a reply to:
Hanslune
The Etruscan's, we only really know of them from there tomb's and Rome which of course was for a time a vassel state of the Etruscan empire, it was
from them that the Arch was inherited but it reached it's peak as far as we know under the Roman's before the invention of the Gothic arch, still we
mis identify the arch as Roman when in fact it was the Etruscans who gave it to us (Through the Romans).
I could not even hazard a guess but they are interesting but almost totally eclipsed by Roman history.
The Jomon are interesting as well, there are indiginous Japanese (The Ainu) whom are thought to be there descendant's and while they still have the
asiatic epithelial fold of the eye or mongoloid eye they have large noses compared to other cino/oriental people's, black curly hair and are though
of course mixed with the later korean originated Japanese a seperate race, if the Yonoguni structure was shaped by the hand of man then it was
probably there ancestor's, Zen has many trait's inherited from pre buddhist religion's and some of those aspect's may also be inherited from there
earlier and forgotten culture, rock worship and nature spirit's are important with and may explain the origin of certain cultural practices.
I am part Maori so would of course say the Indonesian's sailed to Madagascar (and there is some anecdotal evidence that the Polynesians may have
originated in India) but then there is the mystery of the Lemur's, they do not swim, they are eaten by many cultures but make poor pet's and are
hard to keep as well as difficult to transport so how did they get scattered accross such vast number's of unconnected island's and long enough ago
to have grown into different sub species that are quite incompatible with one another now, maybe the indonesians did settle other site's but were not
successful and were removed by older indiginous people or assimilated to the point any trace is undetectable, Tsunami's may have wiped out many
settlement also in that time period especially on smaller lower island's where animal's sometime's survive what we humans do not, especially during
smaller population period's.
Linear A appears highly complicated with complex glyphs so maybe as cypher breaking program's become more and more complex a computer algorythm
might translate where a human has failed though since a human has to check each translation that is unlikely but perhap's a tomb may one day be found
with more extensive inscriptions and if so the more the better for translation, look how long it took to figure a little of linear B.
I could not even guess at the Sajama line's, they are overshadowed in my own general knowledge by the less extensive but more pictorial Nazca
line's, why are these not better known, thank's for that Hanslune but I am sure all the usual suspects have been suggested such as ceremonial sky
worship, calander use perhaps by reading the lines from mountain sides at various times of year in respect to the shadow of a sacred peak or
similar.
I suspect Catalhuyuck was not alone but a single of many such settlement's and perhaps traded with other culture's, we may never know but that part
of the world even then saw massive tribal migration, being a hunter gatherer society though maybe there staple game dissapeared or being a close knit
society in what was essentially a single building perhaps an ancient plague, they built that way for perhaps defence?.
That is the first time I have heart of the Tartaria Tablet's but as you know romania is a rich site for archeaologists, I am not sure about it being
the earliest writing as if I remember similar but more complex glyphs were once found on a carved mamoth tusk and they were not regarded as writing,
at least not phonetic but symbolism is alway's a form of communication so by that argument cave painting's could be regarded as a precursor to
heiroglyph's in there function but obviously standardised abstract writing and heiroglyph's arose much later as far as the orthodox view is
concerned.
Those site's at the fertile crescent you mention are new to me as well so once again I could not even guess, I will brush up on that out of
interest.
Hungary is a place also of interesting archeology but I know nothing of that interglacial period but more recent of course the Roman's crushed a
small competing kingdom and virtually eradicated it then the Hun settled it, loving it for it's stepp like grass land's, apparently some pretty good
wine is produced there today.
What I would like to know is given the fact we know from more recent history and of course taking into account dissemination of knowledge, was there
any other farming before the fertile crescent civilizations, there are of course claims from china and japan of ancient rice paddy's but how much of
that is based on national pride and racial prejudice, the han for example view themselves as the superior human race so it would be a matter of pride
to say to the middle east, "We never learned from you", look how they ignored the white mummy's for so long.
Still I believe they found a wooden knife and fork about 5000 years old according to something once read and chop sticks are great for losing weight
(at least in my hand's).
All of your questions are genuine mysteries, they are also orthodox mystery's, for me the linear indentations in the rock of malta as well as the
hypogeum, the underwater canal's and stone arched bridges over some of them, the submerged quaries that may indicate very early date's for some of
the architecture and a rumoured stone wall on a submerged moutain in the wester med that is supposed to be made up of blocks bigger than the great
stone of baalbeck are though not proven interesting.
I would like to know more about the great advanced culture of the minoan's who had complex plumbing and surprisingly more modern living than
anything until the time of the Roman's, it would be nice to know if there civilization would have spread it's culture and innovations had thera not
exploded pitching the ancient world of the mediterranean into a dark age, perhaps they did survive in some colony somewhere and perhaps they inspired
later cultures.
I would also like to know if Archimede's actually managed to burn roman ship's with mirror's or if it was merely to dazzle them while archers
hidden by the light attacked with fire arrow's from small boat's.
Who know's what was lost in the library of alexandria but it is a crime to forget how alexander after whom the city and library where named burned
persepolis to the ground along with it's great store house of knowledge, so that persia would never rival greece again, persepolis had perhaps
surpassed greece but then like when rome finally took carthage following hannibals tactical error's they found a city that was rome's rival and
perhaps even greater than Rome so they burned it to the ground and then salted the earth, with the carthaginians and there baby sacrifice cult out of
the way though Rome blossomed, we often think of the fall of Rome but even we who draw our heritage from Nordic raiders as well have to acknowledge
the legacy of that empire, many modern citys in europe and there road's are re used roman site's, how would our civilization have progressed without
that little leg up.