Were their races on Earth in the distant past that had more technology in building than we have today?

[DubiousIntentions]

When I look at pics of things from the past, it makes me wonder how certain things were built, like the pyramids. Using technology from the past, a group of researchers tried to build a 3 tier pyramid and failed miserably. Another group also failed. The intention was to build a model 65 feet high and 96 feet across, in scaled‐down proportion to the Cheops Pyramid, which is 482 feet high with a 756‐foot base. The size of the Japanese pyramid was sharply reduced when its builders discovered that they could not afford all the limestone needed. How did they chisel out obelisks and lift them up to be moved is a mystery. How do you raise a 2,000 ton obelisk, much less work at least 3 sides of it before removing it from the quarry.

What do you think?

[NamerOfStars]

No. No, they did not. They may have had specific *techniques* that we don't know about, but it's an "advanced technology" in the same way that Greek Fire was an "advanced technology"- we don't know how they did it, but we can do better today. Moving two and a half tons of stone requires a LOT of manpower, but it's not impossible; carve out three sides, lay a row of logs underneath it, cut the stone from the surrounding rock layer, and start rolling it forward, shifting logs forward as the moving stone passes them. Then either roll it over onto another "platform" to finish engraving it or raise it with ropes and leverage to finish it from a standing position (depending on how tall it is); it's not that complicated. Modern attempts to replicate the process fail because they lack the money and dedication that the ancients had.

There were certainly times and places when the ancients had BETTER abilities than the people of those days did; for a long time, hydraulic concrete (that sets in water) was thought to be either sorcery or an outright myth, because when the Roman empire collapsed, you couldn't easily get volcanic ash any more. There are probably plenty of other examples, and goodness knows what the first Vikings in England thought of the Roman ruins- but that was ages ago.

Now, another factor is that sometimes things aren't build the same way we WOULD build them today- have you heard of the Hypogeum of Al Salfieni? It's a massive underground complex in Malta, discovered by a work crew in 1902, who broke into a chamber filled with hundreds of skeletons, and for some reason didn't run from whatever killed them. The REALLY interesting thing is that if I were to stand in the center of the complex and speak, the acoustics are such that I could be heard throughout the entire complex- but you'll notice I said *I*. The effect only works with voices within a certain range, meaning in 4000 BC, the ancient Maltans had already invented sexist architecture.

If you've heard of Pumapunku, you know that the Pyramids were a mere novelty in comparison- and if you HAVEN'T heard of Pumapunku, you'll probably be disappointed to hear that it's not, in fact, a Japanese punk puma, but surprised to hear that it's something even more awesome.

And since this is a Turkish website, I'd be remiss not to mention Gobekli Tepe, a series of standing stones, like Stonehenge, only six thousand years older, and probably the oldest known human structure in the world. The temple beneath hasn't even been excavated, because archeologists don't want to risk damaging anything there. That one site pretty much turned the old historical model of agricultural settlement prompting the development of advanced civilization (relative to the time, of course) on its head; showing that, at least in this one case, it was religion that prompted settling, and not the other way around. See, it was built in about 9,000 BC- and the glaciers didn't start retreating from Turkey until almost a thousand years later. The structure predates AGRICULTURE.

Ancient humans weren't nearly as stupid as modern people make them out to be.

[DubiousIntentions]

You must have seen the same TV Show I did.

[Sargentcaptain]

All of these things become substantially less otherworldly when you see the predecessors and earlier models. Check out the Bent Pyramid. They started building it, mid way trough they figured out they messed up the angles, changed it on a whim and called it a day. It's not like they started off with a 200t obelisk. Once you figure out a way to do smaller ones, you can just scale everything up.

[DubiousIntentions]

Never heard of a bent pyramid. Seems like something like that would be somewhat famous.

[Sargentcaptain]

Why would it be? It's not pretty, well built or built for someone particularly notable. If anything, Sneferu's other two pyramids - the Red Pyramid and the Medium Pyramid, are a lot prettier and interesting design wise.

[purplepoppy]

They were able to do that stuff because they gained the skills over several generations. You can see the techniques getting better through time.
If they had advanced technology then where is it, where is the technology it evolved from? There's always a line of progression.
Moving and lifting big stones isn't difficult, they used sand ramps then removed the sand afterwards, we know this because in places the ramps remain.

[DubiousIntentions]

Come on, do you have any idea what it would take today to even lift an odd sized obelisk weighing 2,000 tons? That is why it is still sitting there. We have cranes that can lift 20,000 tons but they are huge, and mostly stationary. They had no ropes in Egyptian times that could handle that weight.

[purplepoppy]

You don't use a single rope, you use lots plus levers.

[DubiousIntentions]

Those would have to be mighty big levers.
“Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. ”

― Archimedes

[jshm2]

Yes and no.

Start with the "yes" as today's technology would be useless in the past, as it relies on too many external resources to make and work. In the past, technology had to be super advanced and locally serviceable to be of any use.

Give any American dimwit today a piece of flint and ask them to make a dagger or shiv out of it, and they would look at you daft. As well as try to find youtube videos to "show" them. But in the past, learning that shit would mean life or death for the whole family. So the pressures and skill levels are not comparable or the same.

But on the "no" side, there was a lot less world population back then. By rough estimate there were probably under a billion people in the world at any one time. That more or less means nearly every member of the group had to be "useful" to make the team work. Capable people with goals will always outperform a large team with little cohesive goals.

[Havthrills]

I really belive so. There is so much unexplained. There's a show I used to watch called Ancient Alins. Few questions came up like how was Antarctica on ancient maps when no one was supposed to fly then or go to where it's too cold. They did a small explanation of the bricks in the pyramids.

[DubiousIntentions]

They had maps from the past of Antarctica of what it looked like under the ice from back when and it was spot on.

[Havthrills]

Crazy right? Even hills close to where they made the pyramids were leveled like a landing strip. I remember they found a model of a plane in a pyramid

[Daniela1982]

Plus they have said those old maps of Antarctica, under all the ice, was accurate.

[Havthrills]

@Daniela1982 that is crazy bi highly doubt someone just walked it all and mapped it. What about the green glass desert?

[DubiousIntentions]

That was when there was something hot, like a nuclear explosion, occurred in the past. In Indian text there is the story of a battle in the sky. Maybe the pyramids were built as a bomb shelter of some kind. I'm sure it would survive a nuclear explosion.

[Daniela1982]

That's just it. It would have to be mapped from high above, and with something that could see under the ice, or before there WAS any ice.

[Havthrills]

@Daniela1982 so true. There are some strange unexplained items from history. Maps just proves there was something flying at the time.

[MrCommodore]

Its possible, as evolution just starts again. The examples you list and examples like Newgrange monument in Ireland suggest civilisation was advanced pre-Christianity expansion by the Roman Empire.

[DubiousIntentions]

Fossilized dinosaur footprints alongside human footprints have been discovered occasionally. So either they were alive at the same time, or he was walking a dog who had club feet. My theory was that an advanced race existed when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and both were wiped out with the dinosaurs.

[MrCommodore]

The only confusing thing about that theory is why would only the advanced race be wiped out and not cave men & women? Surely some of them would have survived? I think if such an advanced race did previously exist, they were likely wiped out before the dinosaurs existed or perhaps they got so advanced that they built space ships and left earth, but still visit us from time to time. 👽

[DubiousIntentions]

You remember when God destroyed all life with the flood?

[MrCommodore]

Vaguely, I'm raised Christian, but I was never a great bible student.

[Pot8o]

I'd say manpower. I think the modern obsession with technology overlooks what can be done through the combined efforts of lots and lots of (cheap) workers.

[DubiousIntentions]

Really? They transported 2.5 ton stones from a quarry over water and sand to a destination and were able to stack them all up (which we can't do today, and raised them to 400 feet?

[Pot8o]

I read a translated inscription where an Egyptian king was bragging about his spoils of war, and those guys sound tough AF.

Also, this was the pinnacle of their architecture. They probably devoted insane resources to it.

Today we can do bonkers things with mobile phones. Because so many resources go into that tech.

That one team of Japanese guys couldn't replicate the Egyptian's feat doesn't tell us much.

[DubiousIntentions]

It's been said that the Egyptians didn't build the pyramids, they just claimed them as their own.

[pizzalovershouse]

Yes aliens who visited here during Egypt days of pyramids

[exitseven]

No, it was really space aliens that built the pyramids

[DubiousIntentions]

Does make you wonder. They may have all that information at the library at Alexandria that was lost.

[NathanDavis]

I would not fail...

if I had Elon's Musk budget though...

[Surely]

Some people say No. Some say Yes!
Either they were more “Hands on skilled “, then we are today. Or they had help!

[DubiousIntentions]

alien help?

[Surely]

@dubiousintentions. Unless the used the dinosaurs. Like the Flintstones!
There have been TV documentaries that say huge things could be built with human power. But their skill set has been forgotten over the centuries when people got lazy account of mechanical devices being developed’.
Alien help is easiest to explain!
We can’t be the only life in the universe!

[DubiousIntentions]

I have no idea if anyone is a thing anywhere else but there is always the possibility. Who can deny that in this vast universe that other life exists?

[Surely]

@dubiousintentions. Agreed!

[Anonymous]

I have no proof of course, but I think humans had help from alien races.