<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>KhoomeiK</author><text>Can&amp;#x27;t say much about recent history, but the deep archaeological past of India (&amp;gt;~5kya) is difficult to study in part because of the environmental conditions. The heat and humidity make preservation of artifacts over long periods of time nearly impossible, meaning that even though the Gangetic plain was one of the most populated regions on the planet for millennia in the past, there&amp;#x27;s minimal trace of this civilization left. Ancient tools, shelters, and human remains just decompose in that type of climate rather than being preserved like in the deserts of the Middle East or the cold regions of Northern China and Europe.</text><parent_chain><item><author>c54</author><text>Why hasn’t Indian history been better researched as you say? Curious about this.</text></item><item><author>TriNetra</author><text>Indian history hasn&amp;#x27;t been well researched because of various reasons. However, recent efforts are pushing back continuous settlement dates by multi-thousand of years. For instance: Varanasi is in above wiki link with 1200 BC as inhabited since. However [0] pushes it back to at least 4500 BC.&lt;p&gt;0: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;timesofindia.indiatimes.com&amp;#x2F;city&amp;#x2F;kolkata&amp;#x2F;Varanasi-is-as-old-as-Indus-valley-civilization-finds-IIT-KGP-study&amp;#x2F;articleshow&amp;#x2F;51146196.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;timesofindia.indiatimes.com&amp;#x2F;city&amp;#x2F;kolkata&amp;#x2F;Varanasi-is...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;&amp;gt;&amp;gt; The results that have come from a detailed geo-exploration (exploration conducted through GPS technology) conducted by seven IIT-Kgp departments, tracing the different stages through which civilization progressed, and how Varanasi has been able to maintain continuity as a living civilization, unlike comparable seats of human settlement in the world. The researchers have dug 100-metre-deep boring holes all over Varanasi to conclude that there is evidence of continuous settlement at least till 2000BC. There are enough indications that by the time the data collection is over, there would be enough to prove that this date can be pushed back to about 4500BC.The oldest part of this civilisation has been traced to the Gomati Sangam area of Varanasi, as indicated by the underground layers that have already been tested.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>List of oldest continuously inhabited cities</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_continuously_inhabited_cities</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>riazrizvi</author><text>It’s often because of political influence campaigns that history is actually destroyed, and in such periods there is no appetite for objective historical research. If you are a Muslim ruler trying to convert your subjects and the Sun Worshippers are leading a resistance then destroying their 700 year old temple that reinforces their identity is a no brainer.&lt;p&gt;This type of thing is widespread throughout the world [1] so there’s no reason to doubt it has a much longer history than records can follow.&lt;p&gt;[1]  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_destroyed_heritage&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_destroyed_heritage&lt;/a&gt;</text><parent_chain><item><author>c54</author><text>Why hasn’t Indian history been better researched as you say? Curious about this.</text></item><item><author>TriNetra</author><text>Indian history hasn&amp;#x27;t been well researched because of various reasons. However, recent efforts are pushing back continuous settlement dates by multi-thousand of years. For instance: Varanasi is in above wiki link with 1200 BC as inhabited since. However [0] pushes it back to at least 4500 BC.&lt;p&gt;0: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;timesofindia.indiatimes.com&amp;#x2F;city&amp;#x2F;kolkata&amp;#x2F;Varanasi-is-as-old-as-Indus-valley-civilization-finds-IIT-KGP-study&amp;#x2F;articleshow&amp;#x2F;51146196.cms&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;timesofindia.indiatimes.com&amp;#x2F;city&amp;#x2F;kolkata&amp;#x2F;Varanasi-is...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;&amp;gt;&amp;gt; The results that have come from a detailed geo-exploration (exploration conducted through GPS technology) conducted by seven IIT-Kgp departments, tracing the different stages through which civilization progressed, and how Varanasi has been able to maintain continuity as a living civilization, unlike comparable seats of human settlement in the world. The researchers have dug 100-metre-deep boring holes all over Varanasi to conclude that there is evidence of continuous settlement at least till 2000BC. There are enough indications that by the time the data collection is over, there would be enough to prove that this date can be pushed back to about 4500BC.The oldest part of this civilisation has been traced to the Gomati Sangam area of Varanasi, as indicated by the underground layers that have already been tested.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>List of oldest continuously inhabited cities</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_continuously_inhabited_cities</url></story>