
Urban Gilgamesh: What the earliest epic tells us about living in an ancient city - Vigier
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/urban-gilgamesh
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there_the_and
3000-2500 BCE is such an interesting time period. Civilization and technology
somewhat inexplicably pick up throughout the world within just a few
centuries. For example, coinciding with the Gilgamesh time period (around 2800
BCE to 2500 BCE) the major pyramids in Egypt pop up, and so do the Caral /
Norte Chico pyramids and cities in Peru.

~~~
Swizec
History Channel says the only possible answer is aliens.

Or maybe it’s an adjacent possible thing and the ancient world was far more
connected by trade than we often think. It’s easy to forget that these were
“just” neighboring countries/kingdoms back then. A lot like today.

The illusion of linear progression we get from history class is largely an
effect of “You can’t learn everything at once”

~~~
agustif
I'm actually just watching Aliens in the History Channel, lol.

What would be the other plausible explanation though? Considering fermi
paradox etc...

~~~
snidane
Anti-gradualist explanation of history is an alternative and more likely
explanation.

Gradualism means a version of history in which civilisation progresses
gradually from less to more civilised over time. The opposite is a history in
which there could have been moments when human civilization was more advanced
way before our notion of recorded history, but suffered a massive hit to its
existence. Then the civilisation after got rebuilt but with the previous
culture and technological knowledge forgotten.

One such theory is by Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson [1]. They present an
explanation of history in which there could have been a more technologically
advanced human culture even during ice age which got wiped out when ice age
ended.

The end of ice age was completely sudden, which they explain by a meteor crash
into the huge ice sheets causing large tsunamis and sudden ocean level
increase which wiped out majority of advanced population living in cities
right by the sea - same as today. Causing the advanced culture and its
knowledge to cease to exist with remains being picked up or reused by more
primitive people living in mainlands and forming cultures which are now basis
of our civilisation.

Their version explains currently unexplained phenomena such as

1\. sudden extinction of ice age animal species. Hordes of mammoths found dead
with broken femur bones (killed by massive tsunami vs killed by mammoth
hunters as explained by current dogma)

2\. Big Flood myths found consistently across many independent cultures around
the world

3\. Technological regress in Egyptian culture - pyramids and pottery way more
advanced in older periods than in later periods (forgotten technology)

4\. Way more advanced technology of construction in older structures in Latin
America (Cusco, Machu Picchu, Sacsayhuamán, Pumapunku) with advanced
construction techniques unexplained still until today

5\. Geological evidence of massive tsunamis such as large travelling stones
(sliding on melting ice sheets) deep into mainland North America or massive
water erosion corridors also possibly explained by large tsunamis

[1] [https://youtu.be/0H5LCLljJho](https://youtu.be/0H5LCLljJho)

~~~
valuearb
Graham Hancock is a fun fictionalist, the Erik Von Danikan of our time.

~~~
cneu
Some of his claims are quite far-fetched and esoteric. However, even Michael
Shermer, head of Skeptic magazine, recently admitted
([https://twitter.com/michaelshermer/status/123755946996742144...](https://twitter.com/michaelshermer/status/1237559469967421440))
that there is some plausibility for the younger dryas impact hypothesis, which
is currently an important part of Hancock's lost civilization claims. Such a
major catastrophe would of course have a reset effect on any existing advanced
civilization. This alone is not proof that there was one, of course.

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lordleft
It’s interesting to consider the centrality of the city in ancient literature,
and the equation of civilization with urban life. In modern American political
discourse, it feels as if the city is constantly slandered or considered alien
or “un”-American, in contrast to purported “authentic” rural areas. The city
is seen as debauched and somehow apart

~~~
Gibbon1
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_man,_one_vote#Historical_b...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_man,_one_vote#Historical_background_2)

"Alabama's state legislature resisted redistricting from 1910 to 1972 (when
forced by federal court order). As a result, rural residents retained a wildly
disproportionate amount of power in a time when other areas of the state
became urbanized and industrialized, attracting greater populations. Such
urban areas were under-represented in the state legislature and underserved;
their residents had difficulty getting needed funding for infrastructure and
services. They paid far more in taxes to the state than they received in
benefits in relation to the population."

~~~
derbOac
Taking that a step farther, the entire bicameral federal legislature could be
seen as a weighting of rural over urban in the US.

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mymythisisthis
Don't throw a steak, you're barbecuing, at the face of the Goddess of love.
They'll be consequences.

12 beers, and 12 prostitutes, repeated for 12 nights, is the civilizing
process. As Enkidu discovered and Gilgamesh already knew.

Take the stairway of a bygone era, draw near to Eanna, the seat of Ishtar the
goddess, that no later king could ever copy! Climb Uruk's wall and walk back
and forth! Survey its foundations, examine the brickwork! Were its bricks not
fired in an oven? Did the Seven Sages not lay its foundations? [A square mile
is] city, [a square mile] date-grove, a square mile is clay-pit, half a square
mile the temple of Ishtar: [three square miles] and a half is Uruk's expanse.

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therockspush
The thing that always stuck with me about the Gilgamesh story was the way gilg
and enkidu fought.

All of my best friends were people i had tension with first.

Familiarity or something

