Deep in the Atlantic Ocean, scientists have discovered a haunting undersea world that may hold the blueprint for how life began on Earth.

This vast field of mineral towers, called the Lost City, is the oldest known hydrothermal system in the ocean. Scientists believe its extreme conditions mirror the early Earth, offering clues to how the first life forms might have emerged.

The Lost City Hydrothermal Field lie more than 2,300 feet beneath the surface, on the slopes of an underwater mountain in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a massive underwater mountain range that runs through the Atlantic Ocean. It marks the boundary between tectonic plates and is a hotspot for geological activity.

Researchers estimate the Lost City has existed for over 120,000 years, making it the longest-living hydrothermal vent field ever discovered.

In a recent breakthrough, scientists successfully recovered a core sample of mantle rock from the site. This rock is the deep Earth source that fuels the vent system. 

The core sample could help scientists better understand the chemical reactions happening beneath the seafloor, reactions that produce hydrocarbons in the absence of sunlight or oxygen, serving as food for marine life.

These same reactions may have played a role in the origin of life on Earth billions of years ago. 

The Lost City is made up of towering spires of carbonate rock, formed by chemical reactions between seawater and hot rock from beneath the seafloor

The Lost City is made up of towering spires of carbonate rock, some nearly 200 feet tall, formed by a unique geological reaction called serpentinization, where seawater interacts with mantle rock deep below the seafloor.

These reactions release methane and hydrogen gas, which fuel microbial life that survives without sunlight or oxygen, something rarely seen on Earth.

The site is located approximately nine miles west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge axis, just south of the Azores islands. 

Its isolated position means it has remained undisturbed by human activity for thousands of years, preserving an ecosystem that offers a window into Earth’s earliest conditions.

Each hydrothermal vent, nicknamed IMAX, Poseidon, Seeps, and Nature emits warm, alkaline fluids. These create a stable environment for life in one of the most extreme corners of the planet.

Now, with renewed global attention, scientists believe the Lost City may help explain how life first formed from non-living matter, an unsolved mystery in biology. 

The site is located approximately 15 kilometers (about nine miles) west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge axis, just south of the Azores. Its remote position places it far from human interference.

Unlike most hydrothermal systems powered by volcanic heat, the Lost City is powered by chemical energy from the Earth's mantle, giving it a distinct structure and chemistry.

Inside its towering chimneys, fluids reach up to 194 Fahrenheit, not boiling, but hot enough to fuel chemicals reactions. 

These vents produce hydrocarbons, organic compounds made from carbon and hydrogen, which are considered the building blocks of life.

The site is special because its hydrocarbons form through deep Earth chemical reactions, not sunlight or photosynthesis. This makes the Lost City a rare second example of how life could begin.

Microbes inside these chimneys live in total darkness, with no oxygen, using methane and hydrogen as their only fuel. 

On the outer surfaces, rare animals like shrimp, snails, sea urchins, and eels cling to the mineral-rich structures.

Larger animals are uncommon here likely because the energy supply is limited. Unlike surface ecosystems, there's no sunlight or abundant food chain, only chemical nutrients trickling out of the vents.

Microbiologist William Brazelton told Smithsonian Magazine: “This is an example of a type of ecosystem that could be active on Enceladus or Europa right this second.” 

While the Lost City itself lacks mineable materials, nearby regions could be targeted for future deep-sea mining operations.

These are moons of Saturn and Jupiter, which have oceans beneath icy crusts, raising the hope that similar life could exist beyond Earth.

Some spires have grown to 60 meters tall over tens of thousands of years. 

Scientists say they act like natural laboratories, showing how life might arise in environments without sun, plants, or animals.

In 2017, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) gave the Polish government a 15-year exploration license for an area of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which includes territory surrounding the Lost City.

Though Lost City itself lacks valuable minerals, nearby vent fields may contain polymetallic sulfides, a target for future deep-sea mining. That’s where the threat comes in.

Mining operations near hydrothermal vents can stir up sediment plumes, releasing toxic chemicals or particles that drift through the water column and harm nearby ecosystems, even if the site itself isn’t directly touched.

The Convention on Biological Diversity has already designated Lost City as an Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area (EBSA), based on its uniqueness, biodiversity, and scientific value.

Being listed as an EBSA gives scientists leverage to argue for protective measures, though it carries no binding legal protection. Meanwhile, UNESCO is reviewing the site for World Heritage status, which could offer stronger international backing against mining and disturbance.

Scientists argue this is urgently needed. Once disturbed, such systems may never recover, and we could lose a living example of how life began.

27-06-2025 om 22:53 geschreven door peter  

LiDAR Reveals Vast Ancient Maya Structures Hidden Beneath the Forest

by Justin Gurkinic

Archaeologists have found evidence of ancient Maya cultivation fields under the wetlands of southern Mexico, which suggests that they grew a surplus of food, practicing a sophisticated market economy in ancient times. The ancient Mayan civilization extended through parts of Mesoamerica, encompassing Mexico and Central America.

Maya structures are hidden beneath the forest

The oldest evidence of Mayan civilization dates to around 1800 BC, but most cities flourished between 250 and 900 AD. When Spanish Conquistadores arrived in the 1500s, some larger cities were abandoned or destroyed. Nicholas Dunning, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, was part of a research team that found evidence of cultivation in irregularly shaped fields in Mexico that followed the paths of canals and natural water channels in Laguna de Terminos, the Gulf of Mexico.

Archaeologists hope to find evidence of a human population when the excavations began. Extensive farmland suggests that the ancient Maya grew a surplus of crops, especially cotton for the renowned textiles marketed throughout Mesoamerica. “It was a much more complex market economy than the Maya are often given credit for,” Dunning revealed in a statement.

Satellite images revealed a patchwork quilt of blocks along drainage ditches, suggesting they had been constructed in ancient times. The archaeologist also studied the images NASA took of the region using LIDAR technology, which can represent the contours of the soil beneath the canopy of trees and vegetation. “That’s the magic of LIDAR,” UC assistant research professor Christopher Carr said.

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What LiDAR can see

IMAGE SLIDER: University of Cincinnati researchers used satellite images (left) and Lidar images (right) to identify and confirm the locations of manmade structures such as ancient building foundations, irrigation canals, and farm fields in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Graphic/ University of Cincinnati Geography.

A site that remained largely unknown

This analysis confirmed Dunning’s suspicions: the area was covered by ancient crop fields. The site remained unknown to researchers until seven years ago when the locals contacted archeologists about the site. “A forester working in the area said there seemed to be a network of ancient fields,” Dunning said.

“I looked on Google Earth and was like, ‘Whoa!’ It was an area in the Maya Lowlands that I’d never paid any attention to. And obviously, not a lot of other people had, either, from the perspective of looking at ancient agriculture.” LiDAR technology offers scientists a never-before-seen picture of the Earth’s surface, even after centuries of jungle growth hides the remains of ancient structures.

“It appears they developed fairly simply from modifications of existing drainage along the eastern edge of the wetlands,” Dunning said. “They probably deepened and straightened some channels or connected them in places, but then further expanded the fields with more sophisticated hydro-engineering.”

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{ https://curiosmos.com/category/ancient-civilizations/ }

26-06-2025 om 23:35 geschreven door peter  

Tien redenen waarom een geavanceerde “Atlantis-achtige” moederbeschaving in het verre verleden mogelijk heeft bestaan

Het interieur van een oud Egyptisch tempel.

Shutterstock.

Inleiding

Het idee dat een geavanceerde, complexe beschaving ooit heeft bestaan vóór de bekende beschavingen uit de geschiedenis, zoals die van de oude Egyptenaren, Mesopotamiërs of de Indusvallei, wordt vaak geassocieerd met de mythe van Atlantis. Hoewel er geen definitieve archeologische bewijzen zijn voor het bestaan van Atlantis zoals beschreven door Plato, zijn er verschillende wetenschappelijke, geologische en archeologische argumenten die suggereren dat een hoogontwikkelde beschaving in het verre verleden mogelijk was. In dit artikel worden tien wetenschappelijk onderbouwde redenen besproken waarom een dergelijke “Atlantis-achtige” moederbeschaving mogelijk heeft bestaan.

1. Geologische bewijsvoering voor vroegere geavanceerde beschavingen

Geologische bewijzen suggereren dat er in het verleden geavanceerde beschavingen hebben bestaan die nu onder water liggen. Onderzoek naar oude landmassas en onderwaterstructuren wijst uit dat gebieden zoals de Azoren en de Bermuda-driehoek ooit droge, bewoonbare terreinen waren. De anomalieën in deze regio’s, zoals onderwaterconstructies en restanten van oude steden, kunnen wijzen op door mensen gemaakte bouwwerken uit een ver verleden. Sedimentlagen en tektonische verschuivingen tonen aan dat grote stukken land door natuurlijke rampen zoals tsunami’s, aardbevingen en zeespiegelstijgingen onder water zijn gezakt. Hierdoor zijn mogelijk hele beschavingen verloren gegaan, ingesloten door de zee en vergeten door de geschiedenis. Deze geologische aanwijzingen ondersteunen de hypothese dat er ooit hoogontwikkelde samenlevingen bestonden die nu slechts onder de zeespiegel liggen. Het bestuderen van deze bewijzen kan ons helpen meer te begrijpen over de technologische en culturele verwezenlijkingen van onze voorouders en de manier waarop natuurkrachten de geschiedenis hebben beïnvloed. Zo bieden geologische gegevens een fascinerend venster op een mogelijk veel rijkere en complexere menselijke geschiedenis dan tot nu toe werd aangenomen.

2. Archeologische anomalieën en onderwaterstructuren

Onderwaterarcheologie heeft de laatste decennia enkele opvallende en intrigerende ontdekkingen gedaan die de gangbare opvattingen over onze oude geschiedenis uitdagen. Een van de meest bekende en omstreden voorbeelden is de onderwaterstructuur bij Yonaguni, een eiland ten zuiden van Japan. Deze structuur bestaat uit grote, trapvormige rotsformaties en piramidale vormen die lijken op menselijke bouwwerken. Sommige onderzoekers geloven dat deze structuren resten zijn van een oude stad of een door de mens gemaakte constructie, terwijl anderen denken dat ze natuurlijk ontstaan zijn door natuurlijke erosie en geologische processen.

De controversie rondom Yonaguni is nog altijd niet opgelost. Indien de structuren inderdaad door mensen zijn aangelegd, betekent dit dat er mogelijk een oude, geavanceerde beschaving bestond die duizenden jaren geleden in de regio actief was. Dit zou de bestaande kennis over de geschiedenis van menselijke beschavingen aanzienlijk veranderen, omdat het zou wijzen op een hoge mate van technische en architectonische ontwikkeling in een periode waarin we dat niet verwachtten. Sommige wetenschappers speculeren dat deze onderwaterstructuren mogelijk verband houden met vroegere migraties of verloren beschavingen die door natuurrampen onder water zijn gekomen.

Naast Yonaguni zijn er ook andere onderwaterstructuren en anomalieën die de nieuwsgierigheid van archeologen en onderzoekers prikkelen. Onderzoek naar deze structuren wordt bemoeilijkt door de moeilijke duikomstandigheden en de voortdurende discussie over hun oorsprong. Of ze nu natuurlijk of door de mens gemaakt zijn, ze vormen een fascinerend venster op een mogelijk vergeten hoofdstuk uit de menselijke geschiedenis. Het bestuderen van dergelijke onderwaterstructuren kan ons nieuwe inzichten geven over de evolutie van menselijke samenlevingen en de mysteries van onze oude wereld.

3. Oudere technische kennis en mythologische overleveringen

Veel oude culturen beschikken over mythologische verhalen en overleveringen die spreken over een “gouden tijd” of een verloren beschaving met geavanceerde technologische kennis. Deze verhalen worden vaak beschouwd als symbolische herinneringen aan een periode waarin de mensheid grote technische prestaties leverde, waarvan de ware aard soms moeilijk te doorgronden is. Een voorbeeld hiervan is de oude Indusbeschaving, die bloeide rond 2500 v.Chr. in het huidige Pakistan en India. Deze beschaving stond bekend om haar indrukwekkende stadsplanning, met grid-achtige straten, geavanceerde sanitaire systemen en waterbeheer. De uitgebreide drainage en rioleringen getuigen van een hoog niveau van technische kennis en organisatievermogen, lang voordat dergelijke systemen in Europa gebruikelijk waren.

Daarnaast bevat het oude Egypte en Mesopotamië schriftteksten en overleveringen die wijzen op kennis van constructietechnieken, astronomische observaties en mogelijk zelfs mechanische apparaten. De bouw van tempels, piramides en sluizen vereiste geavanceerde kennis van bouwkunde en hydrauliek. De astronomische gegevens die in de oude Mesopotamische kleitabletten worden vermeld, suggereren dat deze beschaving een lange geschiedenis van technische ontwikkeling en wetenschap had, waarvan veel aspecten verloren zijn gegaan in de loop der eeuwen.

Deze mythologische en historische verhalen geven ons inzicht in de veronderstelde technologische hoogstandjes van oude beschavingen. Hoewel het moeilijk is om precies vast te stellen wat er werkelijk was, blijven deze overleveringen een fascinerend venster op een mogelijk vergeten verleden. Ze laten zien dat de mensheid al duizenden jaren bezig is met het ontwikkelen van technieken en kennis die soms ver vooruit lijken te lopen op de beschikbare middelen van toen. Het bestuderen van deze oude kennis en mythes kan ons helpen om een vollediger beeld te krijgen van de technologische geschiedenis van de mensheid.

Een afbeelding van een van de stenen zuilen op de site.

Shutterstock.

4. De mysterieuze aard van oude monumenten en constructies

De mysterieuze aard van oude monumenten en constructies fascineert mensen al eeuwenlang. Veel van deze structuren, zoals de piramides van Gizeh in Egypte, de tempels van Angkor Wat in Cambodja en megalithische bouwwerken in Europa en Amerika, vertonen een verbazingwekkende technische en astronomische precisie. Deze precisie is vaak moeilijk te verklaren met de technologie die men toentertijd tot beschikking had.

De piramides van Gizeh bijvoorbeeld, zijn zo nauwkeurig uitgelijnd dat ze bijna perfect in relatie tot de kaart van sterrenbeelden zijn geplaatst. Evenzo vertonen de bouwtechnieken in Angkor Wat een indrukwekkende mate van precisie en complexiteit, die verder gaat dan wat men zou verwachten van de beschikbare middelen uit die periode. Megalithische structuren zoals Stonehenge en de Nazca-lijnen in Peru lijken eveneens te wijzen op een diepgaande kennis van astronomie en geometrie.

Sommige onderzoekers zijn van mening dat deze monumenten niet slechts het resultaat zijn van eenvoudige bouwtechnieken, maar dat ze getuigen van een verloren kennis of technologie. Volgens deze theorieën zouden oude beschavingen beschikken over geavanceerde technieken die nu verloren zijn gegaan of ondergesneeuwd door de tijd. Deze ideeën worden ondersteund door de gedachte dat dergelijke precisie en complexiteit niet mogelijk waren met de primitieve hulpmiddelen uit die tijd.

Daarnaast is er de theorie dat deze monumenten mogelijk verbonden zijn met oude kennis over sterren, tijdmeting en kosmologische verschijnselen, die door de eeuwen heen verloren is gegaan. Het blijft een fascinerende vraag of deze structuren het resultaat zijn van eenvoudige menselijke inspanning, of dat ze wijzen op een hoger ontwikkelde oude beschaving met technologische kennis die wij nu slechts kunnen vermoeden. De zoektocht naar antwoorden blijft voortduren, waardoor oude monumenten een blijvende bron van mysterie en verwondering blijven

5. De plausibiliteit van een wereldwijde verspreiding van geavanceerde kennis

De plausibiliteit van een wereldwijde verspreiding van geavanceerde kennis is een intrigerend onderwerp dat al eeuwen de verbeelding van wetenschappers, historici en mystici beweegt. Het feit dat vergelijkbare mythes, bouwtechnieken en symboliek voorkomen in oude culturen die geografisch ver uiteen liggen, roept de vraag op of er ooit een gedeeld verleden of een universele bron van kennis bestaan heeft.

Veel oude beschavingen, zoals die van Egypte, Meso-Amerika, China en Mesopotamië, vertonen opvallende overeenkomsten in architectuur en astronomische kennis. De piramidevorm bijvoorbeeld, wordt niet alleen in Egypte gevonden, maar ook in Midden-Amerika, zoals bij de Maya en Azteken. Daarnaast vertonen deze culturen een indrukwekkend begrip van sterrenkunde, daterend uit periodes waarin men niet beschikte over de moderne technologie die wij nu kennen. Dit roept de vraag op of deze overeenkomsten het resultaat zijn van geïsoleerde ontwikkeling of van een gedeelde, mogelijk verloren gegane, kennis.

Een plausibele verklaring voor deze fenomenen is de hypothese van een ooit wereldwijde, geavanceerde beschaving die haar kennis over grote afstanden heeft verspreid. Volgens deze theorieën zou deze beschaving over technologische en culturele kennis beschikken gehad die wij nu niet meer volledig kunnen begrijpen of terugvinden. Het ontbreken van directe bewijzen maakt deze ideeën echter moeilijk te verifiëren. Toch blijft het fenomeen van wereldwijde overeenkomsten een fascinerend vraagstuk dat mogelijk wijst op een vergeten hoofdstuk in de geschiedenis van de mensheid.

Kortom, de plausibiliteit van een wereldwijde verspreiding van geavanceerde kennis kan niet volledig worden uitgesloten, maar vraagt om een open blik en verdere wetenschappelijke studie. Het blijft een intrigerende mogelijkheid dat onze oude voorouders deel uitmaakten van een wereldwijde gemeenschap met gedeelde technologische en culturele erfenis, waarvan de sporen misschien nog verborgen liggen onder het stof van de geschiedenis.

6. De mogelijkheid van catastrofale gebeurtenissen die beschavingen vernietigden

De mogelijkheid van catastrofale gebeurtenissen die beschavingen vernietigden, is een belangrijk onderwerp binnen de wetenschappelijke wereld. Onderzoek wijst uit dat de aarde door haar geschiedenis heen verschillende grote rampen heeft gekend, die mogelijk grote invloed hebben gehad op de menselijke beschavingen. Voorbeelden hiervan zijn massale uitbarstingen van supervulkanen, inslagen van meteorieten en ingrijpende zeespiegelstijgingen. Deze gebeurtenissen kunnen hele beschavingen hebben weggevaagd of ingrijpend veranderd, waardoor de menselijke geschiedenis mogelijk veel complexer is dan tot nu toe gedacht.

Een bekend voorbeeld is de hypothese dat de Toba-uitbarsting, ongeveer 74.000 jaar geleden, een wereldwijde klimaatverandering veroorzaakte. Deze uitbarsting was zo krachtig dat het mogelijk de aarde in een "volledige winter" dompelde, met als gevolg dat grote groepen mensen werden uitgedund. Sommige wetenschappers vermoeden dat zulke catastrofale gebeurtenissen niet alleen het klimaat, maar ook de ontwikkeling van beschavingen konden beïnvloeden. Het is mogelijk dat er ooit geavanceerde beschavingen bestonden die door een dergelijke ramp werden getroffen, waardoor hun kennis en technologie verloren gingen.

Dit verklaart mogelijk waarom we geen archeologische resten aantreffen van zulke oude beschavingen, ondanks dat ze mogelijk honderden of duizenden jaren geleden hebben bestaan. De vernietiging door natuurrampen kan hebben geleid tot het verlies van schrift, technologie en culturele overleveringen, waardoor deze beschavingen voor altijd uit het zicht zijn verdwenen. Het bestuderen van deze gebeurtenissen helpt ons niet alleen om het verleden beter te begrijpen, maar ook om te beseffen hoe kwetsbaar onze beschaving is voor natuurlijke rampen. Het onderstreept het belang van het voorbereiden op mogelijke toekomstige catastrofes en het beschermen van onze kennis en infrastructuur.

7..De aanwezigheid van anomalieën in oude kunst en symboliek

De aanwezigheid van anomalieën in oude kunst en symboliek is een fascinerend onderwerp dat veel vragen oproept over onze geschiedenis en de beschavingen die vóór ons hebben geleefd. Veel oude kunstwerken bevatten astronomische en wiskundige symbolen die moeilijk te verklaren zijn als louter artistieke expressie. Deze symbolen lijken vaak een dieper begrip van het universum te suggereren dat verder gaat dan de technologische kennis van de tijd waarin ze werden gemaakt.

Een voorbeeld hiervan zijn de oude Maya-kalenders. Deze complexe tijdweergaves bevatten niet alleen gegevens over de tijdlijn van de Maya's, maar ook symbolen en geometrische patronen die wijzen op een diepgaande kennis van astronomische verschijnselen zoals de banen van planeten en de beweging van de zon en maan. De precisie en complexiteit van deze kalenders suggereren dat de Maya's beschikten over geavanceerde astronomische inzichten, die mogelijk gebaseerd waren op observaties en theorieën die wij pas recent hebben ontwikkeld.

Daarnaast zijn er duizenden jaren oude rotsgravures gevonden in Zuid-Afrika en Australië, met complexe geometrische patronen en astronomische schema’s. Deze kunstwerken en inscripties vertonen patronen die niet gemakkelijk te verklaren zijn door eenvoudige religieuze of artistieke motieven. Sommige onderzoekers geloven dat deze symbolen een vorm van wetenschap of kennis uitdrukken, zoals het meten van tijd, sterrenbeelden of zelfs kosmologische ideeën.

Als deze symbolen en kennis het resultaat zijn van een oude, hoogontwikkelde beschaving, dan onderstrepen ze de mogelijkheid dat dergelijke beschavingen ooit hebben bestaan, lang voordat wij ze denken te hebben ontdekt. Het feit dat deze oude kunstwerken zo’n complexiteit en precisie vertonen, roept vragen op over de technische en intellectuele capaciteiten van onze voorouders. Het zou kunnen betekenen dat onze geschiedenis niet volledig bekend is en dat er nog veel te ontdekken valt over de evolutie van menselijke kennis en cultuur. Deze anomalieën in oude kunst en symboliek blijven een intrigerend bewijs dat er mogelijk oude beschavingen waren met een verbazingwekkend begrip van de kosmos.

Een oude Inca-muur in de stad Machu Picchu.

Shutterstock.

8. Technologische overblijfselen en artefacten die niet passen in de tijdsperiode

Een andere belangrijke aanwijzing dat er mogelijk een geavanceerde moederbeschaving heeft bestaan, zijn technologische overblijfselen en artefacten die niet passen in de bekende historische ontwikkeling. Deze vondsten roepen veel vragen op omdat ze niet overeenkomen met de technologie die we kennen uit de betreffende periode.

Een bekend voorbeeld hiervan is de Antikythera-motor, een oud Grieks mechanisme dat dateert uit ongeveer 100 v.Chr.. Dit apparaat wordt vaak beschouwd als het oudste analoge computer en was in staat complexe astronomische berekeningen uit te voeren, zoals het voorspellen van zonne- en maansverduisteringen. Het feit dat oude beschavingen zulke geavanceerde technologie ontwikkelden, suggereert dat hun kennisniveau mogelijk veel hoger was dan tot nu toe werd aangenomen. Sommige onderzoekers geloven dat soortgelijke machines of zelfs nog complexere apparaten in het verleden hebben bestaan, maar verloren zijn gegaan of nog niet ontdekt.

Daarnaast worden er soms vreemde structuren en objecten gevonden die niet eenvoudig kunnen worden verklaard door de technologie die beschikbaar was in de tijd waarin ze gemaakt zouden zijn. Bijvoorbeeld, de mysterieuze piramides in onder andere Zuid-Amerika en Egypte, waarvan sommige onderzoekers suggereren dat ze mogelijk met technieken zijn gebouwd die wij nu niet kennen. Ook ondergrondse constructies en tunnels die op onverklaarbare manieren zijn aangelegd, roepen vragen op over de technologische kennis die daar mogelijk achter schuilgaat.

Verder worden soms artefacten gevonden die niet passen binnen de historische context, zoals stukken gereedschap of kunstwerken met technieken die veel te geavanceerd zijn voor de periode waarin ze zouden zijn gemaakt. Deze vondsten leiden tot de hypothese dat er misschien verloren technologische kennis is, of dat de beschavingen die ze maakten, een veel hoger technologische niveau hadden dan wij nu aannemen.

Kortom, deze technologische overblijfselen en artefacten vormen een intriger bewijs dat er mogelijk geavanceerdere beschavingen in het verleden hebben bestaan dan de gangbare geschiedschrijving suggereert. Ze stimuleren het onderzoek naar onze vergeten geschiedenis en de mogelijkheid dat onze kennis van het verleden nog altijd incompleet is.

9. Mythologie en legendes die verwijzen naar verloren werelden

Veel oude mythologieën en legendes verwijzen naar verloren werelden, ondergrondse rijken of periodes van grote technologische en spirituele bloei die plotseling werden beëindigd. Een bekend voorbeeld is de Griekse mythe van Atlantis. Volgens de legende was Atlantis een uiterst geavanceerde beschaving die zich bevond op een eiland dat door een grote catastrofe onder de zee verdween. De verhalen vertellen dat de Atlantiërs een hoogstaande cultuur hadden met indrukwekkende technologieën en spirituele kennis, totdat een plotselinge ramp alles verwoestte. Hoewel er geen concreet wetenschappelijk bewijs is voor het bestaan van Atlantis, worden deze verhalen vaak geïnterpreteerd als symbolische herinneringen aan een verloren technologische en culturele hoogtijdagen.

Ook in de oude Egyptische mythologie worden verhalen verteld over beschavingen die door rampen werden getroffen. Bijvoorbeeld, de legende van de ondergang van de stad Helipolis, die volgens sommige bronnen door overstromingen werd verzwolgen. De Indusbeschaving, die bloeide rond 2500 v.Chr., verdween plotseling onder mysterieuze omstandigheden, wat aanleiding gaf tot speculaties over natuurrampen of invasies. In Noord-Amerika spreken inheemse volkeren over een tijd van grote spirituele en technologische bloei, gevolgd door een periode van ondergang en vergetelheid, waarbij sommige verhalen wijzen op catastrofale gebeurtenissen of veranderingen in het klimaat.

Deze verhalen over verloren werelden hebben vaak een symbolisch karakter. Ze kunnen verwijzen naar echte gebeurtenissen uit het verleden, zoals natuurrampen of oorlogen, die de beschavingen hebben uitgewist. Tegelijkertijd kunnen ze ook een collectief geheugen zijn van een hoogtepunt in menselijke ontwikkeling dat verloren ging. Het feit dat dergelijke verhalen wereldwijd voorkomen, suggereert dat veel culturen zich een herinnering hebben gehouden aan een ooit geavanceerde beschaving die uiteindelijk ten onder ging.

Kortom, mythologieën en legendes over verloren werelden bieden niet alleen een fascinerend inkijkje in de culturele verbeelding, maar kunnen ook wijzen op een gedeeld bewustzijn van een gemeenschappelijk verleden. Ze blijven intrigeren omdat ze misschien een sprankje waarheid bevatten over een tijdperk van grote technologische en spirituele ontwikkeling dat uiteindelijk werd overschaduwd door natuurrampen, oorlogen of andere catastrofale gebeurtenissen.

10. Geografische anomalieën en ondergrondse structuren

Geografische anomalieën en ondergrondse structuren vormen een fascinerend onderwerp dat onze kennis over de menselijke geschiedenis uitdaagt. Verschillende locaties over de hele wereld tonen structuren en verschijnselen die moeilijk te verklaren zijn binnen het reguliere archeologische paradigma. Een opvallend voorbeeld is de aanwezigheid van onderwaterstructuren nabij de kust van Cuba en de Bahama’s. Deze structuren worden vaak geïnterpreteerd als resten van oude landmassa’s of door de oceaan bedekte steden. Sommige onderzoekers suggereren dat deze onderwaterstructuren de bewijzen kunnen zijn van hoger ontwikkelde beschavingen die duizenden jaren geleden op deze plaatsen gevestigd waren. Bijvoorbeeld, onderwaterfoto’s en sonarbeelden tonen vaak complexe bouwwerken die niet passen binnen de bekende prehistorische technologieën.

Daarnaast worden ondergrondse netwerken en gangen gevonden onder bekende oude steden, zoals Göbekli Tepe in Turkije. Deze ondergrondse systemen wijzen op een complex en mogelijk georganiseerd ondergronds bouwwerk. Sommige theorieën veronderstellen dat deze ondergrondse netwerken deel uitmaakten van een groter, wereldomspannend netwerk dat dient als communicatiesysteem of als schuilplaats. Het feit dat dergelijke structuren vaak moeilijk te dateren zijn en dat ze op plekken liggen waar men geen reguliere archeologische activiteit verwacht, versterkt de gedachte dat er mogelijk oude beschavingen waren met geavanceerde bouwtechnologieën.

De anomalieën onder water en onder de grond suggereren dat menselijke beschavingen mogelijk veel ouder en geavanceerder waren dan tot nu toe wordt aangenomen. Er wordt bijvoorbeeld gedacht aan het bestaan van een verloren wereld, waarbij onderwater- en ondergrondse structuren de sporen zijn van een grote, vergeten beschaving. Het feit dat dergelijke structuren zich op verschillende continenten kunnen bevinden, wijst mogelijk op een soort wereldomspannend netwerk of een gedeeld cultureel erfgoed dat verloren is gegaan door de loop der eeuwen.

Kortom, deze geografische anomalieën en ondergrondse structuren vormen een intrigerend puzzelstuk dat onze kijk op de geschiedenis kan veranderen. Ze roepen vragen op over de technologische vaardigheden van oude volkeren en over de mogelijkheid dat de menselijke geschiedenis veel complexer is dan wij nu aannemen. Het onderzoeken van deze structuren en anomalieën kan ons mogelijk leiden naar nieuwe inzichten over de evolutie van menselijke beschavingen en hun mogelijke connecties over de hele wereld.

Eindconclusie

Het samenbrengen van deze verschillende aanwijzingen – anomalieën in kunst en symboliek, technologische overblijfselen, mythologische verhalen en geografische anomalieën – kan niet eenvoudig worden genegeerd. Hoewel veel van deze gegevens door sceptici worden afgedaan als toeval of interpretatiefouten, vormen ze samen een krachtig pleidooi voor de mogelijkheid dat een geavanceerde “Atlantis-achtige” moederbeschaving in het verre verleden heeft bestaan. Het is mogelijk dat dergelijke beschavingen niet alleen de fundamenten legden voor onze huidige samenleving, maar ook dat ze over kennis en technologie beschikten die wij nog maar net beginnen te begrijpen. Het onderzoeken van deze anomalieën en het openhouden van de mogelijkheid dat onze geschiedenis niet volledig is, kan leiden tot nieuwe inzichten over de menselijke evolutie en de ware aard van onze vermeende geschiedenis. Uiteindelijk opent deze zoektocht de deur naar het begrijpen van onze ware oorsprong en de potentiële rijkdom van verloren kennis die in het verleden verborgen ligt.

{ PETER2011 }

21-06-2025 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

Human Mastery Over Extreme Environments Happened Before the Migration Out of Africa

For almost 300,000 years, humans were African. But whereas our previous human cousins had already made their way into Eurasia, our own species was more than 200,000 years confined to the mother continent. Then, around 50,000 years ago, came the revolution.

There was a great migratory surge — and it held. As opposed to previous failed forays into the broader world, this migration sowed all modern non-African peoples living today. One question plagued scientists for a long time: why this wave? What gave this effort success when so many others had been unsuccessful?

Now, a revolutionary new international study in Nature might have solved the puzzle — not through identifying tools or mutations, but by mapping how our forebears dominated an expanding variety of environments. From about 70,000 years ago, humans did not merely manage to survive in Africa — they prospered in deserts, rainforests, mountains, and grasslands. They became, in the words of the scientists, "the ultimate generalist."

Andrea Manica, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, who co-led the study with Professor Eleanor Scerri from the Max Plank Institute of Bioanthropology in Germany, said in a press release: “Around 70,000-50,000 years ago, the easiest route out of Africa would have been more challenging than during previous periods, and yet this expansion was big - and ultimately successful.”

A Climate Map of Prehistory

The team, led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, University of Cambridge, and the Natural History Museum (UK), put together a huge dataset incorporating archaeological remains and environmental reconstructions of rainfall, vegetation, and temperature in Africa from 120,000 to 14,000 years ago.

• Humans Used Alternate Migration Route Out of Africa 80,000 Years Ago
• Genetic Research Untangles Africa’s Human Evolutionary History

They examined data from fossil deposits, ancient plant and animal fossils, and computer simulations that track how humans might have interplayed with these dynamic systems. Using techniques employed in ecology, they followed the course of our species' "niche" — what kinds of environments we were able to inhabit — over time.

What they discovered was a tipping point at about 70,000 years ago: humans began to migrate to tropical rainforests in West and Central Africa, dry deserts such as the Sahara, and regions with extreme annual temperature fluctuations.

"Human beings have been thriving in difficult environments for at least 70,000 years," stated Dr. Emily Hallett of Loyola University Chicago, a lead author of the study, in an interview with Live Science. It was this ecological flexibility, she says, that would have provided a vital advantage to humans as they set out entering Eurasia — not during an easy climatic opportunity, but when it was tough.

Map of dated archaeological sites in Africa.

(Hallett, et. al./Nature, 2025)

A Continental Renaissance: Adaptability Before the Great Leap

Earlier migrations out of Africa — some of which took place as long ago as 270,000 years — did not persist. The genetic imprints of those early sojourners cannot be seen in modern populations. So, what made the 50,000-year migration work?

Surprisingly, the authors discovered no smoking gun in the guise of technological innovations or climatic fortune. Rather, it appears that something more insidious and social was at play.

The scientists propose a probable cause: cross-fertilization of cultures. As human populations migrated to varied environments, their contact zones increased as well. Increased contact equated to increased ideas, improved methods, and greater innovation — not from any one innovation, but from a web of commonalities. A feedback loop of learning, adaptation, and mobility reinforcing itself.

"It could be tied to various African populations coming into contact with each other and exchanging their ideas and ways of living in various conditions more and more," explained evolutionary biologist Dr. Michela Leonardi to the Natural History Museum. "In the long run, the greater exchange of ideas would assist Homo sapiens to spread its territory even further… [making] our species even more adaptative."

That flexibility paid off in evolutionary gold: resilience. By becoming jacks-of-all-trades, early humans were suddenly capable of conquering drastically different ecosystems — and emerging triumphant.

The Generalist Edge: Older Than You Thought

Though Homo sapiens had been evolving to fit a broad range of African landscapes for millennia, it was this later-stage adaptability that probably provided them with the tenacity to propagate across the world.

"What we're seeing around 70,000 years ago is Homo sapiens as the ultimate generalist," Manica said. "Expanding into increasingly extreme environments… that newfound flexibility provided a comparative advantage 50,000 years ago, enabling them to succeed in novel and in some cases very difficult environments."

And the records reveal it wasn't a gradual march to greener fields. Between 70,000 and 50,000 years ago, forests didn't suddenly burst open and deserts didn't turn green — rather, conditions were worse than in earlier dispersal periods.

Previous migrations had employed "green corridors" of Saharan-Arabian rainfall. This second migration, scientists contend, prevailed not because the world was friendlier — but because humans had become resilient.

• Did Mankind First Exit Africa 100,000 Years Ago?
• Ancient DNA Data Fills in Thousands of Years of Human Movement and Genetic Adaptation in Africa

Homo sapiens suitable habitat and climatic niche area through time. 

(Hallett, et. al./Nature, 2025)

Rather than waiting for perfect conditions, modern humans adapted to what was there. While we’ve long admired our ancestors for their tools, fire-making, and symbolic art, it may have been the less flashy trait of ecological adaptability that ultimately changed the course of history.

That realization, according to Professor Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute, takes us one step closer to learning not only the "Out of Africa" tale — but the whole sweep of human evolution. "Our ecological flexibility is part of what enabled our species to disperse across the globe and thrive in each habitat we encountered."

• Top image: Cultural adaptability through the cross-breeding of cultures and ideas in groups.                                                           
• Source: Internet Archive Book Images

By Sahir

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/evolution-human-origins }

19-06-2025 om 23:31 geschreven door peter  

Strange structures under water, google earth map, UFO UAP Sighting News. 📰 archeology discovery 🤠

Date of discovery: June 15, 2025

Location of discovery: 8°41'48"S 115°26'36"E

Location name: Jungutbatu, Bali island, Indonesia 

 

Now I have been to Bali island once about 15 years ago and its got a lot of mysterious cultural phenomenon that we in the US would not understand. I just loved it! I'm 70% sure this is an underwater city, because the only way to confirm that is to fly there and see for yourself diving. I remember seeing lots of ruins in Bali. But the long rectangles do resemble ancient homes foundations built side by side. This is a curious situation here. What ever it is...it's mind boggling. So many unknown things on the bottom of the ocean left to find. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

  

Strange structures under water, google earth map, UFO UAP Sighting News. 📰archeology discovery?

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

15-06-2025 om 23:23 geschreven door peter  

De Verborgen Stad Onder de Piramides: Een Fascinerende Theorie

De piramides van Egypte, vooral de Grote Piramide van Gizeh, blijven tot op de dag van vandaag een bron van mysterie en fascinatie voor archeologen, historici en avonturiers. Naast hun indrukwekkende architectuur en historische betekenis, bestaan er geruchten en theorieën die suggereren dat er onder deze iconische monumenten een verborgen stad of ondergrondse structuur zou kunnen liggen. Een van de meest intrigerende theorieën is die van een ondergrondse stad onder de piramides, die mogelijk eeuwenlang verborgen is gebleven. In dit artikel duiken we dieper in deze fascinerende theorie en de bewijzen die eraan ten grondslag liggen.

De oorsprong van de theorie

De oorsprong van de theorie over een verborgen stad onder de piramides ligt in de waarnemingen en speculaties van 19e-eeuwse ontdekkingsreizigers en archeologen. Tijdens hun expedities in Egypte stuitten zij op complexe ondergrondse structuren en tunnels die aanvankelijk als natuurlijke formaties werden beschouwd, maar later als menselijke bouwwerken werden geïdentificeerd. Deze vondsten wekten nieuwsgierigheid en leidden tot de hypothese dat de oude Egyptenaren mogelijk uitgebreide ondergrondse netwerken hadden aangelegd voor religieuze, administratieve of beveiligingsdoeleinden.

In de loop der jaren werden er ook oude teksten en inscripties gevonden die mogelijk verwijzingen bevatten naar verborgen ruimtes of geheime kamers. Sommige onderzoekers vermoeden dat deze ondergrondse constructies dienden als opslagplaatsen voor waardevolle artefacten of als geheime locaties voor rituelen. Daarnaast speelden de grote mysteries rondom de bouwtechnieken en het doel van de piramides een rol bij het ontstaan van deze theorie.

Recente archeologische opgravingen en technologieën, zoals ground-penetrating radar en 3D-scans, hebben de interesse in ondergrondse structuren verder versterkt. Zo werden er in de buurt van de piramides van Gizeh ondergrondse tunnels en kamers ontdekt die mogelijk deel uitmaken van een groter, nog onontdekt complex. Hoewel bewijs voor een volledige ondergrondse stad nog ontbreekt, blijven deze bevindingen de theorie over een verborgen ondergrondse wereld onder de piramides ondersteunen en inspireren tot verder onderzoek

Kunstenaarsherinterpretatie van de vermeende verborgen stad die onder de piramides van Gizeh zou liggen,

TRT World

Bewijzen en ontdekkingen

Hoewel er tot op heden geen definitief bewijs is voor een volledige ondergrondse stad onder de piramides van Gizeh, zijn er verschillende interessante vondsten en aanwijzingen die de mogelijkheid ondersteunen dat er meer onder de oppervlakte ligt dan tot nu toe bekend is. Deze bevindingen wekken de nieuwsgierigheid van archeologen en onderzoekers en dragen bij aan de mystiek rondom de oude Egyptische bouwwerken.

• Ondergrondse tunnels en kamers

Een van de meest veelbelovende ontdekkingen werd gedaan in 2017 door een Chinees archeologisch team. Tijdens hun onderzoek onder de Grote Piramide van Gizeh gebruikten ze geavanceerde technologieën zoals grondradar en seismisch onderzoek. Uit deze technieken bleek dat er een netwerk van tunnels en kamers onder de piramide aanwezig is, waarvan sommige nog niet volledig zijn onderzocht. Deze ruimtes kunnen mogelijk dienen als opslagplaatsen, rituele kamers of zelfs als ontsnappingsroutes voor de farao’s en priesters. Het feit dat delen van deze ondergrondse structuren nog niet volledig zijn onderzocht, laat ruimte voor verdere ontdekkingen. Sommige onderzoekers speculeren dat er onder de piramide wellicht een heel ondergronds complex ligt dat nog niet in kaart is gebracht, wat de theorie versterkt dat er een verborgen ondergrondse stad of uitgebreide structuren onder de piramide kunnen liggen.

• Geofysisch onderzoek

Naast archeologisch onderzoek wordt er ook veel gebruik gemaakt van geofysische technieken om ondergrondse structuren te detecteren. Hierbij wordt gebruik gemaakt van grondradar, elektromagnetische inductie en seismische metingen. Deze methoden hebben anomalieën en structuren aangewezen die niet overeenkomen met de bekendste bouwwerken van de piramides. Sommige van deze anomalieën kunnen wijzen op gangen, kamers of tunnels die nog niet zichtbaar zijn op het oppervlak. Onderzoekers geloven dat deze ondergrondse routes mogelijk dienden voor rituelen, opslag of als ontsnappingswegen. Een interessant aspect is dat sommige van deze structuren zich op strategische locaties bevinden, bijvoorbeeld onder de tempelcomplexen of nabij de piramide zelf. Dit geeft aan dat ze mogelijk een speciale functies hadden in het oude Egypte.

• Sporen van oude constructies

Naast technologische bewijzen verwijzen ook oude teksten, kaarten en legendes naar ondergrondse ruimtes en tunnels in de omgeving van de piramides. Sommige oude Egyptische inscripties en grafteksten spreken over ondergrondse gangen en verborgen kamers die door de farao’s of priesters gebruikt werden. Daarnaast bestaat er een oude kaart uit de 19e eeuw die schematisch ondergrondse structuren rondom de piramides toont, al is de betrouwbaarheid hiervan niet volledig vastgesteld. Hoewel de exacte locatie en functie van deze ondergrondse constructies vaak onduidelijk blijven, ondersteunen ze de theorie dat de oude Egyptenaren mogelijk uitgebreide ondergrondse netwerken hadden aangelegd voor rituelen, opslag of verdediging.

• Samenvatting

De verzameling van deze bewijzen en ontdekkingen wijst erop dat er onder de piramides van Gizeh mogelijk meer ligt dan slechts de bekende bouwwerken. De ondergrondse tunnels, kamers en anomalieën die met moderne technologieën worden aangetoond, vormen een fascinerend puzzelstuk in het begrijpen van de oude Egyptische cultuur en architectuur. Hoewel er nog geen sluitend bewijs is voor een volledige ondergrondse stad, suggereren deze ontdekkingen dat de ondergrondse wereld onder de piramides complex en mogelijk zeer groot is. Toekomstig archeologisch onderzoek en technologische innovaties kunnen mogelijk nog meer verborgen structuren aan het licht brengen, waardoor we een beter beeld krijgen van de mysterieuze ondergrondse netwerken die mogelijk door de oude Egyptenaren zijn aangelegd. De voortdurende zoektocht naar deze ondergrondse wereld blijft een boeiend hoofdstuk in de archeologie en de geschiedenis van het oude Egypte.

Waarom zou er een ondergrondse stad zijn?

De vraag waarom er een ondergrondse stad of complex zou bestaan onder de oude Egyptische piramides is een intrigerende en complexe kwestie die al decennia lang wetenschappers, archeologen en onderzoekers bezighoudt. De ondergrondse structuren, die soms worden aangeduid als ‘ondergrondse steden’, ‘kamers’, tunnels of geheime gangen, roepen vele vragen op over hun functie, oorsprong en betekenis. In dit essay worden de belangrijkste theorieën en mogelijke motieven besproken, ondersteund door archeologische bevindingen, historische context en wetenschappelijke analyses.

• Religieuze en rituele doeleinden Een van de meest gangbare theorieën is dat de ondergrondse structuren bedoeld waren voor religieuze en rituele doeleinden. In de oude Egyptische cultuur speelde de dood en het hiernamaals een centrale rol, en veel structuren waren ontworpen om de overgang van de farao’s en belangrijke figuren naar het hiernamaals te faciliteren.

a. Begraafplaatsen voor farao’s en elite: Sommige onderzoekers geloven dat de ondergrondse complexen dienden als grafkamers of crypte-achtige ruimtes waar farao’s en hoge priesters werden begraven. De piramides zelf worden vaak gezien als monumenten voor de farao’s, maar de ondergrondse kamers zouden extra ondergrondse grafkamers kunnen zijn, bedoeld om de farao’s te beschermen tegen plundering en kwaadwillende geesten. Deze ondergrondse ruimtes zouden ook kunnen dienen als opslagplaatsen voor de spullen die de overledene nodig had in het hiernamaals, zoals voedsel, voorwerpen en symbolische artefacten.

b. Rituele centra en ceremonies: Daarnaast zouden de ondergrondse ruimtes dienen voor religieuze rituelen die gericht waren op de verering van goden zoals Osiris, Anubis en Hathor. De ondergrondse gangen zouden symbolisch de overgang tussen de wereld van de levenden en die van de doden vertegenwoordigen, en rituelen mogelijk gemaakt hebben die de ziel van de overledene konden begeleiden. Sommige theorieën suggereren dat deze ondergrondse kamers ook fungeren als plekken voor geheime ceremonies die niet voor het grote publiek bestemd waren, en dat ze een belangrijke rol speelden in de voorbereiding op de reis naar het hiernamaals.

c. Verborgen betekenis en symboliek: De ondergrondse structuren kunnen ook een symbolische betekenis hebben, zoals het vertegenwoordigen van de onderwereld of de ‘Duat’ (de Egyptische onderwereld). De complexiteit en het labyrintachtige karakter van sommige ondergrondse netwerken zouden de reis van de zielen door de onderwereld kunnen symboliseren, en zo de spirituele reis van de overledene ondersteunen. Deze symboliek zou ook kunnen verwijzen naar een dieper esoterisch inzicht dat de oude Egyptenaren hadden over de kosmos en de overgang tussen leven en dood.

• Veiligheid en geheimhouding Een andere belangrijke reden voor de constructie van ondergrondse complexen was de behoefte aan veiligheid en geheimhouding. In een samenleving waar waardevolle artefacten, hiërarchische documenten en religieuze relikwieën werden bewaard, was bescherming tegen diefstal, plundering of ongewenste bezoekers van groot belang.

a. Opslagplaatsen voor waardevolle artefacten: De ondergrondse ruimtes konden dienen als geheime opslagplaatsen voor juwelen, goud, religieuze voorwerpen en hiërarchische documenten. Het gebruik van ondergrondse tunnels en kamertjes maakte het mogelijk om deze schatten te beschermen tegen gravende buitenaars en plunderaars.Door ze onder de grond te plaatsen, werden ze minder zichtbaar en moeilijker te vinden voor indringers, wat het risico op diefstal aanzienlijk verkleinde.

b. Schuilplaatsen en schermutselingen: In tijden van conflicten of bedreigingen konden ondergrondse gangen en kamers dienen als schuilplaatsen voor belangrijke functionarissen, priesters of zelfs de farao zelf. Het ondergronds netwerk bood een veilige haven waar men kon ontsnappen of zich kon verbergen. Deze ondergrondse complexen zouden ook kunnen functioneren als geheime bunkers of schuilplaatsen tijdens aanvallen of invallen door vijandige groepen.

c. Geheime doorgangen en routes: Het bestaan van geheime doorgangen onder de piramides en andere bouwwerken zou ook strategisch kunnen zijn geweest, bijvoorbeeld voor het discreet verplaatsen van mensen of voor rituelen die niet openbaar mochten zijn. Sommige onderzoekers vermoeden dat ondergrondse tunnels mogelijk dienden als ontsnappingsroutes of geheime routes tussen verschillende tempelcomplexen, waardoor de Egyptenaren in tijden van nood snel konden vluchten of belangrijke personen konden verplaatsen zonder dat dit werd opgemerkt.

• Wetenschappelijke en technische kennis De constructie van uitgebreide ondergrondse netwerken en structuren wijst mogelijk op een geavanceerde technische en hydrologische kennis van de oude Egyptenaren.

a. Hydrologie en waterbeheer: De oude Egyptenaren hadden uitgebreide kennis van waterbeheer, vooral rondom de Nijl. Het is mogelijk dat ondergrondse tunnels en kamers werden gebouwd om water te controleren, te verzamelen of te beheren, vooral in tijden van droogte of overstroming. Sommige theorieën suggereren dat ondergrondse waterreservoirs of kanalen onderdeel waren van het complexe watersysteem dat de regio beheerde. Het gebruik van ondergrondse waterbakken, sluizen en afwateringssystemen zou hebben geholpen om het land vruchtbaar te houden en overstromingen te voorkomen.

b. Bouwtechnieken en materialen: De ondergrondse structuren getuigen van technische vaardigheden, zoals het gebruik van speciale stenen, cement en technieken om gangen stabiel te houden. Het feit dat men in staat was om ondergrondse kamers te bouwen die vele eeuwen standhielden, wijst op een geavanceerde kennis van ondergrondse bouwtechnieken en stabiliseringsmethoden. Het gebruik van trilplaatstechnieken, holle stenen en waterdichtingstechnieken zou hebben bijgedragen aan de duurzaamheid van deze ondergrondse constructies. Daarnaast was het waarschijnlijk dat de oude Egyptenaren experimenteerden met verschillende bouwmaterialen en methoden om de integriteit van deze netwerken te waarborgen, vooral in het vochtige ondergrondse milieu.

c. Geotechnische kennis: Het bouwen van uitgebreide ondergrondse netwerken vereiste een diepgaand begrip van de geologie en de eigenschappen van de bodem. De oude Egyptenaren zouden inzicht hebben gehad in de draagkracht van verschillende bodemsoorten, drainage en de stabiliteit van ondergrondse structuren. Het feit dat zij dergelijke complexe systemen konden ontwerpen en onderhouden, wijst op een geavanceerde kennis van geotechniek en bodemmechanica.

d. Astronomische en geometrische kennis: Sommige ondergrondse structuren zijn mogelijk afgestemd op astronomische of geometrische principes, zoals het aligneren van tunnels met sterrenbeelden of specifieke astronomische gebeurtenissen. Dit zou kunnen betekenen dat de oude Egyptenaren een geavanceerd begrip hadden van geometrie en astronomie, wat hen in staat stelde om ondergrondse netwerken te koppelen aan religieuze of astronomische symboliek.

e. Doel en gebruik: Hoewel sommige ondergrondse structuren nog niet volledig begrepen worden, suggereren theorieën dat ze mogelijk dienden voor rituele doeleinden, opslag van waardevolle goederen, geheime communicatie of als schuilplaatsen. Het gebruik van dergelijke ondergrondse netwerken weerspiegelt een hoog niveau van planning en organisatie binnen de oude Egyptische samenleving.

Egyptoloog Zahi Hawass is een van de strengste critici van de hypothese dat er een stad onder de piramides van Gizeh ligt, Egypte, 8 januari 2025.

(APPhoto/Khaled Elfiqi)

Kortom, de constructie en het ontwerp van deze ondergrondse netwerken tonen aan dat de oude Egyptenaren beschikten over een zeer geavanceerde combinatie van hydrologische, bouwkundige, geotechnische en astronomische kennis. Deze expertise stelde hen in staat om complexe, duurzame systemen te ontwikkelen die niet alleen functioneel waren, maar mogelijk ook symbolisch of ritueel van aard.

Volgens critici is het onmogelijk om door de rotsen heen te kijken die de piramides van Gizeh vormen.

(Khaled Desouki/Pool via AP)

Controverse en skeptische geluiden

Hoewel de theorie over een verborgen stad onder de piramides van Egypte bijzonder intrigerend is en veel nieuwsgierigheid opwekt, wordt deze niet breed geaccepteerd binnen de mainstream wetenschappelijke gemeenschap. De voornaamste reden hiervoor is het ontbreken van onweerlegbaar bewijs dat daadwerkelijk wijst op een uitgebreide ondergrondse structuur of een vergeten stad. Archeologen en Egyptologen wijzen erop dat veel van de beweringen gebaseerd zijn op interpretaties van anomalieën en ondergrondse waarnemingen die niet altijd eenduidig te verklaren zijn.

Een van de meest gehoorde kritieken is dat de zogenaamde 'ondergrondse kamers' of 'doorgangen' vaak ontstaan door natuurlijke geologische processen. De regio rondom Gizeh, waar de piramides liggen, bestaat uit kalksteen en sedimentgesteenten die door miljoenen jaren van natuurlijke erosie en aardbevingen kunnen leiden tot scheuren en holtes. Sommige onderzoekers stellen dat de waargenomen anomalieën eenvoudig natuurlijke formaties zijn, zonder dat hier menselijke bouwkundige activiteiten aan ten grondslag liggen.

Daarnaast is er het probleem van de interpretatie van technische gegevens. Bijvoorbeeld, bepaalde radar- en seismische scans die worden aangevoerd als bewijs voor ondergrondse structuren, kunnen ook worden verklaard door natuurlijke verschillen in de samenstelling van de ondergrond. Het is niet altijd mogelijk om met de beschikbare technologieën met volledige zekerheid te concluderen dat de gevonden structuren door mensen gemaakt zijn of dat ze een architectonisch plan vertegenwoordigen.

Ook wordt betoogd dat de verhalen over een verborgen stad onder de piramides vaak worden versterkt door pseudowetenschappelijke theorieën, samenzweringstheorieën en speculatie. Sommige onderzoekers waarschuwen dat deze theorieën de geschiedenis en archeologie ondermijnen door te veel te vertrouwen op interpretaties zonder voldoende bewijs. Ze benadrukken dat de immense leeftijd van de piramides, meer dan 4.500 jaar, en de complexiteit van de bouwtechnieken destijds, al voldoende bewijs bieden voor de ingenieuze vaardigheden van de oude Egyptenaren, zonder dat uit die wetenschap per se een ondergrondse stad hoeft te voort te komen.

Tot slot is er ook kritiek op de manier waarop sommige van deze theorieën worden gepromoot in populaire media en documentaires. Deze brengen vaak sensationele verhalen die niet altijd gebaseerd zijn op gedegen archeologisch onderzoek. Hierdoor ontstaat de indruk dat er sprake zou zijn van een grote geheimenis die nog moet worden ontrafeld, terwijl de meeste experts juist pleiten voor een meer genuanceerde en wetenschappelijk verantwoorde benadering.

Kortom, hoewel de theorie over een verborgen stad onder de piramides fascinerend blijft en veel mensen blijft intrigeren, is het bewijs op dit moment onvoldoende om deze claims serieus te nemen binnen de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap. De controverse blijft bestaan, en verder onderzoek met behulp van geavanceerde technologieën en een kritische blik is noodzakelijk om de waarheid te achterhalen.

Conclusie

De aantrekkingskracht van een ondergrondse stad onder de piramides van Egypte blijft een intrigerend onderwerp dat zowel wetenschappers als liefhebbers fascineert. Verschillende geofysische onderzoeken, zoals seismische scans en grondradarmetingen, hebben aanwijzingen opgeleverd die de mogelijkheid van ondergrondse structuren ondersteunen. Zo zijn er bijvoorbeeld anomalieën gevonden onder de Grote Piramide van Gizeh, die mogelijk wijzen op verborgen gangen of kamers. Daarnaast worden oude teksten en legendes vaak aangehaald om het mysterie te onderbouwen, hoewel er geen sluitend bewijs is dat deze daadwerkelijk verwijzen naar een ondergrondse stad.

Tegelijkertijd blijft het bewijs beperkt en is er nog geen onomstotelijke ontdekking gedaan. Archeologisch onderzoek is complex en kostbaar, en de Egyptische autoriteiten zijn vaak terughoudend vanwege het beschermen van het erfgoed. Toch blijven technologische innovaties, zoals 3D-scanning en geavanceerde detectiemethoden, veelbelovend. Toekomstige expedities en onderzoek kunnen mogelijk de sluier oplichten over deze mysterieuze ondergrondse wereld. Het idee van een verborgen stad onder de piramides prikkelt onze nieuwsgierigheid en zet aan tot verdere exploratie. Uiteindelijk kan deze zoektocht ons niet alleen meer inzicht geven in de bouwtechnieken en functies van de piramides, maar ook in de geschiedenis en cultuur van de oude Egyptenaren. Het blijft een boeiend hoofdstuk in de archeologische en mysterieuze geschiedenis van Egypte.

{ peter2011 }

13-06-2025 om 22:13 geschreven door peter  

I found evidence of a pre-historic American Indian culture dating back to 900-1200AD, but...can I save it? Utah Discovery News.

Wow, while hiking I discover ancient evidence that is from 900-1200 AD (time Fremont existed) that has gone over looked in Utah till right now. I found undeniable proof of the Fremont tribe, a tribe so old, that American Indians call them the “ancient people” or “the old ones” who lived in the lands before them. 

 

This is important, but how do you get a state to recognize the area as a historical significant location to protect it. It's close to an impending threat that will in the coming years, destroy it entirely, wiping the evidence away of this rare and little know about Fremont tribe. 

 

I will make some videos on it, and share it with you all. But the Fremont no longer exist, since they. were absorbed into other tribes long ago. I will update soon on this discovery...it's big...and I'm not talking figuratively. 

 

So I guess, I don't just find ancient alien artifacts on other planets and moons in NASA photos, I don't just find ancient cities and artifacts on Google Earth Map...I also do it in real life. 

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

07-06-2025 om 19:59 geschreven door peter  

06-06-2025 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

Still, the surrounding basin was once fertile and habitable. Archaeological evidence from the nearby Anatolian and Balkan regions shows Neolithic communities thriving in the millennia leading up to the flood. It’s plausible that similar groups occupied now-submerged lowlands. If so, their settlements may have been erased swiftly, with little trace left behind—except perhaps in the memories of their descendants.

Göbekli Tepe: A Clue from Stone

Evidence of complex human activity at the end of the Ice Age does exist—above sea level. Göbekli Tepe, located in southeastern Turkey (one of my absolute favorite sites), was constructed around 9600 BCE, shortly after the Younger Dryas cold snap. The site features towering limestone pillars, some up to 10 tons, carved with animals, symbols, and abstract motifs. Its builders used advanced quarrying and organizational skills, even though they had no pottery, no written language, and no domesticated crops.

The sophistication of Göbekli Tepe challenges the traditional view that complex societies only emerged after agriculture. While the people who built it were likely hunter-gatherers, they clearly had the social coordination and symbolic systems often associated with later civilizations. This raises the question: Could Göbekli Tepe represent a surviving cultural lineage—descendants of an earlier, now-lost society forced to adapt after environmental collapse? Or is Göbekli Tepe a civilization on its own? Lost to time? If you believe there is a possibility, read this article I wrote a while back.

Atlantis Reconsidered

References to lost civilizations are not limited to scientific theories. Plato’s tale of Atlantis, often regarded as a philosophical allegory, has inspired generations of researchers to search for real-world parallels. Around the globe, underwater features have stirred debate: the Yonaguni Monument off Japan, structures in the Gulf of Khambhat off India, and the Bimini Road near the Bahamas.

The Bimini Road, in particular, consists of large, flat stones arranged in a roughly linear path just offshore. While many geologists identify it as natural beachrock shaped by erosion and wave action, a few researchers argue the stones show signs of human modification. No definitive tools or artifacts have been found to confirm this, and mainstream science considers the formation natural. However, its ambiguity keeps it in the public eye and reflects a broader curiosity about what the oceans might be hiding.

Younger Dryas and the Cosmic Impact Theory

Some scientists argue that the abrupt climate shift around 12,900 years ago—the Younger Dryas—was caused by a cosmic impact. This theory, known as the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, proposes that a comet or asteroid exploded in the atmosphere over North America or Greenland, triggering wildfires, global cooling, and widespread ecological disruption.

Supporting evidence includes peaks in platinum levels, nanodiamonds, and tiny glass-like spheres found in geological layers from that time. However, the scientific community remains divided. Critics point to the lack of a definitive crater, while proponents argue the explosion may have occurred in the air or on ice, leaving minimal physical trace.

If the hypothesis is correct, such an event could have devastated early societies, particularly those concentrated in vulnerable lowland regions. Any civilization that had emerged by then may have been scattered or reduced to small bands of survivors, their cultural memory passed on through story, symbol, and myth.

Hidden in Oral Tradition

Across the world, traditional stories tell of great floods, fire from the sky, and civilizations destroyed in cataclysm. The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh recounts a massive deluge. In Hindu texts, Manu survives a divine flood. Native American, Aboriginal Australian, and African oral traditions include tales of fire, shaking earth, and rising seas.

Historians caution against taking myths at face value. Still, the shared elements in these narratives are striking. While independent invention is possible, some scholars suggest these stories may preserve collective memories of real events—filtered through generations and transformed by cultural lenses. If so, they could offer clues to a time when humanity faced disasters so profound that only myth could preserve their meaning.

The Pursuit of Proof

The biggest challenge in confirming a pre-Ice Age civilization is the passage of time itself. Sea levels rose more than 120 meters after the last glacial maximum, submerging vast coastal areas where early populations likely lived. Underwater environments accelerate decay: wood, bone, and textiles degrade rapidly; storms and currents bury or break structures.

Yet technology is closing the gap. Multibeam sonar, underwater LIDAR, submersible drones, and satellite topography have revealed ancient coastlines, submerged forests, and even stone tools off modern coasts. The North Sea’s “Doggerland,” once a land bridge between Britain and Europe, has yielded Mesolithic artifacts and evidence of human habitation. Similar efforts in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Indian Ocean may one day reveal even older remains.

Rethinking Human History

The possibility of advanced human cultures existing before the Ice Age challenges a long-standing assumption: that complexity only began with farming. Sites like Göbekli Tepe already stretch that assumption. If further evidence of submerged or forgotten civilizations emerges, it would force a fundamental rethinking of our timeline.

We would need to ask: how many times have humans risen, innovated, and then fallen—only to rise again? History, it seems, may be cyclical rather than linear. Climate events, impacts, and floods may have wiped out not just species, but whole societies—some of which left only the faintest traces behind.

Looking Forward by Looking Back

At present, no conclusive proof exists for a pre-Ice Age civilization. But the growing body of anomalies, underwater features, and ancient sites like Göbekli Tepe ensures that the question won’t go away. It remains one of archaeology’s most provocative frontiers. I see, for example, Göbekli Tepe as the ultimate proof of a civilization BEFORE civilization. I see it as a period in human history that is not included in history books. I see this site, and all of the sites around it, as a smoking gun that Earth did have advanced civilizations in the past, but mainstream experts are perhaps just too lazy or afraid to admit it.

I think that the drive to uncover these lost histories is not merely academic, it’s human. Every excavation, every dive, every sonar ping reflects our desire to understand where we came from. In the oceans’ depths and in the stories we tell, hints of a forgotten past continue to whisper. Whether those whispers grow into evidence remains to be seen. I see Göbekli Tepe as a history breaker. Isn’t it time for our history books to change?

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{ https://curiosmos.com/category/ancient-civilizations/ }

06-06-2025 om 20:57 geschreven door peter  

A room in the deep interior of the underground city of Derinkuyu. Depositphotos.

Reconstructing Derinkuyu’s acoustic design

To build the sound model, Nas selected three spaces for detailed analysis: a church, a domestic living area, and a kitchen. These areas were chosen for their function and variation in spatial volume. Using architectural surveys and acoustic simulation tools, she mapped the surfaces, volumes, and materials. Then, she modeled how sounds, voices, tools, footsteps, fire, would behave in each room.

Derinkuyu was not silent. It was carved from soft volcanic rock called tuff, which absorbs some frequencies but carries others. Ventilation shafts, often mistaken for simple air ducts, served as both airflow systems and vertical communication lines. Nas emphasized this dual function. A single shaft could move both air and sound across levels, linking different parts of the city without direct sightlines.

These design features were not secondary. They were structural. In Nas’s model, sound is shown to travel in ways that mirror social and architectural priorities. Openings near cooking areas allowed for shared sensory cues. Narrow passageways between levels blocked sound, creating acoustic boundaries that likely shaped patterns of privacy and control.

One of the rooms of the intricately carved undergrounds city of Derinkuyu.

Depositphotos.

Derinkuyu was not the only underground city in Cappadocia, but it is the deepest and most spatially complex. Most of the surviving tunnels were cut by hand during the Byzantine period, though earlier phases may date back even further. The site’s layout reflects both practical and defensive concerns. Entrances were concealed. Rolling stone doors could be used to block off corridors. Livestock was housed below ground. Water was sourced from wells that reached deep into the rock.

For centuries, these spaces were known locally but remained undocumented by formal archaeology. Since their rediscovery in the 1960s, sites like Derinkuyu have been measured, mapped, and visited by millions of tourists. Yet until Nas’s work, few efforts had been made to study how they sounded when they were inhabited.

Nas presented her findings at the 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in May 2025. She described Derinkuyu as an “interior environment on an urban scale,” distinct from open-air soundscapes typically studied in urban acoustics. By reconstructing its sonic behavior, she argues, researchers can better understand how residents used space, communicated, and structured their routines.

The soundscape is not a guess. It is built from data. Nas’s model incorporates not only geometry but also human behavior. Different rooms produce different reverberation times. Kitchens absorb more sound due to their lower ceilings. Churches echo longer. In between, passageways create acoustic transitions that affect how one space flows into another.

The region of Cappadocia, where Derinkuyu is located, has long been shaped by geology. The area’s soft volcanic substrate allowed for extensive excavation. Entire villages were carved directly into rock faces. By the early medieval period, Christians fleeing persecution expanded these spaces into multi-level underground complexes.

Derinkuyu may have been occupied intermittently over many centuries. Archaeological evidence points to phases of construction and reuse, often tied to periods of threat. Its layout includes features like defensive bottlenecks, food storage rooms, and central gathering spaces. Everything about it was designed to support life under siege.

The physical conditions underground are stable. Temperatures remain constant year-round. The architecture protects against both heat and cold. But living underground also shaped experience in other ways. Light was scarce. Sound carried differently. The absence of wind and open air created an environment defined by enclosed resonance. Nas’s model captures those differences in a way that drawings and photographs cannot.

Architectural design shaped how sound traveled

“There is a notable gap in the literature regarding the acoustic environment and soundscape of underground cities,” Nas said.

Her research reveals that the city’s ventilation shafts served not only for airflow but also for communication. Voices and sounds could carry between rooms and levels, creating an interconnected audio environment.

“This multifunctional use of the ventilation system strongly highlights the exceptional construction process of the site and plays a central role in shaping its soundscape,” she said.

“Listening to the reconstructed soundscape provides insights into how sound influenced spatial experience, communication practices, and social organization within the underground city.”

Virtual soundscape revives the sounds of daily life in Derinkuyu, the ancient underground city of Turkey

To reconstruct the sound environment, Nas analyzed three key spaces: a church, a kitchen, and a living area. She studied their acoustic properties – how sound would bounce, echo, and fade – based on size, material, and use. The result is a 3D virtual soundscape that reimagines what the city may have sounded like in its prime.

Nas presented her findings on Wednesday during the 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the 25th International Congress on Acoustics, held from May 18 to 23.

Sound as a bridge to cultural memory

“Derinkuyu underground city is considered an interior environment on an urban scale,” Nas said. “Listening to the reconstructed soundscape provides insights into how sound influenced spatial experience, communication practices, and social organization within the underground city.”

She hopes her work with the sounds of ancient life in Turkey will encourage greater use of soundscapes in historical research. Beyond technical insight, she views the study as a way to honor and preserve a forgotten layer of cultural identity.

“This research also highlights the role of historical sound environments,” Nas said. It is “an important and often overlooked component of cultural heritage.”

A tool for future design

Beyond archaeology, Nas sees potential for applying this work to modern planning. As urban development pushes into underground infrastructure, understanding how sound behaves in buried environments becomes increasingly important. Most studies of urban acoustics focus on surface cities. Underground spaces are treated as isolated exceptions.

Derinkuyu offers a counterexample. It was not a tunnel or a bunker. It was a functioning urban environment, carved to support collective life. Its soundscape reflects that design. Nas argues that acoustic modeling can contribute to both historical preservation and future construction.

More broadly, the project adds a new dimension to how we study ancient environments. Architecture is often recorded visually. Sound is harder to capture. But for people living in places like Derinkuyu, sound was part of how space was navigated, understood, and controlled. Children learned where they were by the echo of a footstep. Adults heard voices through shafts before they saw faces. The city’s structure taught people how to listen.

What Derinkuyu reveals

The 3D reconstruction of Derinkuyu is not a re-creation of ancient life. It doesn’t guess what people were thinking or feeling. What it does is document how space worked, how it changed sound, and how those changes shaped experience.

Sound was never separate from architecture. It was one of the ways people understood where they were. A child would know a main room by the way it echoed. A parent might hear a pot drop two levels above. The structure itself trained people to listen.

This kind of work is rare. Archaeology usually records what can be drawn or photographed. Sound is harder. It fades. But in places like Derinkuyu, it never really disappeared. The shape of the rooms, the angles of the walls, and the width of the shafts still control how noise moves. That information is still there, waiting to be measured.

By treating sound as something worth studying, not just as an effect, but as part of how a space functioned, Nas adds something to the record that was missing. Not a story, not a theory, but a way to hear a place that once stayed quiet to the outside world. Fascinating!

{ https://curiosmos.com/category/ancient-civilizations/ }

02-06-2025 om 22:01 geschreven door peter  

Was there an unknown ancient civilization in the Amazon? This is a LiDAR scan showing the remnants of cities.

The image of a wild, untouched Amazon became an academic fact. The idea of an ancient civilization in the Amazon was pushed to the margins.

LiDAR exposes a buried past

LiDAR, short for Light Detection and Ranging, works by firing rapid laser pulses from an aircraft toward the ground and measuring how long it takes for each pulse to return. In open areas, it maps elevation. In dense forest, it does something more remarkable: it penetrates the tree canopy and captures the shape of the land beneath. When processed, the data strips away vegetation and reveals the raw terrain, down to features less than a meter across.

This tool has transformed archaeology in heavily forested regions, where traditional excavation is slow and limited by visibility. In the Amazon, its impact has been nothing short of revelatory.

Over the past decade, coordinated efforts by research teams in Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru have used LiDAR to scan key regions of the basin. The work is ongoing, but even the earliest surveys changed the conversation. In Acre, western Brazil, more than 450 geoglyphs were identified—massive geometric structures built by shaping the soil into perfect squares, circles, and complex enclosures. These features, often connected by long straight paths, were first spotted in deforested areas but were later confirmed beneath intact forest using LiDAR.

Further south, in the Bolivian department of Beni, LiDAR scans published in Nature in 2022 revealed more than twenty pre-Columbian settlements belonging to the Casarabe culture. These sites were hidden under forest cover, but the scans showed large mounds, platform complexes, central plazas, and long causeways linking settlements across kilometers. Some of the mounds rose over 20 meters and were flanked by defensive ditches and canals. Unlike anything previously documented in Amazonia, these features displayed a high level of planning and construction.

In eastern Peru, similar patterns are now emerging. Preliminary surveys around the Ucayali River basin have uncovered networks of raised fields, canals, and fish ponds, all pointing to long-term human occupation and land management.

What archaeologists are uncovering in the Amazon is not a scatter of isolated villages but networks, and landscapes shaped by sustained human effort. The settlements mapped so far reveal patterns of construction that point to planning across entire regions. Causeways connect one site to the next. Defensive ditches and canals follow coordinated alignments. Plazas, mounds, and platform structures repeat with variations in scale, not concept. These are not random clearings in the forest. They are parts of a larger system built and maintained by organized populations over generations.

These discoveries provide tangible evidence for something once considered speculative: that an ancient civilization in the Amazon modified its environment at scale, building cities, roads, and agricultural systems across a region long believed too hostile to support permanent settlement.

The Casarabe culture and its forest cities

In the Bolivian lowlands of the Llanos de Mojos, a seasonally flooded region once thought too unstable for dense settlement, LiDAR has revealed more than twenty pre-Hispanic sites buried beneath forest cover. These were not isolated hamlets or short-lived encampments. The scans show tiered platform mounds, wide rectangular plazas, elevated causeways, and large reservoirs, built not for survival, but as part of a planned system.

These structures belonged to the Casarabe culture, which occupied the region between 500 and 1400 CE. Their cities were constructed from earth and timber, materials that blend back into the forest over time. But what remains shows scale, repetition, and organization. Roads run in straight lines for up to ten kilometers. Mounds rise in tiers above the wetland floor. Defensive ditches form outer rings around settlements.

Some of the largest sites cover more than 100 hectares. Between them, smaller communities appear at regular intervals, connected by raised paths. This distribution suggests a regional layout, not just individual settlements. The population spread across these networks may have numbered in the tens of thousands, though no definitive count exists.

Earlier assumptions held that the Llanos de Mojos could not support permanent habitation. The Casarabe defied that view by modifying the landscape itself. They raised fields above flood zones, constructed storage ponds, and directed water flow through canals. Their forest cities did not rely on stone, but they were built with knowledge, labor, and long-term intent.

Traces across the Amazon basin

The evidence uncovered in Bolivia aligns with a broader pattern found throughout the Amazon. In Brazil’s Acre state, aerial surveys and LiDAR scans have recorded more than 450 geoglyphs: large geometric earthworks shaped into circles, squares, and intersecting forms. Many of these structures date back as far as 1000 BCE. They are often aligned to cardinal directions and grouped in clusters, suggesting recurring design principles rather than isolated construction. While their precise function is still being examined, their scale and consistency indicate planned effort across multiple generations.

Elsewhere in the basin, other signs of deliberate landscape modification have emerged. In parts of Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia, archaeologists have documented networks of raised agricultural fields, canal systems, and fish ponds. These were not experimental features but large-scale infrastructure. Their design reflects an understanding of seasonal flooding, water management, and soil preservation.

One of the most enduring traces of past habitation is the widespread presence of Terra Preta, or “dark earth.” This soil is markedly different from the naturally acidic and nutrient-poor soil that dominates the region. It contains high concentrations of charcoal, bone fragments, plant material, and organic waste. Created through the controlled use of fire and composting over time, Terra Preta retains its fertility for centuries. It is found in patches across the basin, often near ancient habitation zones, and sometimes in layers several meters deep.

The existence of Terra Preta suggests that farming in the Amazon was not only possible but sustained through intentional soil management. Its spread, coupled with the engineered landscape features, supports the presence of an ancient civilization in the Amazon that worked with its environment at scale, designing for stability rather than short-term subsistence.

Collapse and forest return

The forest did not dismantle these systems. It covered what people no longer maintained.

Following European arrival in the sixteenth century, infectious diseases—smallpox, measles, influenza—moved faster than colonizers themselves. They spread along trade routes and rivers, reaching communities deep in the interior. With no immunity, Indigenous populations declined rapidly. In many regions, the loss exceeded 80 percent within a few generations.

As populations fell, infrastructure fell with them. Roads became impassable. Canals and reservoirs clogged with sediment. Agricultural fields, once raised above seasonal floods, were abandoned and overtaken by vegetation. Without labor to clear and repair, the landscape returned to forest.

Trees grew over plazas. The causeways disappeared beneath vines and soil. Without stone architecture or written archives, little survived in a form visible to later explorers. Most accounts dismissed the forest as untouched wilderness.

Oral memory endured in some communities, but it lacked the physical evidence needed to reshape historical understanding. That evidence remained underground, until LiDAR began revealing the patterns once more.

What counts as civilization

The evidence of an ancient civilization in the Amazon challenges long-standing assumptions shaped by stone-built cultures. In many regions, complexity has been measured by the presence of masonry, inscriptions, and centralized rule. None of these elements are prominent in the archaeological record of the Amazon. Yet the patterns revealed by LiDAR—straight roads, tiered mounds, structured settlements, and water systems, show consistent planning over large areas.

The infrastructure in these regions was made from earth, not stone. Roads were built by raising and compacting soil. Ditches were cut with precision and served as boundaries, drainage, or transport channels. Plazas and platform mounds follow repeating dimensions. These features required organized labor, tools, and long-term upkeep. Their scale and repetition suggest cultural norms that extended across settlements.

In several areas, specific tree species are found in higher densities near archaeological sites. These include Brazil nut, cacao, and palms useful for food or construction. The distribution patterns are not random. Researchers studying forest composition have identified these clusters as possible indicators of past cultivation or forest management. Some trees may have been planted, protected, or selected over generations. These practices shaped the surrounding ecology and altered the forest structure in ways still visible today.

There are no monumental ruins, but the remains are consistent. Canals, causeways, mounds, and engineered soils appear together. The data supports long-term settlement and resource planning across regions previously thought to be sparsely occupied. The evidence reflects systems designed to function within the forest, using available materials and knowledge adapted to seasonal change.

The traces left behind do not resemble those of known empires, but they show sustained presence and control over terrain. What survives is not a monument, like we see elsewhere. What we are seeing in the amazon is a record of construction, maintenance, and adaptation across generations. This, too, fits within the definition of civilization.

What remains to be uncovered

Now there is an unimportant thing to remember. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the Amazon has been mapped with LiDAR. In that limited coverage, archaeologists have already recorded hundreds of geoglyphs, roads, and settlement sites. The findings suggest that large parts of the forest may still contain the remains of pre-Columbian construction, buried under vegetation and unrecorded.

Research teams in Brazil and Bolivia continue to expand the scanned areas. Each survey adds new features, ditches, mounds, causeways, canals, that had not been visible by satellite or ground inspection. In some cases, previously studied sites have been reinterpreted in light of this new data. Patterns have become clearer. Settlements once thought isolated are now understood as connected.

Elsewhere in the basin, sites are being lost. Deforestation for pasture, timber, and agriculture is clearing land faster than it can be studied. Earthworks that remained intact for centuries are being cut through by machines or leveled for planting. In many areas, no record is made before the ground is altered.

The distribution of known sites suggests that the visible record represents only a fraction of what exists. Large regions with similar soil, river access, and forest cover remain unscanned. The scale of human modification across the basin is still being measured. Until more of the forest floor is revealed, the full extent of ancient activity remains incomplete.

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{ https://curiosmos.com/category/ancient-civilizations/ }

24-05-2025 om 16:28 geschreven door peter  

Why are pyramids everywhere? This is a beautiful photo of the Great Pyramid at sunset.

These structures have no shared blueprint. Their builders never met, never traded, never wrote of one another. They spoke different languages and worshipped different gods. Still, the shape repeats. From the Andes to the Nile, from the Sahara to the Yangtze, the pyramid keeps showing up, always rising, always reaching.

So what explains it? Why are pyramids everywhere?

The shape that touches the sky

The pyramid is not just a symbol. It’s a shape grounded in physics and built from the simplest logic of weight and balance. A wide base. Sloping sides. As the structure rises, it narrows. That design doesn’t happen by accident. When you stack stone or mudbrick and let gravity do the rest, the most reliable shape you get is a pyramid. The weight holds itself together. It pushes down, not out. And because of that, pyramids can stand for thousands of years without columns or internal framing. They’re not easy to build, but we are told and reassured by mainstream 

In Egypt, the earliest pyramid-like structures are believed to have begun as mastabas: rectangular tombs with flat tops and sloped sides. Around 2600 BCE, that changed. Djoser, a king of Egypt’s Third Dynasty, commissioned his architect, Imhotep, to stack mastabas into tiers. That experiment became the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first pyramid in Egypt. Later builders and architects are believed to have refined the idea, smoothing the angles and expanding the scale. By the time of Khufu, the shape had reached its peak: the Great Pyramid at Giza, aligned almost perfectly to the cardinal points, built from more than two million blocks of stone.

Some of those blocks are still difficult to explain. The core limestone came from quarries nearby, but the smooth outer casing, now mostly gone, came from Tura, across the river. The granite beams above the King’s Chamber, some weighing more than 50 tons, were transported from Aswan, over 800 kilometers to the south. No records explain how they were moved. Ramps are the leading theory, but no ramp system found so far fully accounts for the scale, precision, and elevation involved. For all the study and excavation, the logistics behind the Great Pyramid remain one of archaeology’s most persistent puzzles. And one of my favorite mysteries about the pyramids.

In Central America, the pyramid took on a different role. The Maya, Aztec, and earlier cultures like the Olmec built stepped pyramids not as tombs but as stages. These were sites of ceremony, processions, and offerings to the gods. Temples sat at the top. Staircases ran down the middle. Unlike the sealed pyramids of Egypt, these were designed to be climbed. Many were built over earlier structures, layer by layer, as each new ruler added their mark to the past. One of the largest pyramids on Earth is located in North America, in the city of Puebla. It is called the Great Pyramid of Cholula.

Back to Africa and Egypt. To the south of Egypt, in what is now Sudan, the Nubian pyramids rose after Egypt’s golden age had faded. The Kingdom of Kush built hundreds of small, narrow pyramids in the desert near Meroë and Napata. They were sharper in angle, often just 6 to 30 meters tall, but their purpose was similar, to honor and bury kings, queens, and elites. They reflected Egypt’s influence, but with distinct local style.

In China, the shape appears again. The burial mound of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unite China, was built in the 3rd century BCE and shaped like a low, flat pyramid. It’s still sealed. Remote sensing suggests a vast complex beneath the soil, rivers of mercury, miniature palaces, walls — but the tomb itself remains untouched. Other imperial mausoleums in the region follow the same form: wide at the base, rising to a flat point, then covered in earth and left to blend into the hills.

Independent invention or shared idea?

As much as some would like to believe otherwise, there’s no evidence that ancient Egypt and the civilizations of the Americas ever made contact. The oceans were too wide, the timelines too far apart. They didn’t share a language, trade goods, or leave behind anything that connects them. And yet, both built pyramids. Large, angular, enduring. The resemblance has confused and intrigued scholars for over a century. It still does. But most experts agree: it’s coincidence.

Archaeologists call it convergent design. The pyramid solves practical problems. If you’re stacking stone or mudbrick and want the structure to last, gravity does most of the planning for you. Build up, and the shape naturally tapers. It’s stable. It’s strong. And if the base is wide enough, it will stand for a very long time. Just look at the pyramids in Egypt.

The pyramid is what happens when you stack stone long enough, said one archaeologist when I was living in Mexico (Yup, I lived there for over 15 years). He argued that it is the most efficient way to build tall without needing much engineering.

That’s true in theory maybe. The shape is efficient. But in practice, building a pyramid wasn’t easy. It took organization, manpower, and long-term planning. Moving heavy stone, lifting it into place, and keeping the structure aligned over dozens of vertical meters demanded far more than instinct. So we have to remember that these weren’t casual constructions. Some pyramids, like for example Cholula, took several generations to build.

And also, practicality wasn’t the only reason pyramids were built, either. In many places, height carried symbolic weight. Mountains were often seen as sacred, places where gods lived or where the living could reach toward the sky. By building upward, people recreated that connection. A pyramid placed the dead, the divine, or the ceremonial high above the ground. That elevation wasn’t just by chance or just because a king back in the day wanted something pointy.

The shape also served power. A pyramid stands out. It can be seen from far away. It doesn’t need decoration to feel important. It can be built over time, layer by layer, each generation adding to the one before (just like cholula). It doesn’t crack or lean, well at least not if it was built right. For rulers who wanted to mark the land, or be remembered long after they were gone, it was a shape that worked.

A pattern across continents

Each region built its own kind of pyramid, shaped by the materials they had, the way their societies worked, and what they believed. In Egypt, mainstream experts maintain that the pyramids were tombs (I kind of disagree). In Mesoamerica, they were said to have been used as temples. In China, they sealed emperors underground. In Sudan, they marked the graves of royalty. The designs varied, but the basic form stayed the same, wide at the base, rising to a point.

In Egypt, pyramid construction reached its height during the Old Kingdom. As political power and resources declined, it is believed that the building slowed and eventually stopped. In Mesoamerica, the tradition lasted much longer. The Maya were still building pyramids into the 15th century, often adding new layers on top of older ones. In Sudan, the Napatan and Meroitic kingdoms revived the form long after Egypt had moved on. Their pyramids were smaller and steeper, but just as symbolic.

The Chinese pyramids are harder to spot. Most are covered in earth and blend into the landscape. The largest belongs to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China. His tomb has never been opened, but surveys suggest there’s a vast underground complex beneath it, palaces, walls, and rivers made of mercury.

Why the pyramid worked

If you asked me to reply logically, I would probably say that a pyramid holds its own weight. That’s the simplest reason it shows up in so many ancient cultures. The wider the base, the more weight it can carry above. When people were building with stone, without mortar or steel, this mattered. You could stack layer after layer, and the shape would stay intact. It didn’t need columns or supports. It stayed up because of the way it was built.
The question remains, however, how some of the supermassive stones were transported in ancient Egyp, and stacked to the height the stones were stacked. But then again…The structure wasn’t the only reason. Height made a difference. A pyramid could rise above everything around it. In open landscapes, it became a fixed point on the horizon. For rulers, that visibility meant power. It gave their cities a center. It reminded people who was buried there, or who held the land.

In many places, height also carried spiritual meaning. Mountains were seen as sacred. They stood between the world of people and the world of gods. By building upward, ancient cultures brought that idea into daily life. A pyramid wasn’t a mountain, but it borrowed the shape. It gave form to beliefs that were otherwise invisible.

There are other ideas, too. Some people believe that different pyramid-building cultures inherited the design from a lost civilization. Others say there was contact between continents long before recorded history. A few suggest more unusual explanations. Archaeologists don’t accept these theories, because they aren’t supported by evidence. But their persistence shows how much mystery the pyramid still holds. For something made of stone, it remains hard to pin down.

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23-05-2025 om 23:28 geschreven door peter  

Deep in the green border of Kenya and Tanzania is a volcanic crater lake that quietly keeps an ancient geophysical journal. For thousands of years, Lake Chala has lain in a volcanic caldera, its calm waters hiding the seismic and geomagnetic theatrics playing out over deep time. Scientists drilling into its bottom sediments recently have revealed a 150,000-year history of Earth's magnetic oscillations—a finding that bridges planetary physics to early Homo sapiens migrations!

Lake Chala's location, shielded from raging rivers and floods, and a gentle runoff from the crater's surrounding ridges and forests, has resulted in sediment layers so undisturbed and linear that they are a virtual perfect geological timeline. Unlike most lake cores convoluted with flood sediments or seismic events, the sedimentary record in Lake Chala holds year-by-year histories, and it is thus an unrivaled platform for paleoenvironmental study.

It was here that Dr. Anita Di Chiara and colleagues from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology pulled out a core sample that is now a key to reconstructing the earth's ancient magnetic behavior. They’ve published their finds in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.

Reading the Magnetic Script of Earth

As volcanic ash and other sediment settle onto a lake bottom, they capture microscopic magnetic grains. These grains align themselves to the Earth's magnetic field of the day, behaving as tiny frozen compass needles. There have accumulated on top of each other in a vertical record of geomagnetic history over thousands of years—a chronology carefully deciphered by Di Chiara's group.

Whereas polar magnetic records are plentiful, equatorial information such as that of Lake Chala is scarce. And that is its value. Earth's magnetic field originates with the chaotic flow of its molten outer core, and whereas pole-based records show the wild oscillations and reversals, an equatorial view can show the more subtle, world-encompassing changes.

• Results of Kenyan Dig Suggest Africa’s First Toolmakers Were Not Human
• New Findings On How Climate Affected Body and Brain Size in Genus Homo

"Having an equatorial record is sort of special," Di Chiara said in an interview with Live Science. "It's a key piece in the puzzle."

Following the Magnetic Pulse of the Past

The Lake Chala sediment core chronicles six large geomagnetic excursions—periods during which Earth's magnetic field tottered, lost strength, or temporarily reversed without actually going through a complete pole reversal. One of these excursions is completely new to the geological record and provides new information on the unstable nature of Earth's core.

These outings are not innocent curiosities. The field protects the planet against solar wind—barrages of charged particles that can trouble satellites, radio communications, and even planetary climate patterns. When the field weakens, Earth lies open to enhanced cosmic radiation.

But how did these variations affect people living in and around Lake Chala in ancient times?

A Landscape Witness to Human Odyssey

Between 150,000 years ago and now, Lake Chala's sediments record a period of intense human transformation. It was the time the anatomically modern humans emerged, left Africa, and went on to fill Eurasia.

Although a magnetic anomaly may not have been detectable to early Homo sapiens, its environmental impact—alterations in climatic patterns, radiation flux, or even animal migration—would have quietly influenced the survival tactics and migrations of early human societies.

21-05-2025 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

Drie ogen, enorme scharen en een bek vol scherpe tanden: maak kennis met de 506 miljoen jaar oude Mosura fentoni

Jeannette Kras

 

Het lijkt op de foto een gruwelijk beest, de pas ontdekte Mosura fentoni. Gelukkig is hij maar zo groot als je wijsvinger (en al heel lang uitgestorven). Die drie ogen en enorme scharen worden dan toch iets minder angstaanjagend.

Het zijn paleontologen van het Canadese Royal Ontario Museum die het 506 miljoen jaar oude roofdier hebben gevonden. Ze troffen fossielen van het beestje aan op de beroemde vindplaats de Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park en schreven erover in een artikel in het tijdschrift Royal Society Open Science.

De radiodonten
De Mosura fentoni heeft een ronde bek met tanden en een lichaam met zwemvliezen aan de zijkant. Het dier maakte deel uit van een uitgestorven groep uit het Cambrium, de radiodonten. Ook de veel beroemdere meterslange grote broer Anomalocaris canadensis behoort daartoe.

• Bekijk hier beelden van de Anomalocaris canadensis, het meest iconische lid van de radiodonten. Hij kon wel een meter lang worden en is voor het eerst beschreven in 1892.

Maar Mosura heeft ook een uniek kenmerk dat geen enkele andere radiodont heeft: een buikachtig lichaamsdeel aan de achterkant, dat uit meerdere segmenten bestaat.

“Mosura heeft zestien dicht op elkaar zittende segmenten met kieuwen aan de achterkant van zijn lichaam. Dit is een mooi voorbeeld van evolutionaire convergentie met moderne groepen, zoals degenkrabben, pissebedden en insecten, die ook een aantal segmenten hebben met ademhalingsorganen aan de achterkant van het lichaam”, legt onderzoeksleider Joe Moysiuk uit. Hij is conservator paleontologie en geologie in het Manitoba Museum. Waarom de Mosura dit heeft, is nog niet helemaal duidelijk, maar het heeft vermoedelijk te maken met een voorkeur voor een bepaalde habitat of gedragskenmerken, die een efficiëntere ademhaling vereisten.

De zeemot
Het roofdier heeft als bijnaam ‘de zeemot’. Door de brede zwemvliezen in het midden en het smalle achterlijf lijkt hij enigszins op een mot. Het heeft zelfs geleid tot de officiële naam. Die verwijst namelijk naar een fictief dier uit het Japanse filmgenre kaiju (letterlijk: vreemd beest), waar de Mothra er eentje van is. De Mosura is echter slechts in de verte verwant aan echte motten en vertoont net zo goed gelijkenissen met spinnen, krabben en miljoenpoten. Het dier behoort tot een veel diepere tak in de evolutionaire stamboom van deze dieren, die gezamenlijk bekendstaan als geleedpotigen.

“Radiodonten waren de eerste groep geleedpotigen die zich vertakten in de evolutionaire stamboom, dus ze bieden belangrijke inzichten in de voorouderlijke eigenschappen van de hele groep. De nieuwe soort laat zien dat deze vroege geleedpotigen al verrassend divers waren en zich op een vergelijkbare manier aanpasten als hun verre moderne verwanten”, zegt medeonderzoeker Jean-Bernard Caron, curator bij ROM.

Unieke anatomische details
De fossielen leveren nog meer interessante informatie op over de Mosura. Zo laten ze details zien van de inwendige anatomie, waaronder elementen van het zenuwstelsel, de bloedsomloop en het spijsverteringskanaal. “Er zijn maar heel weinig fossiele vindplaatsen op de wereld die op dit niveau inzicht bieden in de zachte anatomie. We zien sporen van zenuwen in de ogen die betrokken waren bij de beeldverwerking, net als bij levende geleedpotigen. De details zijn verbazingwekkend”, aldus Caron.

Open bloedsomloop
In plaats van slagaders en aders zoals wij die hebben, had Mosura een ‘open’ bloedsomloop, waarbij het hart bloed in grote inwendige lichaamsholten pompte die lacunae worden genoemd. Deze lacunae zijn bewaard gebleven als reflecterende vlekken die het lichaam vullen en doorlopen tot de zwemvliezen in de fossielen.

“De goed bewaarde lacunae van de bloedsomloop in de Mosura helpen ons bij het interpreteren van vergelijkbare, maar minder duidelijke kenmerken die we eerder in andere fossielen hebben gezien”, voegt Moysiuk toe. “Het blijkt dat deze structuren op grote schaal bewaard zijn gebleven, wat de oeroude oorsprong van dit type bloedsomloop bevestigt.”

61 fossielen
De 61 fossielen van Mosura zijn op een na allemaal tussen 1975 en 2022 door het ROM verzameld, voornamelijk in de Raymond Quarry in Yoho National Park. “Museumcollecties, oud en nieuw, zijn een bodemloze schat aan informatie over het verleden. Als je denkt dat je alles gezien hebt, hoef je alleen maar een museumlade open te trekken”, besluit Moysiuk.

De Burgess Shale
De Burgess Shale is een wereldberoemde fossiellocatie in Canada, bekend om zijn uitzonderlijk goed bewaarde fossielen uit het Cambrium, meer dan 500 miljoen jaar geleden. Het ligt in de Rocky Mountains van British Columbia en werd in 1909 ontdekt door de Amerikaanse paleontoloog Charles Doolittle Walcott. Het bijzondere aan de fossielen is dat ook zacht weefsel, zoals spieren, ingewanden en voelsprieten bewaard zijn gebleven. Eerder schreven we al over een andere nieuwe radiodont die daar is gevonden, de Titanokorys gainesi. Die is niet zo groot als zijn beroemde soortgenoot, maar met een geschatte lengte van een halve meter nog altijd reusachtig voor zijn tijd. “Dit is één van de grootste dieren uit het Cambrium ooit gevonden”, aldus onderzoeker Jean-Bernard Caron destijds.

Bronmateriaal

• "Early evolvability in arthropod tagmosis exemplified by a new radiodont from the Burgess Shale" - Royal Society Open Science
  
• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: Art by Danielle Dufault, © ROM

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{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/natuur-klimaat/ }

19-05-2025 om 23:22 geschreven door peter  

Atlit Yam is not just older than the pyramids. It’s older than writing, wheels, and metallurgy. And yet it shows signs of sophisticated planning, water management, and even ceremonial architecture. Despite all this, no one can say for sure who built it, what they believed, or why they vanished so suddenly.

How a sunken structure older than the pyramids was preserved beneath the sea

The site came to light in 1984, when marine archaeologist Ehud Galili was conducting a routine survey of the seabed near the modern Israeli town of Atlit. What first appeared to be random stone formations turned out to be the remains of a large, carefully organized Neolithic settlement. Today, Atlit Yam lies about ten meters underwater, spread across more than 40,000 square meters.

Radiocarbon dating places the site between 6900 and 6300 BCE, making it thousands of years older than Egypt’s earliest monumental architecture. Excavations have revealed rectangular stone houses with plastered floors, open courtyards, hearths, storage pits, and even an elaborate freshwater well dug directly into the coastal aquifer. Surrounding the village are tools, fishing gear, animal bones, and remnants of grain, suggesting a population that relied on a mix of farming and fishing.

The reason Atlit Yam is so well-preserved has everything to do with the water. The sea didn’t erode it. It protected it. Like many other sites across the world. The mud and silt created a perfect seal, preserving not just stonework but fragile organic materials as well. The sunken structure older than the pyramids is one of the best-preserved prehistoric coastal sites in the world precisely because of its sudden submersion.

The stone circle at the heart of the mystery

 When I said structure, this is what I was mainly referring to.

Near the center of Atlit Yam, archaeologists uncovered a semicircle of seven massive stones, each one standing upright around what was once a spring. They are not scattered or toppled. They were placed with care, each upright block locked into position nearly 9,000 years ago.

Some of them weigh several tons. And yet they were moved, raised, and aligned by hand, without the help of wheels or metal tools. Their surfaces are smooth in places, but not untouched. Shallow basins have been carved into the tops of some, subtle recesses that hint at purpose. Perhaps they once held water. Perhaps something else.

No one knows for certain why the stones were arranged this way. The arc they form is too precise to be accidental. Some researchers suggest they may have served as a gathering place, a site for shared rituals or seasonal ceremonies tied to water. Others believe the alignment might be more than symbolic. A few have proposed that the stones were positioned in relation to the movement of the Sun or stars. I believe the latter.

Their arrangement invites comparison to other megalithic sites like Stonehenge, but this one is older by thousands of years. If the people of Atlit Yam were observing the sky and measuring time through stone, it would place the beginnings of astronomy far earlier than most histories allow. And I concur.

What is peculiar is that there are no carvings here. There are no calendars. There are no visible signs to confirm the theory. What remains is the weight of the stones, their deliberate placement, and the quiet sense that they once meant something more. Nothing has been proven. But to stand in front of them, even underwater, is to feel the pull of a question we have not yet learned how to ask.

Burials, disease, and sudden destruction

Among the site’s most poignant discoveries are its graves. Archaeologists found several human burials within the village, including one especially intimate example: a woman and child interred together, their bodies laid out with care and respect. The grave offers a rare look at social bonds and burial customs from a time before writing.

Scientific analysis revealed the woman had suffered from tuberculosis, making her remains one of the earliest known cases of the disease in the archaeological record. This pushed the origin of tuberculosis thousands of years earlier than previously believed.

But while individual deaths are expected in any community, the end of Atlit Yam itself was anything but ordinary. The entire site appears to have been abandoned all at once, with no evidence of warfare, famine, or prolonged decay. The leading theory is that a massive tsunami — triggered by a volcanic collapse on Mount Etna in Sicily — swept across the eastern Mediterranean and drowned the entire village. Geological deposits along the coast support this theory.

A disaster of that scale would have been sudden and devastating. The people of Atlit Yam likely had no time to flee. Their homes, belongings, and lives were simply engulfed.

A glimpse into the lives that once moved through these walls

Nothing about Atlit Yam feels accidental. The layout of its homes, the channels that once carried water, the central well — they all speak to people who understood how to live in one place, and how to live together. This was a community with structure. Not just in the stones, but in the way they approached survival

They farmed the land, harvested the sea, and buried their dead with care. They planned where to place their homes and how to access freshwater. That kind of order doesn’t appear without conversation, cooperation, and shared memory.

What they left behind may be even more telling. Among the artifacts found at the site are tools made from obsidian, a volcanic glass that doesn’t occur naturally along the Israeli coast. The closest known sources lie in modern-day Turkey, hundreds of kilometers to the north. That kind of material doesn’t drift in with the tide. It has to be carried, traded, passed hand to hand. Whatever their route, the people of Atlit Yam had ties that reached beyond the shoreline.7

Atlit Yam was a functioning settlement. The layout of the homes, the location of the well, the presence of storage areas and work spaces — all of it points to people who understood how to live in one place for a long time. Nothing about the site suggests a seasonal camp.

They worked with the land, made use of the sea, and organized their space with purpose. Then the sea changed, and their world disappeared.

The people behind Atlit Yam have no name

Atlit Yam offers no names, no written words, no symbols we can follow. The people who built this place left behind walls, wells, and stone tools, but not their voice. No inscription marks who they were, where they came from, or how they saw the world around them.

Some archaeologists suggest the site was part of a larger Neolithic tradition that once stretched across the Levant. Others believe it may have belonged to a distinct coastal culture, shaped by the shoreline and the sea. There are theories, but no certainty. What remains is a site without a signature.

Much of it is still buried beneath layers of silt. What has been uncovered is only a fragment. Working underwater is slow. The tides shift, sand drifts, and every excavation demands patience and care. It may take years before the rest of Atlit Yam comes into view, if it ever does. Whatever answers remain are still underwater.

What the site does show, even in its silence, is a community that had settled into a way of life. The homes were carefully built. The dead were buried with intention. The well was dug deep, and the carved stones placed around the spring suggest that meaning, not just survival, shaped this place.

There is no gold at Atlit Yam. No mythic ruins or towering monuments. What survives is something quieter. A village that stayed intact because it vanished all at once, pulled beneath the sea in a single, irreversible moment. The memory of its people wasn’t passed down. It was preserved by accident.

Now, as archaeologists work to recover its outline, stone by stone, we’re left to imagine what was lost. These people were watching the skies, digging wells, growing food, and burying their dead before the pyramids were even a thought. They are not mentioned in any history, but their presence remains, just below the surface.

The sea covered their world, but it did not erase it. And in that silence, we begin to hear their story.

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17-05-2025 om 20:35 geschreven door peter  

The ancient stone rings that predate writing. An illustraton of the so-called Senegambian stone circles.

Curiosmos.

Archaeologists have found ancient stone circles that predate writing by thousands of years. Some track solstices. Others point to bright stars. All of them suggest a deep understanding of cycles and a need to record them in permanent form.

Why circles? The shape has no beginning or end. It reflects continuity of seasons, of time, of life and death. That universality may explain why circles appear in cultures that never met, speaking languages no longer remembered.

Nabta Playa: A stone calendar in the desert

In southern Egypt, buried beneath sand for millennia, lies Nabta Playa, a site older than Stonehenge. Built around 7,000 years ago by nomadic pastoralists, it features upright stones arranged in a circle with alignments that track the summer solstice.

Some researchers believe the stones point to Sirius and Orion’s Belt, suggesting a celestial function that goes beyond seasonal tracking. Nearby carved stones, including depictions of cows, hint at rituals tied to fertility, rain, or life cycles. Yet the people who built Nabta Playa left no written record.

They had only the stars to guide them, and stones to preserve what they saw.

Arkaim: Russia’s forgotten observatory city

I think a few of my readers have heard of this site. In the southern Ural Mountains lies Arkaim, a Bronze Age settlement with a circular layout and a mysterious past. Built roughly 4,000 years ago, its concentric walls and radial streets seem more than defensive. Researchers have noted solar and lunar alignments in its structure, leading some to describe it as an ancient observatory.

Arkaim’s origins are tied to early Indo-European migrations. Sky worship was common among these groups, and Arkaim may have served as a center for both astronomical observation and religious ceremony. Unlike Nabta Playa, it was a lived-in settlement, not just a ceremonial space. But its circular plan suggests a symbolic link to the sky above, a mirror of the heavens on Earth.

The Senegambian circles: Africa’s mysterious monuments

Scattered across Senegal and The Gambia are more than 1,000 stone circles, forming the largest concentration of megalithic structures in West Africa. Many date from the 3rd century BCE to the 9th century CE, but some may be older. Thousands of upright stones, often precisely placed, stretch across the landscape in repeating patterns.

Most were built over burials, but their scale and precision raise more questions than answers. Some researchers propose astronomical functions. Others see them as markers of territory or lineage. Almost nothing is known about the people who built them. Yet their work remains, quiet and immovable, still pointing at the sky.

What were the ancient stone circles really trying to say

We may never know exactly why these ancient stone circles were built, but when we step back and look at the patterns, a picture begins to form. Many of them are aligned with the solstices or lunar events, which suggests their builders were tracking time. This wasn’t just about counting days. It may have been a way to mark the rhythm of seasons, migrations, or sacred moments in the year.

Some of these ancient structures feel like gathering places. The way the stones are arranged, the way they open into space, hints at ceremonies or communal rituals. People may have met there to watch the sky, share stories, or honor something greater than themselves.

Then there are the details that raise even more questions. Certain sites reflect sound in strange ways. Others follow exact mathematical layouts. These elements suggest more than just tradition or instinct. They point to deliberate design, a kind of planning that reaches into science as well as spirit.

In a few places, the alignment of stones seems to echo the sky above. Stars have earthly counterparts. The layout becomes a reflection of the heavens. It’s as if these builders were creating a memory on the ground, one that would preserve what they saw in the sky.

Taken together, the  rings speak to a kind of intelligence we don’t often associate with ancient people. They understood space and time. And they used stone to hold on to that knowledge.

Circles across the world and across time

One of the most remarkable things is how often these stone circles appear in places that had no contact with each other. From the deserts of North Africa to the grasslands of Russia and the mountains of South America, circles keep appearing. Different people, different continents, but the same shape again and again.

Within these circles, familiar symbols often repeat. Bulls. Vultures (like at Göbekli Tepe). Rays of sunlight. The meanings may not have been the same, but the images speak to shared concerns. Life and death. Light and darkness. The turning of the sky.

Even now, we still rely on circles to shape our understanding of time. Our clocks are round. Our calendars turn in cycles. We still think in seasons, in repetitions, in return.

Maybe these ancient rings weren’t just tools or temples. Maybe they were a way to remember. Not just information, but feeling. Not just facts, but presence. They were made to last, and they have. Even if the language is lost, the shape remains. Even if the names are gone, the stones are still watching the sky.

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10-05-2025 om 21:12 geschreven door peter  

What if the first civilizations were older than we think

What if civilization didn’t begin with cities or writing, but with memory and the sky? What if the first civilizations were older than we think?

For generations, we were taught that civilization began in Sumer and Egypt — around 3000 BCE — when humans finally settled, wrote laws, and built cities. That idea shaped everything from textbooks to popular documentaries. But over the last few decades, archaeologists have uncovered something far older. Massive stone temples, planned settlements, and mysterious ceremonial structures have emerged from beneath the soil of Turkey, Syria, and Jordan. T

hey tell a story few were expecting: that the first civilizations were older than we think, and that they didn’t begin with farming or rulers, but with ritual, alignment to the stars, and shared cultural memory.

These sites are forcing historians to rethink not only when civilization began, but what it even means to be civilized.

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The old narrative is crumbling

Civilization, we’ve been told, followed agriculture. Once people farmed, they stored grain. With storage came surplus. With surplus came hierarchies, trade, religion, and writing. But this neat progression is being disrupted by evidence that large, organized communities existed long before farming, and long before anyone thought complex societies were possible.

The first real cracks in the timeline appeared in the 1990s, when excavations at a hilltop in southeastern Turkey revealed a set of carved stone enclosures unlike anything seen before. But that was just the beginning. And as one of my favorite authors say it quite often, “things keep on getting older.”

Tell Qaramel: Towers before the plow

In northern Syria, archaeologists found something unexpected: a site called Tell Qaramel, dating back to around 10,700 BCE. That’s nearly 7,000 years before the pyramids. Here, multiple circular stone towers were constructed with carefully laid foundations and multi-level floors,  all during a time when people were still hunting and foraging.

There was no farming, no pottery, and no writing. Yet the structures show planning, cooperation, and a clear sense of permanence. They challenge the idea that architectural sophistication had to wait for agriculture. They’re one of the first signs that the first civilizations were older than we think, and organized in ways we still don’t fully understand. I do not think that people are actually aware of the number of amazing, incredible, and mind-boggling sites that exist in Iraq.

Çayönü: Ritual and order before state control

South of Tell Qaramel lies another site, Çayönü, which was occupied between 8800 and 7000 BCE. The layout was astonishingly deliberate. Rectangular homes arranged along shared paths, communal buildings with stone-paved floors, and — perhaps most disturbingly — a room filled with rows of human skulls embedded in the floor.

This wasn’t chaos. It was ritual. Scholars now believe this “skull building” served as a ceremonial site, part of a belief system passed from generation to generation. There’s no evidence of kings or taxation, yet the people of Çayönü lived with structure, meaning, and continuity. It’s one more clue that the first civilizations were older than we think, and less dependent on domination than we assumed.

Wadi Faynan: City behavior without a city

In the Jordanian desert, where survival today is a challenge even with modern tools, lies the site of Wadi Faynan — a settlement nearly 10,000 years old. It lacks walls, palaces, or temples, but it shows something else: early irrigation, cooperative labor, and multi-room housing.

There was no ruling class. No evidence of military enforcement. Yet people worked together to manage water, food, and construction. This type of social coordination has long been associated with formal city-states — but Wadi Faynan had none. It’s a quiet but powerful example that the first civilizations were older than we think, and may have valued function over formality.

Nevalı Çori: The first temples?

Before Göbekli Tepe stunned the world, a nearby site called Nevalı Çori hinted at a forgotten chapter in human history. Dated to around 8500 BCE, this small village held something remarkable: carved pillars, humanoid statues, and a structure that appears to have been a ritual hall or temple.

All of this happened before the widespread use of farming, metal, or permanent cities. The stonework was advanced. The figures were symbolic. The layout suggested planning. It was not just shelter — it was a sacred space.

Nevalı Çori is one of several sites now revealing that the first civilizations were older than we think, and driven as much by shared meaning as by material need.

What were these people building — and why?

Ok, but let’s step back for a minute and ask an important question. Why? If not for survival, then what drove people to carve massive stones, align temples to the solstice, and plan settlements with symmetry? These were not random experiments. They reflect something deeper: the need to remember, to pass down knowledge, to make sense of death, stars, and time itself.

In place after place, from Göbekli Tepe to Karahan Tepe, we find symbolism without writing, cooperation without kings, and architecture without agriculture. These early builders were not primitive. They were highly intelligent, spiritually driven, and deeply aware of their place in the world.

If you ask me, the evidence is mounting: and we have to start rewriting our history books and acknowledge that the first civilizations were older than we think, and rooted not in wealth or war, but in meaning.

Rethinking the definition of civilization

But it is also time for one more thing. We need to redefine the word for “civilization”. For too long, civilization has been defined by what leaves behind the most impressive ruins, pyramids, palaces, writing systems. But this definition overlooks something crucial: intention.

What if a circle of carved pillars in Turkey carries more civilizational meaning than a walled city? What if skulls arranged in a sacred floor say more about culture than a stone tablet of taxes? What if the first civilizations were older than we think, simply because they were never about power, but about… say… memory?

We are not discovering “primitive ancestors.” We are uncovering the deep roots of cultural intelligence.

A future built on forgotten pasts

Every new find and every carved totem, buried tower, and stone map of the stars adds to a growing truth: the beginning of civilization didn’t start with kings. It started with questions. Who are we? Where do we go when we die? What moves in the sky above?

The answers were written not in ink, but in stone, passed silently from hand to hand for thousands of years. And they remind us that the first civilizations were older than we think, and perhaps wiser, too.

So guess it is time to finally acknowledge that the story of human civilization doesn’t begin in 3000 BCE. It begins in silence, in ritual, in stones aligned with the stars. Long before cities and scribes, people were building structures that spoke to the soul, not the state. If we want to understand where we come from, we must look beyond kings and kingdoms. The first civilizations weren’t lost. They were simply buried — waiting for us to listen. Waiting for us to discover.

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{ https://curiosmos.com/category/ancient-civilizations/ }

08-05-2025 om 00:45 geschreven door peter  

An interest in understanding the role that the Milky Way played in Egyptian culture and religion has led University of Portsmouth Associate Professor of Astrophysics Dr. Or Graur to uncover what he thinks may be the ancient Egyptian visual depiction of our galaxy.

Various Egyptian gods are either associated with, symbolize, or directly embody certain celestial objects. In his study, Dr. Graur reviewed 125 images of the sky-goddess Nut (pronounced "Noot"), found among 555 ancient Egyptian coffins dating back nearly 5,000 years.

Combining astronomy with Egyptology, he analyzed whether she could be linked to the Milky Way and his findings are now published in the  Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.

• The Great Pyramid: New Theory on God Symbolism and the Hidden Chambers
• Sky Religion in Ancient Egypt: Temples and Magick - Part I

The Many and Myriad Portrayals of Nut

In scenes reflecting the day and night sky, Nut is shown as a naked, arched woman, sometimes covered with stars or with solar disks. Nut's arched posture is seen as evoking her identification with the sky and its protection of Earth below.

As the goddess of the sky, Nut is often depicted as a star-studded woman arched over her brother, the earth god Geb. She protects the earth from being flooded by the encroaching waters of the void and plays a key role in the solar cycle, swallowing the sun as it sets at dusk and giving birth to it once more as it rises at dawn.

However, on the outer coffin of Nesitaudjatakhet, a chantress of Amun-Re who lived some 3,000 years ago, Nut's appearance deviates from the norm. Here, a distinctive, undulating black curve crosses her body from the soles of her feet to the tips of her fingers, with stars painted in roughly equal numbers above and below the curve.

The Milky Way over the sand dunes of the Egyptian Western Desert near El-Fayoum. Note the similarity between the Great Rift and the undulating black curve that bisects Nut’s body. 

(Osama Faithi/Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage).

Dr. Graur said, "I think that the undulating curve represents the Milky Way and could be a representation of the Great Rift—the dark band of dust that cuts through the Milky Way's bright band of diffused light. Comparing this depiction with a photograph of the Milky Way shows the stark similarity."

He added, "Similar undulating curves appear in four tombs in the Valley of the Kings. In the tomb of Ramesses VI, for example, the ceiling of the burial chamber is split between the Book of the Day and the Book of the Night. Both include arched figures of Nut displayed back-to-back and separated by thick, golden undulating curves that issue from the base of Nut's head and travel above her back all the way to her rear."

"I did not see a similar undulating curve in any of the other cosmological representations of Nut and it is my view that the rarity of this curve reinforces the conclusion I reached in a study of ancient texts last year, which is that although there is a connection between Nut and the Milky Way, the two are not one and the same. Nut is not a representation of the Milky Way. Instead, the Milky Way, along with the sun and the stars, is one more celestial phenomenon that can decorate Nut's body in her role as the sky."

• Understanding the Gods of Egypt: In Unison With Nature
• Beyond Fertility: Goddess Heqet’s Extensive Influence on Ancient Egypt

The Milky Way in the Spotlight

In a study published last year (April 2024), Dr. Graur drew from a rich collection of ancient sources, including the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and the Book of Nut, to compare them alongside sophisticated simulations of the Egyptian night sky and argue that the Milky Way might have shone a spotlight on Nut's role as the sky in Egyptian mythology.

It proposed that in winter, the Milky Way highlighted Nut's outstretched arms, while in summer, it traced her backbone across the heavens. Dr. Graur's conclusions about Nut and the Milky Way have evolved since that initial paper. He said, "The texts, on their own, suggested one way to think about the link between Nut and the Milky Way. Analyzing her visual depictions on coffins and tomb murals added a new dimension that, quite literally, painted a different picture."

The astronomical ceiling from the tomb of Seti I (KV 17). Note the undulating black curves between rows of yellow half-circles that border the two halves of the ceiling. 

(Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage).

Both the current and previous studies are part of a larger project by Dr. Graur to catalog and study the multi-cultural mythology of the Milky Way. He said, "I chanced upon the sky-goddess Nut when I was writing a book on galaxies and looking into the mythology of the Milky Way. My interest was piqued after a visit to a museum with my daughters, where they were enchanted by the image of an arched woman and kept asking to hear stories about her."

There is no doubt that the relationship between ancient Egyptian mythology and the sky is deep and complex. Even now, thousands of years after that civilization was at the peak of its power and influence, there is still more to be discovered about the nature of that relationship, as Dr Graur’s work so clearly demonstrates.

• Top image: Nut’s cosmological vignette on the outer coffin of Nesitaudjatakhet. Nut’s body is covered in stars as well as a thick, undulating black curve that runs from the soles of her feet to the tips of her fingers. This curve, surrounded by stars on both sides, is reminiscent of the Milky Way’s Great Rift.
• Source: Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.
• This is an edited version of a press release from the University of Portsmouth, entitled ‘Depictions of the Milky Way Found in Ancient Egyptian Imagery.

• https://youtu.be/wAF3-1fLn_0

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena }

03-05-2025 om 22:30 geschreven door peter  

16 Famous Historical Sites That Have Been Lost to Natural Disasters

Alvin Goodley 

Throughout history, natural disasters have wiped out cities, monuments, and entire civilizations. Some of the world’s most famous landmarks have been lost due to catastrophic events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods. These once-thriving places now exist only in ruins or stories. Here, we explore a collection of historical sites that nature took away, some well-known and others long forgotten.

1. Pompeii, Italy

Pompeii was a prosperous Roman city located near modern Naples. In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted, releasing clouds of ash, pumice, and toxic gases. The city was buried under meters of volcanic debris, instantly killing thousands of its residents. Remarkably, Pompeii remained frozen in time for centuries, preserving homes, streets, and even the positions of people caught in the disaster. Today, it provides one of the clearest insights into life in ancient Rome. The eruption also destroyed nearby Herculaneum, another significant Roman settlement.

2. Port Royal, Jamaica

Port Royal was a thriving Caribbean port and notorious pirate haven in the 17th century. On June 7, 1692, a massive earthquake struck, causing two-thirds of the city to sink into the sea. The earthquake was followed by a deadly tsunami, which drowned many survivors and left the port in ruins. Once one of the wealthiest cities in the New World, Port Royal’s destruction became a cautionary tale about decadence and immorality. Today, its submerged remains are a popular site for underwater archaeologists exploring its sunken treasures.

3. Alexandria Lighthouse, Egypt

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharos of Alexandria, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built in the 3rd century BC, it stood over 100 meters tall and guided ships safely to the busy port of Alexandria. Several earthquakes between the 10th and 14th centuries weakened the structure until it eventually collapsed into the Mediterranean Sea. Though long gone, the lighthouse’s foundations were discovered underwater, and it continues to inspire modern designs of lighthouses around the world.

4. Helike, Greece

Helike was a wealthy Greek city located near the Corinthian Gulf. In 373 BC, a powerful earthquake struck, followed by a massive tsunami that submerged the entire city. Helike disappeared beneath the waters, and for centuries, its existence was thought to be a legend. In the 20th century, archaeologists discovered its ruins under layers of silt and water. The sudden destruction of Helike may have contributed to the stories of Atlantis, as the city’s fate seemed so sudden and mysterious.

5. Nan Madol, Micronesia

Nan Madol is an ancient city built on artificial islets off the coast of Pohnpei in Micronesia. Once a political and ceremonial hub for the Saudeleur Dynasty, it was constructed with massive stone walls and canals. Over time, the region was hit by severe tsunamis and typhoons that eroded parts of the city, leading to its abandonment. The remote location and challenging conditions have preserved much of the city, but it remains threatened by ongoing natural forces. Nan Madol’s ruins are an impressive testament to early island engineering.

6. Atlantis

The legend of Atlantis, first described by the philosopher Plato, tells of a mighty civilization that vanished beneath the sea in a single day and night. Many believe it was destroyed by an earthquake or tsunami, though its exact location remains a mystery. While no conclusive evidence has been found, some speculate that Atlantis may have been inspired by real ancient cities like Helike or Santorini. Whether real or myth, the story of Atlantis continues to captivate and inspire explorations for the lost civilization.

7. Old St. Augustine, Florida, USA

Founded by the Spanish in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European city in the United States. However, much of its early settlement was destroyed by hurricanes in the 17th and 18th centuries. These storms caused massive flooding, damaged buildings, and washed away parts of the original city. Old St. Augustine’s historic landmarks were repeatedly rebuilt after each storm, but the original structures were largely lost to time and nature’s wrath. Today, the city is a testament to resilience, though remnants of the old city still remain buried beneath layers of history.

8. Roman City of Baiae, Italy

Baiae was a lavish resort town for the Roman elite, famous for its thermal baths and opulent villas. Located on the Bay of Naples, the city was built on a geologically active area. Volcanic activity and a phenomenon called bradyseism, where land slowly rises and falls, caused Baiae to sink beneath the waters of the Mediterranean. By the 8th century, the city was completely submerged. Today, divers can explore the well-preserved ruins of villas, mosaics, and statues that once belonged to some of the most powerful Romans.

9. Akrotiri, Greece

Akrotiri was a bustling Minoan city on the island of Santorini, flourishing in the Bronze Age. Around 1600 BC, a massive volcanic eruption buried the entire settlement under ash, preserving it much like Pompeii. The eruption was one of the largest in human history and likely caused significant climatic and seismic changes in the region. Excavations of Akrotiri have revealed well-preserved frescoes, pottery, and buildings, offering a unique insight into Minoan life. Unlike Pompeii, no human remains have been found, suggesting that the residents evacuated before the disaster struck.

10. La Ciudad Perdida, Colombia

La Ciudad Perdida, or the “Lost City,” is an ancient Tairona settlement hidden deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Colombia. It was built around 800 AD and served as a major cultural and trade center. The city was abandoned after severe flooding, which contributed to its decline, along with disease and conflict. Thick jungle growth overtook the city, hiding it for centuries until its rediscovery in the 1970s. Today, its terraced platforms, stone paths, and plazas are some of the few remnants of this lost civilization.

11. Dwarka, Indi

Dwarka, mentioned in Hindu scriptures as the kingdom of Lord Krishna, is believed to have been a thriving port city. Archaeological evidence suggests that it existed around 3000 BC but was submerged due to rising sea levels. Underwater excavations near the modern city of Dwarka have revealed remnants of walls, structures, and stone anchors, indicating a once prosperous maritime center. While much of Dwarka remains a mystery, its legend continues to captivate both archaeologists and historians, who are still uncovering clues about its lost glory.

12. Yaxuná, Mexico

Yaxuná was a prominent Mayan city located in the Yucatán Peninsula, with its history dating back to 500 BC. The city thrived for centuries but was severely impacted by repeated hurricanes and flooding, leading to its eventual abandonment. These natural disasters caused widespread damage to its infrastructure and agricultural systems, weakening its economy and political power. Today, the ruins of Yaxuná, including pyramids and ceremonial structures, remain covered by jungle growth, though some areas have been excavated and preserved.

13. Sunken City of Pavlopetri, Greece

Pavlopetri, located off the coast of Laconia, Greece, is considered one of the oldest known submerged cities, dating back to around 3000 BC. It was a thriving coastal settlement, but repeated earthquakes and subsidence caused the land to sink, eventually submerging the city beneath the sea. Archaeologists have discovered well-preserved streets, buildings, and tombs underwater, offering a unique glimpse into the life of an ancient Greek city. Pavlopetri’s underwater ruins continue to fascinate both scholars and divers today.

14. Old Panama City, Panama

Founded in 1519, Old Panama City was a vital Spanish colonial outpost and the first European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas. In 1671, the city was attacked by pirates, leading to widespread fires that devastated much of its infrastructure. The final blow came in the form of an earthquake, which further destroyed what was left of the city. The Spanish authorities decided to relocate and rebuild Panama City at a new site, leaving the old ruins as a haunting reminder of its turbulent past.

15. Phanom Rung, Thailand

Phanom Rung is a Khmer temple complex in northeastern Thailand, built between the 10th and 13th centuries. The site was constructed on the rim of an extinct volcano, and over the years, it suffered from severe flooding and erosion. These natural forces damaged many of its structures, and the site was eventually abandoned. Though partially restored, the temple complex still bears the scars of centuries of neglect and exposure to the elements. Phanom Rung remains an important cultural and historical site, drawing visitors from around the world.

16. Villa Epecuén, Argentina

Villa Epecuén was a popular tourist resort town in Argentina, located along the shores of Lago Epecuén. In 1985, heavy rains caused the lake’s water levels to rise dramatically, flooding the town completely. For over 25 years, the city remained submerged under nearly 10 meters of water. Eventually, the waters receded, revealing the ghostly ruins of the once-thriving resort. Today, Villa Epecuén stands as a stark reminder of nature’s power, with its crumbling structures drawing curious visitors and photographers.

• This article originally appeared on Rarest.org

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{ https://rarest.org/ }

03-05-2025 om 21:40 geschreven door peter  

Lost cities buried beneath volcanic rock. Hre we have the remnants of Akrotiri.

Akrotiri: The Bronze Age city hidden beneath Santorini’s ash

Before Athens left its mark on the ancient world, another city stood quietly on the island of Thera. Known today as Akrotiri, it was a Minoan settlement with well-planned streets, multi-story buildings, running water, and walls covered in vivid frescoes. The paintings showed ships at sea, blooming plants, and people at festivals — scenes that suggest a society with comfort, order, and culture.

Then the volcano erupted. Around 1600 BCE, Thera collapsed in on itself. Ash and debris buried the entire city.

When archaeologists began excavating Akrotiri in the 20th century, they found something rare. The streets were still intact. Pottery stood where it had been left. Color remained on the walls. It looked as if the people had only just stepped outside.

No human remains were found, which suggests that residents may have fled before the eruption. But the silence left behind feels complete. Over time, the site sparked speculation that it might have influenced the story of Atlantis, a powerful city lost to disaster and time.

Even without the myth, Akrotiri stands as one of the clearest windows into Bronze Age life in the Aegean. It isn’t just preserved. It’s alive with detail.

Pompeii: Where Roman life was frozen at the moment of death

It started with a column of smoke rising over Mount Vesuvius. People watched it from the streets, not knowing what was coming. By nightfall, ash covered everything. In Pompeii, life was still moving, meals being prepared, families resting, and children playing in courtyards.

Some were sitting down to eat. Others were lying down to sleep. A few tried to run. The ash came quickly. It buried the city exactly as it had been.

Seventeen centuries passed before Pompeii was seen again. When archaeologists began to dig, they didn’t just find ruins. They found a city that felt intact. Loaves of bread still sat in ovens. Graffiti still covered the walls. Shops, homes, and narrow alleys stood in place.

Even the people remained. You could see the folds in their clothing. In some cases, you could still see the looks on their faces.

Pompeii isn’t just a ruin. It’s a full snapshot of Roman life, caught in its final hours. This wasn’t the Rome of emperors or marble temples. It was a city of bakers, shopkeepers, children, workers. And every corner of it tells a story too ordinary — and too real — for a textbook to capture.

Ceren: A buried village that preserved the voices of everyday people

Most ancient sites focus on rulers, monuments, and warfare. Ceren tells a quieter story.

In what is now El Salvador, this small farming village was once part of a Maya-related culture. Around the year 600, a nearby volcano erupted without warning. Ash covered the village so quickly that it preserved almost everything exactly as it had been.

Archaeologists didn’t uncover palaces or royal tombs. They found homes, storage huts, planted fields, and tools left where they had last been used. Sleeping mats were still laid out. Food was still inside the cooking pots.

No human remains were found, which suggests the villagers had time to leave. What they left behind offers a rare and detailed view of everyday life.

Ceren was not a place of kings. It was a working community. The site shows how people cooked, stored food, built their homes, and farmed the land. It remains one of the few places in the Americas where the lives of ordinary people were preserved so completely.

Why volcanic eruptions can preserve what centuries usually destroy

Volcanic eruptions happen fast. Ash falls, roofs collapse, the sky turns dark, and towns disappear in a matter of hours. What starts as destruction can sometimes leave behind something else entirely.

When the ash settles quickly and thickly enough, it acts like a seal. It locks out air and moisture, which are the main forces behind decay. That’s why things like wood, food, fabric, plants, and even footprints can survive for thousands of years.

This is what makes cities buried by volcanic eruptions so different from most archaeological sites. In most places, time works slowly, wearing everything down. Walls collapse. Objects break apart or go missing. Organic materials rot away.

But in places like Pompeii or Akrotiri, everything stays where it was. Walls still stand. Food is still in the oven. Tools are still beside the people who used them. These are not just ruins. They are preserved spaces. Rooms, streets, and homes. They show us what life looked like on the day everything stopped.

They don’t just tell us what people built. They show us what people were doing.

What these buried cities still reveal about us

The lost cities buried beneath volcanic rock were not just preserved. They were paused.

The people who lived in them had no idea their final moments would be sealed in ash and rediscovered centuries later. But here they are, almost untouched, in ways that history rarely allows.

We don’t just find buildings or tools. We find meals left half-finished. Sleeping mats still in place. Homes arranged with care. We see what people took with them, and what they left behind. These are details we almost never get to see, and they make the past feel immediate.

But these discoveries also raise difficult questions. What does it mean to dig up the past when it includes real human lives? Should the remains of those who died be put on display? Who gets to decide how their stories are told?

Everything we build fades eventually. Cities fall. Habits change. Memory slips away. Unless something holds it in place. Civilizations come and go. History is clear about that.

These cities became more than anyone ever intended. They were sealed, protected, and passed on. Not through writing or monuments, but through layers of ash and centuries of silence. And in that silence, they still speak.

{ https://curiosmos.com/category/ancient-civilizations/ }

03-05-2025 om 20:54 geschreven door peter