Contributions of Ancient and Indigenous Civilizations
Fascinating controversy. As a classics major at Princeton, Bruce Kennedy likely knows about Gilgamesh. He should also know that the Iliad and the Odyssey were transmitted orally for a century or more before they were written down, reflecting skills of memorization beyond our own. And he should know that, more than 2,000 years ago, Hellenistic scientists created the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient analog computer with 37 gears.
When the Spanish conquistadors encountered the Inca system of quipu, or knot writing, they failed to understand what the knots meant. So they concluded it must be the work of the devil. They rounded up Inca priests who understood the knots and put them to death. There are many other examples of the superiority of Indigenous Americans to European colonialists in The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I hope all members of QAnon will read it, and reconsider their racist assumptions.
Fascinating controversy. As a classics major at Princeton, Bruce Kennedy likely knows about Gilgamesh. He should also know that the Iliad and the Odyssey were transmitted orally for a century or more before they were written down, reflecting skills of memorization beyond our own. And he should know that, more than 2,000 years ago, Hellenistic scientists created the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient analog computer with 37 gears.
When the Spanish conquistadors encountered the Inca system of quipu, or knot writing, they failed to understand what the knots meant. So they concluded it must be the work of the devil. They rounded up Inca priests who understood the knots and put them to death. There are many other examples of the superiority of Indigenous Americans to European colonialists in The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. I hope all members of QAnon will read it, and reconsider their racist assumptions.