Time Travelers Must Do Research

[stickmaker]

 

So much information has been lost. It is difficult to know when something happened, even if records of the event survive. Especially if it occurred before modern calendars were invented. Time travellers will probably need to do test probes before they can even get the right year, much less the specific date.

The Joy of High Tech

by

Rodford Edmiston

Being the occasionally interesting ramblings of a major-league technophile.

Please note that while I am an engineer (BSCE) and do my research, I am not a professional in this field. Do not take anything here as gospel; check the facts I give. If you find a mistake, please let me know about it.

Time Travelers Must Do Research!

Trying to bargain with an ancient Egyptian official by offering to reveal the nearby location of rich iron ore deposits would at best be met with confused indifference. They knew how to make copper from ore, and how to use zinc and tin either by themselves or alloyed with copper to produce bronze and brass. The ancient Egyptians definitely knew how to mine and refine gold. Other metals were also familiar to them. Until about the 6th Century BCE, though, iron was considered a gift from the gods which fell from the sky. (Tutankhamun had among his funerary items a meteoric iron dagger.) It was even called "the metal of heaven." The idea of making iron, like you would make copper, by heating ore, was nonsense. It might even be considered heresy.

On the other hand, a set of good-quality drinking tumblers - assuming our time traveler could avoid breakage and theft before the items could be traded - would set them up well for quite a while. The ancient Egyptians had glass, but good quality glass was so hit or miss (far more often miss) in the early days that it was reserved for nobility. Clear glass, especially in bright colors, was considered a precious material, valued only slightly less than silver. 

Glass has been around a long time, at least in Egypt. Examples over five thousand years old have been found there. However, it became much more available and therefore less expensive in the Late Bronze Age, starting about 1600 Before Current Era. This happened over a wide area, including Egypt. This was partly due to figuring out that adding the ash of certain desert plants lowered the melting point of the quartz pebbles used for glassmaking in that era. Today we know that the ingredients responsible are sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, as well as calcium oxide (aka lime). This last substance made the resulting glass more stable. Other ingredients were used to impart strong colors. 

Glass is not eternal. It is brittle even when new, and wet conditions can leach away stabilizing materials, leaving shards, flakes and even powder. That makes identifying ancient glass very difficult in most parts of the world, since there may not be much left to recognize. Since so much of Egypt is very dry, some of the glass found there is older than that found almost anywhere else. This doesn't mean the ancient Egyptians were the inventors of glassmaking. Though they were certainly early adopters of the material. Where glassmaking was invented is still unknown. Mesopotamia is one likely candidate, but it may have been developed independently in multiple places at separate times. However, the ancient Egyptians definitely valued it. As did just about everyone else who knew of it. 

Even before glass was made deliberately, volcanic glass (usually obsidian) and meteoritic glass were known. The latter was mostly in small spheroids, which sometimes were used to make beads. 

For thousands of years glass was a valuable trade item, throughout much of the ancient world. It was made locally and also imported from many areas, some of them far away. This diversity of sources was partly due to different glassmakers being good at particular colors. The fact that glass was traded over a wide region has been verified by modern isotopic analysis. The good stuff was even shipped in ingots, for local working. Pieces have been found in Egypt with trace elements from all around the Near and Middle East and into Greece. 

This brings up a matter most people don't consider about that era: There was a lot of trade. Regular trade routes existed across much of the Mediterranean, and caravans followed already-ancient paths on land. A set of ancient Egyptian statues has inscriptions on their bases describing a circuit of trade through much of the Mediterranean. Goods would be taken from port to port and traded with what was available locally, until the ship returned to Egypt with a load of desirable goods for that nation. As well, Kings were also constantly sending gifts to each other. Copper was one of the primary raw materials traded. Partly because it could be used to make bronze weapons, the best thing available at that time for warfare.

Speaking of copper, there is a rich source of ore in what is now southern Israel, in the Timna region. That this resource was mined by both the ancient Egyptians (they even built at least one temple in the area) and the Roman Empire is undisputed. What has only recently been acknowledged is that between those uses - about three thousand years ago, when Rome was still a village, but Egypt had withdrawn from the locale - it was one of the likely sources of the ostentation King Solomon presented to demonstrate his wealth. (His palace was described as covered in gold and copper.) Yet the ore was almost certainly not mined by Israelites. Instead, the most likely miners and refiners were their southern neighbors, the Edomites. (In Semitic languages such as Hebrew the word "edom" means "red". We don't know what they called themselves.) They were apparently a nomadic people at least some of whom spent part of the year mining copper ore and refining it in small furnaces. They didn't leave much trace of their civilization otherwise, except in the records of other people. They may not have had any native form of writing. Note that the information in this paragraph is very generalized. Boundaries were uncertain back then, often changing according to who described them. Some areas were claimed by many groups but occupied by none. As well, what area some group actually lived in changed through the millennia. As did which group lived in an area. Copper production at Timna went on for a long time. 

The last known unambiguous reference to Edom as a nation is an Assyrian inscription dated 667 BCE. We don't know today when, how and why Edom ceased to exist as a state. We only know in general what happened to the people of Edom. 

In the early Twentieth Century the copper mines in this region were identified with King Solomon's Mines (a phrase actually created by H. Rider Haggard as the title and Mcguffin of one of his adventure novels). However, this interpretation fell by the wayside in the Fifties and Sixties. Largely due to a rejection of the early "biblical" interpretations of what was found at ancient sites. Only to be revived as more digs were made and dates for this middle era of use became known. Unfortunately, archeologists are as subject to fads as the general population. Today, we know from analysis of trace elements in copper and bronze objects that copper from this region was used in ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, and, yes, in ancient Israel. As well as in items found in many other widely separated times and places. 

If our time traveler has to live off the land, so to speak, they should probably bring silver for spending money. This would be the best choice through most of history and beyond into the past, in Ancient Egypt and, in fact, most places. Gold might attract too much attention; glass is too fragile; copper too bulky. One exception could be ancient China. Which was at times so silver hungry that the metal was valued very highly, and having a large amount could make someone a target.

Knowledge would be difficult to trade, since most people in the past wouldn't have enough background to value anything from the future and might be suspicious of current information about their enemies unless it was carefully presented. For the same reason, our time traveler must be careful about what tools are brought along. An ordinary Swiss Army knife could attract unwanted attention just about any time, any place. 

Attempting to view a specific event in the long history of Egypt would likely require scouting missions. Especially for earlier in their history. Pharaohs would order people, events or even entire reigns they didn't like removed from the official record. There are actually lists of pharaohs which contain mention of the nation's rulers who are permanently removed from the record a few administrations later. This erasure was often retroactive, with later rulers ordering mention of the offensive person or event literally hacked off walls and pillars. However, as thorough as these efforts usually were, they sometimes missed things. That's how we know about some of the "officially revoked" bits.

Egyptologists say they have accounted for all the "erased" rulers, and that their timeline is accurate. However, even among their own ranks there is dissent as to how complete their calendar is. As just one example of how modern technology is causing (reluctant) revisions of the traditional history, from dating material found embedded in the original mortar of the Great Pyramid we know it is 200 to 500 years older than the traditional age. 

Note that while the limestone casing blocks on the exteriors of many of the pyramids were very carefully fitted, the sandstone blocks which make up the bodies of most such large structures had a much looser fit. In some places there are substantial gaps. These were often filled with a mixture of rubble and mortar. Unfortunately, carbon dating any wood found embedded in the mortar is not a way to get a reliable date. Wood was so precious in ancient Egypt that a single piece could be reused multiple times. The toothpick found in a tomb may have been part of a log from a tree cut down centuries before. However, if a worker high on a pyramid decided to dispose of the chicken bones from his lunch by adding them to the mortar and stones being used to fill a gap, rather than carrying them all the way back down...

One final bit about ancient Egypt. The pharaonic era was actually around longer than it's been gone. Maybe we're just in an unusually long interdynastic era. :-)

So what if our time traveler wants to witness the birth of Christ? Well, there are multiple problems with that. To begin with, modern tradition has the wrong time of year. The season was probably Spring, based on the biblical accounts. (Shepherds were out watching their flocks by night, etc.) The year was probably 2 BCE, 5 BCE or 7 BCE, based on the events given in some accounts. (The guy who originally calculated the year for the Church - centuries after the events - made some sums errors.) During those years there were conjunctions of planets which would have likely have escaped the notice of most people, but which the Wise Men (or Magi, who were probably astrologers, at least in part) would have been expecting and which they would have considered hugely important. Chinese astronomers also recorded a long-lasting "broom star" or comet in 5 BCE. So the "star in the east" was likely a real event, but one which only learned people would have noted. (That is, not only noticed but written about.)

Again, scouting missions would likely be required. Also again, care must be taken in what the time traveler lets the locals see.

Perhaps our time traveler wants to visit the Trojan War. The first question to be answered before such an attempt is "Which Trojan War?" Even Heinrich Schliemann (the man who first excavated Troy) noted that there were multiple eras of habitation, several of which had apparently violent ends. The Iliad (from Ilios, an alternate name for Troy) actually mentions people - both fictional and actual - from different centuries. Homer likely - and perhaps knowingly - combined stories of several different attacks on the city-state to create his tale. Since any of these battles would attract attention - likely in the form of distant onlookers - a time traveler would probably not stand out. As long as they don't try to get too close. Or let someone see their binoculars or camera and zoom lens.

So much has been lost from history. Where is the Land of Punt? The ancient Egyptians knew. (Okay, so that wasn't the last bit about ancient Egypt.) They traded with it for gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory and wild animals. It may be the same nation mentioned in the Bible as Put. It might be Havilah. But where was it?! What modern land is in that location?! We don't know. Several candidates have been suggested. Some of the proposed candidates are in widely different locations. 

We don't know what the inhabitants of ancient Crete called themselves. Though we know what others called them in antiquity. We can't even read their early writing, which was in Linear A. This was arguably the first well-developed civilization of Greece, perhaps even all of Europe. Their works have been dated to at least 3500 BCE. By 2000 BCE they had massive urban centers, with four-story palaces and a primitive form of indoor plumbing. However, we don't know exactly what the various large buildings were for. Labels such as "palaces" are guesswork, applied much later by archeologists. As is what we call the people who built them. "Minoan" is a name given the civilization by an early Nineteenth Century German historian, after the mythical King Minos, who supposedly ruled that land. The Minotaur is also named after him, in case you were wondering. The Minoans were definitely on the major trade routes, often as a source for artistic works, but also for raw materials, such as ingots of copper. 

However, we still don't have such basic information about them as what they called themselves! Maybe if we eventually decipher their original written language we can learn this. A time traveler trying to investigate the society would have to proceed slowly and carefully, perhaps through working on a trade ship. 

Let's say the time traveler decides to avoid the complexities of history and human interaction completely. So, they try a bit further back. Perhaps they want to see what later became New York city, but as it was before humans showed up. They need to be very careful they don't overshoot, or they might end up under a lot of ice. During the peak of the last ice age, around 20,000 years ago, the Laurentide ice sheet covered what is now New York City to a depth of about 300 meters. Actually, estimates of how thick the ice might have been vary with the period involved and who is doing the estimate. Two million years ago the ice in that area might have been as much as 5 kilometers thick!

Also, in any of these times there are some rather formidable creatures which have never encountered two-legged mammals before. They therefore haven't learned to be wary of humans. A time traveler who is not careful might wind up as lunch for some hungry predator.

Okay, so our time traveler has the sense to appear high in the air above the site in some sort of flying device. Now they have a good view of a huge expanse of largely featureless ice. That does not make for a fun or interesting travelogue.

If the time traveler wants to visit the actual ice age (Again, which one?) and is willing to start from a location clear of ice and move overland, and is properly wary of the local fauna, a good location for arrival would be the Appalachian mountains. This area has served as a lifeboat of sorts for plants and animals through several ice ages. So, the visitor can start there and move onwards as desired.

Some geological processes are quick; some are slow. Visiting the Grand Canyon forty thousand years ago would reveal some differences in details (as features present then have since eroded away, and features now present hadn't eroded into their current shapes by then) but overall it would look pretty much the same. After all, it took many millions of years to form. The overall appearance wouldn't change much in such a short time time as forty millennia.

Not far away, though, what we now know as Yellowstone would be almost unrecognizable to someone familiar with its current appearance. Hydrothermal features have been known to change notably over a single human lifespan. Oh, the hot spring and geyser basins are probably all in about the same areas - since they are where the hot water comes to the surface through cracks and fissures which are unlikely to change much in such a short time - but the continual deposition and erosion of minerals constantly alters details. Additionally, there's a lot more at work, here, than just hot water moving things around. Even the mountains will have changed some, due to the large earthquakes the area is prone to. Plus something else. 

Hydrothermal events aren't just limited to hot springs and geysers. They can also be associated with sizable steam explosions. If something causes a sudden, large release of overpressure, the result can resemble popping the cork on a shaken sparkling wine bottle, only on a vastly larger scale. Below are briefly described examples of just two such events in Yellowstone.

The Mary Bay hydrothermal explosion occurred about 13,000 years ago. This steam eruption caused a 2.5 kilometer wide crater, which today is partly submerged under Yellowstone Lake. The explosion was triggered by a sudden drop in water level caused by a seismic event, which caused the outlet waterway of the lake to substantially enlarge.

The Elliott's Crater explosion occurred about 8,000 years ago. This produced a 700 meter wide crater, which is currently fully submerged.

Beyond such events, much of the Yellowstone area was also covered by glaciers during the ice ages. (Yes, them, again.) The scouring this caused greatly changed the surface of at least the valleys and basins. In fact, when modeling the hydrothermal and hydrological processes which have taken place in Yellowstone, you must start no earlier than 15,000 years ago, when the last of the glacial ice retreated from the region. Each advance of the ice sheets is like turning an Etch A Sketch upside down and shaking it. The scouring effect of the ice reset everything each time, except what was deep underground. Even the shallow portions of what lay beneath the surface was affected, by the weight of the ice if nothing else. 

So, our time traveler decides to go for the big one, and see a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Keep in mind that there were lots of species grouped into that genus. They came in various sizes, with many of the species overlapping in time and range. At least some likely had feathers, though probably only on their backs or the tops of their heads. 

The various species of T. Rex were present during the Late Cretaceous, about 100 to 66 million years ago. Our time traveler would have to be careful to avoid the Extinction Level Event at the end of that span, but otherwise has a bit of latitude. There is also the problem that dinosaurs were on the Earth for over a hundred sixty-five million years, and spread over large areas. (Like the empire of ancient Egypt, they were around far longer than they've been gone. I just can't quit mentioning ancient Egypt, can I?) So if someone wants to see some of the other popular dinosaurs, they might have to do some more traveling. Physical, chronological or a combination.

During this long period - even just considering the span of T. Rex - species came and went. Few lasted more than a million years. Many of the fictional battles between a T. Rex and some other famous types of dinosaurs could not have taken place. Not only were the different species separated by time, but by distance. Tectonic plate movements were breaking up continents and forming new ones during this long period. 

So, yeah. Casual time travelers would likely be frustrated, and perhaps fatally inconvenienced. Do your research! 

 

This material is Copyright 2022 by Rodford Edmiston Smith.

Comments

[kengr]

Your cut tag is hosed. Also, didn't you post this already?

[stickmaker]

I've tried several different ways to add the text, and it never actually cuts it. :-(

I don't think I've posted this before.

[kengr]

Are you using the HTML editor?

Also, it's acting like a cut tag, but it acts like there's a close tag immediately following it.

Should be

<lj-cut text="text">

Then all the "behind the cut" text.

If you want text visible *after* the cut then you put in
</lj-cut>

[stickmaker]

I have tried repeated edits of the HTML to no avail (except to occasionally make it worse). I'm using Chrome and wonder if the problem is with my browser.