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Academic journal finally yanks a paper by Indonesian follower of Graham Hand-on-Peepee

https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/journal-retracts-paper-claiming-gunung-padang-is-an-ice-age-mega-pyramid

Radiocarbon dating is presented in pop science as a magical technique where you just point your tricorder :marseyspock: at old stuff and it tells you exactly how old it is and it's 100% reliable. In fact it's really complicated. The level of carbon-14 in the atmosphere changes year to year and also seasonally. If the sample was ever immersed in water that can change it. It's not very precise for archaeology as anything recent you'll get a range of a couple centuries.

:#marseymummy:

The biggest problem is finding the right sample to test. It can tell you when living tissue died. The problem is, you're probably trying to figure out how old an inanimate object like a building or statue is. So you have to do it indirectly, testing something like a bit of charcoal that you found nearby that you believe dates back to the same time as the object you care about. It's easy to make a mistake and test material from a totally different time.

:#marseytheorist:

Our enterprising r-slur just ignored all these difficulties. He decided that some hill in Indonesia is a pyramid built in the ice age or some shit to fit in with whatever Graham Hanpeepee is peddling. So he just randomly tested bits of mud from the hill until he found something 8,000 years old and claimed that his "pyramid" is really old. Who needs truth when fantasy is more fun?

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I am growing more and more wary of the "ancient structure" stuff because of people will always try to turn this into peepee-measuring contest.

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Yeah, even back in ancient times the Egyptians and Phrygians were already arguing about who had the oldest civilization.

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Can't say I'm really surprised.

I am content with just settle it with Sumerians being the oldest, since we really don't have anybody who come out and go "we wuz Sumerians" after Saddam Hussein is dead. Much better than reading the trite coming from Indian and Chinese nationalists.

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