Era of Inhuman Supremacy
The mystery of Prehistory
One of the biggest points of argument between various modern historians is the Prehistoric Era. Conventional historiography has a number of hypotheses about how the world looked like in those ancient times, based on their narrow knowledge of geography, archaeological findings and scientific methods of analysis. There are those whom we call Conspiracy Historians who make surface-level conclusions and cherry pick facts to fit their theories. And there are us, the Fringe Historians, who know the actual truth, however pretentious it may sound. The main factor that contributes to us being unsure about Prehistory is the lack of written record. Conventionals try to offset that using their methodology, Conspiracy fans - using their twisted "logic". And what about us? We use magic, which allows us to uncover hidden mysteries, and context, which provides us with the tools to decipher "lost" or "unsolved" ancient works like the Voynich Manuscript. That being said, this article is about the large term between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the beginning of the Copper/Bronze Age. It's the Neolithic Era, which we in the Fringe call the "Era of Inhuman Supremacy", and about how different groups of historians view this period of time.The Events
Let's review the events known to all parties. From 9600s to 4000-2900s BC a lot had happened: Human resettlements, the final extinction of the Mammoth, end of the Ice Age and various flooding events. Concurrently, formation of civilizations and proliferation of agriculture ran side by side as continuous developments.End of the Last Ice Age
Most of the world looked radically different in that era. A huge portion of the Northern hemisphere was covered with an ice sheet miles long and hundreds of feet high. It extended as far south as the southernmost parts of Scandinavia, and a lot of straits were non-existent before they melted: Bering, English Channel, Gibraltar...Human Resettlement
Though the process of resettlement and genetic branching of Humans started way earlier, the 10th millennium is the pivotal point, when they started popping out literally everywhere. With the Neolithic revolution, Humans got a new easy instrument for food collection: bow and arrow allowed to hunt much more effectively and required way less people. Domestication of animals started, and humanity started switching from a paradigm of constant resettlement in search of new hunting grounds to nomadic lifestyle, which meant moving between a number of set locations. This allowed for the population to grow exponentially, which accelerated additionally with the discovery of agriculture.Floodings
Melting of the ice eventually led to a shift in biomes throughout many regions of the planet. It also caused huge swathes of land to disappear underwater. These floods are a major point of argument between the historians, mostly concerning the speed of actual flooding.The Mythology
Humanity has developed a lot of myths based on the aforementioned events. Those which are of most interest to us are the Great Floods, Origins of the Pyramids, and the Atlantis narratives. Let's examine them closer.The Great Flood
Most civilizations have their flood myths. Usually they are presented as a reaction of a deity to something they don't like about humanity. In anger or out of spite, the Gods unleash huge torrents that bury the civilizations of the old, paving the way to something new and pure. The Greeks believed that the Flood happened due to the Pantheon's anger. Middle-Eastern Semitic peoples tell tales about their God or Gods becoming disenchanted with humanity, seeing their erroneous ways, their sins and their evil seed, decide to "restart" the world, as if it was a reset button on a PC. This narrative eventually coalesced into a basis for the Abrahamic narrative, known to the vast majority of the Human population today. In the Mesoamerican mythology flooding just... Happens. The Han Chinese also consider the Flood to be a part of the natural order of things, their myths focus on dealing with its consequences.Megastructures and the origin of Pyramids
Pyramids are indeed one of the most common forms of a structure of the period. They're everywhere: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Central and South Americas, sometimes some kinds of pyramidal structures can be found in South-Eastern Asia. There are also Neolithic megastructures such as Circles of Stones - the most famous being Stonehenge, and the Dolmens.Atlantis
Atlantis is a notion that has connections to the previous two myths. It narrates that there used to be an advanced civilization that fell due to their hubris and self-righteousness. The story originated in Ancient Greek philosophy (at least, that's where we learned about it) and transformed into many different forms in various cultures. It's told as the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Abrahamic narratives, and even J.R.R. Tolkien borrowed it for his story of Numenor.Interpretations
All three presented schools of historians see the aforementioned myths differently. It fascinates me, how the narratives are completely different, with only hints of something uniting them. Until we resolve these differences, we cannot hope for an emergence of a society that's truly aware of its history. Aware enough to start focusing more on the world today and tomorrow...Conventional Historians
The conventional historians have constructed their tight-knit set of explanations for all the myths that arose throughout the years around the Neolithic era. It pains me to admit, their version of a story makes a lot of sense to people unaware of magic and Inhumans. It isn't easy to reintegrate these lost notions into the modern collective psyche, and even I was a proponent of the conventional side of things before my first expeditions on the Yucatan Peninsula.The Great Flood
The myth is explained by the era-defining event which is the melting of the glaciers. Conventional historians believe that the ocean level rose quickly enough for people to notice: if they lived 30 years in one place, or between two-three places near the coastline, they could note some landscape features going underwater. It must've left a giant impression on human historical memory in the terms of the Flood myth.Megastructures and the origin of Pyramids
Conventional historians see nothing strange in the Pyramids and in the fact that they're everywhere. It certainly doesn't signify that a world-spanning civilization existed and prompted the construction of the structures all over the globe. Pyramid shape is an easy, intuitive way to stack rocks so they wouldn't fall. This basic concept is in every facet of our lives: from the principle behind the skyscraper construction to children playing building blocks. And what the Neolithic megastructures and Dolmens tell us, is the fact that our ancestors really did love stacking rocks for one of two purposes: burial or ceremony. Even the pyramids themselves can easily be divided into these two groups: those in the Middle East were about funeral rites and afterlife, while the Mesoamerican ones were used ceremonially.Atlantis
Finally, the idea of Atlantis has popped up so often over the last three centuries, it became something like an inside joke of the academic historical community, akin to a "perpetuum mobile", a perpetual engine - in the engineering communities. Atlantis is regarded to be a thought experiment by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, but its meaning was mostly lost in a series of translations made over the years. There are some historians that allow a notion that the great thinker took inspiration from mythology surrounding the Santorini volcano eruption, which led to a chain of events that caused the Bronze Age Collapse.Conspiracy Historians
The conspiracy theorists, for a lack of the better word, are very superficial. Their surface-level thinking only allows them to perceive some facts, misinterpret them and build up their theories that consist of about 90% of imagination and 10% far-fetched conclusions. This leads to batches of ideas reflected in so-called documentaries which reach the populace using popular streaming services. Conspirologists sell mysteries, and people are generally very happy to buy those. And, of course, we can only hear the whining of these conspiracy historians, unhappy with the academic community that doesn't want to listen to them. Tough!The Great Flood
The fact that many cultures have a Flood myth means that it really happened, they think. For some reason, conspirologists claim that an external influence is to blame for this catastrophe, which is too close to "God did it", to my taste. Nevertheless, the Fringe Society partially agrees with them in this regard, more on that - later.Megastructures and the origin of Pyramids
Humans couldn't build the pyramids, the conspiracy theorists claim. And the similarity between pyramids in various regions is something they say they cannot ignore. Essentially, they believe in everything the Conventionals reject.Atlantis
The idea of an advanced, sometimes even globally-spanning, civilization always was present in our minds. In this case, though, the Conspiracy historians always refer to Atlantis. Most of them base their knowledge on an animated movie of the same name, it seems. And there might be some truth to it, but, of course, it requires some specific context...Fringe Historians
Now, let's dissect what I like to call a proper opinion. The Fringe opinion. Those who know the truth of the world have two key reference points which are linked to these questions: Magic and Inhumanity. Both are irrevocably intertwined with Earth's history and can explain - although still not fully - the real history. We in the Fringe Society call the period in question "Era of Inhuman Superiority". It's still a theoretical age in which various Inhumans owned the known, although limited, parts of the world, and set the rules there.The Great Flood
The Fringe Society en masse doesn't side with any of the previously mentioned groups, instead preaching a mix of both approaches. We are sure that there was a Great Flood, but it probably did look like something the conventionals are describing. We also can't rule out a specific surge in this event that rendered a lot of land underwater simultaneously. More on this - in the Atlantis section.Megastructures and the origin of Pyramids
Despite the conventionalists' and the conspirologists' claims, we have quasi-first-hand accounts on the purpose of the Pyramids in Egypt. They were built to accumulate magical energy to give the world some more time before the wonders decay completely. To give a chance to preserve magic and return it. Instead, most of it was used to keep the Thabenlings in stasis. The serpent-like Egyptians also claim that all the pyramids all around the world are parts of the same project from the dawn of time, but Magical Decay severed the connections between pyramid builders, rendering the plan useless.Atlantis
We have an understanding that there was a civilization based in Doggerland, a part of land that's currently underwater. The area between the British Isles, Netherlands and the Jutland peninsula is very rich in magical fields and Ley Lines with remnants of ancient powerful spells we can't identify. We estimate that a civilization that magically advanced could've protected their core lands from flooding somehow. We know that magic can change climate and geography from stories about how divine power was used to make deserts into green pastures. Thus, the eventual flooding of Doggerland means this civilization's fall. The myth of Atlantis might've been created based on this event.Chronicler:
Robert Arthur Carter
by Teyvill via Midjourney
Date of First Recording
March 13, 2021
Date of Setting
10-3 millenium BCE
Artist's Depiction of the Great Biblical Flood
by Teyvill via Midjourney
A Conspiracy Historian's depiction of Atlantis
by Teyvill via Midjourney
Sidenote: Conspiracy and Fringe confusion
In common terminology, the Conventionalists call "Fringe Historians" anybody who disagree with the "established historical fact". The early years of the Fringe Society are well-documented, but the term "Fringe science" must've been in use before XIX century, even if sparringly. Anyway, we consider the term Fringe History our own, and we reject its usage when applied to Conspiracy historians. As per the Conventionalists' point of view, they should remember that theories such as plate tectonics or existence of the city of Troy were considered Fringe at some point.
Neolitic Inhuman Interactions, a Fringe estimate
by Teyvill via Midjourney
A theoretical flying pyramid, rendered based on the descriptions of the Thabenlings
by Teyvill via Midjourney
Sidenote: Concurrent and Legacy Mythology
There are two distinct types of mythology. Concurrent myth is usually a verbal one, it transforms and updates with time, but loses narrative integrity every time it goes from a myth-bearer to their offspring. The result sounds like a story made of random facts, it mentions characters without context, tells of the places long gone or renamed multiple times, and bear little to no connection to a modern audience. The best example of such a myth is an unadapted version of the Epic of Guilgamesh.
Legacy Mythology is something written or just invented after the fact, often after quite a long time have passed. It usually is a way better story, but it also contains a multitude of anachronisms. The best example of such a myth would be the Arthurian legend, first written centuries after the fact. It "enhanced" the legend with contemporary concepts of courtly love and knight's code which weren't a thing in the V century when King Arthur supposedly lived (we in the Fringe Society know for sure that he was real, though).
Artistic epitome of myth
by Teyvill via Midjourney
Conspiracy Historians' Breeding Grounds
by Teyvill via Midjourney
'Many have noted, though, that he sometimes can sound quite sore and sulky.' Lol. I had a lot of fun reading this article. I really liked the comparisons between how different types of historians interpret the myths/history.
Thanks, Emy! Glad you enjoyed it! :)