2k-year-old wine and the uncanny immediacy of the past
6 comments
·January 15, 2025bglazer
morkalork
I like the adorable animal shaped sippy cups for babies:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/science/prehistoric-baby-...
abeppu
The inscription on the Sword of Goujian, the translation for which is displayed in the article, says that the King of Yue made and used the sword himself. How literally do people with knowledge of the period take that? Is it surprising / unlikely for a king of that period to make anything themselves, especially something so ornate, rather than commission it?
codemonkey-zeta
Julius Caesar made the dang calendar. People had a lot of free time.
rsynnott
Well, everyone needs a hobby :)
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".
tokai
Well kings have always said they made/build anything they ordered. I would simply not believe Yue's claim. It's much like the things Wolfram "creates".
Nice article about artifacts that make the past more immediate, that allow us to connect our experiences to people hundreds or thousands of years ago.
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.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onfim