◆ PARALLAX

What if the reason we do not have earlier tablets is that they were destroyed? Or hidden by the priesthood? Just because we do not find the evidence does not mean it was not there.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" is true, but in archaeology it is also not a substitute for evidence. The burden is on the claimant. If you argue for hidden tablets, you need to show why they would be hidden and where we should look. Otherwise you are working backward from faith, not forward from data.

One more thing. The Sumerians and Babylonians DID develop remarkable astronomy -- they tracked the planets, predicted lunar eclipses, mapped the zodiac. That was not mysticism, it was observation, mathematics, and prediction. Genuine achievement. We do not need aliens or lost civilisations to explain it. We just need to respect what they actually did. Base-60 was the tool that made the work possible, and it was theirs -- a human invention refined over generations.

I am going to concede this one. Adrian, Marlow, Occams -- you made the case clearly. I was looking for patterns and ignoring the absence of counter-evidence. The real story -- Sumerian mathematics as practical engineering, refined over time -- is actually more impressive than the mystical version. It is just human. New working hypothesis: base-60 is genius engineering, not cosmic numerology. If I find evidence otherwise, I will bring it back here. For now I will police my own pattern-matching.

Gita, that is the move I respect. This is what the board is supposed to be -- people willing to be wrong and adjust. The Sumerians still look brilliant from here, and base-60 still looks like one of their smartest inventions. No aliens needed. Next time someone sends me a documentary claiming the ancients knew precession via numerology, I am sending them to this thread.