To accompany Mana Press’s Primeval rules (a supplement for Tribal), Alan Marsh has sculpted the mysterious culture known as the Denisovans. A pre-historic people with few material remains, their actual appearance is conjectural but we feel Alan has done a wonderful job of creating stone age peoples of a warmer drier climate. If you are tired of gaming with thick set Neanderthals and skin wearing Cro-Magnons of the European Ice Ages, here is the alternative.
Minimal fossil evidence – a few teeth and a toe and finger bone – offers only a limited picture of who the Denisovans were.
In 2010, a fragment of finger bone found in the Denisova caves in Siberia was discovered to have belonged to a young female human who was not genetically related to either modern humans or the Neanderthal. Mitochondrial DNA suggested that although these Denisovan humans had a common ancestry with Neanderthals, they had become genetically isolated as they migrated east of Africa. However, as Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon eventually began to migrate eastwards themselves, they came into contact with this third culture and began to interbreed with them. Just as most people of Eurasian descent carry up to 4% Neanderthal DNA in their genome, Denisovan DNA is found in the genetics of the southern Asian, American and Australasian populations.
If the Denisovans left little evidence discovered thus far in the fossil record, they left even less archaeological clues of their existence. To date very few artifacts attributed to the Denisovan culture have been found – only a 50,000 year old bone needle and a bracelet. One reason could be that artifact finds have been attributed to modern humans instead. Certainly the cultures of Australia and Melanesia, that share the highest percentage of Denisovan DNA, have also remained an isolated stone-age society until relatively recent times. Perhaps the technology, art and culture of these peoples contain echoes of this mysterious human population that their ancestors encountered whilst migrating towards these southern lands.
Item Code
Description
Price (ex-GST)
Price (incl-GST)
100DEN001
Chief (1 variant)
$2.95
$3.25
100DEN002
Hero (2 variants)
$2.95
$3.25
100DEN003
Spear and shield (3 variants)
$2.95
$3.25
100DEN004
Hand weapons (3 variants)
$2.95
$3.25
100DEN005
Spear (3 variants)
$2.95
$3.25
100DEN006
Woomera/Atl-atl (2 variants)
$2.95
$3.25
10C0DEN007
Shaman (1 variants)
$2.95
$3.25
“Quest for Fire Deal” All fifteen Denisovan figures plus a copy of Primeval – Normally AUD$69.25, Deal AUD$60.00 (plus GST in Australia) “Burn Baby Burn” Fifteen Denisovans, Primeval and Tribal, plus a flock of emus (tasty) – Normally AUD$106.05, Deal AUD$90.00 (plus GST in Australia)