Posted on 02/16/2011 8:15:23 PM PST by decimon
Little is known about the archaeology of Saudi Arabia, as the government has historically forbid aerial photographs of the landscape and religious sensitivities have made access tricky. But Google Earth is changing that. Satellite images available via the Web-based 3-D map program show that large portions of the country hold a wealth of archaeological remains that predate Islam and may be several thousand years old.
Researchers recently discovered nearly 2,000 tombs by peering through one high-resolution "window" at a rocky lava field east of the city of Jeddah — all without having to set foot in the Saudi desert.
Judging by the sheer number of stone ruins identified in Saudi Arabia, as well as in other research in Jordan, there may well be a million such sites scattered throughout the Arabian Peninsula, said David Kennedy, an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia who led the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
It would surprise me a lot if zer0 is not on the side of the most radical of moose limbs.
“They invented algebra and the number zero...masters of horse and camel breeding...and archery. They may have invented stucco, but probably not. they may have perfected the modern use and cultivation of coffee and tobacco.”
Research has proven that algebra came from Assyrian Christians forced to convert to Islam (after what is modern day Iraq was over run by Arabs), and that the zero originated with India.
The Akhal-teke horse, a war horse much valued by ancient empires, is a breed nine thousand years old and originated with the Scythians (sometimes called the Turkmen horse). Most modern horse breeds, including Arabian and Thoroughbred race horses, originated from Akhal-teke horses.
Archery existed almost everywhere in the ancient world. As to Arabs being masters of archery, so are a helluva lot of other people.
Tobacco came from the western hemisphere, so I’m skeptical about Arabs perfecting it (one needs water to grow tobacco).
Coffee? Yeah, I’ll grant you they’ve done great with coffee. My favorite comes from Yemen, followed closely by Ethiopian coffee.
All Arab achievements in math and science predated Islam.
The composite bow was the most advanced bow in the world up until the modern compound bow. It was perfected by the turks. The english long bow was a low tech affordable disposable equivalent in terms of arrow launching ability. But it wasn’t very practical for use on horseback or any other position other than standing straight up. The korean bow was very good also but not as good. The turkish composite bow wins. There are similar persian and arabian variations.
Tobacco cultivation was perfected by the turks early on. In fact, the type of tobacco used in modern cigarettes was INVENTED by the turks.
BTW, the ottomans also were ahead of the rest of the world in terms of firearms, cannons, and gunpowder once upon a time.
Also, I can’t believe I left this out considering my screen name...but they excelled at swordmaking once upon a time as well.
It’s their religion
Mo makes hitler look like gandhi
Islam is definitely one the biggest factors in the cultural/scientific retardation of the Arab people. Western observers have long noted that Islam is a restraining, suppressive force among Arabs.
I was watching videos of child prodigy singer Jackie Evancho the other night, and the thought occurred to me that muslims are sworn to destroy all that she is, and everything she represents. Listening to her soaring, near-perfect voice brings millions to tears. She's perhaps the finest natural soprano of all time, yet radical Islamists would see her shuttered away under a burkha somewhere, being some heathen's chattel.
The contrasts between what we are, and what they are, couldn't be more stark.
Then the same should hold true for the Inuit and other inhabitants of the zones bordering on the Arctic Circle?
Decimon, you left out the worst part!
“...’.any more than fundamentalist Christians want anyone to say anything is older than six thousand years,’ Zarins told LiveScience.”
Of course, the implication here is that Fundamentalist Christians can’t be interested in archaeology. They can’t handle it when factual evidence is in dispute with their beliefs, apparently.
It's the high temperature I'm talking about - not the degree of exposure to sunlight.
That was India. And the Maya.
masters of horse and camel breeding...and archery.
Maybe. they may have perfected the modern use and cultivation of coffee and tobacco.
Coffee maybe, tobacco no. That would have been the American Indians.
They did come up with irrigation. But not in the Saudi Desert area.
tobacco yes.
Tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, pipes and chewing tobacco all came from the Americas.
Doesn’t matter where the archaic plant grew naturally originally. That would be like crediting africa for cola soda pop.
Turks invented the type of tobacco used in modern cigarettes.
And no the Turks bred (not invented) a type of tobacco plant that is used in some (not all) cigarettes. However the plant they used was originally bred in the Americas along with a number of other tobacco plant strains.
So sorry, the Turks are not the inventors of, well, much of anything.
All american cigs use turkish style tobacco. The turks perfected it. THat’s why it’s called turkish tobacco.
It’s the *cold* temperature I’m talking about. Just as the high temperature is outside the normal range of human livability, so is the cold temperature range of the Arctic.
Ah, but you can dress warmly enough to shut out the extreme cold. Not so with heat, when you're a primitive people.
The Arctic peoples mastered the technology of protecting themselves from their environment thousands of years ago. I don't think the Arab peoples' technology was nearly as effective in protecting them from the extreme heat of their environment.
Peoples - not just Arabs - have been living along the Sahara and in hot desert climates foe eons. Certainly the hotter regions are, and have been, more densely populated than the colder regions. I’m not sure how you are classifying “primitive people,” but desert and hot-climate dwellers have also used clothing to modify body temperature and conserve fluids from time immemorial. (That’s what all those robes are about.)
Humans have been remarkably resourceful in adapting to harsh environments all over the globe for tens of thousands of years. While it’s true that human agricultural communities leave more fixed habitations and artifacts, nomadic human communities have also flourished over the same time periods.
The Sahara and the Sahel have seen major civilizations ever since the Neolithic period. For instance, the people of Phoenicia, who flourished between 1200-800 BC, created a confederation of kingdoms across the entire Sahara to Egypt. Reading about the ancient civilizations of these regions should be of tremendous interest to any of the GGG subscribers.
Your original statement was this:
“My theory is that the people of the Middle East have had their brains baked to death for so many centuries, that it’s permanently damaged their DNA. ...I just think that humans . Exposure to that sort of extreme temperature over millenia has simply got to damage the gene pool in some way.... Humans just have not thrived in those desert areas. “
A theory is only as good as the evidence to support it. Perhaps you could reexamine or modify your theory in the light of archaeological facts. Humans actually *have* thrived in these areas. What you may call the “damaging of DNA” would be called “survival of the fittest for the environment” - if such genetic changes due to temperature are indeed fact. (Is there any scientific evidence for temperature “altering” DNA in living humans?)
My original response was that if humans “weren’t designed to withstand 130 summers indefinitely,” then neither are they “designed” to withstand temperatures below the freezing point of water indefinitely. Yet they manage to live in both environments. It is a testimony to the surprising endurance and pertinacity of the human.
Thanks for the well-thought-out response, WCS, but I was only throwing out a loose comment. I didn’t intend to get into a serious discussion about it.
I don’t really have any serious theories of why the Arab peoples have such retarded cultural/scientific advancement, outside of the corrosive force of Islam.
Aw, shucks. And here I was hoping we were going to sling around that ol’ anthropology jive. Thanks for the response, though.
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