• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

History before 6000 BC?

Forums New posts
Killerclown

Killerclown

Skilled Investigator
Hi all,

I have a few questions about something that has puzzled me for a long time but have never really had answered to my satisfaction:

From what I understand our historical knowledge only goes back as far as about 6000 BC - e.g. the Indus Valley Civilisation, Mesopotamia etc. Modern humans are supposed to have been around for at least 65000 years.

Do we know anything about the period from 63000 BC to 6000 BC ? My own personal feeling is that there is a high probability that much of the evidence from these periods may lie in areas that are covered by ocean and/or ice e.g. Antarctica.

Is anyone aware of any serious archeologists researching this area?

Is it not possible that many human civilisations at a level similar to our own could have risen up and fallen in that time? Even if they had completely obliterated themselves (e.g. by nuclear war or an equivalent technology) there would still be some evidence left wouldn't there?

Also I understand that the Indus Valley civilisation's pictographic language is as yet undeciphered. Is anyone still researching this?

I'd appreciate other people's opinions and thoughts on this.

AA.
 
Technology for serious underwater archaeology just doesn't exist. Currently underwater archaeology consists mainly of ship wrecks. It is estimated that about 12 thousand years ago there existed 3 superlakes held in by ice damns[/url]. Then, quite suddenly one of the damns broke, causing a series of events leading to the other two breaking. These events, it is thought, were responsible for all the flood myths throughout the world. This has been geologically supported. They estimate that the oceanic water levels could have risen as much as 125 feet or more in just a few days. Driving people, in some cases, about a hundred miles inland.

Knowing that the vast majority of the human population has lived close to the shore, it is not absurd to think that this was the case before the flood. I am not aware of any serious scientific study concerning this. Geologist and archaeologists/anthropologists seem to sharply disagree on the likelihood of ancient shoreline settlements 70 or 80 miles out to sea. Geologists will happily tell you that if there were settlements, they are under massive amounts of water and silt. The archaeologists/anthropologists will tell you that it is pointless to look as they clearly don't exists.

I have heard of a NOAA proposed ancient shoreline mapping project and an unrelated expedition a few years ago. It caught some headlines because Robert Ballard was involved. I think it was in the black see or something like that. Anyway, as my memory has it he thought it would be a perfect site to look for sunken ancient shoreline. I am not sure if he was looking for ports or wrecks though. They used high-def sidescan and found some pretty interesting possible sites, but I think they ran out of time and funding.

Maybe in a decade or so we will have robotic technology that can visit those depths and really do some searching. until then you are looking at some guy in a wetsuit with 40 minutes of oxygen and a spade. I'd say the odds are a little askew.

FYI: NOVA did a show on the superlakes thing. It was called Megaflood. Here is the transcript. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3211_megafloo.html]
 
Thanks Ron,

I think you're right about the underwater exploration - I hadn't really thought about the difficulty of excavating delicate objects underwater. I just think that if any large organisation or government really wanted to do it they could find a way. Unfortunately archeology is probably way down on people's list of important things to do.
BTW, I saw that PBS show and I remember that they found lots of interesting things but couldn't investigate because as you mentioned they ran out of time and money.

Cheers.

AA.
 
Killerclown said:
From what I understand our historical knowledge only goes back as far as about 6000 BC - e.g. the Indus Valley Civilisation, Mesopotamia etc.
Click to expand...

That's only as far back as civilization goes. There are some prehistoric stone age artifacts that have been found going back further. Agriculture itself is supposed to be about 10,000 years old I think.

Killerclown said:
Is it not possible that many human civilisations at a level similar to our own could have risen up and fallen in that time? Even if they had completely obliterated themselves (e.g. by nuclear war or an equivalent technology) there would still be some evidence left wouldn't there?
Click to expand...

I agree, there would be evidence. Imagine the chemical-laden strata we're leaving right now! That's only one area where we'd leave a trace.
Killerclown said:
Also I understand that the Indus Valley civilisation's pictographic language is as yet undeciphered. Is anyone still researching this?
AA.
Click to expand...

It's still undeciphered and I don't think there's really a lot of material to work with...or if there is I think it tends to be the same subject matter (maybe ritual objects or inventory lists or something). There's a theory that it's language was an ancestor to the Dravidian language family of South India. But I am sure somebody out there has related it to Atlantis! :p
There's always some linguist and/or archaeologist somewhere in the world working on this and other undeciphered scripts.
 
Though this is slightly off topic.

I have just been reading about JPL's plan to send what they refer to as a "cryobot" through the ice in Antarctica. To investigate lake Vostok, a large body of liquid water beneath the ice down there.
Check this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok

Perhaps if ever this plan gets underway, they may find previously unknown forms of life and some idea of what may be hidden under the ice on Jupiters moon Europa.
Aside from that I wonder if this plan might be of some help in the exploration of our oceans mysteries.

Peace,

Mark
 
A good number of archaeologists believe our shorelines have been raised some four hundred feet since ancient times. Could be a stretch, but I've read it often.

Recent finds off the Indian coast seem to show a city that might well be 9,000 years old.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm

This made the news in 2002, I'm pretty sure.
 
Thanks, guys. It seems that everything regarding this kind of stufff is still in the preliminary stages. Looks like we'll have to wait for more concrete info :(
 
Graham Hancock's 'Underworld' has a great deal of information on the ice dam theory, complete with comprehensive sea-level charts. If you're interested in this theory, do check out this book.
 
I watched that Life after people Documentary a while back and it raised the possibility of what would Earth be like if people vanished and how long would it take for nature to wipe out all the evidence of Human existence.

I forget the exact figure but i think that after 10,000 years all evidence of us being here would be erased.

The only things that would possibly endure would be made of stone ie Stonhenge and The Pyramids.

So who can tell of what once was before ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People
 
Live at the Witch Trials said:
I forget the exact figure but i think that after 10,000 years all evidence of us being here would be erased.
Click to expand...

It's my understanding both those shows were about physical signs of civilization breaking down. So maybe all evidence would be gone if you were just wandering around looking at the landscape. But the rubble, the pieces and the chemical signatures are all still there in the ground.
 
When I saw that documentary I thought to myself SURELY something would survive. The sprawling city of Phoenix for example, barring some major catastrophe would still show signs of civilization. IMO there would still be signs of civilization even 10,000 years down the road. Everything wouldn't be completely covered or gone. All the highways, major cities, cigarette butts and other garbage??Again, just my opinion.

What about the stuff on the moon even?? Yes thats not Earth, I know.
 
i dont think evidence of our existance would be wiped away that easily.
i watched a doco about neolithic flint miners recently and was struck by the fact that where once our species used deer antler to dig veins of flint out of chalk deposits, we now mine Uranium, and dont forget the scientologists have had elron hubbards sci fi etched onto titanium plates and buried in mountain vaults.

plus theres the stuff we left on the moon
 
A few months ago I watched a documentary on what would happen exactly if all humans vanished overnight.

In the end, thousands of years from now, the most reliable place to find evidence that we ever existed would be on the moon.

I think its more than reasonable to assume there are ancient artifacts on the moon, whether from so called 'alien astronauts' or our own past civilizations, or both if they are one and the same.


Also, extensive writings may not exist now that come from before the 'flood'. But you'll find a few people in writings from Sumer claiming that at that time they had such writings and a few people could even understand them. Of course, you'll also find claims that things like sheep, olives, and grapes come from the 'ancient astronaut's' or 'god's' planet of origin.
 
Keep in mind that the term "civilization" refers to more than just people living in a city. Jericho, for example, is estimated to be some 10,000-12,000 years old. That is considerably older than the earliest human "civilization".

However, in order to be classified as a civilization there needs to be evidence of organized religion, a system of law, writing, a hierarchical social structure, and a host of other things that escape my memory at the moment.
 
Clovis spear points in the US date as far back as 14,000 years ago, thats 12,000bce. If you've ever seen a clovis point, they are impressive and show no small amount of skill to produce. Clearly people had been making them for a long long time before they set foot on the north–american continent.

My property in North Carolina is lousy with arrowheads, so much so that back during the 1970's UNC Chapel Hill wanted to excavate. At that time an archeologist from UNC dated several artifacts, found while plowing, at around 10,000 years old. The best being a perfectly oval piece of stone with a razor sharp cutting edge on one end...a type of flint traded in from modern day Tennessee. Apparently, trade routes spanning several hundred miles were common even in 8000bce., even in the backroads of good old, North Carolina.

I'm sure, Africa, Mesopotamia, and Southeast Asia were far more populated and advanced than what was going on on this continent.
 
Back
Top