Relics of Ancient Civilizations

All over the world, there are lingering traces, remnants, of long lost peoples and ancient civilizations that once peppered the world in many of the places we now live. Ancient monuments that have stood since long after not only the men who erected them have passed, but their reasons for doing so as well.

Will there come a day, many, many years from now, when ancient broken pieces of current civilizations will be left behind to tantalize and intrigue some future people? Will shattered towers or broken pieces of concrete be left scattered over the earth? Will the broken top of the Statue of Liberty be left littering the shores of a beach somewhere, giving mysterious testament to the past of humankind? Only Charlton Heston knows for sure. But meanwhile, there are plenty of mysterious relics of lost civilizations for us to explore.

Mysteries of Stonehenge

Well, not just Stonehenge. There are ancient megalithic standing stones and stone circles all over sections of Europe. There are a large number of stone circles, standing stone rows, and other megalithic monuments in the UK, France, Italy, and elsewhere. Stonehenge being the most famous, due to the size of the stones, mysterious nature, and the advanced engineering thought to have been needed to place the stones as they stand. Was Stonehenge a burial site? Was it considered a place of mystic power? Was it simply a giant calendar used to mark seasons and times of the year? Given the importance of the seasons, the sun, and the moon to ancient civilizations, its use as an ancient calendar may have been religious and ritualistic as well as being of practical use in marking the seasons.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Stonehenge has always been the question of how it was constructed. Some people have even claimed extra-terrestrial help. Recently, a man named Wally Wallington has demonstrated techniques that he says could have allowed ancient people to build Stonehenge, the Egyptian Pyramids, and many other large, seemingly impossible ancient constructions, using just physics and no modern tools.

What about the other megaliths and standing stones in Europe? They vary in size and function as much as their placement. Some may have had religious or ritual signifigance, some were burial sites, some may have simply been nothing more than monuments to their own creators.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramids

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest of the Ancient Egyptian pyramids, and the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to have survived today. It is generally accepted that most of the Ancient Pyramids served as burial monuments to the Pharaohs. Egypt still exists, but much of their civilization’s past has been covered by the sands and lost to time. How the pyramids were built has been a mystery, much like the construction of Stonehenge. Most archaeologists have often agreed that the pyramids required a fantastic amount of manpower to build, and some of the ramps and structured believed to have been used to place the stones in construction of the pyramids seem almost more impressive than the construction of the giant pyramids themselves. Although, with Wallington’s demonstration, listed above, it may be that the construction was easier than initially thought.

Relics of Mayan Civilizations

The ancient Mayan architecture is fantastic in the pure and simple lack of tools that they had for construction. They did not have metal tools or pulleys and yet they managed to create amazing and intricate stone temples and pyramids and amazingly sprawling cities. Another amazing aspect of the Mayan architecture is the general lack of cement used to hold the ruins together. While they did have a form of cement-like substance made from limestone, they used it surprisingly sparingly on post and lintel constructions, and most of the large base stones were laid without it, relying purely on how precisely the stones were cut for their structure. The ancient ruins are visible scattered throughout Central America as a testament to the ingenuity of pre-Columbian American civilizations.

Cahokia Mounds

In western Illinois, used to exist a culture of mound-building Native Americans, who left huge man-made mounds of earth behind, they were part of the Mississippian Native American civilizations. At the site, archaeologists have found huge ancient man-made mounds, most prominently Monk’s mound, and ‘woodhenge’ a circle of wooden posts used probably for astrological markings. The mound builders disappeared suddenly hundreds of years before European explorers came to the area. The Mississippians, (often commonly called ‘Cahokians’) who left the mounds behind apparently had no written language and left no record behind, and no one knows where they went or who the descendants of this ancient and mysterious civilization may be.

Moai, The Easter Island Statues

Often referred to as the ‘giant heads’ on Easter Island, these are actually statues, with huge heads and miniature bodies. The finished statues were all very large, with the largest standing statue about 33 feet tall, and even a discovery of one under construction statue that was never finished that would have been 69 feet tall! These stone monoliths were all carved and placed around 1,000 to 1,100 AD by Polynesian immigrants to the island. Archaeological evidence seems to indicate that for some reason the construction was abandoned rather abruptly, with many statues not being placed, though why they were never finished and why they were abandoned so quickly is not known. They were apparently intended to represent deceased ancestors and possibly to capture the mana energy of ancient chiefs.

Dubai Tower

This is not an ancient relic. As a matter of fact, this tower is not even finished as of this writing. It is projected to be completed in 2009 and to be over 2,651 feet tall–over half a mile up! And it’s going to have company. There are a number of new tower constructions competing right now for the future title of world’s tallest man-made tower. But some day, after many thousands of years have passed, will this still be standing? Will the Statue of Liberty, or the St. Louis Arch be standing? And if any of these structures are standing, or still exist in some way, what will future civilizations think of our great constructions? Will they wonder what religious purposes we had for these ancient constructions? Will they think of the Statue of Liberty as some deity we must have worshiped? Or will modern civilizations stand the test of time and our history survive? Did these questions cross the minds of people in ancient civilizations?

by Michael on June 27th, 2007