Quake42
Warrior Princess
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2004
- Messages
- 9,312
That's a valid point, though it depends upon how widely or narrowly one defines the notion of 'civilization'.
In the context of the Silurian Hypothesis, it should be borne in mind that the authors who coined the phrase were specifically addressing industrial civilizations.
Fair enough. But I would say the discovery of a pre-human civilisation that *only* got to the level of Ancient Greece or Rome, say, would still be the most amazing paleontological discovery ever.
Agriculture, cities and writing are the three classic markers of civilisation. But even a pre-human species that reached Stone Age levels of technology would be pretty mind-blowing.