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7[[quoteright:320:[[Film/{{Alien}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Precursor_2295.jpg]]]]
8[[caption-width-right:320:One relic they always leave behind is a sense of wonder.]]
9
10->''"They left our planets long ago\
11The Elder Race still learn and grow\
12Their power grows with purpose strong\
13To claim the home where they belong."''
14-->-- '''Music/{{Rush|Band}}''', ''[[Music/TwentyOneTwelve 2112]]''
15
16Precursors, a.k.a. "Ancients", "Elders" or "Old Ones", are a standard of ScienceFiction (especially SpaceOpera), {{Fantasy}} and occasionally {{Horror}}: an ancient race whose culture and knowledge rose to its pinnacle in ages long past but which is no longer present.
17
18In ScienceFiction, they [[AncientAstronauts may have visited Earth]] and/or other worlds but they would remain a mystery. They are considered the ''first'' species to have technology, [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien making them godlike]]. In fantasy, they will usually be the forerunners created by gods/God, mighty in deeds and magic. At the height of their civilisation, Precursors might have created intelligent species or reworked entire worlds with a snap of a finger. Any strange and persistent mystery in the story's [[TheVerse 'verse]] [[AWizardDidIt is usually laid at their feet]].
19
20Predecessors now leave behind nothing but [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis tantalizing ruins]] and rare, sometimes incomprehensible LostTechnology, {{Ancient Artifact}}s, and [[PointlessDoomsdayDevice dangerous weapons]]. (Any of the aforementioned sorts of relics may be a BigDumbObject.) Just why, no one knows. Perhaps they AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, succumbed to decadence, were wiped out by [[{{Gotterdammerung}} a disaster or war]], or maybe they just relocated ''en masse'' to ''somewhere else'' where they haven't been found yet.
21
22Whatever the reason, they set the stage for the modern world, left behind a few {{MacGuffin}}s and surprises for the heroes and villains to find, and then conveniently [[NeglectfulPrecursors got out of the way]]. Usually, their disappearance was a sudden and dramatic event, and often comes paired with a WorldSundering whose scars linger well into the present. In fantasy, magical Precursor civilizations often annihilate themselves in a WizardsWar. Afterwards, there is usually a long dark age of barbarism and savagery before the setting's modern civilizations emerge or recover. And then there are the times where they themselves are the reason everything's gone to hell, [[AbusivePrecursors and they intend to keep it that way]]. If the Precursors implemented a plan that, whether they still exist or not, still influences outcomes, then they are also PowersThatBe.
23
24Sometimes the Precursors can be rediscovered; this is often regarded as a bad move, especially by the Precursors themselves. This also applies to the audience: the romance of Precursors can be easily shattered by giving too much away.
25
26It may also happen that [[HumanitysWake Earth humans are Precursors and their human or otherwise descendants try to rediscover their heritage]]. If humans are the Precursors, that's also AdvancedAncientHumans. If everyone's ''scared'' of them, that's HumansAreCthulhu. If they pick on their descendants, that's AbusivePrecursors; if they couldn't care less about anyone else, it's NeglectfulPrecursors; if they help their descendants, it's BenevolentPrecursors. If there's one or more race that played Precursors to the Precursors, then they're RecursivePrecursors. Any and all of these are susceptible to AwakeningTheSleepingGiant. If they gave their tech or it's being used by another race, it's LowCultureHighTech. Very often, their most powerful technology will [[SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology appear deceptively primitive and/or ceremonial]]. If everyone gets into an argument over their leftover toys, you have an ArchaeologicalArmsRace on your hands.
27
28Very commonly used to {{justif|iedTrope}}y RubberForeheadAliens: everyone was made from a common template by the Precursors, so they look pretty similar.
29
30Compare/contrast with SufficientlyAdvancedAlien, SpaceElves, TheFairFolk, EldritchAbomination.
31
32Not to be confused with the space flight sim, ''VideoGame/ThePrecursors''.
33----
34!!And now, young one, behold the legacy of those who were here before you:
35[[index]]
36* Precursors/{{Literature}}
37* Precursors/TabletopGames
38* Precursors/VideoGames
39[[/index]]
40[[foldercontrol]]
41
42[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
43* In ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise'', There are a number of sand-filled ruins that the [=BUILD DiVERS=] emerge from to reach Eldora, and it is discovered that the One-Eyes that have been attacking were created by a defensive AI the Ancients left behind long ago, and sees the new Eldorans that evolved on the planet in the Ancients' absence as invaders. [[spoiler:Then after everything is discovered to be real, a new wrinkle is found: some the Ancients themselves digitized themselves when they left Eldora, found their way to Earth, and ended up entering GBN early in its development. Their souls have been reincarnating as EL-Divers, the living AIs that have been spontaneously appearing in GBN for the past two years.]]
44* In ''Anime/HeroicAge'', the precursors (known as the "Golden Tribe") was the source of many wonders; giving birth to stars, discovering the [[FasterThanLightTravel Star Way]] which connects all stars, as well uplifting several races. In time they eventually undertook a journey out of their home galaxy and into a new one. The story is about how the lesser races cope with the "Golden Tribe's" absence.
45* In ''Manga/HoshinEngi'', five aliens, The First People, came to Earth millions of years ago after their home planet self-destructed. All but [[SealedEvilInACan one]] merged with the Earth and its life forms to spread their blood, leaving behind the first seven paope (magical weapons used in the series) from which all others would be copied.
46* The Pillar Men from ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' follow most of the criteria for this trope. They were a highly evolved humanoid species that lived in Mexico tens of thousands of years ago, created the [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Stone Masks]], [[AbusivePrecursors fed on humans]], and all but four of them were [[PrecursorKillers wiped out]] when [[EvenEvilHasStandards they disagreed]] with [[GodhoodSeeker the direction]] that [[BigBad Kars]] wanted to take their people. The four survivors ended up [[SealedEvilInACan sealed in stone pillars]] for thousands of years, until they were awakened by ThoseWackyNazis.
47* In ''Anime/LastExile'', this turned out to be the answer to all the mysteries (and [[KudzuPlot there were plenty]]).
48* In ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'', the lost civilization of [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Al Hazard/Alhazred]], whose artifacts and technologies were considered [[LostTechnology Lost Logia]] even back in the era of [[TheEmpire Ancient Belka]].
49* The ''Anime/{{Macross}}'' series has the Protoculture, who are apparently responsible for everything that happens in the Milky Way: [[spoiler:humans, Zentradi, and a multitude of other species across the galaxy were all created and seeded by them, and [[Anime/MacrossZero the Birdman]] was made by them in an attempt to mimic [[Anime/MacrossFrontier the Vajra]]. Moreover, they "created" (it's a bit more complex than that) [[Anime/{{Macross7}} the Protodeviln]], who pushed them to the brink of extinction before being defeated.]] About the only thing the Protoculture didn't have a hand in creating are the Vajra of ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'', and that's because [[spoiler:the Vajra are ''even older''. The Protoculture based some of their most advanced technology (such as Space Folding) after the Vajra's biological systems. The Vajra themselves seem to primarily take a "live and let live" attitude towards other intelligent species; the fact that they don't have a clear means of communication probably has a lot to do with this.]]
50* In ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'' the Mu Empire and {{Atlantis}} developed highly advanced society and technology but were wiped out, along with [[SchizoTech (most of)]] their technology, by a nuclear war.
51* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', the First Ancestral Race (FAR) dropped Black and White Eggs (Adams and Liliths) on several planets. No planet was supposed to get more than one Egg, but because we got two, we got the inter-egg wars that compose the series proper (Lilith's children vs. Adam's children). The First Ancestral Race were never mentioned in the show itself, [[AllThereInTheManual but is referred to]] in the early scripts and gets a bit more fleshed out in the ''Neon Genesis Evangelion 2'' Platform/PlayStation2 game that served as supplemental material.
52** A precursor race is vaguely alluded to in episode 21, where Gendo points out to Fuyutsuki that "someone, who was ''not us''" left behind the geofronts found under Antarctica and Japan.
53** What allows them to escape being considered [[NeglectfulPrecursors neglectful]] is that they sent a contingency against "inter-egg wars" -- the Spear of Longinus, which can best be described as some sort of control rod which deactivates the egg it is attached to. Both Eggs had a Spear but Lilith's was lost on impact; Adam was the first to find Earth, but upon Lilith's unexpected landing, his Spear activated and sealed him; so, technically, everything worked just as expected. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It's not their fault the Lilim decided to yank Adam's Spear]]. There's a definite potential for the FAR to be AbusivePrecursors though. For all they supposedly didn't want the two eggs to mix, the warning they left behind [[BriarPatching contained explicit instructions on how to go about doing it in such a way as to become a nigh-omnipotent cosmic being.]]
54* The as-of-yet unnamed Ancient Kingdom in ''Manga/OnePiece'' fits this bill. Dating back from the Void Century, they were incredibly powerful, but later fell to the alliance which later became the World Government. Nonetheless, they left their Phoneglyphs all over the world, chronicling the events of the Void Century, which has become Nico Robin's goal.
55* In ''Manga/OutlawStar'', an ancient race is revealed to be responsible for the Galactic Leyline, yet another of the many {{Sequel Hook}}s in the last episode.
56* ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' -- The people of Atlantis created fate-altering technology and the "zone of absolute fortune". They were responsible for the creation of the world of Gaea. In the end they were destroyed by the "zone", so it did not quite live up to its name.
57* A "Great Prehistoric Civilization" that seeded all the [[HumanAliens Human Alien]] planets in the galaxy is occasionally mentioned in ''Anime/TenchiMuyo''. The ''Anime/TenchiMuyoGXP'' novels reveal that the civilization originated millions of years ago on [[spoiler:the Earth where ''Anime/DualParallelTroubleAdventure'' is set and that Tenchi's Earth [[EarthAllAlong isn't the original]].]]
58[[/folder]]
59
60[[folder:Art]]
61* ''Art/BeastFables'': Thousands of years before the current werebeast civilisation, there was the Primeval Age, when were-dinosaurs (and other anthropomorphic Mesozoic animals) ruled the land. They're long gone, but their memory lives on through oral traditions and artefacts.
62[[/folder]]
63
64[[folder:Comic Books]]
65* In Franchise/TheDCU, the Malthusians were one of the earliest sentient races in the universe. They went on to become the Guardians of the Universe. And the Controllers, and the Zamarons, and Krona. They run the gamut of precursor subtropes.
66* The High Ones of ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' surely qualify (even though they have known descendants), because none of the protagonist elves know much about them, and their powers and origins are a great mystery when the series begins.
67** Elves, trolls and preservers come to be thought of this way by the humans of the medieval and futuristic eras.
68* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', [[spoiler:it is hinted that [[PhysicalGod Dr. Manhattan]] will [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence go on to do this]] somewhere else in the universe, or in another one of his own creation]].
69* There's also the Old Gods, precursors of the ''ComicBook/NewGods''. They are actually older than the DC Universe and are said to have caused the destruction of the one before.
70* In ''ComicBook/GoldDigger'', finding the various precursor civilizations is Gina's job. Of course, she usually ends up encountering the stuff left behind, and occasionally bringing it home.
71* In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
72** The Celestials have influenced many planets, including Earth, where they created [[ComicBook/TheEternals multiple races of superhumans]] and placed the initial spark in human DNA which would later mutate into the [[ComicBook/XMen X-Gene]]. They also test races and civilizations according to their standards to see who are worthy. They normally appear as skyscraper-sized mechanical giants, but these are actually suits of armor concealing their unknown true forms. Unfortunately, "capable of killing a Celestial" would eventually become [[TheWorfEffect something of a yardstick to show off how strong a new character or weapon is]].
73** In addition, there are also the Elders of the Universe, a loose association of beings who all are the [[LastOfHisKind only survivor of their species]], and who hail from the first intelligent races to develop in the universe. They are less active, though, since they are all obsessed with one narrow hobby which apparently is the only thing that keeps them from dying of sheer boredom. The Grandmaster may be interested in the gaming and gambling habits of various lesser races, for instance, but couldn't care less about any aspects of their culture that has nothing to do with his obsession with games.
74** There is also the race known as the Watchers, who ''started'' to do something similar but got cold feet when early interference with a much more primitive race led to horrible wars. They have sworn to not interfere with their nigh godlike powers, only record what happens. (The Watcher appointed to Earth is a juvenile delinquent who breaks this rule regularly, but surreptitiously, so as to not get in trouble with his kind.)
75** ''ComicBook/{{Royals}}'' has a reveal that [[spoiler:the Kree]] were created by a long-gone bunch called the Progenitors, [[spoiler:[[RecursivePrecursors much like how they created the Inhumans]]]]. These Progenitors are also the ones responsible for the mysterious Sky Spears. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out they're full-on AbusivePrecursors. They enhance species, then come back and sample the innovations to make more Progenitors out of their test subjects. They gave up on the Kree thanks to their becoming an evolutionary dead-end, but when a handful of Inhumans stumbled upon one of their farm-moons and blew it up, ''that'' got their attention, so they decide to come to Earth to farm the Inhumans.]]
76* The Merk in ''ComicBook/{{Nexus}}'' are or were a race of extremely psychically gifted and technologically advanced aliens who left the galaxy and, apparently, their bodies, behind. One of them remained behind, however, and empowered the eponymous hero.
77[[/folder]]
78
79[[folder:Fan Works]]
80* ''Fanfic/AlienSpeciesCrossoverReturnToLV426'': The Engineers are mentioned, and remain highly mysterious. There's also whoever sent the message to Earth containing the genetic information that created Lise, called the Senders, for lack of a better word.
81* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' alludes to the Celestials as a matter of course, as well as making vaguer allusions to Atlantis before it sunk below the waves.
82* ''Fanfic/PurpleDays'': In this ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' fanfiction, Planetos has had at least thirty-one different Precursor civilizations before humanity evolved (including the Deep Ones who contact Joffrey). All of them were [[EternalRecurrence cyclically wiped out by the Long Night]].
83* It is common in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfiction to speculate about some sort of precursors. Generally, the long-gone precursors tend to be civilizations of dragons, alicorns, or humans.
84** ''Fanfic/TheGreatAlicornHunt'': Daring Do figures that one of these is responsible for creating the Tree of Harmony, she just can't figure out ''who''.
85** ''Fanfic/ItsADangerousBusinessGoingOutYourDoor'': In ancient times, the deer were the world's dominant race, but all but destroyed themselves in a great war. While pockets survive, such as the denizens of the Shimmerwood, they can no longer rise to their former glory, nor do they wish to.
86** In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', there are several:
87*** The Centaur Empire, which was once the biggest and most advanced Empire in its heyday [[spoiler:and predated Ponykind as a sapient species]]. Sadly, Lord Tirek is the SoleSurvivor of the Empire [[spoiler:because [[PrecursorKillers he destroyed it]]]], and he is most certainly an {{Abusive Precursor|s}}. The Empire as a whole may count as BenevolentPrecursors to a degree, as they [[spoiler:treated the then nonsapient Ponies fairly well.]]
88*** The Age of Myths was this to the Age of Wonders. The Paradise Estate Ponies in particular count as BenevolentPrecursors, as they actively defended Ponyland from any threats that may come up, including defeating Grogar every five hundred years if they couldn't keep him locked up.
89*** The Age of Wonders was this to the current age [[spoiler:being the My Little Pony Tales society, until it was destroyed by a Class 2 Apocalypse]]. To a degree qualifies as BenevolentPrecursors, as some of them genuinely DID try to make the future brighter for the civilization to succeed them. [[spoiler:Also count as BenevolentPrecursors to the Lost Age, which they used their wish spell to create.]]
90** ''FanFic/TwilightThenTwilightNowUniverse'': The Penna were very technologically and magically advanced for their time and could also magically create living beings. Their fall came when they created the draconequi and it [[GoneHorriblyWrong backfired on them]] [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters when the draconequi turned against them]]. The Penna-Draconequus war destroyed the Penna civilisation, which left the ponies to rise in their place.
91** ''Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall'' features AdventurerArchaeologist Daring Do and a team of workers excavating an AncientTomb built with extremely advanced masonry, far in advance of even what ponies could do in the present -- but the building has been dated back thousands of years before ponies first built buildings out of stone. Surrounded by metallic spikes to keep out intruders (which are, alas, easily circumvented by someone with wings) and with a room full of writing in dozens of long-lost languages, Daring Do naturally assumes that all of the rigmarole is meant to dissuade would be grave robbers. She's absolutely right. [[spoiler: Too bad that the building isn't a tomb, but a [[http://www.damninteresting.com/this-place-is-not-a-place-of-honor/ nuclear waste storage facility]] built by humans, and the attempts at dissuading future people from breaking into the place was for their own good.]]
92** In ''Fanfic/{{Austraeoh}}'', Whitemane explains that Alicorns first found the world, floating barren in the void, and seeded it with life. She lies. [[spoiler:Pegasi were the first race to inhabit the world, possibly before [[RingWorldPlanet Urohringr]] was broken into twelve pieces. Modern ponies are descended from them through alicorn meddling]].
93* ''Fanfic/HiddenFrontier'': The Gray are [[spoiler:set up to be precursors of some kind, but it turns out they're actually artificial life forms built by actual precursors, of whom Siroc, the BigBad, is the last one left.]]
94* In ''Fanfic/ShepardsRR'', when [[Franchise/MassEffect Commander Shepard]] asks [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Princess Celestia]] about the fantastical abilities of the Equestrians, Celestia smiles and cryptically states that "their Mother shaped them that way." When Shepard learns [[spoiler: the fact that Equestrian DNA is shows almost-impossible levels of [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetic engineering]]]], Shepard concludes that this "Mother" must have been one.
95* ''Fanfic/MegaManRecut'' has the Vannu'bi, an ancient civilization that existed on a small remote island and were apparently destroyed by a volcanic eruption. They may have been AbusivePrecursors, since their architecture describes them as constantly warring with other civilizations and making deals with an EldritchAbomination.
96* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfiction:
97** In ''Fanfic/KingOfKingsRulingOverRulers'', the Atlantean Empire served as this to all the civilizations after the Great Cataclysm.
98** ''FanFic/DominusMundiTheKingOfKings'': The Altantean Empire also serves as the precursor to all the modern civilizations on Earth.
99* ''WebVideo/RWBYAlternate'' explains the SchizoTech of ''RWBY'' as being due to this. The world used to be very technologically advanced but an incident known as "the Fall" left everything all-but in ruins. Humanity has since picked itself up but it's not on the level of the Imperial Era. The only remnants of the old era is some of the advanced technology, such as holograms and robots, which have been mainly repurposed for military usage.
100* In ''Fanfic/FallenKingdom'', the deceased Antonio and Emperor Morton's powers are said to far surpass Mario and Bowser's, and the First Koopa War sowed the seeds of Mario and Bowser's conflict.
101* ''Fanfic/RerumDanarae'': The Ancient Kingdom, of Danara Marina. The name is a reference to a quote from the ''Aeneid'' by Virgil, ''"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"'' ("I fear the Danaans [Greeks], even those bearing gifts"), and the kingdom's undisputed rule over the oceans at the height of power. Dating back from the Void Century, they were incredibly powerful, but due to a corrupt usurper, their nobility sold the kingdom out to the alliance which later became the World Government. They left their Poneglyphs, the letters to their descendants, all over the world, chronicling the events of the Void Century. The modern Navy is basically the only other thing what's left of it.
102* ''Fanfic/SteelSoulSaga'': From ''Steel Spirit'': As said in [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/82359/5/steel-spirit/input-functionality "Input Functionality"]]: They were the Draconeuuqii, but only one is known, Discord.
103--> "Wait," Sweetie Belle interjected, "the precursors are real?"\
104"Yes, as a matter of fact. You've even met one!" Cheerilee nodded out the door. "The Draconeuuqii were once quite widespread--"\
105The school bell suddenly chimed
106* ''Fanfic/{{Pokedex}}'': Before humans arose, Sceptile practiced agriculture, Conkeldurr built cities, and Cranidos [[spoiler:trained Pokémon]].
107* ''Fanfic/PokemonTheGreatAdventure'': The Ancients, a civilization of very advanced humanoid aliens who migrated to this world three thousand years before the story and set the bases of the modern world. By the time of the story, everyone think they're gone. They introduced Aura to the world and Silver is one of them, just like Sir Aaron's mother.
108* ''Fanfic/KaijuRevolution'': There have been two advanced sapient races present on Earth before modern man. The first were the sophont pterosaurs known as the Mahars who arose during the Mesozoic and would eventually become so advanced that they could create immortal, artificial bodies and give themselves telepathy. The second was a Paleolithic hominid civilization known as the Paleoarchs who developed technology that surpasses anything made in the modern day. However, both civilizations would collapse when they tried to control Earth's kaiju or make their own. The surviving Mahars would be forced to hide in their Antarctic stronghold of Pellucidar, while the Paleoarchs were fractured into different groups that evolved into various races, including ''Homo sapians''.
109[[/folder]]
110
111[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
112* One of the most widely known Precursor stories is ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', where they are also (presumably) EnergyBeings who guided human evolution.
113* ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'' has a twist on this in its final act, in that [[spoiler: humans have become extinct and are now viewed as an ancient and wise precursor race by the robots who have inherited the planet]].
114* ''Film/{{Alien}}'' has the barely-featured Space Jockey's species, which the ExpandedUniverse claims is responsible for the creation of both humanity and the Xenomorphs. ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' clears this up a bit: the "Engineers", as they are called, apparently seeded life on Earth in prehistoric times. Whether this was done by just one Engineer or a collective is not clarified; the characters think it was all of them. They also intervened in some [[AncientAstronauts ancient cultures]], leaving clues in bas-relief and cave-painting form, pointing to a planet in a certain star system, about 34 LY from Earth. [[spoiler: The movie makes it clear that about 2000 years ago, they changed their mind about us for some reason and decided to exterminate humanity; the planet in question was one of their outposts, from where ships carrying biological weapons (much like the Xenomorphs) were to be [[AbusivePrecursors sent to cleanse the Earth of life]]. The only thing that saved us was the fact that the monsters escaped captivity and killed the Engineers at the outpost. All except one...]]
115** The implication is there that they did indeed create the Xenomorphs as the perfect biological nuke. [[spoiler: ''Film/AlienCovenant'' debunks that implication by revealing the who and why of the Xenomorph's creation.]]
116* In ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'', the Franchise/{{Predator}}s are {{retcon}}ned to being responsible for teaching humans how to build, farm and write, all so they could have people to sacrifice as part of their barbaric rites of passage.
117* ''Film/{{Contact}}''. The alien says that the PortalNetwork used by the protagonist was not built by them, but by a long-disappeared race.
118* The Mondoshawans in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' -- based on their representation -- apply to this trope as well, at least to a certain degree.
119* The Krell of ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', who created the huge machine powered by near limitless energy beneath the planet's surface. The machine was meant to read their conscious thoughts and create or manipulate everything they wished so that they could be free from dependence upon instrumentality. They were all killed in a single night by their own primitive subconscious thoughts which they'd unknowingly let loose with the machine's completion.
120* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Kong's ancestors. Kong is the LastOfHisKind, but his ancestors (whom apparently went to war with Godzilla in the past) have left behind a great temple in the HollowEarth, where Kong finds [[spoiler:an axe made from the energy-absorbing dorsal plate of one of Godzilla's species]] embedded in a Titan's skull and claims it as his own.
121* ''Film/{{Moonfall}}'' reveals that the human race as we know it is the second coming of humanity, seeded on Earth by an advanced human empire annihilated by its own A.I. creation, with only the moon megastructure and its controlling artificial intelligence remaining as their legacy.
122[[/folder]]
123
124[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
125* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'''s lead character Dylan Hunt was a ([[HalfHumanHybrid half]]-HeavyWorlder-half-) member of a highly developed culture which was at the heart of the old Commonwealth. In later seasons, the series begins to pursue those "lost people" because of their amazing advancements which have since been lost, only to learn they intentionally closed themselves off from the outside barbarism.
126* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
127** The "First Ones", who have all mostly emigrated "beyond the rim of the galaxy", although some remain lurking about in known space. Lorien, ''the'' "First One", is literally the first sentient being in the galaxy.
128** [[spoiler:The Vorlons and the Shadows]], which drive the main plots of the entire series, [[spoiler:have meddled extensively in the affairs of younger races.]]
129** In an homage to ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', Epsilon 3 (the planet which Babylon 5 orbits) houses many super-advanced artifacts of a long-dead alien race.
130** [[spoiler:The humans and the Minbari, who will become precursors to the future races]], as shown at the end of Season 4. [[spoiler: And to Earth itself, when the Rangers secretly guide the planet's rediscovery of technology following "The Great Burn" in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars".]]
131* In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'', the Cylons were originally a race of lizard people. They built robots to act as their servants, but the robots rebelled and wiped the lizard people out. Eventually, these robots ran into humanity. Humans have already been at war with these robots for a thousand yahrens when the series opens.
132* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
133** The series sometimes paints the Time Lords like this. At the dawn of their civilisation, they sent a star supernova, and caged the resulting black hole to fuel their time travel. They fought several wars against other primordial races (notably the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Great Vampires]]), driving them to virtual extinction. In at least one instance, they're suggested to have actually driven magic from the universe and the Doctor's TARDIS is frequently described as the most powerful and/or advanced ship in the universe with the Heart of the TARDIS, when harnessed by Rose Tyler, being a full on RealityWarper capable of wiping out an entire Dalek battle fleet with the wave of hand, accidentally granting someone ResurrectiveImmortality and scattering a message through time and space. If it hadn't started to burn Rose out, she'd probably have gone further. Later, [[spoiler: the Master]] jury rigged it into a machine powerful enough to hold together a paradox connecting Earth and the very end of the Universe. Furthermore, that TARDIS? By Time Lord standards, it's ''obsolete''. It was old when the Doctor found it, and other Time Lords frequently making disparaging remarks about its quality/patched together nature. They were even worshipped as gods on at least one planet, until their technological gifts [[YouAreNotReady backfired]], and they instituted a policy of non-interference. The ExpandedUniverse attributes the widespread presence of HumanAliens in the setting to them (offering multiple versions of the reasons why).
134** The unseen race (otherwise known as the Disciples of the Light) who caged [[{{Satan}} the Beast]] also qualify. It had done this before the beginning of time. The Doctor points out that this is both stupid and impossible. [[spoiler:But that doesn't stop it from still being true.]]
135* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'':
136** The Eidolons, who once controlled an entire galaxy through their power to induce "rationality and tranquility" in others before their near-extinction several millennia ago. For good measure, they are actually responsible for the creation of [[spoiler: the Peacekeepers and the Sebacean race as a whole, having abducted primitive humans from Earth and altered them to act as bodyguards.]]
137** Subverted in the case of the Ancients, who, despite the name and their status as a DyingRace, aren't precursors at all. In fact, in spite of their impressive technology, they've actually gone out of the way to make sure that nobody knows about them unless absolutely necessary: [[spoiler: this is because they were sent from another dimension to monitor the development of wormhole technology.]]
138* The "First People" from ''{{Series/Fringe}}''.
139** [[spoiler:They're actually Walter and Peter (mostly Walter) in a StableTimeLoop sending the artifacts to the different universes.]]
140* Slight subversion: the inconceivably ancient Morphin Masters of ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' themselves worshipped their "Ancient Ancestors" who watched down on them... [[WildMassGuessing Apparently from Rita's similarly super-ancient lunar palace]].
141* ''Series/RedDwarf'' postulates that all life originated on Earth; after three million years, there are many variations on sentient life -- creatures descended from genetic experiments, animals that evolved into sentient humanoids, self-sustaining races of androids, "pan-dimensional liquid beasts", etc. etc. etc.
142* The ''Franchise/StargateVerse'':
143** The gate network itself was created by one such race, named (creatively) the Ancients, though they later are discovered to have called themselves the Anquietas (formerly the Alterans, later the Lanteans after the planet on which Atlantis resided). They eventually [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]] and adopted a strict [[AlienNonInterferenceClause non-interference policy]] on the lower planes. The other side of that coin is the Ori, also ascended Alterans but [[GodhoodSeeker with a very different policy]]; they are eventually revealed to have driven the Ancients from their home galaxy to the Milky Way.
144** The Ancients themselves discovered evidence of even older race of Precursors (or God) than themselves who left a complex message/pattern or signal deep within the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation of the universe either before or shortly after the Big Bang.
145** The Asgard, Goa'uld, and Wraith. The Goa'uld use humans as hosts and slaves, and founded Egyptian civilisation, and the Wraith loosely farm humans as food (though the Wraith themselves are the result of a life-sucking creature called the Iratus Bug being mutated by human DNA, possibly naturally, or possibly, as the ExpandedUniverse hints, by Ancient experiments), while the Asgard placed several worlds in the Milky Way under military protection from the Goa'uld.
146* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
147** The Preservers and the Iconians, amongst others:
148** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
149*** The Fabrini in "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E8ForTheWorldIsHollowAndIHaveTouchedTheSky For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky]]" serve as precursors to the inhabitants of the generational ship ''Yonada''.
150*** In the "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E20ReturnToTomorrow Return to Tomorrow]]" the race from which Sargon, Henoch and Thalassa are the only survivors are implied to be precursors to the Vulcan race, with Spock stating that some of Sargon's claims could explain some elements of Vulcan pre-history.
151** The Ancient Humanoids in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase The Chase]]", though it seems to be a given in the ExpandedUniverse that the Ancient Humanoids are the Preservers.
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154[[folder:Music]]
155* In the The Sword song, "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians", the Precursors are [[spoiler:humans from roughly the current era. After a presumably nuclear war screws up the planet, the survivors idiotically decide that they need to find and launch ''more'' of our missiles.]]
156* The Music/JimiHendrix song "Up From the Skies" has an alien revisiting Earth after a long hiatus: "I have lived here before/ in days of ice/ and of course this is why I'm so concerned/ and I come back to find/ the stars misplaced/ and the smell of a world/ that's burning." [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible Maybe a precursor,]] [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation maybe not]], but he'd been here a long, long time ago.
157* Some of ''Music/DoctorSteel'''s music and videos, most notably his song "Planet X Marks the Spot", deal with the AncientAstronaut theories of Zechariah Sitchin.
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160[[folder:Pinball]]
161* According to ''VideoGame/LoonyLabyrinth,'' the ancient Minos were masters of time travel, genetic engineering, and other amazing feats.
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164[[folder:Podcasts]]
165* In the backstory to the ''Podcast/CoolKidsTable'' game ''Small Magic'', the Tenshi and the Oni are this for humanity. When a Tenshi and an Oni had a child together (the first human), it led to a war that wiped out most of them, forcing the Tenshi to put the Oni in a deep sleep and flee the world.
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168[[folder:Radio]]
169* ''Radio/DimensionX'': In "[[Recap/DimensionX07TheLostRace The Lost Race]]", an adaptation of Creator/MurrayLeinster's "Literature/TheLost", the titular species are an ancient race who constructed the canals on Mars and the ruined cities on Titan, Centaurus II, and Centaurus III, around one hundred thousand years ago. Their influence extended to more than a thousand planets before they mysteriously destroyed themselves. The archaeologist Mr Howell determines that the Lost Race were a race of highly evolved monkeys who were being slowly mutated by atomic energy. He concludes that they committed mass suicide as they could not stand the idea of turning into human-like creatures.
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172[[folder:Toys]]
173* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' toyed with this idea a lot, but eventually subverted it with the Great Beings: hailed in the story's early years as powerful, mythological figures responsible for creating the Matoran Universe and its creatures, but then [[NeglectfulPrecursors moved to other projects, and chaos ensued]]. Later it was revealed that these Beings were a highly eccentric group of scientist governors, and can only be seen as the precursors to the Matoran Universe's inhabitants -- whom they themselves viewed as expandable machines. Otherwise, they were just one of Spherus Magna's (the planet which they once ruled over) several species. They are also still around someplace, but are hiding, as the inhabitants of ''their'' world hated their guts.
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176[[folder:Webcomics]]
177* ''Webcomic/Aurora2019'' has the Ancients, magically inert master architects who lived on the surface while humans and elves lived in caves to avoid the elemental winds. Even though they could not directly manipulate the elements they used tools to do so. However, their continent-spanning civilization tore itself apart in civil war. Today, the only traces of them are ruins, semi-fuctional war machines, and traces of their blood in humans and elves.
178* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' has the [[TheGhost Old Flesh]] and, to a certain extent, the Parliament of the Old Flesh. Apparently, at the beginning of all things, all of existence contained the Old Flesh, and nothing else. At some point, the Old Flesh became infected, and as that infection devoured the Old Flesh, it gave rise to all other concepts in the Range. The Parliament are the remains of the Old Flesh itself[[note]]One in-universe book that the Eye Slob finds tells this tale using the metaphor of a 'cake' to describe the Flesh, and refers to the Parliament as the 'crumbs' of that cake[[/note]], and they seek to use their own infection to eliminate all concepts that arose from the Old Flesh (i.e. '[[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ literally everything]]') and re-create it in the form of the New Flesh.
179* ''Webcomic/TheCyantianChronicles'' have at least two species, the Rumuah who created the Cyantians as servants and heirs, than died out from a genetic disease. And the "Squids" who came along centuries later and [[AbusivePrecursors enslaved]] the Cyantians, until Alpha Akaelae led a successful rebellion and wiped them out.
180* ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellett'': The Sill were the most advanced race the galaxy has ever known and the only one to ever reach a type 2 Kardashev civilization. They ruled the galaxy for over 20,000 years undisputed, they played crucial roles in the history of almost every species they encountered and their technology reached levels that modern societies can barely dream of. All that's left of them now are some impressive ruins and some slowly dying monks.
181* ''Webcomic/{{Harbourmaster}}'' has the Qohathoth, who were tormented by the loneliness of being the only sapient lifeform in the galaxy. Although their quest to find other species to befriend (the [[TheSocialDarwinist Yogzarthu]] didn't want friendship) led them to journey into other dimensions before humans could become spacefarers, they terraformed many other planets to be Earth-like in hopes of sparing humanity that same pain. Ironically, they made the terraformed planets ''too'' paradisial; nothing was subjected to the kind of pressures that would select for sapience, until a comet strike altered Tethys's climate, allowing the entomorphs to evolve to sapience.
182* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', [[spoiler: universes are created by sessions of Sburb. And the trolls created ''ours''.]]
183* In ''Webcomic/ImpureBlood'', they are the Ancients. Roan is a HalfHumanHybrid descendent. [[http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Issue3/ib069.html The Watchers think they are evil.]]
184* In ''Webcomic/{{Iothera}}'', the ancient Seb attained spaceflight, then apparently vanished.
185-->'''Cassandra:''' We still don't really know who the Seb were -- or how they built the Red Towers -- or why they were on the moons -- or even what all the stuff they left behind ''does''.
186* In ''Webcomic/JackDavidHopkins'', a UsefulNotes/{{Furry|Fandom}} Webcomic, the furries that currently live on Earth are the descendants of furries created in a lab by humans, making humans the Precursors. They were wiped out in a war started by the first furry, Jack. The furry version of the United States government knows about furrykind's origins, and is (probably wisely) [[GovernmentConspiracy keeping it a secret]].
187* ''Webcomic/LeavingTheCradle'': The Ancients had unimaginably powerful presence in the galaxy some milions to billions years ago, changing planets and star systems so they could be able to support life, leaving behind artifacts that enabled the civilizations that came after to discover FTL and other fancy tech, and apparently they are even responsible for ''the very possibility of FTL travel itself'', with strong implications that they tampered with the fundamental physical forces of the Universe on a whim, and before that you could travel only as fast as Einstein would allow you. Then they just disappear without a trace, sans for some artifacts or occasional astroengineering project.
188* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': There's a scattering of ruins from extinct civilizations, but not as much as one would expect considering Fermi's Paradox. The oldest race around, the Gatekeepers, are only a million years old. Quite old, to be sure, but young compared to the galaxy. As Petey put it, "If it's this easy to be immortal, where are all the adults?" [[spoiler:They were all wiped out due to a variety of reasons over the eons, top of the list being the long-gun, a weapon that can fire anywhere in the galaxy from anywhere in the galaxy as long as you have targeting coordinates. The few survivors of these eras went completely off the grid, hiding their stars in massive superstructures or constructing spaceships the size of planets and running dark. The reason the Gatekeepers were still around (though they hid the bulk of their people in {{Dyson Sphere}}s) was as part of a plan to halt this cycle by restricting galactic travel to a PortalNetwork instead of receiverless {{teleportation}}, in the hopes that this would prevent the rise of the long-gun. It worked for a while, and the current galactic civilization has lasted longer than most previous ones, but eventually the Gatekeeper stranglehold was broken and things continued on the same path as before. It eventually turned out that many, perhaps even most, of them weren't wiped out at all; all civilizations reach a point where immortality is easy and it's just safer in the long term to move your entire civilization into gas-giant sized spaceships and go dark beyond the galactic rim. Once the galaxy figured out how to detect them they discovered that there's so many of those ships that by conservative estimates surviving precursors outnumber what they had thought was the population of the galaxy by ''fifteen orders of magnitude'']].
189* In ''Webcomic/{{Unity}}'', the creatures living in the ship are all distant descendants of Earth life. Humans built the ship, but disappeared long ago.
190* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': The Senet Beasts came before humans, most have been wiped out ''by'' humans who use the First Materials they're made which means that many of the surviving ones will not [[TheFairFolk hesitate to kill or trick humans they come across]], and they do not reproduce. All Senet Beasts that are still around have been around since ere the dawn of humanity.
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193[[folder:Web Original]]
194* ''Literature/BeyondTheImpossible'': The Drylon disappeared five billion years ago, but they left behind technology so powerful that the gods will do anything to put their hands on it.
195-->''Five billion years ago, the Drylon disappeared. The legend goes that the Drylon waged war against the universe and lost. They lost so bad that hardly anybody remembers them.''
196* ''Roleplay/OpenBlue'' has the Iormunean Imperium, a once glorious empire that prospered thanks to their goddess. When a new religion started encroaching on the fringes of the empire and the local ChurchMilitant did nothing to stop its growth, aforementioned goddess turned her back on them while they were in the middle of a war with invading [[TheHorde barbarian hordes]]. Suffice to say, it led to their [[CataclysmBackstory destruction]], and their [[ReligionIsMagic blessed weapons]] and [[ArtifactOfDoom artifacts]] being scattered across the world for the present nations to search for.
197* In ''Website/OrionsArm'' abandoned ruins with highly advanced technology are considerably more common than living aliens with technology even close to the level of Terragen civilization. Many find this somewhat disturbing.
198* ''Website/SCPFoundation'':
199** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1000 SCP-1000]] reveals that BigfootSasquatchAndYeti were this to ''us.'' They created a great civilization millennia ago, had a population in the tens of billions, and mastered OrganicTechnology that even modern Foundation researchers can't comprehend. Ancient humans were to them what Great Apes are for us: fenced-in endangered species that are granted protected status, [[AbusivePrecursors but still exploited for]] [[HumanResources various purposes]]. [[spoiler: Eventually, humanity managed to acquire some of their bioweapons and rose up, slaughtering most of their species in a single day and imprisoning the rest in their own minds, then turning it on ourselves to eradicate the memory of them. And the modern remnants of the species have been slowly regaining their mental capabilities...]]
200--->You think bigfoot is funny because we want you to think bigfoot is funny.
201** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2932 SCP-2932]] also reveals that humans and bigfoots aren't so different. [[spoiler: Not only did the Bigfoots have their own facilities for containing anomalous objects, but they also overthrew [[RecursivePrecursors the ones that came before them.]]]]
202** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/taboo SCP-4000]] reveals more details about the precursors who came before the bigfoots, otherwise known as [[spoiler: the [[TheFairFolk Fae.]] They were largely similar to humans, but with an obvious allergy to iron. Not only were they overthrown by the bigfoots, but the Foundation committed ''genocide'' against them after the War with the Factory; SCP-4000 is basically a refugee camp in another dimension, where they harbor a bitter resentment against the Foundation.]]
203** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/SCP-4001 SCP-4001]] is a massive [[GeniusLoci sentient]] library that chronicles the lives of every human being that has ''ever'' existed, numbering at least 120 billion in total and with new ones created every minute; the oldest ones stretch back 75,000 years. Burning a book or tearing out the first pages results in the person it's about being [[{{Retgone}} erased from existence.]] [[spoiler: Beneath the floorboards is a huge layer of ash, the last remnant of the ancient ''Homo nobilis'' civilization after they wiped themselves out in a nuclear war 70,000-80,000 years ago. The library asked the last Watcher to burn the entire collection of books so that the damage could be undone, which resulted in them being wiped from reality]]
204** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2117 SCP-2117]] is an anomalous spaceship used by the Foundation against possible extraterrestrial threats. If the age of the ship is to be believed, [[spoiler: the [[AdvancedAncientHumans Foundation has existed]] even before ''life'' did.]]
205* The ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' appears to have at least two Precursor races -- the Telemap, whale-like beings that explored the Universe through AstralProjection, followed by the humanoid Isokist, who did so in person and colonized several galaxies before they began [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow experimenting with the dimensions outside our Universe]], which quickly led to them being nearly annihilated by [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]]. Somewhere along the way, one Isokist MadScientist created the Scourge -- a sentient [[ApocalypseHow Ultimate Weapon]] in the form of a female Isokist -- as a last-ditch defense against the invaders. The rest is hidden in the mists of time, but it is known that the Scourge survived, until eight billion years later it merged with a human teenager, becoming the character of Tennyo.
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208[[folder:Western Animation]]
209* In ''WesternAnimation/CadillacsAndDinosaurs'', humans of 21th century are refered as the Ancients and '''are''' the Precursors. [[BadFuture In the far future]], mankind has regress greatly in terms of technology and must now coexist with dinosaurs.
210* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', the Lost Race, while never directly referred to in the show, has been revealed by Greg Weisman to have preceded the Three Races.
211* ''Once Upon a Time... Space'' (the sci-fi and prevalently entertaining installment of the ''WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois'' educational series) has ''at least'' two of these races. The two confirmed races were at war with each other, with one composed by [[HumanAliens human lookalikes]] (some of which landed on a primitive planet inhabitated by other HumanAliens and [[ETGaveUsWiFi taught them better science]] before [[NukeEm nuking them]] [[DisproportionateRetribution for attacking them in order to steal their technology]]) and the other implied to have normal-sized starships capable to [[EarthShatteringKaboom blow up a planet]] (the asteroid belt is believed having been one such planet, where this race believed some of their enemies had taken refuge). The inhabitants of {{Atlantis}} are a subgroup of another race of HumanAliens, known for having interbred with Earth humans (with Psi's PsychicPowers implied to be the result of descending from them) and who are possibly connected to the first group, and a fourth, who actually appear, are {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s that may be the same who sent the Atlanteans on Earth and have some connection to Psi. The protagonist themselves become this from time to time, acting as teachers to less developed species.
212* In ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders'', a mysterious race created world engines (if not the planets themselves). This allowed the natives to not get consumed by the Beast Planet. One has to wonder who they were and why they did it.
213* ''[[WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower She-Ra]]'' has the First Ones[[note]]Heavily implied to be AncientAstronauts from Eternia[[/note]], who integrated the planet of Etheria with their technology.
214* In ''WesternAnimation/StarcomTheUSSpaceforce'', Mars was once inhabited by an advanced alien race called the Builders. The Builders are long gone by the time humans colonized the solar system, but they left behind ancient cities buried under the Martian dunes -- cities which are still functional, and not entirely abandoned.
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218* ''Homo erectus''. They inhabited Africa and most of Eurasia for over 2 million years, and are once believed to be the first species of human (technically that position goes to Homo habilis, but it's debated whether they really belong in the Homo genus), and the first in Earth's history to make complex hunting tools, control fire and cook their food, and (it's debated) to have symbolic customs, such as burial rites. They were so widespread that they gave rise to many different species of humans, including ''Homo heidelbergensis'', the ancestor of both modern humans and Neanderthals. There are ongoing debates about whether some known groups of early humans are actually ''Homo erectus'' or a subspecies descended from them.
219* An OlderThanFeudalism topic is {{Atlantis}}:
220** It was first recorded by Plato, and may be an allegory he dreamed up to serve his conception of a utopian society by providing it with an enemy. While the Atlantis in Plato's story is explicitly a fiction, the question is whether the idea was original or making use of an existing legend. Another possibility is that the legend of Atlantis grew out of stories about the civilization on Bronze-Age Crete, long before classical UsefulNotes/AncientGreece. Another candidate is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini Santorini,]] which was once Thera, an island city-state in the Aegean Sea, very advanced compared to its neighbors, even possessing indoor plumbing, but erased (along with the middle of the island) by a volcanic explosion about 36 centuries ago.
221** Theories on the origins of Atlantis are far ranging and include everything from islands in the Mediterranean to the continents of North and South America. Proponents of the latter theories, however, are not taken seriously because no such civilisation could have existed and left zero trace or record of its existence whatsoever.[[note]]Note that there are several ancient civilisations in the Americas, such as the Olmecs and Mound Builders; its just that they have nothing to do with Atlantis.[[/note]]
222** The story includes a second set of precursors in the ancient predecessor of Athens (in another location in Greece which no longer exists), which embodied all of the traits of Plato's ideal state. After the war between the two ended in victory for Athens, it was also destroyed in the same calamity as Atlantis. Oddly enough, no one ever seems to believe that this culture was real, even though it gets much more focus in the story and the claims about it are much more modest.
223* Medieval and Renaissance Europeans often thought of the Roman Empire this way, perceiving Rome as a great, civilized, and intellectually superior culture they strived to emulate. The ruins of Roman buildings and infrastructure still dot the countryside to the modern day, and many European towns and cities were built among the ruins of Roman settlements -- which, in many cases, were much larger than their Medieval successors and more comparable in size to their modern iterations. The Greeks were held in a similar sort of awe, and Greek and Roman writings were held as a sort of final authority in scientific matters: suggesting that modern people could equal or ''surpass'' the Greeks and Romans -- "the Ancients", as they were known -- in art or science was seen as ridiculous. {{Adventurer Archaeologist}}s in Central Asia often thought of the various Silk Road Civilizations this way, too. Similarly, the early Iron Age civilizations of Greece, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia which emerged after the Bronze Age collapse and subsequent "Dark Ages" viewed their predecessors as such, most notably the awe in which the Hellenic Greeks held the Mycenaeans.
224* The ancient city-state of Teotihuacán played this role for the Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Aztecs who arose nearly 1,000 years after its fall. It was one of the great powers of its day, dominating several of the nearby Maya cities and its influence covering much of Mesoamerica; it even had what appear to have been apartment buildings. It had considerable influence on the development of most nearby cultures, including the Maya, and was seen as a holy place by the Aztecs, who believed it to be where the world had been created.
225* One serious solution proposed for the UsefulNotes/FermiParadox[[note]]in brief: The universe is at the very least not hostile to life, and it's big enough and old enough that we humans shouldn't be alone, so why haven't we encountered any other intelligent species in some way?[[/note]] is that ''we humans'' are the Precursors -- we are the first intelligent race, at the very least in this galaxy or this part of it. Or at the very least, our elders are [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale too recently emerged to have expanded universe-wide yet]]. If this is true, uncounted billions of civilisations are gazing up at the sky, and are asking the exact same questions as us, but have yet to even go beyond their atmospheres. Though they may not know it yet, they are all depending on us not nuking ourselves or sinking back to pre-industrial levels. No pressure.
226* This is also a favorite theme of conspiracy theories, where the role of the Precursors is filled by ancient, vanished technological empires like Atlantis or Lemuria, or [[AncientAstronauts by alien visitors who founded humanity's ancient civilisations]].
227* The mysterious Bronze Age Indus civilization reached levels of technology, health, and urbanism not reached again until the Middle Ages (in India) or later. For just a bit of perspective, the ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro had a better sewage system than nearby Karachi does today.
228* Ancient Phoenician-influenced Sardinia could count. They had iron weapons, conquered Italy and southern France, and had huge stone fortresses long before the Middle Ages. The end of the Sardinian civilization also coincides with an eruption of Vesuvius, plus the geography and political state of the island could match the description.
229* Any ancient state ended up either as this or a VestigialEmpire. The best examples would be the six "cradles of civilization" where writing, urbanization, and features of modern society first developed independently of other civilizations: [[{{Mayincatec}} Mesoamerica]], the central Andes, AncientEgypt, Mesopotamia, [[MysticalIndia the Indus River Valley]], and China.
230* According to Myth/HinduMythology, there were several lengthy ages before the current age, the Kali Yuga: the Satya Yuga, the Treta Yuga, and the Dvapara Yuga, each one being shorter than the previous era. Humanity begun in the Satya Yuga as being very devout and righteous under the rule of the gods, before declining in subsequent ages, and then starting over at the distant end of the Kali Yuga. Among the technology used during the previous ages included the vimana, a flying palace or chariot used by powerful beings such as Ravana.
231** Likewise, some Buddhist scriptures mention of a primordial king known as Mahāsammata, who was selected by his people as their ruler as there were no others around them. He was succeeded by several dynasties of chakravartins, universal monarchs who utilize treasures such as the 'chakraratnaya' wheel that allows them to travel across the sky to other continents. As the ages progressed, the chakravartins' rule broke down, and humanity declined in morality and lifespan from thousands of years to nearly a hundred.
232* Theosophy features Atlantis (Precursor to Egypt and Mayan culture), Hyperborea (North Pole, precursor of Europeans and Asians), and Lemuria (precursor to the African cultures and the lower castes of India). Later authors like David Icke and Drunvalo Melchizedek added aliens to the mix.
233* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silurian_hypothesis Silurian hypothesis]] (name inspired by ''Series/DoctorWho''), posits that there could have been an industrial civilization on Earth millions of years ago, and how it could be detectable in this era by accounts of chemical and climatological global changes recorded on the rock strata.
234* During the Bronze Age, on the Mediterranean island of Crete and in the Aegean islands, flourished the mysterious Minoan Civilization [[note]]This is the name given to them by archeologists in the 19th century, based on the mythical King Minos of Crete in [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]]. Whatever name the Minoans had for themselves is unknown as of now.[[/note]]. As early as 2000 BCE they had complex and organized cities with features like freshwater aqueducts and ''sewer systems'', with their cities being centered around impressive palace structures (that were more likely ''warehouses'' rather than government centers or military bases). Their writing system ("Linear A") is still untranslated, but the alphabet was adopted and modified by the Mycenaeans [[note]]A beta version of Greeks, from the Bronze Age[[/note]] who's alphabet (called "Linear B") is understood and is the earliest form of written Greek. Their influence (in the form of architecture, technology, art, trade goods, etc...) is felt all throughout the Bronze Age Mediterranean, but especially in Greece. It's not entirely clear why they declined, but the most popular hypothesis is that a volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini in 1600 BCE destroyed one of their major settlements and the repercussions were felt on Crete, which was subsequently conquered by Mycenaeans.
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