308: Chapter 308: How did the ancients know that natural stones could be preserved for thousands of years?

"Holy cow! What is that thing on that guy's hand?"

"What kind of smart bracelet can talk on its own?"

"The key point is that it's correcting the guy!"

"You guys upstairs are so ignorant. It's just a smart bracelet. Besides, those three things are the real miracle."

"Pyramids, Mount Rushmore, the Sphinx—they can last ten thousand years? Are you kidding me?"

The live chat was scrolling frantically, with everyone staring at that black bracelet.

Kyoto, University of History Staff Quarters.

Professor Liu Guangyi couldn't help but interject, "The USA's Mount Rushmore is located in Mount Rushmore National Memorial; the heads of four presidents are carved into granite, each about 18 meters high."

"And granite is one of the hardest natural stones in the world, with extremely high resistance to weathering."

"The climate zone where Mount Rushmore is located belongs to a semi-arid continental climate, with little rainfall and large temperature differences, but the weathering rate of granite is about 1 millimeter per century; that is to say, after ten thousand years, the outlines of those heads will still be there, only the details will be a bit blurred."

Professor Chen Runzhi was thoughtful, "Also, the Pyramids use limestone, which logically isn't as hard as granite; but the Pyramid of Khufu originally had a polished limestone coating. Now the coating has fallen off, but the main body remains; furthermore, the climate in Egypt is dry, so the weathering rate is slow."

Qian Mingyi was searching for information and chimed in, "The Sphinx goes without saying; it was carved directly from natural limestone, and the surrounding area was dug out into a trench, which is itself part of the solid rock."

Professor Liu Guangyi nodded, "So that black bracelet was right. These three things are essentially carved or built on natural rock, not purely man-made objects. The Pyramids are stacked from megaliths, but the stone is natural; Mount Rushmore and the Sphinx are carved directly into rock formations; they all belong to natural creations."

"No wonder the bracelet said there are three things that can remain. They are the joint works of humans and nature."

The four professors looked at each other, all seeing realization in each other's eyes.

Huaqing University, Physics Department faculty dormitory.

Guan Jingming looked at the black streaming light bracelet on the screen, his eyes shining, "What kind of bracelet is that? Can our bracelets do that?"

Li Mo spoke calmly: "They can. High-tech bracelets are sold by major companies... Some high-end models can even connect to the Internet of Things to control smart homes."

Little did they know, Jiang Zhe's bracelet could control satellites in the sky.

Of course, he didn't even know it himself.

...

Kyoto, Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming looked at Professor Wen, "Professor Wen, is what the bracelet suggested true?"

Wen Jingqiu didn't answer directly, but instead asked a rhetorical question, "What do you think?"

"I don't know."

Wen Jingqiu smiled slightly, "The weathering rate of granite is one millimeter per century. The heads on Mount Rushmore are 18 meters high; just the president's nose alone can last for hundreds of thousands of years; and although the limestone of the Pyramids is softer, Egypt is dry, so it can also withstand time for a very long time; as for the Sphinx, it was carved directly into the rock formation, which itself is part of the mountain."

"The bracelet was right. These three things can indeed be preserved for ten thousand years."

"Even saying one hundred thousand or a million years is fine."

Speaking of this, Professor Wen couldn't help but ponder, "If one day, the 8 billion people in our world disappear due to a natural disaster, a plague, or even a war."

"Even if our human civilization doesn't leave behind any spark, and it's the kind of tragedy where all of humanity is extinct..."

"If a new species evolves intelligence tens of millions of years later..."

"In an ideal situation, the intelligent civilization tens of millions of years later finds the Sphinx buried underground, the outlines of the Pyramids..."

"At that time, a small portion of people in that intelligent civilization will say: [Perhaps an intelligent civilization really existed in history]!"

After she finished speaking, Zheng Ming and Celestial Master Zhang looked at each other.

They all felt the heaven-defying nature of natural creations.

Suddenly, inside the big screen.

Xiaoyu seemed to have discovered something, her eyes suddenly lit up, "Big Brother, what about the sumerian tablets?"

As soon as this question was asked, it piqued the interest of the netizens.

"That's right, sumerian tablets!"

"Didn't those cuneiform characters carved on stone also survive for thousands of years?"

"And our oracle bone script."

"And also, the Rosetta Stone of Ancient Egypt, that's also stone!"

"..."

Hearing Xiaoyu's question, Jiang Zhe looked at Xiaoyu approvingly, "Not bad, you can draw inferences."

"Yes, stone tablets can also be preserved."

"But it is worth noting that stone tablets are natural stone, not man-made materials; what was the purpose of the people of the Sumerian Civilization carving characters on stone?"

"The purpose was to record, but the problem is, why did they specifically choose stone?"

Xiaoyu thought for a while: "Because stone is hard and can be preserved for a long time?"

Jiang Zhe nodded, then shook his head: "What you see is a superficial reason. It is one reason, but a deeper question is!"

Speaking to this point, his gaze suddenly became profound, "If they had other ways to record information, such as paper, cloth, wooden tablets, bamboo slips, those things would have rotted away long ago. What we can see now is only those on stone."

"So we modern people will say: [Ah, it turns out that the ancients liked to carve characters on stone.]"

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and his tone was somewhat meaningful, "However, Xiaoyu, have you discovered an underlying problem in these civilizations that liked to carve characters on stone?"

Xiaoyu frowned slightly: "What underlying problem?"

Jiang Zhe didn't answer directly, but instead threw out two options.

"First, if they had other ways to record information, it shows that the Sumerian Civilization was very powerful, and that they had paper, silk, bamboo, and the like 6,500 years ago, which shows that they were not simple 6,500 years ago."

"Second, if they only recorded their civilization's information on natural stone, then it shows that they are even less simple!"

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiaoyu's curious expression without explaining further, but continued to ask rhetorically: "Why is that?"

The living room was quiet for a few seconds.

Xiaoyu shook her head, somewhat confused, "I don't know."

He smiled slightly, "That's because they knew that only by carving information and data onto natural granite and limestone could it be preserved for ten thousand years."

Speaking to this point, he deliberated for a while before continuing to ask:

"Xiaoyu, then how did they know that recording it this way could ensure it wouldn't be destroyed for ten thousand years?"

As he finished speaking, the corners of his mouth gradually turned up, and he nodded slightly.

Xiaoyu's pupils shrank sharply.

Countless netizens were stunned at first, and then the expressions on their faces gradually became horrified.

In the Kyoto History Family Quarter, the four professors opened their mouths wide, feeling incredulous.

In the Huaqing University Physics dormitory, Ouyang Baili and the others looked at each other, the expressions on their faces frozen.

In Qingfeng Temple, Zheng Ming wanted to speak but stopped, Wen Jingqiu's beautiful eyes shone, and Celestial Master Zhang was savoring this sentence with a look of astonishment.

In an instant!

A thought pierced into everyone's mind like cold ice.

If the ancients didn't know that stone could be preserved for ten thousand years without rotting, why did they specifically choose stone?

If they knew that stone would not rot for ten thousand years, then why did the ancient civilization know that stone would not rot for ten thousand years, and where did this knowledge of [non-decay] come from?

At this moment, a horrific and unbelievable atmosphere emerged in the living room and in thousands of homes.

The moonlight outside the window spilled into the room, shining on Jiang Zhe's face, where a smile was faintly visible.

Xiaoyu opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but felt that the answer she was about to say was somewhat frightening.

A question: Why did the ancients know that stone could be preserved for ten thousand years without rotting, and how did they know it?

Coincidence?

It is absolutely impossible!

If it wasn't a coincidence, then there is only one possibility...

They had seen it; they had seen an even earlier...

Stone tablets!!!