Wondering about wild grapes

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Wondering about some Ancient Inventions.

We seem to underestimate the mental capacity of humans that lived hundreds or thousands of years ago.  The fact is, we are no smarter than they were, we just have the advantage of thousands of years of history to learn from, but it seems some people have to learn everything for themselves.  There is no evidence at all that the human brain has evolved at all during the last fifty thousand years!  Do you know that some of the things that we attribute to modern times were actually invented back many, many years ago?

Let us take a metal that has been used and associated with modern man, say aluminum for instance.  Archaeologists have found aluminum ornaments in a tomb of a Chinese soldier who died in the year 297.  And what about gun powder?  We picture the ancient people fighting with stone tools and wooden spears.  No, I am not saying that they came up with guns in that year, but they did discover gunpowder.  In a quirk of fate, they were trying to come up with an elixir of immortality when they discovered something that has caused enumerable deaths throughout history.

I just thought that you may get a kick out of some of this information.  It is wet and cool out there today, so keep your powder dry and have a great day anyway, you hear?

14 comments:

  1. Learned so much in those books I told you about. Fascinating.

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    1. That is what books are for; learning and pleasure.

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  2. Gunpowder, now that's irony for you. Maybe folks were actually smarter 50,000 years ago. Then again, it seems we keep making the same mistakes over and over.

    It's cold and frosty in lil' ol England, y'all :)

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    1. My Dad always told me "Wise are those who learn from their own mistakes, but doubly wise are those who learn from other's mistakes. Trouble is, like you said, we keep repeating or mistakes instead of learning from them.

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  3. You can just look at the pyramids and cities of the ancient civilizations in the Americas to see how advanced they were. But how laughable that there are always detractors who say the ancients must have been visited by aliens who taught them.

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    1. If there are aliens, they would have to be so very far advanced to come here. The trip would take thousands to millions of years.

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  4. You keep yourself warm now, and we hope it warms up here too.

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    1. It doesn't usually stay cold around here, but I remember one year it did.

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  5. It makes you wonder what else they had that is not lost.

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    1. I don't think that the first people had taxes, but one never knows. . . but I guess what they didn't loose they passed on to us.

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  6. Have you talked to a 16 year old, lately? We are the Ancient Ones!

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    1. Actually, I haven't. My grandson is now in his 20's. He was only 8 when my son (his dad) was killed in an auto crash. Seems so long ago.

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  7. Had not heard aluminum or gun powder were invented that far back. Goes to show one can learn something new everyday. Thanks.

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    1. Yes, I learned something by researching to write this blog. Isn't it amazing how far we have come in some things and not too far in others, if you know what I mean.

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