1 result for (book:tps2 AND session:604 AND stemmed:histori)
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(The session this evening, Wednesday, developed rather spontaneously out of several factors that combined almost effortlessly. The recent Sumari developments involving both of us played a part. So did my studying out photos of Baalbek, the first-century AD Roman ruins in Lebanon. The enormity of the stones in these buildings left me amazed; I didn’t see how blocks weighing 1200 tons could be moved without machinery, let alone fitted into place over twenty feet up on foundations, etc. The pictures were truly awe-inspiring. I came across them in one of the books on ancient history that Shirley Bickford, one of Jane’s students, brought for us to consult on the very ancient civilization, Sumeria, in Mesopotamia, from 4,000—2,000 BC, I believe, without consulting dates.
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(In The New York Times tonight I read an article, with pictures, of the Mars probe currently underway by our Mariner spacecraft. Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell University was quoted in the article. Dr Sagan was also quoted in Otto’s article, regarding the ancient Sumerian-Akkadian legends and UFO’s, to our surprise. The question that has always bothered me is brought up—why does our history only go back five or six thousand years ago, when Homo Sapiens appeared some 50,000 years ago as an established species?
(In addition, I have always doubted the block-and-tackle idea used in constructing such massive, enormous wonders as Baalbek. With this goes my questions concerning the ability of sculptors to do the marvelously intricate carving adorning all of these buildings, on such an enormous scale. I have always wondered just how it was possible, with the few tools then available, according to our history, to do this work. It seems beyond the tools’ scope. I would delight in seeing it duplicated today, using identical stone, tools, etc., with time trials.
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