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If whole populations were wiped out and the world was repopulated by a small remnant would that not account for it? Or if an extinct human species had an advanc
by graemep 3mo ago
If whole populations were wiped out and the world was repopulated by a small remnant would that not account for it? Or if an extinct human species had an advanced civilisation?
- throw1234567891 3mo agoNo. That’s exactly how we know.
- AlotOfReading 3mo agoThe founder effect differs between small populations filtered from a large population vs a smaller parent population. I want to point out that the silurian hypothesis is specifically about civilizations removed from us by geologic time. Advanced human precursor civilizations are much more effectively ruled out by the current evidence. Basically, a hypothetical precursor society either has to look very different from any we know about and materialize out of nowhere like alien colonists, or they didn't exist. For example, we know they weren't using large amounts of fire because nothing in the global charcoal records points to that. We know they weren't using plants that produce pollen because we don't find phytoliths with domestication indicators. We know they weren't using surface metals, because there was lots of that still around when the classically ancient civilizations started. We know they didn't contribute significantly to the gene pool. We have no material culture from them. We don't have a location on Earth they would have lived in. Etc.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- simonh 3mo agoThere’s always the hollow earth!
- cwmoore 3mo ago“Basically, a hypothetical precursor society . . . has to materialize out of nowhere like alien colonists, or they didn't exist.” Proof aliens exist—thermodynamics, no materialization out of nowhere. There are layers ;)
- sgt101 3mo agoMy thoughts: Civilisation implies large scale agriculture. Large scale agriculture implies specific pollen signatures. We don't see any of these signatures in the pollen records dredged up from lakes and seas. There was no previous civilisation in the last 1.4m years (this is the depth of the pollen records we have I think).
- gregdaniels421 3mo agoThe proper Silurian period had no pollen, so that wouldn't make any sense.
- saidnooneever 3mo agoit could essentially be much longer ago, but you are right and imho this is strongest evidence. civilizations dont need to evolve to high technology to be a relatively advanced civilization and say, build pyramids. but they do need plenty of food structurally available in any larger numbers than 'big tribe'
- sgt101 3mo agoAgree - although I think the records we have rule out a previous *Human* "civilisation", not to say that Humans with thousands and thousands of years of culture along with ideas we have no inkling of and would find fascinating have come and gone and bloomed and faded many many times.
- MrDrMcCoy 3mo agoOr it stayed concentrated for a long time until local conditions forced a scattering.