Great Wall of Iran

[rogue06]

A recently discovered wall unearthed in Iran dates from the Sasanian
Persian Empire of the 5th or 6th cent. AD and more than matches anything
built by the Roman Empire.

Source Linked Below

The 'Great Wall of Gorgan' in north-eastern Iran, a barrier of awesome
scale and sophistication, including over 30 military forts, an aqueduct,
and water channels along its route, is being explored by an
international team of archaeologists from Iran and the Universities of
Edinburgh and Durham. This vast Wall-also known as the 'Red Snake'-is
more than 1000 years older than the Great Wall of China, and longer than
Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall put together.

© source where applicable

You can read more here:
Excavations
In Iran Unravel Mystery Of 'Red Snake'

[MooseOnTheLoose]

This is fantastic stuff and thanks for posting.

Ancient man was not so primitive. Imagine if steam or electrical power had been developed 3,000 years ago.

[SteveF]

Yeah, I heard about this recently. I'm planning on visiting Iran in the next year or so. It's been a dream of mine to travel there for some time now.

[rogue06]

This is fantastic stuff and thanks for posting.

Ancient man was not so primitive. Imagine if steam or electrical power had been developed 3,000 years ago.

One big mistake is thinking that people from earlier times were stupid, or not as smart as us. The only difference between us and people living a thousand or more years ago is the level of accumulated knowledge and technical skill.

[Mountain Man]

Yep. The ancients were far more sophisticated then bigoted moderners give them credit for.

For instance, there's this example of an ancient mechanical computer used to calculate the positions of the sun, the moon, and the planets in relation to the earth:

BBC News

Although its origins are uncertain, the new studies of the inscriptions suggest it would have been constructed around 100-150 BC, long before such devices appear in other parts of the world.

Writing in Nature, the team says that the mechanism was "technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards".

. . .

"When you see it your jaw just drops and you think: 'bloody ----, that's clever'. It's a brilliant technical design," said Professor Mike Edmunds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6191462.stm

© source where applicable

[rogue06]

Yep. The ancients were far more sophisticated then bigoted moderners give them credit for.

For instance, there's this example of an ancient mechanical computer used to calculate the positions of the sun, the moon, and the planets in relation to the earth:

BBC News

Although its origins are uncertain, the new studies of the inscriptions suggest it would have been constructed around 100-150 BC, long before such devices appear in other parts of the world.

Writing in Nature, the team says that the mechanism was "technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards".

. . .

"When you see it your jaw just drops and you think: 'bloody ----, that's clever'. It's a brilliant technical design," said Professor Mike Edmunds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6191462.stm

© source where applicable

Yeah, the Antikythera Clock or computer is wayyy cool

[Conductor42]

Sweet

[GKC_fan]

A recently discovered wall unearthed in Iran dates from the Sasanian
Persian Empire of the 5th or 6th cent. AD...

Source Linked Below

...This vast Wall...is more than 1000 years older than the Great Wall of China...

© source where applicable

Very impressive! and thanks for posting this.

The article is somewhat misleading on one point, though. Although this Iranian wall is apparently about 1000 years older than the current Great Wall of China, the Great Wall is relatively recent, and far from the first 'great wall' built by the Chinese. The first emperor of unified China, the infamous Qin Shi Huang Di, united the various older existing defensive walls into one wall around 220 BC. So the Iranian wall would have been built about 600 years after that one.

[runtmc2jc]

One big mistake is thinking that people from earlier times were stupid, or not as smart as us. The only difference between us and people living a thousand or more years ago is the level of accumulated knowledge and technical skill.

maybe........but ontold riches of knowledge from ancient times were destroyed at the library of Alexandria..... besides that, remaining vestiges of ancient monuments reveal building techniques not understood today even with our "advanced" knowledge and technologies.

[shunyadragon]

maybe........but ontold riches of knowledge from ancient times were destroyed at the library of Alexandria..... besides that, remaining vestiges of ancient monuments reveal building techniques not understood today even with our "advanced" knowledge and technologies.

I disagree with '. . . not understood today even with our "advanced" knowledge and technologies.'

Most ancient structures have been demonstrated to have been built by simple construction and engineering methods, but with long intensive labor to shape and move stones.

[fm93]

remaining vestiges of ancient monuments reveal building techniques not understood today even with our "advanced" knowledge and technologies.

Mossy built them by using the Pin™.

[shunyadragon]

Yep. The ancients were far more sophisticated then bigoted moderners give them credit for.

For instance, there's this example of an ancient mechanical computer used to calculate the positions of the sun, the moon, and the planets in relation to the earth:

BBC News

Although its origins are uncertain, the new studies of the inscriptions suggest it would have been constructed around 100-150 BC, long before such devices appear in other parts of the world.

Writing in Nature, the team says that the mechanism was "technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards".

. . .

"When you see it your jaw just drops and you think: 'bloody ----, that's clever'. It's a brilliant technical design," said Professor Mike Edmunds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6191462.stm

© source where applicable

Popular news articles tend to be misleading, and I am a bit surprised at BBC on this problem. The present Great Wall of China began to be built as a series of walls around the 5th century BC. Trade in jade and salt from western Xinjiang dates to well before 3000 BC, and there is evidence of trade with Persia of jade on what I call the Jade Road, what later became the Silk Road. One of the purposed of the walls was to protect trade routes.