The reluctant cavemen
The image of Paleolithic humans is that of rustic cavemen: people who lived in natural caves. I do not deny that humans ventured into caves for ritual burials, painting, or sought shelter. However, this is not living in a cave. Once in a while I might visit an art gallery and have a meal there. I do not live there.
A natural cave is no place for a human being to occupy. Caves are dark, dump, wet, cold, putrid places, littered with animal feces and remains. There is no doubt that in 200 kyr of human history people have occasionally dwelled in caves where refuse and artifacts had a chance to be preserved in cave sediments, but this is like making sense of modern life from the content of underground military bunkers. Living near the mouth of a cave makes a lot of sense, e.g., military sense, and using these caves for burial also makes a lot of sense, for preservation and visitation. Caves do have their convenience. You can hide from hot afternoon sun, you can wait out a spell of extreme cold weather, but this is temporary relief of episodic nature. We still go to caves, but this does not mean we are cavemen.
Today, no one lives in natural caves (except for an occasional ascetic) including the most primitive people. They do know better, and you do not have to be a rocket scientist to keep out of such places. Certainly, there are people inhabiting caves today, but these "caves" are abandoned mines, pits, or dugout grottos that are relatively homey and dry. For example, 20 million Chinese are living in caves on the Loess Plateau, but they dig their caves themselves and build comfortable huts inside their caves. This is not what our ancestors are said had been doing. Is there any factual evidence that humans lived in natural caves? I do not think so. Actually, this very fact is freely admitted by anthropologists:
...Several components of human domestic behavior are well documented even in Middle Paleolithic cave sites (150-45 kya), where simple hearths are preserved. Around the hearths, food remains such as bones and very rarely even seeds and fruits, as well as flint tools and their production waste, are sometimes concentrated in nonrandom patterns, reflecting activities carried out near the fire. However, the locations of areas devoted to resting and sleeping are not known, because bedding was not preserved. If there had been any floor coverings or bedding, they would have been made of perishables, and these substances do not readily lend themselves to preservation. http://www.pnas.org/content/101/17/6821.full
Their story is that people lived in caves. Their residency is not seen because material proof was made of perishable materials that all disappeared. All of them and without a trace. Not once in the many thousands of Paleolithic caves the conditions where right for preservation of resting areas. And yet our modern hunter-gatherers are not like that at all:
... The houses of contemporary hunter-gatherers have a hearth, as well as a clean and debris-free resting and sleeping area, covered for comfort by grasses, mats, carpets, etc. Within the house or immediately annexed to it, as part of the living area, are various task areas devoted to specific activities, especially those related to the preparation, consumption, or storage of food and those concerned with activities such as tool production or use. This kind of divided living space represents a use of space that reflects attention to safety and health, as well as comfort, and may be what we think of as sophisticated living space standards similar to our own in certain respects but rarely visible in the prehistoric archaeological record.
What could be the explanation of this mystery of mysteries? What if...
Did our ancestors live in caves?
Victorian cavemen.
A natural cave is no place for a human being to occupy. Caves are dark, dump, wet, cold, putrid places, littered with animal feces and remains. There is no doubt that in 200 kyr of human history people have occasionally dwelled in caves where refuse and artifacts had a chance to be preserved in cave sediments, but this is like making sense of modern life from the content of underground military bunkers. Living near the mouth of a cave makes a lot of sense, e.g., military sense, and using these caves for burial also makes a lot of sense, for preservation and visitation. Caves do have their convenience. You can hide from hot afternoon sun, you can wait out a spell of extreme cold weather, but this is temporary relief of episodic nature. We still go to caves, but this does not mean we are cavemen.
Today, no one lives in natural caves (except for an occasional ascetic) including the most primitive people. They do know better, and you do not have to be a rocket scientist to keep out of such places. Certainly, there are people inhabiting caves today, but these "caves" are abandoned mines, pits, or dugout grottos that are relatively homey and dry. For example, 20 million Chinese are living in caves on the Loess Plateau, but they dig their caves themselves and build comfortable huts inside their caves. This is not what our ancestors are said had been doing. Is there any factual evidence that humans lived in natural caves? I do not think so. Actually, this very fact is freely admitted by anthropologists:
...Several components of human domestic behavior are well documented even in Middle Paleolithic cave sites (150-45 kya), where simple hearths are preserved. Around the hearths, food remains such as bones and very rarely even seeds and fruits, as well as flint tools and their production waste, are sometimes concentrated in nonrandom patterns, reflecting activities carried out near the fire. However, the locations of areas devoted to resting and sleeping are not known, because bedding was not preserved. If there had been any floor coverings or bedding, they would have been made of perishables, and these substances do not readily lend themselves to preservation. http://www.pnas.org/content/101/17/6821.full
Their story is that people lived in caves. Their residency is not seen because material proof was made of perishable materials that all disappeared. All of them and without a trace. Not once in the many thousands of Paleolithic caves the conditions where right for preservation of resting areas. And yet our modern hunter-gatherers are not like that at all:
... The houses of contemporary hunter-gatherers have a hearth, as well as a clean and debris-free resting and sleeping area, covered for comfort by grasses, mats, carpets, etc. Within the house or immediately annexed to it, as part of the living area, are various task areas devoted to specific activities, especially those related to the preparation, consumption, or storage of food and those concerned with activities such as tool production or use. This kind of divided living space represents a use of space that reflects attention to safety and health, as well as comfort, and may be what we think of as sophisticated living space standards similar to our own in certain respects but rarely visible in the prehistoric archaeological record.
What could be the explanation of this mystery of mysteries? What if...
Did our ancestors live in caves?
Victorian cavemen.