https://app.textformatter.ai/
Transcript (redux)
I’m about to share something with you that absolutely blows my mind. And by the end of this video, you’ll realize that our civilization may not have been the first and why it’s arguably more likely that civilization has risen and fallen before. Hi guys, welcome back. If you’re new here, my name is Michael. I have a degree in ancient history and on this channel we discuss the unexplainable mysteries of our past. Let’s get into it.
According to the current accepted view of history, civilization began at roughly 4,000 BCE when societies such as ancient Sumer arose. Everything, every history textbook you’ve ever read, every story you’ve ever heard, comes from the 6,000 years since then. This is known as recorded history. However, what many people don’t realize is just how huge the bits before this, known as prehistory, are. The mainstream view is that prehistoric humans lived a subsistence lifestyle in small groups, hunting and gathering. Intelligent, yes, but not forming large complex societies or building cities.
But what we do know is that the first anatomically modern humans identical to you and me date back to at least 315,000 years ago and could go back much further. This means that the vast majority of human history falls into this prehistory bucket. Or in other words, at least 98.5% of our time on Earth is prehistory. The entirety of human civilization is just the most recent 1.5% of our story. So why did it take so long for civilization to emerge? Well, the idea is that civilization flourished when conditions got warmer out of the last ice age, leading to agriculture, writing, cities, and so on. This warmer period is what allowed humanity to develop.
However, these warm conditions that we live in today are not unique in the human story. No, they’ve happened before. The previous interglacial warming period, known as the Eemian period, was 130 to 115,000 years ago. This period was longer than the current warm period known as the Holocene has been so far. Now considering modern humans had already been around for at least 175,000 years by the start of the Eemian, why couldn’t civilization have flourished then as it has now? The conditions were optimal. It lasted more than enough time. We’d been around for hundreds of thousands of years already. And according to the mainstream view, it is a warmer climate that led to civilization developing. So, is it really so absurd to think it could have happened then as well as now?
What’s interesting is that if human civilization had developed during this previous warm period, we would likely see little to no trace of it. Scientific studies show that if our civilization ended tomorrow, practically all our creations would be gone within a mere 10,000 years. All that would remain would be stone constructions, Mount Rushmore, for example, or ironically the pyramids. But if we go up to 100,000 years, it’s likely there would be virtually no trace. There are few artifacts that date back this far. The only ones that do are a few stone tools, stone being the only likely thing to survive. Maybe we’d leave levels of plutonium in the atmosphere due to nuclear weapons. But if we were to disappear tomorrow, there’d be scant evidence in 100,000 years. So unless a civilization in the Eemian period was testing nuclear weapons, then it’s unlikely we would see any evidence they existed.
And even if they had been doing crazy stuff like that, would we even be looking for it? Even if there was some stuff left behind, over 80% of Earth’s land mass is covered by jungle, ocean, or desert, making it impossible to excavate, and only a tiny percentage of the archaeological record has been uncovered. Sea levels have changed dramatically. Entire coastlines where humans would have logically settled are underwater. And all this is without mentioning the cataclysmic history of the Earth, which has reshaped the planet profoundly while humans have been here. There’s plenty of evidence of comet impacts and volcanoes that have dramatically impacted Earth while humans were around. These events had the power to both wipe out human civilization and destroy all trace they could have left behind.
In fact, we know cataclysms have reduced human population down to tiny numbers before. The Mount Toba eruption occurring only about 74,000 years ago is believed to have wiped out the vast majority of our species, reducing numbers down to as few as 10,000 individuals. So, we know modern humans, as intelligent as us, have been around for at least 315,000 years. We also know that we only have any record of about 1% of this history. We know all trace of our own civilization would disappear within 10 to 20,000 years, a tiny fraction of the amount of time we’ve been on Earth. We know that our civilization developed because things got warmer. So, is it really so absurd to think that this could have happened before during the previous warmer periods?
It’s certainly possible, but even with the huge time gap, surely we’d see some evidence, something, anything, an echo of this lost past. Well, maybe we do. In cultures across the entire world, we see myths that speak of earlier golden periods that were destroyed by cataclysms, leaving a few survivors to start over again. We see unexplainable ancient stone constructions: Lyu caves, Pumapunku, Sacsayhuamán, even the pyramids and many, many others. Sites all so baffling that mainstream archaeology often just shrugs. We see ridiculously old dates that don’t fit the timeline like Gobekli Tepe. So old yet so sophisticated it doesn’t make sense. We see king lists like those of ancient Sumer and Egypt stretching way back into prehistory. Records of times and rulers that are dismissed as myth. But maybe not. Maybe these are echoes of a forgotten past.
What if civilization isn’t a straight line? What if it’s cyclical? What if, like a seasonal flower, it blooms when the climate allows, then dies for a while before coming back when the conditions are right? Doesn’t this make arguably more sense than nothing of note happening for 99% of our history, and then everything happening in the most recent 1%? Maybe civilization and the human story isn’t linear. We all suffer from recency bias. We assume that what we see now is normal. But we live in an abnormal time. It’s warm and it has been for 12,000 years. But that’s not the historical norm. The norm is cold, cataclysm, and collapse.
If, and it’s a major if, but if human civilization rose and fell before in our distant past, then our whole perspective needs to change. It shows that we are super vulnerable as a civilization. And once we realize it may have happened before, we can start preparing for when it will happen again. Because it’s when, not if. The Earth has always been shaped by catastrophe. And it’s only a matter of time. Even without a cataclysmic event, unfortunately for us, our warm period, the Holocene, is overdue to end. We’re already overdue to plunge back into glacial conditions. What we should really be scared of is not global warming, although we should definitely try and clean up our act, but global cooling is the real threat.
Even in recorded history, we can see how the warmer times led to great prosperity and innovation. The medieval warm period allowed for longer growing seasons, agricultural surpluses, and population growth, which in turn supported cultural achievements like the building of Gothic cathedrals and the rise of universities. Trade expanded, cities flourished, and societies had the resources to invest in art, philosophy, and technology. In contrast, colder periods were often disastrous. The Little Ice Age brought shorter growing seasons, failed harvests, and famine. Europe was struck by the great famine of 1315, during which millions starved due to relentless cold. Societal unrest grew, economies shrank, and in many regions, innovation stalled. Cold, harsh climates didn’t just make life harder; they made civilization more fragile. And this was so minor compared to a glacial period. It’s terrifying that our warm period is overdue to end. And who knows how we’d cope with this if it happened in the next few decades.
But is it really so crazy to think that previous warm periods also contained civilizations? I want to hear what you guys think. Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed anything or if I’m just being an idiot. ‘Cause I find this a fascinating thought experiment and I hope you do, too. If you enjoyed this video, please consider giving it a like or subscribing to my channel. Hey.
