[Ramius]

I think we routinely underestimate ancient societies.

I don't think it is unreasonable to think that at various times in history (and prehistory) some discoveries were made that perhaps only barely missed connection with other ideas that would have launched technologies centuries earlier. I cannot imagine what was lost in the burning(s) of the library at Alexandria... things that took centuries to rediscover and build upon.

[Centurion2000]

I don't think it is unreasonable to think that at various times in history (and prehistory) some discoveries were made that perhaps only barely missed connection with other ideas that would have launched technologies centuries earlier. I cannot imagine what was lost in the burning(s) of the library at Alexandria... things that took centuries to rediscover and build upon.

I remember reading about the Ionian civilization on the east coast of the Adriatic duringthe Greek era. If they had garnered a little more power and support from the Greeks, the industrial revolution could have started 2000 years earlier than the Rennaissance.