So history put it bluntly, it needs to use our experience and wisdom to guess, some guessed right and some guessed wrong. For example, we think we have a better understanding of the history of Tang Dynasty society, but in 1988, a large number of Tang Dynasty cultural relics were unearthed at Famen Temple in Shaanxi. We have been mistaking the names of many objects in the Tang Dynasty.
So what is history? It is blunt to say that the history we know is all assumptions, especially for the history before there are written records, the existing historical theory building is based on assumptions.
First, let's take a look at what historians have assumed.
The general scientific community regards the appearance of writing as an important symbol for defining civilization. Usually, people refer to the history after the appearance of writing as the history of human civilization, while the history before writing is regarded as prehistory. Since the last century, countries around the world have begun to conduct large-scale archaeological excavations of ancient cultures. Collecting the archaeological results of the past century, people have found that the appearance of writing is not long, no more than 6,000 years at most. According to the degree of civilization development, the academic circles ranked China, India, Egypt, and Babylon at the top of the list, known as the "Four Ancient Civilizations".
So far, the earliest writing found in Egypt originated from about 4000 BC and 6000 years ago; in the 1920s, people found many preserved stone tools, pottery, ivory, and other objects in places where ancient Indians lived. Strange symbols, after research and judgment, these symbols are some pronunciation symbols, and there are also some ideographic symbols, which can be regarded as ancient Indian characters, and their age is about 2500 BC; in the 1930s, people in Assyria A relatively well-preserved ancient library, roughly equivalent to the National Archives, was found in the ruins of the ancient city during the time of King Banaba. It contained more than 20,000 clay tablets, which were inscribed with cuneiform hieroglyphs. The clay tablet document, which is representative of the ancient Babylonian culture, dates from about 3500 BC and 5500 years ago.
The oldest writing in China is the oracle bone script, which was produced around the time of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and recorded the activities of our ancestors more than 3000 BC. However, since oracle bone inscriptions are relatively mature characters, experts speculate that the actual age of Chinese characters may be longer. A few years ago, archaeologists discovered a 6,000-year-old "Goddess Temple" site in the area of Niuheliang, Liaoning Province, on a large scale. At the same time, many exquisite cultural relics were unearthed. Among them, the head of the goddess is lifelike, which can be regarded as the best among the handicrafts. Unfortunately, no text has been found. However, judging from the degree of its craftsmanship, this is a site with a fairly high degree of civilization, and characters can appear.
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Therefore, from the perspective of the appearance of writing, our generation of civilization has only 6,000 years, which is the upper limit of human civilization that can be determined. All our scientific achievements today have been developed over 6,000 years. Before that, a civilization similar to ours couldn't appear today. This is the conclusion of history.
So, what were human beings like 6,000 years ago? Without any written records, there are only a large number of unearthed physical materials. Based on these physical materials and reasonable speculation, historians have painted us such a picture of prehistoric history:
About 2 million years ago, humans who just evolved from apes entered the Paleolithic period. They lived in group marriages like a group of beasts, living naked in caves or big trees, and using simple processing natural tools. , such as stones, sticks, etc. to hunt wild animals and collect various edible plants. This period is very long, and every tiny progress of primitive humans is recorded on stone axes, stone chips, and various bone tools.
About 10,000 years ago, human beings began to enter the Neolithic Age. They began to know how to make more delicate tools, including stone tools and bone tools. At the same time, they invented fire, they knew cooked food, and then slowly, they invented knotting to keep track of things. , invented the picture. About 4000 B.C., they had words, walked out of the shadow of ignorance, and ushered in the dawn of civilization. This is the system of prehistoric history that historians have painstakingly constructed.
But we can’t help but ask: Is this the case in history?
In the past 100 years, with the development of science and technology, archaeological methods have become increasingly scientific. People have discovered a large number of prehistoric sites in places that historians have not noticed before. Although we have not been able to interpret the correct meaning of these relics and sites, one thing is certain, that is, the meaning of these relics and ruins is still quite different from the viewpoint of modern traditional historiography. Among them, the history from 10,000 BC to 4,000 BC is the most inconceivable, with extremely prominent fault characteristics. For example, the Indian Mahenjodhamma discovered in the 1940s is divided into several layers that overlap each other, and the next layer is more advanced than the previous layer of civilization. The unearthed gold and silver jewelry and various hand ornaments are so well made that people today are amazed. The archaeologist Marshall once said: "It is so well made and highly polished that these things seem to come from today. Jewelry in First Street, London."
The great contrast between the historical system and the new archaeological discovery lies before us, and their conflict is so acute: one must choose between the two which is right and the other which is wrong. There seems to be no middle way.