John Goodinson and
John Svolos/Anasynthesis Project
Many people tend to think that ancient men could not have been as clever as we are. This is in keeping with the Darwinian idea that humans evolved very gradually
from ape-like creatures and learning was a slow hit-or-miss affair. intellectuall ape-like creatures and learning was a slow hit-or-miss affair. They were not expected to accomplish much intellectually.
Features at Greek sanctuary would have aided visitors with impaired mobility. Architects who built temples and sanctuaries in ancient Greece seem to have had access for people with disabilities in mind — thousands of years before such inclusiveness became a concern for modern societies.
Stone ramps found at many Greek temples are thought to have allowed wheeled carts to deliver supplies and sacrificial animals.
But Debby Sneed at California State University in Long Beach argues that many ramps, especially those at healing sanctuaries, served mainly to facilitate the access of visitors with impaired mobility.
This would reject the views of evolution, according to which we only saw the need for things like that recently.
For example, reconstructions of the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus, dedicated to the Greek god of medicine, reveal ramp access to nine small and large structures on the site. The temple’s uncommonly generous supply of access aids, added during an expansion in the fourth century BC, provides strong evidence that the ramps were built mainly with disabled visitors in mind, she says.
Ancient evidence such as vase paintings and skeletal remains suggest that arthritis and other ailments that impair mobility were common in ancient Greece, Sneed notes.
According to evolution, humans started to look like us in the distant past and their views changed not so long ago.
Source:
Nation. 2020.This
temple was equipped with accessibility ramps more than 2,000 years ago. Nature 24 July
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