I wonder if early man collected things?

[Marthe48]

I wonder how far back our collection mania began?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. We could probably figure it out by looking at modern nomadic people.

Without a permanent residence of some kind,early humans would have been very limited in how much they could collect.

[Chainfire]

4. Exactly, when you move from place to place, on foot, you carry the minimum.

It was probably with the beginning of agriculture and settling down that folks began to amass "treasures."

[Sneederbunk]

2. Definitely. We did not become a throwaway society untl the 1960s.

Although, very few had stamp and coin collections.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Throwaway society and collecting are two entirely different things.

Middle class Victorians amassed huge quantities of decorative things. They would cover every single surface with lots and lots of stuff.

Stamp collecting actually became a thing as soon as the very first stamps were issued, in 1847.

Just Google "photograph of Victorian parlor". Here's one example.

?v=1445219797

[Marthe48]

8. Looks like my living room!

Except I have more
I read that the Victorians collected curios from their travels to display and talk about.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Some of their things would have been curios from travels,

but a lot of other things were lace tablecloths, lots and lots of pictures, ceramic objects, and so on.

The picture I posted shows no where near the number of objects I've seen in other photos of Victorian parlors. It helped that they had servants to handle all the dusting.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Interesting question. I suspect that there have been studies done already on this,

e.g., when did humans settle down and start growing crops (have to stay in one spot basically), develop year round residences that would hold up over time, etc. I suspect rugs were one thing, as well as coverings of the tent structures/tee pees/etc., since these required so much overhead (remember, everything was literally done a manual basis). Unfortunately, weapons too, since one had to defend against those who didn't want to do the work themselves, and thus, take it from others.

Again, neat question.

[Marthe48]

9. I was watching history documentaries all weekend

Lots of reference to trading and trading routes thousands of year B.C. and how wealthy some of the traders became. I started wondering where getting stuff left off personal adornment and started going to boxes and chests and so on. Or did people just trade and then trade somebody else for something else endlessly?

[Vinca]

5. How did you miss Paleolithic Barbie? LOL.

[cachukis]

6. Doubt there was much to collect until you had time to appreciate what was collectable.