: Last Updated: 17 April 2024

Ancient Civilizations, our roots

This article Ancient Civilizations, our roots was originally an integral part of the parent article "Why are we here?", but given the fact the parent article was growing extremely huge, I decided for the sake of simplicity to have the section "Ancient Civilizations, our roots" on a separate thread for simplicity and easy reading. See below the summary of the main article "Why are we here?" and the location of Ancient Civilizations, our roots, in section 3 article 1. I recommend and encourage you to read all these articles in order (after all, they follow the chronological order of our creation) so that you get the whole picture of really why are we here

Section 1, our star the Sun, without it nothing will be possible

Section 2, the perfect position of planet Earth in the Universe, and the chain of random accidents that caused your existence

Section 3, the abstract of your thoughts and the illusion of control

Ancient Civilizations, our roots
Language and Mathematics, the building blocks of humankind
Religion and believes, the intangible reality
Our brains, the biggest mystery
Conclusion

1. Ancient Civilizations, our roots

Last chapter we ended up with the explosion of the Toba Supervolcano, 75,000 years ago. In here, ancient civilizations, our roots, takes place. A particular species of Hominids called Homo sapiens (humans) survived that explosion in the East area of Africa, but other species of Hominids also survived that cataclysms in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, it was going to be the humans the one who expanded from that moment onwards all over the planet ready to absorb and/or conquer other fellow species of Hominids and creatures until only the Homo sapiens is left ruling the globe. The oldest civilization we got written records from are the Sumerians, 3,000 years BC, very recently if you consider that humans were potentially able to create civilization since 20,000 years ago or even older. In 2022 a scientific study was published regarding some bones dated 31,000 years ago that were found in a cave called Liang Tebo, in Kalimantan, the east of the island of Borneo. Those bones showed a successful amputation of an individual (a child) just above the ankle.....imagine that....31,000 years ago they had knowledge of medicine, antibiotics, nervous systems, muscles and tools to perform surgical operations to such a degree that they were able to clean cut and seal the tibia and fibula bones, the lower bones in the leg of a child who lived into adulthood. This discovery also implies that ancient civilizations, our roots, where so far ago in time a society where care of others is embedded, because this individual would not have been able to live and survive alone without attention and help from the community.

I highly recommend to have a watch to this excellent documentary of the Sumerian civilization, made by Paul Cooper. Love the analogy that he made when he compares the hydrogen that gravity pulls to form a star, and then shine as light, and the humans that accumulate together to form a city, a civilization, and then produce their own form of light: written language

Sumerians used a unique type of cuneiform writing language, one of the oldest writing languages on record, but the oldest of them all is to be found in India, the Sanskrit. Could there have been an older civilisation in India, older than anything we know and which records have disappeared? This beautiful and magnificent graph below shows the number of civilizations that we know of, and the time at which they flourished; as you can see there were many more civilizations before the Sumer civilization, but only from the Sumerians we got written records:

Credit: BlazesAndAmuzed

The last Ice Age ended up around 12,000 years ago, with global sea levels rising sharply shortly after that, and indeed having an impact in those early civilizations. The history of a massive flooding is told in the Bible, Babylonians and as far as the Sumerians. These early flooding that must have occurred could have decimated early civilization and set back the clock of "advanced cultures" as we know it. Just for the record, these are some of the flooding that could have possible happened, right across the location where early agriculture civilizations where beginning to grow. The Black Sea is a clear example, where a lake of fresh water (product of the melting glaciers) must have existed and was quickly covered by sea water, creating the Black Sea as we know it today: a sea where the amount of oxygen underneath the salty water is very low, clear indication of mixing salty and fresh waters. Are those marks evidence of flush waters rushing in from the Bosphorus Strait?

If any civilization where to live around the Black Sea Lake, they would have experienced the catastrophic event of water level raising as much as 1 meter per day! Having moved away from flooding risk areas, early civilizations would also have to endure sudden climate changes like the 8.2 ka event or the 4.2 ka event, both sudden drop in temperatures as a result (probably) of fluctuations in the sea currents. It could have well being the 8.2 ka event the origin of the Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis that created the current Black Sea 7,500 years ago. Below is a video that illustrate the flooding of the Persian Gulf at the end of the last Ice Age, around 12,000 years ago, where most likely early civilizations (the ancestors of the Sumerians) were inhabiting these fertile areas

Another example of early "advanced cultures" that could have been wiped out by drastic climate changes could be located in Africa. The continent of Tarzan must have been lovely back 7,000 years ago, a beautiful area for civilizations to flourish and indeed for the development of languages and exchange of cultures; for trade of products to occur there have to be some sort of communication, written communication and records could have been very possible and normal. Why we don't have any records of "books" written 10,000 years ago? Well, I don't think any of the books that we now have, kept under normal conditions, will last 10,000 years

Credit: Green Sahara during the last Ice Age

There is an ongoing controversy in Science as to whether we are the only advanced civilisation that has ever existed, with intriguing evidence on ancient civilisation surfacing every now and then. What it is clear is that we are indeed the most technologically advance civilisation that has existed, at least the only one capable of launching satellite into orbits, so far we have not found any forgotten 'pre-egyptian' satellite into orbit, thou we have to say that all satellites eventually run out of fuel and will plummet into the earth, none of them will last more than 10,000 years, eventually the will be dragged by earth's gravity. There is indisputable evidence of ancient civilisation of the surface of planet earth, that Science need to look at from an objective point to view and really acknowledge them as evidence of well older that our current one. Some examples are:

Gurung Padang, in Indonesia, is a site around 12,000 years ago, probably older
Nan Madol, in the pacific island of Pohnpei, used similar building techniques as the above site
Cholula,
Gigantia in Malta
Gobekli Tepe, an amazing structure dated 12,000 years ago
Derinkuyu, near Capp[adocia in central Turkey

To finalise the exploration of ancient civilizations (for now) I'd like to show you this diagram where I've compiled together volcanic and climate change event of the last 8,000 years with the raise and fallen of civilization, any lesson for us to learn there? Sure, no matter how advance a civilization might be, it will always be subject to the random events that gave origin to the civilization on the first place

It is sad and ironic to know that, the last habitable place where Homo Sapiens set foot, was on Rapa Nui, the Easter Island, back in 1,200 AD, ending the journey of conquering the planet that that particular species of Hominid, the Homo Sapiens, started in East Africa 75,000 years ago. Roughly it took us about that long to conquer the planet, and is ironic to know that the writing language the habitants of Rapa Nui, the Rongorongo, has been lost to humankind

Ancient Civilizations, our roots, the Rongorongo language now is lost

Credit: Rongorongo

As this video below highlight, there are many things that we do not understand of the Stone Age: how could they build such megalithic constructions without complex technologies or without the aid of written languages or mathematics?

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