Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de wrote:
>
> > Or maybe nobody here cares about archaeology. We're more future oriented
> > than past oriented, right? Well, yeah, but we're smart enough to realize
> > that the past has valuable lessons.
>
> I'm not sure. Cultures don't last forever, but it's hardly new, and it
> is not obvious that we're going to crash.
You're not sure about what? The value of understanding failed cultures? The
value of historical knowledge in general? We don't know who built Nan Madol,
why they built it, when they built it, how they built it, what became of
them...we don't really know much about it at all because it's never been
studied extensively. Obviously, some questions about it are unanswerable,
but the answers we can get may may change fundamental understanding of early
civilization and could lead to better understanding of human nature.
Nan Madol makes Stonehenge look like a sandcastle. Yet *everybody* knows
about Stonehenge: that it exists, that it was built by Druidic people, that
it seems to have had a ceremonial purpose and functioned as a calendar of
sorts.
Nan Madol is a series of nearly a hundred man-made islands and canals with
massive structures built from 30- to 50-ton basalt columns. Few people know
it exists. Nobody knows anything about the builders. The site has never been
rigorously surveyed or studied. It's currently a minor tourist attraction.
Much of it is still overgrown and unexplored. I find this incomprehensible.
> > Maybe everyone's too busy working riddles. But Nan Madol is real world
> > riddle whose solution would benefit mankind, not just boost the egos of
>
> You are not referring to the magic which made the basalt monoliths
> fly through air, are you?
No, not at all. I'm referring to the types of things I just listed above.
-Dave
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:18 MDT