|
What's most remarkable is that they somehow managed to maintain some level of symmetry. That'd drive me nuts trying to figure out. Although I guess it's mostly fine since with all the sparkling and glinting as the light played over it, it'd never "look" perfectly symmetrical anyways? I've read a lot about how gemstones are shiny, but I've never really seen much in person.
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 02:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 02:56 |
|
|
I recently finishing Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra. It's really loving good but unfortunately (and perhaps unavoidably) it leans a little heavily on discussing her through the prism of Mark Antony, since so much of the (near)contemporary accounts of the time were heavy propaganda pieces to favor Augustus. I've read bios on Caesar, Cicero, Augustus & Cleopatra and really enjoyed them, are there any other bios out there on any particularly notable Romans worth reading? Schiff did write a bio on Benjamin Franklin I wouldn't mind taking a look at, but the Roman stuff still holds a particular fascination for me.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 03:28
|
|
|
CoolCab posted:putting aside boring stuff like spices are there many things today that are very inexpensive compared to in roman times? if i had a time machine and a tight budget and wanted to pass myself off as a rich foreigner what would i encrust myself with? I was going to say aluminum but then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aluminium posted:"One day a goldsmith in Rome was allowed to show the Emperor Tiberius a dinner plate of a new metal. The plate was very light, and almost as bright as silver. The goldsmith told the Emperor that he had made the metal from plain clay. He also assured the Emperor that only he, himself, and the Gods knew how to produce this metal from clay. The Emperor became very interested, and as a financial expert he was also a little concerned. The Emperor felt immediately, however, that all his treasures of gold and silver would decline in value if people started to produce this bright metal of clay. Therefore, instead of giving the goldsmith the regard expected, he ordered him to be beheaded." So, uh, maybe not. Tiberius was a dick. I bet some high quality optics would blow their minds. Give them a cheap telescope and a microscope and simultaneously advance astronomy and biology by 1000 years.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 03:38
|
|
|
I heard the same story except with a type of glass that didn't break. I think its apocryphal. Especially since you need electricity to smelt bauxite.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 03:44
|
|
|
Aluminum wouldn't be doable but high-quality metals in general are a whole lot cheaper today than for the Romans.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 03:47
|
|
|
sullat posted:I heard the same story except with a type of glass that didn't break. I think its apocryphal. Especially since you need electricity to smelt bauxite. Agreed. If it was actually metal, it seems extremely unlikely that it would be aluminum. I would vote for porcelain. It's made from clay and is amazingly light and strong, and translucent.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 03:50
|
|
|
And white. Ceramic was my first assumption reading the story.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 06:02
|
|
|
Koramei posted:I got one in Korea, it's cool as hell and I wish we used that poo poo in the West. Some people use rubber stamps with their signature on it, but they aren't exotic. You can get one for like 20 bucks at Office Depot.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 07:22
|
|
|
If you want to read some hilarious poo poo look for stories about how people take over businesses by stealing the stamps. Whoever owns the stamp owns the business!
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 07:27
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:If you want to read some hilarious poo poo look for stories about how people take over businesses by stealing the stamps. Whoever owns the stamp owns the business!
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 07:30
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:If you want to read some hilarious poo poo look for stories about how people take over businesses by stealing the stamps. Whoever owns the stamp owns the business! TIL there's a Fraud Magazine
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 07:32
|
|
|
I feel like there's probably an anime about a master stamp collector who takes over the world using stamp fraud.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 07:34
|
|
|
Regards: Roman coffee I looked into it briefly a few years back (running a cafe at a Roman Villa) and there are a few oblique references to black energy-giving beverages about in antiquity so the issue is probably one of popularisation and making it commercially viable to import. It would definitely be a cool thing to go back and institute coffee house culture a millennium or so early.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 09:40
|
|
|
sebzilla posted:Regards: Roman coffee I looked into it briefly a few years back (running a cafe at a Roman Villa) and there are a few oblique references to black energy-giving beverages about in antiquity so the issue is probably one of popularisation and making it commercially viable to import. It would definitely be a cool thing to go back and institute coffee house culture a millennium or so early. Pretty sure boiled cabbage juice is the real Roman coffee.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 11:14
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:Jade is weird in that it was highly valued in the Sinosphere and some Mesoamerican civilizations but nobody else seems to have cared all that much. New Zealand Maori were super into it, iirc there were nation wide trade routes. They used it to make some really beautiful weapons as well as jewelry and fish hooks and probably a bunch of other stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 11:27
|
|
|
Vaginal Vagrant posted:New Zealand Maori were super into it, iirc there were nation wide trade routes. They used it to make some really beautiful weapons as well as jewelry and fish hooks and probably a bunch of other stuff. Ah, interesting. Polynesia is a region I know next to nothing about other than the cool wave navigation thing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 12:51
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:Ah, interesting. Polynesia is a region I know next to nothing about other than the cool wave navigation thing. I've learned a little bit spending four weeks in Hawaii over the past two years but I dont know about no wave navigation thing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 14:05
|
|
|
AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:Who the what now? I shall teach you in the way of my people: Animated musicals that are broadly founded on fact https://youtu.be/ubZrAmRxy_M Kaal fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Jun 21, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 14:16
|
|
|
AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:Who the what now? Oh definitely google a full explanation, but basically the Polynesians figured out how wave patterns would go around islands and interfere and made maps of these patterns with sticks and shells. Polynesian navigators would lay on the bottom of their boats, feel the waves for a bit, and know where they were--and this has been experimentally demonstrated so it's not witchcraft the way it sounds at first. It's a solid nomination for the craziest poo poo any culture has ever managed to figure out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 14:21
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:Oh definitely google a full explanation, but basically the Polynesians figured out how wave patterns would go around islands and interfere and made maps of these patterns with sticks and shells. Polynesian navigators would lay on the bottom of their boats, feel the waves for a bit, and know where they were--and this has been experimentally demonstrated so it's not witchcraft the way it sounds at first. It's a solid nomination for the craziest poo poo any culture has ever managed to figure out. Here is a 5min TED-ed video providing a bit of explaination on polynesian navigation techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8bDCaPhOek
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 14:35
|
|
|
And here's a bunch of the maps they made of the wave patterns. http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/stick_charts/ A really different approach to cartography from what we're normally used to, but I guess it worked, seeing as how they crossed over such big distances to land upon such tiny targets.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 15:36
|
|
|
SlothfulCobra posted:And here's a bunch of the maps they made of the wave patterns. I think they stole GPS technology from the Bolivians 
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 15:52
|
|
|
Vaginal Vagrant posted:New Zealand Maori were super into it, iirc there were nation wide trade routes. They used it to make some really beautiful weapons as well as jewelry and fish hooks and probably a bunch of other stuff. Didn't king tut have a jade ring?
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 15:57
|
|
|
Tunicate posted:Didn't king tut have a jade ring? Speaking of things that were expensive then that isn't now: In king Tut's tomb there was a dagger made of iron which was probably the most valuable thing in the tomb.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 17:38
|
|
|
Alhazred posted:Speaking of things that were expensive then that isn't now: In king Tut's tomb there was a dagger made of iron which was probably the most valuable thing in the tomb. You mean, King Tut's iron dagger that was made from a meteorite? yeah, that's probably still incredibly valuable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_meteoric_iron_dagger
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 17:53
|
|
|
sullat posted:I heard the same story except with a type of glass that didn't break. I think its apocryphal. Especially since you need electricity to smelt bauxite. also like - wouldn't you get the secret of this amazing new technology? even if you were being all Tiberius about it, just torture the secret out of him. if you control the only source of the amazing new material it doesn't matter if your precious metals are worth less - you have a monopoly on the thing that's worth more!
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 17:59
|
|
|
Dalael posted:You mean, King Tut's iron dagger that was made from a meteorite? yeah, that's probably still incredibly valuable. Iron isn't more valuable than gold anymore: Hence, iron during this age was apprised as more valuable or precious than gold. Iron artifacts were given as royal gifts during the period directly preceding Tutankhamun's rule, i.e., during the reign of Amenhotep III.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 17:59
|
|
|
Alhazred posted:Iron isn't more valuable than gold anymore: that is insanely cool
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 18:06
|
|
|
SlothfulCobra posted:And here's a bunch of the maps they made of the wave patterns. these own really hard. Human resourcefulness never ceases to blow my mind
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 18:18
|
|
|
Alhazred posted:Iron isn't more valuable than gold anymore: You're not wrong, but I'd wager (I may be wrong) that the fact it comes from a meteorite, adds value to this particular dagger.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 18:23
|
|
|
Dalael posted:You're not wrong, but I'd wager (I may be wrong) that the fact it comes from a meteorite, adds value to this particular dagger.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 18:38
|
|
|
Dalael posted:You're not wrong, but I'd wager (I may be wrong) that the fact it comes from a meteorite, adds value to this particular dagger. Meteorites in general is valuable. But the point is, meteors were more or less the only source of iron in ancient Egypt so if you showed up with a lot of iron there you would be a rich man.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 18:55
|
|
|
ughhhh posted:In Asia? Sign of masculinity and status symbol. Also showing off your personal patron god (in my father's case, Ganesh, showing off his dedication to work and knowledge, also that we was a low caste who could afford a gaudy ring). He offered me his old ring but I refused, and instead I keep my pearl charm that my grandma made, which people know me by back home. I'm perpetually amused by how incredibly popular Ganesh is as a patron I mean, it makes sense, everybody is interested in business and luck
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 19:10
|
|
|
Yeah, when I heard about that iron dagger buried with a Bronze age pharaoh, I figured they buried it with him in case he needed to fight time travellers.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 20:05
|
|
|
Deteriorata posted:Agreed. If it was actually metal, it seems extremely unlikely that it would be aluminum. I would vote for porcelain. It's made from clay and is amazingly light and strong, and translucent. Porcelain took like 600 years of development for those characteristics to really show up as we think of them, some random Roman dude didn’t just stumble on the technique overnight.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2018 20:34
|
|
|
Koramei posted:Porcelain took like 600 years of development for those characteristics to really show up as we think of them, some random Roman dude didn’t just stumble on the technique overnight. He was clear that the gods were somehow involved.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2018 01:00
|
|
|
HEY GUNS posted:i mean I'D pay a shitton for it What would you do with it afterwards I feel like owning anything from tutankahmun's tomb would probably be more stress than it was worth Come downstairs in the morning and the cursed dagger has impaled the coffee maker again
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2018 01:12
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:What would you do with it afterwards
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2018 01:21
|
|
|
A really good thing to bring back to the ancient Romans if you wanted to make money and were thinking about weight/space is curare extract. It is light as a feather and takes up no room, it kills in a very mysterious way, it was unknown in Europe, it can't kill people by being ingested, you could sell it for a million billion sesterces.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2018 04:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 02:56 |
|
|
Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:A really good thing to bring back to the ancient Romans if you wanted to make money and were thinking about weight/space is curare extract. It is light as a feather and takes up no room, it kills in a very mysterious way, it was unknown in Europe, it can't kill people by being ingested, you could sell it for a million billion sesterces. Or just a whole bunch of oxycontin. Easier to get, too. At least in America.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2018 04:41
|
|