Ancient Civilizations

[tokarski21]

Were there ancient, advanced civilizations unknown to us that existed thousands of years before any we know of? In the 30,000+ years that modern humans have roamed the Earth, logical arguements can and have been that they did. I used to think so, but I now believe there is enough physical evidence to prove they never could have. What do you think?

[spot]

It depends entirely on what you mean by advanced, doesn't it. Does advanced mean capable of sailing across oceans, for example? The spread of animals and plants by advancing human colonisation is fairly well mapped across the Pacific, between Eurasia and the Americas, between Madagascar and mainland Africa, from Australasia to the rest of the world, none of that predates the known colonisation paths and dates. If they had there would be, for example, hugely profitable potato production in Europe thousands of years before 1500 and the Aztecs would have had horses.

If you mean metal-using, why was the first exploitation of minerals by known civilizations able to find such rich exposed surface seams? They'd have been the first to be used by any prior unknown civilization but there they were, copper and tin, coal and iron, gold and silver, all ready to hand for the people we know about to mine.

If advanced means something less than a capability to travel the world and disseminate species between continents or use significant quantities of natural resources, what does it mean?

[FUBAR]

If you get this channel you might like this....


Life After People - History.Com

Carrying their idea a bit further what if there were other intelligent species but they lived say 200 million years ago. Or even further back, who knows we may not be the first after all............

[spot]

Originally Posted by FUBAR

If you get this channel you might like this....


Life After People - History.Com

Carrying their idea a bit further what if there were other intelligent species but they lived say 200 million years ago. Or even further back, who knows we may not be the first after all............

There's a big difference between intelligent and "advanced civilization". I'm not sure one could detect intelligent from that far back but I'm reasonably sure our presence will still be visible in 200 million years time.

[FUBAR]

Originally Posted by spot

There's a big difference between intelligent and "advanced civilization". I'm not sure one could detect intelligent from that far back but I'm reasonably sure our presence will still be visible in 200 million years time.

Why? The Appalachians used to be as high as the Himalayas but not now. You have meteor strikes, earthquakes, continental drift and subduction. All the natural disasters and weathering happening now. Without people left to fix or rebuild what would be left after 200 million years, even the continents would have moved . Possibly only spacecraft but even they could be moved or destroyed in random events.

[mikeinie]

The assumption when talking about ‘advanced civilizations’ back then, is that we now believe that we are somehow now advanced ourselves. Yes we have done many things with the ability to write, communicate and create, but we are not all that far out of the cave yet.

Humans can be brutal to each other and more animalistic that we like to think that we are. Name one other creature that has created the ability to completely destroy ourselves and our entire planet. We think that we are so great.

In this modern age it would be interesting to see how advanced we really would be if, let’s say, somehow all electricity was suddenly cut off, then let’s also throw in: what if suddenly our running water to our houses would stop. It is funny, but the cultures that would most likely survive are the ones that we see as the ‘undeveloped’ 3rd world.

[Nomad]

I like to think Im one of the last remaining remnants of a very powerful and advanced if not mega genius ancient civilization.
I may not be able to prove it but I KNOW.

[spot]

Originally Posted by Nomad

I like to think Im one of the last remaining remnants of a very powerful and advanced if not mega genius ancient civilization.
I may not be able to prove it but I KNOW.

By the male line, Nomie? Just think 400 generations ago your direct male ancestor was wandering around some continent or other being completely mystifyingly prehistoric. I wonder what continent he was on.

[Ian]

Graham hancock

[spot]

Originally Posted by Ian

Graham hancock

Well done Ian. Now would you like to comment critically on post#2?