Were ancient civilizations more advanced than we are today?

Question

Were ancient civilizations more advanced than we are today?

Answer 1

I think so. The ancient Minoans were a civilization that was very advanced. They had indoor plumbing- and they were as far back as 1500 BC! The Greeks developed indoor plumbing early on as well- as did the Romans.

Also, when you think about it, the mathmaticians were just as brilliant as they are today. If you look at Archimedes, Pythagoras...they were brilliant. They didn't have calculators or anything, and they were able to reach very accurate guesses that humans figured out the exact measurements of using computers, calculators, etc. Also, although scientists these days are eager to learn, the scientists in 6th or 7th century Ionia (part of Greece) were VERY eager. No one had EVER looked at 'how things work' and there were many scientists clamoring for the answer. Some thought that fire was the basic element, others thought it was water. One guy even thought that the basic element of the universe was something not seen, heard, tasted, or smelled- it was called 'The Boundless.'

Answer 2

As far as science is concerned, basic instincts are survival and procreation. Every creature has these. You can't say that civilisatin is more 'advanced' than any other in anything other than technology, because otherwise you're assuming social evolution which is an ethnocetric, Euorentric, misguided and bigotted POV. By suggesting that people from different cultues are more 'in tune' with their environment one creates an 'exotic other' that anthropology has striven to dismiss, as we are all human, and anthropology is the study of humanity. We are the ame and different in many many ways, but how could a Mayan possibly be in tune with the London Underground, assuming they had never lived in London? The environment is that which surrounds us. If that is Machu Picchu, then we learn our relatioship with it. The same goes for Swindon. If psychic ability is, as you suggest, innate, then it could not suddeny become non-innate just ecause you ived in a city. People still use plants, around the word. In Romania one of the only possible sources of icome for those in agricultural areas is picking Arnica. What about Stonehenge? Camden Town is built on a Leyline that runs from Yorkshire to Brighton. If you look at that ley ine you'll see some amazingly coincidental buildings and settlements. Your question assumes nature. What is nature? Is it natural that women are the child rearers and that biological mothers have bonds with their children? No. In many cultures this isn't the set up at all. When it comes to the landscape we can ask the same question - the terraces in south America are part of culture, as are rice paddy's in Asia, the landscape is created in our heads as much as it is by the universe, because how we see it depends to a huge extent by how we are brought up.We cannot simply lump civilisations or nature together in sweeping generalisations. We have learnt this through the history of an academic discipline, and the sooner we learn to appy it the sooner we will be able to communicate properly with one another.



And indeed, as Drampur said, the south American Civilisations equally had war, when the Conquistadors came the only thing that changed was the method. The peoples of what are now the south Americas crushed and beat things to death, whereas the Europeans were more fond of burning and slicing things.

Answer 3

In a purely technological sense, no. In a social sense, yes. A society where no one goes hungry unless everyone goes hungry is definitely more advanced that our own.

Answer 4

I definitely think they were, after all... they had all their life figured out... and at least, they didn't try to destroy the world... Nature was all to them, they lived on and for the land..

Answer 5

Ancient Civilizations More Advanced

Answer 6

I totally agree with you. They had only to survive and accumulate knowledge.

Answer 7

I don't necessarily think that they were more advanced or necessarily more "in tune" with nature. Basic human tendencies have always been the same - that's one of the wonderful things about studying history and anthropology, you realize that despite the vast variablity in human culture and behavior on some level we're all really very much the same. Worried about how we're going to put food on the table, trying to cope with the "mysteries of the universe" coping with families and friends and the standard aspects of daily life.



And as far as means for survival, with the civilizations you cited I doubt that they would be much better at survival than your average person today. By the point those civilazations reached their peak, large numbers of people were living in cities, the economy was developed to a point where reliance on others was quite high and so if you were to, say, dump people in the middle of the woods to see who would survive, I suspect the odds would be about the same for a modern person.



As for some of the other aspects you mentioned - pharmacology of plants, astronomy/astrology, etc - those weren't things that everyone in those societies understood or were even particularly interested in. There were specialists who dealt with those things. There were specialists who designed monumental constructions and who built them.



As for ley lines - while certain monuments are certainly aligned in certain ways there is not any generally accepted evidence supporting the existence of higher magnetic fields always being associated with those sites. Nor is it clear that ley lines are anything but coincidence or that they represent some sort of supernatural power.

Answer 8

Yes they had a far greater developed mind.Look at the youth today they are mindless. Good Luck!

Answer 9

If by advanced you mean efficient at massacring each other in endless territorial war, subjugating the masses, ceaseless human sacrifices to their peculiar idea of a Deity and rampant cannibalism, then heck yes. They had us beat by a country mile. Ahh, the good old days. Why can't we return to that simpler lifestyle? Nobody starved all right, in fact pork was very easy to introduce to these good folk as they had a taste for something similar. I hope this helped, and remember if your invited for dinner at an Aztec BBQ, you might be on the menu!

Answer 10

Very good question.



I think ancient civilizations emphasized depth whereas we, today, seem obsessed with breadth.



Of course, I don't blame Google or CNN for developing our addiction to superficial news and information. But it seems that technology has driven us to become more concerned about the world at large than the world we embody (which, I agree with you, contains a vast repertoire of psychic, creative and perhaps mystical abilities that we neglect to tap into).



We seem to have lost the sense of the sacred, and take everything for granted. We no longer notice the myriad miracles around us. We stopped paying attention to life (and yet, remain strangely obsessed about using medical science to postpone death!).



I find it strange that most people I know want to be accessible all the time (via cell phone or blackberries, etc.) and be connected all the time.



When do they find the time for solitude in order to develop depth and self-knowledge? I don't judge them, of course. I just worry that we might let technology take over our lives, and unwittingly abandon control over our consciousness.

Answer 11

I don't believe one can judge one civilization against another. I believe that in each epoch of human development (heralded by each new civilization), a new form of consciousness arises and this remains with us as the legacy of that time.



And though at this time we may seem to be on the brink of our own self-destruction, our minds are being awakened in a way that was never before possible.



People still live today with that ancient instinct for natural balance that you talk about. Possibly, due to western materialism, this may be dying out, but it is yet preserved.



I believe that it is a necessary process for us to experience this separation from natural intuition forcing us into a conscious rediscovery of that ancient wisdom and thus, in the rebirth, fresh and unprecedented ideas and understanding are allowed to surface.



If we can do this and avoid what seems imminent apocalypse, then one might be able to believe that all the suffering and conflict of our time was not in vain.

Answer 12

Yes because Tribes were huge families, they always looked out for every one in the Tribe, no street people, the advancement was Socialism. they did not have the Technical knowledge of today but were far in advance of us in Social matters.

Answer 13

I think that there are still those that are in touch... I don't know about "inate psychic abilities" but go out to the woods... you may find more than trees out there...

Answer 14

Yes, those Aztecs were definitely more advanced than us in many areas - like ritual human sacrifice, for example. And it worked too because, as long as they kept cutting the still beating hearts out of their defeated slaves, the sky did not fall down.

Answer 15

Yes, the actually had a virus/hack free internet connection on cleos laptop next to the milk jug

Answer 16

depending on which part of the world or cities you compare it to.

Answer 17

no, but they were more advanced than you