Ancient Echoes: A Forgotten First Civilization? Quiz

Answer: Antarctica wasn't sighted and discovered until 1820

Piri Reis was an admiral in the navy of the Ottoman Turks and an accomplished seaman. His 1518 map not only showed a continent that was not known to exist at the time but it also depicted it with uncanny accuracy. His map is not the only anomaly, however, there are numerous other maps that show Antarctica long before it was discovered. Gerard Kremer, better known as Mercator, also depicted Antarctica accurately on several of his maps.

Another map, drawn in 1531 by the Frenchman Oronteus Finaeus, not only shows Antarctica but shows it with ice-free coasts, mountains, and rivers. Lastly, a map with Antarctica completely free of ice was drawn by the eighteenth-century cartographer Philippe Bauche. These men drew their own maps from source maps that were much older.

These source maps were incredibly precise. The map by Finaeus showed clearly non-glacial conditions in the southern continent with accurate coastlines, estuaries, and inlets which today are covered by ice. This map together with the Bauche map also showed what Antarctica looked like under the ice.

Modern day sub-glacial mapping of Antarctica hadn't taken place until 1958 and when it was completed was shown to match very closely with what was on these much earlier maps. They therefore depicted Antarctica as no man of historical times could have seen it. The sources of these maps show a continuous survey of Antarctica from ice-free to glacial. This indicates that some people or some civilization existed and mapped the southern continent when it was relatively free of ice, over 12,000 years ago. Evidence points to an already existing collection of maps of unknown places on earth compiled by a lost people.

Answer: Longitude

The main problem with map-making and navigation for most human exploration was how to measure the longitude of an object or place. Latitude north and south of the equator was easily measured but a correct measure of longitude needed both position and time measurements. Until Harrison's marine chronometer, longitude remained out-of-reach. Ancient source maps that were used to draw more modern maps, however, displayed accurate longitude measurements long before Harrison's chronometer. Mercator's 1538 map of South America, the Dulcert Portolano of 1339, the Zeno Map of 1380, and the aforementioned Piri Reis and Oronteus Finaeus maps all depict locations around the globe with correct longitude when the technology to do so was not currently available.

Answer: Viracocha

Viracocha was the Feathered Serpent's Andean counterpart. These larger-than-life individuals figure prominently in the myths and legends of these widely separated peoples. However, all likenesses of them are undeniably Caucasian. This is extremely odd seeing as contact with the Old World had not occurred yet. Several scholars argue that there could have been pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds in the distant past. Evidence of contact with African peoples is also shown in the giant stone heads carved by the Olmec.

These stone heads unequivocally show African features that could only have been created from live models. In both cases, there is evidence of an incredibly ancient contact between peoples that has all but been lost to history except for the clues left behind in art and mythology.

Answer: Rudimentary writings that date to before 500 CE

There is no writing left behind at Tiahuanaco; the culture that built it was not literate. The other choices describe lines of evidence that support a much earlier date for the building of the city. One of the principal monuments within the city is called the Gateway of the Sun. Carved in impressive detail on this gateway are images of several extinct animals that lived in South America around 12,000-10,000 BC. These include: Toxodon, Cuvieronius, Shelidoterium, and Macrauchenia. The accuracy of the carvings suggest live models of these animals were used.
Tiahuanaco currently sits more than ten miles and 100 feet higher than the shoreline of Lake Titicaca and yet it contains the remains of extensive docks and ports. Geologic evidence shows that the plateau the city and lake are located on has been steadily rising for millions of years. The plateau rises unevenly with Tiahuanaco at one end and the lake at the other. Working backwards, geologists found that the only time that the city was situated on the shoreline was 15,000 years ago before subsequent rising of the plateau separated the two.
The third line of evidence in favor of an older date for Tiahuanaco is the astronomical alignments of structures within the city. The Kalasasaya temple complex dominates the city. As in Stonehenge, the sun at the equinoxes and solstices rises over specific points in the temple. Even as unchanging as the heavens appear now, the positions of certain points change slightly over long stretches of time. Astronomers studying the alignments of structures within the Kalasasaya deduced that they do not correspond to astronomical positions today or in 500 CE. They coincide with stellar positions in 15,000 BCE, presumably when the structures were built.

Answer: The lava field that covered the city and surrounding area

The pyramid was partially excavated in the 1920s. It and the city and surrounding area were covered by a mantle of lava from a previous volcanic eruption. The presence of the lava on top of the city and its structures indicates that the eruption happened after the city was built. Geologists used potassium-argon dating to ascertain the age of the lava and therefore a minimum age for the city itself. Amazingly, the eruption occurred around seven thousand years ago and shows that the city is at least that old.

This date is considerably older than the 700 BCE that is currently accepted. This again points to the existence of complex civilizations long before they are supposed to have been able to form.

Answer: Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is about as mysterious as they come. Its Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, and Avenue of the Dead are well-known names in archaeological circles. The culture and people that built it are lost in the mists of prehistory. Its true age has been difficult to ascertain; it was already ancient when the Aztec and Maya emerged onto the scene in Mesoamerica. In addition to its antiquity, its impressive monuments, and its size, the layout of the city was peculiarly intriguing. It was angled 15° 30' east of north with various structures (those mentioned previously as well as the Citadel and Temple of Quetzalcoatl) situated at very specific points along this main axis. Studies carried out by the American engineer Hugh Harleston Jr., indicated that the whole city could have represented a scale model of the solar system with the various buildings standing in for the planets. Amazingly, the relative distances between the buildings closely matched the actual orbital distances of the planets observed by astronomers. Even more incredible was the fact that not only were the inner planets, Jupiter, and Saturn represented but the asteroid belt, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto as well. Uranus wasn't discovered until 1787, Neptune until 1846, Pluto until 1930, and the first recorded observation of an asteroid wasn't until 1801.

What this demonstrates is that Teotihuacan could have been laid out according to advanced astronomical information that wasn't supposed to have been acquired until much later in human history. Again, the echoes of a lost civilization are heard in the form of highly sophisticated scientific knowledge appearing far ahead of its time.

Answer: "Hypothetical third party" theory

This theory attempts to explain how ancient cultures can spring into life without any apparent "developmental" phase. Generally, human civilization follows a forward progression from simple to complex in terms of knowledge and culture. This progression is the result of hundreds and thousands of years of accumulating wisdom through observation and trial and error.
The Olmecs appear to have skipped this learning period and gone right to an advanced culture. A prime example is their mathematical system (which the Maya also used). It is incredibly complex and can be used to compute huge numbers with impressive accuracy and yet there is no evidence of its development at all. The same is true of Olmec building techniques and architectural skills.
Other ancient peoples, most notably the Egyptians, also have demonstrated this unusual habit of skipping through the cultural learning phase. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is older than the more simple hieratic and demotic forms. This goes contrary to the idea that the more elaborate and complex hieroglyphs should have formed from the simpler writing systems. As with the Olmecs, Egyptian art, architecture, and other cultural aspects seem to emerge without benefit of developmental forms.
The third party theory explains these inconsistencies by postulating the existence of a hypothetical "other" society that were the actual developers of the culture and its various parts. This society then passed on its ideas as a sort of inheritance to those civilizations following it. It is the belief of many scholars that Olmec and Egyptian culture were just such "inheritances" from an earlier, more advanced, and now-forgotten civilization.

Answer: All three of these

The absolute precision of the Mayan mathematical system is astounding. Their value for the solar year (the time it takes Earth to orbit the Sun) is 365.2420 days, which is just 0.0002 percent error. The same error value applies to their calculation of the lunar month (the Maya could also predict lunar and solar eclipses using this information). The measurements on the movements of Venus are simply incredible in that the Maya understood that the motions of the planet were not regular and therefore any number they calculated would be merely an average, and not exact.
Another astonishing fact is that the Maya could conceive of and calculate vast stretches of time (up to the hundreds of millions of years). No other ancient culture had the capacity to understand such expanses of time let alone calculate both forward and backwards in such values.
The Maya were also aware of the subtle changes that occur in the celestial sphere due to a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. They accurately predicted the changes that this ongoing event would have in the future and even incorporated key precessional numbers into their calendrical system and mythology.
This mathematical system came down to them from the Olmecs, who seemed to also have inherited it from some older unknown civilization. Whoever this original civilization had been, it had accumulated advanced scientific knowledge at a far earlier time in human history than any other.
An interesting side-note: Mayan history tells of several world ages or suns which have already gone before this one (the Fifth Sun). They have written records detailing both the beginning and ending of each of the previous ages. Their calculation for the ending of our current age: December 23, 2012.

Answer: Ice Age

15,000 BCE was approximately the end of the Wurm glaciation; the most recent ice age. Early humans were starting to coalesce into larger hunting and gathering groups and developing the rudiments of what would become civilization. The world underwent repeated cataclysmic events in the final seven or eight thousand years of the ice age.

These de-glaciation events included: melting and refreezing of vast ice sheets, raising and lowering of sea levels (inducing devastating floods), large shifting motions of the earth in response to the movement of glaciers, sudden changes in weather, and volcanic eruptions among other things.

These myths compellingly describe real eye-witness accounts of climactic upheaval experienced during the ending of the last ice age.

These global flood/destruction myths are the legacy of the oldest human civilization ever: the collective human society of the last ice age.

Answer: The Temple of Abu Simbel

Much controversy surrounds the mysterious structures of the Giza plateau (the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid) and the Osireion. The construction methods used in the Sphinx and pyramid are not repeated anywhere else in Egypt. The evidence linking them to the Fourth Dynasty pharaohs Khufu and Khafre is circumstantial at best and not very convincing when scrutinized closely. The absolute precision used in the measurements of the Great Pyramid and the extreme skill and effort that went into its planning and construction appear to be singular achievements. Rather strangely, pyramids built after the Great Pyramid are rather shoddily constructed, especially when compared to it. It almost seems as if the technical knowledge needed to build such a magnificent edifice was used only briefly and then inexplicably lost to later generations. The style of construction and decoration within the pyramid is peculiarly baffling and non-Egyptian and could indicate that scholars are mistaken both in their estimation of its age and its builders.
The Sphinx also shows signs of being not what it seems. Specific patterns of erosion that can only be attributed to rainwater have been found and studied on the body of the Sphinx. The current climate of Egypt does not supply adequate rainfall to account for the weathering observed. Many thousands of years ago after the end of the last Ice Age, however, the Nile Delta had significant rainfall. This level of precipitation could more than account for the signs on the Sphinx. It also shares construction features with the Great Pyramid and other Giza buildings, possibly signifying a common source.
Finally, the Osirieon is the unusual annex to the Temple of Seti I located in the ancient city of Abydos. This building has many perplexing characteristics that set it apart from other Egyptian constructions. Its attribution to Seti I is based solely on the fact that it is connected to the rear of the temple that he supposedly built (again, there is no concrete evidence proving that Seti was the builder of either the temple or the Osirieon). Construction features of the Osirieon also link it to the Sphinx and the pyramids.
These three examples are but some of many such controversial structures in Egypt that don't fit in with the accepted chronology or history of the region. They are also just one of many such pieces of evidence that hint at the presence of an ancient and advanced culture that left its legacy in cultures around the world.