Primitive Cultures and Civilizations

What Happens in Rome...Stays In Rome!!!!

Nice images BTW.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
If time travel was possible I'd go back to see puma punku and the Giza pyramids being built and to kick the guy who thought up the idea of burning of the Library of Alexandria right in the privates

Twice.

A million stars for this post!! To me the loss of the Library of Alexandria has got to be the single greatest loss of human knowledge in history. I mean, it was THE place everyone went to study in the ancient world....

Hmm, according to Wikipedia, that would mean kicking Julius Caesar in the balls. Good luck with that... and be sure to bring back some footage!

reply to post by WhoKnows100

You forgot a third group. Those of us who can appreciate their achievements, without exalting their ignorance. It's no different today. I can appreciate what we have learned as a civilization, yet we have a long way to go before we mature as a species. Hopefully we are around long enough to reach maturity.

As to God, I think you already know my view on that topic.

reply to post by solarjetman


And remnants of the 10th and 14th Legions that were with him - and remember, these are the guys that had spent the last 20 years conquering anything and everything. I thoroughly recommend everybody reads accounts of Caesars campaigns to see just what he accomplished.

In short, aside from the Mongols under Genghis Khan, these were arguably pretty much the toughest soldiers ever to walk the face of the Earth. No one wanted to face Caesar's troops - not Rome's legions but specifically those that served under Caesar.

Quote "Normally I'll post a location and discuss it's possible origins. Not this time. Earlier today I was talking to a friend of mine and who jokingly asked why I was so interested in a bunch of junky crumbling old ruins. Which to be honest caught me off guard, then I realized that although I see what he and others see I do also in fact see the locations in my minds eye as they once were. To be honest, I get frustrated sometimes having to explain just how sophisticated our ancestors truly were. Hopefully this will get the idea across once and for all that they were many things but not primitive when it came to engineering their Cities, Temples, Empires and other structures."



I too try to 'see' these structures as they might have looked when at their Zenith in history.
I pride myself internally with the ability to see them as though they were just a short journey to their location and being able to tour there, in their ancient'real time'. Watch commerce, look at the people, watch their culture in action along with their laws and practices. Their clothing, the social clicks, pretty much everything that comprises city life.

I also know it rests in the antiquity of time, but looking at all these structures on representative form of their former glory, one can imagine them as cosmopolitan state of the art. Cutting edge architecture of the time...Modern, even ultra modern. Never before known beauty and elegance.

Another curious thing comes to mind. I am white predominantly, 2/3 European, with about 1/3rd then American Indian, raised in Southern California. I don't know if that accounts for anything, but there is a distinct feeling that Meso American culture, pyramids and structures are foreign to me, the patterns, the populace, the architecture, the stylistic proportions. Where as, in the ancient Mediterranean area, and from Biblical times, the Mid East, seem completely familiar. The thing is, I have not had opportunity to see either.

I wonder if others have this 'feeling'...?

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by will2learn

 

Please feel free to post your favorite sites

I think it's important to show they werent all just a bunch of primtive people that lived in crumbly old ruins

Slayer

This is just a reconstruction of the Temple of Angkor Wat. It is perhaps the largest and most impressive of the fifty or so major sites within the area. Sure does deserve a place on that list above, same tech, same temples.



It is impossible to get a feel for the size of this vast city with up to a million people living within the area. 80,000 monks alone tending the temples at one time. This view shows the extent of the Greater Angkor Complex. Angkor Wat is just a tiny square within the wider city. The water system that served the massive population is still a major part of the modern hydro system. One of the old reservoirs, which is 11km wide, still provides the water for the rice farmers and the relatively small town that exists there today.



the Nat Geo special on the place gives fantastic fly bys and a better feel for the site. It is one of the largest Ancient Wonders still on display today. Much of it is still in a state close to the original.

Will

Great thread once again Slayer! Here's one I've been interested for a while, though not quite as ancient as some of the others, still rather interesting to me.

The City of Quivira, which was a large trade city inhabited by natives in central Kansas. It was a cultural hub for Native Americans in the 1500's when first discovered by Coronado.

Wikipedia Page

Doesn't Knossos look like a modern shopping mall? :-)
Beyond the joke the architectural similarity could reveal similarities in function!
Knossos really was the place where all the goods of the country were re-distributed.
Does a shopping mall anything other?

reply to post by dave_welch




Thanks for the link. I'm still amazed sometimes at just how modern and advanced some of the ancient architecture looked when these sites are show in their original finished states.