EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

People Are Saying This Ancient Greek “Laptop” Is Proof of Time Travel

People Are Saying This Ancient Greek “Laptop” Is Proof of Time Travel

A conspiracy theorist’s YouTube video about how this ancient Greek grave marker depicts a laptop more than 2,000 years before personal computers were even a thing has resurfaced and went viral over the weekend. 

We obviously don’t need to tell you that this definitely is not a laptop, and no, the ancient Greeks didn’t possess the technology to go time travelling in search of a better way to communicate with the Oracle of Delphi – a divine being who acted as the official conduit between man and the gods – but what the hell is it?

Currently on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, the marble carving entitled “Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant” has been dated to around 100 BC, and sourced possibly to Delos – a tiny island to the east of the Greek mainland with enormous mythological, cultural, and archaeological importance.

Stretching 94 cm high and more than 120 cm across, the carved funerary relief depicts a wealthy woman reclining on an armchair, reaching out to an object being offered up by a servant girl.

“The depiction of the deceased reaching out for an item held by a servant has a long history in Greek funerary art and probably alludes to the hope of continuing earthly pleasures in the afterlife,” the Museum notes.

People Are Saying This Ancient Greek "Laptop" Is Proof of Time Travel

The official description of the laptop-like item is a “shallow chest”, and despite YouTuber StillSpeakingOut (he sure is) insisting that a tourist’s picture taken from a different angle shows that the object is too wide and narrow to be a jewellery box, US-based classical archaeologist Dorothy Lobel told Discovery News what we’re all thinking.

“The claim is ridiculous as it is clearly a box,” she says. 

Another well-known classical archaeologist, Janet Burnett Grossman, told Discovery that the object is likely a flat box or a mirror, while others have suggested that it’s a wax writing tablet, which was used to record official documents at the time, such as birth certificates.

“If we look at other similar depictions in Greek art, we can see that a tablet – of the ancient variety, not the modern kind – looks a lot like a small laptop, and like the object in this grave marker,” Kristina Killgrove writes for Forbes. 

“Usually it is men who are depicted with a wax tablet, though, so why this wealthy woman? There is also evidence of the goddess Athena being shown with a writing tablet and stylus, so the association between the wealthy deceased woman and Athena via a wax tablet makes some sense.”

Red figure vase by the Douris painter (dated to around 500 BC), housed by Germany’s Museum Berlin.

Okay sure, but what about those USB ports with weird holes on the side?

As Killgrove notes, conspicuous holes aren’t uncommon in ancient Greek sculpture work, as they were sometimes embellished with perishable materials, such as holes drilled into the fists of soldiers or the heads of horses to allow for realistic reigns to be added in. Maybe the box had an elaborately carved wooden face that slotted into the two holes.

“This particular stele shows evidence of reworking,” adds Killgrove. “It was originally a three-sided grave marker, but it is now missing the top pediment, the wall on the left side, and an inscription on the bottom. The holes could relate to any of the pieces that are now missing.”

So there you have it – the conspiracy theory that didn’t need debunking: debunked.

If nothing else, it’s a nice excuse to pay attention to an incredibly beautiful and skilful work created by humans more than two millennia ago, and for archaeologists to take some time out of their busy day to deliver a sick burn or two, like this one from Lobel King:

“Any time traveller would know that laptops are powered by electricity, whilst the Greeks did not have sockets.”

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Norway’s Medieval Monks Discussed Their Meals in Silence

Norway’s Medieval Monks Discussed Their Meals in Silence

Mealtime peace is a well-known concept in many Norwegian homes: You should sit still at the table and enjoy the food you are served. Monks back in the day took this to a new level. Speaking during meals was forbidden, and so a new sign language was born.

Norway’s Medieval Monks Discussed Their Meals in Silence
The two daily meals were important to the monks. They were to be enjoyed in silence.

The monastery on a small Oslo island

Marianne Vedeler is a professor of Archeology at the Museum of Cultural History. She says that the silent meals took place on Hovedøya, a small island in the Oslofjord.

“A small group of monks came here in the 12th century. They had travelled from Kirkstead in England and wanted to establish a monastery here in Norway. They were Cistercian monks and had a very strict monastic order,” she says.

Marianne Vedeler is a professor of Archeology at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo.

The rules covered all aspects of how they should live and were regulated down to how much bread they could eat per day.

“The rules were written down, so we know a lot about how these monks lived in the Middle Ages,” Vedeler says.

The regulations for Cistercian monks were international and thus followed them to Hovedøya in Oslo.

“Here they were to live like the Cistercian monks in monasteries in France and England. And the monasteries were to be designed according to the same template,” Vedeler says.

She has examined ruins, food remains, and fish bones that remain after the monks on the island Hovedøya.

The remaining ruins of the Cistercian monastery on Hovedøya in the Oslofjord.

Silent since the 6th century

The Monastic monks’ motto was “Ora et labora” – to pray and work. This was to occupy most of the day. It was generally desirable to minimise talking as much as possible. Their thoughts were to be turned towards God.

The two daily meals were also important. Everyone sat on one side of the table. By doing this, they avoided a possible conversation partner in front of them.

According to an article in the scientific journal Gastronomica, the rules of silent meals were introduced as early as the 6th century with ‘The Rule of Saint Benedict’. Saint Benedict encouraged the monks to communicate in other ways than using their voices during meals.

To accomplish this, monks at the mighty and prosperous Monastery of Cluny in France began remaining silent throughout their meals. The article in Gastronomica makes references to a biography in which Vikings captured a group of monks that they tried to force to speak. They were unsuccessful.

Hovedøya in the Oslofjord by night. The small island can be accessed by ferries during the daytime and is a popular place to visit for outings and swimming during the summer.

Monk sign language

Vedeler says that the ban on talking may have led to the monks enjoying their meals more. It was important for the monks to find a place to live where they could sustain themselves by fishing and growing fruit and vegetables. They were pescatarians and ate seafood in addition to a largely vegetarian diet.

“This is why Hovedøya was an ideal place to set up the monastery,” she says.

In addition to what could be captured in the sea, the monks constructed a fish farm on land where they could keep freshwater fish. These species of fish have their own specific signs in the sign language.

To be sent a piece of pike during mealtime, the monks had to move their hands quickly like a fishtail.

Kirk Ambrose, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has created a list of how different foods were communicated through sign language. The monks had signs for, amongst other things, honey, beans, eggs, and seven different species of fish.

To signal fish, the monks moved their hands like a fishtail in water. For squid, they would spread their fingers and wave them. If you wanted an eel, your hands had to be held together as if you were holding an eel. Pike could be communicated using the same sign as for fish, but with a faster movement because the pike is a fast swimmer.

Ambrose further writes that some of the signs are used by Cistercian monks even to this day.

EUROPE, NETHERLANDS, WORLD

Researchers Examine Neolithic Grave Goods in the Netherlands

Researchers Examine Neolithic Grave Goods in the Netherlands

New archaeological research into grave goods and skeletal material from the oldest grave field in the Netherlands shows that male-female roles 7,000 words ago were less traditional than was thought.

The research was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Archol, the National Museum of Antiquities and Leiden University.

New analyses of male-female goods

A team of chemical analysts, physical anthropologists and archaeologists studied the Elsloo grave field (Municipality of Stein, Limburg). Dr Luc Amkreutz, curator of prehistory at the National Museum of Antiquities and Professor by Special Appointment of Public Archaeology at Leiden University, was closely involved.

The researchers examined the grave goods and skeletal remains. They could determine the sex and age of some of the deceased from the cremation remains. This enabled them to conclude that flint arrowheads and stone axes, which are traditionally attributed to men, are also frequently found in women’s graves in the Elsloo field.

Researchers Examine Neolithic Grave Goods in the Netherlands

This casts new light on the traditional idea that grave goods, as personal possessions, are representative of the daily life and sex of the deceased. They turn out to be less gender-specific than previously thought.

Objects not linked to sex or age

The graves of the elderly, especially those of women, were richly furnished. There appears to be a certain status associated with age. There also seems to be a ‘burial tradition’ with specific grave goods and rituals, which are often related to hunting, food preparation, woodworking and body decoration.

Many of the deceased were sprinkled with red ochre, for example.

And almost all of the grave goods had been intensively used, regardless of the sex and age of the deceased.

The goods seem to be specific utensils that belonged to the deceased’s relatives and were deliberately placed in the grave. This gives a good impression of the role of the living, their choices and the rituals surrounding death.

The research reveals a clear nuance in the roles of prehistoric men as hunters, herders, warriors and builders, and women as caregivers and potters.

Oldest known burial field in the Netherlands

The Neolithic burial field at Elsloo belonged to the Linear Pottery culture, the first farming communities in the Netherlands and large parts of Europe over 7,000 years ago.

READ ALSO: 18TH-CENTURY BONES OF SICK SOLDIERS IDENTIFIED IN THE NETHERLANDS

The Elsloo burial field is the oldest known burial field in the Netherlands (circa 5100-4950 BC). It was excavated by the Cultural Heritage Agency under the leadership of prehistorian Pieter Modderman (1959) and Leiden University (1966).

The finds have since been in the care of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.

This research was carried out within the Cultural Heritage Agency’s Knowledge of Archaeology project. A selection of the finds from the burial field will be on display for a year from 24 June 2022 at Historiehuis van de Maasvallei in Elsloo.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

1,300-year-old shipwreck found in France

1,300-year-old shipwreck found in France

Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a ship that navigated the Garonne river in southwestern France in the 7th-8th century. The wooden ship was unearthed buried under the bed of the Estey de Lugan, a silted-over stream outside the city of Bordeaux.

The thick, water-logged clay has preserved the organic materials of the ship, including some rope fittings, for 1,300 years.

There is almost no surviving written history chronicling navigation methods from the period, so the survival of this shipwreck is a unique testimonial to naval design in early medieval France.

1,300-year-old shipwreck found in France

The wreck is about 40 feet long, out of an estimated original length of about 50 feet when it was intact.

The keel and dimensions indicate it was a cargo ship capable of both river and coastal navigation. It has a flat floor that would have allowed it to carry bulk goods. Both oak and softwood were used to construct it.

INRAP archaeologists will first document the ship in meticulous detail with photogrammetry, a 3D virtual model numbering and recording every individual piece of wood.

The planks will be dismantled and numbered so that they can be reconstructed once stabilized and conserved.

The removal of the wreck will give archaeologists the unprecedented opportunity to study how it was constructed and how it navigated the waterways.

The team will also be able to study the waterways themselves.

The ship was found in a relatively remote area, a stream that was already non-navigable when it was documented in the 18th century. That a cargo vessel would take to a small stream off the Garonne attests to how these marshy areas near major waterways were used by trade vessels.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Chimú wooden litter bearer found in Peru

Chimú wooden litter bearer found in Peru

Archaeologists have discovered a wooden sculpture depicting a litter bearer of a ruler of the Chimú culture at the Chan Chan archaeological site on the outskirts of Trujillo, northwestern Peru.

The sculpture has not been absolutely dated yet, but the style indicates it is early Chimú, between 850 and 1,470 years old, making it one of the oldest sculptures found at the site. Despite its advanced age, it is in excellent condition, complete with its original bright paint.

The piece was unearthed during conservation work on the Huaca Takaynamo, a pyramidal structure in the north of the ancient complex. The sculpture is 18.5 inches long and just over six inches wide and depicts a male figure with bent arms and straight legs.

Chimú wooden litter bearer found in Peru

The face is oval in shape and flat with the exception of a veritable sundial of the nose that juts upwards. It is painted red. The eyes are almond-shaped and filled in with a black resin originally used as an adhesive for mother-of-pearl inlays that are now lost. The curved, scooped ears have a layer of the same black resin.

The right arm is bent upwards at the elbow, cleaving close to the body. The hand is at shoulder height, palm facing the torso.

The left arm bends 90 degrees at the elbow with the hand outstretched in front of the torso. The chest, arms and hands were also painted red.

He wears a trapezoidal cap and a triangular skirt. The cap is decorated with seven vertical bands in alternating light and dark colours, with a dark horizontal band across the forehead.

The skirt has a dark triangle in the middle and the edge is decorated with rectangular bands similar to the ones on the cap.

Next to the sculpture, archaeologists discovered nectandra seeds — known to have been used for ritual purposes in pre-Hispanic Peru — that were strung on a thread to wear as a necklace.

Underneath the figure was a small black bag stitched with decorative brown and white thread.

Archaeologist Arturo Paredes Núñez, head of the Pecach Research, Conservation and Enhancement Unit, pointed out the characteristics of this finding. “Chimú wood carvings or sculptures are fixed or mobile. The former are documented at the entrance to some walled complexes of Chan Chan, from an uncarved segment that when buried, fixes the carved portion of the element to the ground. The mobile sculpture lacks such an element and has frequently been documented in some huacas,” he said.

The Huaca Takaynamo is north of the main complex of Chan Chan. It is being excavated as part of a wider project of conservation and study to learn more about the peripheral buildings in the ancient city and how to preserve them for eventual display. The litter bearer sculpture is key evidence that the Huaca had a ceremonial function.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Archaeologists unearth 3,800-year-old wall relief in Peru

Archaeologists unearth 3,800-year-old wall relief in Peru

Wall carvings were found in what was once a fishing city of the Caral civilization, the oldest in the Americas. The relief is thought to symbolize a period of drought and famine brought on by climate change.

Archaeologists discovered an ancient wall relief in Peru, belonging to the oldest civilizations in the Americas, news agency Andina reported on Thursday. The wall is approximately 3,800 years old and portrays snakes and human heads.

One meter (3.2 feet) high and 2.8 meters long, the wall relief was discovered in the sea-side archaeological site of Vichama, 110 kilometres (68 miles) north of Peru’s capital, Lima.

The Vichama site is one of the excavation points of the recently discovered Caral civilization, also known as Norte Chico, and has been explored by archaeologists since 2007.

Aerial view of the Caral Archeological Area in the Supe valley

The Caral civilization is 5,000 years old, making it the oldest civilization in the Americas, and flourished at the same time as the thriving Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Chinese civilizations. The Caral people lived in the Supe Valley along the north-central coast of Peru.

Dating back to 1800 and 3500 B.C., Vichama is thought to have been a fishing community and one of the Caral peoples’ various cities. The wall was made of adobe, a clay-like material from which bricks are made and was located at the entry point of a ceremonial hall.

The snakes represent a water deity that lands on a humanoid seed

Documenting climate change

The wall relief shows four human heads, side by side, their eyes closed, with two snakes passing between and around them. The snakes point their heads to what appears to be a humanoid seed symbol that is digging into the soil.

Archaeologist Ruth Shady, who oversees the site and announced the discovery, hypothesized that the serpents represent a water deity that irrigates the earth and makes seeds grow.

READ ALSO: CARAL: THE OLDEST CIVILIZATION IN THE AMERICAS

Shady said the relief was likely done towards the end of a drought and famine that the Caral civilization experienced. Other reliefs discovered nearby showed emaciated humans.

Archaeologists unearth 3,800-year-old wall relief in Peru
Previously discovered reliefs, depicting emaciated humans

Archaeologists believe that the relief discovery reinforces the notion that these early humans were attempting to depict the difficulties they faced due to climate change and water scarcity, which had a large impact on their agricultural production.

The Caral excavation site has so far unearthed the ruins of 22 buildings in a 25-hectare space, dating back to between 1800 and 1500 B.C.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

An Ancient Home Found Beneath the Baths of Caracalla Is Now on Display

An Ancient Home Found Beneath the Baths of Caracalla Is Now on Display

On their own, the early third-century Baths of Caracalla in Rome are a site of imposing magnificence. But now, visitors will get to see what existed at the site before the lavish public baths were built: a Roman home with frescoed ceilings and a prayer room paying homage to Roman and Egyptian gods.

An Ancient Home Found Beneath the Baths of Caracalla Is Now on Display
Discovered beneath the Baths of Caracalla, the two-story home dates to between 134 and 138 C.E.

“For the first time, visitors can admire parts of the frescoes from the ceiling of a second room of the Domus [home] that collapsed,” Luca del Fra, spokesperson for the Special Superintendence of Rome, tells CNN’s Livia Borghese and Jeevan Ravindran.

The two-story home was built around 134 to 138 C.E., in the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian, reports Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press (AP). But the structure was dismantled in part to make way for the baths, which opened in 216 C.E.

These ruins went largely undetected until the mid-19th century when they were discovered roughly ten yards below the baths.

Another century passed before they were excavated, at which point the prayer room and parts of the frescoed dining room ceiling were taken away to be restored, per the AP.

Now, the ceiling frescoes and prayer room are open as part of a permanent exhibition, which will help visitors see the baths in the context of what came before. 

Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) was the god of wine and was depicted in the frescoes discovered under the Baths of Caracalla.

The ceiling depicts images of Bacchus, the god of wine, in “prized Egyptian blue and Cinnabar red pigments,” as conservators told the AP.

Anubis, the Egyptian god of death and the afterlife, is also depicted within the Roman frescoes at the Baths of Caracalla.

The inner temple shows the Roman gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, while also depicting silhouettes of the Egyptian deities Isis and Anubis. This religious melting pot suggests a mixing of Roman and Egyptian culture and religion, even in the domestic space.

“It’s stunning that there are two separate pantheons or groups of gods, one from the Greek-Roman tradition … and one from the Egyptian tradition,” del Fra tells CNN. “This could indicate that the family who owned the Domus had a close relationship with Egypt.”

READ ALSO: ANCIENT BOWL FROM TIBET SHOWS ALEXANDER THE GREAT – THE JEWISH VERSION

The site’s director, Mirella Serlorenzi, tells CNN that the juxtaposition of the two cultures is an example of the “religious syncretism typical of ancient Rome since its foundation.”

The Roman frescoes were once part of a Domus, created between 134 and 138m during the time of Emperor Hadrian. The Baths of Caracalla were built on top of the site where this house had existed.

Additionally, experts are interested in the frescoes because other existing evidence of Roman wall art is found largely in Pompeii and Herculaneum, two towns buried and eventually preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., Serlorenzi tells the AP. 

“Roman painting after the first century C.E. has remained a mystery,” she adds, “because we just haven’t had rooms so well-conserved.” 

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

1200-Year-Old Tibetan Chessboard Found Engraved On Rock

1200-Year-Old Tibetan Chessboard Found Engraved On Rock

The Tubo Kingdom of Tibet flourished from circa the 7th – 9th centuries. Interestingly enough, the ancient land-locked realm was influenced by both contemporary Chinese and Indians, especially in the fields of government, religion, literature, and culture.

Pertaining to the latter, archaeologists have discovered a Tibetan chessboard engraved on an imposing rock surface dating back to the Tubo era.

The discovery was made in what is now southwest China’s Sichuan province, with the site being located only around 19 miles away from the autonomous region of Garze in Tibet.

1200-Year-Old Tibetan Chessboard Found Engraved On Rock

According to the researchers from the cultural and tourism bureau of the Tibetan autonomous region, the chessboard was carved on the surface of a 2-tonne rock, thus essentially making it the centrepiece of the massive ‘setup’.

However, since we are talking about chess, the board arrangement varies from our modern chessboard, with the 1,300-year-old specimen having 100 squares instead of 64.

Furthermore, the researchers also found two grooves on either side of the engraved board that was probably used for holding the pieces.

Now in terms of history, the Tubo Kingdom was multi-ethnic in nature, while also being one of the most powerful realms of Eastern Asia that established its dominance outside of traditional Tibet – mainly in the regions of what is now modern Gansu and Qinghai.

As for the cultural side of affairs, this ancient version of chess was pretty popular among the Tibetan noble classes, with the game often played by the commanders of the realm.

Relating to this scope, Chinese archaeologists had previously discovered a similar Tibetan chessboard in Maizhokunggar county within Tibet proper.

All In One Magazine