Effect of time in breaking things down?

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SpyderEdgeForever
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Effect of time in breaking things down?

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Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

I am amazed at how time and wear and tear and entropy can turn large cities and manmade things into rubble and powder. One of the topics I study is history, and I would like your feedback on this, everyone. How time breaks things down.

It is incredible how entire ancient cities have been reduced to nothing more than powder and grit, and small rocks, from the effects of time alone. This doesn't even include invasions and actual intentional destruction by armies.

Take ancient Rome and Babylon for example. Babylon the city, excluding their imperial holdings, was about sixty miles around, and had a massive wall that went the entire diameter of the city. That dwarfs modern cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Some may disagree with me on this side statement: I believe ancient humans were more advanced in brainpower and physical prowess than modern man. The reason we have modern technologies that are more advanced than what they had (such as stainless steel and electronic circuits) is because of discoveries and developments made by people back then, such as the great scientific minds of the 17 and 1800s, and we are merely harvesting the results of their intellectual plantings, but that is a side topic. If the ancients had access to our modern machines, circuits, and materials, they could most likely do a lot more than we do today.

But, its just incredible, how time can grind down whole cities into pebbles.
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Re: Effect of time in breaking things down?

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Post by holeshot »

I believe it was Kansas who sang,"All we are is dust in the wind"
"No matter where you go, there you are"
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Re: Effect of time in breaking things down?

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Yes. I used to listen to that song all the time.
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Re: Effect of time in breaking things down?

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Post by The Mastiff »

If those stones were reduced to powder in the time of man it wasn't entropy but the act of man and beast ,water or pressure. Some of those stones in your back yard may be 2 or 3 billion years old. Time bothers them very little on our scale. Still, of all the ends of the universe I can imagine the one caused by entropy bothers me most .
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Re: Effect of time in breaking things down?

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Post by Doc Dan »

Our modern cities would not last like theirs did due to materials used. Our modern cities would literally disappear in 100 years or less. I have seen paved highways and even old towns in the deep South disappear in a few short years after the highway route was changed. Nothing much left even to show there were buildings and roads.

BTW SEF, are you sure some ancient cultures did not have our modern technology?
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Re: Effect of time in breaking things down?

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Post by vivi »

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:Some may disagree with me on this side statement: I believe ancient humans were more advanced in brainpower and physical prowess than modern man.
I would like to hear you elaborate on this statement if you have the time. I'd be interested to see what you have to say on the subject :)
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Re: Effect of time in breaking things down?

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Post by demoncase »

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:I am amazed at how time and wear and tear and entropy can turn large cities and manmade things into rubble and powder. One of the topics I study is history, and I would like your feedback on this, everyone. How time breaks things down.

It is incredible how entire ancient cities have been reduced to nothing more than powder and grit, and small rocks, from the effects of time alone. This doesn't even include invasions and actual intentional destruction by armies.

Come to England and visit York- it has 2000+ years of continuous occupation. The Romans turned up and built a city of stone. They left.....And time didn't grind the walls down- the local population did that- want to build a new room on your house, and there's a bunch of dressed stone sat about going begging?- YOINK! as they say on the Simpsons- this is the truth of places with long continuous occupations: useful buildings get rebuilt, expanded, modified until the original can only be seen if you look hard. In England where we have Romans, then Saxons, then Viking then Norman occupation- then many kings followed by the Industrial Revolution and all that followed- this is normal.

Places that have fallen out of use- either because the trade route changed or whatever- fall down, then the locals steal even the cobblestones- go to Hadrian's Wall in Northern England, and you'll find farmers stone walls made from old Roman quarried stone and roof tiles. They were lying about, doing nothing. Might as well use them.

My hometown (Wolverhampton) is utterly unremarkable- we have a large church on the top of the hill. The back part of which dates from 975ad. Still there, still sandstone. No-one's nicked the stone because of the building being in continuous use....Come to Europe and things don't turn to dust or walk away- they get get walked away by stone thieves!...There's many, many buildings all over my hometown that I can stand and simply see 300-700 years of continuous use in various bits of stone.


Take ancient Rome and Babylon for example. Babylon the city, excluding their imperial holdings, was about sixty miles around, and had a massive wall that went the entire diameter of the city. That dwarfs modern cities like New York and Los Angeles.

This happens when land warfare is in the realm of the ballista and spear. It's the only prevention from having your city sacked by the next lot of horned helmeted maraurders that happen to be passing. Sitting inside your walled city, drinking fresh water and eating salted meat under warm thatched roofs while the enemy is starving and freezing their collective rump off on the plain outside is a big feature of ancient warfare

Some may disagree with me on this side statement: I believe ancient humans were more advanced in brainpower and physical prowess than modern man. Disagree fundamentally. The Human brain and skull capacity has not (indeed could not have) changed in so short a time. They were no cleverer than us- what they did have is lots of autocratic rulers happy to pour endless amounts of raw labour at problems- such as wall building.

But, its just incredible, how time can grind down whole cities into pebbles.- As I've said: they get a lot of help
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