full transcript
From the Ted Talk by David Wengrow: A new understanding of human history and the roots of inequality
Unscramble the Blue Letters
And it's not just the history of cetiis that modern archaeological science is turning on its head. We also know now that the history of human societies before the coming of agriculture is just nothing like what we once imagined. Far from this idea of plopee living all the time in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, actually, what we see these days is evidence for a really wild viertay of social experimentation before the cnmoig of farming. In Africa, 50,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers were already cneartig huge nterwoks, social networks, ciorveng large parts of the continent. In Ice Age erupoe, 25,000 yares ago, we see evidence of individuals singled out for special grand burials, their bodies sufesufd with ornamentation, weapons and even what looked like regalia. We see public buildings constructed on the bones and tusks of woolly mmtmoah. And around 11,000 years ago, back in the Middle East, where I started, hunter-gatherers constructed enormous stone temples at a place called Göbekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. In North America, long before the coming of maize farming, indigenous populations created the massive ewaktrrohs of poverty ponit in lainosiua, capable of hosting hunter gatherer publics in their thousands. And then Japan, again, long before the arrival of rice farming, the storehouses of Sannai mmyauraa could already hold great surpluses of wild pnalt foods.
Open Cloze
And it's not just the history of ______ that modern archaeological science is turning on its head. We also know now that the history of human societies before the coming of agriculture is just nothing like what we once imagined. Far from this idea of ______ living all the time in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, actually, what we see these days is evidence for a really wild _______ of social experimentation before the ______ of farming. In Africa, 50,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers were already ________ huge ________, social networks, ________ large parts of the continent. In Ice Age ______, 25,000 _____ ago, we see evidence of individuals singled out for special grand burials, their bodies ________ with ornamentation, weapons and even what looked like regalia. We see public buildings constructed on the bones and tusks of woolly _______. And around 11,000 years ago, back in the Middle East, where I started, hunter-gatherers constructed enormous stone temples at a place called Göbekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. In North America, long before the coming of maize farming, indigenous populations created the massive __________ of poverty _____ in _________, capable of hosting hunter gatherer publics in their thousands. And then Japan, again, long before the arrival of rice farming, the storehouses of Sannai ________ could already hold great surpluses of wild _____ foods.
Solution
- covering
- people
- creating
- cities
- earthworks
- europe
- years
- maruyama
- coming
- point
- mammoth
- louisiana
- suffused
- variety
- networks
- plant
Original Text
And it's not just the history of cities that modern archaeological science is turning on its head. We also know now that the history of human societies before the coming of agriculture is just nothing like what we once imagined. Far from this idea of people living all the time in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, actually, what we see these days is evidence for a really wild variety of social experimentation before the coming of farming. In Africa, 50,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers were already creating huge networks, social networks, covering large parts of the continent. In Ice Age Europe, 25,000 years ago, we see evidence of individuals singled out for special grand burials, their bodies suffused with ornamentation, weapons and even what looked like regalia. We see public buildings constructed on the bones and tusks of woolly mammoth. And around 11,000 years ago, back in the Middle East, where I started, hunter-gatherers constructed enormous stone temples at a place called Göbekli Tepe in eastern Turkey. In North America, long before the coming of maize farming, indigenous populations created the massive earthworks of poverty point in Louisiana, capable of hosting hunter gatherer publics in their thousands. And then Japan, again, long before the arrival of rice farming, the storehouses of Sannai Maruyama could already hold great surpluses of wild plant foods.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| human history |
4 |
| technological change |
2 |
| long period |
2 |
| early middle |
2 |
| pyramid temples |
2 |
| huge settlements |
2 |
| settlements present |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
| collocation |
frequency |
| huge settlements present |
2 |
Important Words
- africa
- age
- agriculture
- america
- archaeological
- arrival
- bands
- bodies
- bones
- buildings
- burials
- called
- capable
- cities
- coming
- constructed
- continent
- covering
- created
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- days
- earthworks
- east
- eastern
- enormous
- europe
- evidence
- experimentation
- farming
- foods
- gatherer
- grand
- great
- göbekli
- head
- history
- hold
- hosting
- huge
- human
- hunter
- ice
- idea
- imagined
- indigenous
- individuals
- japan
- large
- living
- long
- looked
- louisiana
- maize
- mammoth
- maruyama
- massive
- middle
- modern
- networks
- north
- ornamentation
- parts
- people
- place
- plant
- point
- populations
- poverty
- public
- publics
- regalia
- rice
- sannai
- science
- singled
- social
- societies
- special
- started
- stone
- storehouses
- suffused
- surpluses
- temples
- tepe
- thousands
- time
- tiny
- turkey
- turning
- tusks
- variety
- weapons
- wild
- woolly
- years