My favorite example is the writings of Onfim, who was a little boy in the 1200s in present day Russia whose scribbling and homework were exquisitely preserved on birch bark fragments. It’s so immediately recognizable as a little boy’s endearing doodles about knights and imaginary beasts, yet its 800 years old.
Humans really haven't changed that much at all.
Honestly, learning about how little humans have changed throughout history has been both one of the most delightful and sad things I have learned. It's wonderful to think about the real kinship we have with people long since dead, but it's also sobering to realize we still make a lot of the same mistakes despite their example. But regardless of whether it's good or bad, I find the relatable humanity of historical people to be endlessly fascinating.
Reminds me of this exchange between an adoptive maternal figure and a troubled youth with low self-esteem.
> "[He] is a great man. [...] I don’t confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is... the higher achievement." She gave him a crooked smile. "It should give you hope, eh?”
"Huh. Block me from escape, you mean. Are you saying that no matter how screwed up I was, you’d still expect me to work wonders?" Appalling.
She considered this. "Yes," she said serenely. "In fact, since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same."
-- Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
> Humans really haven't changed that much at all.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita
Woland is the Satan in the novel. What he said has a deeper meaning, but superficial one is most probably wrong.
No, I am afraid that I was being more of a follower of Wallace here, I was being sincere with my words. I truly do marvel that humans really haven't changed that much at all.
or a more PG version https://sprakprat.no/2017/06/22/middelalderkvinner-og-runeku... where a rune-rod simply says "Gyda says you have to come home" (I guess hubby had been out too late with his no-good friends?)
Edit: I'm also curious how much time (thousands of years) for there to be noticeable difference in the capability of the brain like abstract thinking. Language may be the real problem.
It's not thousands of years. French Canadians are enriched for some of the same brain-related defects that Ashkenazi Jews can get; we assume for the same reasons.
> Which defects?
Ashkenazi Jews are prone to a whole host of genetic defects that affect the brain, of which the most famous is Tay-Sachs.
> What reasons?
A lifestyle focused on commerce as opposed to foraging or agriculture.
> Who is assuming?
Everyone, basically.
In the case of the Ashkenazi Jews, as far as we can tell they've been like that for as long as records of the group have existed. But the French Canadian specialization in commerce postdates the discovery of North America.
insert David Lynch quote about red ants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novgorod_Republic#Literature_a...
As far as survival, because of how common birch bark notes were in Novgorod, they were used for mundane everyday matters like instructions to servants to purchase such and such goods, or even just a one-liner greeting, and a lot of those were then discarded and ended up buried underground. So, again, a very different slice compared to the more typical story of expensive manuscripts in libraries, or personal correspondence of nobility.
Do you have any idea where to get photos of collections?
350 year old paper cuttings found under Sutton House floorboards go on display [0]
It really feels immediate
[0] https://museumsandheritage.com/advisor/posts/350-year-old-pa...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/science/prehistoric-baby-...
> One of the drawings features a knight on a horse, with Onfim's name written next to him, stabbing someone on the ground with a lance, with scholars speculating that Onfim pictured himself as the knight.
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_...
https://acoup.blog/2020/07/24/collections-bread-how-did-they...
So we kind of have to guess. My guesses are not the most informed.
The sword (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Goujian) is bronze, so it was probably cast (you can forge bronze but the cost/benefit ratio is terrible). You could imagine a king pouring the hot bronze into the mold—that would be much quicker than forging an iron sword—but you probably wouldn't want him to make a habit of it, because contaminants in the metals would expose him to arsenic vapor, though this sword in particular is almost arsenic-free.
Then all that's left is sharpening the blade, which any warrior has to be good at, and what is a king if not a warrior foremost? So it's plausible that a king might have put in most of the work embodied in the blade himself, with a grindstone, even if he didn't go around casting bronze regularly.
That said, while it's possible this King was really into swordsmithing, more likely he's just taking credit for the work or something gets lost in the translation. Like if Elon said he "built the Falcon 9". It's not explicitly true, he certainly wasn't machining parts or writing code for it, but he was involved enough that no one would really call it a lie either.
Yea, that would be the way I read it: He "built" the sword just like the executives of your company "built" its products. It's like those home remodeling TV shows, where the remodelers don't really do anything besides write checks and drive around talking on their phones to other people who don't really do anything either. All the actual building is done by silent building contractors who are mostly off-camera.
Nuclear power plants or walls that are supposed to cover an entire border require thousands of workers and engineers. At that point the organizational/management aspects, acquiring of funding etc. become much more important than the direct contribution of any specific engineer or craftsman.
The books are filled with names of kings.
Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone?
- Bertolt Brecht, Questions of a Worker who Reads
Or you’ve been taught well.
The elite/aristocracy of these old ages was at the top for reasons that make some sort of sense even though it could be violent it would be perhaps not completely uncorrelated with ability, if a prince is born into it they’d sometimes get taught multiple languages, music, poetry, on top of the reasonable politics and warfare, strategy etc. As for craftsmanship that is a good question since it’s working with ones hands but with the examples here so far it would make sense if they could just get instructed by the best craftsmen as well to learn that too of course this is maybe too far backwards and another continent to extrapolate
Here's another one, different king, similar inscription: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear_of_Fuchai - seems likely it should be read more as "caused this to be made".
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/archaeologists-excav...
> Analysis of mineral salts in the wine revealed a high concentration of potassium salts, indicative of the cremains in the wine
I kinda wanted to try it too before I read this.
[1] https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16462/jewish/Ch...
The same events will repeat in every Yuga -Vishnu Purana (1.3.1-2)
So. e) looks like d) with a top covering taken off. And, from the curved "handles" visible in c), e) and the close-up, they could all be the same glass vessel. We can see in c) that the vessel does have a lid. In e) and the close-up, there appears to be a residue where the lid rested against the container.
So it's possible that liquid from the jar got to the join, evaporated, and left behind a substance that sealed the container against further evaporation?
You'd probably have to read the full report for an actual explanation, but that's my guess from what's reported in the linked article itself.
https://strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net/2023/12/04/episode...
But, as they say, an American thinks that 100 years is a long time while a European thinks that 100 miles is a long way.
(I love the adage you quote, though. When I first heard it it said "Canadian" and "Englishman", which probably says something about how far back it goes.)
