Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA05700 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 13 Apr 2000 22:50:16 +0100 Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000413172258.00dbe8b0@pop3.htcomp.net> X-Sender: mmills@pop3.htcomp.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.1 Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 17:48:39 -0400 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: "Mark M. Mills" <mmills@htcomp.net> Subject: Ice Age Fashion In-Reply-To: <20000411171409.AAA24613@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.2 15]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I ran across an article in my local paper describing evidence of ice age
binding patterns. Since Gatherer has used the 'Windsor knot" as an example
of the Gatherer-meme, the article can be used to infer Gatherer-memes have
been around much longer than 25,000 years.
The complete article is in Current Anthropology. The article should be
current, but I don't know which issue.
In brief, the article reports discovery of elaborate textile designs in
Venus figurines (27,000 to 20,000 BC). The famous Venus of Willendorf
figurine wears an intricate fiber-woven cap that has been misinterpreted as
a hairdo, says Dr. Olga Soffer of U of Illinois at Urbana. Details of
other figurines show string skirts, woven belts, necklaces, bracelets and
other fine textiles. The authors argue this fits with ice age textile
patterns found in ice age Czech clay fragments.
Since elaborate binding patterns in string appear in the earliest durable
artifacts, it is highly likely they 'evolved' over a long period prior to
the ice age.... thus, the age of Gatherer memes starts much earlier than
27,000 BC.
Mark
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