History before 6000 BC?

[Killerclown]

Hi all,

I have a few questions about something that has puzzled me for a long time but have never really had answered to my satisfaction:

From what I understand our historical knowledge only goes back as far as about 6000 BC - e.g. the Indus Valley Civilisation, Mesopotamia etc. Modern humans are supposed to have been around for at least 65000 years.

Do we know anything about the period from 63000 BC to 6000 BC ? My own personal feeling is that there is a high probability that much of the evidence from these periods may lie in areas that are covered by ocean and/or ice e.g. Antarctica.

Is anyone aware of any serious archeologists researching this area?

Is it not possible that many human civilisations at a level similar to our own could have risen up and fallen in that time? Even if they had completely obliterated themselves (e.g. by nuclear war or an equivalent technology) there would still be some evidence left wouldn't there?

Also I understand that the Indus Valley civilisation's pictographic language is as yet undeciphered. Is anyone still researching this?

I'd appreciate other people's opinions and thoughts on this.

AA.

[RonCollins]

Technology for serious underwater archaeology just doesn't exist. Currently underwater archaeology consists mainly of ship wrecks. It is estimated that about 12 thousand years ago there existed 3 superlakes held in by ice damns[/url]. Then, quite suddenly one of the damns broke, causing a series of events leading to the other two breaking. These events, it is thought, were responsible for all the flood myths throughout the world. This has been geologically supported. They estimate that the oceanic water levels could have risen as much as 125 feet or more in just a few days. Driving people, in some cases, about a hundred miles inland.

Knowing that the vast majority of the human population has lived close to the shore, it is not absurd to think that this was the case before the flood. I am not aware of any serious scientific study concerning this. Geologist and archaeologists/anthropologists seem to sharply disagree on the likelihood of ancient shoreline settlements 70 or 80 miles out to sea. Geologists will happily tell you that if there were settlements, they are under massive amounts of water and silt. The archaeologists/anthropologists will tell you that it is pointless to look as they clearly don't exists.

I have heard of a NOAA proposed ancient shoreline mapping project and an unrelated expedition a few years ago. It caught some headlines because Robert Ballard was involved. I think it was in the black see or something like that. Anyway, as my memory has it he thought it would be a perfect site to look for sunken ancient shoreline. I am not sure if he was looking for ports or wrecks though. They used high-def sidescan and found some pretty interesting possible sites, but I think they ran out of time and funding.

Maybe in a decade or so we will have robotic technology that can visit those depths and really do some searching. until then you are looking at some guy in a wetsuit with 40 minutes of oxygen and a spade. I'd say the odds are a little askew.

FYI: NOVA did a show on the superlakes thing. It was called Megaflood. Here is the transcript. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3211_megafloo.html]

[Killerclown]

Thanks Ron,

I think you're right about the underwater exploration - I hadn't really thought about the difficulty of excavating delicate objects underwater. I just think that if any large organisation or government really wanted to do it they could find a way. Unfortunately archeology is probably way down on people's list of important things to do.
BTW, I saw that PBS show and I remember that they found lots of interesting things but couldn't investigate because as you mentioned they ran out of time and money.

Cheers.

AA.

[Brian Now]

Originally Posted by Killerclown

From what I understand our historical knowledge only goes back as far as about 6000 BC - e.g. the Indus Valley Civilisation, Mesopotamia etc.

That's only as far back as civilization goes. There are some prehistoric stone age artifacts that have been found going back further. Agriculture itself is supposed to be about 10,000 years old I think.

Originally Posted by Killerclown

Is it not possible that many human civilisations at a level similar to our own could have risen up and fallen in that time? Even if they had completely obliterated themselves (e.g. by nuclear war or an equivalent technology) there would still be some evidence left wouldn't there?

I agree, there would be evidence. Imagine the chemical-laden strata we're leaving right now! That's only one area where we'd leave a trace.

Originally Posted by Killerclown

Also I understand that the Indus Valley civilisation's pictographic language is as yet undeciphered. Is anyone still researching this?
AA.

It's still undeciphered and I don't think there's really a lot of material to work with...or if there is I think it tends to be the same subject matter (maybe ritual objects or inventory lists or something). There's a theory that it's language was an ancestor to the Dravidian language family of South India. But I am sure somebody out there has related it to Atlantis!
There's always some linguist and/or archaeologist somewhere in the world working on this and other undeciphered scripts.

[dusty]

Though this is slightly off topic.

I have just been reading about JPL's plan to send what they refer to as a "cryobot" through the ice in Antarctica. To investigate lake Vostok, a large body of liquid water beneath the ice down there.
Check this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok

Perhaps if ever this plan gets underway, they may find previously unknown forms of life and some idea of what may be hidden under the ice on Jupiters moon Europa.
Aside from that I wonder if this plan might be of some help in the exploration of our oceans mysteries.

Peace,

Mark

[dusty]

Just found another quick link:

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/i..._010529-1.html

Mark

[Brian Now]

Originally Posted by dusty

Just found another quick link:

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/i..._010529-1.html

Mark

I remember hearing about this. They think they might find ancient strains of microorganisms. But I also remember talk about the problems of sending something down there like contaminating the lake with modern bacteria and kerosene (used in the drilling I think).

[Poi]

A good number of archaeologists believe our shorelines have been raised some four hundred feet since ancient times. Could be a stretch, but I've read it often.

Recent finds off the Indian coast seem to show a city that might well be 9,000 years old.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1768109.stm

This made the news in 2002, I'm pretty sure.

[Killerclown]

Thanks, guys. It seems that everything regarding this kind of stufff is still in the preliminary stages. Looks like we'll have to wait for more concrete info

[Schuyler]

Graham Hancock's 'Underworld' has a great deal of information on the ice dam theory, complete with comprehensive sea-level charts. If you're interested in this theory, do check out this book.