Divulgation
WINTER SOLSTICE
Humans have the ability to observe their environment and transform natural processes into cultural ones.
Today is the winter solstice, a moment marked by the astronomical dance between the Earth and the Sun.
Today is the shortest day of the year, the longest night.
Today marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next.
Prehistoric societies depended on the solar cycle; they surely knew it well and relied on it for hunting, gathering, and their survival. They did the same with death, turning a natural and inevitable process into cultural rituals. In some places, they even combined these two aspects, constructing large megalithic structures oriented in such a way that, on a day like today, the sun would illuminate the funerary chamber. In this way, both processes converged.
Did Paleolithic societies also combine the ritual or funerary with the astronomical? Probably, but we don’t know for sure. In Deathrevol we will keep working to try to answer these questions.
TRIVIAL GAME: HISTORY
Who was Clémence Royer?
Listen to episode 2 of our podcast “Historias de la Prehistoria” to learn more about her!
TRIVIAL GAME: SITES
Where was this burial discovered? Did you get it right? Keep playing our trivial game every week!
TRIVIAL GAME: TAPHONOMY
The below photo shows a human radius that has a series of incisions.
Did you know what caused these marks on the bone before reading this post?
TRIVIAL GAME: HISTORY
Do you know who discovered the fossil known as the Tabun-1?
In this post we tell you a little bit about her, but you can also listen to episode 6 of our podcast “Historias de la Prehistoria” to learn more about her valuable contributions to the world of science.
TRIVIAL GAME: SITES
Do you identify this skull? If you have participated in our trivial game this week, you may already know that it was discovered at the Abri Pataud site.
For mor information, you can also visit the “sites” section of this website.
TRIVIAL GAME: TAPHONOMY
Bones don´t lie!
Did you know that the marks you see in the image were caused by a rodent?
If you want more information, you can read “Taphonomic-forensic analysis of the hominin skulls from the Sima de los Huesos”.
