What Are The World's Oldest Stories? - Documentary

In this video, we take a look at some interesting stories that some researchers believe not only have a basis in truth, but which may be shockingly ancient.

The following music performed by Kevin Macleod Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Firesong
Lightless Dawn

These songs provided by the YouTube audio library:

Spirit of Fire - Jesse Gallagher
Lost in the Forest - Doug Maxwell
Somnolent - The Tides
Thin Places - Jesse Gallagher
Dreaming Blue - Sextile
Mer-Ka-Ba - Jesse Gallagher
Glacier - Chris Haugen

Picture Attributions:

[ariavachier-lagravech.]

My favourite part about Pleiades myth is that it is implied that human always keep track of the constellation before the (possible) dimming of the seven star, you cannot say something disappear unless you noticed its existence in the first place. The way I see it Pleiades myth shows that human are always fascinated by celestial bodies and like to keep track of it, and well we still do it we are still fascinated by stars, we still love observing it.

[mbvoelker]

You've done an excellent job of balancing reasonable skepticism without dismissing genuine possibilities.

[aarspar]

I live in Indonesia and there's an old and popular story titled Sangkuriang about the city of Bandung. The story is mainly the origin story of Mount Tangkuban Parahu, which now formed the northern parts of the city. Interestingly, there are mentions in the story about a huge lake situated in the current city of Bandung.

Then, around 1935, geological studies were conducted about the area in Bandung and there was found remnants of lakebeds and rock outcrops so large it encompasses the entire city. And the lake is believed to have existed between... roughly 126, 000 and 20, 000 years ago, which is absolutely nuts.

[ReverendMeat]

Your narration is always so comfy. You should have a B channel where you narrate the ingredients on junk food wrappers for sleepy time

[Hippiechick]

I wrote a paper in my North American Archeology class when I was in college where I tried to find any evidence of the ice age and coming into a newer land. I remember finding several that looked like they could be describing walks of ice, walking through a long corrider and coming out into a new land where they settled. It was fascinating to research.

[al]

Isn't one of the first lines of Gilgamesh something like "in the earliest days, those old days before bread existed" or something?

[razk]

First time here... i (unfairly) half expected this to be another Simon Whistler edutainment channel. Great video. Cheers

[hans]

You forgot to mention the Rgveda, which has been orally transmitted since 1500 BC and retains elements of even older periods when the people telling the story were still nomadic. Note that the Rgveda has mostly retained its original form, including grammar, and is thus very important for historical linguists as well.

[rebeccamckinlay]

It would make sense for aspects of myths featuring prominent stars to be highly conserved since these were essential for navigation.

[warhawkjah]

The fact that the big dipper looks nothing like a bear implies it would be difficult for many different cultures to coincidentally describe it as such.

Also some think that legends of Northern European "Wildmen" might be based on Neanderthals.

[Tachometrically]

Im an Oregonian Geologist, super glad to see the story of Mt.Mazama on here! Only thing I have to say is that it is pronounced Kla-math, not Kla-moth

[matthewschiffer]

Justin, you are a national treasure. Thank you for all of your quality videos!

[ctwasus]

Buddha's lifetime was about 2500 years ago. We know that there were nothing was written down during Buddha's time. The earliest writing about Buddha and Buddha's teachings came a few hundred years after Buddha's death. Yet many scholars believe that the biography of Buddha and records of his teachings have been accurately preserved through oral tradition.

[glenchapman]

Indigenous people in Australia collectively describe these myths as the "Dreaming" or coming from the "Dream Time" A few years ago now, some Dreaming was discovered to be a pretty accurate description of an event some 700 years ago. It talked of the day the sea fell from the sky. Geologists discovered a large Tsunami had hit the part of the coast the Dreaming came from. The tribe telling the story had lived slightly inland and were describing the wave over topping a coastal range of hills in flooding a valley inland.

[antokarman]

20:27 the last one must've been so grounded by his mom, lol

[KayGee-ro]

Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" from the 1970's finding the same stories among disconnected cultures was seminal reading for ethnobiologists and then screenwriters like George Lucas who used Campbell's "Universal Myth" The Hero's Journey map as a 12-step screenplay structure.

[octavianova]

What's interesting about the case of Crater Lake, is one Klamath chief who was interviewed about the legend in 1865 was actually the first person recorded to put forward the idea that it was formed by a particularly violent volcanic eruption, decades before European scientists started looking into the idea.

[nkhamoza]

The Pleiades also has the brightest star in the whole sky, I'm sure that's a factor somehow....really enjoyed this video.

[aubreyleonae]

Excellent video, very informative. Klamath is pronounced like "clam - math" Shasta is like hat and a. Shasta soda is still a popular soft drink brand. As a kid in the 60s - 70s they had a commercial jingle that went "Shasta 'cuz it has ta." Didn't expect my home town in the video. Then there's Mt. Shasta, a whole video in itself. Thank you for your work on this and other videos.

[GiselleJamieson]

I'm surprised this video didn't mention Sirius the dog star. It's a dog in many stories across the world as well. Loved this episode.