Ancient History Ancient history is probably one of the most interesting things to study. Not only because it is ancient, but because there are a lot of mysteries attached to it. We are not able to explain everything we find and some of the things we come across seem impossible while others seem just so mysterious. One of the mysteries is an object which was found under the pyramid of Khafre in Egypt. Some believe it is only a sarcophagus, but there seems to be an incredible mystery attached to it. First of all, it was found empty but there is a lot more to the find than that. It is made from diorite, a very hard stone which many believe was too hard for the ancient Egyptians to work into a sarcophagus. Apparently, this is not true since the ancient Egyptians even worked with granite, which is of similar hardness. The big mystery is how did the sarcophagus get into the pyramid, there are no openings big enough and it is made from one piece. While experts struggle over this, I will say again what I think. I think it was brought into the pyramid while it was being built and was created while the pyramid was being built around it. I have been scoffed at for these types of ideas before. A member of the Great Pyramid Society never answered me about paintings inside one of the pyramids. The members were all scratching their heads because there was no light where the paintings were and no sign torches were ever used. I said these could have been painted while the roof was not yet up on that level. It just seemed so simple an explanation to me. Hey, the simplest explanation is usually the right one. The ancient Sumerians may have been one of the first civilizations, but this doesn’t mean they didn’t have large cities for their time. It is now believed they may have had a city with 80,000 residents. It is believed by the year 4,000 B.C. they may have had about a dozen city states. Their cities were believed to all be walled and contain a ziggurat structure. The ziggurat was a tiered structure which contained a temple. Some of their cities were Eridu, Ur, Nippur, Lagash, Kish and Uruk, which was believed to be the biggest. At one point it was believed Uruk was the biggest city in the world. There is a list which has become famous named the King list. It is believed some of the statements on the list are mythical such as the fact there is one king named which it claims lived over 43,000 years. One mysterious entry states a woman tavern keeper became one of the kings but doesn’t supply much information about it. The Sumerians were responsible for creating the 60 second minute and 60 minute hour. Archaeologists have recovered over 500,000 Sumerian tablets but the vast bulk have yet to be translated. This culture was not known about until the 19th century when it was discovered while looking for a different one. It does make one wonder if there are other forgotten cultures that existed maybe even before the Sumerians. We keep finding out the human race is older than we think. Would it be so unreasonable to think maybe there were ancient races who also lived in cities which we are unaware of or where we have given credit to the wrong races for the ruins? Speaking about things we might be wrong about or unaware of an archaeologist has said humans have been on the earth for millions of years. Why would he say something like this, where is the evidence? He claims it is right in front of us in the form of a land bridge. The archaeologist is the former director of the Geological Survey of India. He has come out and said humans were erecting sophisticated structures far longer than anyone thought. There is what looks like a land bridge or the remains of one which stretches between India and Sri Lanka. There is even a Hindu legend suggesting the bridge was built over one million years ago by King Rama, one of the Hindu gods. If we check back to its name in ancient times, we see it was called the King Rama bridge. The scientist was also the former coordinator of the survey division of the National Institute of Ocean Technology so even if we don’t agree with him, we have to respect his educated decision. What made the scientist think the bridge was man-made. It was the fact when they went out to the bridge and drilled holes into it, they found layers of sand stone under it along with coral and boulder type material as if it was placed under the bridge on purpose. He also found evidence of very ancient quarrying. There are some other scientists who agree with him but most do not. The western world is in a rage over the actions of Turkey. It seems that country wants to make things better for its citizens by building another electrical generating plant. This doesn’t sound so bad, does it? It wouldn’t be except for the fact the want to create an artificial lake and build a dam. Still not so bad? Here is what I like to call the kicker however, in order to do this, they have to flood a 12,000 year old city. This is driving not only archaeologists crazy but it is upsetting a lot of other people around the world. The city is Hasankeyf and it was built along the banks of the Tigris river. This city is one of the oldest human sites in the history of the world. One of the things people are finding very strange are the statues being found in one of Europe’s first cities which dates back 8,000 years. What makes then strange is the fact they have a fish like resemblance. Archaeologists don’t understand why these statues were created. The actual site where the city was located had been inhabited for more than 12,000 years. The city is located in Serbia. The area is known as Lepenski Vir. It has been said the statues are the oldest of their size ever found. Scientists have made several different guesses as to what the statues represent. One has said he thought they represent lost relatives while another said they might be images of river gods. No matter what they represent they are in fine condition for being so old. The site was of a large settlement which has ten smaller ones around it.
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