Arkeo.Lypto

via Bibliothèque de l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Paris

Painted relief of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC) wearing the Atef crown, from Deir el-Bahari. Now in the Luxor Museum.

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First Nations People in Australia employed a wide variety of tools and weapons for hunting and fishing. These methods varied greatly throughout the many different Indigenous cultures of the Australian continent. The boomerang (seen in each picture), iconic and misunderstood, has likely existed in Australia for over 40,000 years. The key misunderstanding of boomerangs is that they were rarely designed to return to the thrower. Instead, the main function of a boomerang is to hit and kill what it is thrown at. Boomerang designs vary greatly throughout Indigenous Australian cultures, and it is this variation which reflects the social and cultural diversity of Aboriginal people. This diversity includes differences in utility, physical design and aerodynamic ability and in the paintings and engravings found on the boomerang. Commonly considered artworks in and of themselves, boomerangs are highly sought after in Australia today. The hunting tool has remarkable aerodynamic properties, capable of hitting a target from beyond 200 metres with great accuracy. The boomerang would often serve as a multipurpose instrument; utilized for hunting, fighting, agriculture and trading.  The woomera (bottom image), is an ancient technology used to propel a spear with great force, speed and accuracy, similar in design to the Atlatl of the Aztecs. Effectively a sling, the woomera is held in one hand while the other hand places the butt of the spear on the woomera’s hook. The woomera doubles the length of the thrower’s arm, greatly increasing the velocity of the spear. The kinetic energy of a spear launched from a woomera has been calculated as four times that of an arrow launched from a compound bow. Another multipurpose instrument, the tools long and hollow shape allowed the hunter to carry water, vegetables and other small food items. Many woomeras had a sharp stone cutting edge attached to the end of the handle with black gum from the triodia plant. This sharp tool had many uses, such as cutting up game or other food and wood.  Aboriginal peoples catch fish, turtles and stingrays using barbed spears, nets and lines with hooks made from sea shells. The Noongar, for example, are skilled at building circular stone walls in rivers to trap fish.  As river levels fluxuate and eventually fall, fish become trapped inside the stone walls, ready to be taken. Aboriginal peoples also place long, narrow baskets of twigs in rivers to trap fish. The baskets are wide enough for fish to swim into the opening, but once inside, the fish could not turn around and escape. The man seen fishing in the bottom image also has a small club, sometimes known as a Nulla Nulla, fastened to his belt. In the second image, a Luritja man from Australia’s Western Desert demonstrates his stalking ability with two boomerangs and a shield.

European invasion decimated populations of the Yaghan through killings and infectious disease. Today, a small but present amount of people in the Southern Cone identify as Yaghan.

Set in a modern 24K yellow gold ring. The eye is obsidian and limestone and was set into wood image. 

What, pray tell, the fuck??? This single flake has TWO bulbs of percussion attached and parallel to each other???

Three rings, from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (ca. 1332-1323 BC). Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

The Sami people are a people inhabiting Sápmi (known in English as Lapps), which today encompasses large parts of Norway and Sweden, northern parts of Finland, and the Murmansk Oblast of Russia. The Sami are the only indigenous people in Scandinavia that are recognized and protected under the international conventions of indigenous peoples.    Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Currently about 10% of the Sami continue to herd reindeer. This practise provides them with meat, fur, and transportation. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved for the Sami in some regions of the Nordic countries.   Petroglyphs and archeological findings such as settlements dating from about 10,000 B.C. can be found in the traditional lands of the Sami. A characteristic feature of Sami musical tradition is the singing of yoik. Yoiks are song-chants and are traditionally sung a cappella, usually sung slowly and deep in the throat with apparent emotional content of sorrow or anger. Yoiks can be dedicated to animals and birds in nature, special people or special occasions, and they can be joyous, sad or melancholic. They often are based on syllablic improvisation Some examples of Sami traditional clothing are the Gákti (pictured above with a goldwork collar for women), Four Winds Hat, Beaska (reindeer coat, pictured bottom centre) and the Luhhka (a poncho-like hooded cape). For centuries, the Sami have been the subject of discrimination and abuse by the dominant cultures who claim possession of their lands. The sentiment and official policies towards the Sami differ in each of the countries which they currently inhabit.

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Man standing next to Stela K near the eastern border of the Great Plaza, Quirigua, Guatemala. 1894.

Today we celebrate the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. I hope to spread some awareness about Indigenous Australian history, and of the plight that is suffered every day by many Aboriginals within Australia. Aboriginal Australians belong to the longest surviving culture on Earth, having existed here for at least 65,000 years. Many components of this culture have remained useful since their inception, and can be observed in use today. Colonial thought harbored a skewed view of progress and of privilege. When the First Fleet landed in Botany Bay in 1788, Captain Cook and his crew failed to observe permanent dwellings and demarcated land which, in their eyes, would have signified ‘proper’ land ownership. Their failure to understand Aboriginal society allowed them to justify the myth of terra nullius, of land belonging to no one, because they categorized Aboriginals as scenery, as part of the land; as animals. The beleif in this myth led to the mass genocide of Aboriginal people and the defilement of their culture. Indigenous Australians were dispossessed, enslaved, raped, and displaced onto missions and reserves for forced enculturation, christianization and adoption of colonial ideals. Once deemed a ‘dying race’, Aboriginals were almost completely wiped out. The first Australian colonials believed this extinction to be an inevitability which was caused by the Aboriginals occupancy of the lowest rungs in the evolutionary hierarchy, where white Europeans inhabited the very top. The amount of hardship endured by Aboriginals beginning from the day of invasion, is impossible to conceptualize. It was only in 1967 that they were formally recognized as citizens of Australia, to be included in the census. Despite all of this, more than 3% of Australia’s population identifies as Aboriginal, and the population is rising. Disappointingly, many of the dominant myths which were believed by the first colonials are still believed by Australians today. A truly disgusting amount of racism and ignorance remains in the minds of many Australian citizens regarding their perceptions of this continents First People. The situation of Indigenous Australians today is complex and upsetting, with suicide and incarceration rates much higher than that of the white population. Still, much progress has been made, though it is difficult to see what lays on the horizon. In a world where we have destroyed and poisoned our Earth, believing ourselves to be separate from it, as being more powerful than nature, we have much to learn from these peoples whom have been so gravely mistreated throughout the course of history. We are all part of the land. The Australian continent is ancient, mysterious and deeply spiritual. Australia’s First Nations People have a deep and true connection to the spirit of the land, and it’s about time we listened to them, and learned from them, before it’s too late.

The new analysis, enabled by a remarkably well-preserved genome taken from a 52,000 year old bone fragment, is now the second Neanderthal genome to be fully sequenced in high fidelity. The resulting study, now published in Science, confirms a bunch of things we already knew about Neanderthals, while also revealing some things we didn’t know.