Ok – so I have finally caught up with life and have a few spare hours.

I was always fascinated by the Antikythera mechanism and the fact it is the first known analogue computer, which is 2000 years old. The knowledge of this technology was lost in antiquity. It predates anything similar by a thousand years and the first mechanical clocks were not invented until 14th century. So, what other knowledge and information have we lost?

There was an interesting study by bGavin Schmidt (Director Goddard Institute for Space Studies) and Adam Frank (professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester) - The Silurian Hypothesis. When it comes to direct evidence of an industrial civilization— the geologic record doesn’t go back past what’s called the Quaternary period – only 2.6 million years ago. Could researchers find clear evidence that an ancient species built a relatively short-lived industrial civilization long before our own?

Anyway, this daisy chain of data led me to the The Voynich Manuscript. A mysterious book written around 1410. The manuscript has never been demonstrably deciphered, despite the application of modern code breaking techniques. Its meaning and why it is so securely encrypted remains a mystery. The absence of mistakes and corrections is also jaw dropping considering the length of the work and the detail.

The amazing thing is that the book resides in the Yale rare manuscript library – and it has been scanned in – so anyone can read it or download a copy (link below)

Interested to see what theories the forum members have on the books purpose - or if anyone can crack the code… Looking at the illustrations and index I have my own theories.

https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3519597

 

Well the oceans are 400 feet higher now than they were during the last ice age, and some of what was dry land long before that has slid under tectonic plates raising mountains where once there were plains.
Its entirely possible that hundreds of civilizations, not all strictly human have come and gone in ages past.
I've dug iron objects out of the ground and broken them into fragments in my hands. A friend found a gold plated Winchester commemorative rifle in a sunken fishing boat. It had spent perhaps five years in salt water at the most. The barrel crumbled and the receiver swelled up with corrosion bursting the gold plate which then peeled away. I've seen gold sheathed Iron axes found in dry tombs that were in the same condition. In other tombs iron swords were found intact It depends on the chemicals in soil among other things.
The more advanced a civilization the less likely there will be recognizable remains of artifacts or buildings after many thousands of years. Ancient Roman concrete made with lava pumice will outlast modern concrete.
The concrete containment domes of nuclear power plants have been failing in recent years. same for the concrete domes poured over contaminated soil and such from nuclear testing only 60 years ago.
Centuries of flooding may have washed away all trace of ancient cities, the remnants deposited in canyons on the ocean floors.

Entire cities have disappeared beneath desert sands in recorded history, believed to be mere myths a few of these cities have been found in modern times with satellite imagery. How much more difficult to find cities lost thousands of years before recorded history?

One thing that you might notice is that in legends of lost civilizations the appearance of Chimera of various sorts are a common thing. Often Chimera were developed as weapons of war. Genetic manipulation is more dangerous in the long run than nuclear energy.

If the Manuscript is real it may be a copy many generations removed from the original, like almost every ancient tome before the invention of acid free paper and the printing press. The Iron Gaul ink on its own destroyed most manuscripts, even those done on animal skins.

It was common for Alchemists to record everything in a personal code, an artificial language only they understood.
Without the Rosetta stone we'd still be wondering how to decipher most ancient languages.

 

Yes - it is just odd with the Rosetta stone knowledge - and so much technology + recent advances in cryptography, we still cant crack a document written 600 years ago. The pictures might also be cyphers - there are 113 unidentified plant species depicted in the manuscript, and nobody knows what the odd pipe systems are supposed to mean.