Well, they obviously didn't do that, because all the maps of that period refer to the continent as Terra Australis. They didn't know the difference between Antarctica and Australia.

I'm pretty sure this is the map you're talking about: http://zomb.tripod.com/ANTARCTI.HTM

And here's the link that explains that Oronteus Fineus' Terra Australis is a conflation of the northern coast of Australia and Tierra Del Fuego off the southern tip of South America:

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/dicuoghi/Piri_Reis/Finaeus_eng.htm

I saw that awhile back. I think a lot of those can be explained as interpretations we don't understand such as the little statue.

For me, though, the thing I can't even begin to explain is the Egyptian pyramids. It's rather funny that we all are taught about these and know so much about them, yet if you look into it, it seems rather impossible how that scenario even took place. Especially if you start thinking about time frame. I mean I guess it is possible that the Egyptians could have built the pyramids that we still see standing today, but there is no way they were built in a 20 year period which pretty much means they would have been putting up 800 metric tons of stones a day. That's almost physically impossible haha.

Also considering the high precision these things were built, it's hard to imagine they were working at an extremely fast pace. I mean all I can say, is either our time frame is WAY off or they had technology we just don't know about.


But other than that I still found the documentary very interesting. Love watching things like that that give all these "other" opinions to popular conceptions.

@ famousringo

Not, that's not that map. But like I said in the only documentary the only 2 things that put me thinking hard about this were the only 2 stated in the OP. The others, while supporting the theory, someone else may come up with a different explanation. Now for antikythera mechanism and puma punku, there's no explanation at all.
One researcher even says that finding the antikythera device is as big as finding a jet plane inside a Gize pyramid...

@ Zucas, yeah about the pyramides, they also bring up that point. Given the time frame that archeologists give us for the time they took to build a pyramid, they had to place a "piece" every few seconds non-stop day and night. Seems very unlikely, but I don't discard the possibility of it being purely man made, which is possible according to researchers in the field.

As for puma punku, the researchers that like to debunk this theories from ancient aliens never mention it, I wonder why.

Kasz and I were discussing this a few weeks ago, you can't take the ancients for granted. Often they were as intelligent as us, and equally skilled in problem solving; some of the things they could achieve would still pose a problem today.

We don't know how they could of achieved these seemingly impossible goals such as the pyramids or Puma Punku, but I'm sure they found a way to do it.

...

As for the first example you gave, the stone doll looks far more like someone in ancient ceremonial dress than a spaceman. I mean A LOT more. People just see what they want to see.

Perhaps the reason that a culture 17,000 years old was able to build such structures was because the culture was actually about 3,000 years old and you watched the kind of dumb documentary that shows utter disregard for the truth because they're trying to get some ratings, not answer any questions.

This may be a good time to debunk popular dumb documentary myths.

1. human civilization has not been a straight ladder up. We've had many ups and downs throughout history in different parts of the world. We don't need aliens from space that like to stack rocks to explain ancient temples.

2. We went to the moon. Get over it.

3. September 11 was terrorists in airplanes. To say it was the government is both offensively insulting and giving far too much credit to the capability of the U.S. government

4. The end of days aren't coming. Get over it.

These seem to be the most common dumb documentary theories. Feel free to ad some more.

Well, I've gotta give you credit. Reading up on these myths has given me something to do while dealing with a very mundane task very late at night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma_Punku

Wikipedia, which actually does believe in citation, has some interesting facts:

1. Puma Punku doesn't "defy modern dating techniques." Earliest construction has been dated to sometime in the 5th century AD.

2. Contrary to the true believer talking in the program, the largest blocks at Puma Punku are actually made of sandstone.

3. You don't need diamonds to work diorite. Or if you do, it's not too much of an obstacle for ancient civilizations, since the Code of Hammurabi was inscribed on diorite nearly 3000 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

All the same, it's a damned remarkable feat of engineering. It just isn't as impossible as the History Channel wants you to believe it is. This is a case where one particular set of ruins is poorly understood, so various people feel free to fill in the gaps.

I love this kind of stuff, even though I don't think aliens are involved.

To me it just shows that:

a - we are pretty smart as a species - and of course while our accumulated knowledge is greater now, the actual brains of people thousands of years ago were as developed as ours today

b - we can accomplish a lot with our eyes/fingers when given time and the right skills - today of course a lot of stuff is manufactured out of sight, or seen as needing assistance. The truth is that, with simple tools, the right knowledge and time (which in some ways the ancients had more of than us) you can accomplish very similar results


You have to wonder who much further advanced we could be right now if history wasn't littered with the collapse of civilizations (for various reasons) all of which negatively impacted our forward momentum as a species, essentially serving as a series of 'setbacks'.

Well, its the first time I take a full read at wikipedia about puma punku, and I just found this forum (http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=162971) which seems to have some serious nerds on the matter discussing the ruins.

Seems that diorite can be worked with any resistant material with the help of quartz......

There's still some confusing questions about this stuff, but I'm singing a different tune...

Only the antikythera mechanism stills amazing me now.

History Channel is full of crap.

While I agree with your argument in this thread, I find this line funny. There are no gods, but I would asume that somewhere out there, other life exists.

So I would think it would be less longer a leap of logic, and not more.

Whilst its doubtful that we've been visited by aliens its far less doubtful that aliens exist.

We live in a near infinite universe. I'm pretty certain that some form of life exists somewhere. Might not be intelligent but its more logical then a devine omnipotent being since we have proof that life exists. That proof is life on earth by the way.