10,000 B.C. Reality Show

[Damascus]

I have watched this and what has been said just about covers it, why did they not have some pre training, why did they not do some things off their own back prior, one did, he lit the fire and took embers to the lake and looked like he knew what he was doing but suddenly had a swollen cheek and was whisked away, yet they let a man with pneumonia stay after two days in a tent, please give me a break!

Have you noticed the big logs on the fire, nice sawn ends, they must have a Flint chain saw, the beards have been trimmed with sissors and hair has been comb and the women have lip stick on. Draw your own conclusion!!!

 

[david1]

no they draw the eye liner on

 

[Buckshot]

I'm watching this on demand so have only seen 3 episodes
The point was to take modern man and give them a crash course to see if they can hack it without modern equipment. They had some books and DVDs, and 2 days with Klint. Plus don't forget some of them had some skills too - archery, hunting. At least one had been on a bushcraft course IIRC so not all were clueless.
Klint has mentioned twice on camera that I've seen say they are at a huge disadvantage compared to the originals as they don't know what they're doing - they haven't lived like that for 20+ years
It's a social experiment more than a technical one IMO. Take anyone out of the environment they know into another one and they will strugle

 

[Damascus]

I see what you are saying, the lorry driver who said he'd done some hunting, please, probably shot pigeons from the bedroom window, he was clueless, as said before the boar trap was laughable. Our bowman/leader, may have been a great paper puncher with bow and arrow, in all the time he was out and about never took the bow, what about the target of opportunity, no point in seeing game if the bow is in camp!

As a social experiment, it's been done so many times before, then why not run two simultaneously, one with experts and one without and just see the difference, that would be interesting!

 

[Stevie777]

the lorry driver who said he'd done some hunting, please, probably shot pigeons from the bedroom window, he was clueless, as said before the boar trap was laughable.

In all fairness he was a short while with that rabbit. snapped it's neck like a twig so he did. BTW, That was the biggest rabbit i have ever seen...looked like pet shop bought to me.

 

[boatman]

Regular boar run, tree stand, wait very quietly at appropriate time of day. Far safer way of hunting boar and probably the only way they could succeed.

 

[Stevie777]

Regular boar run, tree stand, wait very quietly at appropriate time of day. Far safer way of hunting boar and probably the only way they could succeed.

even if someone did hit a Boar with a arrow it wouldn't die on the spot and would take a very brave Man/woman or a idiot to follow any blood trail.

 

[boatman]

Agreed Stevie77 but is there any other way they could succeed?

 

[Dannytsg]

even if someone did hit a Boar with a arrow it wouldn't die on the spot and would take a very brave Man/woman or a idiot to follow any blood trail.

Not only that but what concerns me is the ethical kill. These people clearly have very little to no hunting experience but seem to expect they will be able to kill a wild boar or deer with 1 shot and not have anything else to do with it. There is more of a chance of them wounding said animal, it running off and them never finding it allowing it to die a slow painful death!

The same theme always comes through in these shows though, they always pick the participants for the drama/social engineering aspect of television rather than taking it as a serious experiment into Mesolithic survival with skilled participants.

 

[Damascus]

Ditto to the above, don't think it will change, look how it's go us talking, that's entertainment..

 

[Stevie777]

Agreed Stevie77 but is there any other way they could succeed?

After they lost most of the Deer carcass to flies and rot, they should have turned their attention to the lake and fished it non stop like their lives depended on it...wait a minute, it did, and they didn't...Game over.

The whole show as far as i'm concerned has been badly thought out from start to possibly finish....it's about entertainment for the masses, nothing whatsoever to do with Experimental archaeology.

 

[PaulSanderson]

I think using the term "reality" show in this case is taking the biscuit...Started watching it but got frustrated at the lazy and those with a bad attitude...was amusing for all of 3 episodes...

 

[Jared]

even if someone did hit a Boar with a arrow it wouldn't die on the spot and would take a very brave Man/woman or a idiot to follow any blood trail.

In the one of the latest episodes, one of them is hunting "alone" and comes across a group of boar. But is told by accompanying armed rangers not to attempt a shot, on safety grounds.

Sounded like all their boar hunting has been a waste of time really, if they aren't going to be let the opportunity to attempt to kill one.

 

[cranmere]

The point was to take modern man and give them a crash course to see if they can hack it without modern equipment. They had some books and DVDs, and 2 days with Klint. Plus don't forget some of them had some skills too - archery, hunting. At least one had been on a bushcraft course IIRC so not all were clueless.

The other huge thing that is missing is the stores that a real primitive village would have had. It was autumn, a real subsistence community would have been working through the summer to gather and preserve food and fuel for the winter. They would have had baskets, various items made of leather, stocks of flint tools, bone tools, cordage and more. Their huts would have been mended and in good condition for the coming bad weather. This bunch had almost nothing and as a result were in an almost impossible situation of trying to learn, to find food, to make equipment etc all at the same time, and trying to fight out a pecking order for the group with no clear administrative leadership. No wonder it fell apart so quickly.

 

[Whittler Kev]

There was something else bugging me about this. Throwing them I at the deep end was also unfair as they would not only have had previous generations there with experience, but also have known about the lake and had traps set on land and in the lake, they wouldn't have gone in cold.

Again, I think it has been a really badly executed program. Putting them into a group of say 5 experts would have been better as then you would have seen if they could have survived in a group rather than throwing them in at the deep end.

Well said.
Not an experiment...a show made for sensationalism .............and couch potato critics?
Makes me think maybe I have got some useful skills then

 

[Whittler Kev]

The other huge thing that is missing is the stores that a real primitive village would have had. It was autumn, a real subsistence community would have been working through the summer to gather and preserve food and fuel for the winter. They would have had baskets, various items made of leather, stocks of flint tools, bone tools, cordage and more. Their huts would have been mended and in good condition for the coming bad weather. This bunch had almost nothing and as a result were in an almost impossible situation of trying to learn, to find food, to make equipment etc all at the same time, and trying to fight out a pecking order for the group with no clear administrative leadership. No wonder it fell apart so quickly.

They would have been nomads going with the meat as it roamed wouldn't they? If so they wouldn't have had loads to carry only the essentials for living on the move

 

[boatman]

Some semi-permanent Mesolithic settlements have been found so although nomadic they may have followed quite a circumscribed rout around the country with perhaps regular meetings with other groups for trading and fun. With any of these "experiments" I think you need at least two groups to inter-relate or, as in the BBC Surviving the Iron Age having a meet with a reasonably authentic living history group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howick_house

 

[Robson Valley]

In North America, it's very common for native communities to have both summer and winter camps.
Haida even took their house boards with them.

If anything (program unseen), I suspect that it demonstrates the size of the body of knowledge needed to survive, to optimize living circumstances and to prosper.
And prosper, native communities certainly did so.

 

[cranmere]

They would have been nomads going with the meat as it roamed wouldn't they? If so they wouldn't have had loads to carry only the essentials for living on the move

Given the number of ancient settlements that exist in England I doubt very much if they were nomadic.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

Like us they may have had semi permanent communities and from them they spent a lot of time at other places where game is located at different times of the year.

So I travel to hunt caribou when they come south on migration, travel to lakes to catch fish and follow trap lines in winter when travel is easier.

We don't think this is primitive though