What Did Ancient Humans Do When It Rained All Week?

What Did Ancient Humans Do When It Rained All Week? All research and sources are linked below. 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES: ▸ Hypothermia & wet heat loss — "Thermal conductivity of water vs. air" — a wet body loses heat up to 25× faster than a dry one. Standard wilderness medicine reference. ▸ Qesem Cave, Israel — "Evidence for the repeated use of a central hearth at Middle Pleistocene (300 ky ago) Qesem Cave, Israel" (2014, Journal of Archaeological Science) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.11... ▸ Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa — "Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave" (2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117620109 ▸ Ötzi the Iceman — "The man in the ice: the discovery of a 5,000-year-old body in the Alps" by Konrad Spindler (1994, Harmony Books). Fire kit contents: tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius), flint, iron pyrite, plant tinder. ▸ Tinder Fungus (Fomes fomentarius) — "Fungal fire starters used by prehistoric and recent peoples" (2005, Mycologist) https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269915X0500... ▸ Betulin in Birch Bark — Helps it burn even when wet. ▸ Blombos Cave, South Africa — "A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave" (2011, Science) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1211535 ▸ Bone needles — "Early bone tools from the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu Cave, South Africa" (2012, Journal of Archaeological Science). Eyed needles found dating to ~61,000 years ago. ▸ Abri du Maras, France — "Direct evidence of Neanderthal fibre technology and its cognitive and behavioral implications" (2020, Scientific Reports) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61... ▸ Hohle Fels Cave, Germany — "A 35,000-year-old ivory tool for rope making" (2020, Science Advances) https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba5821 ▸ Sibudu Cave bedding — "Bedding construction and settlement dynamics at Sibudu, South Africa" (2011, Science) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1213317 ▸ Chauvet Cave, France — "Chauvet Cave: The Art of Earliest Times" by Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel Deschamps, and Christian Hillaire (1996, University of Utah Press). Paintings dated to ~36,000 years ago. ▸ Sulawesi, Indonesia — "Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi" (2021, Science Advances) — figurative art dated to at least 45,500 years ago. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd4648 ▸ Polly Wiessner — "Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen" (2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404212111 ▸ Australian Aboriginal oral traditions — "Aboriginal memories of inundation of the Australian coast dating from more than 7,000 years ago" (2015, Australian Geographer) https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2015... ▸ Leopard predation on early humans — "Taphonomic evidence of leopard predation on early hominids" — referenced at Swartkrans, South Africa. Skull puncture marks matching leopard canines. ———————————————————— PEOPLE & SITES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Polly Wiessner — Anthropologist at the University of Utah. Her 2014 study compared daytime and nighttime conversations among the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert and found that over 80% of fireside talk shifted to stories, songs, and ceremonies — suggesting firelight fundamentally changed how humans communicated. ▸ Blombos Cave — Archaeological site on the southern coast of South Africa. Contains a 100,000-year-old ochre workshop with abalone shell mixing bowls, ground pigment, and bone stirring tools — evidence of deliberate, systematic production far beyond basic survival. ▸ Sibudu Cave — Cave site in South Africa with evidence of 77,000-year-old bedding made from sedges, rushes, and grasses, topped with Cape laurel leaves, a natural insect repellent. The bedding was periodically burned and replaced — evidence of pest control nearly 80,000 years ago. ▸ Abri du Maras — A Neanderthal site in France where a fragment of twisted plant fiber string dating to roughly 52,000 years ago was discovered — the oldest direct evidence of string technology ever found. ▸ Hohle Fels Cave — A cave in Germany where a 35,000-year-old tool carved from mammoth ivory, designed specifically for twisting plant fibers into rope, was excavated — a dedicated rope-making machine from the Ice Age. ———————————————————— 🎨 Animation by Ink Explainer ———————————————————— #ancienthumans #rain #prehistory #cavepainting #humanhistory #archaeology #stoneage #survival #caveart #firemaking #history #explainer #animation #education #paleolithic #anthropology