davidbanner99@ wrote:"For example, understanding a dead language could lead to discovery of a lost city. Or maybe it leads to evidence that humanity came to earth from outside the solar system."
This is surprisingly probable. The language you would study for that would be Sumerian, written in cuneiform. It has not been fully translated. The Hebrew Bible seems to have borrowed from earlier Sumerian creation stories where men were created by gods. Our very first account of a "genesis" involves gods who reproduced with homo sapien females, producing giants and freaks. The Hebrew Genesis also includes this account, blamed on fallen angels.
It's not to be ruled out there was life on a nearby planet. Personally I think modern terms such as "angels" essentially mean they originate from the heavens. Ancient peoples didn't imagine even normal flight was possible so "the heavens" had to be some mysterious, supernatural abode of gods. Yet today, we forget ancient peoples couldn't linguistically conceive of even an Apollo rocket or shuttle.
I figure ancient Rome was ahead of us in some aspects of culture such as architecture and cuisine. However, they had no electric, engines, advanced medicine or antibiotics.
My understanding is that the Hindu/Vedic texts also speak in terms that could be interpreted as early man trying to describe the gods having spacerockets, spacesuits, loudspeakers, large landing pads, genetic engineering, and nuclear war. 'Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'
Also, it is arguable that humans have a lot of weird/unique biological characteristics, compared with the other mammals on earth.