You missed the Egyptian Pharaohs use of cocaine. What we don't know exceeds what we do know by a huge amount.
I think the big question is "what caused our racial amnesia?" Whatever it was, it had to have been something truly worldwide and devastating in scope.
[Perhaps a flood?]
If you are familiar with the theories of Immanuel Veilkovsky he wrote that the biblical great flood happened in roughly 750BCE, if his theory is correct quite possibly the flood.
So far everything he wrote back in the 1950's has been substantiated. It lends great credence to the biblical account.
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wha? Cocaine, native to South America and unknown in Africa? And the same Veilkovsky who based his hypotheses on poor guesses?
Man, you really need to get out and get some fresh air.
"So far everything he wrote back in the 1950's has been substantiated. It lends great credence to the biblical account."
Veliokovsky was refuted decades ago. I didn't realise that even among the crazies his stuff was still believed.
I remember seeing a documentary on researchers discovering traces of cocaine in Egyptian mummies. I think the rational explination was that it was either another plant species that was now extinct, or possibly fakes or contaminates from mishandling.
http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/ethnic/mummy.htm
It lends great credence to the biblical account.
No it doesn't. Some guy wrote a theory based on the bible story, so it is evidence which supports the bible story? Can you say circular reasoning?
The major problems with the global flood idea is that there is no evidence in the geological strata, and civilizations which existed prior to the time of the supposed flood apparently were never bothered by it nor have any record of it.
While it's probably likely there was a 'great flood' in the mesopotamia region of that time and thus why it shows up in mythologies of Sumerians and Jews (Along with one or two more, but fail at remembering who), it would have been wayyyyy before 750 since Sumerian were gone by that time. Why would it be in their myths?
I dunno much about this Immanuel guy I'll admit, but sounds like he's full of shit.
7-fucking-50 BCE?! You mean the flood happened during the rise of Greece and Rome? Funny how a flooded planet not only didn't disrupt their growth at all, it kept all documents, art and culture completely intact. The Chinese and Egyptians didn't seem to mind it either.
Frostythesnowman
Since the Chinese had writing, law, architecture, domesticated animals and music in 750BCE, are we to assume that they also had submarines?
"If you are familiar with the theories of Immanuel Veilkovsky he wrote that the biblical great flood happened in roughly 750BCE, if his theory is correct quite possibly the flood. So far everything he wrote back in the 1950's has been substantiated."
Velikovsky was a lunatic and nothing he wrote about was even remotely plausible.
"It lends great credence to the biblical account."
No, it doesn't.
@rallymodeller: There are, indeed, several ancient Egyptian mummies that show traces of cocaine in their hair which indicates long-term use of the substance. I believe either the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel did a special on them a couple of years ago. So far as I know, it's still inconclusive as to how the Egyptians actually got the cocaine.
What we don't know exceeds what we do know by a huge amount.
Amen, brother, you said a mouthfull, there.
"If you are familiar with the theories of Immanuel Veilkovsky..."
Then you know he was an ignorant, self-important crank.
"So far everything he wrote back in the 1950's has been substantiated."
I believe he was the one who promoted the idea that Venus was puked out of Jupiter. Uh, not substantiated, HG48.
What "racial amnesia"? Egypt has a completely unabridged, continuous history that happens right in the middle of when you believed everyone in the world except for one family was killed off. Yet somehow Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, India, and even Australian aborigines maintain uninterrupted historical records that include not even a footnote that says "And here is were everyone died. But we got better next year."
Velikovsky is wrong. The Bible flood myth is obviously mythological, lots of civilizations in the region have a flood myth. Maybe it was based on some local relatively wide-scale flooding in Mesopotamia. Or maybe it's purely symbolic. Probably a combination of the two.
And Egyptian Pharaohs didn't use cocaine. Not true.
@Horsefeathers: But it's misleading to call it "cocaine" because folk will picture the white powder which we know today, which wasn't synthesised until the nineteenth century.
So far everything he [Velikovsky] wrote back in the 1950's has been substantiated.
The only thing that was sort of substantiated was the predicted higher than expected temperature of Venus. And although Velikovsky's prediction was closer than what was known at the time, he was far from right either. Actually, Carl Sagan wrote a book summarizing the arguments against almost all of Velikovsky's nonsense. A Bible scholar once said that Velikovsky's Bible stuff was nonsense, but he was impressed with the science, to which a scientist replied that he had rather the opposite opinion.
@mister spark
Sounds about right.
I've heard it may reference sea rise in the region before summeria and kicked humans out of the sea between arabia and persia. Some speculate the garden of eden myth is about the same area, or possibly just lamenting hunting and gathering is so much better than this farming thing.
Speculation and hearsay, so it may be full of shite.
Would that be the cocaine native to South America and totally unknown to the Ancient World? As for Velikovsky, he has been widely discredited by historians, astronomers, and archeologists. The man was talking through his ass.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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