^^^^ CB: What a cool article !
The Times December 02, 2006
Python may have been the first sacred cow 70,000 years ago Lewis Smith
Behind the rock, which was covered in man-made indentations, was a chamber that the archaeologists believed was used by a shaman who could have spoken without being seen, giving the impression that it was the snake speaking.
"The shaman would have been able to control everything. It was perfect," Sheila Coulson, from the University of Oslo, said.
^^^ CB; I wonder how they know this. They can't know for certain that the people were superstitious in their attitudes toward this thing. Everybody may have been in on the ritual/theatre/mythologizing. Not likely that the "shaman" built it by him/herself.
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Buried in front of the rock were 13,000 human artefacts, including red stone spearheads that appeared to have been burnt. The researchers believe that they were an offering to the snake.
"It was a ritual destruction of artefacts," Dr Coulson said. "There was no sign of normal habitation. No ordinary tools were found at the site."
She said the find meant that humans were more organised and had the capacity for abstract thinking at a much earlier point in history than assumed previously.
^^^^^ CB: Earlier than who assumed previously ?
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