Topics: Conspiracy Theories, Aliens, History, Science
Archaeologists have suggested that a pyramid-like structure suggested to be more than 25,000 years old may not have been built by humans.
Grab your tin-foil hats and settle in, because we're about to theorize!
The various pyramids in the world have sparked a lot of conspiracies over the years, mostly because it's just hard to picture how such huge, impressive and intricate structures were built without today's technology.
Aliens is one of the most common explanation for the impressive feat, but before you get too carried away, that's not what we're talking about here.
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Instead, archaeologists have offered up a different explanation for the Gunung Padang archaeological site in Indonesia, where one study claimed to have found evidence of human activity at the site dating back thousands of years before the next oldest pyramid.
The study even suggested there are 'hidden cavities or chambers' located within the structure; a discovery which naturally lends itself to questions about secrecy and covert behavior.
Authors of the study wrote: "Radiocarbon dating of organic soils from the structures uncovered multiple construction stages dating back thousands of years BCE, with the initial phase dating to the Palaeolithic era.
“This study strongly suggests that Gunung Padang is not a natural hill but a pyramid-like construction.”
However, archeologists responding to the study have argued that the 'pyramid' was likely not one built by humans - or aliens - because it wasn't 'built' by anybody.
They claimed that while the study of Gunung Padang used 'legitimate data', its conclusions that very ancient humans had worked on the site were unjustified.
Flint Dibble, an archeologist at Cardiff University in Wales, told Nature that it is likely that the structure formed naturally, unless extraordinary evidence is found suggesting otherwise.
“Material rolling down a hill is going to, on average, orient itself," he said.
Archeologists also pointed out that there is no evidence of charcoal or bone fragments in the soil; two of common signs of human activity in archaeological sites.
Lutfi Yondri, an archeologist at BRIN in Bandung in Indonesia, told Nature that while his work showed that there was human habitation in the area between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, none of his findings suggested the inhabitants had the 'remarkable masonry capabilities' which they would have needed to construct the 'pyramid'.
So there you have it; the unusual structure isn't really a structure at all, but just the work of Mother Nature.
