Dan Davis History

A few comments on the last video expressed surprise at the Ølby Woman and her racy outfit! You can find out about her here: youtube.com/shorts/OTdbYeNu2Z...

The Ølby Woman’s grave goods included a series of small bronze spirals, a dark blue glass bead and two amber beads found in the area where her left arm would have been. She had an ornate bronze belt plate decorated with two spiral rows. She had a broken small bronze sword (or dagger) in a wooden sheath.

She probably wore one of those sleeved woollen tops all Nordic Bronze Age women wore and a woollen string skirt threaded through bronze tubes. Most elite women wore a full length woollen skirt covering them belly to ankle but perhaps young unmarried women wore this kind of skirt, perhaps on special occasions, in summer, and for burial.

The amber beads plus a blue glass bead is a pretty common combination.

You can see the whole Amber Road video here: https://youtu.be/k5je7IkR5Wk

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4 days ago | [YT] | 1,113

Dan Davis History

Hi, don't miss my new video on the amber trade: https://youtu.be/k5je7IkR5Wk

I talked about how these journeys were into neighbouring lands, who also journeyed to and from neighbouring lands, and that's how objects travelled long distances.

Originally I went on to talk about evidence for people who - perhaps - went on long range journeys. But there was so much to say I decided to make that a new video all by itself.

For example, image 3 here shows burial goods from a bronze age burial in a burial mound near Copenhagen with grave goods that are supposed to be from Minoan Crete.

Now, it may be of course that these were simply traded northwards. But there are other burials in Europe that might be men who brought Mediterranean goods back home with them.

Also there may be Nordic Bronze Age and Central European warriors buried in the Eastern Mediterranean...

Very cool stuff, I think, I am looking forward to talking about this more.

If you want to read about this whole Bronze Age "warrior-trader" thing in the meantime, there are links to papers in the description under the video.

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6 days ago | [YT] | 469

Dan Davis History

This was a section cut out of my latest video: https://youtu.be/OaNPFCV8Vic

It's a summary of the archeological debate over the spread of agriculture and the so-called "Neolithic package" across Europe.

I try to not bore people with information they perhaps aren't looking for when they chose to watch my video, so I often cut out stuff during editing.

But if you're reading this then you might be someone who is interested in these kinds of diversions, so I'm sharing here.

The evidence for elements of cultural continuity between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic is often actually rather convincing! You can see why they came to these conclusions. And thanks to what we know about the genetic continuity of the hunter-gatherers in some places, maybe it's not so surprising.

Still, these papers were enormously impactful. Ancient DNA analysis has been called the third science revolution of archeology by Kristian Kristiansen (the first being the formalisation of the discipline and second being radiocarbon dating).

Archeology is still adapting to this latest revolution.

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1 week ago | [YT] | 390

Dan Davis History

Hi, I hope you enjoy my new video: https://youtu.be/OaNPFCV8Vic

I must say that the maps I used in this do not necessarily reflect a snapshot of "reality", and these societies were not like modern states with defined borders. Rather they roughly indicate the maximum territorial extent of some of the overlapping cultures and subgroups. These maps are just for illustrative purposes.

I've attached two maps of sites in the Lower Rhine region from an academic source (image 4 and 5) which shows more of the actual nature of these places. i.e. a series of settlements often confined to river valleys. You can see then how much "uncontrolled space" or wilderness there may have been at these times.

I really wanted to talk more about these various late Neolithic cultures but there wasn't time to do that. Groups like the Chasséen culture (remaining images) are very intriguing and I will have to make individual videos about them all. I hope that you will find these topics of interest. The priority will probably be the Globular Amphora culture.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video, please let me know if there are particular topics you are interested in.

Cheers,
Dan

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 542

Dan Davis History

Hi, did you get a notification about my new video? https://youtu.be/hTmt6PUryT0

The invention of the wheel is a subject that's come up on my channel many times before and I always get comments about it. The increasing frequency of comments about the Carpathian mining carts hypothesis helped spur me to make this one.

It's as comprehensive as I could realistically make it in a 30 min video. Had to cut a lot out but I covered the main lines of evidence, from animal traction, to 2D and 3D representations, wheel tracks, surviving wheels, and linguistic evidence. It all points to the same sort of thing.

Let me know if you want more info in future videos on any of this. As always, thank you very much for watching. You likes and shares are very much appreciated.

I hope you enjoy the video!

Cheers,
Dan

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 677

Dan Davis History

Where do you think the wheel was invented?

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 842

Dan Davis History

Hi, my new video on the invention of the wheel is now live for all my Channel Members.

(Dan Davis History Channel Members get early access to ad-free, sponsor-free versions of all my new videos).

Become a Channel Member here: youtube.com/channel/UCUVwT8zcS5Z_rYXnpomlbfg/join

This video will be published and public for everyone in the next few days so keep an eye out! This is a subject I have been asked to cover for a long time and I put a lot of work into making this, so I really hope you'll enjoy it.

Cheers,
Dan

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4 weeks ago | [YT] | 518

Dan Davis History

New playlist on Bronze Age beauty: www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

The way ancient people expressed themselves in their personal appearance is endlessly fascinating to me. Their jewellery and clothing can be familiar - like gold bracelets and earrings, - or it can be strange - like the spiked copper belt plates of the Nordic Bronze Age.

The tweezers and razors of the Nordic Bronze Age are surely something we can all relate to.

For some societies in Europe over 3,000 years ago, there is a surprising amount of information about how these people looked. And even more fascinating is understanding what it can tell us about the way they saw themselves, and their relationships with each other and with other societies.

These videos are about the men and the women of Bronze Age Europe.

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1 month ago | [YT] | 551

Dan Davis History

The Cucuteni-Trypillia culture is one of the Chalcolithic societies famous for their ceramic human female figurines. But they also made countless thousands of animal figurines.

They really liked birds but they mostly made cattle models.

What kinds of animals can you see in these images?

These models were related to their religious practices – you can imagine leaving a little ceramic bull on the altar, perhaps symbolising an offering and maybe the form of the thing you wanted – fertile cattle, a bountiful harvest, a healthy pregnancy and so on. Using a model of the thing representing the real thing is a ritual practice seen in many societies around the world. It seems to just "make sense" to lots of us.

They were also an artistic and decorative expression for the interior of the houses, probably placed on domestic altars and on shelves and sideboards along with their beautiful pottery. Some of these models also combined animals with bowls or pots.

You can find out more about this society in my video here: https://youtu.be/jkVtlvC3tPE

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1 month ago | [YT] | 713

Dan Davis History

You know I've made a few videos about horse domestication on my channel. This new video is by David Ian Howe (the archeologist and comedian but you may know him as "that guy who knows all about the history of dogs") along with Dr William Taylor the author of Hoofbeats: How Horses Shaped Human History.

I'm looking forward to watching it myself and I'm sure many of you will enjoy this too.

1 month ago | [YT] | 106