Is it possible that a civilisation like ours has already existed?

Question

Could there have been a dramatic change on this earth that wiped out a previous civilisation and left no trace of it behind? How could this theory be proved or disproved?

Answer 1

It is possible but archeologists would have found it, plastic and glass last a long time, as does gold. If there was some society that didn't use these its possible. A trace would probably been found by now in ice or a peatbog or something. It depends what type of civilisation your talking about? If they were in mud huts etc then yes there could have been tsunamis/volcanos that would destroy/melt/crush bury and prob so little remains that would be lost over millenia.

Answer 2

It would be difficult to prove.
10000 years is just a blink of the cosmic eye, nothing in the life of a planet. But if an ice-age scoured the places where this civilisation had been here would be no trace of it today.
Our so-called civilisation has only been around for 10000 years or so, since the last Ice Age, but there have been human-like critters here for a lot longer than that!

Answer 3

If they left no trace, then there is nothing to prove it.
On the other hand, can something effectively wipe out any trace of a civilization? Well, that depends on the level. At ours, no. We have satellites in space that will remain there for million of years (because their orbit is high enough, like the geosynchronous, it would take millions of years for those to eventually decay) and even if they were non functional after all that time, they would still show up on radar (space agencies track tens of thousands objects in orbit, from dropped bolts to spent satellites to rockets parts, so as to minimize the risk of collision with active satellites). If there was an artificial satellites from million of years before, it would have been identified already as such. Also, let's not forget the spent LEM component left of the moon. If a civilization like our was to disappear, someone would have had to actively do a clean-up, and remove all those artifact from space, and I doubt a civilization about to go extinct would worry about things like that.

For less advanced civilizations, like those of 2000 years ago, non technologically advanced civilizations, it could be a bit easier. Although the pyramids can still last a long while.

Answer 4

Definately. It didn't even have to be from here. It could have been from somewhere else in the solar system. That might just be what we see as visitors from elsewhere / Us.