LOST & FOUND #6 …

Excellent Reading:
--- The Lost Discoveries from the beginning of Recorded History to the Renaissance --- Lost Discoveries - Dick Teresi.

LOST & FOUND
#5 South America / Africa

SOUTH AMERICA

  • Mayans: in Yucatan ~2000 B.C. - prominence & spread out by 250 A.D., limestone structures easily worked with stone age technology when mined, then harden, also took crumbled limestone + clay = a kind of concrete - made cities which had observatory, temple pyramids, and palaces (sometimes connected by causeways)
  • Acoustics: the largest ball court (Toltec Mayan) was 545' x 225' with 27' high walls, you could hear a whisper from the end zone - at the huge Castillo a hand clap at bottom could be heard at top
  • Aztecs knew human anatomy (named all organs and knew circulatory system) well before William Harvey of 1600s A.D.
  • Incas, 1st century A.D. in Peru: conquered largest group in western hemisphere, dominance lasted a century and stretched from Ecuador to Andes, did not have wheeled vehicles or ridden animals, over a million in communist-like socio-economic structure
  • Incas were best engineers: road system like Romans but only for foot and pack animals, included tunnels through mountains, levees across swamps, and carved steps in slopes - principal lord of a province used a Khipu (knotted string) for mathematics and remembering (a precursor to writing)

AFRICA

  • Most likely birthplace of homosapiens and first tools, Sudan (Kushites) is one of the oldest continuous centers of civilized life
  • 1st millenium B.C. made hydraulic system for irrigation agriculture - also iron metallurgy that still exists today
  • 100 mile wall (800 sq. miles) built (between 800 A.D. and 1400 B.C. (may be 2nd largest human-made structure to China's Great Wall), stretched end to end with 500 communal enclosures, would be 10,000 miles, 75' reddish banks, builders moved more than largest Egytian pyramid, wall may have been spiritual boundary like yellow line on highway for not passing

Questions

  1. Who made some of the first causeways for walking throughout a city above street level?
    Mayans: in Yucatan ~2000 B.C.
  2. How much larger than a football field was the Toltec court where a whisper could be heard from one end to the other? Could we do that today? How?
    About twice the length, we could make same acoustics with the perfect geometry
  3. Ancient Aztecs and Incas were very advanced in some areas, but not at all in some others. Where were they interested? Where did the Incas seem not to spend energy?
    Aztecs knew human anatomy. Incas made great roads and tunnels, but no wheeled carts or ridden animals.
  4. What group may be the first of humankind, and perhaps the record holders for continuing a civilized way of life?
    Kushites of Africa
  5. What may be the 2nd largest man-made structure ever built in recorded history?
    Kushite 100 mile Wall (if extended would be 10,000 miles)