The blonde and blue-eyed myth
2025-06-04 10:50 Here in northern Europe there is a widespread myth of an earlier homogenous appearance.  Before a certain point in time all the area’s inhabitants would have been blonde and blue-eyed.  Nazis would add strait hair and strait noses to that.
Peoples of the wheel
2025-06-02 13:11 Proto-Indo-European was the first proto-language identified by linguists.  This based on similarities between Ancient Greek, Latin and Sanskrit.  Unfortunately, it took long before one could say something about where it had been spoken.
Peoples of the sail
2025-04-25 17:02 I call the Austronesians peoples of the sail since they spread agriculture by literally sailing out into the world.  Most areas they came to had no agriculture earlier.
The deficiencies of the Americas
2025-04-18 17:25 Towards the end of the last ice age North and South America were populated. Since the seas were lower then there was no Bering Strait. People could simply walk to Alaska. However, the way south from there was almost entirely ice-covered.
Australia’s infertility
2025-04-10 13:33 There is considerable uncertainty on when Australia was populated.  Certain are the current human species reached it on rafts.  Likely they were built from bamboo.  What we know is the straits being too wide to see across.
Eurasia’s biogeographical advantages
2025-04-04 12:53 Before the current human species Eurasia was inhabited by other species.  So it had been for more than 1.5 million years.  This has given organisms some opportunity to adapt to humans.
Africa’s biogeographical disadvantages
2025-03-27 19:56 When I talk here about Africa I mean Sub-Saharan Africa.  Historically the Sahara has consisted a greater barrier than the Mediterranean.  Most from Africa’s north coast are more similar to Europeans than people south of the Sahara.
The differences between wild and cultivated plants
2025-02-12 12:37 Plants we grow to eat have not arisen completely naturally.  Instead they have been bred over thousands of years.  Shrubs and trees with nuts have been bred for larger seeds.
Only some animals are suitable for domestication
2025-01-28 19:57 There are dozens of large mammals which are herbivores or omnivores.  However, there are only 15 suitable to domesticate.  Some are too picky eaters.  Others grow too slowly, are too aggressive or to easily frightened.
On the origin of the cat
2025-01-22 13:46 I have read of people thinking the cats we have as pets would descend from large felids.  Or at least be closely related to them.  People might not know that smaller felids exist.