EDIT: The title was supposed to be "voices long forgotten". I don't know how to change it.
OTL, our notion of our distant past is biased due to to the sources we have. For example, till the XIX century, our [1] knowledge of the Antiquity (I mean, the V or IV century B.C.) came only from two sources: the Greek ones (copied or relaborated by the Romans, and kept through the Dark Ages by the work of Monks) and the Hebrew ones (icluded in the Bible). Practically all the iformation we have about elaborated cultures like the Phoenitians or the Carthaginians was written by their enemies. We don’t know for sure how they saw themselves nor their neighbours, and we can’t be sure about what was their worldview was. We know they were great sailors and made great discoveries, but we don’t what they thought about them.
In the XIX century, the worldview of other civilizations (like the Ancient Egyptians or the Assyrians) was revealed to us. At the same time, Europe got in touch with civilizations which had kept record of their past, like China or India, who have informations of events that date back at least to the begining of the first milenium B.C..
In the XX century, the “voices” of other civilizations were recovered, as it was the case of the Mayans. Yet our knowledge of the past is still very fragmentary, as we don’t have first hand information about several of the most elavorated civilizations of our history. We haven’t deciphered Cretan scripture, IIRC, we don’t have written information about the Indo Valley culture, Tehotihuacan or Tiwanaku.
But what if things were different? What if some of this voices had not been forgotten? There are many interesting Pods I can think of, but you can add any one you want, and analyse its consequences:
1) WI Ancient Egyptian script had been dechiphered in the XVI century?
2) WI most Mesoamericans texts on paper weren’t destroyed in 1530, and had been translated into Spanish?
3) WI more pieces of information about the Indo Valley civilization had been preserved, uncovered and deciphered in the1940ies? What political implications would this have in the Indo-Pakistani rivalry?
And what if it had been dechiphered in the late 1920ies? Let’s say they told the story of an elaborate civilization created by a Dravidian culture which was destroyed by a bunch of drunk Aryan barbarians? What effects would this have on nazzism, for example? Now we have some fragments of the Rigveda which tell a story about Indoeuropean Pagan Nomads who had war chariots, herded cattle and fought many wars against Brown-skinned native city dwellers. What if we had the other side of the story?
4) WI, somehow, direct information about the Phoenitians had been preserved? This would be interesting, but I don’t know, how this could be achieved without major changes in our TL, i.e., to have Carthaghe winning the Punnic wars
5) Any other analagous Pod you can think of.
I think this is something which can be added in written ATLs. A delay in our understanding of Ancient Egyptian or an earlier European rediscovery of China (which happened OTL in the XVII and XVIII centuries) migh have important consequences, even if not very significant in the short term.
Thoughts? Comments?
[1] Or, more precisely, the notions Europeans had of the Antiquity
OTL, our notion of our distant past is biased due to to the sources we have. For example, till the XIX century, our [1] knowledge of the Antiquity (I mean, the V or IV century B.C.) came only from two sources: the Greek ones (copied or relaborated by the Romans, and kept through the Dark Ages by the work of Monks) and the Hebrew ones (icluded in the Bible). Practically all the iformation we have about elaborated cultures like the Phoenitians or the Carthaginians was written by their enemies. We don’t know for sure how they saw themselves nor their neighbours, and we can’t be sure about what was their worldview was. We know they were great sailors and made great discoveries, but we don’t what they thought about them.
In the XIX century, the worldview of other civilizations (like the Ancient Egyptians or the Assyrians) was revealed to us. At the same time, Europe got in touch with civilizations which had kept record of their past, like China or India, who have informations of events that date back at least to the begining of the first milenium B.C..
In the XX century, the “voices” of other civilizations were recovered, as it was the case of the Mayans. Yet our knowledge of the past is still very fragmentary, as we don’t have first hand information about several of the most elavorated civilizations of our history. We haven’t deciphered Cretan scripture, IIRC, we don’t have written information about the Indo Valley culture, Tehotihuacan or Tiwanaku.
But what if things were different? What if some of this voices had not been forgotten? There are many interesting Pods I can think of, but you can add any one you want, and analyse its consequences:
1) WI Ancient Egyptian script had been dechiphered in the XVI century?
2) WI most Mesoamericans texts on paper weren’t destroyed in 1530, and had been translated into Spanish?
3) WI more pieces of information about the Indo Valley civilization had been preserved, uncovered and deciphered in the1940ies? What political implications would this have in the Indo-Pakistani rivalry?
And what if it had been dechiphered in the late 1920ies? Let’s say they told the story of an elaborate civilization created by a Dravidian culture which was destroyed by a bunch of drunk Aryan barbarians? What effects would this have on nazzism, for example? Now we have some fragments of the Rigveda which tell a story about Indoeuropean Pagan Nomads who had war chariots, herded cattle and fought many wars against Brown-skinned native city dwellers. What if we had the other side of the story?
4) WI, somehow, direct information about the Phoenitians had been preserved? This would be interesting, but I don’t know, how this could be achieved without major changes in our TL, i.e., to have Carthaghe winning the Punnic wars
5) Any other analagous Pod you can think of.
I think this is something which can be added in written ATLs. A delay in our understanding of Ancient Egyptian or an earlier European rediscovery of China (which happened OTL in the XVII and XVIII centuries) migh have important consequences, even if not very significant in the short term.
Thoughts? Comments?
[1] Or, more precisely, the notions Europeans had of the Antiquity
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