Ancient culture...?

Question

In movies they make reference to a culture that they don't know much about that had technology extremely advanced for their time, advanced medical knowledge, and knew things that weren't found for hundreds of years after they were gone. They make references to them in movies.

Answer 1

Hollywood screenwriters are not historians (fortunately). Don't believe everything you see in the movies.

Answer 2

Atlantis is a myth dude.

Although I will admit, it does not take much time wise to erase a civilization from the face of the earth.

Ever see "Life After People" on the history channel and "Aftermath; Population Zero" on nat geo?

Its an eye opener; it reveals that archeology is a limited, if somewhat flawed science because if you rely on objects you can hold in your hand, considering how easily this planet would erase evidence that we were even here, its foolish, stupid, and idiotic, to just assume right off the bat that older civilizations were not real.

Although, I will admit, that Atlantis is a myth, and for a very good reason; plate tectonics.  The entire middle of the Atlantic ocean, at the bottom, is a violent volcanic area.  If an island had ever been in the north Atlantic at any point in geologic history, there would be massive traces of it, time and all.

As of yet no traces have been found, also, the plating is all wrong.  That is, the plates and faultlines where islands tend to appear, follow a specific pattern that can be analyzed, even hundreds of thousands of years later.

And even if you adjusted for geologic time scale, that region of the Atlantic does not have any part in it that would yield an ancient Island as huge as Atlantis UNLESS....

It was an Island just off the coast of modern Spain, that was roughly half the size of the country THEN the story is feasible.

The Atlantis of myth however, was massive; it encompassed almost the whole of the north Atlantic, an area, roughly 80% the size of the continental U.S.  Meaning to say the island was pretty freaking huge according to myth.

Myths atributed to Atlantis, go as follows;

1)  They had flying machines and "flew in iron birds."

2)  "They had fire that could level entire cities," e.g. they knew about nuclear weapons, and used them frequently, in fact according to myth, the Sahara is the Sahara, because Atlanteans anihilated a civilization that once thrived there.  They nuked that place, burned it in nuclear fire, and its a desert now.

3)  They were said to posses "machines that were as living tapestries."  What is a tapestry?  A piece of cloth with a picture in it.  Thus, a "living tapestry" would have to mean computers and T.V. screens, or something akin to it.

4)  However they were also said to be "unbelievably opulent and wicked, very evil men, the gods, thus angered, sunk their land to the bottom of the sea....."  In other words, the people of Atlantis were a separate race; not white, not mongoloid, not black, not anything, they were a separate, extinct race of humans whose bones have yet to be found.

It is speculated, that J.R.R. Tolkien, the now very famous writer of the LOTR series, was the reincarnation of an Atlantean, as as a child he frequently had nightmares of living in a paradisical island, and always, tidal waves, catastrophic volcanic eruptions, and him drowing in the middle of the ocean.  Another person who had such nightmares was Edgar Cayce, the famous psychic who predicted that Atlantis would be discovered, very soon actually, and that it would change the way humanity sees itself.

How to know if you are a reincarnated Atlantean?

Well as a general, simple rule, if you have had a recurring nightmare, in which you live in a paradisical tropical island, an island unmistakeably in the middle of the Atlantic as Atlantic ocean islands have clear blue waters and white sands, and that island suffers a catastrophic series of earthquakes and volcanic explosions, and you drown in the middle of the ocean in short, if you have a nightmare similar to Tolkien's according to Cayce, and later on quack and charlatan new agers, odds are, in a past life you were Atlantean.

As a general rule anybody who shares Tolkien's nightmare was an Atlantean in a past life.  Allegedly there are people scattered all over the world who report having had that nightmare as children, and it recurring throughout their adult lives.  The island of Atlantis, like the land of Israel, is said to have possesed enormous spiritual power, and thus the nightmare occurs because the land is calling her children home.

Although here I'm just speculating and rambling, borrowing heavily from Jewish prophecy, as it is said in the time of the Messiah, people of Jewish ancestry, will feel an irresistable pull to return to Israel.  That is, the land of Israel, will call all her children home on her own, be it instinct, aphids in the brain or whatever, when the time comes, people will intuitively know to go there.

Ugh, ultimately, to answer your question, the land you are talking about is Atlantis; bible thumpers say it was a "pre-flood civilization," reputable scientists say it was a myth, open minded scientists say there is basis in fact in all myth and all that, but without proof well, you get the picture.

I will admit, the idea of an ancient culture, even more advanced than we are is intriguing, and any evidence of such a culture found, will forever likely destroy the theory of evolution.  Mutations observed under microscopes, are adaptations an organism makes to its surrounding environment, however an outright change, no matter how much time you give, is nearly impossible.

Minor changes, sure.

Major changes, the fossil reccord has yet to show any links ANYWHERE, plus the fact that the universe is pretty stinking big, something I never get tired of saying because my god it should be obvious by now!

I will admit to this; if Atlantis is found, the world will not be the same.

Old notions, traditions, even peoples faith, will be sorely challenged.

Cayce predicted, that the discovery would occur in the year 2012, the same year the infamous Mayan calendar predicted "the world would end" although there is something I need to clarify;

I was born in Honduras, of Israeli parents of Iraqi Jewish origin but I still consider myself Honduran.

Naturally you read a lot about the Maya down there, as it was the dominant belief regarding ancestry, when the truth is, the bulk of Hondurans are of Lenca and Misquito ancestry, only a minority in the border with Guatemala are Mayan.  Also contrary to what you saw in apocalypto, the natives never ran around naked; they wore long robes made of manta cloth (a material I believe woven from the corn plant), not at all dissimilar to Roman togas actually.

Manta cloth, is very strong, any clothes made from it can last up to 20 years without ever needing to resew it.  The fabric, also, is highly porous, meaning it will do a better job of keeping you cool than running around in a thong.  It is actually more comfortable in extreme tropical heat, to wear a manta toga, than to run around naked, as the manta cloth will aid your body in releasing more heat.

So anyway abusing my "I'm an authority because I lived there" mentality, let me clarify;

The Maya specifically said, the world would change.  They never said there would be a cataclysm.

Yes, they predicted, with frightening accuracy, when Cortez would arrive and yes they predicted with even more accuracy the earthquake in Mexico of 1988.  Or was it '86?  c**p I forgot man...

Wait, it must have been '88; because I was in Mexico as a kid to see a famous doctor.  Well, famous in Latin America.....

Whatever the case; the reason the Maya were so good at predicting the future, is because ultimately all events can be mathematically quantified.  A Physicist once told me, that it was impossible because to be able to mathematically predict the future, you would need to factor in, well, every single molecule in the universe, and then run it as an equation.  So yes it IS possible, mathematically, but the brain power required is literally astronomical.

Here's the kicker though, it was once thought that to make nuclear bombs, you would need an entire library's worth of mathematical calculations, but as we all know, Einstein found a way around that.  How can we know for sure, if the Maya did not figure out Einstein's "unified field theory," a mathematical theory that if worked out, COULD be used to "see" through time?

Do not forget the Maya were astronomers, and on observation alone, they had at least some grasp of physics.  Also, myself personally growing up around some people who were of pure native american ancestry, generally, anybody I knew who was a pure native american, worked with numbers really easily.

Usually when it came to math, I was actually always the dunce, not the native american kids.

yeah, you heard right, me, the Jew, was the "stupid" one, not the non jewish kids.

I did okay in maths in Honduras reaching my highest grade at 90% but ultimately I worked a little bit slower than the other kids who, I will say right off the bat, Honduran native american kids work a lot faster in math than white kids do.  I have had both as classmates; whites stereotype latinos as being "stupid" but, believe me, they are far from it.

Very far from it.

The biggest dumbasses I personally knew in latin america, almost all had white ancestry.

What I am trying to tell you, is that the native americans of central america have a gift for working with numbers, do not put it beyond them, if an ancient culture of theirs figured out Einstein's unified field theory, as Mayan numbers are actually even more efficient than Indian numerals when it comes to running calculations involving huge quantities.  With Einstein's unified field theory, which a documentary (as there are many.....) I saw of the man dumbed down in calling it "the theory of everything, it is possible, or it would be possible, to predict the future.

One of the reasons nerds and geeks love math, is because there are all sorts of neat tricks  you can play with it.

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Answer 3

. . . well Egyptians were quite advanced for their times, just look at pyramids. I've read such references in religious scriptures, there certainly are some mentions in Koran(Islamic scriptures), Hindu scriptures narrate a story of wars between people who had very advanced weapons.

Other than that it's usually just mythology, and scriptures aren't reliable source of history. The oldest such civilizations can only be 'Babylonians'. In subcontinent remains of some very ancient cultures have been discovered, at least over 5000 years old but I can't remember them being medically advanced. Other than that it can only be China.

However Chinese and people of subcontinent have medical philosophies & practices going back millennias.

Answer 4

Some people have argued that the ancient Greeks were very close to an industrial revolution, and that if it wasn't for the rise of Rome one might have happened 1800 years earlier than it did.

Answer 5

Here's a source about ancient brain surgery ( trepanation )  dating back to the stone age.

http://www.brain-surgery.com/history.htm...

Here's one about ancient batteries. It shows a picture of one still at the Baghdad Museum today, possibly used for medical purposes or electroplating.

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_11.ht...

I think you're referring to the ancient Sumerian civilization. One of the " batteries " was excavated from a Sumerian city in Southern Iraq and dated from 2500bc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer#Techn...

Answer 6

I suggest you watch the History Channel - they have a few good programs that deal with ancient culture:

Ancient Discoveries

http://www.history.com/minisites/ancient...

Digging for the Truth

http://www.history.com/minisites/digging...

Or History International -

The Naked Archaeologist

http://www.historyinternational.com/nake...

Answer 7

Are you referring to the mythical or hypothetical culture of Atlantis, the so-called lost continent that lay  in the Atlantic Ocean near Africa and the Azores Islands of Portugal?  It was the subject of a song by the recording artist Donovan in the 1960s.  You can read the words to the song in the following link:

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Donovan...

Some people believe that the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal are the last remnants of the alleged sunken continent.

Otherwise, the ancient culture of Crete was believed to have been advanced beyond its time, as were the cultures of the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Incas and Mayas, to name only a few.  You can find lots of information on them.