How old are we?

I've just finished reading the book, "Rule By Secrecy" by Jim Marrs. It's mostly about secret societies and how they control the world, but he also reveals the origins of these secret societies and their motives, also he touches on the origins of the first human civilizations and their obscure history.
Now I'll get to the point. While reading this book, Marrs points out some pretty interesting facts and one very interesting theory that I wanted to share with you guys. He believes that humans have actually been around for around 500,000 years and that these ancient people lived on every continent and also travelled extensively. He thinks that these ancient humans are our ancestors and that human civilization experienced a backslide from enlightenment to a sort of "dark age" that started to lift at about the same time that the Sumerians first started their civilization. These "recent" ancient civilizations (i.e. egyptians, sumerians, mayas, incas, Native Americans) didn't neccessarily discover how to build all these mysterious ancient structures (i.e. the pyramids) they simply found records and books and instructions on how to do these things. I like this theory, and Iam not trying to discredit any ancient civilization becuase I believe that they were infinitely more intune with themselves and their surroundings, but it would explain a lot of very very old mysteries like the crystal skulls found in South America, step pyramids dating back 8000 years in Japan, and other anomolies that just don't seem like the civilizations could have made these things with the tools they had at the time.

Let me know what you guys think!!

Thats a pretty interesting theory. I'm very much interested in ancient civilization, but I do not know much about secret societies. However, you did use the word 'continents', plural of continent - I thought Pangea was a continent around that time? If not, I don't think the world looked as it does today. Anyways, I'd like to read that book. Thanks for sharing.

[Edited on 28-4-2004 by xenophanes85]

pangea was around 250 million years ago

volcano.und.nodak.edu...

I'd highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in either secret societies or the possible origins human civilization.

that was a good book marrs wrote, interesting theory he came up with, i dont know what to say though.

Its true, plain and simple. Although no one alive today can retell the actual events and places and peoples but the premise, that life has taken multiple steps back throughout history is without a doubt, TRUE.

The fact that the Mayan's did not build their immence structures gives further support to the idea that other more advanced civilizations once ruled our planet.

www.ananova.com...

[Edited on 28-4-2004 by dahei]

Though I haven't read the book, it certainly appears to be a must read...thanks for the suggestion!

I've always believed that the further we dig (figuratively as well as literally) into our 'past', the more we shall find.

Originally posted by dahei
www.ananova.com...

[Edited on 28-4-2004 by dahei]

apologies , just messed up this post .
this article puts the remains found in ethiopia and south africa at 1 million years old , it dates fossilised skull remains found in thailand at 20 million years old

ethiopian remains

here's a link to a U N site giving approximate datings for remains found in ethiopia .
note "lucy" over 3 million years old

The native americans say that The People have always been...should one ask them of their origions...that in its self, no matter how odd it sounds to "modern" man...is just the tip of the iceberg.

Something i read that supports the theory of ancient advanced civilizations deals with the Lumarians...these people were not as mythical as they are made out to be...

tho we can not know for sure because so much information has been lost in time, and those clues that are found are still being deciphered...

for me, it would be ignorant to think that human kind evolved from apes...this is a theory that i have always felt was a dead end...no matter what science says about chimp and human DNA...it's not solid proof...only speculation...

When societies flourish and outgrow their usefulness...when humankind mistreats the gifts of the earth and nature...the laws of natural selection begin to take over...people/animals will die of disease, war, natural calamities...some worse than others when the earth decides to take care of itself....

depopulation is how it's done, and in mass quanities sometimes...what is left will begin again and reseed the planet...there will be no technology and all will have to be learned again...hopefully better next time...

~oracle

Originally posted by Oracle

depopulation is how it's done, and in mass quanities sometimes...what is left will begin again and reseed the planet...there will be no technology and all will have to be learned again...hopefully better next time...

~oracle

I too have read up on some of this. It is isn't all that surprising that the cultures who are closer to the 'cycles' of the earth tend to have the deepest philosophies.

I wonder, tho, how far we are from 'nature taking care of itself again' regarding 'depopulation'. We have lost so many of the ancient ways

I think thi thoery is BS. Well the reason is first of all i dont bleive that humans have been around 500,000 years or even Earth itslef. I belive that ancient people werent stupid. They knew how to build the sturctures they did. How do we build out structures? We come up with something. They built the structures by themselves with the ideas they came up with.

Originally posted by AD5673
I think thi thoery is BS. Well the reason is first of all i dont bleive that humans have been around 500,000 years or even Earth itslef. I belive that ancient people werent stupid. They knew how to build the sturctures they did. How do we build out structures? We come up with something. They built the structures by themselves with the ideas they came up with.

It's certainly ok to have your own opionion...but...I don't think that it was suggested that the ancients were "too stupid" to build, or come up with, the ideas. In fact, I think the original poster gave a 'disclaimer' not to 'discredit' the ancients abilities.

Now, as far as the age of the earth, I'm a bit confused, as I was under the impression that the 'latest' age 'guess' is around 4.55 billion years.

My theory we came from a very advance civilization but some natural disaster happend and as the surviviors tried to get with their lifes they forgot about their advance ancestors and their teaching, or perhaps something their ancestors did caused the disaster and the survivors wanted to forget and start new. (sounds like the atlantic myth)

well that is a hard question to answer i dont know how old the rest of you are but im 13 and a thread asking people how old they r belongs in BTS

quote:
well that is a hard question to answer i dont know how old the rest of you are but im 13 and a thread asking people how old they r belongs in BTS

Don't you mama teach you to be nice to ancient people?

well no she doesnt because there are no ancient people in va.beach i think they just have those in hillbilly towns

Originally posted by machinegunjordan
well no she doesnt because there are no ancient people in va.beach i think they just have those in hillbilly towns

Well said .

Anyways, it seems that all empires rise and fall, and this could be true for the entire human race as well.
I mean, if something killed all the people who ACTUALLY knew how to build and create stuff with their bare hands and small tools, what would the rest of us do?

Nothing, I think. We would try to create luxury and such for us, and eventualy (1-3 generations) we will be far less technologicaly advanced than we would have been.

Okay... some honest research here.

Originally posted by Red_Rocket
He believes that humans have actually been around for around 500,000 years and that these ancient people lived on every continent and also travelled extensively.

He needs to define what he means by "human."

Homo habilis is around 2million years old:
www.talkorigins.org...
Homo erectus (I skipped several other hominids in the lineage) is around 700,000-500,000 years old:
www.talkorigins.org...
Homo heidelbergensis is around 400,000 years old:
www.talkorigins.org...
The earliest known homo sapiens is just over 30,000 years old:
www.talkorigins.org...

Note that these are from fossils and evidence. They're not from "channeled sources" or "mysterious tablets from aliens" or "theories based on ancient writings."

He thinks that these ancient humans are our ancestors and that human civilization experienced a backslide from enlightenment to a sort of "dark age" that started to lift at about the same time that the Sumerians first started their civilization.

...showing that he knows nothing at all about the subject.

You see, civilizations leave traces. Even if they ran off and took all their tools, there are traces in the grounds... a certain area where the earth is compressed far beyond usual, redistribution and concentration of metals and minerals and organic material and so forth.

It ain't there.

These "recent" ancient civilizations (i.e. egyptians, sumerians, mayas, incas, Native Americans) didn't neccessarily discover how to build all these mysterious ancient structures (i.e. the pyramids) they simply found records and books and instructions on how to do these things.

Again, showing that he doesn't know what he's talking about. You see, each of those civilizations has "pre-pyramids"... Cheops didn't just one day wake up and say "wow! I want to build a pyramid at Giza! Quick! Get my architects and let's use the plans in this Really Cool Book!"

They have other, smaller pyramids, other pyramids with different angles, hundreds of other pyramids (including tall and thin ones.)

And the Egyptians and other ancient civilizations couldn't speak each others' languages or read each others' texts. Even the ones that had the same alphabet (cuneiform) spoke very different languages.
reference.allrefer.com...

it would explain a lot of very very old mysteries like the crystal skulls found in South America

Modern hoaxes. Yes, really.
skepdic.com...

other anomolies that just don't seem like the civilizations could have made these things with the tools they had at the time.

Not to be offensive, but what they produced is consistant with the technology. Now... if we'd found nylon and high-temperature ceramics in Neanderthal sites and they were reliably dated to 80,000 years ago, then yes I think we could say that something had given them the technology.

There's nothing magic about carving stone blocks and stacking them. There's nothing magical about hoaxers trying to sell fakes as ancient objects.

And there's nothing terribly mysterious about people writing books to promote their own theories and conveniently ignoring all the writing and artifacts and fossils and mummies from the very civilizations that they say they're expert in.

[Edited on 29-4-2004 by Byrd]

Ethiopia

The 160,000-year-old fossils, the oldest ever Homo sapiens and excavated in a remote region of Ethiopia, appear to prove that the continent was the cradle of humanity, the scientists said.