Maybe this discovery from Chinese history explains how ancient northern civilizations managed what seems to be impossible tasks. Theres nothing like ice lubrication for sliding large things into the Forbidden City. By Seriously Science | April 2 Sometimes Im just amazed at how ancient civilizations got stuff done without todays computers and machine power. And there are a number of feats from more modern civilizations that we still dont understand. This detailed analysis describes one such situation, and deduces that the engineers of the Ming dynasty (~1500 AD) built water-lubricated ice paths on which to slide huge stones (up to 100 tons) for 40 miles. Pretty awesome! Ice lubrication for moving heavy stones to the Forbidden City in 15th- and 16th-century China.
Interesting, but I suspect it was more likely the building up the ground, rolling them into place, and then removing the earthen ramps that was involved with Stonehenge.
Stonehenge - the pre-quel... Hidden prehistoric monument discovered near Stonehenge Sep. 7, 2015 Researchers have discovered evidence of standing stones believed to be the remnants of a major prehistoric stone monument near the Stonehenge ruins.
One has to wonder how many tens of thousands were used to dig the holes, cut out the stones, and move them so far to erect in such complicated forms.
It's amazing to me how much we are learning with the use of ground penetrating radar. They've only recently found that Angkor Wat was a good deal bigger than was thought, well into the size of a large modern city, and not one shovel was put to the ground nor one artifact disturbed. The whole thing was done by airplanes flying overhead, I think. I wonder how much would be found if we were to survey large portions of the Earth. We've done that with photogrammetry, I don't see why it can be done with this.
I doubt it took thousands of workers, especially since the Easter Island statues were shown that could be walked by a fairly small number of people. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120622-easter-island-statues-moved-hunt-lipo-science-rocked/ I saw the program that showed a team actually do and once they got the feel for it they moved along easily, weird watching them actually walk. So never underestimate what ancient men could do, they were not dummies and I would think those that built Stonehenge and many other sites in England were every bit as smart to come up with ways to get the job done.
You have to see Angkor Wat (and surrounding temples) first hand to get a grasp of its splendor and size. Today Angkor Wat it's still the largest structure of worship in the world. It's still a functioning temple. In the 13th-14th centuries the Angkor Wat complex was the largest 'city' in the world with over 1.5 million inhabitance. London in the 13th century had around 80,000 inhabitance.
Even using most ingenious methods this would have bean a (no pun intended) monumental achievement. Either we have to readjust our view of human know how and sophistication back 5000-10000 years ago, or we have to go all history channel (ALIENS!!! lol). Seriously when are historians going to really moving back the clock on the first civilizations? Sumeria does not cut it no more, there were far bigger and more organized civilization prior to that.
The real question, how many cities/structures are currently under the ocean that we have no idea about.
Well there are signs of many in the Black sea, definitely in India where a city was discovered after the Tsunami, probably many in the Pacific close to South East Asia.
If there was civilization pre Ice age wouldn't it be logical of check around the Antarctic Land mass. I mean we have maps of it from the 14th century (created by a Turkish Admiral using maps from as far back as 4,000BC) with out any ice.
Well those maps are interesting, but Antarctica was Ice free way before the last ice age, were are talking about hundreds of thousands of years. So this would have too either be a coincidence, or a civilization older then we could ever imagine. i do not think there is enough hard evidence to point that way.
Uh, just curious. We know dinosaurs lived upon this earth for hundreds of millions of years. Who's to say that in all that time a species didn't gain enough intelligence to use agriculture and build towns - then cities? Maybe they had amazing technology. Maybe they even went into outer space. What would it be like if those lizard-people who escaped actually came back to reclaim their planet? (I wonder if there's a novel in this somewhere?)
That's where you're behind on the news my friend. Angkor Wat seems to bite at every Indian's prestige and self-esteem. So they decided to put up their own replica, just a bit smaller than Angkor Wat, but taller and bound to grow larger since it's not an archaeological site and can be endowed with additions. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...to-build-replica-of-Cambodias-Angkor-Wat.html If nothing else, Indians cannot get themselves outdone or overshadowed on the subject of religion. Then there's the tourist dollars.
Probably, especially since the moai on Easter Island have their carved bodies buried. Makes me think they were intending to add something on top.
Thank you for that - I write novels: 'It was a dark and stormy night during the Cretacious Period, when . . . when . . . erm . . . um . . . ' Sod it, I've got writer's block.
