The Australian Aboriginals did just that. Entire dream time stories would be told by walking through the landscape, some stories taking days and weeks to tell as they walked through the territories of their tribe, with the country and landmarks marking the points of the stories.

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How did they make those lines so straight?

Iirc people are banned from going to them now, because they were getting destroyed by motorcycles

There is a theory that they were created by people who were searching for water. That would explain why the lines never intersect

Thank you for that! I couldn't have put it any better myself.

Dear English speaking world, We stopped calling it the Kristallnacht because it is a nazi propaganda term and instead call it the Reichspogromnacht, and imo you should do that, too.

I've been there a bit more than 10 years ago. You can drive out between them by car and while you recognize it is something man-made, for most you can't recognize what it is though. There are hills near by - with some ancient irrigation systems that even after a few hundred years are still used today! - from which you can see and recognize some that are nearby. They can clearly seen from the air - took a round flight over them - and it is super-impressive how big and clearly visible they are. The guides, pilots and so on all had their own theories. The most common ones I heard was religious - messages to their gods - or that they were used to mirror what they saw in the stars, like their interpretations of star constellations. Maybe it's both at the same time.

I was trying to remember a book from college about a woman in the gulag. Does Journey Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg sound familiar to anybody? I had to go back into old photos of me reading it to get a portion of the title. I just remember it being very informative and detailed.

I like the theory of it working as a memory device, sort of as a pilgrimage that you walk on to remember certain information.

If I recall then, when you start walking it, you just start and you never have to make any turns or cross other people, so there is just a set beginning you start on and everyone just follows the line.

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I have thoroughly been enjoying The Psychology of Totalitarianism by Mattias Desmet. He outlines the process of how a branch of western science develope into a belief system and how it's victory over academia has created a culture of manipulated data and invalid research. 72% of researchers surveyed were willing to distort their data. 50% of anonymously surveyed academics admitted to sometimes presenting their research with bias. This has led to a crisis with up to 60% of cancer research and 85% of clinical biomedical research failed to duplicate results when the product is put into circulation. He starts at the enlightenment and discusses the loss of meaning in work during the industrial revolution as well as how technology has created an intersection of mindsets that have bred totalitarian thinking. A great read on historical developments leading to strong consequences today.

https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Psychology-of-Totalitarianism/dp/B0B2KRLPY2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1EO15NH4SOY9Q&keywords=the+psychology+of+totalitarianism+mattias+desmet&qid=1668057589&sprefix=the+psychology+of+tot%2Caps%2C246&sr=8-1

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As for Nazca (as opposed to the Paracas geoglyphs), I buy into the archaeo-astronomy theory: like the Giza necropolis, the figures are mapping constellations (which was the best form of evening entertainment for centuries).

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Some of them were intended for the gods. (They were made on flat ground, so they could really only be seen in any way up high).

Others were on sides of mountains, etc, so they could be seen by people at certain places. They were potentially waypoints or territorial markers (though we can't really know for sure).

I enjoyed this documentary. Thanks, PBS!

LOL America is so messed up with it sometimes. My mom would be called "colored" if she had been born in Louisiana but my family left for NY so my mom is "White".

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.....what??

This is crazy! I’ve seen my dad’s birth certificate from Louisiana, it says “colored”, same thing for my cousin born in 1989, she’s blonde, blue eyed and could pass if she wanted to. I was shocked to see it. I was born in London, UK, no race on my birth certificate.

The first city that took metallurgy from "small hand tools and ornaments" to "more or less mass produced weapons or trade goods."

Idk if it actually happened that way anywhere, but I think it'd be cool to live in the first "city of metal." Worship the god of metal. Metal fountains in the square. Metal cups at taverns. And of course soldiers with larger metal weapons and armor.

This is assuming perfect fantasy circumstances like not dying of tuberculosis and getting to insert myself into the revolution as it happens with my time traveler knowledge

Hey all, is there an updated version of the Histomap? Or any other huge infographic like it?

I really like the idea of more or less exhaustive infographics spanning lots of history (like the evolution one) and I'm thinking about buying one or trying to commit some of it to memory.

But I'm not really a fan of the fact that it's damn near 100 years old and has an accordingly narrow scope

This may sound stupid, but what was the motivation for making these images that can only be seen from above? Are there mountains or something in the area that could serve as a viewpoint?

Thank you for the link.