detail the goddesses enjoyed. They are often found broken into bits.
Additionally, sculpture was no longer created strictly by carving something. In the Near East, in particular, figurines were now fashioned out of clay and baked. Archaeological digs at Jericho turned up a marvelous human skull (c. 7,000 BC) overlaid with delicate, sculpted plaster features.
Painting, in Western Europe and the Near East, left the caves and cliffs for good, and became a purely decorative element. The finds of Çatal Hüyük, an ancient village in modern Turkey, show lovely wall paintings (including the world's earliest known landscape), dating from c. 6150 BC.
As for pottery, it began replacing stone and wood utensils at a rapid pace, and also became more highly decorated.
After this, we civilized people of the world hang out in Europe for the next thousand years, eventually moving on to the New World, which subsequently shares artistic honours with Europe. This route is commonly known as "Western Art", and is often the focus of any art history and/or art appreciation syllabus.
However, the sort of art that has been described in this article as "Neolithic" (i.e.: Stone age; that of pre-literate peoples who hadn't yet discovered how to smelt metals) continued to flourish in the Americas, Africa, Australia and, in particular, Oceania. In some instances, it was still thriving in the previous (20th) century.
During the Neolithic period, the "new" arts to emerge were weaving, architecture, the construction of megaliths and increasingly stylized pictographs and so people were well on their way to writing.
The earlier arts of statuary, painting and pottery stuck with (and still remain with) us. The New Stone Age saw many refinements to each. Statuary (primarily statuettes) made a big comeback after having been largely absent during the Mesolithic age.
Its Neolithic theme dwelt primarily on the female/fertility, or "Mother Goddess" imagery, (quite in keeping with agriculture, and paganism). There are animal statuettes, however these weren't lavished with the detail the goddesses enjoyed. They are often found broken into bits.
Additionally, sculpture was no longer created strictly by carving something. In the Near East, in particular, figurines were now fashioned out of clay and baked. Archaeological digs at Jericho turned up a marvelous human skull (c. 7,000 BC) overlaid with delicate, sculpted plaster features.
Painting, in Western Europe and the Near East, left the caves and cliffs for good, and became a purely decorative element. The finds of Çatal Hüyük, an ancient village in modern Turkey, show lovely wall paintings (including the world's earliest known landscape), dating from c. 6150 BC.
As for pottery, it began replacing stone and wood utensils at a rapid pace, and also became more highly decorated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)