How far back does mans written recorded history go?
How far back does mans written recorded history go?
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GilbertGrape

Original Poster:

1,226 posts

221 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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read

maxxy5

771 posts

195 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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Sumerian tablets?

TotalControl

8,307 posts

229 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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Does this include the doodles on cave walls?

GilbertGrape

Original Poster:

1,226 posts

221 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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Hundreds of thousands of years? Millions?

grumbledoak

32,571 posts

264 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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From memory...

Maybe seven thousand years for stuff in Egypt such as writings in the Pyramids or the Valley of the Kings. Other nations in Asia, I think Thailand, claim about the same. China claims all sorts of things.

Australian aboriginals branched off long, long ago, (from memory 46,000 years) yet are Caucasian unlike everyone else in the vicinity. They were drawing on rocks long ago. And the oldest human bones are maybe 800,000 years old, so there is quite a bit of scope for stuff that simply didn't survive.

ETA- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_history (it's not exactly a politicized subject, so it's probably decent enough).

Edited by grumbledoak on Wednesday 25th August 00:28

andy_s

19,857 posts

290 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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Will they discover PH in 8,000 years and spend years deciphering what an OXO symbol er, symbolises.

TotalControl

8,307 posts

229 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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They'll be too busy trying to find MX5 parts.

hondafanatic

4,969 posts

232 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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andy_s said:
Will they discover PH in 8,000 years and spend years deciphering what an OXO symbol er, symbolises.
You're implying that the OXO joke and PH will somehow come to an end. I'll bet you a 335D (mapped) that it doesn't.

grumbledoak

32,571 posts

264 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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To add, from wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_ancient_h...

4250 BC: the earliest known date, the beginning of the Egyptian calendar.
4th millennium BC: Sumerian cuneiform, history's oldest writing system.[1] This marks the beginning of recorded history


anonymous-user

85 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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GilbertGrape said:
Hundreds of thousands of years? Millions?
confusedwobble

grumbledoak

32,571 posts

264 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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DangerousMike said:
confusedwobble
Isn't GG one of our Christians? He may have had a somewhat limited education in history (as we understand it).

If he is genuinely asking, give him some help.

Einion Yrth

19,575 posts

275 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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grumbledoak said:
DangerousMike said:
confusedwobble
Isn't GG one of our Christians? He may have had a somewhat limited education in history (as we understand it).

If he is genuinely asking, give him some help.
He is, I believe, a young earth creationist: so that would have been an attempt at sarcasm. Doubt that there'd be much point in trying to 'help' him - he knows he's 'right'.

Eric Mc

125,855 posts

296 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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Written/recorded history only goes back about 5,000 BC. Before that we have pictorial, model, burial and other "practical" evidence of man's existence and development ( clay pots, wall paintings, burial sites, sculptures, artefacts etc).

With written history you begin to understand the thoughts, mindset, history and beghaviour of a culture - so you can start to work out how they thought, their beliefs and maybe some of their history.

With an artefact based record, we can only work out very basic information about the people who made such aretefacts - how skilled they were, how they lived (hunters, farmers, fish eaters etc).

It is amazing to think that although we as a species have been around for hundreds of thousands of years (and millions, if you include our humanoid ancestors), it is only in the last 10,000 years that we begin to see evidence of the actual recording of who we were and where we came from.


Edited by Eric Mc on Wednesday 25th August 08:12

RVVUNM

1,913 posts

240 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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If you believe the JW's I work with, it all started 6000 years ago with two people and then a load of incest took place. silly

Eric Mc

125,855 posts

296 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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RVVUNM said:
If you believe the JW's I work with, it all started 6000 years ago with two people and then a load of incest took place. silly
I would prefer to stick to "sensible" answers for the moment otherwise the thread will turn into slagging match.

RVVUNM

1,913 posts

240 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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Eric Mc said:
RVVUNM said:
If you believe the JW's I work with, it all started 6000 years ago with two people and then a load of incest took place. silly
I would prefer to stick to "sensible" answers for the moment otherwise the thread will turn into slagging match.
They really believe they are being "sensible", but I know what you mean.boxedin

FM

5,816 posts

251 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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On a slight tangent, written recorded history aside, there was incredible findings from recent research that had been tracking the mitochondrial system in genetics, passed on from the maternal side, all the way back thousands of years to a single female at some far back time from this interesting article.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2010/03/24/...

Edited by FM on Wednesday 25th August 09:28

shamrock

980 posts

221 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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The Altamira cave paintings in Spain were done 14,000 to 12,000 BCE.

Petrolhead_Rich

4,659 posts

223 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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hondafanatic said:
andy_s said:
Will they discover PH in 8,000 years and spend years deciphering what an OXO symbol er, symbolises.
You're implying that the OXO joke and PH will somehow come to an end. I'll bet you a 335D (mapped) that it doesn't.
So in 8000 years you will be able to collect a pile of German iron oxide and rotten plastics...

Back to the topic
Recorded history is a part of human history that has been written down or recorded by the use of language. It starts in the 4th millennium BC, with the invention of writing. The period before this is known as prehistory.

6010Years (Approximately)

Here's "Wheelheads.stone" from 2nd Millenium BC:

Here is the translation:
Wheelheads.stone said:
DonkeyDriver said:
Best wheels for my daily donkey?
TwinHorseCart said:
I use 3' Oak Wheels on my cart, but they might be a bit OTT for a donkey
Caveman Craig said:
Just chisel some stone out?
Trollman said:
I still use square ones, these round ones are just crazy!
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_history

Edited by Petrolhead_Rich on Wednesday 25th August 11:02

WorAl

10,877 posts

219 months

Wednesday 25th August 2010
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Petrolhead_Rich said:
Here's "Wheelheads.stone" from 2nd Millenium BC:

Is that the original PistonHeads.com?