Cavemen, comparisons?

[FifteensAway]

Shades of the Flintstones!  Fun.

[FifteensAway]

Actually, Cat, the Aztecs I was looking at are without feathers - more or less "naked" except for breechclouts but the hair shouted caveman to me:







Of course, feathered cavemen could be fun - there is SO much we don't know about our pre-history.

Ithoriel, can we get can some photos of your work in 15 mm Caveman and terrain, etc., please? 

[ithoriel]

My own collection is a) largely unpainted and b) buried behind a pile of stuff while my kitchen is being revamped.

However, the following are images of most of the stuff I'm using for the tribes.
Homo Heidelbergensis
Homo Sapiens (Khurasan)Homo Sapiens (Copplestone)
First four top row only
And some huts for the Homo Sapiens tribe (Alternative Armies)


Skirmishers from Ancient armies (especially Near Eastern ones) and those from South and Meso American armies are options for Homo Sapiens tribes


Homo Denisova



Denisovan Camp (CP Models) - boxes covered with flock to resemble bushes, stakes are not included and my first attempt at painting the tents as natural fibres rather than cloth were not a stunning success!

Other Species

Acheson's Neanderthals and Magister Militum's 10mm cavemen don't seem to be available any more.

Those wanting to push things even further into hominid ancestry might wish to use Khurusan's Wildmen of the Savannah as Australpithecines, possibly with wingless Savage Forest Witch Winged Apes (minus wings) as heroes and the  Brutal Ape Man Alpha Male as tribal leader!

[Cat]

Of course, feathered cavemen could be fun - there is SO much we don't know about our pre-history.

There is nothing in the archaeological record that contradicts feathers.
=^,^=

[ithoriel]

There is nothing in the archaeological record that contradicts feathers.
=^,^=

Actually, there's some evidence to suggest Neanderthals used raptor and corvid feathers for personal ornamentation.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0045927

It would seem likely in that case that Homo Sapiens may have done the same.

Not necessarily all Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens everywhere but at least some, some of the time. Maybe Denisovans too.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" 

[FifteensAway]

Given the widespread use of feather decorations across so many "primitive" societies known in the recent historical record - including people alive today, it seems considerably more than plausible that our more distant ancestors did the same in some fashion.  While I certainly understand the need for appropriate rigorous attention to hard evidence in archeological endeavors, sometimes just plain common sense is more useful. 

(My favorite 'case in point' is all those many stone circles with solar and/or lunar orientations - and other ancient builds than the cirlces.  It seems beyond obvious to me that they were 'research sites' being used to build what became 'modern' calendars, Old World and New.  Not only did they assist with agriculture, probably the impetus, but the knowledge gained could certainly be used and abused by people seeking power.  Foretelling an eclipse might imbue someone with Great Power in the eyes of 'primitive ignorance' and thus be feared/respected.  Can I prove my point?  Not really.  But I can believe it to be true.  Just makes so much more sense than worship sites.  Though they may have eventually evolved into such even if the original intent was entirely different.  It also helps explain why so many- if not all - sites were abandoned.  Once the calendar was well established with few if any new observations, there was no further need to maintain them.  But for some reason, there is almost invariably 'religious' connotations assigned with zero evidence to support it.  Some of the sites might have been in use longer than we now have as recorded history so perhaps literally thousands of years of observations.  We just don't know.)