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‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

washingtonpost.com

51–60 of 74 posts

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experts in all fields are dazzled by stuff that laypeople don’t find exciting. “We have to change all our textbooks” is a ridiculous bar.

It’s not a ridiculous bar for “once in a lifetime” “dazzling” discoveries. It’s hard to be impressed by “here’s a necklace that changes nothing”.

For you, sure.

Historians love old shit. I married one of them. This is just how experts respond to niche topics.

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grandparent comment is a triple entendre: the historical British tendency to take priceless cultural treasures home with them for display is being inverted; the modern British tendency to retire/vacation in Spain is being noted; and I think there's also a jab at Brexit disallowing easy movement, as more people can more easily see a thing exhibited in an EU museum than in a British one due to the Schengen area.

Looks like it breaks multiple guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Pepperidge Farm remembers when tasteful multi-layered entendres on HN were appreciated.

This is in fact what we designed our multilayered packaging on for our delicious Milano cookies.

A multi-layered delight of highly processed wheat with Italian history.

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#53
post #24

I hope this key piece of British history gets exhibited in a place where everyone can enjoy it, like the The Prado museum in Spain.

I love this form of humor. A comedian, 3 Year Letterman [0], does this a lot of Twitter and catches a lot of people off guard. The responses are really entertaining. Their website is a running list of top hits [1]. [0] https://twitter.com/3YearLetterman [1] https://www.determinedlook.com/

These are really funny, thanks for sharing.

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#54
post #49
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I mean, it's a tough call, because you can't really identify who something is stolen from. In some cases you can, but in most you can't. I don't think one has to identify whom something was stolen from to know that it was stolen. For a lot of artifacts in the British Museum, it may not be clear or able to be agreed upon who could be said at the time of their appropriation to own them, but it's clear that the Britis…

> I don't think one has to identify whom something was stolen from to know that it was stolen. If we are talking about people, then yes, but governments are different. They are not people. Governments are law makers . So you are claiming that British law shouldn't apply and I am asking you for the name of the government whose law you think should apply. That at least deserves an answer. The UK was ruling Egypt at the…

I suspect we're in some serious philosophy territory now. I find it problematic to insist that since governments make laws, they then are exempt from moral criticism. Just because a government can make a law doing something doesn't mean it's a morally permissible thing to do.

I guess the word "stolen" could have a legalistic interpretation, but there's surely a moral one as well. And I think the legal discussion is entirely uninteresting -- of course a country can write whatever law they want and follow it. What is interesting to me is whether the law and/or act is moral.

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#55
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a ridiculous bar for “once in a lifetime” “dazzling” discoveries. It’s hard to be impressed by “here’s a necklace that changes nothing”.

> It’s not a ridiculous bar for “once in a lifetime” “dazzling” discoveries. As a mathematician, there are plenty of my discoveries in my field that are once in a lifetime and dazzling (to specialists) that would be meaningless to the average mathematics undergraduate student, much less changing textbooks.

Is there an example in mathematics of a once in a lifetime dazzling discovery that doesn’t change anything?

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it breaks multiple guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Pepperidge Farm remembers when tasteful multi-layered entendres on HN were appreciated. This is in fact what we designed our multilayered packaging on for our delicious Milano cookies. A multi-layered delight of highly processed wheat with Italian history.

accounts like yours, on the other hand, are obviously low-effort and should be removed.

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#57
post #40
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why you wrote "stealing" with quotes. Presumably this is exactly what they did in numerous (majority?) of cases.

I mean, it's a tough call, because you can't really identify who something is stolen from. In some cases you can, but in most you can't. Say you have the necklace of some Pharaoh. OK, who is the rightful owner? The present day Arabs inhabiting Egypt, who conquered it? Or the Greeks who conquered it before then? Or the Romans? Or the "ancient Egyptians" (this refers to many people, as Egypt was conquered several times…

> We can call this the "occupying government" (OG) theory of ownership.

Let's not

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it breaks multiple guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Sometimes guidelines are meant to be broken, and I think taking an opportunity to make a jab at the long history of British colonialism and cultural appropriation was worth it.

How many of these 'cultures' being appropriated were the same culture or inheritors that the British 'appropriated' from? How many of these cultures respected these items on a cultural level? How many just happened to be living in the same physical location where these items are from but had no cultural connection (Rosetta stone)? It's a pretty one sided conversation you all are having, and one that can't be expanded without breaking the guidelines, hence the guidelines. But it's ok because you are directing this at an 'out' group.

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Don't be snarky. >Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. >Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle.

Calling this "flamebait" or "ideological battle" is pretty over-the-top.

Because it's entirely one sided and anyone that was to challenge it knows their comments aren't welcome.

Re: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pepperidge Farm remembers when tasteful multi-layered entendres on HN were appreciated. This is in fact what we designed our multilayered packaging on for our delicious Milano cookies. A multi-layered delight of highly processed wheat with Italian history.

accounts like yours, on the other hand, are obviously low-effort and should be removed.

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