Great stories, keep em coming! I've got a little reading to do now that I'm on lunch so I'll share one or two of mine soon.
And Will, I'd agree that is is a shaky hypothesis. Granted, it is really old and they wouldn't have gone so public if there wasn't a good amount of evidence but I don't know that I'd agree with his line of reasoning. Religion/respect for forces beyond our control is pretty ingrained in humanity but to suppose that it, rather than survival motivations are what spurred the growth of agriculture is a huge leap to take. I suppose for early cultures the two were intertwined (hope that appeasing the gods/spirits would make sure nobody would starve and all) and I could see individual groups doing smaller scale things but the level of organization the temple structure implies really makes me question.
What's most awesome about the story will be the epic scholarly debates that'll go on for decades.
And I love those photos, saw the link the other day but most of my friends don't appreciate just how awesome they are. Very happy I can share with people that do.
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