Get ready to set aside a lot of the things that you assume you know about history. Frankly, history gets weird (but in a totally cool way) the closer you look at it and start putting events and inventions in their proper context. For instance, the fact that the fax machine was invented way back in 1843 and could have technically been used by a real samurai completely blew my mind and reignited my passion for history.
Netizens have been sharing the intriguing things that are actually way older than we tend to think after redditor Kakou64 created a viral thread on r/AskReddit. You’ll find the best and most interesting answers below. It’s a real treat for history lovers and anyone with an interest in tech and science cuz it will definitely change your perception of time and how things are connected. Oh, and don’t forget to upvote your fave facts!
#1
Ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids. The Ancient Egyptians were as old to the Ancient Romans as the Ancient Romans are to us.
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#2
Sharks. Sharks as a family are older than trees
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#3
The idea that everything’s getting worse and that the world’s coming to an end soon. Sure, there’s new vocabulary and new science involved, but people have been sounding that pessimistic alarm throughout history.
Image credits: TimesThreeTheHighest
#4
I don’t know if this counts but Dinosaurs lived on the earth a lot longer than most people think. When you think of dinosaurs, you think of their extinction but they roamed the earth for 165 million years. Compare that to our 6 million and it’s almost mind boggling, at least imo.
The modern form of humans is 200,000 years old but if we include our humanoid ancestors, we’ve been here 6 million years.
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#5
The fact that the lighter is older than the match shook my head as a kid.
It also gave me the curiosity to question things that seems obvious.
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#6
Contact lenses.
Leonardo da Vinci had the idea of contact lenses in 1508 and the first successful contact lenses were made in 1888.
Image credits: -eDgAR-
#7
The sentiment that modern society is degenerate and that the youth are to blame is, iirc, one of the oldest things we have written down.
That I can remember off the top of my head, Cato the Elder complained that the younger generations were becoming too greek, and Socrates used to complain that the younger generations were ruining their brains by writing instead of memorising information. There are far more older examples, but those are the oldest I remember (maybe Socrates was onto something)
Image credits: CountPeter
#8
The ancient Romans (well, the wealthy ones) had central heating in their homes. You can actually still see the pipes in some of the buildings at Herculaneum!
Image credits: jazzman0116
#9
I was really surprised to discover when Oxford university was founded. They don’t know the year for sure, but they know there was definitely teaching going on there in 1096.
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#10
Beer is thought to be older than bread.
It’s much easier to fill a jar with wheat and water, let it ferment, and brew beer than it is to grind grain, mix it, and bake it.
Image credits: 4dseeall
#11
The Aux connector that we still use for headphones and speakers was invented in 1877. There have been improvements since, but the basics of it are pretty much the same.
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#12
Oxford university. It’s older than the Aztec empire
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#13
Flushing toilets date all the way back to the Indus River Valley civilization, back in 2000 BC
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#14
Stonehenge.
It predates the oldest Pyramid in Egypt by nearly 300 years.
Image credits: squeeeeenis
#15
Wristwatches. Queen Elizabeth I got one in 1571.
Image credits: Aqquila89
#16
Nintendo. This company was actually created in 1889.
Image credits: [deleted]
#17
Sharks. As a species they’re older than the rings of Saturn.
Image credits: scannon
#18
Fax Machines. They were invented in 1843. Before the telephone.
Image credits: Darpyface
#19
Escalators have been around since 1859, though they were called rotating stairs.
Image credits: KidHarvey
#20
The first carbonated drink to be sold to the public was invented by Swiss watchmaker and amateur scientist J. J. Schweppe in 1783, who sold his delicious “sparkling water” to thirsty customers in Geneva. In just seven years, he was doing business so fast that he moved the factory to London and introduced a new flavor, sparkling lemon, to stand out from competitors who were trying to imitate his drink.
Image credits: DarkSyrupp
#21
The use of concrete. It’s use goes as far back as the Mayans, but more notably in Egyptian construction as well as in Rome. The Romans had an arguably greater concrete mix than we currently have, but that was never passed down. Eventually the use of concrete fell out of popularity for centuries as we seemingly lost the information needed to create it, as if the recipe was thrown out and nobody wrote it down.
Also Samuel L Jackson. The man is 71 years old, but looks like he hasn’t aged in decades!
Image credits: DanBeecherArt
#22
Social media – wealthy ancient Romans had a system where they used slaves as scribes and messengers in order to share gossip and art/poetry and news updates with friends in their social circle.
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