Alternative Theories In Ancient History

[Pangur Bán]

I found an excellent link, with lots of alteernative theories in ancient history, including the Carthaginian discovery of the new world and ancient nuclear weapons .


http://julen.net/ancient/Alternative_Theories/

I've opened this thread so we can all discuss them and/or scoff at them together

 

[test_specimen]

I recently read a newspaper article on batteries found in the Middle East (can't remember the exact place, might have been Mesopotamia). What they found where vases filled with a layer of isolation and acid. In experiments some American historian showed, that they could have produced electricity. The most likely use was some sort of gold treatment to put a layer of gold on objects.

Sorry if I am posting in the wrong thread, but seemed to fit in here.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I read about the same thing, in the BBC website on ancient archaelogy. Indeed, they said that the most likely use was for electroplating a gold or silver layer over a object of another metal. Benefits are obvious. It was indeed in Mesopotamia.

 

[goododa]

They were probably very advanced back then. Unfortunately their civilizations were destroyed along with their technology.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

Goododa, less destroyed than forgotten then rediscovered. They were forgotten because of the royal monopolies to try and gain the upper hand in all respects to their people and to foreigners.

I'm seeing a lot of things about Atlantis, from being Antarctica to below the South China Sea. I reckon it was either Crete, but I am today tending towards the city of Heliki in the Peloponessus, Greece. It was the principal city of worship of the god Poseidon (god of earthquakes and the seas) and as such was very wealthy and technologically advanced as Greek life and culture revolved around the Mediterranean Sea. Situated in thw wonderful region of Achaea, reknowned for being more war-like than others, the revolt described in the Atlantis myth by Plato could have been a civil war between the Achaean states. In 377 (?) BC a giant earthquake struck and the Corinthian Gulf flooded, killing all its' inhabitants. Sediment washed down from the large mountains directly to the south washed down, filing in the water so the city was lost. It was discovered not long ago by archeoligists a fair distance underground.

 

[test_specimen]

What do you think will archaeologists do a thousand years from now, when they find a stack of cd-roms and a hard drive? Will they have the programmes to read the MS-Word files or the Win-Zipped games, or the Divx-movies?

Up until now it has been very easy: Either you dig up some ancient city, or a stone with engravings, or you have some books that got copied over and over again. But now data is no longer that visible. What if the knowledge had existed already, but is just somehow encrypted?

And another thing: how do you distinguish between what people really thought, and their stories and tales for entertainment? What if parts of ancient mythology were no more than an episode of Buffy, to people living back then? Maybe they also realized this, and the stone statues on the easter islands and all other unexplainable-except-by-alien-intervention things are just some giant practical joke on people living today?

 

[Archer 007]

@test_specimen
What a great idea! I could imagine that. The plotting of those ancients.

 

[Shahadet]

For those that are interested in ancient theories I recommend an excellent book on the Mayan. It is called the Mayan Prophecies and tells how the Mayan not only predicted their destruction but the destruction that will come in 2012 22 December (give or take a day!). It is a very good read.

Perhaps someone can clear up something that I have been thinking about lately. I remember hearing somewhere about a stone wall in the ME that appears to have been fussed together. And that the energy/heat required could only of come from a nuclear blast. Has anyone heard about this, got any links or book recommendations?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Shahadet
Perhaps someone can clear up something that I have been thinking about lately. I remember hearing somewhere about a stone wall in the ME that appears to have been fussed together. And that the energy/heat required could only of come from a nuclear blast. Has anyone heard about this, got any links or book recommendations?

Not just in the ME; also the Indus valley, the Gobi desert etc. Apparently, the nations of this pre-historic (in the sense of before our written history) world destroyed each other in a war, which escalated to a nuclear confrontation.

Like in the Indus valley, they found black lumps of stone, which they thought were pottery, after the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Also skeletal remains of people who died for no obvious reasons, and with high levels of radioactivity.

Or so the authors claimed.

 

[Shahadet]

Could anyone recommend any good reading on the Nazca? I know that there are several theories about the Padma (sp?) plains line drawings but I am more intrested in the skull deformations found at the site.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

LOL, the Padma plains...

Padma is our Civ3 mod, one of them...

Aren't the plains just called the Nazca plains?

 

[Shahadet]

No, their is name for the plains. Padma, panma, panan,something like that!

There are several theories about the Nazca line drawings. There is the better known theory of them being a runway! A airport for the gods. Then there is a theory that they were used in a ceremony of walking. A less dramatic and somewhat boring speculation. The evidence for this does not seem to be that great. Apart from the fact that some of the lines focal points was a city and that it was Priest City. So evidence does seem to be a little thin in this area. There is evidence to suggest that the Nazca were capable of limited flight, in the form of a balloon. Which although interesting only adds to the speculation of their actual purpose.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

What I've read was that they were related to astronomy, and as a link with the stars. Maybe as a religious connection to the heavens, where their gods and goddesses were reigning.

Some, at least, of the drawings were aimed at certain stars or based on certain astronomical note of significance (like the solstice, equinox etc).

 

[swan]

I am pleased that there is people, which interesting unofficial theory in History.
In practice, when I learned in school, we have done like "battery".When potting in it usual lemon juice it began to show 1.1-1.4V(in vtvm).
Sorry of my English.

 

[Peri]

Why is such a big deal made of 'Atlantis'?
A whole mytho history has errupted around it. Thanks for nothing Plato.
I mean there are only a couple of references in existence.
D'oh.

 

[allhailIndia]

Originally posted by Peri
Why is such a big deal made of 'Atlantis'?
A whole mytho history has errupted around it. Thanks for nothing Plato.
I mean there are only a couple of references in existence.
D'oh.

Actually almost 600 different cultures speak about the massive flooding of the Earth over 10,000 years ago. Another amazing fact is that most of them refer to exactly 7 survivors of the flood, much like Noah's Ark. Also, archaelogists have found an astronomical connection between Angkor wat, the Pyramids of Giza and the Mayan ruins. It would be too lenghty for me to describe it, but I did see a special on Discovery, dedicated to this amazing discovery!!

 

[test_specimen]

I don't see the big deal about an astronomical connection between those buildings, after all they all have the same stars and astronomy was a very important science, back then.

 

[allhailIndia]

However, stars keep moving and the constellations also change subtly. Yet the astronomical connection between these buildings I mentioned refer to a time around 13000 B.C., i.e., the constellations depicted by the buildings were in that alignment in a 10 year period around 13000 B.C.

Also, these buildings are aligned to the positions of the Sun and the moon as they used to rise and set in 13000 B.C.

See any connections!!!

 

[test_specimen]

Ah, I though you just meant that they represent astronomical constellations at the time of their construction. However if they had their world concepts right, they could have backtracked the constellations in 13 000 BC.

Though that does not explain why they chose the date. There either must have been an event that influenced the whole earth, or there has to be some other common source for the date.

 

[allhailIndia]

Originally posted by test_specimen

Though that does not explain why they chose the date. There either must have been an event that influenced the whole earth, or there has to be some other common source for the date.

Exactly my point.

According to archaelogists, the people of Atlantis may have been great mariners, not unlike the Numenoreans of Middle Earth, who made use of the lowered sea levels to explore the world and bring civilization to all its corners.

However, it is believed, that the great flood, was infact the cataclysmic end of the last ice age, when sea levels rose dramatically and drowned entire continents .

Also, it has been found that even the statues of Easter Island follow patterns of various constellations as they would have been in c. 13000 B.C.