• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      I honestly have no idea which civilization that photo is supposed to represent because the person who posted that doesn’t say. For all I know, it’s actually in Botswana.

      • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It could be photoshopped or generated. Image search points to these types of ancient alien nutters with the exact image. Other image search hits that aren’t the exact location go to Kanheri Caves in Mumbai, Ellora Caves, Ajanta Caves, Aurangabad Caves, etc. None of those places seem to have photos or locations that look like that. Anyways, a lack of skeptisicm will make fools follow charlatans.

  • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    I’m 95% sure this single rock on a giant featureless plain only exists in the output of some AI.

    Nobody would carve a massive overhang like that, and then make the sides natural-looking

  • NeptuneOrbit@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I love how it’s presented like they could have just gotten on a plane. Once a century the Olmec rolled some dice and then sent ten artisans to one other empire on the other side of the globe. No planning, supply chains, or other stops on this world tour. Just one cultural exchange about how to carve a face to this one other set of artisans. Oh, India and Egypt want to learn how to carve faces like the Olmec? Too bad. They are only stopping once on this flight of fancy.

  • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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    5 months ago

    To be fair, there is evidence for people of ancient civilizations traveling far afield from their homes. Indigenous North Americans were known to traverse the continent for trade or just to join a different group.

    There’s a clear bias toward European civilizations in archaeology that is only very recently and in small ways being challenged. Consider that until the Hokulea sailed in 1976 archaeologists and anthropologists thought that Hawaiians came to Hawaii from South America on a raft because “no one could navigate the Pacific on a sailboat using star maps.” Prior to 1960 it was assumed that Columbus was the first European to reach the Americas, when the Norse had reached Canada 500 years before Columbus.

    I’m not saying this person is correct or even sane, but it’s far from absurd to believe that there was communication and trade between distant civilizations before the advent of modern travel and communications technology.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      Some civilizations? Sure. But we would know with pretty near certainty if the Olmecs went to Asia because they either would have left useful people, plants and animals from the Americas behind or taken useful people, plants and animals back with them. The lack of (as two examples) chocolate in ancient Pakistan and horses used by the Olmecs suggests this is not the case.