The paradoxical problem of the older the tech, the more advanced?
ANCIENT TECH PARADOX
The above image is part of an Inca Wall in ancient city of Coricancha Temple, Cusco, Peru, South America. A so-called example of polygonal masonry and skill made by chaps with primitive hammers and chisels apparently.
And this might very well be the case. However, most of our assumptions on such things, are via a Victorian /Edwardian perspective. As are the majority of books on such discoveries.
Bearing in mind this is not a door but a alcove maybe under five feet high. Those Victorian /Edwardian books will have us all believe these alcoves were display areas, containing wooden shelves and displaying ornate statues, made of gold etc.
But why go to so much trouble to make a alcove for such a mundane thing? And the horizontal grooves or slots for shelves look decidedly wonky and completely impracticable to receive a nice level shelf.
So I would suggest an ulterior motive. But one must first consider that we are perhaps not the only society of this planet to have achieved an highly advanced technological society of swipey-wipey stuff.
Consider too, that in a mere 300 years we have harnessed electricity to the point that we can now split the atom or watch Netflix. But at no point have we ever bothered to go to all the trouble of making alcoves with such intricacy beyond say biblical architecture. Not recently at least.
Thus, its entirely possible our ancient ancestors were far more advanced than we give them credit. Something those old dusty Victorian /Edwardian books would never consider. Advanced enough that they required generators and other machinery to power buildings and establish communications with other towns.
In that respect, such an alcove as this, might have housed some sort of electrical equipment. Note the large hole, originally a rectangle window or aperture, with several blocks missing below it. Possibly this is where an extraction fan protruded to allow air circulation.
Note too that the wonky grooves are reminiscent of trunking/ 'chasing' methods used in electrical installation, where by sections of wall are 'chased' out into channels, to receive power cables. Note also the equally spaced holes that frame the alcove, as if bolts or rivets were once fitted to receive a mounting frame to hold the machine in place.
And what sort of machine was it? Likely this was a central hub of some kind, anything from a transformer to Tele-visual communication point. Who knows. If it was a machine, it was the focal point for something. Much like our present day methods of centralising technology for a particular purpose to suit the needs of a community. Maybe it was just a ATM that spat out gold inca coins, or a terminal to buy plane tickets. Shit it could have been a snack vending machine for all I know.
But the point is, this alcove was designed for something slightly more important than mere shelving for gold statues anyway.
Which is probably what it ended up being used for in later centuries. Any trace of its electrical origins whittled away over the vast passing of time. All electrical devices contain metals of value and the contents of this particular alcove would have been stripped in the latter years in the wake of some social, or economic upheaval.
Note too the damage to the blocks, as if thieves, or scrap merchants had ripped out all the guts of the machine, damaging the stone work in the process. Its component parts recycled, melted down perhaps into more primitive weaponry (such as swords) to fight some war amid tribes, who had long forgotten their ancestral (and technologically advanced) roots.
All that said. Maybe it is just a stupid alcove for display purposes after all. But who knows, in these present times of civil unrest, with our society on the brink of nuclear annihilation, maybe you'll live long enough to see your old VHS tapes mistaken for godly deities by the post-apocalyptic baby boomers of the near future ...
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