Peter speculated that the centers of very ancient civilizations could
be in places that are now covered with water. But let's examine those
places. Beringia, between Alaska and Siberia. Not a good place to
found a civilization. The straights between Australia and New Guinea.
Well, Australia is known for it's low level of technology, due to it's
isolation and poor resources. It seems very unlikely that it was the
seat of some vanished civilization when there are no archeological
sites with anything other than stone tools in the rest of Australia/New
Guinea. Land bridge between Britain and France...well, it's very
small. I think Corsica and Sardinia were joined...perhaps some areas
under the Caspian were dry, but my understanding is that it was more
the reverse...the Caspian used to be much bigger.
The point is that these land bridges were not the best places for
civilizations to develop, and they were not large areas anyway compared
to the continents, and there is no reason for us to believe that the
ancient civilization for some reason confined themselves to coastal
lowlands. A civilization that could go to Mars would have to be at
least continental in scope, not a single city or two huddled on a land
bridge.
Anyway, I think the idea of ancient civilizations comes from our modern
ideas of progess. We just can't imagine generation upon generation of
hunter-gatherers doing things pretty much the same way. I mean, there
are lots and lots of obvious technologies out there, it boggles the
mind that these guys can't come up with them. So we have Ayla from
Clan of the Cave Bear domesticating horses, inventing needles, pyrite,
pottery...etc etc. But we know that it doesn't happen that way.
Neandertals used essentially the exact same technique for making
spearpoints for tens of thousands of years, with no variation.
But we EXPECT progress, we expect any given caveman to figure out how
to domesticate the dog and smelt bronze on his own, because we see new
technologies every day. But WE are the strange ones, not the
Cro-magnon. Once population density falls below a certain point,
technology cannot even be maintained, let alone advanced. Techniques
for something as simple as a bow and arrow become lost without contact.
=====
Darryl
Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially
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