4 ms·

I find the implication that a single find can "rewrite history" to be very much hype.

by Bayart 4y ago

thaumasiotes 4y ago
A single find could easily rewrite history. But this isn't the royal library of Ashurbanipal (wikipedia: "the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC"). [And it's not just a fancy name - this was actually a royal library which was the beneficiary of a lot of royal effort to collect all kinds of significant texts.] This is a bunch of statues and votive offerings of models of body parts. There is apparently no text, and if there were text we probably couldn't read it. This find has no hope of rewriting history.
- andreasley 4y ago
  From the article: "The statues [...] bear both Etruscan and Latin inscriptions."
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    Fair enough. How many of them say something more than "Mallius d."?
- posterboy 4y ago
  > There is apparently no text I have hoped that "rewrites history" would be more literal. There are however traces in the material composition that could be as good as a way description.
- posterboy 4y ago
  > There is apparently no text I actually have hoped that "rewrites history" would be more literal. There are however traces in the material composition that could be as good as a fingerprint.
tomcam 4y ago
I believe it’s literally true in this case. There just isn’t much Etruscan art known compared to Roman art
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
lm28469 4y ago
It happens all the time afaik, for some eras/civilisations artefacts are so rare and far apart that sometimes all it takes is a random skull / art piece / tool to completely break past assumptions. Watching history documentaries make people think we have a pretty good idea of all the events and their respective timelines but for the vast majority of history we have absolutely no fucking idea what was going on Things like that for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schöningen_spears https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schöningen_spears > The spears and the place of discovery revolutionized the picture of the cultural and social development of early humans. Previously, Middle Pleistocene hominins, whether Homo heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals, were regarded as simple beings without language who acquired meat by scavenging other carnivore kills or natural deaths. The spears and their correlated finds are evidence of complex technological skills and are the first direct evidence that these humans hunted their prey. The large and swift prey that the Schöningen humans butchered suggests that their technologies and hunting strategies were sophisticated, that they had complex social structures, and had developed some form of communication (language ability). The Schöningen humans therefore likely had cognitive skills such as anticipatory planning, thinking, and acting, some of which had only previously been attributed to modern humans.[46][47] In addition, the spears have played a major role in debates about the origins of throwing.
- posterboy 4y ago
  So, which yesteryear assumptions are broken?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

I find the implication that a single find can "rewrite history" to be very much hype.

by Bayart 4y ago

I find the implication that a single find can "rewrite history" to be very much hype.

A single find could easily rewrite history. But this isn't the royal library of Ashurbanipal (wikipedia: "the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC"). [And it's not just a fancy name - this was actually a royal library which was the beneficiary of a lot of royal effort to collect all kinds of significant texts.] This is a bunch of statues and votive offerings of models of body parts. There is apparently no text, and if there were text we probably couldn't read it. This find has no hope of rewriting history.

andreasley 4y ago
From the article: "The statues [...] bear both Etruscan and Latin inscriptions."
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  Fair enough. How many of them say something more than "Mallius d."?
posterboy 4y ago
> There is apparently no text I have hoped that "rewrites history" would be more literal. There are however traces in the material composition that could be as good as a way description.
posterboy 4y ago
> There is apparently no text I actually have hoped that "rewrites history" would be more literal. There are however traces in the material composition that could be as good as a fingerprint.

tomcam 4y ago

I believe it’s literally true in this case. There just isn’t much Etruscan art known compared to Roman art

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

lm28469 4y ago

It happens all the time afaik, for some eras/civilisations artefacts are so rare and far apart that sometimes all it takes is a random skull / art piece / tool to completely break past assumptions. Watching history documentaries make people think we have a pretty good idea of all the events and their respective timelines but for the vast majority of history we have absolutely no fucking idea what was going on Things like that for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schöningen_spears https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schöningen_spears > The spears and the place of discovery revolutionized the picture of the cultural and social development of early humans. Previously, Middle Pleistocene hominins, whether Homo heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals, were regarded as simple beings without language who acquired meat by scavenging other carnivore kills or natural deaths. The spears and their correlated finds are evidence of complex technological skills and are the first direct evidence that these humans hunted their prey. The large and swift prey that the Schöningen humans butchered suggests that their technologies and hunting strategies were sophisticated, that they had complex social structures, and had developed some form of communication (language ability). The Schöningen humans therefore likely had cognitive skills such as anticipatory planning, thinking, and acting, some of which had only previously been attributed to modern humans.[46][47] In addition, the spears have played a major role in debates about the origins of throwing.

posterboy 4y ago
So, which yesteryear assumptions are broken?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]