The Grass-Cutting Ants Mystery Subterranean Megacity

[zozo]

Discovering the Giant Nest Architecture of Grass-Cutting Ants, Atta capiguara​

The research paper about it...

Discovering the Giant Nest Architecture of Grass-Cutting Ants, Atta capiguara (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Atta capiguara is a grass-cutting ant species frequently found in Cerrado biome. However, little is known about the giant nest architecture of this ant. In this study, we investigated the architecture of three A. capiguara nests from a fragment of Cerrado ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Look at the size of this thing...

The yellow dots in the first pic represent the initial entrance mount above the surface... The spheres are the Breeding facilities, Fungus Farms and Trash chambers. All are connected in the shortest and most effective route up to 8 meters deep...

Another exciting study "How is this all ventilated, conditioned and regulated?" The ants even figured this out to perfection.

The paper about it:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257320036_Ventilation_of_the_giant_nests_of_Atta_leaf-cutting_ants_Does_underground_circulating_air_enter_the_fungus_chambers

Imaging and it's simply more than mindboggling it's mindblowing... They farm a certain type of fungus in specifically designed chambers that need to be situated in a place with the proper climate for it. That is why they use the plant leaves for they drag in as a substrate to grow the fungus which again provides food for the larvae and the adults. Then they have breeding chambers to nurse the larvae and chambers they use as trash bins all connected and properly ventilated.

Coming to think of it this is a topic that could also fit in the (Ancient) Alien thread... Because most intriguing to me is the question "How?" This is not something random based on luck and coincidences. We name it "Collective Will" and "Instinctively". They do possess the collective intelligence to build and maintain such a structure, with no tools, no calculators, no measuring devices, no GPS systems to navigate, and no mathematicians, no architects with tons of paper rolls, they simply "know" where to dig and stick a finger in the air to determine this spot is going to be perfect for a fungus farm and or a breeding chamber whatever? They know how to organize it all and how to construct it.

Anyway, this collective intelligence is more than mindblowing, how does this work, where does it come from, and how did they get this information? Into what kind of energy do they tap into to simply know and make it happen en do it in this perfection? It's in front of our eyes that they can and they do.

And then we look at ancient human structures and say can't be done without any advanced machinery and advanced knowledge? If ants can do this simply on autopilot with genetically implanted collective knowledge. Couldn't it be that once ancient humans had this ability too? Just simply possessing the skills to create incomprehensibly difficult-to-calculate polygonal structures knowing what to do without spending much thought about it and simply on autopilot with the simplest of tools. Tapping into and from the same intelligent energy the ants tap into today? And how, why and where did we lose this connection?

 

[zozo]

We don't have to go that far away, it happens almost in any of our gardens. Another mindblowing example in the same category is the Symbiotic relationship between our indigenous Ants and the Aphids...

Aphids and Ants: Mutual Allies - Youth in Food Systems

We’ve all heard about the competition in nature; one species competing against another for the same resource. While this is very common, there are also other species that work together, each one benefiting from the other in this strange alliance. This is called mutualism.

seeds.ca

Ants are not only farmers but also ranchers and botanists.

They domesticate Aphids, protect them and feed them by bringing the Aphids to the plant parts with the best sap, to make them produce the best quality Honeydew. As if Ants know more about plants than the Aphids do? And or know more about Aphids than Aphids know about themselves? At the end of the summer, they also collect Aphid eggs take them underground into the Ant nest, and take care of them till the next spring.

 

[Luciën]

Wow, thanks for sharing. This nest is absolutely bonkers.

 

[Tim Harrison]

If ants can do this simply on autopilot with genetically implanted collective knowledge. Couldn't it be that once ancient humans had this ability too? Just simply possessing the skills to create incomprehensibly difficult-to-calculate polygonal structures knowing what to do without spending much thought about it and simply on autopilot with the simplest of tools. Tapping into and from the same intelligent energy the ants tap into today? And how, why and where did we lose this connection?

Mind truly blown 🙂 Perhaps there have been previous high civilisations that went down a different technological path to that of our own, but we’re wiped out by global disaster. Maybe the Atlantis myth has some validity, for instance, and we are a species with amnesia.

 

[zozo]

Maybe the Atlantis myth has some validity, for instance, and we are a species with amnesia.

We have a few potential and metaphoric Atlantis locations in front of our eyes. Take Cuzco in Peru and the curious case of polygonal masonry...

Calculating it and measuring and chiselling this complexity with hand tools...

We have an ancient term in our language for this translated into English it is "Having a Carpenter's Eye". This still stems from the old days when a good carpenter didn't need tools all the time to measure he saw it on the fly and made it correct and straight and fitting accordingly with hand tools. I believe those ancients did it like that, but then with stone with the time to practise a good eye and a steady hand and simple tools. Simply seeing and knowing and no questions asked.

Seeing those polygonal constructions, the details you just can't get around the fact they did it... So the fact is, it is possible we once had the ability. Even tho nobody knows how to do this today to this precision not even with advanced tools it says nothing else then we no longer can't. The ancient Peruvians weren't the only ones it's found in several places in the world. Separately from each other the same ideas and the same skills to pull it off.

We not only forgot and amnesia might be the wrong word, but we probably or more likely lost something along the way... Far-fetched maybe, but back then the earth or the cosmos may have radiated a different frequency and different energy that made us see things and that changed, not forgotten but gone or we lost the connection or sync...

Ants do it, they kinda naturally know even in the pitch-black dark, with no tools at all, it knows what it does where it goes and where it belongs.

 

[Tim Harrison]

I completely agree. The blocks are locked together like that through and through, not just on the surface. The joints are so tight you can't get a cigarrette paper between them.

Some research suggests the blocks may have been melted together or otherwise plasticised.. And their asymmetrical patterns provide the ultimate in earthquake stability.

Either Way there are many examples of these megalithic structures throughout the world, and they are beyond the comprehension of modern technology with its reliance on machinery and leavers. This especially so since many of the blocks weigh several 10s of tonnes.

 

[zozo]

This especially so since many of the blocks weigh several 10s of tonnes.

Yup! It must have been some very skilful Bodybuilder culture on a special protein diet and some natural anabolics, "Homo Schwarzeneggeriensus". They are still trying to find the builder's grave site.

There are quite some theories around from lost or forgotten technologies, Wisdom, and Geopolymer to Aliens...

But maybe it was a gravitational thing? Newton's Law might not always have been a simple constant. This brings me back to Immanuel Velikovsky's hypothesis from the 1950's. Also a completely ridiculed pseudoscientific idea most if not all scientists LOL about.

He claimed there once was a Golden Age when our planetary configuration from our solar system was completely different with different gravitational laws. In time this configuration changed and created havoc on the earth. Civilizations collapsed and what was previously possible was no more and lost never to come back again, at least not for many ages. All living cultures on the planet back then were witness to the same natural phenomena all that happened for their eyes in the skies and recorded these events which influenced their religious thoughts. That's why so many ancient mythologies from different cultures around the world have a similar baseline story and use similar symbolism and mythological figures. About all have sky gods, floods, earthquakes, fire-breeding dragons and giants etc. Anyway, too many similarities to be a coincidence? Or simple patron recognition and wishful thinking?

Giants? Maybe no real giant humans, but late Pleistocene Megafauna we can't get around... Giants did roam the earth these days! Why did they get this big? Some say must have been climatological and more oxygen in the atmosphere triggers giantism, but not for humans. Same for the sudden megafauna extinction by climatological change. OK what changed it, what's the definition of climate? Gravity can't be a part?

Or the rather far-fetched idea of overkill by human hunting... Imagine a few million dwarfed humans with spears and rocks hunting down billions of specimen megafauna. They must have been rather hungry back then... Wait a minute! "Homo Schwarzeneggeriensus?" might be true after all, here we have all the evidence, proteins and natural anabolic testosterone diet we need, Megafauna testicles? Kill and eat all the megafauna and build megalith cities! 💪

The beauty of it all is we simply don't know... We still didn't find anything conclusive...

 

[Tim Harrison]

I think you’re right Marcel. Take gravity, for instance, the only thing constant about it is that it changes constantly. However that really messes with other scientific calculators so it has been set as a constant by the BIPM. And sure the speed of light in a vacuum is constant but in reality it changes constantly too.

Evidence for lower prehistoric gravity could be staring us in the face with the likes of dinosaurs, huge pterodactyls and megafauna for instance. And maybe even megalithic structures. But I think we all feel its effects as we age. Knackered knees and backs, almost as though human physiology wasn’t meant to endure such high gravity, and possibly evolved under lower gravity conditions during a Golden Age.

Similarly, our species has probably been around a lot longer than current evidence suggest. The date we arrived on this planet keeps getting pushed back. Atm I think it’s in the region of 300k years. But not so long ago it was 100k years. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn we’ve been around for a few million years.

The problem is that the fossil record is so scant and incomplete. Genetics is yielding some interest evidence of ancestral hominids that have yet to be discovered, so no one really knows for sure.

Which brings me on to the stability of our planet. Many physical scientist love to think it’s a benign place and any changes happen gradually over millennia, through contestant uniform processes; uniformitarianism. However, this has often proven to be wishful thinking.

The opposite is almost certainly true. Catastrophism probably occurs more often than is currently thought. Nature loves tipping points and change can happen very rapidly, including climate change. The upshot for our species could be that many previous advanced civilisations may have been wiped off the face of the planet leaving very little to no trace, and the survivors are left to try and pick up the pieces.

For instance, mega global floods are a distinct possibility through asteroid and meteorite swarms impacting ice sheets. There is increasing evidence that this happened during the Younger Dryas, not just impact proxies but geomorphological as well, the channeled scablands of Washing state and I wouldn’t be surprised if evidence emerged suggesting a mega flood also carved out the English Channel over a very short 2 week period.

There is a fundamental guiding philosophy behind all science and that is it’s just best guess. However we are taught in schools that it is absolute. Instead we should be taught to think critically and to question everything. Accordingly, many scientists unfortunately become dogmatic gatekeepers of the truth and that is at best unhelpful and at worst dangerous.

 

[zozo]

Evidence for lower prehistoric gravity could be staring us in the face

That's what I always thought since reading Velikovsky's book "Worlds in Collision" but he made one huge mistake. He over-dramatized the story with a lot of irrelevant and indeed somewhat ridiculous unscientific claims that overshadowed the crucial baseline idea of lower gravity on earth in prehistory. And nobody has wanted to touch this idea ever since.

I wouldn’t be surprised if evidence emerged suggesting a mega flood also carved out the English Channel as well over a very short 2 week period.

Doggerland according to the image and today's science took 8000 to 10,000 years to disappear...

It always intrigued me that once there was a forest there... If you roam the beaches you might still find some Megafauna or ancient human fossils instead of driftwood...

Looking for fossils in the North Sea – DW – 10/21/2013

blahblahblahblah Mol from the Netherlands is on a quest to find fossils in the North Sea. He regularly heads out with fishermen to sift through their nets for remains of Ice Age animals. Millennia ago, this part of the Eurogeul channel used to be a steppe connecting what are now the British Isles with...

www.dw.com

blahblahblahblah Mol?

If I'm correct they also found Neanderthaler fossils on Guernsey @foxfish might be able to confirm... They seemed to have migrated on foot back and forth over these planes. From Neanderthalers there is also evidence found that they probably had some kind of language and religion, because they also had burying rituals for their diseased loved ones. Anyway, they were much more cognitive than previously thought and probably have been around for over 200,000 years.

 

[Tim Harrison]

We are the Neanderthals, that is at least us Europeans are. Around 3% of our DNA is H. neanderthalensis, some individuals more. They perhaps weren’t out competed by anatomically modern humans but bred in.

They are now thought to have been very sophisticated people, not that dissimilar to us. If they were shaven and suited and booted there would really be little difference. We’re all just monkeys in shoes.

Their lineage is thought to date back around 800k years and were probably still knocking about around 20k ybp.

Btw, it’s doubtful that we were also responsible for the demise of megafauna. Any ancient people would have to be clinically insane to try and tackle those beasts. There is some new evidence to suggest megafauna were wiped out by extraterrestrial impacts and subsequent rapid environmental change.

 

[foxfish]

There are dozens of Dolmens in Guernsey, lots were destroyed during the granite industry and quite likely ended under the tarmac of Londons thoroughfares.
One of the best known is the Deheus Dolmen and that is only 150m from my front door.

Prehistoric human bones in Guernsey discovered by coastal walker

A man walking around Guernsey's coast finds bones estimated to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old.

www.bbc.com

 

[Tim Harrison]

I wouldn’t be surprised if evidence emerged suggesting a mega flood also carved out the English Channel over a very short 2 week period.

Not quite what I was getting at, but still quite revealing. I like to think they've perhaps got it wrong and this happened during the Younger Dryas. And it wasn't the more uniformitarian ice dam theory but a catastrophic event caused by meltwater pulse 1B. But it'd be heresy and career suicide to even suggest such a thing...

The English Channel Megaflood And How Britain Became An Island

Scientists uncover new evidence of an ancient megaflood that created the English Channel and Britain as we know it today.

www.forbes.com

 

[zozo]

But it'd be heresy and career suicide to even suggest such a thing...

That's what science and "empirical" study are all about, it's kinda forbidden to speculate out loud publically without having any conclusive evidence.
I guess if science wants to progress you can't get around the "What if". I think that's the basis of all science but all scientists trained themself the hush the what-if questions if there isn't the slightest form of evidence to suggest it. You may think it and you may look for it but rather shut up till you find proof. Speculating is somewhere in between fantasy and philosophy and then comes science.

A glacial lake that was behind a dam indeed needs another dam on the other side. Glaciers don't melt from the centre and form lakes surrounded by ice dams. That's a question that only can be answered with a big "What if?"

It may have been caused by an earthquake and geothermal. From under the ice, it was a sub-glacial lake that was destined to break through one day.

Then the others say "Yeah right lol, where is the evidence? You fool!.. In Iceland?

Anyway, quite a few ancient mythologies mention a legendary mega-flood and legends have some truth in them, people don't come up with mega-floods without ever seeing one. But people also come up with Fisherman's Latin and make everything proportionally bigger telling the tale around the campfire. Without transportation, their world would be a lot smaller and a smaller flood could easily become a mega flood flooding only their known world.

Hence it still happens today in the USA there is a World Series baseball event and only the USA teams participate in it and the winner becomes the World Series Champion. Seriously? No of course not, it's metaphorical, but still...

 

[zozo]

Here is a nice one @Tim Harrison...


And he is right... Graham forgets one thing, but that's because he lives a life in abundance... Living a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle with constantly moving and rebuilding with a variety of available materials also gathers much more versatile experiences and triggers inventiveness much more than living a stationary lifestyle in abundance. So saying these people were primitive is ludicrous, they learned everything they needed to know during their journeys of rebuilding and rebuilding again... And put al these experiences into practise after settling down and improving it.

 

[Tim Harrison]

I've read pretty much everything Graham has written and also Robert on the subject. I think Graham's contention might also be that the mainstream archaeological view is/was that hunter gatherers weren't capable of such feats. They neither had the technology nor knowhow. How could Gobekli Tepe, for instance, be created by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. That supposedly came many thousands of years later after the development of agriculture and the differentiation of society. They can't have it both ways.

I didn't have time to watch the video in its entirety, but was there any mention of dating regarding the other sites within the same cultural zone as Gobekli Tepe? Sometimes later monuments are less sophisticated and without dating it's often assumed that the more primitive sites where precursors when in fact they may not be.

For example, the later additions on top of, or near to, existing megalithic structures you mentioned above. It appears as though the technology to create tight joints and lift huge blocks was somehow lost to later generations. Similarly, I think Graham challenges archaeologists view that the step pyramid in Djoser was built before the great pyramids of Giza. He insists there is actually no definitive evidence to support that statement, not least since rock can't be dated, and that it's an assumption based on regurgitated dogma.

But either way, I agree hunter gatherer societies probably had a lot more time on their hands and much more surplus than originally supposed. It's a relatively efficient way of life, much more so than labour intensive farming.

As an aside it is postulated by some that agricultural food production was a byproduct or evolution of gathering and then perhaps growing ingredients for wine and beer, which would have been spiked with herbs and spices and hallucinogens like ergot of rye. So it is entirely likely hunter gatherers were far more sophisticated technologically and more capable than archaeologists traditionally give them credit for.


This might be of interest

Response by Graham Hancock (GH) to the open letter to Netflix dated 30th November 2022 from the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) concerning the eight-part docuseries Ancient Apocalypse presented by Graham Hancock - Graham Hancock Official Websi

Graham responds to the SAA letter to Netflix and ITN.

grahamhancock.com

 

[zozo]

I didn't have time to watch the video in its entirety, but was there any mention of dating regarding the other sites within the same cultural zone as Gobekli Tepe?

Even earlier sites than Gobekli Tepe but pretty close to each other are mentioned where stone artwork figurines were found and even a carved stone with some ladder-formed carvings that suggested they already may have had some kind of writing | or counting system. At least it didn't look like something artistic but they didn't know what it was so didn't make to many assumptions about it but it was found, catalogued and dated earlier.

I also don't believe that Graham leaves these things out on purpose, I guess he doesn't have access to all the archaeological findings documented that are not made public in the media like David Miano has and knows where to find them. Then all Graham can do is go with what he gets or knows to find in and from mainstream publications and miss out on a lot of things. Then probably makes assumptions based on incomplete information.

Not saying he's a crackpot or something like that... I'm just i simple bystander watching and intrigued.

It appears as though the technology to create tight joints and lift huge blocks was somehow lost to later generations.

On that we can't get around, we simply don't know so far it's indeed a lost knowledge...

 

[Tim Harrison]

Even earlier sites than Gobekli Tepe but pretty close to each other are mentioned where stone artwork figurines were found and even a carved stone with some ladder-formed carvings that suggested they already may have had some kind of writing | or counting system

How did they determine the figurines etc were dated earlier? Could they perhaps have been less sophisticated copies of those from Gobekli Tepe? I'm not sure stone can be dated very accurately if at all. I think Schmidt could only date Gobekli Tepe by carbon dating organic material buried within the site.

On that we can't get around, we simply don't know so far it's indeed a lost knowledge...

Could the same apply to the other sites here too? Less sophisticated copies of Gobekli Tepe because of a lost technology.

 

[zozo]

How did they determine the figurines etc were dated earlier? Could they perhaps have been less sophisticated copies of those from Gobekli Tepe? I'm not sure stone can be dated very accurately if at all. I think Schmidt could only date Gobekli Tepe by carbon dating organic material buried within the site.

Yes I agree, it probably is dated by some charcoal they found at the dig... The stone itself can not be directly dated. I don't know, didn't catch all the details. And they were indeed presented as earlier intermediate less sophisticated structures and artwork predating G. Tepe.

The bottom line was those findings suggest those people likely were much more sophisticated and capable than given credit by previous archaeologists and historians. And kinda disproves Graham's statement that it all came suddenly without any precursors, so they must have learned from the sudden appearance of a more sophisticated Atlantis culture. In other words, he claims hunter-gatherers were much too primitive to know how to build G. Tepe.

I'm not educated enough to pick a side, I love to listen to them all. But in a way, I can imagine that the hunter-gatherer first learned how to build and then settled and then went on with agriculture. How did they maintain the workforce? Nobody knows how long the build took. Why couldn't it be maintained with hunting and gathering? Or if G. Tepe is dated correctly we might consider that agriculture developed much sooner than the generally accepted 12.000 years.

 

[Tim Harrison]

This is entertaining, if you have time to watch the whole thing it's worth it.

 

[zozo]

This might be of interest

Response by Graham Hancock (GH) to the open letter to Netflix dated 30th November 2022 from the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) concerning the eight-part docuseries Ancient Apocalypse presented by Graham Hancock - Graham Hancock Official Websi

Graham responds to the SAA letter to Netflix and ITN.

grahamhancock.com

SAA

: This series publicly disparages archaeologists and devalues the archaeological profession on the basis of false claims and disinformation.

Haha, unbelievable that the SAA bothers to send such a letter to Netfix... It's television!! Then you can keep on writing letters with all that's aired. Expedition Bigfoot, Paranormal investigation, Area 51 disclosed, Stargate, beem me up snotty!?... etc.

I guess Netflix had a laugh too reading this...