Many people have a silly idea in their heads that stone-age humans could not be as innovative and smart as we can because their technology was less advanced than ours.

They also look at an expertly-knapped spearhead like the ones in the thumbnail and think they could do that with a couple of rocks they find in their backyard.

These ancestors of ours were smart, they were creative thinkers, they made stone tools at an expert level that the average person today could not even hope to replicate. I love finding out new ways they were able to innovate.

[–] aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Modern society has existed in a flash on an evolutionary timescale, it’s likely that our ancient ancestors were exactly as “smart” as we are

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago (3 children)

If they were so smart how come they're dead?

[–] aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago

This question backs all of modern archeology

[–] superkret@feddit.org 6 points 4 months ago

What if being dead is much better and we're the dumb ones trying to stay alive?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I've asked the same thing for years about Leonardo Da Vinci for years.

[–] Shard@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

To be fair I can't fathom the size of balls you need to have, to stand behind a spear while a Mammoth is charging you down.