At 430,000 years old, an axe blade discovered within a cave in Atapuerca, Spain is the earliest evidence of symbolic thinking known to man. Here's the story.
An engaging and lyrical essay -- thank you! As much as I want to agree with your conclusion, I am not persuaded that "we" are doing any such thing, at least not in the U.S. My frame of reference is perhaps warped, but having attended two funerals relatively recently -- at the same evangelical church -- I think that instead of embracing symbolism in a rich and meaningful sense, Americans are retreating from death into well-worn platitudes. The pastor at this church recycled essentially the same eulogy for each of my grandparents, which may have owed to the fact that he saw their deaths as an occasion to win new followers. The whole arc of his memorial led to an altar call -- they were ready, how about you? It made me think for the first time how generic the idea of Christian salvation is, how it's made to fit all lives equally.
How welcome a custom-made axe blade, crafted in loving memory for a single individual, would have been in that sanctuary.
This has introduced the rather cynical thought that maybe Excalibur was fashioned with an eye towards controlling the tribe and not so much wishing the departed safe passage. Human nature may not have changed much in 430,000 years either. Less cynically, I think about the meaning that casting dirt onto a freshly placed coffin or setting a stone on a grave (or flowers) still carry a great deal of symbolism. Given the opportunistic pastor, one might find silence the best sendoff.
But on a personal note, I would prefer if everyone carves me a lovely axe blade and weeps uncontrollably. 😀
How interesting. Yes, the spiritual gatekeepers go a long way back. I recall that this was one of the theories about the Mayan collapse -- something like an Occupy Wall Street uprising against priests who overreached. I found it curious that the Mayan people I met in the Yucatan did not see the big tourist sites, like Uxmal and Chichen Itza as sacred places. I didn't do any actual research on this, just anecdotal queries, but it seemed quite different from the Black Hills for the Sioux Nation.
As a fledgling Quaker, I find silence to be suitable for many occasions!
“Excalibur goes on show for the first time this weekend at an exhibition of Atapuerca's work in the American Museum of Natural History, in New York.” ( January 2003).
This came from one of the articles I read .
I thought I’d send this to you so you’d figure your daughter’s exact age at the time.
Yeah, quite strange that you ‘met’ Excalibur.
The museum of Natural History. Now there’s maybe one of the few good reasons to live in NYC. At least from an ‘ in the woods ‘
Vermont perspective.
Rather wake in the morning, put my skis in the car and drive a short distance to the mountains.
Still caught up in it all , the highest compliment I can pay to an author.
A lovely note and start to my day (far, far from the Green Mountains - and Jamaica where I just spent a week.) What's crazy about the Excalibur find was that the entire trip to the AMNH was in search of these wolves from Wonderstruck and then I ended up finding my own reward completely by accident. I was, however, disappointed to learn later that the one I saw in the case was a replica -- it is likely the original was on display in 2003.
Maybe starting and controlling fire was the big bang metaphor, how fire is like the sun in its heat and color, like life in how it begins, spreads, dies, but a sun of our own keeping, a life of our own making.
Wasn’t that basically the idea behind the old movie Quest for Fire, the absolute centrality of fire to human existence? Derided at the time for its unscientific ideas, the movie did have a simple language that Anthony Burgess created for it. He was always plinking around with language, as in the glossary for A Clockwork Orange.
It’s easy to imagine the axe blade maker as having fire, as having language, but we don’t know that at all. But he certainly had to have imagination, the ability to see the finished object in his mind as he worked. That’s a kind of visual metaphor, I suppose, to see a tool where others see only a rock.
Did the axe maker find the finished object as aesthetically pleasing as we do, beyond just a job-well-done satisfaction? An axe blade doesn’t have to be aerodynamic like an arrowhead, yet that object is so symmetrical, so “finished.” It’s a shock to think about.
I remember Quest for Fire like a tiny blip now. I will have to revisit next time I'm insisting that I've watched everything. You're perfectly right of course about the unknown nature of these people themselves. They might not have even had language! (Although language seems fundamental to symbolic thinking, but what do I know?)
Yes, it is so symmetrical, so "finished." You're damn straight.
It continues to spark my mind, too. There's a wild epilogue to that story. I was with my daughter (maybe she was 11 at the time?) in the musuem of natural history in NYC and we were looking for an exhibit from Wunderstruck, a favorite book of hers. She found the panorama of wolves at night and in the same visit I came across Excalibur (after I'd written this.) Weird day.
An engaging and lyrical essay -- thank you! As much as I want to agree with your conclusion, I am not persuaded that "we" are doing any such thing, at least not in the U.S. My frame of reference is perhaps warped, but having attended two funerals relatively recently -- at the same evangelical church -- I think that instead of embracing symbolism in a rich and meaningful sense, Americans are retreating from death into well-worn platitudes. The pastor at this church recycled essentially the same eulogy for each of my grandparents, which may have owed to the fact that he saw their deaths as an occasion to win new followers. The whole arc of his memorial led to an altar call -- they were ready, how about you? It made me think for the first time how generic the idea of Christian salvation is, how it's made to fit all lives equally.
How welcome a custom-made axe blade, crafted in loving memory for a single individual, would have been in that sanctuary.
This has introduced the rather cynical thought that maybe Excalibur was fashioned with an eye towards controlling the tribe and not so much wishing the departed safe passage. Human nature may not have changed much in 430,000 years either. Less cynically, I think about the meaning that casting dirt onto a freshly placed coffin or setting a stone on a grave (or flowers) still carry a great deal of symbolism. Given the opportunistic pastor, one might find silence the best sendoff.
But on a personal note, I would prefer if everyone carves me a lovely axe blade and weeps uncontrollably. 😀
How interesting. Yes, the spiritual gatekeepers go a long way back. I recall that this was one of the theories about the Mayan collapse -- something like an Occupy Wall Street uprising against priests who overreached. I found it curious that the Mayan people I met in the Yucatan did not see the big tourist sites, like Uxmal and Chichen Itza as sacred places. I didn't do any actual research on this, just anecdotal queries, but it seemed quite different from the Black Hills for the Sioux Nation.
As a fledgling Quaker, I find silence to be suitable for many occasions!
“Excalibur goes on show for the first time this weekend at an exhibition of Atapuerca's work in the American Museum of Natural History, in New York.” ( January 2003).
This came from one of the articles I read .
I thought I’d send this to you so you’d figure your daughter’s exact age at the time.
Yeah, quite strange that you ‘met’ Excalibur.
The museum of Natural History. Now there’s maybe one of the few good reasons to live in NYC. At least from an ‘ in the woods ‘
Vermont perspective.
Rather wake in the morning, put my skis in the car and drive a short distance to the mountains.
Still caught up in it all , the highest compliment I can pay to an author.
A lovely note and start to my day (far, far from the Green Mountains - and Jamaica where I just spent a week.) What's crazy about the Excalibur find was that the entire trip to the AMNH was in search of these wolves from Wonderstruck and then I ended up finding my own reward completely by accident. I was, however, disappointed to learn later that the one I saw in the case was a replica -- it is likely the original was on display in 2003.
Maybe starting and controlling fire was the big bang metaphor, how fire is like the sun in its heat and color, like life in how it begins, spreads, dies, but a sun of our own keeping, a life of our own making.
Wasn’t that basically the idea behind the old movie Quest for Fire, the absolute centrality of fire to human existence? Derided at the time for its unscientific ideas, the movie did have a simple language that Anthony Burgess created for it. He was always plinking around with language, as in the glossary for A Clockwork Orange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVOTT8N2zM
It’s easy to imagine the axe blade maker as having fire, as having language, but we don’t know that at all. But he certainly had to have imagination, the ability to see the finished object in his mind as he worked. That’s a kind of visual metaphor, I suppose, to see a tool where others see only a rock.
Did the axe maker find the finished object as aesthetically pleasing as we do, beyond just a job-well-done satisfaction? An axe blade doesn’t have to be aerodynamic like an arrowhead, yet that object is so symmetrical, so “finished.” It’s a shock to think about.
I remember Quest for Fire like a tiny blip now. I will have to revisit next time I'm insisting that I've watched everything. You're perfectly right of course about the unknown nature of these people themselves. They might not have even had language! (Although language seems fundamental to symbolic thinking, but what do I know?)
Yes, it is so symmetrical, so "finished." You're damn straight.
400K years ago.
My ever inquisitive mind and my constant need to research what is new to me , what I don’t comprehend, has left my mind spinning in many
directions. A flurry of thoughts as I ‘dig’ further into the elements of your story.
Excalibur! Will its existence significantly change how archeologists have recorded the evolution of intelligence?
Are we still evolving!?
Wonderful post, especially with the added touch that only you can bring to a this story.
Thanks for causing some major sparks in my synapses.
I’m reveling in the inner ‘fireworks display’ of my mind.
And that’s saying a lot, considering I have not finished my dose of caffeine yet.
It continues to spark my mind, too. There's a wild epilogue to that story. I was with my daughter (maybe she was 11 at the time?) in the musuem of natural history in NYC and we were looking for an exhibit from Wunderstruck, a favorite book of hers. She found the panorama of wolves at night and in the same visit I came across Excalibur (after I'd written this.) Weird day.