Even when archaeologists don’t have that level of detail, they can still confidently tell you that people don’t really change. If we can imagine something now, they could most likely imagine the same thing a thousand years ago.

For example, you know what’s an incredibly common thing to find on a dig? Dildos. Phallic stuff is everywhere, and when you find a well-polished, life-sized clay dick, it’s pretty clear what it was used for. The Greeks had devices that were essentially computers that could predict celestial movements. Running water and indoor plumbing was relatively common in the ancient world.

We’re so egotistical to think that humans in the past were somehow incapable of thinking, planning, or building at our level. And we convince ourselves that we’re better than them because we have all this fancy stuff No, their brains were just as complex and capable, they just didn’t have access to the same kinds of tools that we do.

People found the pyramid building manual quite recently. At the turn of the century, it was still a mystery.

Normal people don't keep up with stuff that recent.

My cousin couldn't understand how I bought groceries after I sold my car. After telling him I walked three blocks to the store he asked how I bought groceries in winter. I told him I put on a coat and boots and walk three blocks to the store.

I live two blocks from my local market, I understand you.

Also, they don't understand that giving me a bag for milk is not worth it, milk has a handle.

i wasn't expecting prodigy here.

In other news, banger song, go listen to it (smack my bitch up for those wondering)

Literally first thing that came to mind

It started with "we have no idea how they did it". Then over time it morphed into "we have several hypotheses but don't know if it any of those is realistic". The current state of things is still there regarding the construction technique itself.

In the meantime the village where construction workers lived has been found. Now we know the profile or people who built the pyramids, how they lived and what they ate. Even some details about work organization.

All of this still didn't propagate into the popular culture which is still stuck in the 1980s regarding pyramid knowledge.

I'm too lazy and incompetent at statistics to do the math, but survivorship bias is very much relevant here.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

Turns out, if you build something that isn't a bunch of stones in an organized stack, it won't last thousands of years like the organized stone stacks.

Take a handful of sand. Turn your first perpendicular to the ground and let it fall slowly. What shape does it form? It's one of the most stable shapes you can make.

It's more due to engineering. Materials have limited strength. Stone has fairly good compressive strength, but it'll still crack if you put too much weight on it. If you use your stone to make a tower, it won't get very high before it topples over. If you instead build a pyramid, the weight of the stone on top is dispersed across several stones below it and those stones disperse their weight to multiple stones and so on down to the base, letting you build far taller.

It's still standing because luckily for us they didn't invent fire yet. /s

Well considering they rebuilt Stonehenge in the 1950s its possible the site is totally wrong too. Its possible it should look more like the Callanish stones.