This recent ISS photo of Egypt's Nile River and delta got my brain churning on the likelihood of Ancient Astronaut Theory.
Literally my first thought when I saw that photo was how much the shape looked like a flower. A Lotus Flower to be exact.
I'll admit I'm a huge fan of The History Channel's Ancient Aliens TV series, but some of their theories leave me on the fence. In this case, though, it's a no-brainer.
If I thought the photo looked like a Lotus, might not the ancient Egyptians have thought the same thing? Say for instance, if they saw this exact same view of their land from outer space.
Maybe that's the real reason why the Lotus Flower was such an important symbol in Egyptian mythology and spirituality.
Yes, I realize I'm just a layperson and this is only speculation. And it's certainly not an original idea I'm having. Even Wikipedia says:
"The Nile is considered to be an "arcuate" delta (arc-shaped), as it resembles a triangle or lotus flower when seen from above."So, I'm not trying to prove anything here (I'll leave that up to the History Channel).
But my point is that maybe in our debates over the capabilities (or lack thereof) of ancient peoples, this is exactly what is needed...just a regular person's point of view. Keep it simple stupid.
Here's another example from the Ancient Aliens show that struck me:
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| Giant stone ruins in Puma Punku, Bolivia. |
So I was meditating on these mega-ton, H-shaped ancient stones at Puma Punku. Experts say they were carved and fitted together with laser-sharp precision.
Then one day I was driving under an overpass and noticed these nice symmetrical concrete supports holding up the highway in my city:
It made me consider what would be left of our civilization tens of thousands of years from now.
Probably nothing but support beams like these. Future archaelogists may have no idea that they only held up the roads we drove cars on.
Instead, they'll probably be wandering around trying to figure out what gods this overpass "temple" was built to worship and how we managed to fit these stones together with our primitive selves.
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| Artist rendering of a modern-day pyramid to be built in Dubai |
Egypt, with its once-gleaming pyramids, may have looked a lot more like an ancient Las Vegas than the stark desert we see it as today.
All we're seeing now are the worn-down structural bases of things that were once truly magnificent to behold.
When you think about it like that, history starts to look a whole lot different.
You bring up an excellent point about what would remain of a civilization. This is something that doesn't get brought up enough in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteEver since seeing a History channel program called "Life After People" a couple years ago, I became convinced that evidence of ancient high technology would never survive unless it were hermetically sealed. In case you haven't seen the program, it demonstrates how virtually all manufactured materials breakdown to it's raw components in just a few thousand years. Tens of thousands of years to millions would render them totally untraceable.
Something to think about for sure.
Hi Jim. I do remember watching an episode of Life After People a while back. I think it scared me too much to watch more LOL. But you're right...that show gave some great examples of what would happen to our own civilization.
ReplyDeleteThere would be absolutely no way for a distant future civilization to know that we had computers or cars or planes or nuclear capabilities.
They could find a piece of The White House and think it was some kind of shrine. They could find some of my baby nephew's scribbled artwork and think it was an artifact of our language.
We really need to start putting ourselves in the ancient's shoes.
I realize this is an older post but stumbled upon it today. Yes, you're right that many items will breakdown to raw materials but not all.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that Puma Punku contains stone. Our overpasses contain concrete. A mixture and non-natural occurring material. Ancient Romans utilized concrete. Puma Punku didn't.
I have been doing similar searches on Google Earth lately as part of some research for a piece I'm writing and came across an astounding visual today that has drawn me to consider that SOME kind of interaction may have occurred in ancient times, either between our own future or advanced beings from elsewhere. I haven't read much about the idea of our ancient selves encountering the future, but there are some compelling images. So, here it is: Go to Google Earth and enter ERIDU, Iraq. Eridu is the oldest city on the planet. There are legends of Oannes, a half man/half fish who left the sea and gave humans knowledge of mathematics, architecture, agriculture at Eridu. As you click in from afar to zoom, see if you see what I saw from a distance. It appears fairly wide out. What creates it, made me smile. It's simple and fits with other versions on the planet. I have my theories about Oannes and much of the ancient imagery in South America as well.
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