it would suck being a new immortal. like itâd be 2109 and people would go, âwhat was it like seeing ancient civilizations rise and fall like that? seeing the pyramids being built? watching the expansion and growth of the new world?â and iâd just be like, ânoâŚno i was born in 1991. so like, wow iâm gonna see some cool stuff, but, i mean iâm not that much older than just a really, really old person, you know? phones were big back then. so big. but only for like ten years, then they got like, as good as they are now. uh. rhinos existed. donât think i ever saw one in person. cool, good talk.â
even worse, imagine being an immortal who keeps missing stuff. âWhat was it like seeing the pyramids being built?â âFuck if I know, I was in Madagascar.â âOh, okay. Well, how was the Renaissance?â âI fell down a hole in Scotland and people thought I was an enchanted well for four hundred years, it was over by the time I convinced someone to get me out.â
And now, a lesson in biases:
We barely know anything about Madagascar pre-500CE. We donât even know whether the island had a permanent population before then, despite finding a bunch of much older signs of temporary human presence.
Malagasy mythology makes mention of the vazimba, a âprecursorâ ethnic group that might or might not be distinct from Madagascarâs current population.
The point is, we do not know.
So you were in Madagascar when the pyramids were being built in Egypt, i.e. during one of the most obscure, most undocumented parts of Madagascarâs human history?
Oh, buddy, you better go and make a bunch of anthropologists and archeologists really happy RIGHT NOW instead of feeling bad about missing everyone elseâs pet Major Event.
Itâs been a decade since we left that comment and you have the best reply anyoneâs left to it.



























