From some amazing archeological digs that are just not given the media attention (gee, I wonder why), we come to know that the Ancients in many ways were far superior to our modern civilizations. There are many, many things that we are incapable of doing that the Ancients mastered. Perhaps it is time for a fresh perspective on life and our worldview.
Here are some key points to one of the first books that I read on the subject of Ancient Civilizations, "Dead Men's Secrets," by Jonathan Gray. Which points have you read about before and which are new concepts for you?
1. Digging to the lowest depths, archaeologists repeatedly
come upon a city complex architecturally superior to later
cities on the same site.
2. The medicine of ancient Egypt was, generally speaking,
far superior to that practiced in Europe during the Middle
Ages. Pre-Incan medical surgery was superior to that of the
Peruvian Inca.
3. The oceangoing vessels employed by the ancient explorers
were large, strong and immensely superior to the craft
possessed by medieval Europeans.
4. The earliest ancient maps were drawn with the greatest
precision — and superior to later navigational charts.
5. The old Maya calendar is superior to our own.
6. It can be demonstrated also that many languages have
suffered degeneration.
7. Ancient set building stones are much larger and more
difficult to transport than those of subsequent cultures.
8. In dynamic realism, the masterpieces of the Cro-Magnon
cave artists of Altamira (Spain) and Lascaux (France) were
superior to the paintings and sculptures of later
civilizations.
9. Roads: Britain’s prehistoric Icknield Way (running 200
miles, in places as wide as a four-lane highway) is superior
to any road constructed by the later Romans.
10. Mathematics: Whereas very ancient cultures knew about
zero (the secret ingredient in advanced mathematics),
frequently, as decadence occurred, they forgot it. The
Babylonians, for example, wrote it as a blank space — a
practice which eventually disappeared. The same retrograde
process occurred in China.
