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12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

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Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#121
People seem to assume that realistic art is a sign of artistic "progress" and sophistication. But is it really so?

People in prehistoric times must have been the most skilled stone carvers ever. This was the technology of the era. What they might have lacked in tooling they surely had in craftmanship and available time.

Is it a case of not being able to carve something more realistic or not interested in doing do?

Maybe confronted with the later artistic fashion of emulating reality (started in Ancient Greece and ended in the early 20th century) they would retort:

Why waste your time reproducing something that already exists?

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#122

There is no overstating just how absolutely wrong in almost every dimension possible most of the posters on this site are. It’s distilled ignorance mixed with the arrogance of an annoying 8 year old. Hacker News is the worst “tech” site that exists.

Please enlighten us! I'll be people would overlook the tone of your comment if you just said something constructive along with it (I hope you do).

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#124
post #93

Is there some way that we could "scan the Earth" to find other long-buried sites like Göbeklitepe? Would it be possible to do something from imaging satellites — something akin to ground-penetrating radar / laser range-finding / ultrasound — that might not be good enough for much, but which would be "just good enough" to find any other gigantic cities with walls built of dense stone, hidden under 10-50ft of dirt or s…

> Is there some way that we could "scan the Earth" to find other long-buried sites like Göbeklitepe?

The Brits had started a Lidar survey of most of their country a few years ago, I'd say 2015-2016, but I'm not sure if that information is entirely accurate and, if it is accurate, I'm not sure how far they have got with it (what if all the cuts made to spending money on stuff that is not seen as essential).

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#125

People seem to assume that realistic art is a sign of artistic "progress" and sophistication. But is it really so? People in prehistoric times must have been the most skilled stone carvers ever. This was the technology of the era. What they might have lacked in tooling they surely had in craftmanship and available time. Is it a case of not being able to carve something more realistic or not interested in doing do? Ma…

Carved in what sense?

Making art has more to do with how you think than how you coordinate your hands.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#126

People seem to assume that realistic art is a sign of artistic "progress" and sophistication. But is it really so? People in prehistoric times must have been the most skilled stone carvers ever. This was the technology of the era. What they might have lacked in tooling they surely had in craftmanship and available time. Is it a case of not being able to carve something more realistic or not interested in doing do? Ma…

> People in prehistoric times must have been the most skilled stone carvers ever.

Look up CNC stone carving, the ancient have nothing on us.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#127
post #126

People seem to assume that realistic art is a sign of artistic "progress" and sophistication. But is it really so? People in prehistoric times must have been the most skilled stone carvers ever. This was the technology of the era. What they might have lacked in tooling they surely had in craftmanship and available time. Is it a case of not being able to carve something more realistic or not interested in doing do? Ma…

> People in prehistoric times must have been the most skilled stone carvers ever. Look up CNC stone carving, the ancient have nothing on us.

Look up Kailasa Temple and show us a CNC equivalent one piece carving of that scale.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#128

It feels like the significance of this is lost on many people. My understanding is that complex things like statues were not supposed to be possible 12,000 years ago. I think it’s supposed to be more like 6000 years ago. The fact that it has been carbon dated to 12,000 tears should means that we have to rewrite the theories on the start of human civilization. These statues needed to be carved out of tools and the edu…

It's roughly as complex and realistic as other artifacts that have already been discovered on the site.

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#129

It feels like the significance of this is lost on many people. My understanding is that complex things like statues were not supposed to be possible 12,000 years ago. I think it’s supposed to be more like 6000 years ago. The fact that it has been carbon dated to 12,000 tears should means that we have to rewrite the theories on the start of human civilization. These statues needed to be carved out of tools and the edu…

I think you might appreciate the book The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow [1]. They dive into the archaeological record and argue precisely that: that the common story of how civilization developed is very wrong, and that complex societies existed before the rise of agriculture, longer than is usually assumed. These findings at Göbekli Tepe appear very much in line with their theory.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_of_Everything

Re: 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

#130

It feels like the significance of this is lost on many people. My understanding is that complex things like statues were not supposed to be possible 12,000 years ago. I think it’s supposed to be more like 6000 years ago. The fact that it has been carbon dated to 12,000 tears should means that we have to rewrite the theories on the start of human civilization. These statues needed to be carved out of tools and the edu…

We know sculptures and cave-paintings much older than this, some made with great artistic skill, so clearly no archeologist would suggest art was “not possible” at this time. Still a significant find and very fascinating.
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