[masraum]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

My Great Uncle was an archaeologist in the middle east, among other places.

He strongly disagreed with the thoughts of his day.

He was of the opinion that primitive peoples rather than remants that had not evolved as much as "modern man" were rather outcasts or separated.

Instead of an order of development of primitive > tribe > village > town; He held a view closer to an order order of Village and town both developed within a few generations, then out casts, wander lust, and/or calamity caused separated tribes and primitives.

There are many different finds, that based on finds in his time, he expected to happen in future times. I am seeing what he expected come to pass, what he predicted come to pass. Great guy, and had a full collection of Calvin and Hobbes books in addition to dinosaur bones and many other artifacts.

It is really interesting to see how it takes decades from first findings until things become more generally known. Often the people holding the old ideas have to die off, then a younger generation can be more fact oriented. Often that younger generation can have implement their own opinions on top of facts - the cycle repeats.

My conclusion, we know a lot less than most people believe we know.

Where the oceans are today, they weren't. There are underwater discoveries just waiting to be made.

My great uncle also was very strongly convinced that his own interpretations could be just as flawed as the flaws he pointed out in the interpretations that were accepted in his day.

He knew we weren't working with enough knowledge. We still aren't even today.

He held a view that:

Human civilization was > 8,000 year old.
Human civilization spread rapidly.
Human civilization included ocean navigation. (Trans ocean sea voyages were more than 8,000 years old in his opinion!)
Human civilization did not evolve from cavemen, cavemen were off shoots of human civilization.

I'm not an archeologist, and I didn't stay in any sort of hotel last night, but I think your uncle is right in many ways. I think lots of scientists over the years and possibly still many/most think that ancient man was primitive and couldn't figure much stuff out. I think that's short sited. I think a lot more went on than scientists think. I think man has always done a lot of traveling, probably mostly by foot or animal, but also by boat that science has always thought was unlikely. I think that a lot more was known by the folks way back than they are given credit for. Just because we don't have a written record doesn't mean that it wasn't complex.