The “Beaker” people? That’s it? That’s all we are? A bunch of primitive savages who sit around all day making cool beakers for you to dig up and admire after we are long gone? I see you, and the first thing I see of your ways is the great houses, taller than trees, made of shaped stone. Do I call you the Shaped Stone people? No, because you are more than the stone you shape. You also have your ways of worship, your ways of war, your music and your stories. And so do we. We are more than our beakers. And most of all, you already have your own names, and hence do not need the one I give you. Likewise, we have our own names for ourselves. We know ourselves, you do not know us, and hence, you do not get to decide what we should be called.
woman from the Beaker culture addressing present day archaeologists, a Neolithic to Bronze Age culture which was widely spread across Europe during 2800-1800 BCE.
An attempt at flash (pre-)historical fiction. Possibly also science fiction because apparently this woman time-travelled to the present day? I don’t know.
It is a shame that all we have left of prehistoric cultures are their archaeological artifacts, and have no access to their languages and their oral traditions. But alas, the distant past is the distant past.
(via annebeeche)
