Bronze Age Anthro Notes (WIP)

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#1 of Anthros Through the Ages

Notes about anthros through the ages


Givens:

Human History is mostly Replicated until 1492

Linguistic Groups are Not Bound by Species

Humans and Anthros are similar enough to mate

Humans remain Homo Sapiens Sapiens

Anthros are Homo Sapiens Ferox (subspecies)

Historical Terms

State: A Government i.e the Russian State

Nation: A people group i.e the Sorbian nation is in Germany

Nation-State: A state that claims to be encompassing a nation i.e Japan

Section One: Non-Domestic Canines and Hyenas in Western Eurasia

Subsection One: Late Calitholithic to the Bronze Age Collapse Near East (4000 B.C to 1000 B.C)

Side note: Its hilarious how similar the evolutionary-migratory paths of wolves and hyenas match with the Indo-Europeans and Semitic language families with Hyenas origination in Southwestern Asia (Arabia, Iran, Middle, Levant and Mesopotamia) while Wolves are thought to have evolved on the Eurasian Steppe. The Semitic languages are thought to have originated in Arabia, the Levant, or Assyria whereas the Indo-European languages hail from the Pontic Steppe in modern southern Russia and Eastern Ukraine.

1.1A Striped Hyena Dietary Customs

Striped Hyenas' feral counterparts eat a diet predominantly of small-medium game and fruit, usually at night.

With this it can be assumed that they would form a herder culture, raising goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs while hunting for fowl and game. It would also be assumed that the females would be the ones to do the herding while the males, being the weaker sex of hyaenidae would be relegated to trapping, gathering, and processing animal products like dairy products, spinning and weaving wool, and processing bones.

Meaning that men in their society would likely have a strong fruit and cheese culture while the women would have a strong grain and meat culture. In essence, men would be making fruit products like wine, jams, and dried fruit, dairy products like cheese, butter, yogurt, and buttermilk. Women would handle grain and meat, like that of bread and porridge, smoked, dried, salted and fresh meat products, and bone and fat products like that of lard, tallow, and bonework.

A mix of the two, as the sexes are never separated, would be that of potted meats (smoked or salted meat preserved by having hot butter poured over it and left to solidify in the pot.) Fishing would likely be done by both sexes and thus fish products.

Bone marrow and Beef-Bone broth would likely be seen as staples and among the most highly regarded aspects of the meal.

Cooking Methods were usually spit roasting over fire, boiling, and one pot dishes as pottery was expensive and heavy for herders.

Potential recipe.

Mesopotamian Braised Mutton (A feast day meal)

You will need:

Cubed Mutton

Beef Broth

One bottle of red wine

Sesame

Thyme

Cardamon

Cumin

Coriander

Salt

Butter or Olive Oil

In a large pot, add butter and brown the mutton and then add the seasonings to taste, then cover the meat in the wine and leave to cook until soft. Deglaze pot with broth and simmer to sauce. Serve covered in sauce with bread, butter or olive oil, and olives.

1.1B Clothing, Jewelry and Body Marking Cultures Among Striped Hyena Herders

Likely woolen robes and tunics would cover most of the body, no doubt with tribal and clan patterns but stripes and dots would likely be the most common varieties of pattern. They would probably take pride in their appendage stripes or try to hide them. Tails would likely be hidden, left bare, or adorned tail bracelets made of beads, animal remains, and possibly metal ornaments. It is unlikely that an earring culture would develop given the tufted ears would hide all but the largest, and therefor painful to wear earrings.

As for other jewelry, humans of the Afro-Asiatic (also called semitic languages) and Indo-European language families have a strong wedding ring tradition that dates back to the earliest days of their societies. Assuming the same for them, it is likely that they would adorn a larger, non-metallic, ring to signify both betrothal and marriage. Perhaps the rings would be carved or otherwise adorned throughout life to signify the growth of the couple. Perhaps marital brands would accompany the rings like traditional tattooing among the Kurds given the relative isolation of the Hyenas among the other homo sapiens ferox subspecies in the area.

No doubt necklaces, and bracelets would be worn as well, with the female armor tradition surely emerging from the jewelry tradition with likely heavier beads, rigid collars, and large bracer-like bracelets before specialized armor is made in the early bronze age. Once the bronze age begins, likely female clothing will integrate more metal adornments like metal studs or patterned leather while male clothing would likely become radically more or less covering depending on both tribe and social status. I.e the "chosen" mate of a hyena matriarchal group may dress very lightly as to show his privileged position within society while slaves may have to wear rough, concealing garments as to not "offend" the tribe with their lesser forms. (this is not a made up system btw). Male jewelry would probably center around bracelets, necklaces, and rings, all of local

As for body markings, brands would likely take the place of tattoos, much like certain baptist sects across the American South. Perhaps brands would name people part of a clan but would probably be more common by the warriors of a clan or tribe, and have a distinct religious nature, symbols important to the herders and their gods would be commonplace. Things like the moon, sun, stars, various mighty animals like boars and their feral counterparts, and tribal affiliated symbols would be common. Another common body marking would be body painting, fur powdering, and perhaps limited dying. The uses would be religious and ceremonial in nature perhaps in rites of passage into adulthood, marriages, funeral and burial customs, and war, perhaps in a way similar to the Aramaean herders however they did it (Pre-literate and not seen favorably by either Babylon or Egypt.)

Yes I did make the Hyenas a modified version of the North Arabian Herder peoples like the Moabites, Aramaens, and other quite similar tribes/cultures.

Section 1.2A Herder Grey Wolf Dietary Customs

Gray wolves are naturally carnivorous, more intelligent than their hyena competition and with weaker jaws, naturally they'd likely have more favorable or at least more influence from the agricultural nations, however they're also more aggressively territorial. From this I assume they're primarily cattle herders in Anatolia and the Iranian Plateau. This all being said they'd probably drink more alcohol than the hyenas as canines naturally pursue fermenting fallen fruit (I have seen this in foxes and dogs in the cherry orchards so I assume wolves are the same.) So, the Western Grey Wolves in Anatolia and the Eastern Balkans would likely be of Indo-European stock unlike the Semitic hyenas. As for the core of their diet, it would likely be of cow's milk and dairy products, salted meats, grain, and fruit. I imagine they'd like to keep their foods more separated, with clearly defined preparation methods common among steppe and steppe-descended cuisine. Beans may be eaten, but they'd have access to things like sesame, oats, and apples, which may be used in cooking with hot oatmeal instead of something like millet or barley porridge.

Since wolves would be cattle-herders in Anatolia, Assyria, Iran, and *potentially* vagrant tribes in Northern Arabia from being stranded after raids into Mesopotamia like the Gutians, its likely they'd be very similar to real life steppe cuisine (really hasn't changed much since the dawn of the chariot with the Scythian, Sarmatian, Uzbek, and later Mongol diets all being quite similar and mind you there is roughly 3000 years between the Scythians and Mongols). So things like Fermented milk of both cows and mares, lamb, mutton, and beef, as well as game, are very low in carbs and high in protein, fat, and fiber. Not really much to say. Veal and lamb would be consumed for celebrations, but milk and dairy would make up the vast majority of their diet. Sweets would be relegated to found honey and likely only on meat. Kumis and milk would be the most common beverages consumed when water is not easily available and maybe in general, it probably varies tribe to tribe and individual to individual.

Potential Recipe

Yoghurt Marinated Beef Roast

Ingredients

Chuck Roast

Greek Yogurt

Sesame

Cardamom

Basil

Thyme

Salt

Minced Garlic

Fresh Black Pepper

Preparation

Mix spices into yogurt, let sit. Score roast with about ½ inch to full inch (1-2 cm) deep cuts in a criss-crossed pattern. Move marinade to a large plastic bag, add roast and ensure an even coverage across the roast. Leave overnight to a day in the fridge. Roast at 225-250 until medium rare uncovered. Remove and sear edges if desired. Serve with bread, a sauce of your choosing, and dried or fresh fruits (plums, dates, cherries, mulberry, apples, and pomegranates are all age-appropriate options) and either beer, wine, kumis, kefir, or just water or regular milk.

Section 1.2B Western Herder Grey Wolves Clothing Culture

To deal with the mountains of the Western Balkans and Anatolia, the grey wolves of the west would don various garments from tunics to thick coats depending on the time of year. Leather and wool would be the primary clothing with furs being used to line or adorn and linens being reserved for those who could afford trading with the settled folk. As for designs, probably various patterns, like plaids and bands would be common depending on tribal and religious custom, the cuts would probably be quite conservative as well given the far strong sense of monogamy among the common folk of the Indo-Europeans, from this more exotic or plain clothes would also depend on tribes but the difference between the sexes would be quite normal to us humans. Men would probably wear trousers and some sort of food wrapping or shoe, a tunic and then perhaps a coat and or cloak depending on local environmental factors and customs. Their armor tradition would evolve out of the males leather jerkins and quilted tunics evolving to scale armor for their wealthy warriors. Yellow and Blue would be the brightest colors to the wolves and so its likely that they would put a stong value on blues, greens, and yellows aside more neutral colors like white, black, brown, and gray. Wedding rings would likely be made of metal or bone but beads would likely be wooden or metallic rather than bone due to ready access to wood, and ritual body painting would be very important to their matrimonial and martial traditions. Women would probably also wear trousers, as they're better at facing the wind than dresses but longer tunics may be worn as well for the ever-gravid pre-modern woman. I expect that things like drawstrings and broaches to be common. Hoods and hats would be commonplace to prevent the winds from damaging their hearing or just keeping them warm and a coat-waxing tradition may emerge in wetter climates.

Section 1.2C Eastern Herder Grey Wolf Clothing Culture

Across the ever-contested Alluvial Plain, in the lands of the Iran where the Medes, Kassites, Elamites called home in the arid highlands of Iran, the Eastern Herders would be far more interconnected in the trade of the day and can therefor be expected to have a far more extravagant style. Trousers would likely remain commonplace for both sexes by the women may have something like different cuff or some cut difference or perhaps forgoing the harder wool and leather garments in favor of linens or even being heavily involved with the early cotton trade ferrying the raw flowers to mesopotamia for sale or pre-processed cotton and cotton products for sale in the Mesopotamian markes. Expect more colorful patterns due to the greater availability of dyes and weavers and thus more material competition between tribes, Women may wear dresses rather than trousers as horseback herding is less tenable in the Iranian plateau than the Anatolian plains. Of course mounted warriors may exist but most of society would be foot-walking semi-nomads. They'd likely have more robust food-paw wear, perhaps leather soles properly would be worn given there's less risk of slippage on wet stones as would be common in the more humid climates of the Eastern Mediterranean during the period. While the Iranian plateau was once temperate rainforest, this would still probably be true in parts of the Caucasus but not the cultural heartland of the Iranian Highlands. Likely some sort of headwrap or snout veil would emerge among their peoples in the event of dust storms during droughts and other such dust-related inconveniences present in the Iranian Plateau.

Section 1.2D Grey Wolf Body Markings

Body paint and fur powdering would likely be common for specific rites, rituals, and celebrations, like that of the spring slaughter, solstices, and equinoxes, as well as any specific religious or tribal or even familial celebrations like perhaps a successful raid, weddings, childbirth, and funeral rites. I don't think branding would be common, nor tattooing given the thicker fur of wolves but maybe ritualistic scarring for warriors. Ultimately the gray wolves are so spread out that any particular custom is likely unlikely across their entire population, perhaps they have ways of shaving down fur or braiding it into patterns but permanent body markings not earned in battle would likely not be common.