While the theory of lost civilizations greatly intrigues me, I must say it is odd that we see so much "evidence" on this board of Ancient Aircraft, Nuclear Power Plants, etc. but no ancient bicycles, motorcycles, cars, etc.

In short where are the intermediate steps?

A related conumdrum is that the mysterious technology that built the Great Pyramid seems to have sprung from nowhere, with no logical progression towards it coming before. And, in fact, the subsequent pyramids were LESS advanced!

I would appreciate any thoughts!

[edit on 3-6-2005 by opensecret1150]

Originally posted by opensecret1150

A related conumdrum is that the mysterious technology that built the Great Pyramid seems to have sprung from nowhere, with no logical progression towards it coming before. And, in fact, the subsequent pyramids were LESS advanced!
[edit on 3-6-2005 by opensecret1150]

The Egyptians built the pyramids. There is no dispute or controversy over that. Not all the details about how are known yet, but no real scientist or archaeologist thinks otherwise.

You can always find a few contrarians that dispute anything. They do not constitute a 'controversy' or 'alternative theories'.

The pyramids did not just 'spring from nowhere'. There are earlier, more primitive pyramids still in Egypt and are still visited by thousands of tourists every year. The progression in design is quite evident over several hundreds of years. Each generation of builders corrected the flaws of the previous designs and made improvements. The Great Pyramid seems to be the climax and subsequent structures were less elaborate, but that was most likely due to economics and changing social/political conditions.

You need to look elsewhere for proof of ancient advanced supertechnology. The pyramids of Egypt aren't.

Why have a bike when you could have an aircraft. Give your head a shake.

Originally posted by fishmaster
Why have a bike when you could have an aircraft.

I think what he is getting at is that, according to the 'ancient advanced tech' people, man went from relative barbarism to the height of technology rather instantly, and also only seemed to have the super advanced stuff that was necessary to 'build perfect pyramids' and the like. Whereas, in reality, you need a technologically advanced society to have advanced technology. That means a lot more than just 'super airships' to build the pyramids, it means cars, transport trucks, construction vehicles, mines for the ores, factories, manufacturing plants, smelting plants, warehouses, homes for all these peopel, schools in which they receive basic education and then advanced universitities where they recevie more, trade schools for the crafts, all sorts of things that we just don't have. For every 'egyptian herioglyph that represents a modern helicopter', there needs to be a plethora of other 'evidences' that were used to come up with the idea of a helicopter and actuall build it. Yet we see none of it. All we see are 'fantastic' things like spaceships and the like. Where are the candy bar wrappers? Where's the bubble gum? Where's the duct tape and non-degradable milk cartons or the rubble piles from mines? Where are the waterworks and roads and everything???

Yes i understand the progression of mankind and how they can't just have stone hammers and then the next day have flying cars. This is obvious. Thats why i have the laughing face at the end. I'm sure the bikes were destroyed by glaciers of lost in some lava flow or was lost in the ocean. The world can swallow things up and we never see them again.

I agree. I think ancient "tech" found in art and models was simply imagined as artistry or entertainment. For instance, we have intricate models and depictions of, say, X-Wing fighters or the U.S.S. Enterprise, but can we build working prototypes of those things? No, we can just imagine them.

I will say this about the Nazca lines - hot air balloons are not that high tech, even today. It is easy to draw the conclusion that the figures were meant to be viewed by crude and primitive hot air balloons:

from a random google page:
Ancient pottery from Peru depicts Incas in flight. There are drawings of men with wings and pictures of men in boat-like baskets under what looked like balloons. It is also known that, even today, in some remote locations priests use little model balloons lifted by hot air to send up prayers to gods.

...

Woodson found an ancient cloth dated to be some 1500 years old in almost perfect condition. The Nazca climate's dry air had kept it from falling apart. When inspected by hot-air balloon experts today, it was found that the Incan cloth seemed stronger and had a tighter weave than what is used today for hot-air balloons. Woodson was amazed! From Maria Reiche, an expert on the Nazca lines, he was able to determine that the ancient balloons were cone-shaped like an upside-down pyramid.

Huge pieces of cloth formed the sides, and beginning at the center, they sewed the pieces together. This gave the balloon its spiral shape. Woodman built a balloon out of the same materials that were available to the ancient Incans. IT FLEW. When it landed, it left a large, dark crater on the earth, similar to other ones found on the Nazca Plains region.

Not far fetched at all, really.

Zip

[edit on 6/3/2005 by Zipdot]