This is one of the great underlying wonders of practical modern archaeology: how fantastically incomplete it is, and how much has still to be discovered.
This is one of the great underlying wonders of practical modern archaeology: how fantastically incomplete it is, and how much has still to be discovered.
Yea, but did they have Tik Tok?
“This is one of the great underlying wonders of practical modern archaeology: how fantastically incomplete it is, and how much has still to be discovered.”
But, but, but…. the science is settled !!
Increasingly, you are linking to offsite locations which no one can read without a fairly expensive subscription.
I do thank you for your website, though, as I read it every day.
L
I was able to see the article at link without payment.
and later found this article on Dogger Bank and the North Sea when sea level was 120 m lower, plus a great subsea landslide.
https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/europes-lost-world-and-the-megaflood
Joe thanks for the fascinating link!
Who said they were?
Literally no one. One of the reasons I never pursued history and archaeology beyond a minor was the realization that the biggest problem with archaeology was archaeologists.
I tried archaeology, but I just couldn’t dig it.
Some ancient people probably had very good intelligence. The so-called bell curve of intelligence has never yet been disproved. Their intellect and efforts created the world that we know.
That is simply true. There have always been bright lights people who did amazing things, and those who could not.
To survive in ancient times one had to be intelligent. Being strong, agile, healthy and ready to fight to survive helped. Our chances today are not so bright and less so once the internet goes down and many with few practical skill will survive for long.
lve noticed something on an inclination? to gauge ‘intelligence’ based on technology.
well, maybe of the intelligence of those who invented it, but a monkeys could be trained to respond to a cell phone what does that prove?
otoh the greeks knew the world was round and made a good estimate of the curvature, then Isaac Newton invented calculus with, GASP!!, no computers.
One of the things I takeaway from The Bible … is that people aren’t all that fundamentally different or advanced today than we were thousands of years ago when we lived on dirt floors (unless you were a wealthy Roman who had slaves to make mosaic tile floors for your comfort). We all struggle with the exact same human foibles that haven’t been eradicated in the least. Hell! We even have “top” politicians who impregnated their “help”.
So yes, I expect the ancients were also just as innately intelligent as we are today. Even though; improved nutrition, expanded free time, the printing press, sanitation, public schooling, and technical innovation has sped-up human development … we are still just as lazy, shiftless, and prone to self indulgement to the exclusion of productive behavior.
I would say that a small subset of my contemporaries are smarter than the ancients … and the rest of us are just along for the ride. Same as it ever was. Same as it … ever was.
If a total collapse occurred today; no more power (electricity and fossil) and modern communications, modern man would die in massive numbers.
If I were to attribute survival techniques without powered mechanical energy with intelligence then definitely our ancestors were much smarter than us.
Modern man is dependent thus weak in regards to some 200 years of advancements but at the same time stronger and healthier with a longer lifespan.
I am not envious of our forefathers and their heavy toil for life…as long as the lights stay on at the grocery store.
utterly wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.
the earliest settlers? show up with a crate containing a saw, an axe, cooking utensils and with time they wind up with livestock, barns, windmills, corduroy roads etc.
this generation got NUTHIN on the ancients.
There’s this concept of çollective IQ, I’ve read somewhere that actually humanity’s collective IQ was highest when survival depended on hunting. Back then, humans had to work as a team to catch large & dangerous animals. They had to design traps, develop scenarios and logistics etc. Certainly not today when people prefer to be assisted (housing, benefits, food) and surf the net. Another example how stupid we are as a collective: we have 100+ yrs of Socialism implemented in multiple places throughout the globe, and all ended/are a total disaster. Yet many still think Socialism/Communism is great.
Idiocracy is a not inaccurate portent of our future
The Gods of the Copybook Headings.
Ancient people were never as stupid as University Graduates of The Science of Archeology.
For decades these “experts” have always invented some “Religious Rituals” as the explanation for everything they can’t explain..which is damn near everything.
jeepers John, just how *did* those megatonne pyramids take shape?
had to be schpashe haliens because peepull back den were zhust tooo schtoooopid
It wouldn’t shock me to learn that there were civilizations on this this planet at one time which were much more advanced than we ever will be. Every once in a while something pops up that has no explanation, and doesn’t fit the archetype of the bed of historical knowledge that is accepted as gospel. Ego makes it too easy for those in the best position to try and explain these anomalies to take a road of ignorance.
The earth is at least 4.5 Billion years old. With the consideration of plate tectonics, it’s likely much older than that.
« …something pops up with no explanation.. »
Like the object that was discovered molten in a broken rock that was identified as an ancient spark plug…come to think of it and assuming it was used to combust a flammable substance proves that our current technology is no different…and the best?
Found what I was looking for. The tectonics work in such a way on the earth that anything that might have been on the surface 2.5 million years ago would be…well…buried very deep. So, anything before the Quaternary time period isn’t going to be accessible to us for study.
However, if a previous advanced civilization did exist and traveled to the moon, there would have been a better chance of finding some evidence due to tectonic inactivity. Unfortunately, if you look at the moon, you are well aware of the craters from asteroid strikes over time…and the resultant dust make up related to that (which would also bury any “treasures”).
This is all part of something called the Silurian Hypothesis, if you’re interested.
That spark plug was identified as a Champion belonging to a 1920’s Ford.
Encased in mud, held together by its own rust. Likely buried in a deeper layer by weather or a landslide.
What about plate tectonics would lead you to believe the earth is older than 4.6 billion years?
I think the earth’s dating is relatively accurate … same thing with the moon … what do you know that I don’t know?
Analysis of the Apollo 17 moon rocks pinpoint the Moon’s creation to 4.51 billion years ago, just 60 million years after the Solar System first formed.
Oldest carbon dated rock is 4.2 to 4.5 Billion years old. The thing is, everything on the surface you see now wasn’t on the surface 2.5 million years ago. It’s a big planet. 😀
C14 half life is 5,730 years. So carbon dating has no accuracy older than 40,000 years.
What do u think happened 2.5 million years ago?
Is that accounting for space-time curvature?
I guess I am suggesting that dt/dt may not, in fact, be 1, if by ‘t’ you mean elapsed separation of an unobservable, unprovable parametric quantity.
That was an awful lot of words to say practically nothing.
I’m not assuming or missing anything, sheeple are getting dumber because they don’t have to think to stay alive.
Its as if tomorrow is a guarantee for many. That’s why so many vote for assholes who promise to take care of them.
From one of the links:
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/the-radical-idea-that-people-arent
a few features of the mind make “people are stupid” an extraordinarily easy thing to believe.
First, there’s naive realism: the belief that you simply see the world as it is. Your brain doesn’t tell you this, but it starts Photoshopping reality as soon as photons hit your retina and vibrations hit your ears. So when other people say that reality is different, they simply seem mistaken. And if they resist when you try to correct them, they simply seem stupid.
Second, there’s psychological distance. Real people are complicated, and if they disagree with you, it’s easy to think of all the reasons why: they were raised differently, they don’t have all the facts, or maybe they even have more facts. But as I wrote in Bureaucratic psychosis, if you’re less connected to someone, you see them less as a person and more as a blob. Blobs are simple. If a blob disagrees with you, that’s because it’s a big dumb sack of gelatinous ooze.
And third, there’s correspondence bias, the tendency to attribute other people’s actions to their personalities rather than to their situations. You see a dude get angry and assume he’s an angry dude, rather than he’s having a bad day.
I’d say that people if anything have become stupider over time. Intellect can decline due to a variety of factors, including diet. There have been studies showing that cannibalism, for example, leads to impaired intellect. and today, our diets may be the least healthy in human history containing preservatives, metals, chemicals, microplastics, etc. That and we are bombarded with electro-smog, which has been shown to interfere with basic biological functions.
Intellect at the ruler level is the most important, because they chart the course everyone is made to follow. One can be intelligent at the peon level, but there are no shortage of smart-yet-stupid people because they are taught lies from which no wisdom can be derived.
And it is my belief that the rulers we’ve had for the last 200 years or so fabricated our history around the time they seized power. Since then, our place names, history, supposed ethnicities, etc. have been rewritten to suit their purposes. Fictional empires like that of the Greeks and Romans have been created. “Ancient” sites and writings have been forged that we have been taught to venerate.
Though every now and then something is found that wasn’t supposed to be found that doesn’t fit their narrative. “Roman” sites are found where Romans weren’t supposed to have been. The same mistranslations found in the same books supposedly from centuries apart written by supposedly different people. Etc.
If true then I would posit that that is the most evil yet powerful application of intellect ever known to man. Creating a world of slaves not knowing they aren’t free, and never knowing whom they serve.
If this sounds of interest to you, feel free to begin your journey here: https://www.obryprojekt.info/
You haven’t read any works by Plato or Aristotle have you?
Some. Were you going to bring up Plato’s allegory of the cave?
Almost everything you think you know is a fraud.
Especially history.
Today’s fake news is already fake history. That has been going on for many generations.
I think I know you.
I think I know his type.
We are not too different from classical times, we just have more gadgets. Our faults remain the same. The seven deadly sins and the corresponding cardinal virtues remain relevant.
Ancient people in the highly developed ancient societies likely appeared as intelligent as today’s people on a day to day basis. They lacked cumulative knowledge developed in recent years but reasoned on a level similar to us. I’ve read a bit of Greek, Roman, and Jewish guys from 2,000 to 2,500 years ago and some of them were brilliant.
But, but you’re not mentioning or giving due notice to the lost ancient knowledge of the African kings /s
Do you get to see the African bullshit posts on Facebook where every civilization in the world stole their ideas from black Africa. The naked people in grass huts apparently started it all.
The ancients weren’t stupid at all. We’re just incredibly arrogant simply because we’re more technologically advanced (standing on their shoulders no less). They figured out how to sail across vast oceans in rather small ships and build pyramids and other great structures that have lasted millennia.
Graham Hancock has been hoeing this row for a while.
Interesting this guy talked about cognitive illusions and then mentions the US election as if it were akin to an impending meteor strike and also “what’s happening in Antarctica…”.