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Why did Europeans never invent writing, but Mexicans did?

Kinda weird that Euros had to import writing from the Middle...
Confused onyx school
  02/05/13
the Mayans were pretty bright, sucks that they got pwned
glassy sound barrier abode
  02/05/13
The Spanish dood who burned their library also gave us the o...
chestnut razzmatazz patrolman
  08/11/26
azn's still haven't really discovered writing, they are ...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/11/26
still LOLLERCAUSTING@ cumskins literally believing we use &q...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/11/26
ASIANS USE HIEROGLYPHS DURR DURR
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/11/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/12/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/13/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/13/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/17/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/18/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/20/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/23/26
...
Irradiated Sienna Ceo
  08/23/26
...
nyuug
  08/26/26
...
nyuug
  08/27/26
...
nyuug
  09/01/26
because race realism and iq fetishism are not science
Sickened lettuce old irish cottage
  02/05/13
The OP, however, is definitely SCHOLARSHIP
peach house quadroon
  02/05/13
Mexicans are a much more intelligent race of humans
Translucent crackhouse
  02/05/13
...
Sickened lettuce old irish cottage
  02/05/13
Si
cruel-hearted spot doctorate
  02/05/13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runes
chestnut razzmatazz patrolman
  02/05/13
"Parent systems: Phoenician"
Confused onyx school
  02/05/13
pwned
Useless Fortuitous Meteor
  02/05/13
Euros take credit for a lot of shit that they borrowed from ...
greedy forum friendly grandma
  02/05/13
Yeah maybe if europeans weren't retards they would have inde...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
Oh, you mean just like the Mesoamericans? Yeah, exactly.
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
link to there being large scale civilization in mesoamerica ...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec Stop embarrassing your...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
rude.
Doobsian property
  02/05/13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec#Social_and_political_orga...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
a) Lack of a priestly caste =/= egalitarian b) You're embar...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
my quote says these places were made up of egalitarian commu...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
City implies hierarchy! LOL, please, stop getting yourself p...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
so by that standard, the inca weren't civilized? just asking...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
Yeah, it really makes a lot of anthropologists really confli...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
when i was growing up, it was spelled "quipu" in m...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
Both are still current as far as I recall
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
ty
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
I guess the Japanese don't have civilization since they don'...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._military_presence_in_Japan...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
Can't wait for the day civilization reaches Iceland and Cost...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
europeans have been literate for 2700 years, northern europe...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
...
peach house quadroon
  02/05/13
WHAT SCHOLARSHIP! Wrong. Mesoamericans have been literate...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
you realize that the pictograms depicted below are what pass...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
What's your point? You don't like the way it looks? You're a...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
it's a system of pre-hieroglyphic visual communication, you ...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
Except you're fucking wrong. It was a syllabary like modern...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitovo_inscription
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
You are the one pwning yourself breh. you are arguing with...
odious henna state new version
  02/05/13
is he a known retard brother.
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
There was a "deep thoughts with Assless Chaps" mov...
odious henna state new version
  02/05/13
"europe" didn't exist, historically. the greeks an...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
yeah this whole idea that europeans are johnny come latelies...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
europe occupies a strategic position. on the one hand, it's ...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
You are pretty uneducated, which is OK, but stop acting like...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
i disagree somewhat with this... the ice man (ca. 3000 bc), ...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
Metal smelting diffused from Anatolia, and they not only did...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
fair enough. is that the rule in anthro, that you need to ha...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
totally fair. these categories are artificial, and they were...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
yeah, the maya are such an interesting case b/c they really ...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
Weren't the earliest copper smelting furnaces found in Serbi...
Embarrassed to the bone church
  02/06/13
i don't remember the history class where euros borrowed writ...
floppy water buffalo
  02/05/13
(moron)
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
Europeans didn't need to invite writing because they borrowe...
Electric ticket booth
  02/05/13
Early Mexicans encountering Spanish conquistadors thought th...
chestnut razzmatazz patrolman
  02/05/13
http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&fo...
Sickened lettuce old irish cottage
  02/05/13
who needs writing when you have gunpowder and iron ore?
claret meetinghouse mother
  02/05/13
or that very complex and advanced of technologies, the wheel...
Exhilarant Area Gaping
  02/05/13
wut
claret meetinghouse mother
  02/05/13
Writing is necessary to trade resources with other civs.
chestnut razzmatazz patrolman
  02/05/13
i'm struggling to understand how this is responsive, help me...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water a...
Sickened lettuce old irish cottage
  02/05/13
now quote the part where he talks about how much the aztecs ...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
The Middle East was white at that point. Does Elizabeth Tayl...
Irate talented public bath
  02/05/13
Plenty of Sid Meiers trolling going on ITT.
titillating base
  02/05/13
Cretan hieroglyphs, second millennium BC?
Ebony Business Firm
  02/05/13
(alternate universe where it wasn't white people running shi...
Ebony Business Firm
  02/05/13
don't troll me, bro (alternate universe where the archaic...
Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend
  02/05/13
didn't a euro monk invent silent reading
razzle puce immigrant
  02/05/13
cumskins basically have had a good 500 years and they only s...
Curious Piazza
  02/05/13
if you think europeans are bad, you're in for a big surprise...
mewling out-of-control partner
  02/05/13
Why is there some weirdo in here FURIOUSLY trolling for Maya...
scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete
  02/05/13
It's not trolling, assless chaps was saying retarded bullshi...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
Oh, ok. (gives you a warm blanket)
scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete
  02/05/13
(MAF cumskin) Sorry your retarded cumskin brother got pwn...
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
calm down Sequoyah.
scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete
  02/05/13
ROFL. Not a brown, but OK.
Primrose duck-like selfie
  02/05/13
(MAF nowag)
mewling out-of-control partner
  02/05/13
•draws an angry bird, maybe an angry monkey to pound the poi...
scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete
  02/05/13
I rate this thread as Listerine
sapphire beady-eyed associate
  02/05/13
with some tax free tobacco.
at-the-ready shivering mad cow disease pervert
  02/06/13
The Scandinavians had their runes.
Mind-boggling avocado boltzmann
  02/06/13
(self-hating english speaker)
diverse umber philosopher-king home
  02/06/13
I find that debates about history focusing on questions like...
Embarrassed to the bone church
  02/06/13
tell us moar about how tribes are always at war like dirty s...
Big blood rage hominid
  02/06/13


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:33 PM
Author: Confused onyx school

Kinda weird that Euros had to import writing from the Middle East as well as concepts such as zero and so on, but the Mayans discovered that shit on their own

Mesoamericans also did performed much more impressive feats of domestication and breeding than the Europeans did. Corn was way more productive than anything the Europeans had (and most of their domesticated crops and livestock came from outside of Europe anyway)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573179)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:35 PM
Author: glassy sound barrier abode

the Mayans were pretty bright, sucks that they got pwned

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573181)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 11th, 2026 8:03 PM
Author: chestnut razzmatazz patrolman

The Spanish dood who burned their library also gave us the only book that was useful for deciphering the Mayan script. A Russian cracked the code in the 1950s but no one in America learned about it until after the wall came down

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50062140)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 11th, 2026 7:59 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo

azn's still haven't really discovered writing, they are just using a bunch of hieroglyphs

Date: February 26th, 2025 9:28 PM

Author: hank_scorpio

http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5536032&forum_id=2#48697467

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50062115)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 11th, 2026 8:00 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo

still LOLLERCAUSTING@ cumskins literally believing we use "hieroglyphs"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50062119)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 11th, 2026 8:17 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo

ASIANS USE HIEROGLYPHS DURR DURR

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50062221)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 12th, 2026 6:53 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50064394)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 13th, 2026 7:47 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50066444)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 13th, 2026 8:03 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50066493)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 17th, 2026 10:33 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50074556)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 18th, 2026 7:59 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50076608)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 20th, 2026 8:15 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50081595)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 23rd, 2026 5:48 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50087757)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 23rd, 2026 9:57 PM
Author: Irradiated Sienna Ceo



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50088212)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 26th, 2026 6:03 PM
Author: nyuug



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50095047)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 27th, 2026 7:34 PM
Author: nyuug



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50098080)



Reply Favorite

Date: September 1st, 2026 8:48 PM
Author: nyuug



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#50109860)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:35 PM
Author: Sickened lettuce old irish cottage

because race realism and iq fetishism are not science

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573185)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 1:39 PM
Author: peach house quadroon

The OP, however, is definitely SCHOLARSHIP

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573569)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:36 PM
Author: Translucent crackhouse

Mexicans are a much more intelligent race of humans



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573193)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:37 PM
Author: Sickened lettuce old irish cottage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573198)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:52 PM
Author: cruel-hearted spot doctorate

Si

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573304)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:37 PM
Author: chestnut razzmatazz patrolman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runes

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573201)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 12:38 PM
Author: Confused onyx school

"Parent systems: Phoenician"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573209)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 1:08 PM
Author: Useless Fortuitous Meteor

pwned



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573387)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 1:13 PM
Author: greedy forum friendly grandma

Euros take credit for a lot of shit that they borrowed from the middle east -- civilization, etc.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573406)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 1:20 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

Yeah maybe if europeans weren't retards they would have independently come up with a civilization totally independent of contact from the rest of the world, just like... uhhh... fuck, what was that place where advanced civilization developed 2000 years ago independent of contact with other large populations? I'm sure it exists but it's lost on me.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573439)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:33 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

Oh, you mean just like the Mesoamericans? Yeah, exactly.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573894)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:33 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

link to there being large scale civilization in mesoamerica 2000 years ago?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573898)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:36 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec

Stop embarrassing yourself. It's obvious you know nothing about history.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573915)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:37 PM
Author: Doobsian property

rude.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573922)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:39 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec#Social_and_political_organization

"Nonetheless, Olmec society is thought to lack many of the institutions of later civilizations, such as a standing army or priestly caste.[81] And there is no evidence that San Lorenzo or La Venta controlled, even during their heyday, all of the Olmec heartland.[82] There is some doubt, for example, that La Venta controlled even Arroyo Sonso, only some 35 kilometres (22 mi) away.[83] Studies of the Tuxtla Mountain settlements, some 60 kilometres (37 mi) away, indicate that this area was composed of more or less egalitarian communities outside the control of lowland centers.[84]"

You realize that small egalitarian communities with no standing army or organized religion typically aren't counted as civilizations by anthropologists, right?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573927)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:44 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

a) Lack of a priestly caste =/= egalitarian

b) You're embarrassing yourself again. The traditional hallmark of civilization according to anthropologists is writing, and the secondary hallmark is cities. Have you ever taken an anthro class?



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573948)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:46 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

my quote says these places were made up of egalitarian communities, and 'city' implies hierarchy. ergo...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573961)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:47 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

City implies hierarchy! LOL, please, stop getting yourself pwned. Please, for the love of god.

Also, that part of your link is talking about a settlement outside the city's control, you brain-damged retard.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573970)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:50 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

so by that standard, the inca weren't civilized? just asking, i really have no idea

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573986)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:53 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

Yeah, it really makes a lot of anthropologists really conflicted, because they had a state and advanced material culture in other ways. Some people argue khipu counts, but this hasn't been substantiated.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574007)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:55 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

when i was growing up, it was spelled "quipu" in my history book... is that a spanish transcription that is now deprecated/considered inaccurate?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574012)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:56 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

Both are still current as far as I recall

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574014)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 3:00 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

ty

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574031)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:45 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

I guess the Japanese don't have civilization since they don't have a standing army!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573957)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:47 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._military_presence_in_Japan



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573969)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:50 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

Can't wait for the day civilization reaches Iceland and Costa Rica...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573985)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 1:14 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

europeans have been literate for 2700 years, northern europeans for 2000, the earliest evidence of a mayan writing system is from like 1500 years ago. also, maya script is a form of hierogliphs, which is not real writing.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573411)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 1:40 PM
Author: peach house quadroon



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573578)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:32 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

WHAT SCHOLARSHIP!

Wrong. Mesoamericans have been literate for 2900 years. Northern Europeans? At most 1900 years, and stolen from Southern Europeans who stole it from Middle Easterners.

www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/world/middleeast/obama-to-visit-israel-in-spring.html?hp

Mesoamerican writing is definitely real writing, as real as Chinese writing.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573893)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:36 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

you realize that the pictograms depicted below are what passed for "independently developed mesoamerican writing systems," right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Palenque_glyphs-edit1.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573918)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:40 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

What's your point? You don't like the way it looks? You're a massive moron. It's just as advanced a writing system as Chinese logograms. In fact, the Mayan system was more akin to modern Japanese writing, since it included both logograms AND a syllabary.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573931)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:45 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

it's a system of pre-hieroglyphic visual communication, you can't use those kinds of language systems to convey grammar, indicate pronounciation, or do anything else a written langugage is supposed to do.

also, if you want to count that kind of shit as writing, there are tons of undeciphered european scripts from before the arrival of phoenician script in europe, such as this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitovo_inscription

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573954)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:47 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

Except you're fucking wrong. It was a syllabary like modern Japanese Hiragana you idiot. Stop getting yourself pwned.

http://www.ancientscripts.com/images/maya_syllabary_1.gif

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573964)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:58 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitovo_inscription

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574027)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 2:58 PM
Author: odious henna state new version

You are the one pwning yourself breh.

you are arguing with assless chaps.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574028)



Reply Favorite

Date: February 5th, 2013 3:00 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

is he a known retard brother.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574030)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:07 PM
Author: odious henna state new version

There was a "deep thoughts with Assless Chaps" movement last year

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574056)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 1:14 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

"europe" didn't exist, historically. the greeks and romans were part of a mediterranean/near-eastern complex that included the earliest farmers and the first writing systems. it would have been weird if the greeks and romans had discovered any of that stuff on their own since those things were cultural commonplaces in their milieu before they emerged as distinct societies

the greeks didn't invent 0 but they did invent calculus (calculation via infinitesimals) and steam engines and the antikythera mechanism and stuff, so i think they're still ahead

once greek and roman culture had diffused to northen europe, it catalyzed a round of ethnogenesis in northern europe that resulted in part in the modern european ethnicities -- french, british, dutch, etc., all of which came into being within the last ~1200 years (you could argue the french were earlier, but it took a while for the franks, gallo-romans, etc to become "french" in any meaningful sense)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573412)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 1:18 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

yeah this whole idea that europeans are johnny come latelies to civilization is retarded, there was a european civilization before christian civilization, jesus christ. also, the earliest stone monuments in the world are in europe.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573431)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 1:24 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

europe occupies a strategic position. on the one hand, it's shitty land on the whole; on the other, it's the natural crossroads of the middle east, central asia and africa -- just look at the waves of central asian invaders, everything from aryans to near-eastern early farmers right down to ottomans as recently as the 17th century

northern europe has always had a fairly advanced level of material culture, like with metallurgy and writing and stuff, but was such shitty, unproductive land that state formation still wasn't complete in some parts of it 1,000 years back. as for the med basin, the western med was hick territory for a long time, but there was always a degree of civilization there, too

the achievements of the maya are pretty impressive considering how isolated the americas were, beyond that you can't compare them to the layers and layers of old world civilizations going back to the dawn of history

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573464)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:35 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

You are pretty uneducated, which is OK, but stop acting like you know anything. Even though there was European civ before christian civ, it still came THOUSANDS OF YEARS after civilization in Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia.

Idiot.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573910)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:49 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

i disagree somewhat with this... the ice man (ca. 3000 bc), e.g., didn't come from a city, but he was part of a sophisticated material culture that had metal smelting and economic specialization in manufacturing. given the low agricultural productivity of northern europe prior to the invention of the moldboard plow, that was pretty decent

no one is arguing that the first cities arose in europe. on the other hand, it's also not true that europeans were degenerate barbarians until 1400 ad, as a lot of people kind of unreflectively believe today

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573980)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:52 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

Metal smelting diffused from Anatolia, and they not only didn't have cities, but didn't have writing, geometry, states, or advanced mathematics.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574000)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:00 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

fair enough. is that the rule in anthro, that you need to have writing, cities, etc. to be non-barbarians? i'm sure that there's a good reason for it if it is

by that standard, northern europeans were barbaric well into the Christian era. but it seems funny to me to put, e.g., saga-era icelanders with their boatbuilding, metalworking, chronicle literature etc. on the same footing as historyless hunter-gatherers who follow the herds hucking rocks at them

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574029)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:01 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

totally fair. these categories are artificial, and they were obviously not on the same level. i was more reacting against the people denigrating the accomplishments of the Mesoamericans, which were impressive compared to Northern Europeans at the same time period and came about independently.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574034)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:09 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

yeah, the maya are such an interesting case b/c they really seem to have come from nowhere and to have left few progeny -- seems like they should have been the sumerians of the americas considering how far out in front they were culturally, but i guess they didn't have much of an edge in material or military culture. my understanding, and correct me if i'm wrong, is that the mayan inheritance lay totally fallow until certain curious spaniards started digging stuff up, and thereby inadvertently preserving some sources for scientific anthro & archaeology to deal with once they emerged

the maya are also interesting b/c their culture was so alien and frankly bugfuck crazy-seeming. brb the king's main job is to draw sacred blood from his foreskin, wtf. i guess they'd probably see us the same way

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574065)



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Date: February 6th, 2013 8:11 AM
Author: Embarrassed to the bone church

Weren't the earliest copper smelting furnaces found in Serbia? I think that's one area where Europeans were actually somewhat ahead of middle easterners, although iron smelting is a much more complicated process and was definitely present in the middle east a few hundred years before making it to europe.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22579159)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 1:21 PM
Author: floppy water buffalo

i don't remember the history class where euros borrowed writing from the middle east. i think it was just invented 5000 years ago and spread organically.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573444)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:33 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

(moron)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573897)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:27 PM
Author: Electric ticket booth

Europeans didn't need to invite writing because they borrowed it from other civilizations.

Mayan writing was pretty fucking primitive, it was basically pictograms meaning it was where writing in the rest of the world was around 2500 BC.

And if Mesoamerican civilization was so great and highly developed, how come they hadn't even invented the wheel yet by the time Europeans arrived in 1500?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573866)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:40 PM
Author: chestnut razzmatazz patrolman

Early Mexicans encountering Spanish conquistadors thought the doods riding horses were one single animal. It didn't occur to them that that could be a guy sitting on the back of animal, they thought it was like a centaur or something.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573934)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:52 PM
Author: Sickened lettuce old irish cottage

http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573964

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573999)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:37 PM
Author: claret meetinghouse mother

who needs writing when you have gunpowder and iron ore?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573921)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:40 PM
Author: Exhilarant Area Gaping

or that very complex and advanced of technologies, the wheel!

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573933)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:42 PM
Author: claret meetinghouse mother

wut

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573942)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:46 PM
Author: chestnut razzmatazz patrolman

Writing is necessary to trade resources with other civs.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573960)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:52 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

i'm struggling to understand how this is responsive, help me out?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573998)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:51 PM
Author: Sickened lettuce old irish cottage

When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments (...) on account of the great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream? (...) I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about. ”

—Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22573994)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 2:54 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

now quote the part where he talks about how much the aztecs loved cannibalism

diaz makes for weird reading in general, i wasn't expecting him to talk up montezuma so much

also, cortez was a straight gangster. i love the part where they're retreating from the noche triste, like a few days after iirc, and they run into another spanish army sent from cuba and just fucking roll them over even though they're outnumbered like 6 to 1 and just got their own asses badly beat a few days before

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574009)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:06 PM
Author: Irate talented public bath

The Middle East was white at that point. Does Elizabeth Taylor look Arab?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574051)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:09 PM
Author: titillating base

Plenty of Sid Meiers trolling going on ITT.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574062)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:16 PM
Author: Ebony Business Firm

Cretan hieroglyphs, second millennium BC?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574097)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:21 PM
Author: Ebony Business Firm

(alternate universe where it wasn't white people running shit in Egypt)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574112)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 3:23 PM
Author: Fiercely-loyal vermilion legend

don't troll me, bro

(alternate universe where the archaic proto-finnic type fused with aryans, paleo-iberians, who the fuck knows what else and neolithic farmers from the levant and backwashed into pre-dynastic egypt)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22574119)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:13 PM
Author: razzle puce immigrant

didn't a euro monk invent silent reading

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577792)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:16 PM
Author: Curious Piazza

cumskins basically have had a good 500 years and they only succeeded by being incredibly violent and imperialistic... now they are becoming extinct and nigs and browns and chinks are taking over.. lol at u faggots

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577804)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:34 PM
Author: mewling out-of-control partner

if you think europeans are bad, you're in for a big surprise when we're gone bro

*whites go extinct*

*azns still blaming whites for their inability to get laid*

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577912)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:18 PM
Author: scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete

Why is there some weirdo in here FURIOUSLY trolling for Mayans?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577817)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:19 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

It's not trolling, assless chaps was saying retarded bullshit. I hate when people who don't know shit about history go around spewing stuff that's just wrong.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577822)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:20 PM
Author: scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete

Oh, ok.

(gives you a warm blanket)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577832)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:21 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

(MAF cumskin)

Sorry your retarded cumskin brother got pwned by facts over and over again. He makes your whole race look retarded.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577836)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:22 PM
Author: scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete

calm down Sequoyah.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577840)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:23 PM
Author: Primrose duck-like selfie

ROFL. Not a brown, but OK.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577846)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:35 PM
Author: mewling out-of-control partner

(MAF nowag)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577917)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:39 PM
Author: scarlet generalized bond keepsake machete

•draws an angry bird, maybe an angry monkey to pound the point home. Also a mean spider.•

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22577953)



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Date: February 5th, 2013 11:47 PM
Author: sapphire beady-eyed associate

I rate this thread as Listerine

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22578010)



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Date: February 6th, 2013 1:26 AM
Author: at-the-ready shivering mad cow disease pervert

with some tax free tobacco.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22578787)



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Date: February 6th, 2013 7:58 AM
Author: Mind-boggling avocado boltzmann

The Scandinavians had their runes.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22579142)



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Date: February 6th, 2013 8:17 AM
Author: diverse umber philosopher-king home

(self-hating english speaker)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22579171)



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Date: February 6th, 2013 8:26 AM
Author: Embarrassed to the bone church

I find that debates about history focusing on questions like 'who achieved 'x' sign of advanced civilization first' have a tendency to degenerate into nationalistic type disputes over fairly inconsequential things.

As somebody mentioned above, when we think of a 'civilization' we usually think of cities, but you can have cities without much in the way of a materially advanced culture, and a fairly advanced material culture without cities.

Europeans do appear to have been somewhat behind many other parts of the world in terms of urbanization and literacy, though they were also pretty far ahead in terms of metal production and certain other manufacturing techniques like shipbuilding; the first copper furnaces, for example, were found at a site in Serbia, and the oldest smelted gold alloys were found in bulgaria.

I think the past 500 years of western supremacy have been somewhat of an anomaly in the sense that you don't usually find one civilization that's just miles ahead of the others across every organizational, material and 'intellectual' axis, it's usually more like different regions have different advantages and disadvantages, derived largely from the landscape they find themselves siutated on.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22579184)



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Date: February 6th, 2013 8:38 AM
Author: Big blood rage hominid

tell us moar about how tribes are always at war like dirty savages, mr. diamond

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2176255&forum_id=2#22579196)