ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY & TRADITIONS LINKS Including links to ethnobotany, metallurgy, and shamanism for students |
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GENERAL LINKS THAT TEACH ABOUT ANCIENT TECHNOLOGIES AND TRADTIONS Primitive Ways is an organization dedicated to preserving the heritage of "lost" arts and technologies. From hunting to making cordage, their site is a great place to begin. The Society of Primitive Technology is a non-profit organization dedicated to the research, practice, and teaching of primitive technology. On this page, The Wilderness Way features articles and demonstrations for making bows and fletching arrows, weaving baskets, and many more ancient skills and technologies. Here's Wyatt R. Knapp's History of Primative Technology page that will link you to all sorts of interesting skills. The primitive skills gatherings at Neoanderthal.com show photos of various primitive skills and technologies, but without captions. These are great to get inspiration, but is not the best teaching site. The Ancient Arts site in the United Kingdom makes me want to take a camp with them! The British Museum hosts this interactive Flash site which teaches a bit about many different cultures. The British Museum Compass—the British Museum's link to their vast collection of cultural artifacts.
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WORKING WITH EARLY STONE TOOLS An excellent little flint knapping demonstration video from the Florida Museum of Natural History An introduction to basic stone tools by David K. Jordan, UC San Diego Stone points (spear and arrowheads) of the Ancient Americas by David K. Jordan, UC San Diego Galleries and information about flint knapping and flint knappers today The Knappers Anonymous site, with many links from here, including this great introduction to flintknapping, by Tim Rast and Mike Melbourne. Here's an-depth look at the physics of flint and obsidian knapping. Hints for grinding and polishing stone tools
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ANCIENT CORDAGE, BASKETRY, AND TEXTILES An introduction to Ancient Cloth by David K. Jordan, UC San Diego See the remarkable feather baskets of the California Pomo Indians, and what plants the Pomo still use for basketry. Using milkweed to make a cordage bracelet Paleotechnics has a wonderful series of pages on using sinew, using dogbane to make cordage, and using skin fibers. Basketweaving.com's free lessons on weaving all types of baskets Norm Kidder's fabulous cordage lesson hosted on Primitiveways.com Learn about the earliest form of textile making: nalebinding. Learn how to work with linin from History for Kids. Learn how to spin fibers with a drop spindle with photos here, diagrams here, and videos here! David Reed Smith shares his photos and techniques for making a drop spindle at his site. Here are some links to lessons on weaving—from hats to socks. General information may be found at the MNSU site. Some excellent videos on making a bowstring from raw hide and a beautiful bowstring from from intestines. |
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ANCIENT METALLURGY FOR STUDENTS • listed in order of complexity from easy to challenging Working with copper from the University of Nevada, Reno Metallurgy Notes from Mr. Larry Jones, D.W. Daniel High School Watch sculptor David Chapman craft a bronze axe using ancient methods. Visit this site on a film about some of the last living Dogon blacksmiths, as they smelt iron from a traditional furnace. An introduction to Ancient Metallurgy by David K. Jordan, UC San Diego Metallurgy and other ancient technologies at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. The Bronze Age in the British Isles A Short History of Metals from Alan Cramb at Carnegie Mellon University
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AGRICULTURE, FOODS, AND PREHISTORIC FOOD PRODUCTION Do you want to know what your flora looks like? Search the common name in UC Berkeley's plant photo collection! Minnesota State University's Museum of Ancient Technology's site includes techniques for domesticating and growing maize, grinding corn, using acorns as a food source, harvesting wild rice, terrace farming, and also fishing, trapping, whaling and the production of beer and wine. Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas has class notes on early propagation of plants. The first page of this PDF may be helpful. Check out this food timeline to learn of the history of plant and animal domestication and distribution, as well as the origins to many contemporary popular foods. The Agropolis museum in France has an incredibly useful Web site on the history of agriculture. See a map of the world's earliest agricultural centers, and learn some of the plants domesticated there. Here is the Agropolis museum's map of early animal domestication. History and uses—both ancient and modern—of the worlds most prevalent grains. Another commercial site on grains of the world at the Gourmet Store. Got grains? If it's rice, wheat, or oats, you might check the Whole Grains Bureau's history. Looking to find information on tropical fruits? Tradewinds Fruit's index is an excellent resource, with photos! Their index of herbs and spices looks just as good. Here is another site on the uses of certain herbs The Epicenter has a wonderful encyclopedia of spices—including many rarely found in the West.
ETHNOBOTANY—CULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH PLANTS Agave (also known as maguey)—used for fiber, domestication techniques Maize (corn) story, domestication, teosinte, uses
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ANCIENT POTTERY AND CERAMIC SCULPTURE The oldest discovered pottery in the world: from the Jomon culture in ancient Japan Victor Bryant has developed a concise ceramic history here. Scroll down on the right to view his tutorials. Take a close look at a South American Moche pot in the British Museum Minnesota State University's Museum of Ancient Technology's site covers both the archeology and techniques, but with few diagrams. It's an advanced read. |
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ANCIENT ANIMAL HUSBANDRY TECHNIQUES AND ISSUES John Lienhard at the University of Houston has some ideas. If you have sheep, you may be interested in this page on the history of wool. |
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| MINERAL IDENTIFICATION AND ANCIENT MINING TECHNIQUES If you want to identify a certain gemstone, the Gem Hut might be a good place to look. You might find the mineral you're looking to identify from this mineral gallery. Learn about chalcedony and how early people used it here. Visit the Great Orme Mines, where copper was mined thousands of years ago in Wales. |
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DRAWING, PAINTING, DYES, ART, AND ORNAMENTATION Here's a page of links to the art of ancient civilizations. Be warned: it's easy to get lost here! A beautiful look at ancient North American rock art. Look at the menu on the left to guide you to examples of other rock art images. Learn about red ochre and links to other pigments of the world, both old and new, used to make paint of all colors. Take a spin through the Color Museum's interactive site on natural dyes and dying. Use the numbers at the top to navigate through the site to the different pages. The animated circle on page three will take you to a map of where the listed natural dyestuffs are native. Pretty cool, huh? Read about native dye plants of the United States by Kathy Ogg Read about the history of natural dyes in this article by Kris Driessen And check out this timeline of dye history, compiled by Susan Druding Here are some basic recipes for earth tones using vegetable dyestuffs The Joy of Handspinning has posted this list of dyestuffs, with the colors they produce The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has compiled a great series of articles on dyes, including lichen dyes. This is serious reading, but very informative. If you're wondering why a lightfast, colorfast purple was reserved for royalty since the time of the Roman emperors, check here for a short article or here for a longer one. |
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PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS A short introduction to the earliest found human remains: Lucy.
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EXPLORING THE EARTH'S BIOMES (BIOCLIMACTIC ZONES) Learn about the Earth's biomes which link from this map at Blue Planet Biomes.org. Here is the index for the Blue Planet Biomes site. I love this beautiful site on the ecology of the Tropical Rain Forests. It includes many interesting and culturally important tropical flora on pages eight and nine.
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TIMELINES OF HUMAN SOCIETIES & CIVILIZATION Although this is at a science fiction site, the timeline looks quite good. |
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CULTURE & SOCIETY IN GENERAL What is Culture? Responses from Palomar Community College, Kelley E. Friel Elements of Culture listed at the National University of Singapore Visible and invisible aspects to culture: a test to get you thinking, produced by the Peace Corps. Washington State University gives us a baseline defininition of culture INDIGINOUS CULTURES & SOCIETIES History of the Coast Miwok, natives of Marin County A profile of the Zulu Nation written by students in South Africa |
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INDIGINOUS OR PRIMATIVE SHELTERS Here's a link to a few photos of different approaches to early shelters. |
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SHAMANISM This site has an excellent overview of shamanism and many interesting links about shamanism as practiced around the world. Read about the powers of Tlingit Shamans Here's Wikipedia's definition of Shamanism. Investigate the various links there to learn about powers traditionally attrributed to shamans. Here's a statement about shamanism from the Huichol Indians of central Mexico. Here's a general overview of shamanism, with questions and answers that you might have. |
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BOAT BUILDING MATERIALS, STYLES & TECHNIQUES Read about how the Egyptian made their boats here, here, and about reedboats in general here. Here you can learn how to build a birchbark canoe, Algonquin-style. And here is a page with links at the bottom to other native-american canoes. Or, if you want to look at some great designs, try building a traditional Kiribati canoe. Here, without the primitve tools, are some gorgeous little kayaks. |
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THE PREHISTORIC VILLAGE Coming Soon! |
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MATHEMATICS IN ANTIQUITY Could ancient Babylonians calculate square roots? You Bet! The University of British Columbia shows you the artefacts! |
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PREHISTORIC MEGAFAUNA LINKS Here's a great visual overview to many interesting extinct megafauna. Most of the links at this site have, however, expired. |