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Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#61

Post by duxup »

delecti wrote: post #60
duxup wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many places have the geology for these massive stone walls that can be carved and ... folks saw it and thought "Man we should make this really big sculpture!". My imagination makes me think that it's a pretty obvious thing to do for any number of reasons and that there have been quite a few that have been lost to time.

As evidenced by the amount of grafitti in public places, people just really like leaving their mark wherever they can. There's grafitti in ancient ruins that (aside from the language) could be mistaken for grafitti in a bathroom stall. People are just gonna people.

I recall a note left on a piece of Greek pottery that said something like " made this and I bet can't do any better."

Wonderful slice of some potter rivalry from long long ago ;)

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#62

Post by HWR_14 »

illwrks wrote: post #22

I was about to say they have a powerful imagination to see camels in that eroded rock... however after a quick search, there are better photos online: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-2-000-year-old-...

Don't forget, they look so eroded because the sculptures have been eroding for 8,000+ years.

Also, the original article (original with regard the this HN thread, not the older article you linked to) talked about examining the tool marks. It's not just examining the large shape, it's about seeing the method of construction on a smaller scale.

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#63

Post by rob74 »

donohoe wrote: post #32

And older than Ireland's Newgrange - which was built around 3200 BC and is also older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

In all fairness, building something like Newgrange or Stonehenge (never mind the Egyptian pyramids) requires orders of magnitude more effort than carving some camels out of soft sandstone...

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#64

Post by rbalicki »

duxup wrote: post #61
delecti wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As evidenced by the amount of grafitti in public places, people just really like leaving their mark wherever they can. There's grafitti in ancient ruins that (aside from the language) could be mistaken for grafitti in a bathroom stall. People are just gonna people.

I recall a note left on a piece of Greek pottery that said something like " made this and I bet can't do any better." Wonderful slice of some potter rivalry from long long ago ;)

There's a lot of bawdy graffiti that was discovered in Pompeii: https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/history/the-bawdy-graffiti-of-p...

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#65

Post by neonate »

illwrks wrote: post #22

I was about to say they have a powerful imagination to see camels in that eroded rock... however after a quick search, there are better photos online: https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-2-000-year-old-...

https://archive.is/l3Vmm

http://web.archive.org/web/20210916005143/https://www.haaret...

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#66

Post by ducktective »

teleforce wrote: post #40

The northern part of saudi Arabia is actually part of the Fertile Crescent also known as 'The Cradle of Civilization' extending from Iraq where human first started cultivating and herding animals [1]. Yes it's now mostly desert but it used to be greener than it's today. This is an excellent documentary where teams of archeological experts from around the world trying to unravel the mystery of one of the earliest man…

If the climate there was different 8k years ago, why did they depict camels which dwell deserts and hot climates?

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#67

Post by AlotOfReading »

ducktective wrote: post #66
teleforce wrote: post #40

The northern part of saudi Arabia is actually part of the Fertile Crescent also known as 'The Cradle of Civilization' extending from Iraq where human first started cultivating and herding animals [1]. Yes it's now mostly desert but it used to be greener than it's today. This is an excellent documentary where teams of archeological experts from around the world trying to unravel the mystery of one of the earliest man…

If the climate there was different 8k years ago, why did they depict camels which dwell deserts and hot climates?

It would have still been hot and relatively arid, just less so. These camels are native to all of North Africa, Arabia, and the middle east. There's a lot of different environments in that range.

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#68

Post by roughly »

kossTKR wrote: post #23
OJFord wrote: post #7

The linked initial (2018) find article has more convincing photos, in my opinion: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/science/camels-sculptures... Submission from the time, not really discussed (just to save you the search): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16391610

Thanks! This picture is so much better - really shows the scale and the detail. My intuitions and my knowledge of statistics hints that there's really no reason much, much older somewhat advanced "societies" couldn't have existed but have just not been excavated or have vanished because of porous materials. Does anyone know of any good podcasts / books that delves into topics like this? I've always found fringe theor…

It’s not so much about ancient civilizations, but Michael Mann’s 1491 does a spectacular job expanding on the size and complexity of the civilizations of the Americas, which has only really become clear in the last couple decades.

I also really liked this article, which talks about the difficulty of finding evidence of even large civilizations after enough time: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-e...

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#69

Post by arbitrage »

ducktective wrote: post #66
teleforce wrote: post #40

The northern part of saudi Arabia is actually part of the Fertile Crescent also known as 'The Cradle of Civilization' extending from Iraq where human first started cultivating and herding animals [1]. Yes it's now mostly desert but it used to be greener than it's today. This is an excellent documentary where teams of archeological experts from around the world trying to unravel the mystery of one of the earliest man…

If the climate there was different 8k years ago, why did they depict camels which dwell deserts and hot climates?

because it's all just a big trick to fool you specifically.

checkMATE science /s

Re: Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia are older than Stonehenge, pyramids

#70

Post by pomian »

kossTKR wrote: post #23
OJFord wrote: post #7

The linked initial (2018) find article has more convincing photos, in my opinion: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/science/camels-sculptures... Submission from the time, not really discussed (just to save you the search): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16391610

Thanks! This picture is so much better - really shows the scale and the detail. My intuitions and my knowledge of statistics hints that there's really no reason much, much older somewhat advanced "societies" couldn't have existed but have just not been excavated or have vanished because of porous materials. Does anyone know of any good podcasts / books that delves into topics like this? I've always found fringe theor…

Maybe you know Dan Carlin? His Hardcore History podcasts are amazing. History how it should be. In this case try the King of King, series. Although almost all of his podcasts are spellbinding and thoughtful. For all ages too. Excellent for road trips. https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/
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