Life through time
June 4, 2007 10:13 AM Subscribe
The first link looks like maddening-to-navigate stock photography. There's a narrative, but it was a PitA to read. I enjoyed the second link, though. Thanks!
posted by Eideteker at 10:31 AM on June 4, 2007
posted by Eideteker at 10:31 AM on June 4, 2007
First link's slideshow was wonderful to watch and read. Thanks.
posted by brautigan at 10:49 AM on June 4, 2007
posted by brautigan at 10:49 AM on June 4, 2007
anyone else getting maddening page size changes from the second link?
posted by parmanparman at 10:55 AM on June 4, 2007
posted by parmanparman at 10:55 AM on June 4, 2007
Does anyone have family photos of the Gates of Grief crossing? My album doesn't go back that far. Thanks!
posted by SaintCynr at 11:04 AM on June 4, 2007
posted by SaintCynr at 11:04 AM on June 4, 2007
The Human Migration timeline was really great...
Thanks!
posted by BobFrapples at 11:36 AM on June 4, 2007
Thanks!
posted by BobFrapples at 11:36 AM on June 4, 2007
Oppenheimer's reconstruction of the first peopling of the Americas is pretty tenuous. I'd say one archaeologist in 20 might buy into that sequence of events. Almost no-one, for example, believes in the Taina-Taina site. I've been researching this issue for the last 10 years. Right now the general consensus is we don't know how the Americas were first peopled, or when, or by what route, or even by whom. That doesn't make very good graphics though, unless they are of a bunch of archaeologists scratching their heads.
Overall the site is in keeping with his book which pretty much cherrypicks the archaeological evidence to fit the genetic. You'll notice the "click here for references" links you to his popular science books. Having read a couple of these and had my work cited in them, my impression is his understanding of archaeological data is upper level undergraduate B-grade at best. No doubt the genetic story will be a huge addition to the multidisciplinary project of the global history of humans. But it isn't there yet, and Oppenheimer strikes me as one who is trying to take an inherently interdisciplinary project and co-opt it for, frankly, profit. Certainly where his statements overlap with my expertise I see no real commitment to accuracy or nuance, only to narrative. He might end up being right, but I am not holding my breath.
posted by Rumple at 11:48 AM on June 4, 2007 [2 favorites]
Overall the site is in keeping with his book which pretty much cherrypicks the archaeological evidence to fit the genetic. You'll notice the "click here for references" links you to his popular science books. Having read a couple of these and had my work cited in them, my impression is his understanding of archaeological data is upper level undergraduate B-grade at best. No doubt the genetic story will be a huge addition to the multidisciplinary project of the global history of humans. But it isn't there yet, and Oppenheimer strikes me as one who is trying to take an inherently interdisciplinary project and co-opt it for, frankly, profit. Certainly where his statements overlap with my expertise I see no real commitment to accuracy or nuance, only to narrative. He might end up being right, but I am not holding my breath.
posted by Rumple at 11:48 AM on June 4, 2007 [2 favorites]
"Gates of Grief": see Geoff Bailey's ongoing project. I saw him present this work a month ago or so and it seems very likely he will confirm >1.0 million before present Arabian Peninsula materials. He already has good Middle Palaeolothic evidence for 125,000 or so. Oppenheimer pegs this route at about 90,000 years ago I believe. Of course he limits himself to "Modern Homo sapiens" and presents the world prior as a blank slate.
posted by Rumple at 11:57 AM on June 4, 2007
posted by Rumple at 11:57 AM on June 4, 2007
Although it doesn't do his photography justice, TED has posted the video of Franz Lanting's Life On Earth presentation at the 2005 conference in Monterey, CA.
posted by gallois at 11:58 AM on June 4, 2007
posted by gallois at 11:58 AM on June 4, 2007
I giggled when I found out I was descended from the Beachcombers. Forget Charlemagne. Nick Adonidas and Relic were my ancesters!
posted by srboisvert at 12:03 PM on June 4, 2007
posted by srboisvert at 12:03 PM on June 4, 2007
The second link is simply choc-a-bloc full of interesting information. It is well worth exploring. Like an interactive National Graphic, point at the dots and pages and squares and stuff; there are lots of interesting subpages.
This site is the kind of educational tool that's needed to clue-by-four the creation looneys. If you can get one of them to start exploring, they can figure out for themselves that, hey!, all this evidence really seems to point toward a thing or two!
posted by five fresh fish at 3:01 PM on June 4, 2007
This site is the kind of educational tool that's needed to clue-by-four the creation looneys. If you can get one of them to start exploring, they can figure out for themselves that, hey!, all this evidence really seems to point toward a thing or two!
posted by five fresh fish at 3:01 PM on June 4, 2007
Wolfdog: Thx for this. One of the most intriguing, exploratory, interesting, stimulating links I've seen in a long time. Keen stuff, so they used to say.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:02 PM on June 4, 2007
posted by five fresh fish at 3:02 PM on June 4, 2007
(er, two of the most...)
posted by five fresh fish at 3:03 PM on June 4, 2007
posted by five fresh fish at 3:03 PM on June 4, 2007
OMG, the first link, it's full of additional information as well.
Click in sequence:
Skip Timeline Third image ("Moon Forms") Learn More Video.
Now you can see a video of the mineral springs and the weeping wall.
My one beef with the UI is that it won't persist in showing the "learn more" section as I click from picture to picture in the grey timeline at the bottom.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:13 PM on June 4, 2007
Click in sequence:
Now you can see a video of the mineral springs and the weeping wall.
My one beef with the UI is that it won't persist in showing the "learn more" section as I click from picture to picture in the grey timeline at the bottom.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:13 PM on June 4, 2007
I was really looking forward to the colonisation of the Pacific in the second link, but for some reason they didn't bother.
So lame.
posted by The Monkey at 11:34 PM on June 4, 2007
So lame.
posted by The Monkey at 11:34 PM on June 4, 2007
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posted by Eideteker at 10:25 AM on June 4, 2007