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5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

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Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#61

Post by Cthulhu_ »

btrettel wrote: post #49

How does one get better at noticing that something is "off" like this sword not matching its claimed origin? To me, it took more than student being an expert here. Experts often miss things like this in my experience if they're not paying attention for it. I'm assuming that the student was the a tour not in her capacity as a Bronze age weapons specialist, so if that's true then this wasn't necessarily something she w…

I'm making a guess here, but mindfulness and being 'awake' (bit vague terms I know) would do it I think; I believe so many people walked past that sword without really paying much attention to it - oh it's an old sword in a display case (I think?), neat. In a place like that, and I get the same thing in historical museums, you get so much things coming at you that it's hard to take it all in - let alone think critically about it.

I'm guessing she took more than a quick glance at the sword and the blurb.

Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#62

Post by ForHackernews »

brailsafe wrote: post #55
btrettel wrote: post #49

How does one get better at noticing that something is "off" like this sword not matching its claimed origin? To me, it took more than student being an expert here. Experts often miss things like this in my experience if they're not paying attention for it. I'm assuming that the student was the a tour not in her capacity as a Bronze age weapons specialist, so if that's true then this wasn't necessarily something she w…

It seems like in this case, there was a vague description that didn't align with her acute knowledge of a very specific/esoteric subject. Her father was an archival researcher at the monastery. So to get better at this, a good path would probably be to develop general critical observation skills, as well as a deep understanding of particular subjects that you'd be exposed to.

I think you may be misreading the term "father" in this context. It's not that the grad student's literal biological father is a researcher at the monastery. One of the priests/monks, who carry the honorific title Father[0], is an archival researcher in the monastery.

[0] https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/d003rpHowToAddre...

Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#63

Post by mboto »

arminiusreturns wrote: post #51
hodgesrm wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems your user name matches your hobby!

I suppose you have a point! Most people don't know the story of Arminius so I usually dont get any comments about it.

I just heard about it the other week via In Our Time on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f69q

Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#64

Post by goodcanadian »

btrettel wrote: post #49

How does one get better at noticing that something is "off" like this sword not matching its claimed origin? To me, it took more than student being an expert here. Experts often miss things like this in my experience if they're not paying attention for it. I'm assuming that the student was the a tour not in her capacity as a Bronze age weapons specialist, so if that's true then this wasn't necessarily something she w…

Well, in this case, I don't think it was a subtle "something is off." The sword matched a specific pattern that she was very familiar with from her studies. She recognised it.

Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#65

Post by neuronic »

beaner wrote: post #47
tptacek wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't 2000 years ago basically the height of the Roman Empire?

I suppose so, but that doesn't tell me anything. Edit: Downvotes? I'm expressing my own naivety. Not everyone has intuition of the heights of empires and what that means for metal usage.

It's nearly impossible to grow up in Western culture (no experience with others) and not have some extremely basic Asterix-level understanding of what the Romans were and when they lived.

And that they basically copied large chunks of their own culture from Greece which invented democracy a few centuries earlier.

I mean, even Christian fundamentals have that context based on their lecture of the Christ saga.

It's all fundamentally what our own culture is based on in the West, just look at Washington DC and the buildings. Or Wall St. The Greco-Roman influence is permeating the West.

Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#67

Post by williamdclt »

beaner wrote: post #14

I wasn't even aware things were really made of metal before like 2,000 years ago. Crazy! Is there a history of metal somewhere? Bronze, copper, tin, steal, gold, harvesting, forging, etc. It would be an interesting read of history, science, and discovery.

2000 years ago is an easy one. Hint: if you want to nail a guy to a cross, you'll need to work some metal!

Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#69

Post by robin_reala »

brailsafe wrote: post #57
robin_reala wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blackface letters are used in in mathematical notation, so it’s not so much a different font as an extremely broken equation.

Blackletter

Oops! Too late to edit :(

Re: 5,000-year-old sword discovered by archaeology student at a Venetian monastery

#70

Post by masonic »

rvz wrote: post #19

Reminds me of the discovery of a 1,500 year old sword at the bottom of a lake thought to be King Arthur's legendary excalibur which was said to have been thrown in that same lake in Cornwall in England [0]. 𝔄𝔫𝔡 𝔰𝔬 𝔶𝔢 𝔩𝔢𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔈𝔵𝔠𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔟𝔲𝔯 𝔴𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔯𝔲𝔢... [0] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/schoolgirl-e...

"Strange women handing over swords is no basis for a system of government... You can't expect to wield Supreme Executive Power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
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