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So, Stonehenge is in the news again. Why there is this fascination for ancient civilizations is a mystery to me.
Well, that’s not true, I am fascinated with ancient civilizations too, and I am intensely interested in the sorts of societies early human civilizations created, especially those that survived and prospered for some time.
But why so many modern people have to romanticize and mysticize such civilizations is a complete and unending mystery to me. Isn’t it enough to know and appreciate that our ancestors managed to survive in a hostile world with very little technology to provide them with the means to live a “good” life? Why do people have to believe that there was some mystical, supernatural connection in such societies, or that there was some deep, now-hidden magic involved. Or worse, that there was some visitation by space aliens or whatever?
All of these things, in my humble opinion, seriously belittle the accomplishments and therefore the actual lives of our ancestors. Ancient druidic peoples of Britain did not survive through magic, alien intervention or the good graces of animistic gods. They survived through the application of hard work, quick wits and social structures that enabled them to not only meet their subsistence needs, but allowed them to embark on (literally) MONUMENTAL works of civil engineering that make us shake our heads in wonder to this day. I want to appreciate and acknowledge their skill, their intelligence and their determination, and I am not going to belittle them by suggesting that they were “helped” by anyone external.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHave you seen the latest Indiana Jones installment? You might want to pass on it given your annoyance with the suggestion that space aliens played a role in building ancient civilizations. It bugs me too…
Well, I don’t mind that so much in FICTION, it’s when people actually believe it that it bugs me. And it bugs me because it is so dismissive of what ancient civilizations actually accomplished. Those ancient Egyptians actually DID figure out how to build pyramids all by themselves. That’s something to be amazed at and proud of as an example of the incredible capability of humanity in general. To suggest that it only happened because aliens handed out some anti-grav devices to move the blocks simply insults the memories of everyone involved, from the architects and engineers to the actual laborers who moved those blocks into position one inch at a time. I want to celebrate and acknowledge those feats, not sneer at them by saying things like “they must have used secret Atlantean technology.”
But I can stand it in a movie. I enjoyed both “National Treasure” movies in spite of the heaping piles of steaming nonsense each was built upon.
Besides the Cosmic Wife is a huge Harrison Ford fan, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing it tomorrow.
My own take on things like Stonehenge (and other allegedly magical astronomical artifacts) is that people in the old days did lots of looking at the stars because there was no TV to look at at night, and they had lots and lots of time. Anyone who’s gone camping in a place with clear nights knows that you spend at least part of the night staring at the sky, and in the days of Stonehenge, every night was spent “camping”. So, the fact that they figured out where stars rose and set and such and correlated this with the solar calendar is far from “magic”.
As for the new Indiana Jones movie, it isn’t the best one, but it’s worth a trip to the theater, unlike 99% of modern movies.
Oh – and moving stone is also far from magical. Lots of ancient cultures moved stone and got good at it – all it takes is lots of time, organization, and commitment. What modern people can’t seem to get is that ancient people may well spend decades or centuries doing this sort of thing versus wanting to get it built in a few months.
Cosmic: I don’t know if you have seen this video, but it is interesting. It’s a guy building Stonehenge by himself.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0
I also saw something (on Discovery Channel I think) recently where some people in Egypt actually devised a limestone concrete that mirrors the stones of the pyramids. The blocks may have just been poured “in place,” not lifted at all.
Don’t know…but I doubt the alien thing…those guys are little.
BTW: When I say he’s building it “by himself,” I mean literally…no help…no heavy moving equipment, etc.
Andy:
I’ve actually seen a few such videos, it’s not unheard of for retired engineers or even construction workers to set up obelisks or Stonehenge replicas using nothing but wood, ropes and their own ingenuity. The Discovery channel had a special where the had two or three teams working on their own ideas of how ancient Egyptians transported and set upright the huge obelisks that are so distinctive to the early Egyptian culture (and which some people find more difficult of an engineering feat than the mass movement of blocks of stone). Two of the teams succeeded, one was able to set the obelisk upright using a big box of sand which they placed the obelisk on top of, and then gently lowered it be allowing the sand to flow out of the bottom of the box. This allowed them to control the placement of the obelisk to within a millimeter or two of the set point and they had no problem setting it upright and then removing the box and sand, leaving a perfectly upright obelisk behind.
Ingenuity is not uncommon in the world, and it wasn’t uncommon in the ancient world either.
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