[HN Gopher] People built bone circles at the edge of ice sheets ___________________________________________________________________ People built bone circles at the edge of ice sheets Author : diodorus Score : 58 points Date : 2020-03-29 17:11 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com) (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com) | luckydata wrote: | Obviously they were protecting themselves from the ice walkers | xiaolingxiao wrote: | Winter is coming | ComputerGuru wrote: | Please do your part to keep HN meme-free. | DingleDook101 wrote: | NO FUN ALLOWED WE R SRS BSNS TECHPROFEZZINAL | Mikeb85 wrote: | Probably a hunting camp. Would explain the fact that the bone | circles were often occupied but not a permanent shelter, and the | large amount of mammoth bones. | | Their permanent settlement would have likely been in a more | sheltered spot, while the camp would serve as base for | expeditions to hunt mammoths, then they'd be broken down and | taken back to their permanent settlement. | gerdesj wrote: | Perhaps. This bloke, | https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/apryor/sup... | says: | | "In a future article, we will argue that their function as | food-storage facilities should be given further consideration," | alexfromapex wrote: | Probably helped them predict severity of winter since they didn't | have the weather channel. Or maybe free water when it melts? | mirimir wrote: | Could they have provided protection from other predators? | | Edit: That was a straight question! | GuardianCaveman wrote: | I agree why else build a circular wall but to keep animals and | enemies out unless they had animal skins draped and that was | the walls to support the roof? | harryf wrote: | Refrigeration ? | slowmovintarget wrote: | Or ritual, perhaps. | pugworthy wrote: | Interesting idea. Lots of meat from a kill, need to store it, | but also protect it from preditors | ianai wrote: | This seems like the obvious case. They could probably | excavate large areas of ice for mass refrigeration with ease. | monadic2 wrote: | There are many ways to refrigerate with snow around--everything | from burying to immersing in animal fat to curing. I'd guess | this was intended at least in part for regular human | interaction, e.g. a reliable hunting camp. | [deleted] | cosmiccatnap wrote: | It was to warn them not to walk on the ice ffs. | danielhlockard wrote: | Did you read? They were circles with remnants of fires and tool | making in the middle. Not like a barrier lining the end of the | ice or something. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-03-29 23:00 UTC)