Missing Link

[spiral]

The best place to see this general methodology is in a) the Incan Andes and b) present day south-east Asia. In both places, either the steepness of the terrain or the force of monsoon rainfall, requires actual contour terracing. In mild old, flat old, England, strip lynchets are all that is necessary.

Yes, in South America, we tend to gape at the work of the man made steep slopes directly in view, but ignore the broader terraces in the valleys. Yet.......

[spiral]

There is a tendency to believe that Agriculture Comes First. (villages become towns, become cities)

There is also a tendency to believe that Agriculture started on flat plains, plant domestication leads to increased output, man becomes civilised. etc

Civilisation starts from below. In these models we look to the heavens or stars......

Hill farming, in this model, is seen as a combination of craftily eking out a living on difficult land or working with domesticated animals.

Dan in Jacobs Crackers (on the AE site) wanted to reverse this. He saw the process as Cities/Settlements/Civilization first. (I am not doing justice to either Dan's argument or Jacobs'..apologies, you need to read the thread)

These early first settlements are (if the archaeology is correct) in fact often situated amongst the peaks above the plains.

The logic is (according to me) that civilization/settlement process is in fact Downward..........

We are in fact stepping down from the Hills, streaming, straightening rivers, building ever larger more important terraces outwards....

The Hills form ideal observation posts. Let's call them observatories.

[Boreades]

We are told that wheat was a necessary cheap food invented to feed the pyramid builders. What did our megalithics have on such a large scale? Or was Britain one large cattle ranch with the occasional onion field?

Barley before wheat.

Now you can ask what they had before barley.

[macausland]

What did they have before barley?

[Boreades]

As a devoted TME researcher, I've been researching the uses of barley in Cornwall. Betty Stoggs did it for me. Skinners Brewery .

http://www.skinnersbrewery.com/

[Boreades]

What did they have before barley?

Oats.

Now you can ask what they had before oats.

[macausland]

That's a trick question isn't it. I know the horse comes after oats.

What does come before oats?

[spiral]

The model is based on circular development downwards and outwards. You might think of pond, you throw a stone in the middle the ripples make a distinctive shape. You might think of a spiral, or a coiled snake, that sheds its skin. You can map this pattern of development. You can publish it on an ancient stone.

Hill farming is part of the pattern, it is not a mysterious add on. Your folks count in an ancient language because that is where counting developed Yan Tan Tethera.

It is linked. You just need to understand the chain.

If you like the Inca analogy and it helps call it a "quipus".

Either way you need to unpick the knots.

What are the links?

[Boreades]

What does come before oats?

Rye and gruel.
Before that, it was like school dinners.

[spiral]

Some radicals are now looking upwards (archaeoastromony), and in straight lines......(a noble exception to this trend, being the ME forum "Going round in circles"). We want to look downwards and in spirals......We don't simply want tree clearance, we want simple boring circular mundane weed clearance, from huge terraces....beneath our feet.

Think of it less as train and taxi, more as plane and helicopter, a blue dragonfly hovering over a river, or the last dragon swooping over a valley, looking for a sacred well.

If you want to skewer the Dragon and think in straight lines and look upward please feel free to do so.......there appear plenty of "alternative" folks now heading down that very route. You will be in good company....