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smoakee t1_j1ii1ih wrote

The pyramids were built all over the world by seemingly unconnected civilisations like Inkas, Egyptians, or by asian civilisations.

My question is: Are there any northern civilisations who built them as well?

I once saw an art of a pyramid covered in snow and ice and … it just stuck with me so hard. Been researching Arctica and Antarctica for any archelogical sites/evidence of something like this, but without success, all of it are hoaxes or conspiracies :/

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en43rs t1_j1irist wrote

First, it not that difficult to think of piling rocks, that's why it's common.

Then, northern civilisations: of course there is nothing in Antarctica and the Arctic... there are no human civilisations in the Antarctic and humans living in the Arctic usually do not build permanent structure.

As for northern civilizations... it's tricky. Building a monument like this supposes a complex society (a powerful and rich government) that is able to build large structures: so you find some in China for example (it's not that complicated to pile rock). Not really in Europe and North American because before the Middle Ages they didn't have the wealth, when they did (by late Antiquity), it just wasn't the style anymore).

What you find a lot in those places is earth pyramids, tumulus. So yeah they kinda build those.

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RiceAlicorn t1_j1jd3lg wrote

Fantastical pyramids like those found in South America, Egypt and Asia are simply impossible to build in Arctic and Antarctic locations with the technology available to the historical habitants of those areas. That's why you can't find anything.

  1. Materials and tools. The materials pyramids are constructed from are typically obtained from quarries — open pit mines in the ground. This is... not very possible, to say the least. The grounds of extremely cold places like the Arctic and Antarctic are permafrost: soil whose groundwater is totally frozen. The peoples of the Arctic didn't have tools that would have allowed them to easily get through this permafrost, much less harvest rock for pyramids. Only some groups had access to metals like iron (see: the Cape York meteorite), and none had advanced forging available to them to refine metals for greater use.

  2. Work environment. The Arctic environment maintains a very high and consistent level of deadliness that workers would have to work through, which is nigh impossible. In contrast, most if not all pyramids were built in environments that didn't actively kill people.

  3. People. There has been no record of any permanent or long-lasting human habitation in Antarctica. As for the people of the Arctic, there's plenty of evidence for habitation but none on the scale of a permanently established city. The pyramids you describe took a ton of time and labour to make, from populations that simply did not exist in the Arctic.

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