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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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The Universe is about 13.8 Billion Years Old
The Earth is 4.8 Billion Years Old
Dinosaurs walked the Earth for 165 Million Years but were extinct 65 Million years ago
Modern man as we know had existed for about 200,000 years
It's interesting to wonder how many civilisations on Earth has existed before us. |
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By *B9 QueenWoman
over a year ago
Over the rainbow, under the bridge |
"The Universe is about 13.8 Billion Years Old
The Earth is 4.8 Billion Years Old
Dinosaurs walked the Earth for 165 Million Years but were extinct 65 Million years ago
Modern man as we know had existed for about 200,000 years
It's interesting to wonder how many civilisations on Earth has existed before us."
The only species to have civilisation has been homo sapiens.
Do you mean dominant species? Most prolific species? |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"The only species to have civilisation has been homo sapiens.
Do you mean dominant species? Most prolific species?"
That's a very sweeping statement that may have absolutely no basis in fact. how would we know if there was a civilisation a billion years ago or not? We have only known of the dinosaurs for about 100 years or so, and they were here for quite a while! |
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By *oodmessMan
over a year ago
yumsville |
civilisation is usually associated with knowledge, technological advancemement or understanding.
A billion years ago for civilsation to have existed and prospered as is today, is a little sweeping to dont ya think?????? lol
We might have found a clue or two in all that melted ice?? |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Not a subject I know owt about. Been to China and they had ancient civilisations like from 11000 bce and civilisation was judged on them having crops and farming and agriculture.
In Ancient Egypt - well they had a totally unusual but widely known civilisation from thousands of years bce too.
By the time Jesus popped out we were quite a civilised bunch.
Fimd this subject fascinating  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"A billion years ago for civilsation to have existed and prospered as is today, is a little sweeping to dont ya think?????? lol
We might have found a clue or two in all that melted ice??"
Not really, the more civilised we become the more technology we have so things become less permanent, I think it may become hard to find a book in a few hundred years time let alone thousands it will all be on plastics, which of course will be bio-degradable to avoid pollution. few earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and continental drifts will soon render it untraceable 
Not of course saying there was a previous civilisation our kind or any other, but can't say there wasn't either  |
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By *B9 QueenWoman
over a year ago
Over the rainbow, under the bridge |
"The only species to have civilisation has been homo sapiens.
Do you mean dominant species? Most prolific species?
That's a very sweeping statement that may have absolutely no basis in fact. how would we know if there was a civilisation a billion years ago or not? We have only known of the dinosaurs for about 100 years or so, and they were here for quite a while!"
It's not at all a sweeping statement. It is grounded in hard archaeological fact. The earliest true civilisation was the Sumerian civilisation based in what is now Iraq. Civilisation determined by trade, a legal system, organised cities etc. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"A billion years ago for civilsation to have existed and prospered as is today, is a little sweeping to dont ya think?????? lol
We might have found a clue or two in all that melted ice??
Not really, the more civilised we become the more technology we have so things become less permanent, I think it may become hard to find a book in a few hundred years time let alone thousands it will all be on plastics, which of course will be bio-degradable to avoid pollution. few earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and continental drifts will soon render it untraceable
Not of course saying there was a previous civilisation our kind or any other, but can't say there wasn't either "
I think there's a lot we don't know yet... And may never know.... |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"we are also only around 20 generations from Jesus"
Closer to 80 generations actually.
I have 11 generations of my direct male line that takes me back to the 1650s. It's accepted in family history circles that there are 4 generations to a century to if you multiply 4 by 20 centuries (2,000 years) you get 80 generations. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Recently science has descovered the Higs-bosun(hope that's the right spelling,doh) particle and a another partical that travels faster than light. My point being that tomorrow science could prove we existed along side dinnosaurs for all we know. Intriguig to think that if at any time in the evolutionary journey of humankind just one cell had changed, what we might have become.. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa some 200,000 years ago and achieved behavioural modernity 50,000 years ago (2,000 generations ago). Earth's history has been mapped out on a linear scale quite accurately and if there had been an advanced civilisation on this planet before humans there would be evidence of it somewhere. More compelling evidence to confirm that there hadn't been such a civilisation before Man is that there is nowhere in Earth's timeline for it to slot into. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"we are also only around 20 generations from Jesus"
Er, think that's more like 80-100, based on women giving birth to their first child at between 20-25 years on average over the last 2000 years... Sorry to be pedantic..
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa some 200,000 "
From Wiki... and confirmed by the museum in Neanderthal,
"The first humans with proto-Neanderthal traits are believed to have existed in Europe as early as 600,000–350,000"
so we are pretty sure about our timeline, but there is a 250,000 year slippage on what is an approximately 4000,000,000 year timeline (presuming American billion) and they became extinct as a distinct species only 30,000 years ago.
this leaves a gap in our knowledge of relatively recent history 5 times the figure you state as behavioural modernity.
There is evidence of trade networks spanning thousands of miles in Neanderthal society even crossing the Atlantic (though it wasn't it's current shape) they had tool making, farming and trade nailed before modern humans existed, so in fact meet much of the criteria for an alternative society.
My main point is evidence is scarce on relatively modern archaeology, we really don't have much chance of finding anything bigger than bacteria from 2.5 billion years ago, when it's believed oxygen became a dominant factor in life on this planet. The land masses that existed then don't exist now, so where would you dig?
We don't know, we will never know, the answer is probably not, with the emphasis on the Carling factor. |
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By *oodmessMan
over a year ago
yumsville |
"A billion years ago for civilsation to have existed and prospered as is today, is a little sweeping to dont ya think?????? lol
We might have found a clue or two in all that melted ice??
Not really, the more civilised we become the more technology we have so things become less permanent, I think it may become hard to find a book in a few hundred years time let alone thousands it will all be on plastics, which of course will be bio-degradable to avoid pollution. few earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and continental drifts will soon render it untraceable
Not of course saying there was a previous civilisation our kind or any other, but can't say there wasn't either "
I take it you like conspiracy theories too?
Somehow I doubt that a civilisation in the real sense of the term could have existed given all we were was gas and ice at that point. Unless! They created the had and ice as we are and covered their tracks enormously well?
Bit of a fantasy I think  |
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By *oodmessMan
over a year ago
yumsville |
"we are also only around 20 generations from JesusEr, think that's more like 80-100, based on women giving birth to their first child at between 20-25 years on average over the last 2000 years... Sorry to be pedantic.."
no prob .. knew it was only a small number |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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The point raised about biodegradability in the future leaving no trace is a salient one .
Imagine a cataclysmic event where we are virtually wiped out and the only survivors are an unknown tribe from the Amazon.
Skip a couple of thousand years and they have spread across the planet and become civilised and are investigating past cultures , what do you think they would make of the fact that almost every city and town they excavate has the remains of a building with a double arch on the front , a religion , it must be because they are everywhere !!! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Most people think the egypians were the first or earliest civilised people. The spinx etc have been dated at 5000-6000 yo google 11000 yo temple found in Turkey....... Almost twice the age "
The sunken pyramids off Japan appear to be the oldest ones remaining (sort of) at 10 - 11,000 years old |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I take it you like conspiracy theories too?"
No not really, just don't think we know as much as people like to think we do, this planet may well have had more than one attempt at producing a society, we could be burning the evidence in our cars and never know.
It's like the infinity verses the edge of the universe argument, Albert was probably right in that there is a spherical edge to the universe made by the combined effect of all the gravity... but what's on the other side of it? |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Or is the edge of the Universe the inside face of a glass bell jar with a greater intelligence looking at us from the outside..."
Knowing our luck it will be a bunch of third formers, working out how to trap a fart in the bell jar |
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