From: freon96@gmail.com   
      
   There's site in Indonesia called Gunung Padang that may be   
   the oldest structure on the planet. If the dates are ever   
   confirmed it's older even that Gobekli Tepe in Turkey and   
   completely revises the current accounts of human history.   
      
   Anatomically modern humans have been around for about   
   200,000 years. Human civilization (cities, agriculture,   
   etc) began about 6 or 7 thousand years ago. This hints at a   
   mystery: what were humans doing for 194,000 years before   
   civilization began?   
      
   The mystery deepens: modern science and technology didn't   
   develop until about 200 years ago. That means it wasn't   
   until 5800 years after the beginning of civilization that   
   humans became modern.   
      
   During this period there was no recognizable science and   
   technology was primitive. Invention and innovation just   
   didn't seem worthwhile to most people most of the time. It   
   was enough to accept what was inherited from the preceding   
   generation pretty much unchanged.   
      
   This stagnation continued for thousands of years and,   
   apparently, it was good enough. We see civilizations come   
   and go, each slightly different from the other and call   
   these differences evidence of progress. But that's from our   
   perspective of viewing these changes over 6000 years.   
      
   This suggests, to me, that the default human attitude about   
   change is an extreme conservatism and a fear of innovation;   
   people don't want change they and fear progress. This fits   
   the trajectory of human history and debunks the optimistic   
   humanism of the Enlightenment and the euphoric claims of   
   the present.   
      
   There seems to be a new future for archaeology.   
      
   Bill   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)