The major downside of archaeology is the availability of evidence is limited to what has been found, and what can be found. For times before writing is known to have existed, we cannot know what people thought, for instance, so we rely on experts to make assumptions and educated guesses.
Religion features heavily in those guesses, and for good reason. We do have writings and art that definitively tell us of gods and rituals.
But when we go back 10,000 years, that evidence is lacking, but religion is still the presumption. I’m thinking that the consumption of drugs and alcohol pre-dated and led to religion, and that process could have taken millennia. Which means we might see the results of drugs and alcohol, rather than the results of religion, way back then.
Hypothesis – when I change it I will include what was before, so the evolution which is bound to occur, can be seen 🙂
Different Species
We have plenty of clues that tell us the angels/elders were a bit different, and we also know that other hominid species were contemporaneous with regular humans. And given that human fossils are rare when you go back that far, it is entirely feasible, or even likely, that other species of humans mingled with us back then. Of course “us” today typically includes some low percentages of DNA from our Denisovan and Neanderthal cousins, because there was cross-breeding between all three.
A different species could of course be smarter. Even if in just some aspects. Their knowledge could also have been different, even if simply and accidentally being in a good location or discovering something.
We can avoid all the problems with “ancient alien” concepts by simply having a different sort of human. And if they were elitist and didn’t cross-breed, then they could have remained small enough in number to avoid detection and scrutiny through until today.
Of course they may have had six fingers or toes, or they could have been giants.
Philosophy
Key aspects of the explosion of philosophy among the ancient Greeks were:
- lots of alcohol
- written language
- state-sanctioned
- people who had the freedom to not otherwise work
Drug Dealers
Our elders, who were possibly a different species of human, and may have been smarter than us in some ways, may have accidentally discovered drugs. I don’t think we need to determine which drugs (or alcohol) they used, as there are many possibilities and unlikely to be any proof forthcoming.
Not only might they have “set their minds free” and all the possibilities that may offer, but if they managed to keep the acquisition or creation of the drugs secret, then they could have sold the drugs to neighboring tribes, in exchange for food or supplies or labour.
Without having to put effort into their existence, our elders would have had the same luxury of drugs x time as the Greek philosophers. Plenty of time to come up with religious notions and/or rituals. And possibly they had some practical inventions and discoveries. They could have literally evolved to become the globe-trotting bearers of knowledge.
Trade Network
If you are heading out in all directions selling drugs and networking, then you have a first-mover advantage for other things that are traded. You could have even set up the first marketplace, except you were the only seller, selling items that were given to you in exchange for drugs.
When obsidian was first traded, our elders would have been best suited to doing the trading, with a network and contacts already established. Furthermore, in all negotiations the ongoing supply of drugs was their big advantage. They had likely created a lot of addictions, and we know that addicts will do anything to get their fix.
Cyprus and…?
For now, Cyprus is a good guess for their permanent base. It could easily be below the waves today, and many aspects fit the stories of Atlantis. Cyprus would also have been hard for anyone else to access, if our elders had mastered seacraft and didn’t flaunt it.
If keeping knowledge secret was a priority for them, then any mainland locations they occupied many have been particularly temporary and designed to leave no traces that leave clues of any kind. Which means all evidence of their existence was destroyed or is under the Mediterranean.
Buried Sites
A secretive culture that was used to destroying all clues is a good fit for a culture that sometimes buried their items, if they had sentimental value or contained knowledge they might want access to later.
It is possible they buried things for sufficiently enlightened people of the future to discover and recognize the value of, which of course is proven by us discovering them, and only now.
Or, they buried them for themselves to return to at a later date.
Back to Drugs
It is perhaps a cop out, but also makes sense – people on drugs could have come up with all sorts of crazy notions, and perhaps circles of t-shaped pillars with animal drawings made perfect sense to them, if not us.
Drugs could have inspired the construction of the wall and tower of Jericho, using “slave” labour (people working in exchange for a drug fix).
Some bad event could have caused them to figure that Jericho was a mistake, and that they shouldn’t build another one. That could explain why the next structure to be at least as high as the Tower of Jericho was an Egyptian pyramid 5,000 years later.
Evidence
What I am hoping will be found includes:
- Fragments of monuments – broken but with shapes or markings. Most likely buried and not necessarily something a farmer will notice
- Evidence of writing or knowledge transfer. Possibly, like the Druids, they could write but chose not to
- More purposeful burials
- A trade hub that is 10,000 years old
- Ruins on the Mediterranean seafloor