Post AoPpBvsi0YdlyIGFl2 by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) Post #AoMiAd6DmVBf04dbZg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T10:46:20Z
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The Greeks and Romans, at least from the Hellenistic period onward, used Neolithic stone axeheads to protect buildings from lightning. They thought that the stone hand axes were formed when lightning struck a rock, so tucking one in the rafters of your abode could protect it?This is neat... but... some of those Greeks must have thought "a person made this thing" right?What do you think?
(DIR) Post #AoMifChzx2Ng7zt236 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T10:51:52Z
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neolithic humans made SO MANY of these things. That kind of creeps me out, the sheer quantity of hand-axes stretching back through time. And the idea that a Greek could look at one and not recognize it is disturbing somehow.
(DIR) Post #AoMih5L0KKVVqZ1ox6 by DrorBedrack@mastodon.social
2024-11-24T10:52:12Z
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@futurebird how do we know they thought it was formed when lightning struck a rock?
(DIR) Post #AoMisLboAigjUoG63E by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T10:54:13Z
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@DrorBedrack We know because sometimes they would carve things on them in Greek or Latin and these things were magic spells to stop lightning. And we have found them tucked away under buildings as one would do with a magic amulet. https://journals.openedition.org/kernos/2283#ftn1
(DIR) Post #AoMjbIZMJriR6HXzfM by DrorBedrack@mastodon.social
2024-11-24T11:02:20Z
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@futurebird this guy was close...But I'd leave the discussion to the experts
(DIR) Post #AoMk7SpFipEGB0JqHA by capnthommo@c.im
2024-11-24T11:08:09Z
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@futurebird look - the Greeks created a whole pantheon who lived on mount Olympus. You could walk up it in not much more than an afternoon and nobody could be arsed to actually wander up there and find out if it was true. So...
(DIR) Post #AoMkiWHhpBpHcQIV1s by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T11:14:52Z
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@capnthommo Not exactly Everest is it?
(DIR) Post #AoMlBqZdT8OMwUfUNU by NatureMC@mastodon.online
2024-11-24T11:20:04Z
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@futurebird Wait, people in France sometimes still do this, a tradition inherited by the Gallo-Romans. We also plant Jupiter's Beard on pillars and window sills for lightning protection.At the same time, we build archeological museums, buy modern #lightning conductors and have research about Sempervivum tectorum. In one culture/generation, you can have magic #culturalHeritage and knowledge at the same time: https://www.cronenburg.net/magic/
(DIR) Post #AoMmKNPDNtPt2WQPlA by daniel@mstdn.degu.cl
2024-11-24T11:32:11Z
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@NatureMC @futurebird It is remarkable how cultural elements are still alive after the influence of so many other cultures. What does the number written on the pillar mean?
(DIR) Post #AoMn0MS3K3LMF6lw4O by daniel@mstdn.degu.cl
2024-11-24T11:40:29Z
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@futurebird Maybe some Greeks found the old axes and thought they were some tool made by different people or creatures from themselves. When the history is lost, you can imagine multiple stories; the most fantastic ones can be more viral.
(DIR) Post #AoMn68sKi95BsHoyjg by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T11:41:32Z
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@neonsnake The Pyramids have been tourist attractions that charged admission for thousands of years. They have served this purpose longer than they served a purpose as graves or temples to their Pharaohs. It's hard to explain how huge they are, how much like small mountains, how they have been modified, opened, closed, renovated and repurposed. Think of how complex a building that is 400 years old can be. How hard it is to understand its history. Now do it for THOUSANDS of years.
(DIR) Post #AoMnBiokVRnqnMo0Bc by limpr@ruhr.social
2024-11-24T11:42:32Z
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@futurebird When your gods are people with superpowers, and nature is run by nymphs and fauns, then "man-made" things have nothing special about them at all.
(DIR) Post #AoMnJtyWuDsRiWHTJw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T11:44:02Z
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@neonsnake I kinda, low key think we should make some more Pyramids. Just to have them for the future. We could record all of the cool scientific discoveries on the walls, and simple versions of interesting historic events and animals we've discovered. What is the largest stone ever used in a human construction, a building or monument? Is it from the modern era, or are the largest stones in our past already?
(DIR) Post #AoMnOqpG2jsHOfItzU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T11:44:56Z
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@neonsnake OK I'll admit it. I think we should cover them in a record of all of the ants. Because what if some species of ant goes extinct and has no fossils and is forgotten??
(DIR) Post #AoMni18Tw18msJR1tI by Seanochicago@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-11-24T11:48:16Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake it’s probably Stone Mountain, Georgia, which the largest bas relief sculpture in the world.
(DIR) Post #AoMnjM9PHsCKLDVRM8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T11:48:29Z
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@neonsnake The problem is, if you dress your Pyramid with a nice stone like granite future people will strip the casing stones to make their own buildings. So you can't use anything **too** nice or tempting to reuse in the construction. At the same time the stone that lasts the longest tends to be the nicer stone that people will be tempted to steal...
(DIR) Post #AoMnnKIS7fbPkVd8bo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T11:49:22Z
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@passenger @neonsnake "Optionally, entrap Bezos and Musk inside them."I love it! And... framed the right way they might just go along with it...
(DIR) Post #AoMonUmrDfu2ErUq4O by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T12:00:36Z
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@neonsnake Can you imagine hearing about them in a world without photographs?"Oh yeah, up in Egypt they built these buildings of stone long ago, and you can even go inside of them. It's as big as that hill over yon."And I'd be thinking "This dude is lying no way it's that big."But then more people keep saying the same thing. And you start to wonder if it is true. Maybe you even see a drawing. If one had the means to go and SEE I know I would!
(DIR) Post #AoMpIiAVW9Z0iYRY4u by mattmcirvin@mathstodon.xyz
2024-11-24T12:06:14Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake The Tower of London has been a tourist attraction for most of its history. For centuries one of its major functions was as a zoo-- the Royal Bestiary was kept there, and there were basically no restrictions in random tourists interacting directly with the animals, which led to some unfortunate incidents.
(DIR) Post #AoMq4hmIGyTxPG0EVc by SKleefeld@mastodon.social
2024-11-24T12:14:51Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake What I never thought about until the past year or two was that identifying "The 7 Great Wonders of the World" basically just stemmed from some tourist guides. Not that any of them weren't impressive, but the 'qualifiers' for the list were just that a few people wrote travelogues that said, "Whoa, these pyramids are neat! You should totally visit!"
(DIR) Post #AoMrXnyIQM1ey33ZM8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T12:31:20Z
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@ashwin @neonsnake nah.They show that people can make amazing things and can you imagine the pride of knowing your uncle helped to make one? Or helping to make one yourself?
(DIR) Post #AoMrjUeW4rzCWeNVgG by Ivor@mstdn.social
2024-11-24T12:33:25Z
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@futurebird I can't help showing this off again. We took it to the Hancock museum in Newcastle to have it assessed DUR-987962 if anyone wants to look it up) and the experts were really not impressed by it's workaday appearance.I love it. It's andesite which occurs high in the Cheviot hills several miles from where I dug it out of our garden in Northumberland. Pieces of worked flint in field next door as well. Imagine, someone sat and made that. I don't care how crude it is, it's amazing.
(DIR) Post #AoMs43h5VIcqzqO4Ce by seawall@mastodon.nz
2024-11-24T12:37:09Z
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@futurebird considering how fixated I've gotten on certain craft projects, I'm not too surprised to think there were Neolithic folks just sitting around knapping rock day and night to quiet their buzzy-bee minds
(DIR) Post #AoMsfaDRYEZkZlPkZ6 by th@social.v.st
2024-11-24T12:43:41Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake that was one of the considerations in designing the Long Term Warning Message: "nothing of value is here" including the signs telling you that "nothing of value is here"
(DIR) Post #AoMw18pIMgnHrW5g5g by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T13:21:27Z
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@ashwin @neonsnake You will rob from me the joy of any human achievement if I must considered the connections to exploitation. How can I find a computer program elegant when the semiconductors were made in a sweatshop? Though I find the evidence that the Pyramids were not made by slave labor very compelling. If only because if I lived in that time I'd be climbing over everyone to get involved in any way that I could.
(DIR) Post #AoMxKtEi8cRPFwxXJw by InkySchwartz@mastodon.social
2024-11-24T13:36:13Z
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@futurebird @ashwin @neonsnake The evidence for non slave labor constructing the pyramids is very strong since the evidence points to using agricultural people that weren't currently farming, since it wasn't thenseason for that, and feeding them.This probably helps explain why these structures were multi decadal projects.Was it a symbol of the prexisting hierarchy, probably. Was it as explotative as we used to think, no.
(DIR) Post #AoMxYbQT9Yty4Yzveq by piratero@mastodon.world
2024-11-24T13:38:43Z
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@futurebird @ashwin @neonsnake Enjoy!https://youtu.be/Ass6vZt2lAE?si=g4l5WsEB2yPeZqRn
(DIR) Post #AoMzvDzAfZmLwV8zku by mcc@mastodon.social
2024-11-24T14:05:10Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake for once, the south is pulling its weight here.(The latter is not a pyramid TECHNICALLY, but it is at least full of rare butterflies.)
(DIR) Post #AoN3Z8ELmo2bXTxsw4 by lePetomaneAncien@fosstodon.org
2024-11-24T14:46:05Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake Story I heard as a kid in Sunday school:Pope visits the masons building the cathedral he funded.Pope: What are you doing?Mason 1: Cutting stones.Pope: And what are you doing?Mason 2: Fitting cut stones together.Pope: And you. What are you doing?Mason 3: Worshipping God.I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the laborers building the pyramids were told they were doing holy work and that, if they died in the job, they would accompany their god-king to heaven.
(DIR) Post #AoN4vASgGtC8mejtbM by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2024-11-24T15:01:04Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake Very Long Now.Although I am annoyed by the Long Now Society since they unaccountably decided to get into NFTs.
(DIR) Post #AoN54pHjrNME0BE7Cy by lePetomaneAncien@fosstodon.org
2024-11-24T15:02:59Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona.Construction begun: 1882Construction complete: 2026 (estimated)Lots of large stones from various quarries. Lots of technology from various eras. What makes this worth over a century of more or less continuous effort punctuated by wars and other examples of human folly and, perhaps, divine indifference?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia?wprov=sfla1
(DIR) Post #AoNFXV70wNbvNNWR9M by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-24T17:00:13Z
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@PJ_Evans @NatureMC @Theriac This is ... an ominous thing to say. Anyway *I* not getting into that mixer find someone else.
(DIR) Post #AoPhYqmAMCRLAEcMtc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-25T21:23:35Z
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@ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake I don't know. I think building a Pyramid with slave labor would be a big mistake. Because people would be clamoring to be a part of the project. It's a huge propaganda piece. It'd be like using slave for your Astronauts. I don't have any illusions about something like a Pharaoh being good or benevolent any more than our present leaders. The whole notion that they were built by slaves is mostly another kind of propaganda. And who is it serving?
(DIR) Post #AoPhmjX25SvSkd9wLQ by tuban_muzuru@ohai.social
2024-11-25T21:26:07Z
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@futurebird @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake We know a great deal about the lives of the pyramid builders. We know they weren't slaves.
(DIR) Post #AoPi1HERaU0dKBOpbE by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-25T21:28:46Z
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@tuban_muzuru @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake If we want to tell stories about the Pharaohs being horrible we could talk about the first few who were that kind of leader who insists that everyone dies when they die. Death "sacrifices" ... and people look sideways at ANTS for being willing to run out and risk death to save their sisters. Humans do far more disturbing things than ants.
(DIR) Post #AoPiM8DQJ0TFRRrm1Q by matera@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-11-25T21:32:31Z
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@futurebird @tuban_muzuru @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake Ants don't have gods
(DIR) Post #AoPiQ7M9RTDPw2qjQ0 by Kierkegaanks@beige.party
2024-11-25T21:33:13Z
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@futurebird i think the greeks came up with that idea and the romans copied it like they did literally everything else the greeks did - even the language
(DIR) Post #AoPib5fU3iivsv7lxY by tuban_muzuru@ohai.social
2024-11-25T21:35:13Z
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@futurebird @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake My opinion of human beings is very low and getting lower every day. It's an asymptotic function - yes it's hard to be worse than we are, but if we try a little harder, murder a few more innocents... Murderous little hominids whose tech outran our consciences.
(DIR) Post #AoPiuebAPf0vinQx8a by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-25T21:38:47Z
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@tuban_muzuru @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake To the credit of the Egyptians they quickly got sick of this after a few times, and came up with the uh... technology of making little clay servants and saying some words and putting THOSE in the grave instead of the people. And you know what? I will take it. Whatever you need to do. Just please do not kill more people just because some guy died. That was a terrible idea. F-
(DIR) Post #AoPlchjwIHoo7AfZpY by cshlan@dawdling.net
2024-11-25T22:09:01Z
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@futurebird"After comparing DNA samples taken from the workers' bones with samples taken from modern Egyptians, Dr Moamina Kamal of Cairo University Medical School has suggested that Khufu's pyramid was a truly nationwide project, with workers drawn to Giza from all over Egypt."https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/pyramid_builders_01.shtml#eight
(DIR) Post #AoPljqdXc8vJjc5DrU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-25T22:10:27Z
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@cshlan If you worked on that job you'd have a story to tell forever. "oh yeah I remember when we laid that layer? See that long block? nearly crushed my toe"
(DIR) Post #AoPmeestytvBnAMDmS by lolonurse@ohai.social
2024-11-25T22:20:41Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake I imagine there were lots of stories of these wonders, shared at points along the Silk Road.
(DIR) Post #AoPp0fErXq1nAaFZk8 by lolonurse@ohai.social
2024-11-25T22:47:05Z
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@futurebird @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake This is such an interesting thread. As a Jew, every Passover, we heard the story about our ancient enslaved forefathers being freed from bondage. But the most recent digs do seem to prove that the craftsmen and laborers were voluntary, or at least not slaves. Then again, I've never believed in the old man in the sky.
(DIR) Post #AoPpBvsi0YdlyIGFl2 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-11-25T22:49:07Z
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@lolonurse @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake I don't think saying that the Egyptians didn't use slaves for the pyramids means they didn't use slaves at all. They totally did.
(DIR) Post #AoPpzEc59UkyFyzdlA by tuban_muzuru@ohai.social
2024-11-25T22:58:02Z
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@futurebird @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake ... about 5,000 years ago, a scrawny little Egyptian girl is standing in her momma's kitchen with a purrful little kitten."Mom, can I keep her?"
(DIR) Post #AoQLtnfR6dOvlr0xUW by lolonurse@ohai.social
2024-11-26T04:55:36Z
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@futurebird @ashwin @InkySchwartz @cshlan @neonsnake The thing about slavery is that it has always gone on, and often within the same ethnic groups. The Irish enslaved fellow Irish. Different groups of Africans captured and sold others to the European slave traders. It was money. Chinese have enslaved each other for centuries. Romans, Turks and Huns enslaved anyone. We are such an illogical, harsh species.
(DIR) Post #AoQYLIcTKjYt2IVVFw by lufthans@mastodon.social
2024-11-26T07:15:02Z
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@futurebird @neonsnake or how simple a 1,000 year old building can beyears ago I was on a tour of a German city with a bunch of AmericansThe tourguide pointed out a new Fachwerkhaus across the street from an old Fachwerkhaus ( the big timber houses with plaster between the timbers )To have fun with the New Englanders I asked how old the new Fachwerkhaus was, she replied that it was only about 1,000 years oldThe difference BTW, was external hand hewn nails vs internal locking on the beams