This question was asked by the world chess champion Garry Kasparov. And I came to the conclusion that not everything is in order with the dates in ancient history: here and there insoluble contradictions arose. An objective analysis of an open-minded explorer of stone unturned leaves no trace of the official story to which we are accustomed. Simple logic proves that, most likely, no ancient period in the development of mankind existed. There is no real evidence for this - some myths and dubious "documents", the original sources of which are unknown.
It is interesting to study the rate of reproduction of the human race. For example, in England, from the 15th to the 20th century, the population grew from 4 to 62 million. That is, a 15-fold increase in population in 500 years. In France, from the 17th to the 20th century, starting with the reign of Louis XIV, the population grew from 20 million to about 60 million. And this despite the fact that France took part in terrible wars: Napoleonic alone claimed about 3 million lives.
This begs the question: what was the population in these provinces during the collapse of the Roman Empire in the IV-V centuries? The fertile Gallic provinces of the vast empire were densely populated. If the eastern and western parts together numbered about 20 million people (the minimum estimate), then simple logic dictates that the hordes of barbarians that swept the empire should also have numbered in the millions.
This means that if we try to use the reverse geometric progression in our calculations, we get an irrational result. It turns out that the reproduction of people at some stage has ceased altogether, or even "negative growth" has begun somewhere.
Attempts at logical explanations, such as that hygiene was inadequate, or references to epidemics are not convincing. According to historical documents, there was no real improvement in sanitary and hygienic conditions in the life of the population of Western Europe from the 5th to the 18th century. In addition, since the 15th century, wars with the use of firearms began, claiming many more lives.
It is even more interesting to compare the population of the ancient world from the time of Pericles (5th century BC) and the emperor Trajan (2nd century AD). If we take the number of inhabitants in large cities and the size of the armies as the basis for calculations, then we will face an insane rate of demographic growth. Of course, Greece under the auspices of Athens is incomparable with the world empire centered in Rome, but the proportions are still not respected. Judge for yourself, 15 thousand free Athenian citizens - and half a million Rome and Alexandria. On the one hand, the 1,500-strong rearguard of the united army of the Greek city-states, which included 300 famous Spartans, remains to cover the retreat of the main forces in a war where the existence of the Hellenes was at stake. On the other hand, 26 legions (!) Were kept by Rome in peacetime and were recruited without the introduction of universal military service. This is bigger,than the Russian Empire was able to expose in 1812 to repel Napoleonic aggression.
Another mystery. Let's look at the size of a person. We see pictures and descriptions of ancient Greek athletes. These are physically well-developed people, of large build. And then we see the armor of medieval knights, which fit only 15-year-old youths of the XX century. Against the background of ideas about the ancient powerful athleticism, this is very strange. It turns out a kind of sinusoid in the development of the muscles of the human body. Why did this change suddenly happen?
The further - the more oddities. In the piece of history we are testing, we find an absolutely incredible human urge to discover. Literally every ten years something happens, something is discovered. Continuous development. No "falling asleep for centuries" is observed. At the same time, in traditional ancient history, we find that a person seemed to be immersed in a centuries-old hibernation. There were thriving ancient empires that froze at some point and did not develop further. Why?
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It is also incomprehensible that the rates of technical and cultural progress in the ancient world absolutely do not fit into the framework of human abilities for practical improvement.
For example, Rome takes over everything from Greece, but nothing happens in the field of music. Although supposedly emperors, the nobility strongly encouraged the development of the arts. But everything froze on the same level, rather primitive. Music - no! It is unclear how such a sophisticated society could do without a sound recording system. As a result, no musical monuments have survived to us.
Then there is an even more mysterious paradox: the amazing inability of ancient Rome to improve the types of weapons and tactics of military operations. The empire wages regular wars of conquest - but the Romans never managed to forge steel and fought with short swords of low-grade iron. Ask historians what the ancient sculptor Phidias did with marble? An iron chisel will not give such a filigree result - you need hardened steel tools. But, according to the official chronology, coal was first mined in England in the 11th century. Charcoal does not give the temperature of white heat, coal is needed. If there is no white heat, then there is no steel either.
According to ancient sources, the Roman cavalry did not have harness! There were reins, but stirrups appear only in the 8th century A. D. - and then chivalry arises. Meanwhile, the ancient Romans fought with the eastern peoples, famous horsemanship. Crossbows and bows did not appear in Ancient Rome either. Moreover, many heroes of ancient Greek myths are excellent archers.
Progress in the invention of new types of weapons begins only in the XIV-XV centuries. And since then it has not stopped. And before that, for many centuries, for some reason, nothing happened.
It also seems strange that the Roman Empire became famous for its extensive network of roads and communications, but there were no geographical maps. Even more mysterious is the fact that ancient documents are completely silent about the banking system and commodity credit in ancient Rome. Meanwhile, trade in the empire - especially on the scale that we are told about - needs the emergence of credit institutions. It is interesting that, according to the official historical version, the banking system will appear in the Middle Ages in Italy: in Genoa, in Florence, in Milan.
Another mystery of the ancient world. We know a lot about the scientists of Ancient Greece - Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Archimedes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Euclid. But from about the 1st century BC, there has been a collapse. No more scientists! The development of science has completely stopped! It is strange that with an abundance of complex architectural structures, there was no good counting system in Rome. The one that was is not suitable for serious calculations. Try dividing large numbers into columns or calculating the volume of a complex geometric shape. But the Romans did some calculations. And quite complex. And what system of counting did the famous ancient Greek scientists Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy use? And why did the pragmatic Romans, who took over the best from the Greeks, ignored mathematics? Or the Greeks did not have such a system. But then how did they count? The Arabic medieval account appeared more than ten centuries after the creation of the fundamental works of the ancient Greek founders of mathematics and physics. It turns out an absolutely incredible time gap!
Nothing is heard in the ancient world about chemical research. There were no chemists or alchemists. Why did alchemists appear only in the Middle Ages? Let's add a few words about anatomy and medicine. The works of Hippocrates have not reached us, and this is strange, because the emperors and kings needed medicine. For some reason, Homer's poems in the dark era of the Middle Ages have survived much better than priceless treatises on the healing of the human body.
The inquisitive thought of the ancient genius for ten centuries could not come up with anything that would surpass the achievements of Europeans, who had a maximum of 300 years of Renaissance progress behind them! What's the matter?
There is a version that medieval authors simply invented the whole "ancient history" in the XV-XVI centuries. They took the everyday environment of their era and projected it into the past - on Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The life of the "ancient world" created by the imagination improved due to the fact that "the ancients had more of everything." But of course, no innovations were invented either in weapons, or in science, or in everyday life, or in culture. No one was embarrassed by the fact that the 15th-16th centuries in official history were at the same level of development as the Roman Empire during the period of its greatest power.
The daily life of the Roman Empire is described in some detail. But let's look at the everyday environment. Forks, knives, chairs, functional utensils - these household items are not available. But feasts all over the world were rolled! I immediately recall that in the 16th century, the European nobility continued to eat with their hands and chomp loudly!
The absence of ancient inscriptions with dates is also embarrassing. On the walls of numerous cathedrals, palaces, churches there are only tablets with dates in the chronological system adopted today. You are told that this cathedral is 500 years old, but the plaque was nailed only in the 19th or 20th century. No old dates. Even scribbled by hand. In Western Europe, you will not find a single truly old building with an inscription on the walls that would be authentic to the announced year of completion.
Nevertheless, humanity unconditionally believes in the current panorama of world history. We are used to considering ourselves a part of an infinitely ancient historical process, in which the Egyptian pharaohs and Chinese emperors, Greek philosophers and Roman gladiators are comfortably settled. This world is formed from children's books, school textbooks, masterpieces of world literature, reflected in films, commercials, Internet sites. A world in which everything is arranged on the shelves and there is an answer to every question. Most people prefer to learn about the past in theaters or on TV. For them, Hollywood versions of significant historical events become reality.
But in fact, we have all the signs of a chronic, centuries-old falsification of facts. Scientists have constructed seven centuries of ancient Greek history based on ancient Greek myths. I had questions for a long time, but I did not dare to ask them out loud, until in 1996 I read the book by Anatoly Fomenko "Empire". That was when I first questioned the entire official chronology. Much, mathematically calculated and predicted by Fomenko, is confirmed in reality.