Prehistoric Ruins of a 15,000 Year Old Town Discovered

An amazing find that may rewrite history was confirmed today. Moroccan scientists have unearthed the remains of a 15,000 year old town! A town older than when organized civilization was supposed to existed.





[edit on 8/20/2004 by lockheed]

I wish that article had some picture of all these finds. You would think National Geographic would be all over this.

lockheed....great thread. Im very, very interested in this since I am an Historian. Keep this thread up-to-date if you can find any more information as it develops.

Thanks again!

15,000 years? Wouldn't that predate the Sumerian Civ? I wonder what the scientific community will do if they discover evidence of a developed language?

everlasting...much older than the Sumerians. This would pre-date the last Ice Age! If this turns out to be true, and not some mis-interpretation by archaeologists, many a book will have to be rewritten...and Im hoping so !!!!!

Or they will do anything they can to debunk the date... Even if it has to be debunked unfairly..

I dont think many professors would even be willing to accept this. It would change everything!

hmmm, very interesting! I will have to keep an eye on this. If it is truly that old, it would predate alot of ancient mythology and timeframes of 'creation' and what not. Predating the ice age could mean we would be looking at (if you believe that sort of thing) the ruins of a pre-flood (Noah) civilization! That would be a first, no?

Something doesn't seem right, I would imagine this would have gotten into other news orgnaizations.

It would be very interesting if it were true, but I am getting a feeling it's going to turn out that they were looking at the pictures upside down and it's actually an old gas station

People belonging to the scientific community are generally some of the most stubborn people in the world. None of them wants to admit they are wrong. I remember hours of debating with my History professors about things like the age of the Sphinx, the development of civilization and language, etc. and rarely would they ever admit they were wrong even if I had substantial information to back up my claims. Sadly, the very people that are supposed to "discover" and keep an open but skeptical mind, are the most close minded people on Earth.

Esoterica,

Other news organizations are covering it already:

news.google.com...

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Esoterica,

Other news organizations are covering it already:

news.google.com...

That's just google reposting the A-J article, though. But it is exposure.

Most of those articles look like exact duplicates. And hopefully they'll soon provide something more than a guess-timate on the time period:

"It appears that scientists have come up with the 15,000-years estimate judging by the style of the engravings and the theme of the drawings,"

Originally posted by everlastingnoitall
15,000 years? Wouldn't that predate the Sumerian Civ? I wonder what the scientific community will do if they discover evidence of a developed language?

Yes, it would predate Sumerian civilization.

I assume you mean "written language" as humans had spoken language long before that! We would find it interesting, actually, since all the other civilizations of that period had pictographs and petroglyphs. Their images represent symbols and concepts, but not phonemes (the sounds that make up words.) As far as I know, the area has a lot of petroglyphs (stone engravings) but they're similar to other primitive petroglyphs and do not represent alphabets.

So written language would be very interesting. Our oldest alphabets are a mere 6,000 years old.

How would they go about Dateing something like that? I dont think Carbon Dateing is used in this kinda case!/ if this is real It would piss off alot of religious people!

Originally posted by PanzerDiv
How would they go about Dateing something like that? I dont think Carbon Dateing is used in this kinda case!/ if this is real It would piss off alot of religious people!

In the article, it is stated that the artwork was used as a basis. That's why I'm a bit skeptical, because artwork can be reproduced.

Comming up with a age estimate of 15,000 years by the style and theme of the drawings is flawed to say the least. Since there is now other engravings that old to match that up with.

I guess you could match them with cave paintings but still more proof is need to make such a claim. Im sure other scientists like look at those same carvings and say they are 2000 or 3000 years old.

Something seems odd about this anyways. I don't know how they would have other 15,000 year old art to compare this town's art with. Also, none of the news reports are commenting on how this may rewrite all the history books. I wouldn't hold my breath over this if I were you....

Originally posted by lockheed
Something seems odd about this anyways. I don't know how they would have other 15,000 year old art to compare this town's art with. Also, none of the news reports are commenting on how this may rewrite all the history books. I wouldn't hold my breath over this if I were you....

Maybe there's an error in translation. 15,000 years old with comparable artwork doesn't sound right at all.

Sheesh, guys... enough with the scientist bashing.

Look -- I'm an anthropologist and believe me, we're EXCITED. Not skeptical. The news release was followed on a number of reputable news sites.

It's exciting, but it is NOT TotallyCompletelyUnique.

"It appears that scientists have come up with the 15,000-years estimate judging by the style of the engravings and the theme of the drawings," Mustapha Ouachi, a Rabat-based Berber historian, told Reuters.

They had petroglyphs, indicating settlements in the area 15000 years ago -- and somewhat older. One of the sites I was visiting last week in the Mojave desert was dated to 11,000 years old. The Natufian people were living in Jerusalem at that time (www.danbyrnes.com.au...) From the Ukrane is a mammoth tusk with a map on it. We know that civilizations that produced the art in the Lascaux caves existed 25,000 - 35,000 years ago. And places where people lived in groups are even older than that.

I see a lot of assumptions about what you guys think we anthropologists and archaeologists know about civilization and cultures. If we're going to "deny ignorance," here, you really ought to do a little research on anthropology and archaeology and find out what we REALLY think.