Hearted Youtube comments on Dan Davis History (@DanDavisHistory) channel.

  1. When I see the Venus figurines I see a representation of a woman that has birthed several children. This seems consistent with the belief that fertility is what was being venerated with the figurines. One can only imagine why this was done but it's not hard to imagine that in a world where life was harsh and probably short, the women who brought new life into the world were held in high esteem. Thank you Dan for another excellent presentation of these fascinating ancient cultures.
    3600
  2. It made me laugh when you pointed out that the ice man was not vegan or vegetarian. Only people who have a overabundance of food can afford to choose what they eat. Being vegan or vegetarian is a modern life choice that would be quickly forgotten if our current supply chain broke down. Survivers are omnivores.
    3400
  3. When I went to school some 50 years ago, the Bronze Age was portrayed as a Middle Eastern thing. Even the Mycenaeans were not mentioned except as a half-mythical past referenced by the Iron Age Greeks. I grew up believing Europeans were fur-clad reindeer hunters until the light of civilization spread from Egypt via Greece and Rome to finally reach Western Europe. Today we know that the real prehistory of Europe was far more complex and fascinating. Or at least some of us know, and hopefully with the help of your videos, some more people will get a glimpse of a world almost lost in the fog of time.
    3100
  4. The real Vlad is so much more interesting than the fictional character.
    3000
  5. Venus figurines were humans' first waifus.
    2900
  6. Seeing the carving of the women with one eye damaged that was found near the grave of the woman with the same damaged eye made a great impression on me. These were real people, the same as you and me, they loved each other, as we do. It's just incredible that after so many tens of thousands of years we can reach back & get little snapshots of their lives.
    2400
  7. “Only the mullet survived” a truly timeless style
    2400
  8. There's thick then there's THICK. These Vinca gentlemen strike me as individuals of most refined taste.
    2300
  9. I think the “experts” might not have enough experience with horses. Riding without saddle & bit is not an impossibility. Doing so with skill & speed is something I’ve witnessed children do. Certainly, growing up with your foal and learning young creates a friendship between rider & horse. This bond is mutually affectionate. In that circumstance, the rider using legs only to control their horse while using weapons is easy enough. Of course no evidence of that is likely to be found
    1700
  10. As a Sardinian archaeologist, I'm amazed by the level of detail you went through in this video. Just to let your subscribers know, the information you reported was correct and very precise. I have to say thank you for spreading the knowledge of our ancient culture. Just one more thing. In the last years, it's more and more spread the idea that the "nuragic" bronzes are not the reflection of the nuraghi builders, but of the people from the next phase late bronze age/iron age. Also, the funerary practices change, abandoning the old giant's tombs for single burials. Votive swords and "bronzetti" were made when the towers were built no more. The culture it's always "nuragic" but the phases are differentiated. Anyway, this is a matter of discussion between archaeologists. Thanks again for your excellent work.
    1700
  11. It is easy to underestimate the hardship of that age. Even thousands of years after the onset of the Neolithic revolution, crops were still closer to the wild grasses and weeds they started out as, rather than the bountiful crops of today. While hardy, they would yield much less food for the labor put into them. Likewise the livestock, while hardy, would be rather gamey and give less milk and meat than in later times. The men and women who took this land from the wood and the wolves were heroes indeed. Sadly, only these mist-shrouded hills and scattered bones remain to tell their incredible tales.
    1700
  12. William Marshall has to be one of the most impressive individual physical combatants for the sheer volume of documented combats he prevailed in.
    1600
  13. Idk why, but the idea of finding a child's fingerprint in the clay is so touching to me. Milennia removed, yet an intensely relatable experience, excitedly waiting for, or even making, a special toy. 😊
    1400
  14. This is the stuff I like to see. So many “Bronze Age” videos only discuss the wars, the kings, and the assassinations. We never learn what the lives of the people were like.
    1300
  15. Warboner would be a great metal band name.
    1100
  16. We still dance in circles on the Balkans, it's so primal and natural. You get into a sort of a trance-like state. You feel the bodies of the others, their movements. On a side note, I think many archeologists don't know much about the symbolism of the old pagan-like rituals to look into them for the meaning of the figurines. I don't say that I know what they were, but it's a little bit simplistic to always think about a mother earth goddess, while reality could be a much more complex affair.
    1100
  17. WRT him looking "older", that's from a life lived outdoors. Go to any rural area especially a fishing community and try to guess the men's ages. UV light ages you, and you get a double dose when you're in a boat on the water. We work indoors, we have moisturizers and exfoliants and god knows what. And we worship "a youthful look". We look young for our age these days. He just worked outdoors a lot, high up in the mountains. Lots of UV exposure.
    1000
  18. Perhaps Otzi was murdered by a member of his own tribe over some local dispute. His valuable axe was left behind on the mountain because possessing it would have identified the killer or started a blood feud.
    948
  19. Maybe the later "barbarian" steppe people were influenced by the Varna long after its passing, in a similar way that the Germanic peoples in the Dark Ages were heavily influenced by the glory of Rome, for centuries after its fall. Surely this place must have spawned legends that turned into myth that is now long forgotten.
    879
  20. These sort of massive scale projects always serve to remind me of how clever ancient humans were. It helps demystify the people of the day, and emphasize how unchanged we are on a fundamental level.
    877
  21. The history of Vlad the Impaler is perhaps one of the most fascinating stories in Medieval History. Vlad and Elizabeth Bathory are two of my favorites.
    865
  22. I found two Vinca figurines last year while fieldwalking in my area. One is a Y-shaped abstract anamorphic form, considered an amulet, it probably hung by a string in a house. The second is a much more realistic female figure made of blackened clay with her hands on her hips. Both are now at the local museum. I work with archaeologists here to make 3D reconstructions of cultural sites and objects and we're planning on reconstructing a Vinca village in the near future.
    858
  23. The Copper Age is another one of those things we didn't learn about in school and didn't read about in popular science magazines, and yet it was such an important, formative period at least for Europe. Glad you've stepped up to the task of educating people!
    851
  24. I absolutely died when I realised you'd used Sebastian Stan as Radu in his portrait.
    827
  25. I read Thomas Asbridge's The Greatest Knight several years ago and it was good to be reminded again of William Marshall. He served four kings and led an English army into battle at the age of 70. Surely the epitome of knighthood.
    810
  26. "Not as clumsy or random as a bow. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age."
    787
  27. All my drinking is strictly ritual.
    777
  28. They loved `peace and quiet and good tilled earth'. In other words, they were hobbits. :P
    758
  29. Yes. We're interested in bronze age armor. We'd like a articular deep dive into boar's teeth helmets, and laminar armors.
    724
  30. As a Romanian, born in the same city as Vlad, I can honestly say Dan knows way more about this than I do.
    722
  31. Somebody develops lactose tolerance -> domestication of the horse -> series of dominoes -> I am wearing pants four thousand years later
    711
  32. Unrelated: about 20 years ago my mom was trying to push a chicken onto a skewer and impaled her hand, straight through. Miraculously, she somehow missed all the veins, tendons, nerves, everything. A couple of hours at the hospital and she was fine, other than the nifty scars she still has. And that's the story of how I learned who Vlad the Impaler was when I was a teenager, and why we still call my mom "Vlad" when she's cooking.
    701
  33. So basically Kerberos's real name is "spot", good to know.
    691
  34. After four months of researching what prehistoric people ate, whilst living out in the wilderness subsisting only on a prehistoric diet, Dan Davis returns to tell us what he has discovered.
    684
  35. Not to detract from other great history channels, but... What a huge difference makes having a professional storyteller producing these videos.
    684
  36. I’ve a lot of media about this guy but this is the most detailed documentary I’ve ever seen about him. Several facts and alternative reconstructions I hadn’t seen before
    681
  37. It’s so good to get something for the general public that treats us as intelligent people, a presentation that is informed and well sourced, that gives us an overview without superficiality or sensationalism. I like that you give us sources in the information so that we can go further into something.
    680
  38. Many many years ago I traveled on the Silk Road using hired cars, old busses and a 20 hour train ride I shared with goats and other animals to get to where I was going. It was such an epic adventure that I described to my friends! I feel ridiculous right now.
    677
  39. I'm sure the Nordic Bronze Age culture was far more advanced than most people think. They were excellent ship builders and had an extensive trading network with all of Europe. Only they didn't live in large settlements of stone houses and because of that not much is preserved.
    669
  40. People don't realize just how difficult and expensive it was to get a hold of metal back then. For them to bury him with a copper weapon that large was a huge honor. This was somebody who was greatly respected and probably a great hero and leader of his people.
    664
  41. The Bronze Age is looking more and more like the Conan the Barbarian universe. I can just imagine the swole bronze horned warriors with bronze swords fighting snake men in deep tombs when I see all those small horned statuettes.
    661
  42. I find the Neolithic dark age so interesting. It shows how easily and regularly civilisations fall! Learned a lot from this one thanks Dan
    652
  43. Imagine the quality of the pots they made, after 7000-5000 years, some were found intact and the colours are still very much visible.
    649
  44. I watched a documentary about this site and never thought about it again. You have given it more life in 20 minutes than those attempting to make an entire documentary about it were able to. Thank you for your channel and keep up the amazing work!
    649
  45. I think it is a mistake, to assume that the bit is the only way to control a horse. Spanish riding traditional uses what is called a hackamore. A woven strip of rawhide encircles the horses muzzle. Pressure on the muzzle, controls the horse. In modern times, the people of Mongolia ride horses very similar to ancient horses. Very short, and very stocky. The argument that short and stocky horses would not be an advantage, is somewhat ridiculous. Training a wild horse, without the use of a previously trained horse, is nigh impossible. However, if a young foal were captured, after the killing of its mother, it would be quite easy to train that horse. Very much in the same way that wolf puppies we're probably trained, to be domestic companions. I think that modern archaeologists have a tendency to belittle the abilities of ancient peoples. It is important to remember that they were every bit as smart as we are. To say that early peoples were not capable of doing what we do all the time, shows a tremendous amount of hubris. If they were eating horses, they had access to foals. If they had access to foals, then they had access to rideable mounts. Personally, I believe that domestication occurred very early. However, archaeological proof of such domestication would be unlikely to survive. This is why we have not found walrus skin boots, from ancient times. But that's another topic, entirely. Enjoyed the video. Keep it up
    633
  46. Yes, please Bronze Age weights!
    579
  47. My friend was telling me about this old medieval french lemonade made with oranges recipe that he found and was talking about how the sheer amount of people in the french county that made most of the lemonade survived better then most of europe because they constantly threw the lemon and orange peels all over but the lemon peels drives off the bugs because of the citric acid or some such sciency reason
    573
  48. The amount of work, research, reading, and cross referencing you gotta do for these doesn’t go unappreciated my friend. We anthropologists have a special place in our hearts for channels like this! Golly, I respect the dedication you have for this stuff.
    536
  49. I have a boat axe story! My grandad found one in his field in South Finland back in the 60s. He pocketed it and didn't think much about it, until a few years later there was a masquerade party in the village. A bunch of guys dressed up as "cave men" and grandad suddenly remembered his axe! He strapped a handle on it and ooga-boogad on down to the party. The group of cave men were so popular that a photo of them ended up in the local newspaper. Despite the photo being black and white, and rather grainy, an archeologist immediately noticed that one of the masked men had a rather genuine-looking axe! Within a few days grandad got a visit from the national museum with a polite "ahem, the law sort of requires you to hand over the axe, sir". So now grandad's axe is in a museum, just like Indiana Jones prefers it.
    531
  50. This makes me think about Anubis, who served a similar role to the spirit dog guarding the path.
    530