Ways Ancient Civilizations Were More Advanced Than You Think 

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There is actually a record from ancient Rome that seems to indicate they knew about micro-organisms. “Precautions must also be taken in the neighbourhood of swamps, both for the reasons given, and because there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases." Terentius Varro De Re Rustica, 1.12

Some people would rather believe Aliens did it, than ancient civilizations managed it. Meanwhile 2000+ years ago, ancient Greeks calculated the size of Earths sphere, but 10% of the internet are convinced it's flat

I absolutely adore this video. My dad has said regularly since I was a child, and I now say to my children, that people who give credit to aliens or magic based on new age stuff for things that ancient man did, they are saying our ancestors were stupid, which they were profoundly not. They were every bit as intelligent, they just had less of a knowledge base to draw from. They were PERFECTLY capable.

Former district nurse here. We use honey with necrotic wounds, it has pretty amazing antibacterial properties. Silver and seaweed dressings also. Not to mention maggot therapy.

There is evidence that the Egyptians had at the very least a working knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem. They used a string of length a+b+c to make right angles, with a = 3 units, b = 4 units, and c = 5 units. As a²+b²=c², if the loop is closed, the angle where a touches b must be 90°. Simple and effective.

It always got me thinking of the possibilities when I consider my grandfather, who was born in 1892, saw the first airplanes take flight and then witnessed man landing on the moon.

I think all of this goes to show how much innovation can be achieved if you give people the resources to not constantly work and be able to think for a little bit.

I live in the US southwest region and I'm constantly amazed by the ancient dwellings that have survived hundreds or even a thousand years, such as Mesa Verde. Also building them halfway down cliffs is astounding. It makes practical sense for shelter and protection from enemies/animals, but it couldn't have been easy.

1:00 - Mid roll ads 2:25 - Chapter 1 - Mathematics 5:25 - Chapter 2 - The earth & astronomy 10:10 - Chapter 3 - City engineering 12:00 - Chapter 4 - Medicine

“No aliens necessary, it’s just human ingenuity.” I’m taking that quote

When Simon is 70, I hope he has a Merlin beard.

Can you imagine how advanced we'd be if he didn't have to keep rediscovering this stuff?

Impressive, but it still took until one generation ago to find a way to avoid going to school uphill both ways.

The importance of Pi can't be overestimated. Strawberry is my favorite.

Ancient people were just like us, just without the smartphones and dentistry.

If Columbus had used Eratosthanes' figure for the size of the Earth, he wouldn't have set out at all. The existence of America was unknown to Europeans at the time. For all they knew, there was nothing but open ocean all the way across to Japan and China. There was no way for ships of the period to make such a long voyage all at a go. This was, in fact, the essence of the dispute between himself and accepted scholarship, and why he found it so hard to get his voyage financed despite the wealth that would have been brought by success.

I'm surprised he didn't bring up Roman concrete.

Reminder, Babylonians had the approximation of the value of square root of two since the 2nd Millenium BC, and sumerians from the 3rd millenium had division, multiplication and geometrical excercises

"Standing on the shoulders of giants" and all that. There are a lot of things people today can re-learn from the past, but I've always maintained it's whoever did or invented something first, from first principles, who deserves the real praise.

Simon without sleeves got me all sorts of f*cked up right now… get this man a turtleneck sweater!!

Just a note that when the Maya was first mentioned it was Teotihuacan was shown. It’s in Mexico but it’s not a Mayan city.

The prehistoric cave paintings in southern France became animated under firelight. The paintings were done up to the ceilings of these caves, which go up to 10 feet in height.

There is only 149 years between the discovery of Antarctica, and landing a man on the moon.

I believe it was Socrates who said: "All Knowledge is Remembering"......

Wow! Eratosthenes and his crew were definitely at the top of their game! Amazing stuff.

The Egyptian use of honey on wounds is very impressive, it's still used in modern medicine.

Pythagoras was not made famous for discovering the Pythagorean properties of triangles. Instead he was made famous for making the first geometric proof of the property. Thus proving it holds for all right triangles and paving the way for mathematical proofs

But... the past was the worst...

Sad you didn’t go over Hattusa and it’s incredible pipe water system.

History is so important. It's constantly agitated that it might have to repeat itself because we don't listen.

That last point is still good to remember when we are so isolated from other parts of the world seen as adversaries... Billions of people not normally collaborating day to day is a huge waste.

In ancient Rome, there were physicians/surgeons that were able to perform cataract surgery, without killing the patient, or blinding them. In fact, the patients not only survived, but were able to see clearly again.

Even earlier the knowledge of stone and what could be done with it is extraordinary, Pre-pottery knowledge of working with stone, still cannot be explained. From making cups and bowls to moving megalithic stonework, not to mention the precision that was used to create these objects. Our ancestors made good and creative use of what was around them. I was a seaman in the engine room on merchant ships in the late 60s, when something broke or stopped working, there was no place to go for parts or tools, we had to use what we had around us, or in a worst-case scenario have to abandon ship or even die.(In march 1966 in the North Sea after leaving Bremerhaven a rupture in the hall in the 5th cargo bay was letting sea water flood the the cargo space. The engineers on that ship worked and did some strange emergency fixes that saved our ship. They used what we had. Our ancestors did the same, they were wonderful and creative problem solvers.

Very nice compilations of early advanced technologies. You mentioned communication towards closing, an excellent point, since it is in sharing and recording information we are able to pass on our advances to the next generation. During Alexander the Great's time, the Greeks also took advantage of the parabola to create the acoustic amplifiers and reflectors to communicate from mountain top to mountain top. A few of the rare examples to still exist were in Afghanistan and Macedonia, and still work when we tried them on deployment. Wonder why that idea was not continues and expanded back then? A modern equivalent would be the acoustic range detectors used in 1939 and 1940 Britain to track incoming raids. Radar of course soon surpassed that system but it did exist even in the 20th century. Excellent series and articles, Simon and crew! Thank you for making and posting them!

0:59 - yes. can you imagine people navigated by paper maps and mapquest before gps?

There are more egyptian papyri with medical content, like the Papyrus Ebers, which is kept in the library of the University of Leipzig. It contains generally the same set of advice and diagnostic methods as described in the Papyrus of Edwin Smith, but also adds a few magical prayers for a "medicine". The Edward Smith papyrus is the one among them, that omits such supernatural components.

Another Simon Whistler production. Yay. Good that aliens weren't necessary for construction projects. Very interesting.

Just looking around me, today, I would wager that they were on the whole, more intelligent than we are....

More people should know about Heron of Alexandria (C1st AD) who invented programmable wagons, vending machines, the hydraulic telegraph, automatic doors, the steam engine, the syringe, wind powered machines, and even constructed and directed an entirely automatic play.

THANK YOU for using AD and BC !!! Makes SO much more sense .... I'm now 60 years old. I have been saying for decades that the Ancients were FAR smarter than we ever give them credit for.

I can’t stop imagining Fact Boi silently screaming “THE PAST WAS THE WORST!” as his software glitches.

Navigation by stars is always mind-blowing and to think did it all the time

"Given more priority than the Residences of the Elite", Damn I wish we was like that.

I heard that the ancient Egyptians used 22/7, which is 3.1429 and much closer to the real value of pi. Other mathematicians calculated fractions that were even closer.

My intro to philosophy professor spent more than half the semester on Plato and Pythagoras (since philosophers theorized about maths and science in order to understand the universe) and the amount of stuff I learned in that class about ancient knowledge was staggering.

Ancient ship building was super impressive

"Medical honey" is still used for wound care even now.

this is fantastically interesting. I don't think this is talked about nearly enough!

Fascinating video thank you

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair"

"They certainly had more knowledge than they had wrote down." Jeez, Simon is so loaded from his 100 channels that he has a time machine now to confirm his statements!

I think that inventions by Heron of Alexandria, especially those related to use of steam, albeit relatively recent (1st century AD) should have been mentioned. In different social and economic environment they could have started the industrial revolution 1500 years before is actually started.

perfect timing! Waiting for my oven cheese rn and this banger dropped

Liu Hui was the 3.14 mathematician. Zu Chongzhi was the 3.1415926 mathematician.

Thank you for this video! You can only hear about the horrible things people do for so long before it's all you think about. It happens too often in the media. Hearing about the great accomplishments of mankind is one of my favorite pastimes.

Say what you will about the bagpipes, they are ancient! Anyone who looked at a sheep and thought “musical instrument” was thinking waaaaaaay outside the box. Scary brilliant. (I’m a novice piper)

fun fact, the Egyptians also prescribed the use of "Mary jane" or "420" as a broncho-dilator to aid with flu, pneumonia and asthma.

I concluded that our ancient ancestors were way smarter than anticipated during a holiday tour of Ireland. When assessing the flagstone shallow pit that could have been a small grave, but filled with bog water, it became obvious that the Irish were having hot baths some 10,000 years ago. These things (fulacht fiadh = "full ach fear") could heat 40 gallons of water to boiling point in about 20 minutes. By dropping in hot stones, roasted in a nearby fire. How simple! Yet, how clever! We know they were used for cooking (boiling meat and veg for the original Irish Stew perhaps) but the shape and size also makes them perfect for bathing, too.

I thank god everyday that I’ll never have to do the quadratic equation or factor polynomials ever again.

Simon should have mentioned the Mesapotamian Battery, the earliest known battery discovered within the Sumerians ruins in Babylon, Iraq.

I miss the less cerebral Simon. I remember when it was "I'm Simon from WhatCulture and these are the 10 best Jock Strap Related Incidents from the WCW era"

These sorts of videos are super interesting :O

I want Simon to turn into The Wise Old Man when he gets older. Blue Phat and all, lol.

Hunter/gatherers have absolutely no need for a precise calendar. That’s A LOT of work for a novelty item.

The Romans began to settle around 15BC in the area today known as Xanten in Germany. They had running water and a function sewer system, a public bath house with under-floor steam heating and water flushed latrines. They had figured out that it is not a good idea to poop into one’s fresh water supply! Then came the ‘Dark Ages’, during which more than 1/3 of Europe’s population died from diseases caused by unsanitary conditions! 😮

We are all truly blessed to be living in the Modern world.

There are 13 Lunar Months, we use a Solar Calendar with 12 months. "The months of the Gregorian calendar do not correspond to the moon's phases, but the calendar does have leap years to account for the Earth's revolution being slightly longer than 365 days. " "Yes, the lunar calendar has 13 months, each with 28 days. The moon takes about 28 days to orbit the Earth, so in one year, the moon completes 13 orbits. The Celtic lunar calendar is an example of a 13-month calendar, with an extra day added at the end of the year."

5:41 Imagine a guy named Warren Field coming across this part of the video, lol

Honestly, look at all the historic buildings and then tell me the ancestors or even another civilization hadn't some technology we're not known to. I think it has to do with frequencies, sound, water and magnetic fields. Like the Pyramids are today known that they served as a battery and I think the historic building style also kind of uses the same mechanism. Probably has to do with "free energy" something that Tesla talked about.

The ancient egyptian way of finding out the sex of your child before birth is something that always amazes me...

The history of mathematics is an ever-growing series of abstractions. Evolutionarily speaking, the first abstraction to ever be discovered, one shared by many animals, was probably that of numbers: the realization that, for example, a collection of two apples and a collection of two oranges (say) have something in common, namely that there are two of them. As evidenced by tallies found on bone, in addition to recognizing how to count physical objects, prehistoric peoples may have also known how to count abstract quantities, like time--days, seasons, or years.

The papyrus at 5,000 years old is nowhere near the age of the pyramids

His beard is looking AMAZING right now. Its so thick looking and looks super clean cut. Looking good man!

What eyeglass frames are those?

The biggest stumbling block for them was medicine. The physical sciences were pretty advanced: math, engineering, and astronomy. But the people were not living past their 30’s or 40’s, which prevented that gained knowledge from propelling them even further. Medicine has proven to be the toughest nut to crack. Even in the modern era, it is way harder to cure diabetes or cancer than it is to make an iPhone, a self driving car or to make a space station.

Lui Hui … ‘cut’ 4:58

Ancient people is us, we are them.

Happy birthday week Simon!!!

Just a suggestion, you should consider working on the ending of your videos putting in some kind of short close instead of just leaving an abrupt end that leaves us wondering if part of the video got cut off.

4:12 (16/9)^2 squared, not divided by 2

I'm still waiting for the "how many channels does Simon Whistler have" episode...lol

they knew more about the world than some people who claim to be experts, today.

My nephew loves to go hiking and camping. At my suggestion he keeps packages of honey in his first aid kit and has actually used them on occasion. Science! Also. It absolutely amazes me that people assume ancients were less intelligent or advanced. All of our scientists, engineers, inventors, etc, and all of our gadgets had to come from somewhere. This stuff didn't just pop into existence out of the ether.

That blows my mind! 66 yrs to go from the first powered flight to walking on the moon!

Buddy that discovered the circumference of Earth wild bro how you Even come up with the ideas to look at they shadow!! That's crazy genius

The Ancient Egyptions also wrote all of shakespears plays - true fact

Simon's beard is becoming it's own being.

Fascinating (not in the least due to not saying a word about the Aliens). But why so much so advanced knowledge got lost to the rough times erasing what might have driven civilization so much further than we see today? One simple answer comes to mind and it's exclusivity of knowledge. For for knowledge to survive it's of utmost importance to be replicated and reproduced on a massive scale.

Think about that the idea that it was like 60 or 70 years from the Wright brothers to us landing on the moon. I think one of the brothers died in 1948, 20 years before the moon landing

Digital computers have about reached their limit, also RAM is almost obsolete because we hit it's limits years ago

How can Simon talk soooo fast without making a mistake, I only do that when I'm drunk, honest😂😂😂

Hey! Just wanted to say that the firsr picture you show of the Mayans at 9:18 is actually of Teotihuacan, which is a completely different culture. Just thought you should know :)

I would think the value of a pie would be relative to the size and type of pie it is.

Simón, may I suggest some beard blaze.

Did they have no knowledge of microorganisms? I read about someone who purposed a germ theory of disease almost exactly like our modern theory. They pointed out than animals had sizes as small as the limits of the ability for humans to see and proposed there was no reason to believe that these were the smallest animals that existed. He tested this idea by cleaning surfaces with the intention of killing these animals that were too small to see, and he did note a lower incident of disease. However he did not have magnification technology so he could never prove this theory.

So it could then be argued that the most important advancements where the ability to effectively store and transmit information, everything else is secondary to that?

Ancient Egypt and Greece were the most prominent ones. These two civilizations laid out the foundation of many scientific methods and inventions. Especially ancient Greece was much more advanced in many ways.

How did Eratosthenes knew the same time at two different locations? Like clocks warent a thing yet

Trial and error is the best way to learn