this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 118 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I love how often "we have no idea how they did it!" and "they couldn't possibly do something this sophisticated!" turns into "we know how, when, where they got the materials and the name of the project foreman" when you just ask an archeologist.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Even when archaeologists don’t have that level of detail, they can still confidently tell you that people don’t really change. If we can imagine something now, they could most likely imagine the same thing a thousand years ago.

For example, you know what’s an incredibly common thing to find on a dig? Dildos. Phallic stuff is everywhere, and when you find a well-polished, life-sized clay dick, it’s pretty clear what it was used for. The Greeks had devices that were essentially computers that could predict celestial movements. Running water and indoor plumbing was relatively common in the ancient world.

We’re so egotistical to think that humans in the past were somehow incapable of thinking, planning, or building at our level. And we convince ourselves that we’re better than them because we have all this fancy stuff No, their brains were just as complex and capable, they just didn’t have access to the same kinds of tools that we do.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

For example, you know what’s an incredibly common thing to find on a dig? Dildos. Phallic stuff is everywhere, and when you find a well-polished, life-sized clay dick, it’s pretty clear what it was used for

I'm just going to imagine that they were using it to slap politicians in the face with dildos. Because something about roman senators getting slapped with a clay horsecock makes me laugh.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

clay horsecock

i now wonder how long the horsecock is best cock meme has been around for lmao.

God i fucking hate the internet sometimes...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

You know that they've found dicks scrawled on bathroom stalls in pompei, in basically the same style we still scrawl dicks on bathroom stalls.

Also, the your-mom jokes, yelp-esque reviews, and yelp-esque reviews of your mom.

Yeah. we've grown a lot as species. And also, haven't grown at all.

Also, the senator's name was Gregg Abotticus.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

humans are as humans do. Nothing will be as timeless as dick jokes and fucking someone elses mom.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

I love the ingenious solutions for ancient under floor heating.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Tbf a lot of things that people did by hand in the past would be unthinkable for a lot of modern people as to how to achieve it without CAD etc.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is so true, mostly because we are spoiled by growing up with modern tools. We are many generations of tools separated from our roots. Standing on the shoulders of giants and all that.

On the other hand, if an EMP took out the grid and CAD disappeared, you can be damn sure engineers amongst us would be bashing rocks together and figure a lot of it out pretty quickly.

We will brute force anything as a species if we need to, we just mostly don't need to at the moment, and time is money.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

i find it weird that people are latching onto the concept of it being like racist or xenophobic, and there's definitely room to discuss that about it. But i can't help but feel like we're talking about a dumbass with a netflix show, shouldn't we apply occam's razor here?

I feel like the obvious answer here is that bro is a dumbass, made up a conspiracy, and is using it to make money. Granted i also don't know much about his history, maybe he does a little racism in his spare time idk.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Graham Hancock is a racist grifter who definitely knows he's full of shit, is that what you mean?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

maybe? I don't know anything about graham hancock, is the racism accusation literally just coming from his ancient apocalypse shit or is this like a predefined established behavior of the dude?

He's definitely a grifter though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I feel like pointing at (subconscious) racism is compatible with Occam's razor

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

it could be, if they were just a well known racist or something, like i said i know nothing about this guy so that seems like a weird jump to make when the very obvious and clear answer is that it's for money.

Like in my mind, there's one of two things happening:

this is a really complex result of subtle/subconscious racism which is leading to him latching onto conspiracies specifically surrounding a thing that he is not educated in at all, and then lying and making shit up about it, to the point of literal conspiracy theories. While also simultaneously being able to make a netflix series on it, which likely pays him a good chunk of money.

OR

this is just a way for him to make money because he can't do science, and doesn't want to do anything else. (and also maybe some public perception, i assume he is somewhat well known previously though)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

@BertramDitore @Hegar
Running water and indoor plumbing was relatively common in the ancient world.

really ?
In 1920, only *** 1% of US homes** had indoor plumbing

https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2004/data/papers/SS04_Panel1_Paper17.pdf

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yeah, that has more to do with American social issues and lack of government support for the general population. Water engineering is expensive no matter where or when you are, and America is huuuge.

Plumbing was common in the ancient world in the Near East, Middle East, Mediterranean (Greece and Rome), and really wherever there were people. Keep in mind if you ask two different archaeologists, you'll get two slightly different answers, but it's pretty common knowledge that running water is not a modern invention.

Some sources (only a quick search, I don't have access to all the academic journals where you'd find the good stuff):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7004096/

https://ancientengrtech.wisc.edu/greece-overview/water-systems/

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/roman-aqueducts/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_technology

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1506/ <--this one is really cool, the Qanats are still fully functional today

Edit: fixed links

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My favourite example:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/aug/chinas-oldest-water-pipes-were-communal-effort

A system of ancient ceramic water pipes, the oldest ever unearthed in China, shows that neolithic people were capable of complex engineering feats without the need for a centralised state authority, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

this would be residential, if we're just talking "indoor plumbing" than i would assume it doesn't have to include residential spaces, and probably applies to things like public baths, and bathrooms/latrines or whatever for example.

[–] ICastFist 2 points 2 months ago

Running water and indoor plumbing was relatively common in the ancient world.

Mostly for the rich or other well off citizens, lower classes still had to walk to a local fountain or well to get water

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

People found the pyramid building manual quite recently. At the turn of the century, it was still a mystery.

Normal people don't keep up with stuff that recent.