You were probably taught at some point that people in the time of Christopher Columbus all thought the world was flat. However, this is a myth that pervades history - most people knew the earth was a globe! (Source)

Goddamnit! I've heard that so often already.

And then I learned separately that even the Greeks already knew not only that Earth was round, but even its circumference at a pretty good accuracy.

These two 'facts' genuinely had me thinking we must have lost a ton of knowledge from the Greeks...

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

The Renaissance was fueled in part by the fall of Constantinople and all of the Greek texts that came with those who fled to Italy.

[–] Justchilling@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago

The real truth is that the catholic church purposefully wanted people stupid and uneducated and that's why people started believing in the flat earth even after the Greeks. but they don't teach you that in school!

[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

A lot of their knowledge was from the Sumerians and other ancient civilizations anyway. Sumerians were doing trig thousands of years before the Greeks did; the Greeks' records were just the ones that were preserved.