re: #205 engineer dog

actually, i have read up on prehistoric european archeology quite a bit - basically from the time that people like us got there about 54k bc to the time that the romans brought most of the continent into recorded history about 100 bc

the time of gathering and big game hunting during the ice age lasts until about 10k bc - more than 30 thousand years compared to the 12 thousand or so since the ice age ended. during the ice age europeans created the cave paintings that show such astonishing technique, essentially founding the human practice of making great art

the thousands of years of european history after the end of the ice age, especially after the coming of farming to europe at about 6000 bc, is fascinating to me but for some reason much less familiar to most people than what the sumerians and egyptians were doing at the same time

of course the europeans at that time were backwoods hillbillies with nothing much to show but nicely painted pottery and colorful textiles and suchlike

I remember reading a very scholarly book about that some time ago. Well, I actually remember very little. Only that Europe was kind of isolated because of the sea, the mountains and the steppes. Afrika & Asia had more of an opportunity for migration …and trade, etc.