europe vs the middle east in 2000 BC

Eli Liang

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Feb 12, 1986, 2:56:11 PM2/12/86

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How was it that a rather primitive people such as the celts could design
and implement such a powerful astronomical "computer" as Stonehenge, when
far to the east, much more advanced people, the Egyptians (who were well into
their Middle Kingdom period) never developed anything comparable? Of course,
as far as architecture goes, the Great Pyramids, built > 1000 years earlier
exceeded Stonehenge in engineering level. Yet, those were simply glorified
tombs, while Stonehenge was much more. Anyone have any comments?

-eli
--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eli Liang ---
University of Maryland Computer Vision Lab, (301) 454-4526
ARPA: eli@cvl, eli@lemuria, eli@asgard, eli@mit-mc, eli@mit-prep
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Don Steiny

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Feb 12, 1986, 11:38:51 PM2/12/86

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In article <12...@cvl.UUCP>, e...@cvl.UUCP (Eli Liang) writes:
>
> How was it that a rather primitive people such as the celts could design
> and implement such a powerful astronomical "computer" as Stonehenge, when
> far to the east, much more advanced people, the Egyptians (who were well into
> their Middle Kingdom period) never developed anything comparable? Of course,
> as far as architecture goes, the Great Pyramids, built > 1000 years earlier
> exceeded Stonehenge in engineering level. Yet, those were simply glorified
> tombs, while Stonehenge was much more. Anyone have any comments?
>

This is a good example of how the word "primitive" is misleading!
If you start with the premise one society is primitive and the
other advanced, you are going to run into logical problems.
On what basis, specifically, do you make such a judgement. Were
the Olhone of California "primitive?" They did not need to develop
technology beyond the technology they developed because they had
everything they needed. They had a social system and oral
tradition that was plenty "advanced". Certainally their oral
tradition is far more "advanced" than ours.

--
scc!steiny
Don Steiny @ Don Steiny Software
109 Torrey Pine Terrace
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
(408) 425-0382

ag...@ccvaxa.uucp

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Feb 14, 1986, 9:56:00 PM2/14/86

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Was Stonehenge built by the Celts?
If I remember a bit of I don't know quite what you call this field of study
- historical ethnogeography? anyway - the Celts were rather late arrivals to
British Isles. Certainly, the stone circles in Ireland and the Hebrides
are pre-Celtic.

(source: a Penguin book entitled "The Celts" that my Aunts sent me a long
time ago when I was in high school)

Jack Jansen

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Feb 16, 1986, 7:07:19 PM2/16/86

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In article <12...@cvl.UUCP> e...@cvl.UUCP (Eli Liang) writes:
>
>How was it that a rather primitive people such as the celts could design
>and implement such a powerful astronomical "computer" as Stonehenge, when
>far to the east, much more advanced people, the Egyptians (who were well into
>their Middle Kingdom period) never developed anything comparable?

Well, obviously the Celts knew more about magic than the Egyptians.

Also, it is a misunderstanding that they had trouble aligning Stonehenge,
since what they did was first drop the stones whereever they liked,
and then tilt and move the earth to get all those nice features.

This tilting, by the way, caused some serious inconvenience in
other parts of the world, nowadays usually referred to as "the Flood".
--
Jack Jansen, ja...@mcvax.UUCP
The shell is my oyster.