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@Megalithic12000 So we're taking mainstream archaeology at their word for when agriculture began?

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@BrianRoemmele Raise your hand if your first programming class was on a Trash-80 🙋‍♂️

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@megaminutiae Yes, amazing. The structure is almost self-healing.

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@megaminutiae A little concerning?

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I often ponder what kind of biology the polygonal builders had. What did they eat? DID they eat? How did they reproduce? What was their lifespan?

Just from a bioenergetic perspective there's an absurd difference between what they were capable of and what the guinea pigs-and-quinoa-eating culture could muster. You'd think "scientists" would be curious about that.

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@plastolithic I like how there was some homage to the polygonal masters for the first 8 rows or so and then expedience took over.

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@plastolithic Living rock" doesn't seem totally off the mark, even if it was accidental. Do you suppose that was meant to be taken literally?

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@megaminutiae Man those are some nice joints. Why is no one doing excavations below these walls?

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@Megalithic12000 I would imagine a very thin, long core sample obtained from deep within the joints between the stones would yield some clues. Has anyone tried this?

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@plastolithic Large scale stone extruding technology?

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@CassieCMartin Great photos. The water really does reveal such finer detail.

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@plastolithic @AHC_Channel @Dan__Stevens @history_rev Lmao

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@megaminutiae Very nice. It appears there was some slippage at some point with the way the arch stones are misaligned.

What do you suppose that topmost layer consists of, cement? Topsoil?

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Haha, there we go. Truth is stranger than "fiction":

Roadside Picnic (original Russian title: Piknik na obochine), written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and published in 1972, is a classic of philosophical science fiction.The story is set several years after a mysterious, brief extraterrestrial event called "the Visitation." Aliens arrived on Earth, stayed only a short time (perhaps hours), made no direct contact with humanity, and then departed, leaving behind six "Zones" scattered across the planet. These Zones are quarantined areas filled with bizarre, often deadly phenomena and incomprehensible alien artifacts (referred to as "swag" or "trash" by those who collect them).

The laws of physics behave strangely inside the Zones—gravitational anomalies can crush people, "hell slime" (or witches' jelly) dissolves flesh and bone, invisible traps twist bodies apart, and other hazards make survival extremely difficult.The novel follows Redrick "Red" Schuhart, a tough, cynical, and experienced "stalker"—a smuggler who illegally enters the Zone to retrieve valuable artifacts and sell them on the black market. The story unfolds in the fictional town of Harmont (near one of the Zones, often implied to be in Canada), where an International Institute studies the alien remnants under heavy https://t.co/olMS26dDUE works (somewhat reluctantly) as a lab assistant at the Institute but continues his dangerous stalking activities to support his family: his wife Guta and their daughter "Monkey," who was born with strange mutations (full-body golden hair and black eyes) possibly linked to the Zone's influence. Over the course of several episodes spanning years, we see Red's life marked by risk, prison time, loss, greed, and desperation.

Key events include perilous expeditions into the Zone (sometimes with partners who meet grim fates), dealings with black-market buyers, brushes with authorities, and moral compromises. The artifacts have strange properties—some defy physics, others offer potential breakthroughs or weapons—but their true purpose remains unknowable.The title and central metaphor come from a theory proposed in the book: the alien visit was like a roadside picnic. The visitors stopped briefly on Earth (an insignificant cosmic roadside), left behind their litter and waste without noticing or caring about the "ants" (humans) scrambling to pick through it.The story builds toward Red's final, fateful journey deep into the Zone in search of the legendary Golden Sphere, rumored to grant any wish.

The ending is poignant and ambiguous, leaving readers with deep questions about humanity's place in the universe, the nature of intelligence, desire, and whether true understanding or contact with such beings is even https://t.co/WilJqEO03m's less a traditional action-adventure and more a character-driven meditation on human nature, wrapped in eerie, existential sci-fi. The book heavily inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker (1979) and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game series.

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@plastolithic I agree there. On the other hand, doing something just to impress your bros (like sending massive rocks to the moon) seems very human. Maybe showing off is a universal trait.

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Excellent photos. Thanks for posting those. It gives a good sense of how much polygonal wall had to be removed to install that archway. It also appears that when the archway was finished and it was time to restore the upper portion of the ancients' work the polygonal stones had already been repurposed into the new structure and so they had to use.... bricks, basically. Shameful, lol.

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@megaminutiae Good catch on the smaller polygonal stones near the bricks seeming out of place. Clearly the Romans didn't have the kind of time or budget required to solve ancient polygonal puzzles.

What do you make of the archway to the left? Also Roman?

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@BrianRoemmele Haha. Comedian Bill Hicks joked about the trajectory of sex in TV commercials in the 90s. Eventually, he said, all pretenses of subtlety would be left behind in the race to the bottom, and advertisers would be left using straight-up porn to sell products. Are we there yet?