Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Civilizations arose independently, then met
Independent origins
Egypt, China, and Peru each went through the same steps on their own track: settled life, crops, houses, and then cities. The timing and the distances rule out China teaching Peru. Two plus two is four whether the people are here or on the moon, so different cultures keep landing on the same discoveries.
Hancock's idea
Graham Hancock's alternative holds that a single advanced civilization was destroyed by a cataclysm about 12,000 years ago and seeded every major civilization after it, with the descendants never remembering their common origin. Neither version can be proven or disproven with the evidence available, and the Younger Dryas comet theory helps his argument.
The missing evidence
Archaeology is good at finding things, even fish scales, so a civilization large enough to trade with the whole planet leaving not a single brick is very improbable. One point holds up: sea level has risen 300 feet, possibly 600, since then, so a great deal of coastal archaeology must lie under water, buried by waves and storms. LiDAR that penetrates water could reveal it.
What did Doggerland look like?
Doggerland was dry land between Britain and continental Europe during the last ice age. As ice melted and seas rose, the North Sea covered it. Fishing nets have dredged up stone tools and bones from the seabed. Coastal settlements elsewhere were likewise drowned as the seas rose.
What did the Younger Dryas do to climate?
The Younger Dryas was a cold snap that began about 12,900 years ago and lasted around 1,200 years. It returned near-glacial conditions to the Northern Hemisphere. A 2007 paper proposed a comet impact as the cause. The cause remains debated among researchers.
What does Caral show about early cities?
Caral, in the Supe Valley of Peru, dates to around 3000 BCE. It has large platform mounds and plazas, and it was built without pottery. It stands among the oldest cities in the Americas. Archaeologists consider it an independent development of urban life.
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