Learning from the Past.

Written by Graeme Murray

Last week I visited the Archeopark (or archaeology park) in Pavlov, South Moravia in the Czech Republic with my wife and younger son. The park documents the story of the so-called “mammoth hunters” who lived on the continent some 30,000 years ago.

During this era - the Paleolithic - Moravia became a true centre of civilization and the region connected the East and the West of the continent. It was the first place to use a number of technologies such as ceramics, fabric weaving and stone grinding.

[Credit: Archeo Park Pavlov]

Extensive excavations started at the end of the nineteenth century, led by Professor Karel Absolon, one of Europe’s most significant archaeologists, unearthed a number of Paleolithic settlements as well as a great number of stone and bone tools, artworks, skeletal remains of old stone age humans and animals including mammoths.

[Credit: Archeo Park Pavlov]

The finds from the modern villages of Pavlov, Dolní Věstonice and Milovice corroborate the existence of a successful Paleolithic society - the Pavlovian (its name derived from Pavlov, a village on a slope on the Pavlov hills) - a noteworthy variant of the Gravettian culture. Its centre was located in Moravia, and the culture reached northern Austria and southern Poland.

The Pavlovian culture is remarkable for its use of a wide range of diverse technologies including the production of ceramic figurines in kilns, fabric weaving, and stone grinding of plant food.

The ceramic Venus of Věstonice, a Paleolithic female figure made from a mixture of charred powdered bone and clay, was discovered in 1925, brought worldwide attention to Dolní Věstonice and is the oldest known ceramic in the world, predating the use of fired clay to make pottery.

Venus of Dolni Vestonice. The ceramic statuette of a nude female figure dated to 29,000–25,000 BCE
[Credit: WikiCommons]

The Pavlovians lived in a bitterly cold period of European history and their lifestyle was shaped by the climate. Pleniglacial environmental changes forced them to adapt. They lived in caves or semi-subterranean or rounded dwellings which were typically arranged in small "villages".

They used summer tents made of leather but retreated to their permanent habitation with the changing seasons.

Their permanent winter habitation had to have a good view of the landscape, not be south facing to avoid melting snow, with accessibility to a river. The basements and walls of these dwellings were probably made of stone and mammoth bones; roofs were made of wood and insulated with turf.

Meat was smoked in the dwelling using a clay hearth. Mammoth bones and fat served as fuel. The interior provided a comfortable haven against the harsh conditions outside. Domesticated wolves were their faithful companions.

They thrived on their ability to hunt animals by using sophisticated stone age technology and hunting strategies to survive in the tundra on the fringe of the ice sheets. They used an array of innovative tools such as knives, spears, bows, arrows (with blades and even tiny saws), woven nets, oil lamps. Blades and bladelets were also used to make decorations and bone tools from animal remains.

[Credit: ancient-origins.net]

Archaeological findings show us many points, from tiny stone points to large ivory ones. This enabled them to hunt down any animal they needed to – from arctic foxes, hares, and wolves to mammoths.

Their economy was principally based on the hunting of mammoth herds for meat, fat fuel, hides for tents and large bones and tusks for building winter shelters.

Excavation started in 1952 by the Czechoslovakian archaeologist Bohuslav Klima and others has yielded flint implements, polished and drilled stone artifacts, bone spearheads, needles, digging tools, flutes, bone ornaments, drilled animal teeth, even seashells. Plus art or religious finds such as bone carvings and figurines of humans and animals made of mammoth tusk, stone, and fired clay. There is even proof of the existence of textile weaving.

[Credit: http://media.archeologicky-atlas.cz.s3.amazonaws.com/production/application/source/2018/6/16/svoboda_2010-pdf]

The complexity of these finds gives us some idea as to the broad range of Pavlovian behaviour, and they enable us to investigate not only their activities, technology and relationships to animals and the natural environment, but also the implied social, symbolic and ritual structures that lay behind such activities.

There’s an old adage in branding that says if you’ve got a problem, you should relook your past and use the learnings to address the issue today. Brands are often so busy trying to stay ahead of the curve, with new campaigns, new content, innovation, new positionings, etc that they often forget what made them something in the first place. Reconnecting with your brand DNA and heritage is a good thing and then reapplying this to today’s culture can often work wonders (it’s called ‘brand rejuvenation’).

James Burke, the British historian and broadcaster seems to agree when he said 'Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.' He has a point.

“Our 21st century selves could do well to remember and respect our past”.

Understanding our Paleolithic ancestors means understanding ourselves better. We should recognize our closeness to our ancestors and acknowledge their importance for us. They can teach us something about living and adapting to tough conditions despite not having cities, cars, social media, the internet, smartphones, global warming, brands and a whole host of other things to worry about.

Looking back to our past we can see how these mammoth hunters were driven by the need for basic survival. Despite the challenges, they understood the world around them. They respected the earth, mother nature and the elements. They understood and adapted to the conditions and environment around them. They used inventiveness and creativity to become one of the best hunters in the world. They valued and appreciated the things that mattered.

They were far more cooperative than competitive, peaceful than violent, egalitarian (including gender-egalitarian) than stratified. And they were also spiritual people with their spirituality being concentrated on feminine qualities.

All these factors helped them to create a flourishing culture that lasted several millennia.

And this Paleolithic legacy is still with us today. But we would be stupid to forget (or cancel) it and not learn from it. Taking it into consideration in our own lives today can be very helpful for all of us, both today and tomorrow.

(sources used: Archeopark website; Czech Archaeology News website; Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology in Brno, The Center for Paleolithic and Paleoethnological Research websites; ‘Window into Palaeolithic Europe 30,000 years ago: results of the multidisciplinary approach by Vít Lang, 2008; ‘The Gravettian of Moravia – the Pavlovian and the Willendorf-Kostenkian by Libor Balák, 2006)

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