Why do people marvel at the technology of ancient civilizations so much?

Question

They marvel at how advanced the people in Egypt where or Romans, or Minoans so much you would think that we evolved from a primitave form of man that exsisted only 3000 years ago. In my opinions the amazing thing is that it took our lazy buts so long to learn how to fly.

Seriously shouldn't we have a base or bioshere on the Moon by now?

The real problem is $ men fight over money and power so much they spend too much energy fighting and not building what they can in a timely fashion.

Dude the financial outlay are you a retard English Teacher? How much money do we spend on worthless crap?

You guys are missing what I'm tring to say Leonardo knew a flying machine could be built and knew how yet one wasn't built until? Then when was the first automobile built? And when was the auto discovered? The chick wit the funny hair is right!

Answer 1

Haha, because they want to think that they have developed a lot, and they are all surprised to find that well they haven't. There was a period of time (Dark Ages) when all this science stuff was ither destroyed or forbidden, so people just forgot and assumed that nothing was there.

Answer 2

Because they achieved an extremely high level of technology which couldn't be reached again for about 1500 years. Let's take for example the Egyptians who built the great pyramid. The first taller building was the Eifel tower, in the 19th century. Or the Mayans. They knew that the Earth revolved around the sun and with their primitive materials (they didn't use metals or the wheel) they were able to calculate the year with an incredible perception. And the examples go on

Answer 3

You see, the only reason why we have all this technology today is because other human beings have built it up, block upon block-brick upon brick. Painstankingly with their blood sweat and tears over a thousand generations. We did not wake up one morning and oops-suddenly find all this wonderful technology just lying out the window. It was earn't. Earn't every step of the way. Every step of the painful, hard, long and dear way.
The ancient Egyptians for instance, with wheeled sleighs, wheeled instraments, ropes, pulleys, hammers, chisels and sheer people power built a monster of a thing called THE GREAT PYRAMID. This monster had 2,300,000 stones each weighing at least 2-3 tons. It stands well over 400 feet high and weighs approximately seven and a half million tons. All built without the aid of electricity.
The ancient Cretans had piped water with pressured taps, long before the concept was reinvented by the modern world. The great wall of China is over 1,500 miles(2,500 kilometres) long and between 20 and 30 feet high. The road on it can accomidate two chariots side by side. The thing is the largest line of fortification the world has ever know.
Ancient Rome had things you would not believe. The longest and most complex system of roads till the middle of the nineteenth century. They had a system of military camps, all the same in which you could find your way around, blindfolded, no matter where you were in the empire. When the Romans besiege Massada, they were confronted with a mountain. They built a ramp up it and sent a seige tower up the damm thing. As it went up , by gears, the back rose level with the angle of the ramp to keep it on level keel. And their collosium had a vast underground complex, 82 entrences, sections of seating with their own coorosponding entrences and was c 600 feet in diametre. All WITHOUT THE AID OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY. And we have learnt from these civilizations in building our technology and systems.
You would never see quite the like of the great pyramid in the modern world. And certainly not anything like the great wall of china. And Crete had running water 3,500 years before we did. And the Roman empire? They were the most organised empire the world had ever known. With all our knowledge today we fall behind their high standard. For example, how long would you think it would take to evacuate the most advanced and modern and best oranised stadium in the world today in an EMERGANCY. Half an hour, somewhat less? Do you know how long it took to evacuate the collosium in NORMAL time? Better sit down for this one and pour yourself a good stiff drink. Literally- two hundred- SECONDS.
All this was accomplished without our modern tools. All this was accomplished by people who built up technological development slowly and painstakingly with nothing more than what we would consider a few primitive tools and their bare hands. The two reasons why we admire them so much are: One, that they accomplished so much including things that we wouldn't see today(the pyramids and great wall of china and the organisation of the collosium are one offs) with so little. Two, they started technological development and continued it as a basis for and till it has come down to us today. They are the ground upon which we stand on-and without this ground there would be no technology today at all.

Answer 4

It takes time to put it all together and put a discovery to the proper use.

Phoenicians, cooking on sand, discovered glass around 3500 BCE, but it took about 5,000 years more for glass to be shaped into a lens for the first telescope.

As best we know, 5000 to 6000 years ago great civilizations in the Middle East and North Africa began to make clocks to augment their calendars. With their attendant bureaucracies, formal religions, and other burgeoning societal activities, these cultures apparently found a need to organize their time more efficiently.

http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/early.html

The backbone of Roman hydraulics and water systems is surely the Cloaca Maxima - the Great Drain - which ancient sources attribute to the mythical reigns of two of Rome's seven kings: Tarquinius Priscus (616-579BC) and Servius Tullius (579-535BC). Much of the early knowledge required for this work was in fact learned from the Etruscans (Tarquinius being of Etruscan extract himself).
http://www.mariamilani.com/ancient_rome/rome_building_water.htm

Answer 5

Yup. The Phonecians had electric batteries, the Greeks had mechanical computers and basic jet engines. The concept of the Polynesian canoe are quite complex and would not be attempted today without major computer assistance. The Dark Ages REALLY messed us up.

Answer 6

We wonder and are in awe because these inventions changed or improved life significantly.Fire, the wheel ,irrigation, and domestication of animals and farming are but some of these.Who singularly or collectively invented these we don't know.We stand on the shoulders of giants.The space endeavors have not advanced more rapidly because of their complexity and the financial outlay involved.

Answer 7

The ancients are supposed to have done incredible work with very primative tools. So far all they have is supposition as to how it was done for the most part.

Lack of commitment is the only stumbling block regardless of the reason.

Answer 8

I was going to try to answer your question until i saw all of the rude follow ups you made to your original. You're not looking for information or feedback. You're just looking for an argument. Have fun.

Answer 9

becuase it amazing what they have done before. the romans had a medical field that was not matched until the 1800s. the greeks have weapons we are still trying to matach.