How Did Ancient People Survive a Week of Rain?

The last time it rained on you, it lasted as long as the run from your door to your car. Now it rains for seven days, and there is no roof, no dry clothes and no light switch. What do you actually do? This is what ancient people did when it rained all week, and what people who live with heavy rain still do. Why a soaked body is in danger even above 40 degrees. How a grass roof keeps water out when it is nothing but gaps, and why it is pitched at 50 degrees or more. Why a fire was kept rather than made, and the birch-bark box of embers carried by the man found in the ice of the Alps. The straw raincoat, the Alaskan parka sewn from intestines that is waterproof and breathable, and the bamboo rain shield of Mawsynram, where about 39 feet of rain falls in a year. A four-holed strip of mammoth ivory that turned out to make rope. Why, in the Kalahari, the rain is the season that sets people free. And why you like the smell of rain: petrichor, geosmin, a raindrop that fizzes, and a nose that can catch less than half a part in a billion. Every number has a source, and the uncertain ones are called uncertain. Most sources are encyclopedia articles and press reports, not the studies behind them; the list is below. CHAPTERS 0:00 Seven days of rain 0:54 Day one: the real enemy 1:17 A roof made of gaps 2:30 The most fragile thing you own 3:28 Wear the roof 4:46 Shut in together 6:06 The other side of the window 7:30 That smell 8:50 Back to your forecast SOURCES CDC, Preventing hypothermia: https://www.cdc.gov/winter-weather/pr... Wikipedia: Hypothermia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothe... Wikipedia: Rock shelter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_sh... Wikipedia: Hadza people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadza_p... Wikipedia: Mbuti people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbuti_p... Wikipedia: Ohalo II: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohalo_II Wikipedia: Mino (straw cape): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mino_(s... Wikipedia: Thatching: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thatching Wikipedia: Andamanese peoples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andaman... South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology: equipment: https://www.iceman.it/en/equipment/ Anchorage Museum: Gut skin parka: https://www.anchoragemuseum.org/exhib... Wikipedia: Yup'ik clothing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yupik_c... Wikipedia: Mawsynram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawsynram AFP, "A life spent in the wettest place on Earth", 30 July 2013 (as carried by Fox News): https://www.foxnews.com/world/a-life-... Science News, "A four-holed piece of ivory provides a glimpse into ancient rope-making", 2024: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/a... Wikipedia: San people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_people Wikipedia: Diepkloof Rock Shelter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diepklo... Wikipedia: Termite, "As food": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite Wikipedia: Petrichor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor Wikipedia: Geosmin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosmin MIT News, 14 January 2015: https://news.mit.edu/2015/rainfall-ca... Wikipedia: Kannauj perfume / Mitti attar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitti_a... Why We Live Like This: new explainers on why everyday life is the way it is. Subscribe for the next one. MUSIC "Thinking Music", "Investigations", "Marty Gots a Plan", "Wholesome", "Somewhere Sunny", "Deliberate Thought", "Dreamy Flashback", "Hidden Agenda", "At Rest" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... #ancienthistory #rain #petrichor