Ancient civilizations?

Question

is it at all possible that really ancient cultures did keep records around, but they have since been lost to time? mainly i'm wondering if it's possible that paper or the like, go back further then we know?

if so, what do you think si contained within those scripts? any real knowledge, or would it all be superstition (farhter you go back in time, the more superstitous people tend to be... atleast, in terms of the recorded history we know.

Answer 1

Your question bridges the gap between archaeology and history.

Archaeologists study artifacts left behind by societies.  Historians, however, focus their attention upon the written documents left behind by those societies.  We can learn about ancient societies both ways - through the records they kept and the items they produced, used, and left behind.  Archaeologists continue to learn more about the development of writing around the world as they excavate ancient settlements.

Paper wasn't even invented when writing began.  Ancient Mesootamians used clay tablets, and the Chinese wrote on tortoise shells.

If writing is found to have existed even before 3500 BC (the approximate date that writing first began), what would it contain?  My guess is that it would be boring and mundane - most likely records of business transactions or inventory lists.  That is, after all, a primary reason why writing developed in the first place.

Answer 2

it is possible,

i would wonder about the Ancient Egyptians and the the Aztecs.

it would be interesting to find records from them about how they planed out the big buildings that they made. like their pyramids 4 example.

Answer 3

I agree with your first statement, it is possible.. In terms of what was written in those so called scripts, well I would assume a history of region and most likely something related to religion or they're faith, and something about those peoples history...They're past leaders or something significant that was pivotal in they're history.. Hope this makes sense..

Answer 4

Yeah, I think you have a point.  Not much ever gets written on stone, even in modern societies.  How much will historians of the far future know about our society if all they have to work with is stone monuments?

I bet a lot of hunter-gatherers, back when that type of lifestyle was the dominate one, had written languages, they just never  bothered to carve them in stone until they settled down and became "civilized".

Answer 5

There is an interesting novel - historical fiction - THE NINTH GENERATION, that gets into this. It seems that the ancient civilizations were well advanced. Some form of paper could well have been used, or clay tablets. Stone inscriptions have been found. Could it be that we are the ones that have become superstitious as the ancient truth has become more distorted with time?

Answer 6

Anything is possible although not probable. There would be other clues as-to their culture. The Miocene Civilization has just found artifacts that go forward beyond what they thought.

        The English recently opened up a whole new chapter of "Stonehenge" and, what is really is.

         Everyday, something new develops, now, with global warming, the ice melts in Alaska, the Russian far North, are showing surprising new developments.