Ancient Humans Were Smarter Than You Think (The Cave of Forgotten Dreams)

➡ The documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” explores a cave discovered in 1994, which houses ancient artwork dating back to 36,000 years ago. The film reveals that these prehistoric humans had a complex understanding of art, with detailed drawings showing perspective, motion, and shading. The documentary also suggests that these early humans had intricate societies, possibly with hierarchies and spiritual rituals. This challenges the common belief that early humans were simple and primitive, showing instead that they were capable of complex thought and expression.
➡ The text discusses a mysterious cave that only a select few, even fewer than the world’s richest 1%, are allowed to enter. The cave contains ancient art and handprints, possibly from an ancestor with a unique crooked pinky. The cave’s preservation is so important that tourists are redirected to a replica cave to prevent damage. The text also explores the idea that ancient humans were more complex and intelligent than we often give them credit for, challenging our understanding of human evolution and history.
➡ The text discusses a movie that transitions from the Ice Age to the nuclear age, featuring an artificial tropical environment where crocodiles are thriving. It also talks about ancient musical instruments found in German caves, which were surprisingly similar to modern ones. The text mentions the use of advanced technology for mapping caves and the disappointment of not being able to explore certain parts due to harmful gases. The author appreciates the documentary’s visuals and its ability to provoke thought, despite some criticisms about its portrayal of climate change and modern humans.
➡ The speaker admires a filmmaker’s respectful approach to interviewing and his ability to present a comprehensive view of a topic. They’re excited about an upcoming documentary on internet and technology by the same filmmaker. They also encourage listeners to share their content, purchase merchandise, and explore their previous work on their website.

36,000 years ago, these dumb cavemen, you know, like Geico commercial. Under the docks. Under the docks? Yeah, under the docks. This is under the docs. I’m Sean Crisscross, paranoid American, where we watch the dock and let you know if it sinks or does it swim. Including this one, which I think. Well, I’m not going to tell you what my rating is right off the bat, but we’re in Verner Herzog month and I think they’re all going to be bangers. So I guess, spoiler alert, they’re all good documentaries. Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010 film directed by Werner Herog and narrated by Werner Harog.

This film begins by unveiling the SHA cave discovered in 1994. Which. How. Which houses a stunning deception of prehistoric animals created around 3,000 years ago. So it’s this preserved cave that hasn’t been touched before 1994. Hasn’t been touched by like humans or nature really. It like kind of like isolated itself and preserve. It’s like this perfectly preserved piece of history that has never been seen before. And, and to point out that it’s been locked away for like 3,000 years. But the paintings inside, some of them date back to 36,000 years ago. So the, the cave was historic and people had been going through there and adding paintings and it was kind of a landmark in this ancient world and then it got closed off to all modern humanity.

So it’s, it’s wild even just considering the difference between how long it was locked off versus how long human beings have been going there and doing artwork. And this, the whole point of this documentary I think is to show how far back human artwork goes and just modern thinking. Like it’s, it’s pretty wild. Like they show all sorts of like really cool perspectives in this movie. Plotting the course. So like you said, this film is kind of like how like I think it’s kind of trying to piece together how humans evolve. Like you know, there’s this story of like oh, caveman this or the first early writings.

And now this kind of disproves some of that. Like oh man, people were more intricate and more developed than maybe we think like many years ago. And, and you see like, because most of the drawings that like when I was growing up, right when you think of a caveman drawing, you think of this like really rough looking like piece of like I think he’s doing a wheel. I don’t know if that’s a person or. And these are like really crafted like you know, shadowing and Trying to really replicate the things they were seeing because there was mammoths and, and different animals that, that were human beings.

And it looked like some other things going on, like in the times, like they were putting their emotions onto these walls. And really it’s kind of like a history book of maybe what was going on. We may not know exactly what they’re trying to tell us, but they’re definitely putting a story into all this. Yeah, there was, I guess there was three big takeaways when it comes to the art aspect of this. One of them was authenticity. Because apparently when they first discovered these caves and all the artwork inside, they look so pristine that the first thought was forgery or that someone had just recently come in and made it look like this.

But then they start testing all this, this calcium buildup and all like under all this crystallized remains from the last thousands of years and could prove that no, the artwork is actually as old as they, they thought it was. Believe in the Rockefeller education system and like all the carbon dating. Right. So all this matches up to being completely ancient. The other thing that was really incredible is that, yeah, it wasn’t just crude stick figure style drawings. They had sense of perspective where things get bigger if they’re closer and small if they’re farther away. They had a sense of motion where they were showing that these bisons were drawn with eight legs and sometimes with like three heads.

But the three heads, it almost looked like those 90s baseball cards of like a pitcher in slow motion. Or like the base, the guy hitting the baseball. And you see like five frames of it. It was almost like that where they’re conveying motion through all this, these modern animation techniques, like right there on the wall. And it wasn’t just straight up black and white. There was shading involved in this, that they had some sort of like 3D text and depth to this. And I want to, I guess I need to point. Well, I’ll save it first.

Some of the hidden treasures. But it basically shows that, yeah, that humans even 35,000, 40,000 years ago were just as complex and had artistic vision and all this. And it’s not like there was a slow evolution and I got, I guess, bias on the table. I do somewhat believe in that whole stoned ape theory, but the premise is that humans went through an immediate quantum leap. Like all of a sudden our brain became four times as as much of the surface area. So our thinking could be four times as complex, just I’m going to say overnight, but in a very short amount of time.

Compared to all human history. So that I think that this kind of shows some basis to that type of thinking. Another aspect they kind of get to in this film that’s heavily ingrained into the film is the spirituality aspect of it. Right. Some of the drawings, you know they have like this real to me I know it’s a little simple hat time like occultish, right. It almost like I kind of got into this realm. For me I’m like man, like this early time, you know, 30 like we think oh the occult 1800, 1500s, right. Like you’re like 30,000 years ago.

And like they had these occultic rituals that look like some sacrifices and look like ceremonies and. And things that we see today. And you’re like wow, well it’s not much different and from what we’re taught. You know, you’re like oh these guys, you know, they were just barely rubbing sticks together trying to get fire. Right. They’re not intelligent enough to have these intricate societies of hierarchies of people are like manipulating people and maybe finding out. And it just to me was an insight of like okay, like not just you could go religion aspect. It doesn’t have to be like I went to the occult tinfoil haddish, right.

Because that’s like where my baseline is at. But yeah, even with you’re like oh they were. They had probably religions, they probably had different ceremonies that they held. And you could see that people had status in this time with just watching a lot of these, looking at some of these cave paintings. There’s a good scene on that same note from an ex circus juggler turned archaeologist. But he, he makes a really good point. I’m not saying that to like this credit or throw shade. I just thought it was interesting because Herzog in the middle of interviewing this guy just like so what did you do before this? And he’s like I worked in the circus.

And it just kind of went down this like alternate angle for a short moment. But. But this guy makes a good point that first of all that there were Neanderthals coexisted with these Homo sapiens, right? And that the Neanderthals someone makes a later point in this documentary that they never created even like little figurines and artifacts. So there were different like human esque kind of people. And sometimes when you’re thinking about oh they can barely make fire by rubbing sticks together and making these crude cap. Probably think about Neanderthals but in the non Neanderthal ancestors that they were maybe just as advanced as we are.

Now, and I think that that’s a good thing that, like, keeps coming up over and over again in. In the entire scope of this movie. I think another thing that kind of is scoped out a lot is, like, the human expression, like, where they really touch on, like, emotion. Like you said, like, you can tell that there was, I think, the way it. It just changed, like, how you think about history, where we have all these. Because we weren’t there. So we had these notions of, like, oh, everything was primitive and there’s no way. And the emotions was just like, oh, they’re scared.

They’re just scared all the time because there’s animals. But it looked like there was more than just, oh, I’m scared of animals, but actual interactions with other humans and having this emotional connections, whether it be sadness or love or happiness or togetherness or, Or. Or trying to decide, like, to me, what I got out of it, of that cave is like, was this a hierarchy society? Like, were they the government, like, you know, per se, or were they the rulers of, like, their. Of these Neanderthals and other. Because there’s got to be some kind of dynamic, right? Like, I don’t know that to be.

That’s just me interjecting on what I kind of felt of it. But it’s like, was this the ruling class of, like, hey, all these NPC Neanderthals, man, look, bro, just do this. And this was their plan and. Or. Or how they were executing things. It’s. It’s funny you say that, because I had. I had a couple of thoughts on this one. Like. Like my tinfoil hat brain was on as I’m watching this because I can’t take it off all the time. And it was stuck on my head. I’m watching this, and the first thing I thought was that we all talk about, like, the 1% or the 0.1%, whatever, but there are only, let’s say.

Let’s say a thousand people on the planet that are allowed in this cave. Like, you’re not even allowed access to it. And even if you’re allowed access to it, you can’t even go in the furthest depths and receptacle. And there was actually one part where, like, I guess my. My tinfoil hat is, like, vibrating at this point. And she’s like, oh. And if you look down there at the very end, we can’t go deeper because it’s filled with noxious gas. But you can see an early depiction of this female minotaur goddess. Like, it starts getting very, like, Ancient, you know, biblical almost.

And then she’s like, but you can’t see it. I’m sorry. And then they kind of like rewind back from there. So like there’s, there’s some moments in this where it alludes to a true. I mean, let’s say if, if a thousand people were allowed in this cave, we’re talking about.000000001%. So if you’re allowed in this cave, you are more elite than the richest people on the planet, right? Like there, there’s not a more elite club than people that are allowed into this freaking cave. So I think it’s cool to see aspect of that. But I was like, yeah, this is like the true elites.

They get to see, oh my God, humans work complex a hundred thousand years ago. Think about what this means. But then they don’t shed that to the. The rest of the people. And the art that I was thinking is that they’re tracing this one guy through the cave like this, this ancient ancestor from 30,000 years ago. Maybe because of the entrance to the cave, there’s all these red handprints. It’s like covered in red dots. It looks like from a distance. And the dot is just a palm print because the fingerprints either weathered away or they didn’t like make as much impact.

So maybe every time this guy goes into the cave, he’s like smacking the top of the wall and going through. And they’re able to trace this dude because apparently he has like a crooked pinky. So now when you’re seeing his handprint, like way down in the cave, you’ll see one with like a crooked pinky on it. And I was just imagining if it was like my group of ancestor friends. There’s one guy that’s like, yo, bro, don’t be putting your hand print all over the cave. Like big brother can track you that way. And he’s like, what are you talking about? No one’s ever gonna analyze my handprint and like trace my movements.

That’s crazy, right? And like here we are doing it. So. Yeah. And 36, 000 years later, right. Also one of the, they kind of get into the. The aspect of how you’re saying we couldn’t go to certain parts, which. That’s where I started getting really conspiratorial myself. But also like how they preserve this and like how they’re so much in tying the environment, right? Like they, they literally closed off not on some of the areas. And then they were like, yeah, we can’t go back. And then they had to, like, plan another trip because they were like, yeah, they kind of closed it down because they felt like too many people were going.

And like, you’re saying a thousand people only went there. It’s not like tourists. They were like, yeah, people are kind of. Kind of getting too much in there because people probably saw it as a moment of like, oh, who’s been to the cave? I’m into the cave, bro. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s such a status symbol of. Of like, yeah, you don’t know about the caves, dude. Like, oh, the bro. I mean, you’ve never been in there. And how they mapped it out. And I think that, like, it was interesting aspect of how they, like, really wanted to control that environment.

Of like, hey, we gotta make sure that we preserve this and there’s no other way. And they won’t. They will. They wouldn’t go and delve deeper into all the things that people have seen and how they could get more research on this. Yeah, Also that whole point about being elite and not letting people in there. I think there’s a. Probably a good point to this. And he. He touches on it because towards the end of this documentary, we see a couple other caves as well. There’s one in Germany. I think there might have been two in Germany.

And one of them, he’s showing us that it is now also being closed down because it allowed tourists. And that the amount of tourists even blocked off, even walled off from like, touching stuff, that when they went through, they just introduce moisture and mold and just skin flakes and whatever. Just them being there, just the, like the. The observer principle. Right. Them just being in that environment started causing mold to grow all over the walls and starting destroying stuff. So, like, the preservation, maybe this is just what they want you to believe. Right. But the preservation is mostly like, you can’t even be there.

And I think at a certain point, they’re even showing how they’re mapping the caves using drones and 3D points and to the. Even to the point where they’ve now created a second cave that’s 10 miles away. So if tourists do want to come, you get redirected to this fabrication of the cave. They refer to it as a theme park. I looked it up. It’s not. It’s not a theme park. Okay. It’s just like a recreation of the cave. But that. I think that that goes to show that. How important it is, but also the thinking about preserving it in a way that still makes it Accessible to people.

And it was €18, so it wasn’t that big of an investment to go see the fake one that’s 10 miles away from the real one. And I think my last point really was her song kind of like brings like, up the question of, like, well, what does this mean for us today, getting this information? Does it change anything? Does it accelerate? Does it open up our thoughts? So one thing I will say I like about his film so far. This is the second, and this is a new introduction to me. Right. I’ve never seen any of his films is I like the questions that he raises.

Like, he kind of walks you through the whole step, the process of where he’s like, hey, man, you know, you might be thinking this and then this, and then at the end, he kind of asks you these questions and it’s like, what is the importance of this? And for me, I think the importance of this discovery is being able to see. Like you said, humans have been having this complex thought process. There is more things that just because the technology may have not been there, that doesn’t mean the human nature. We’re a lot more alike than we like to believe, Right.

We want to pretend that we’re some evolved creature that is like, oh, we’re superior than that caveman guy. But whoa. Yeah, again, they’re not all Neanderthals, right? You got to go back and see, they had the emotions, they had the intelligence, they understood society and how to, like, mold things. And I’m sure they understood manipulation and, and, and spin and philosophy. But we try to pretend that, like, oh, that was 36, 000 years ago. These dumb cavemen, you know, like Geico commercial cavemen, that they’re not smart enough to compete with us. And it’s just they didn’t have.

Some of the ideas hadn’t come out yet. Right. When the TV’s invented, you’re not going to make a flat screen TV until the TV’s invented. Once someone puts something can add on to it. Yeah, Tower of Babel style a little bit. Right. Like, it takes a long time to build all that back up. And. Yeah, who cares if the, the aliens created us from Neanderthals 100,000 years ago? I want to know where the aliens came from, who invented them, and. And it does. The cool part about this movie is that it makes you really think about the scope of just like, humanity and how old we are and how long we maybe actually progressed.

And it really does seem like all of a sudden there’s just this presence of artistic and very creative thinking humans that aren’t the same as just normal cave people. And, and towards the end of this movie he, he lends like the last note in like all the different points that come up as he’s ending this movie. There’s a section called the, the prologue, I believe. Or he’s like adding his last thoughts and he’s shooting this about, I don’t know, he says like 20 or 30 minutes away from one of these caves that he was showing at the end of the movie.

And here they’ve got a nuclear reactor that’s generating energy. So we’re going from, you know, talking about the ice age for almost the entire movie. And then in the very end of the movie, no longer we in the ice age, we’re in this nuclear age. And it shows that the water vapor that’s being created as an effect of like boiling this water and generating the energy is being piped into this artificial tropical environment where they’re raising crocodiles, which is just, it’s like wild. Like none of this should be happening in nature, right? They’re raising crocodiles and the crocodiles are thriving so much that they are just repopulating.

And because there’s such a high population of crocodiles that there’s also a lot of albino crocodiles that pop up. So the documentary ends on these albino crocodiles and it’s just like, look at how like how far we’ve come. But also those people that were looking at these cave paintings from 40, 000 years ago, maybe they also could have done all this. Like if they had the technology at the time, they could have been thinking about let’s make albino crocodiles in the middle of where there was a glacier here 10000 years ago. Hidden treasure and overboard moments.

What you got on hidden treasures? These ones are hard man, because they’re all so, so damn good. Right? I think the, the hidden treasure here is one that I didn’t bring up when we were doing the overview because it goes on a slight tangent. But they also show in one of these older German caves that I think they’re dating to like the 40, 000 years ago time period, that they find these hollowed out bones that the dudes would turn into flutes. And not only do they turn into flutes, but this 40,000 year old flute was tuned to the exact same notes, the same pentatonic scale that we use now in modern music.

And this is like before Pythagorean theory of music, right? This is 40,000 years ago. Even if you’re being gentle and you say 30,000 years ago, it’s tremendous. And to prove this point, he takes this, this old flu. I assume it’s a reproduction. He doesn’t say it, but I assume he’s not playing it. And he plays the freaking Star Spangled Banner. Out of all the songs, there’s some German guy, it’s talking about ancient, you know, Paleolithic discoveries. And he plays the Star Spangled Banner recognizably on this flute. And that one just blew my mind. Like, what are the chances that not only did they were they, you know, playing music and this guy wasn’t even good.

They even have a scene where a guy is showing how they found this, this thing that like, helps you throw a spear really hard at a horse. And he kind of admits, like, I, I suck at this. But even them sucking at it is remarkable that they had all this, this technology and this, like, forward thinking. So it, the flute one, though, it blew my mind just that it was so similar to a musical instrument that you could use right now, today. I think my hidden treasure. I mean, you kind of touched on it when we were talking in the beginning was the technology, like, I mean, just the mapping capability of actually, like, and this is what, 2010, like.

So now I keep, like, as I’m watching, I’m like, oh, dude, we have way more advancement. So I was like, there should be a lot more footage of drone footage of this because I want to see in the other side of the cave, man. Like, that’s. So I guess the technology aspect really was a hidden gem for me because I’m like, yeah, let’s push this further because I need to see more of these half goddesses that are like, roaming this world. Like, are we going to see like a Nephilim? Like, is there something, I don’t know, man, Some alchemical trait that, like someone cooking up a pot? So the technology aspect of mapping the whole cave was pretty interesting for me.

And I guess there’s really no overboard moment in this one. But the biggest disappointment, 100% man, they get to the very end of this cave, that’s like 1300. Like, I can’t remember how long it is, but it’s like a very deep cave. And once they get to the very end, the lady tells them how this gas is noxious because all of the CO2 that gets absorbed by the trees above ground, it goes into the root system and it gets trapped underground and only comes out through this cave. So in these recesses of the cave, you can’t even breathe.

I assume you’d need like a scuba tank or something. And yeah, they’re like, and here’s the bottom half of these legs leading up to the nether regions, right? But you don’t get to see above the, the very top. We don’t get to see almost any of it. She’s talking to her zog and even her ZOG’s having to like lean behind her in order to see what she’s talking about. But man, that one was like. And this is the part that I care the most about is right now. And they can’t show any of it. So yeah, I’d say my overboard moments haven’t said anything, but that’s just me being like nitpicky again.

It’s just like, you know, there’s like this climate change aspect a little bit sprinkled in. Like, I climb change man ruin everything. Like, so especially like, and this aspect of like humans ruin everything. But you’re like, at the same time you’re praising human beings from 36, 000 years ago, but you’re like, yeah, with these new ones, man, they’re, they’re disgusting. Like, you know, because they blame the whole like molding. Like, I’m not saying that stuff. I get it, that happens. But the way that, and I get it, these personalities are different because maybe they’re not the people that want to be around a lot of people, but they just were like, oh, these humans are disgusting.

But at the same breath they’re like, isn’t it incredible that humans did this 36, 000 years ago? Well, it’s, that’s the voice of someone that’s allowed in the cave. This is the top00000001%. Right? So, and, and I, I gotta mention too, maybe not a hidden treasure in terms of like mind blowing, but there are some absolutely incredible visuals. Like inside this cave they had these altars made out of bone skulls and bone caught like, you know, like the spinal column and the bones stacked up and rocks stacked up and then thousands of years of crystals form on top of these.

So they’re, they’re showing you this footage of like a bear skull coated in crystals that’s encrusted into the side of the, the, the wall or onto the floor. And it’s just wild. Like you, you’ve never seen anything like that unless you’re playing a video game. Foreign. Time of the show, Sink or Swim. I think we need to get a little context here, right? We’ve seen some documentaries that are 60 minutes and we’ve seen some documentaries that are four and a half hour, three and a half hours at least on the long end, right? And some of those aren’t even good.

What Werner Herzog is able to do in 90 minutes, roughly. Most of most of his documentaries, it seems, are about an hour and a half. Well, he’s able to cover an hour and a half are just light years beyond what some of the amateur attempts have been that we’ve seen. So it’s, it’s almost unfair. I think we’re, we’re comparing like we’re bringing Michael Jordan to a pickup game and we’re like, who’s gonna win, right? So it’s a swim all the way for me. It’s entertaining, it’s thought provoking. It’s. It’s a timeless documentary that even if you were to watch it in another 20 years from now, it’s not losing any relevance.

If anything, you’re gonna be like, oh, I’ve been in that cave before. My VR headset, I had to do that for school, right? Like, that was a requirement to graduate sixth grade. Her song has this incredible, like, gift to really not only tell the stories, put his input in it, show you this incredible footage. Like, the footage is remarkable. You see, like, you’re like, wow, this cave is really preserved, right? Like, I’m never going to. If he doesn’t do this film, I don’t get to see this, right? I’m not getting to, I’m not getting the, the pass of the point.00001% that is allowed in there.

So not just the great footage. It’s. To me, this is like we were talking about Michael Moore when we did Michael Moore Month. And I was like, hey, he’s a great fit. I’m like, this guy? Yeah. Like, he makes Michael Moore look like an amateur, right? And I’m not trying to discredit Michael Moore or even Alex Jones or any of these other filmmakers. Like, to me, this is like the elite. Like, this is when you see sports and you’re like, oh, yeah, that’s the greatest of all time. To me right now, just in these two films, I was like, oh, this guy is the greatest of all time at doing this because he’s able to present everything you want, like the only thing.

And he’s even respectable. I like how he actually like, gives respect to the interviewees and he’s like, hey, you don’t want to add this, fine. I’m not going to keep pushing he’s not in your face like Michael Moore and Alex Jones. He really gives you the full scope of things as much as he can. And you’re on a human level of like, hey, if this was me, this is what I would ask. And this one is definitely a. A swim for me all the way. Because it’s something I’ve never seen before, something I would never be able to witness.

And he got perspectives of so many different people that you’re able to really digest this. And in 90 minutes, like that’s incredible feat. On the horizon. What do we got next? Yeah, so next one, I was talking to Donut and Donut mentioned that he’s a huge fan of Werner Herzog too. And he recommended a Werner Herzog documentary that I’ve never even heard of. It was called Lo and Behold. And it’s about Internet and technology. And so that’s going to be the next one. We’re going to close out Werner Herzog Month with Lo and Behold. And you should close out by sharing under the docs to all your friends, family, co workers, if it’s pretty safe for work, you know what I’m saying? It’s not like this extreme content.

You’ll love it, man. And then you can also go back and catch the catalogs of everything we’ve done. Go to paranoidamerican.com kill themirds.com this is another episode of under the Docks. We’re out of here. Peace. Under the docks yeah, under the docks Buried deeper we breaking the locks. Under the docks under the docks yeah under the docks. Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoia Marriage Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoia Mirror get some merch, buy some art Click that link add to car say it back need that print Nod your head, give consent buy a comic 3 or 4 think this spot I want more Buy a sticker from the store Think this thought I want more Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoid American Just buy something Just buy something from Paranoid I’m American paranoid.

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