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Large 2k-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Large 2k-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

#21

Post by nobody9999 »

zachruss92 wrote: post #8

I'm not saying I believe any of the crazy conspiracies related to the Nazca lines, but I really do wonder what they actually are. The mysteries behind a lot of these ancient megalithic structures make me wonder about how sophisticated these presumed primitive civilizations actually we're.

>The mysteries behind a lot of these ancient megalithic structures make me wonder about how sophisticated these presumed primitive civilizations actually we're.

Consider that while the invention of writing systems allowed us to store knowledge and grow our technology base, human intellect and capacity hasn't changed in any real sense over at least the past 50,000 years.

The human ability to reason, imagine and create has existed for tens of millenia. As such, such sophistication isn't all that surprising.

Re: Large 2k-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

#23

Post by AlotOfReading »

WalterBright wrote: post #12
zachruss92 wrote: post #8

I'm not saying I believe any of the crazy conspiracies related to the Nazca lines, but I really do wonder what they actually are. The mysteries behind a lot of these ancient megalithic structures make me wonder about how sophisticated these presumed primitive civilizations actually we're.

It's hard to have a sophisticated civilization without writing.

This is mostly a myth. Modern archeologists generally don't use writing as a criterion for 'advancement' anymore specifically because certain areas like the Andes never really used it. It also raises difficulties with other groups like the Aztecs that didn't have 'full' writing, but were nonetheless quite sophisticated.

Re: Large 2k-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

#26

Post by Izkata »

zachruss92 wrote: post #8

I'm not saying I believe any of the crazy conspiracies related to the Nazca lines, but I really do wonder what they actually are. The mysteries behind a lot of these ancient megalithic structures make me wonder about how sophisticated these presumed primitive civilizations actually we're.

I imagine the Nazca lines were done with grid drawing [0], where the second grid was made with ropes or something on the ground.

[0] https://ecdn.teacherspayteachers.com/thumbitem/Dragon-Grid-D...

Re: Large 2k-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

#27

Post by WalterBright »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #23
WalterBright wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to have a sophisticated civilization without writing.

This is mostly a myth. Modern archeologists generally don't use writing as a criterion for 'advancement' anymore specifically because certain areas like the Andes never really used it. It also raises difficulties with other groups like the Aztecs that didn't have 'full' writing, but were nonetheless quite sophisticated.

The Aztecs certainly did have writing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_writing

It's far better than the primitive icon systems favored in modern user interfaces.

Re: Large 2k-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

#28

Post by EdwardDiego »

WalterBright wrote: post #12
zachruss92 wrote: post #8

I'm not saying I believe any of the crazy conspiracies related to the Nazca lines, but I really do wonder what they actually are. The mysteries behind a lot of these ancient megalithic structures make me wonder about how sophisticated these presumed primitive civilizations actually we're.

It's hard to have a sophisticated civilization without writing.

What does a sophisticated civilisation look like?

Re: Large 2k-year-old cat discovered in Peru's Nazca lines

#29

Post by AlotOfReading »

WalterBright wrote: post #27
AlotOfReading wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is mostly a myth. Modern archeologists generally don't use writing as a criterion for 'advancement' anymore specifically because certain areas like the Andes never really used it. It also raises difficulties with other groups like the Aztecs that didn't have 'full' writing, but were nonetheless quite sophisticated.

The Aztecs certainly did have writing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_writing It's far better than the primitive icon systems favored in modern user interfaces.

The qualifier 'full' is important here. The article even makes note of this:

> ...some scholars have understood the system to not be considered a complete writing system...

In particular, the written and spoken forms aren't precisely equivalent. Some archaeologists consider this a bigger deal than others (I'm more on the "not a big deal" side), but it's worth noting.

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