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Originally Posted by suzzer99
It's different when your civilization springs up in isolation like the Incas (and their forebears) and not standing on the shoulders of 4000 years of countless civilizations to use as examples like the people who built Windsor Castle. It's not like the Peruvians had all of Roman history and knowledge to study, or Arabic numerals to borrow. Comparing old world and new world dates wrt to "puts it in the same category" doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
The region under discussion did not spring into existence when we discovered it, so it too has a history of civilisation/in-habitation springing back well before 1100AD, should we refer to it all as "ancient". No of course not, that is ridiculous.
Cities and architecture in South and Central America would have been just as advanced if not more so as 11th century analogue's in Europe, as evinced by the actual building under discussion.
When the conquistadors discovered Tenochtitlan in the 16th century they were blown away by it as it was a much larger and impressive city than any they had seen before with three times the population of London.
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When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments (...) on account of the great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream? (...) I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about.
— Bernal Díaz del Castillo,
South America is not some tiny island.
FWIW in many ways South American civilisations were just as advanced as their 11/12th century European counterparts and 11th/12th century England was hardly the hot bed of intellectual freedom and scientific advancement. Knowing too much maths or quoting Plato would probably get you burnt as a witch.
Thinking they were so backward in the 11th century we can call them ancient is what we might call a colonial perspective.
Last edited by O.A.F.K.1.1; 08-26-2020 at 06:54 AM.