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The computer geniuses here at Hacker News have decided the main argument of this article are wrong. But among archaeologists ritual defacement is understood to
by NelsonMinar 8y ago
The computer geniuses here at Hacker News have decided the main argument of this article are wrong. But among archaeologists ritual defacement is understood to be a regular thing that happens to art all over the world.
Roman coins defaced: https://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Defacing-the-past-damnation-and-desecration-in-imperial-Rome/4?&id=4384 https://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Defacing-the-past-damnation-a...
Teotihuacan icons demolished and destroyed by fire: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/24/teotihuacan-pyramids-treasures-secret-de-young-museum-san-francisco https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/24/teotihu...
- malvosenior 8y agoIsn't the argument in the article not that they were defaced due to "ritual defacement" but that vandals thought that by breaking the noses off, they were effectively killing the person in the after life, thus not allowing them to seek retribution for robbing their grave?
- ISV_Damocles 8y agoBreaking the nose to placate concerns about a supernatural phenomenon seems like the very definition of a ritual (placate concerns about a supernatural phenomenon) defacement (literally removing a surface feature from the face of a statue)?
- malvosenior 8y agoI see it more as the ancient equivalent of disabling a car alarm when you're stealing it. They were robbing the graves not preforming a ritual. Their beliefs may have been supernatural but at the time it seemed logical to "kill" the observer of the crime. It wasn't defacement to send a message, it was practical and tactical as far as the robbers were concerned (according to this article's premise).
- PopeDotNinja 8y agoAnd then there's the Sphinx's nose! That's the canonical example of Egyptian statue nose bashing. https://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/blog/photo-what-happened-to-the-sphinxs-nose-180950757/ https://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/blog/photo-what-happened...
- pathseeker 8y ago>The computer geniuses here at Hacker News have decided Don't do this
- atomical 8y agoIt is laughably true in the comments section on anything diet related.
- twic 8y agoOr economics-related. Or government-related. Or science-related. Or, to be honest, computer-related.
- iaabtpbtpnn 8y agoDo more of this
- NelsonMinar 8y agoI did exactly what I intended, thank you.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- gameswithgo 8y agoLike all "smart" professions, the practitioners tend to think their smart extends beyond their domain of expertise. It doesn't.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sbov 8y agoI find most "smart" professionals I interact with are people, mostly like other people. The internet is different of course, but if you're painting people with a broad brush based upon internet interactions, there are bigger problems than "smart" professionals saying dumb things.
- InclinedPlane 8y agoThe great thing about the geniuses here is they don't seem to think that Dunning-Kruger applies to them.
- soneca 8y agoI had to collapse about 8 threads to find the first comment of someone doubting the argument (in a polite way). Your comment is popular because you are fighting a "easy-to-hate" minority that is only relevant because you made it so. You make fun of a kind of HN commenter that you find typical. But if your comment is the most popular (#1 now), and assuming that people are upvoting you because they agree that it is indeed typicial, it means that this type of commenter is not typical at all. It is an outlier, properly undervoted by the real typical commenter. So your comment being upvoted disproves itself. Quite a paradox (or just irony?).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- laurent123456 8y agoIt's quite common that the top comment asks "why is everybody saying X", as if X was a widespread opinion. But then you have to scroll three pages down to find the comments being referred too, and they are usually heavily downvoted.
- benj111 8y agoSo you're saying that if I disagree with the parent, I should upvote him, to break the paradox? Maybe other voters have already noticed the paradox, and taken appropriate action!
- asveikau 8y agoThe character of a comment thread can change quickly here. I don't doubt the possibility that it was an overwhelming opinion when the parent decided to comment on it, even if no longer the case. So maybe the flaw is to over generalize the gist of the thread early in its history.
- dosy 8y agoThe old creation of grievances in order to exploit them trick. "If we can reframe the past to support our current ideology", "if we can manufacture fake victims", etc. I'm reminded of this quote: "To witness is to ignore as little as possible. Because a judgment so often impairs the ability to notice what doesn’t conform with it, the witness chooses for the time being to keep judgment at a distance." From this great article by Salvatore Scibona posted the other day: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/opinion/sunday/internet-shaming.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/opinion/sunday/internet-s...
- RmDen 8y agoSame with postage stamps, here are stamps of Bosnia defaced after WW I http://www.stampio.org/2019/01/the-revenge-of-yugoslavia-on-bosnian.html http://www.stampio.org/2019/01/the-revenge-of-yugoslavia-on-...
- jaclaz 8y agoIt was actually part of the Law in Rome, so-called Damnatio Memoriae, but it was inspired by the Greeks and probably by the Egyptians themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae
- exolymph 8y agoDownvoted purely for the snark. It's irritating when an active participant in a website puts down the community that... they choose to be part of.