Did you hear the one about the 11,000 year old architects and astronomers?

Human beings are remarkable creatures. Yet when we measure ourselves against the weight of time, our lives can feel shockingly brief. Only a handful of names are remembered of the millions that once lived. Millions of people who were motivated just as we are today. Each of us making footprints in history even as we wrestle with our inevitable mortality.
How long have we been here? How many shoulders have we all been actually standing on? The planet earth is old, the surface ancient, and our time upon it more complicated than we may ever know. Our history books pull out disjointed slivers from the fingers our our collective hands, and they build presumptive models of what we have done.

However, we cling tightly to a presumptive equilibrium. The stones that hide our evidence refuse to move without a fight; allowing us to construct assumptive timelines.

Something in our ancient soul must have suspected that we would lose our way. The scattered evidence being found seems to remind us who we really are. New discoveries bring us closer to our origins and give us reason to believe in our magnificence again. We mapped the stars. We mapped the surface of the earth. We discovered the interface of God's own engines and sailed across the abyss.
I want you show you what we have built. Echoes of giants call out to us from the very watchtowers we built together a millennium ago.

Lederman Studio is proud to present the true wonders of the ancient world...
(By no means extensive)

#1 The Origin of Time
The Mesolithic Solar Calendar of Scotland

STORY LINK
THIS THING IN SCOTLAND IS OLD! HOW OLD?
What do I mean by old? How about the pyramids? The Pyramids are old; built around 2500 BC. That might be old, but what about calendars uncovered in the Fertile Crescent dating around 3200 BC? How about Pine boats in South Korea dating nearly 6000 BC?

Well, this location is estimated at 8,000 - 10,000 years old. This puts the needle of history shortly after the end of the ice age. Anthropologists believe that we were, at best, hunters, gatherers, and recently acquainted with agriculture. Regardless, this structure is a massive stone calendar. It not only synchronizes with a 12 month lunar cycles, it adds corrections to synchronize the calendar back after a winter solstice.

It turns out that big primitive foreheads were not just used to smash beer cans. They were actually full of brains. They were the brains of astronomical scientists who had significant architectural and mathematical estimating skills. ...Not sure I heard about that in school.

A diagram of the Warren Field site, showing the 12 pits (below) and the alignment with the phases of the Moon plus the rising of the winter solstice Sun. Note: the scale should read “0-10  meters.”



#2 Gobekli Tepe
Worlds Oldest Temple? Found in Southern Turkey
STORY LINK
Here again is the evidence that big foreheads were housing some serious levels of intelligence. These ancient sites are even older than agriculture... if the timeline is to be believed. The site contains dozens of structures that appear to be well planned and well engineered centers of activity. Among the many remarkable items are 3-6 ton T-Shaped pillars, expertly carved reliefs of animals and reptiles, and even hand written notes that appear to be the blueprints.

Gobekli Tepe is about 12,500 years old. Some estimate even 13,000 years old. This particular ancient site is currently a hotbed of scientific activity. Even after this blog post was written, new discoveries continue to emerge. As much as I could write pages about Gobekli Tepe, I recommend that you simply begin with my STORY LINK and enjoy your own study.








#3 The 2100 year old computer
The Antikythera Mechanism

STORY LINK
I have no idea how to explain how amazing this is...
It's a 2100 year old computer built (as best as we can deduce) by Greek Astronomers. It is a technical marvel of craftsmanship and science. The Antikythera Mechanism appears to be able to compute future lunar positions, dates, and activities. In fact, it's accuracy is so finely tuned that it has caused beliefs about ancient knowledge to be disregarded as 'too incomplete.'
Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytsyNaW1POY





#4 SOMETHING YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF:
Native American Architects, Mound Builders, and Advanced Civilizations

A controversial TEDx Talk
The information I am about to share had a huge personal impact on me. It fundamentally changed my entire mindset about human history. Did you ever wonder what was going on in North America besides indians and hunting? Imagine how amazing it was to discover that North America has evidence of civilizations equal or greater than that of the Europeans?

*As a disclamer, I do not attribute these proceeding examples to the claims made by LDS church. That topic is better handled by others and is not a part of this post. *

There is so much here, that I will give you a quick tour.

A. Balance Rock in Salem New York. A 6 ton stone balanced on five smaller stones. Rather than credit this to ancient people, they say the glaciers left it behind.

This marvel of 'primitive engineering' is said to be left behind by clever glaciers...

B. Dry Mounted Stone Chamber. There are hundreds of these all over the North West United States. They have Rows of 3 ton stones are ceiling cover, and line up with the sunrise of the summer equinox.

The following images are from locations within the USA. Yes, I wonder why I never knew this either.

 

C. Monk's Mound Cahokia Illinois. Occupied from 600-1400 A.D. Cahokia consisted of 120 earthen pyramids and mounds on a massive 6 square mile site.
At its height (1200 A.D.) it was estimated to have nearly 40,000 inhabitants, as large or larger than any European city at the time. In fact no U.S. city had a larger population until 1800. Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric structure in North America is 100 feet high, has a 14 acre base (the Great Pyramid at Giza has a base of 13 acres) and once had a 5000 square foot 50 foot high building on top. An estimated 22 million cubic feet of earth was brought from over a mile away to build the four terraced massive platform mound. A mind boggling engineering feat. The builders were far from . Cahokia once had a "woodhenge" used as an astronomical calendar and the site boasts many alignments

Monks Mound / Cahokia Illinois


I hope you found this post fascinating and compelling. If you want to learn more, there are dozens of other similar places and items throughout the world. Feel free to leave a message below if you too would like to add to this list.

OTHER RESEARCH TOPICS:

Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilization"The evidence revealed in this book shows beyond reasonable doubt that an advanced civilization that flourished during the Ice Age was destroyed in the global cataclysms between 12,800 and 11,600 years ago. But there were survivors - known to later cultures by names such as 'the Sages', 'the Magicians', 'the Shining Ones', and 'the Mystery Teachers of Heaven'"

Baalbek in modern Lebanon

  

The Chaco Ruins of New Mexico

 

Ancient Ruins of Tiwanacu and PumaPunku

 

The natural selection to flatten the earth into biblical proportions.

Understanding the origin of the 'flat earth' myth.

 Without a doubt, one of my favorite topics is true history. When you take a piece of history and remove revisions, myth or misinformation, you get 'true history.' This kind of topic gets a wide variety of reactions from people, especially those with a vested interest in the 'assumed history.'
Some classic examples of assumed history include:
• American Independence Day was July 4th
• Native Americans were not a civilization of math, science, or architecture
• Marie Antoinette told people to eat cake
• Napoleon was short
• Vaccines cause autism
and one of my favorites:
• The belief in a flat earth
Perhaps you are not reading this far yet, as you are Googling factoids about my list above. Perhaps you already did and are either angry, confused, or feeling lost as a human being...

However you feel, welcome to the rounding out of the earth. Welcome to true history, almost universally, no modern culture ever believed that the earth was flat.

Given the seemingly endless 'evidence' that goes back for centuries, it might seem hard to fathom that the flat earth theory is entirely untrue. However, as I present the information throughout this post, you will no doubt see how easily the myth became so deeply entrenched.

Most revisions of history occur when powerful forces have a vested intrest in certain viewpoints getting all the props. The basis for flattening out the earth was very simple, religion needed to look stupid. In the nineteenth century, there was a significant confrontation underway between science and established religion. The entire premise behind the flat earth was to reframe religion as an institution that opposed, blocked, and even murdered scientific advancement.

Keeping this thesis in mind, let's begin to establish the foundation of the entire big picture. All the way back to the 6th century B.C., Pythagoras — and later Aristotle and Euclid — explained through math and evidence that the earth was a sphere. Ptolemy wrote “Geography” at the height of the Roman Empire, 1,300 years before Columbus. Columbus himself owned this book.

The following image comes from Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de Sphaera (On the Sphere of the World)
written in 1230 AD. It showcases the knowledge that the appearance of ships on the horizon testified to a curved earth.

There were moments in history that some did speak up and profess a flat earth, but they were soundly put down by none other than the Christian church itself. Men named Lactantius and Cosmas Indicopleustesn made claims about a flat earth, but were resigned to obscurity. There were influential monks like Bede (670-730) who was very unambiguous that the earth was round, and even explained the tides of the earth being effected by the moon. There were countless scientists, priests, and philosophers who all affirmed the spherical nature of the earth. It appears that the church itself opposed the flat earth belief for centuries. It is not to say that the ancient and pre-modern church avoided all opposition to progress or scientific discovery, but it hardly earned the eternal role of subjugator and opponent of progress.

DIDN'T COLUMBUS GET PERSECUTED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH FOR HIS BELIEF IN A ROUND EARTH?

The entire person of Columbus has been distorted into a caricature of reality even greater than the story of Da Vinci. If you were to believe what we were all taught about Columbus, we would literally have to live on a cartoon planet. The truth is, Columbus was not at odds over the round earth belief with anyone. Eratosthenes has estimated that the earth was roughly 23,000 miles across (not bad, it's actually 24,900). The entirety of human navigation from that time forward did nothing but establish this measurement. When Columbus presented his voyage plans to the committee of Salamanca they rejected his plans. Not because of his belief in the shape of the earth, but the size. They argued that Columbus would not have big enough ships to carry the needed supplied for the journey. The Queen of Spain made a handsome contribution and apparently convinced Columbus that he was thinking too small. Ironically, the real story of Columbus that is the REAL story of Columbus is far more shocking...but that's a different blog.


OK, BUT THEY ALMOST BURNED GALILEO AT THE STAKE FOR THE ROUND EARTH DIDN'T THEY? YOUR BLOG POST IS SKIPPING STUFF...

No, that's not the truth either. Galileo was an amazing thinker, but he didn't appear in a vacuum. He was proceeded by Copernicus and other astronomers who all believed in a round earth. He was one man among a great number of thinkers who moved civilization forward. History tells that his friction with the Pope had far more to do with his insistence of heliocentricity as a fact, and pushed it during a time that Europe was undergoing reformation anxiety.

However, it's a long story to tell and reads nothing like the tales of imprisonment, torture, and rejection that history wants us to believe.

I found a fantastic link for your personal study regarding Galileo. Let it guide you on as you find intrest.
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-galileo-controversy



THANKS FOR ALL THE HISTORY, BUT HOW ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE MYTH?

Getting back to what I first wrote, there were opposing interests at stake. During the 1800s' there was some guy named Chuck Darwin taking cruises around the South pacific... perhaps you've heard of him? Well, it goes without saying that "The origin of Species" made quite a stir. Darwin is a significant figurehead in a large conflict that covered decades. That conflict was primarily between evolutionary biology and creation. Basically, the church against science. As it goes with any conflict, people get snarky. In painting the church as ignorant and people of faith as simpleminded, the snarky part of the argument gleaned a rather silly but effective tool.

The flat earth.
The claim that it was a long held religious belief was invented and propagated by the historian John Draper (1811-1882), Andrew Dickson White was also a noted supporter of this claim. He was the President of Cornell University, and made sure to propagate this myth in writing. One of the biggest influences on the ideas of a flat earth, Columbus, and the Christian doctrines famously stemmed from a work of fiction. In 1828, Irving wrote “The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus,” which sounds like a biography but is mostly fiction. It says that Europeans learned from Columbus’s trips to the New World that the planet was round. The idea that the sailors on board his ships feared falling off the earth, the church opposed him, and many other falsehoods stemmed from that book. Antoine-Jean Letronne (1787-1848), a French academic used old Christian writings to pin a flat earth belief upon the entire faith.

In order to avoid playing too lose and quick, there are certainly no shortage of examples to actually laugh at. There is an organization alive and well today called "The Flat Earth Society." But they have as much significance to the larger world of science as the Westborough Baptist Church does to modern Christianity.

Now, we sit in a time period where, even though the entire myth has been refuted by 'believers and atheists' alike, the idea remains firmly planted, even among clergy and academics.

If you wish to study this further, you will find (like I did) that the internet is exploding with volumes of academic and anecdotal research.