Re: New Years Eve

On 1/1/2025 12:53 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 12/31/2024 3:44 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:

>
I was out today exploring some of the standing Stones around Avebury ...
>
Rather windy but was relatively sheltered or tail wind until last drag
along the Ridgeway old multi thousand year old road, way before the Romans
etc!

About the antiquities: One of my friends and teaching colleagues was
English, an engineer who had come over here to take a job at Lockheed
before going into teaching.
>
He used to crack that "In England, all of American History is covered
under Current Events."
>

Jokes aside even European history in the Americas goes back a few centuries
so beyond Current events though some cities ie ones on the west coast are
quite new, mind you so are the industrial heartlands of wales from Merthyr
to Brynmawr all started late 18th century ie Industrial Revolution.
 Clearly American history does seem to go back further with various peoples
making it across.

He was a witty guy.
But for me, the prehistory of the Americas is even more interesting than the history. A couple years ago I read the book titled "1491" all about what American civilization was before permanent European contact. There are still many who visualize the Americas as an empty, uncivilized continents. That's absolutely false. Apparently some American cities were among the largest in the world at that time, with very sophisticated cultures.
I think most of the mistaken impression comes from the fact that smallpox and other diseases traveled the Americas faster than the Europeans did. That caused Europeans to see vast stretches with no surviving natives.
--
- Frank Krygowski