Lost Civilizations

Who occupied our world before this current civilization?
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Cousi
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Lost Civilizations

Post by Cousi » Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:56 pm

I've always been fascinated by civilizations that existed and left traces of themselves but there is little or no record of how and why they disappeared. My top 5 favorites:

Indus Valley
I was always taught that this was the biggie. This is the grandfather the OG of all civilizations. They had cities. They had written language. They were the origin of the very concept of religion (and one of the first religious symbols; the swastika). Then after close to 1,000 years they faded away. No one really knows why. There are a lot of theories, but all can be disputed in one way or another.

Khmer Empire
Also known as the Angkor Empire. This is the civilization that the Khmer Rouge stylized themselves as the next iteration of. They built some amazing temples and structures that continue to awe and amaze people today. Some of their feats of engineering are questionable as to how they accomplished it. They started around the 9th century but by the 14th they were collapsing and gone by the 15th. We understand more about why these guys disappeared though.

Clovis Culture
Probably the oldest culture on here. The distinctive stone-napped points of these folks have been found from the American southwest up to the coastal northeast. No one really knows much about them; where they came from or why they disappeared. Were they responsible for the extinction of the Woolly Mammoth? Were they killed by a meteor? Theories exist but nothing definitive.

Olmecs
There's about a 2,500 year gap between the Clovis people and the Olmecs. These guys are the precursors of the Mayans and the Aztecs. They invented that ball game that most people associate with the Mayans. They are most known because of the colossal heads, jadeite masks and statues they've left all over the place that look both African and Asian. Bearing Straight theory my ass. Again, not sure what caused these guys to fall into myth and legend.

Minoan
The original bull riders. In more ways than one according to some legends. Were they the origin of the stories of Atlantis? Were they the civilization that preceded the Greeks? Was it the eruption of Santorini that did them in or an invasion? We truly do not know.

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n11pilot
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by n11pilot » Wed Aug 15, 2018 5:45 pm

I would like to recommend an addition to Cousi's very good list of lost civilizations. My humble contribution would be the Anasazi, the ancient pueblo builders who had a rather complex civilization centered around the "Four Corners" area of the American South West. This area consisting of adjoining sections of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado is home to such archaeological treasures as the Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde, White house ruins and Puebla Bonita both near Chaco Canyon.

The Pueblo ruins are multi storied structures perched high in areas accessible only by ladder or climbing rope. Interestingly there are some foot/hand holds cut into the cliff faces in places but these are keyed. By that I mean a person has to know on which foot to start the climb or they will reach a place high off the ground where they can proceed neither up nor retreat back down and will stay there until their strength fails and they fall to the ground. Obviously a passive defensive measure but one that would give many pause.

The Anasazi either disappeared or at least abandoned their complex pueblo some time in the 12TH Century BC.

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Cousi
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by Cousi » Thu Aug 16, 2018 3:39 pm

Excellent addition! I've been fascinated by the Anasazi for years and can't believe I forgot them.

As an aside, I'd been told some time ago that the four corners area had a spiritual element to it. I went there last year and have to say that I didn't pick up on that at all. I felt literally nothing noteworthy. I have felt things elsewhere; certain places in Moab, parts of the forests in New England, a couple of places in Butte and several other places on various travels. Did I miss out on something?

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n11pilot
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by n11pilot » Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:40 pm

When I visited the Cliff Palace I didn't feel anything unearthly only a sense of awe at the fantastic structures. I have been other places, as you have said, that gave me strange sensations. Probably the strongest was in the Superstition Mountains.

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Cousi
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by Cousi » Sat Aug 18, 2018 3:34 am

I do plan on going to the Superstition Mountains, but not until after the Grand Canyon.

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n11pilot
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by n11pilot » Tue Aug 21, 2018 5:31 pm

Cousi wrote:
Sat Aug 18, 2018 3:34 am
I do plan on going to the Superstition Mountains, but not until after the Grand Canyon.

The Superstition Mountains are probable one of the strangest places I have ever visited. If you stay long enough you will see, hear, and for lack of a better term, feel things that aren't easily explained.

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Cousi
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by Cousi » Wed Aug 22, 2018 1:41 pm

I've been plenty of places and witnessed things with more than the five senses. There are places of light and dark on this Earth, places of power and serenity. Some are that way because of things we humans have done and some are beyond our understanding. Those experiences reaffirm my faith and expand my understanding of this amazing world we live in.

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Blackthorn
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by Blackthorn » Wed Aug 22, 2018 5:09 pm

n11pilot wrote:
Tue Aug 21, 2018 5:31 pm
Cousi wrote:
Sat Aug 18, 2018 3:34 am
I do plan on going to the Superstition Mountains, but not until after the Grand Canyon.

The Superstition Mountains are probable one of the strangest places I have ever visited. If you stay long enough you will see, hear, and for lack of a better term, feel things that aren't easily explained.
That's fascinating. I've seen them from a distance but never actually been in them.
The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything….Albert Einstein

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n11pilot
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by n11pilot » Wed Aug 22, 2018 9:40 pm

I visited them quite a few years ago when I was stationed at FT Huachuca for AIT. We had a very long weekend for some reason so we decided to go camping and a local troop suggested the Superstition Mountains. We camped out for two nights and heard very strange noises, nothing that I can readily identify. At night we saw lights moving between canyon walls that seemed to have no origin. The strangest thing though was the feeling that you were always being watched. I've made this analogy before but it is similar to when you are sitting at a traffic light and feel like you are being watched and you look over and the person in the car next to you is staring at you.

I had felt this from the time we left the park trail and went into land that had not yet been acquired by the Park Service. I didn't mention it to anyone but the feeling was so strong that I kept checking the area around for signs of observers and saw nothing. No one was sky lined, no tell tale flashes of binoculars or telescope, nothing. Later on the drive back to FT Huachuca one of the other guys mentioned that he had the feeling that he was being watched and one by one we all admitted the same thing.

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Cousi
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Re: Lost Civilizations

Post by Cousi » Thu Aug 23, 2018 1:17 pm

Maybe I should start a thread about unexplained experiences.

There was a place near where I grew up in the woods of New England. It was behind this old man's house. The house burned down, killing the old man when I was around nine or ten. A couple/few years later, my friends and I were poking around the remains out of curiosity. We found a clearing behind the house, off a little game trail. The game trail itself didn't enter the clearing, which weird in itself but we didn't think it at the time. We wandered into the clearing, which consisted of a small hill. All of us had an uneasy feeling but being boys between the ages of eleven and fourteen, we all pretended it didn't bother us. After we left, we all played up our feelings to make ourselves seem more brave. That ended up in a challenge to visit the place again at midnight. For various reasons, the night we selected was two days later.

We all told our parents we were going camping and where. To our credit, we actually did that. But around eleven thirty we all got on our bikes and headed over to the burned-down house. Finding the game trail at night was easy, the moon was bright enough to light our way even though it wasn't full. Bright moonlight illuminated the clearing and we'd all stopped talking, our bravado stolen from us by the distinct feeling of being unwelcome. We stood on the outskirts of the clearing and we were uncharacteristically silent. The only sound we heard were insects; no frogs, no wind, nothing else. After an indeterminate amount of time, nudging and whispered accusations of being wimps and cowards, I stepped into the clearing. Someone came with me, I think it was my brother but honestly I have no clear recollection.

Standing there, I felt like I'd aged fifty years or more. All my joints ached, my vision alternated between blurry and clear and there was this horrible buzzing in my ear. It wasn't the buzzing of insects, although it was similar. It got increasingly louder, to the point of downing out everything else. I became aware of the other three boys having stepped into the clearing as well. My palms got sweaty and I was overcome with a feeling of animosity. Anger, hate, resentment, jealousy and other emotions I commonly think of as negative overwhelmed me but I felt like they were imposed from outside. Then things started to get dark. Visually. It wasn't a 'clouds covering the moon' sort of dark, either; it was darkness starting at the edges of my vision and growing toward the center. Someone screamed, it may have been me but I don't really know. That was enough for us to get going and go we did. We ended up back at the campsite but none of us slept. We never spoke about it again, but we always referred to that area afterwards as Spooktown.

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