Posted by James Allen on December 06, 1998 at 19:36:17:
Steve wanders off course and allows for an asymmetric expansion, ancient fabrics. Before the last Ice Age women were producing high quality textiles. That would be some 20,000 B.C. and this is exactly what Dr. Barber has been saying for ten years. Her information ,like that of a wet weather worn Sphinyx, simply finds no correlate in history to find a resonance with. I believe the best way to handle novel conflicting information that has a high degree of probability is to adjust my theories until I can see a possibility. Using this simple minded approach one theorizes that a sophisticated highly integrated nomadic culture florished before the last Ice Age leaving little evidence of their existence besides the Sphinyx. All things considered they may well have had a highly innovative technology which facilitated their rule. Who knows but the oldest needle and thread known are well over 20,000 years old( Barber ). Our history is self serving and the truth is yet to be revealed. We axiomatically associate high technology with big cities but that is in no way a universal paradign. JIM