51–57 of 57 posts
Some records suggest that people in Azerbaijan were taking crude oil baths as early as 6th century. I can't say what's true but it seems to make sense that people were fascinated by a liquid pouring from the ground. Just like when plutonium was first discovered it was used for health.
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To put things in perspective we are closer time-wise to Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt than he was to the building of the Great Pyramids. Ancient Egyptian culture was immensely old, even at that time, and was basically continuous for the whole period.
The figure I usually see used for that comparison is Julius Caesar or Cleopatra. I think Alexander is a little too old for it to be quite true.
It's worth noting that the color black signifies manifestation in Hermetic thought. The "first stuff" upon which everything is made. Think of statues of the Black Virgin (Mary, and before that Isis).
Blackness signifies how we should be if we want to be alchemically changed into a higher state. Open palms, receptive, like a mirror reflecting divinity.
Super interesting topic imo.
The black goo is bitumen, or tar. It is the binder used in road asphalt and was a common pitch used to seal boat hulls. The article focuses on the ritualistic aspect but doesn’t focus on the functional reasons. Sealing the mummified remains from the elements, sealing in the gasses and smells from mummification/decomposition, and gluing the sarcophagus seem like reasonable functional explanations. Some statues are als…
Indoor or outdoor statues? Stone eventually suffers from the elements if it left outside.
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Plastics just means a specific set of properties not what it’s specifically made from or can it be biodegradable. Depending on the exact chemical reaction makeup these could very well be considered plastics. Plastics date back around 3500 years with the earliest plastics being made form egg proteins and other animal sources, Shellac which can and is formed into plastic materials has been used for at least 3000 years…
Apparently, cellulose nitrate is also known as Nitrocellulose, and it's pretty explosive stuff; wrt replacing ivory billiards balls: "The invention enjoyed a brief popularity, but the Hyatt balls were extremely flammable, and sometimes portions of the outer shell would explode upon impact. An owner of a billiard saloon in Colorado wrote to Hyatt about the explosive tendencies, saying that he did not mind very much pe…
I guessed quite a few of these ingredients because I work with beeswax, tree resins and plant oils in the wood shop, particularly when doing instruments. I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story (floating blobs in the dead sea). That stuff looks like bitumen but I did not expect that they had petroleum products so long ago. I use lots of materials in my craft that were once used by the ancient Egyptians…
Bitumen has been used for over 70,000 years as an adhesive (and somewhat less for waterproofing), actually; the first use of it was by Neanderthals found in Syria. And it is still used today. I painted the bottom of my boat with black bituminous paint. Wonderful stuff, and it has some pretty unique properties that surprised me while I watched it weather for the first few years. Bitumen really is a wonderful thing, I'…