#BingoRageStudio: Prehistoric Man and #TheRoseOfDamocles

I have been commenting on many Reddit and FaceBook threads about Human evolution and global peopling, with a focus on the New World; my Indigenous people and culture.

My general proposal is that all of our primal, human stories and archetypal themes reflect incredibly ancient interactions between peoples, the global environment and "the other". War, flood and Monsters.

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(N.B.: Some of my numbers and facts are pulled from the cesspool of my vast general knowledge, quick/sharp reckoning and may not be entirely fact-checked, but will be ballpark and in the correct direction, generally. Please feel free to suggest rational corrections/updates. I will insert corrections and updates in green bold. Thanx.)

Reddit Post; some of my comments/replies.

"Nature: New archaeological evidence has dramatically pushed back the accepted earliest human occupation of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to more than 100,000 years ago – 60,000 years older than previously thought."
by Surf_Science

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(reditor) exitflow:

"Aren't we only 100,000 years old as a species?"

(redditor) BingoRage:

"Anatomically modern" humans arose about 200 000 years ago, but didn't leave Africa until nearly 100 000 years ago. It had been known that Homo Erectus left Africa much earlier, at least a few hundred thousand years earlier and gave rise, it seems, to at least 3 archaic human species: Neanderthal, Denisovans and Floresiensis. It is interesting to note that an extremely primitive human species may have lasted until 14 000 years ago in China (Red Deer Cave), perhaps Homo Erectus.

(redditor) Typhera:

Don't more modern views, see those "archaic human species" as having been quite on par with "modern" humans, instead of primitive versions of it? Neanderthals used tools and theres some evidence of ship building, their brains were also larger than that of the homo sapiens (ofc, size =/= complexity) and its now thought they were on par with homo sapiens in most aspects.

Im guessing all those "archaic" human species were as evolved biologically as Sapiens, but less resilient/lower birthrate which made them extinct while mixing with sapiens that migrated into the regions? Know of any good, modern, sources of info? Sadly this is a slow field and a lot of information is rather outdated.

Edit: Also evidence of burial rituals and having used fire, had art and were able to speak. The neanderthal, that is.

(redditor) BingoRage:

The terms "archaic" and "primitive" reference humans that were separate species, anatomically distinct, older and no longer present. They were as "evolved" as us, physically. Homo Erectus/Ergaster emerged nearly 2 million years ago, but for a million+ years only made one tool, the "hand axe". It's thought that they gave rise to the archaic humans (in Africa, Asia and Europe), one of which became us (in Africa). Neanderthal seem to have "invented" body adornment (beads, jewelry, bodypaint) and new stone tech, but not visual art (that I know of). Since we interbred with at least a couple archaic humans (DNA evidence in our genome), it is likely that there was cultural exchange of some sort. There is plenty of evidence for cannibalism in both directions, as well. It seems that our own lineage only developed representational art 30 000(+?) years ago and that contact with Neanderthal may have spurred their late cultural development in western europe. Archaic humans were probably not incapable of physically maintaining a population, but were forced out by slow expansion of humans and failure to adjust to changing climate and food sources. The amount of new fossil evidence (especially from Asia) is constantly changing the story of our past. As an aside, I think that much of our monster lore comes down to us from those times when we shared the world with the "little people" (Floresiensis), "BigFoot" (Gigantopithecus) and "the other" in general (boogeyman, "wildmen", etc.).

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"The Rose Of Damocles"

I probably had another, dumber working title for this piece before working on it, again, this week. While preparing myself, mentally, for my sister's birthday party; I added a bunch of bold blue rain strokes to the canvas, one of which "hung" over the female(?) figure's Jackhammer-head as she is about to be smited-with, or offered, a rose.

The male((?) figure sports this season's latest #fishhead.

Whom, attacked who? (Or, is it "Who, attacked whom?". I'm fairly certain that I use the word correctly, in the world. hmmm A squirrel...)

Rain at Sunset,