One of the things I've never understood is why anyone needs myths to make life interesting. Gnomes and fairies are cool, but I don't need to believe that they're waiting to be found just beyond the next patch of grass to think the world we live in is amazing and wonderful. Why do the pyramids need to be inspired by extra terrestrials? Why is it not amazing that people built them?
Believing in the world as it is and evaluating everything with an open, skeptical mind (not mutually exclusive) often yields more wonder than believing in spirits or complicated myths.
Gobekli Tepe
I first heard about this site in Art History. Gobekli Tepe was originally overlooked, mistaken for a graveyard. What it is is far more fascinating and it subverts everything we know about early modern humans. In every archeology and anthropology class I've had, I've learned that the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculturally based communities was indicated by the development of permanent architecture, particularly areas of designated worship. This makes sense, of course, because once you settle down and start producing more food than you or your family needs, some of you can start specialising in things like art and architecture and your community will need a gathering place to make decisions, talk, and worship. Hunter gatherers naturally need to keep their lifestyle portable, because they move around within their territory. Gobekli Tepe, however, was a temple built by hunter gatherers. When you think about it, if hunter gatherers only move around in a given territory, why not get together and build a temple that you can return to seasonally? There's nothing unrealistic about it, but it is a huge discovery.
Homo Floresiensis
Another thing that I've always learned was that our last living human cousins were Homo sapiens neanderthalensis who died out more than 30,000 years ago. The discovery of H. Floresiensis, the little people of Flores, is nothing new, but their designation as a unique species of hominid means that fully modern man was not yet alone in the world until a mere 13,000 years ago, only until about two thousand years after the first humans crossed the bering land bridge and discovered the New World. Floresiensis most likely evolved from Homo erectus on the islands of Indonesia, but also shares many traits with fully modern humans.
These are both fascinating finds that simultaneously change and flesh out our understanding of our history on this earth. That we still know so little is no cause for fear. The world is endlessly wonderful, and endlessly surprising.
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17 November 2008
Science is Awesome
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5 blasphemous retort(s):
It's looking dubious that the ancient Turks who built Gobekli weren't farmers.
Domesticated rye 13,500 years old has been found in Syria. and it's very liekly that at the time Gobekli was built, the Turks were growing pulses and planting nut trees.
Well it would also be wrong to suggest that the agricultural revolution happened all at once. Absent evidence of a permanent settlement, we could be looking at early pastoralists, people who still spent a lot of time moving around while they were experimenting with domesticating grains.
God didn't tell us we could do that. We had to figure out that where we left seeds, plants we could eat would later spring up.
Also, this isn't a science blog. So I'm not trying to talk down to you, I'm just trying to be sure that the other three people who read this will understand.
!!!!! We just found more evidence of how the pyramids were built! For many years the theory was there were ramps on the outside made of dirt, but this posed a problem: each block was 20 tons, so wouldn't the corners of these ramps collapse under the weight? So the other theory: a along straight ramp. The problem with this was that the ramp would have been over a mile long to reach the top of the 480 foot Great Pyramid.
But, new research into the density scanning data they did in the 80's reveals that there were ramps INSIDE the pyramid! It makes perfect sense! And the corners were left open so that it would be a good staging area to lift the blocks with a crane, turn, and set onto another set of tracks continuing up a 7% grade.
I don't think extraterrestrials built them either, is it so hard to believe we did it? The pyramids are awe inspiring and amazing, no doubt, but so is the iPhone.
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