Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ancient

Help me not rust away

Iron Rat — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:31:40 -0800

Restoring a badly rusted battleaxe and need advice I have a centuries old (allegedly) axe head that is honestly more rust than steel, it is an aggressive rust that is causing it to flake away into nothing. I am also concerned that a previous owner may have used chemicals on it and that is why the rust is so aggressive.
How can I treat this? I do not think those commercial rust stoppers are up to this, what do museums and archaeologists use? Soaking in hot wax?

Language/society where the word for love is the same as the word for hate?

Josh Coe — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:40:52 -0800

I seem to remember hearing or reading about an ancient society whose word for love was the same as their word for hate. But searching online I can't find anything like that. What culture/language was this? Or did someone just make up this story?

In Search of Ancient Astronaut Pix

maryh — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:21:28 -0800

In Search Of..... an illustration of an 'ancient astronaut' from one of Erich Von Daniken's early books. It's a drawing of a little 'astronaut' using what looks remarkably like an 8-track tape player. The style (as I remember it) seemed sort of contemporary, almost Sergio Aragones-like. I'm sure I saw it in one of Von Daniken's earlier books (maybe it's actually in Chariots of the Gods) but that would have been about 30 years ago.

This really exists, right? I know there was a similar Simpson's gag, but I'm sure I saw this illustration. Any Von Daniken fans out there who can lend a hand?

Historybusters?

tim_in_oz — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:58:52 -0800

What is the TV show in which people recreate ancient technology? It's bugging Mrs Oz and I. I've definitely seen an episode of something in which engineers recreate (or attempt to recreate) Caesar's famous bridge across the Rhine. I'm pretty certain other episodes dealt with moving stone and making siege engines. For the love of god, what is the TV series??

Help me identify old pottery.

Baldons — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:41:19 -0800

Can you help me identify these two pieces of greek art, possibly located in Boston? Figure 1 - Figure 2 I need a catalogue number, a location, something. They're described, respectively, as "Boston vase" (see here) and "Boston amphora" (see here), so I'd guess they could be from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. But I didn't find them in the museum's collection search.
My google-fu is failing. Can you help me? Can you help me search better next time?
Thanks, hive mefi.

Name that Ancient Greek Writing Convention

lekvar — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:34:16 -0800

Name that Ancient Greek writing convention: The "Gearing Up" scene. Back when I was reading The Iliad for a college course my teacher mentioned that there was a specific Greek term for the trope wherein a character is gearing up; each piece of armor and weaponry is described as it is equipped, and its provenance and significance is given.

Anybody here remember what the term is?

How do you pronounce 'κινειν'?

amery — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:34:26 -0800

Greek speakers needed! How do you pronounce 'κινειν' in both modern and ancient Greek? Bonus points: recordings of either version or explanations of why this question is based on bad assumptions. Thanks!

Once upon a time in the ancient civilizations, there were...uh...

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:11:57 -0800

Ancient Civilizations Crash Course: I have to teach a course beginning in February...and I don't know anything! I will be teaching a grade 11 History class next year for a month (substituting for a teacher) and have no idea what I am doing. In high school, I learned Canadian History and American History but learned absolutely nothing about ancient civilizations. I think the course I will be teaching is the one outlined in this document (starting on page 145).

Do I have to know Greek/Roman mythology? I never learned that either, and feel incredibly stupid when others pick up on allusions to a Greek god and I look like a deer in headlights. I can teach Canadian, American, and European history dating back until the early 1700s but before that, I'm lost.

What should I read to brush up on the subject? What will help me most? Any brief, straightforward texts I should have? Specific suggestions welcome, general teaching ideas also appreciated.

Throw away e-mail: teachitlikeyouknowit@gmail.com
Thanks in advance!

ancient chinese

colusa — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:42:50 -0800

This is an ancient chinese inscription on an antique vase... thousands of years old. Can anyone translate it or let us know what kind of dragon this is or if it realates to any story... anything would help. Thanks your help is greatly appreciated Hello,
I recently aquired a vase, which is of asian decent, which I have done intense research on and cannot find what the Japanese writing on the vase says. I would greatly appreciate input from anyone with any info on this item or opinions.

Thank You!!!!

To start, it appears to be bronze.the vase is a standard oriental vase shape that sits on a tripod base with legs that curl under. The texture on the tripod base appears to resemble the leatherlike rough skin of maybe a dragon. It covers the area of the base stopping on the third tripod leg,witch then becomes a smooth texture, maybe resembling the tail of the dragon.

Starting at the base, which sits 1 1/2" up, tenticles begin to protrude from the surface. Between the first and second tripod leg, there are two claw like tenticle shapes protruding. The first one containing 5 fingers to the claw, sitting atop four more tenticles. The second set of tenticles contains 6 curved swirly claws coming from it. Between the 2nd and third tripod legthere are two more protrusions ( sitting closer to th 2nd leg.) the first protrusion contains 6 small twirled tenticles, while the second contains 9. between the 3rd and 1st tripod legs, there is a claw with four fingers, one finger is curved under and there are 3 curved claw nails.

Now the vase begins to become intriquite and very detailed.
The 1st tripod leg is the smooth textured leg resembling a tail. above that, the tenticle that protrudes form the surface, comes out about 2 inches and works itself into the shape of a dragon. The dragon appears to have a scales texture and as it reaches higher up onto the vase, begins to develop claws with distinguished sharp nails. the first foot has 2 claws (sharp nails) the texture and protrusions then for a mass array of details and dragon like objects, that covers half of the vase.
In the objects appears to be one dragon foot with 3 claws and one dragon's foot with 2 claws. The dragon appears to be on a rocklike strructure with its head covered in spikes peering out.its scaled tail also protrudes from the vase with arow of about 15 spikes on it.
The prtrusion concludes on the right side with a big swirl, while on the left it is a rock like texture.
This protrusion sitas on the vase's side. The rest of the vase is a dimpled texture with a thick glaze like texture dripping down the vase.( appears to look like lava dripping down a volcano.

it looks like this:
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq174/collectableusa/100_1353.jpg

Under that is this marking:
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq174/collectableusa/100E1305-1.jpg

I crave age.

greytape — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:25:15 -0800

What's the oldest man-made thing I can buy for €1500-2000? I remember watching an antiques program years ago and seeing a Native American sculpture that they dated to around the 5th century, being sold for not all that much. I'd really like something like that.
I'm guessing coins are probably my best bet, or maybe arrow heads, but I'd really like a bit of pottery or something. So taking into account the coolness/oldness matrix, could I pick something suitable for a few thousand dollars that was a thousand years plus? If so, what?

Settle for less in greek, please

Rabarberofficer — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:28:07 -0800

[ancient latin or greek-filter] For an mock ceremony at a party for an friend I need some help with some translations to latin or greek to some diplomas. What would "Settle for less" or "Aspiring to mediocrity" or "Aiming for second place" become in ancient latin or greek? I hope to find some impressive-sounding translations to print out some diplomas to be presented to various "dignetaries" at the party.

My hope goes out to all ancient linguists. Thanks!

Ancient Dutch to English

lhall — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:51:20 -0800

Looking for accurate English translations of two poems written in ancient Dutch. There are two poems, both of which can be found on this site.

‘Met een zilver palet geschonken aan Geertje Pieters dienstmaagd, schilderes: ’t En mocht niet minder zijn voor Geertje Pieters hand, Nieuw’eere van ons land: En gaat zij rijzende zo ze onlangs is gerezen,/ Zal ’t haast goud moeten wezen.’

and

Ons ‘aardige Vriendinn’, de zeldzam’ Oosterwyck, / Bij wie wij geen’ gelijk en kennen, haars gelijk, / Doet daaglijks wonderen nooit genoeg te schatten./ Een van die wonderen, bij niemand licht te vatten, / Is, dat de Maagd een’ Maagd, een Dienstmaagd heeft gebaard, / En van de vaat-doek af, van Besem en van Haard / Zo schielijk aangekweekt en leren Oosterwijcken, / Datz’ Oosterwijcks Penceel alleen bestaat te wijken. / Wat dunkt u, geestig Vriend, heb ik groot ongelijk, / Die Geertje Pieters noem Geertruyd van Oosterwijck? / Zij is door Oosterwijck al datz’ heeft leren wezen, / Zij is haar eigen Print; of, wilt gij ‘t klaarder lezen, / Z’is Oosterwijckens Maan: en geeft die zulke schijn, / Denkt wat er in die Zon, die ’t licht geeft, lichts moet zijn

I have very, very loose translations, but I'm looking for really close versions, or a referral to someplace or someone that can help me out - and if it's out there, further analysis and research. Thanks!

Jokes re Ancient Egypt & Pyramids

pettins — Mon, 15 May 2006 06:05:06 -0800

Any jokes with the theme of Pyramids, Ancient Egypt or Joseph (Dreamcoat)? A friend of mine is helping to lead a kids (5-12) activity week in the summer where the theme is Ancient Egypt and the story of Joseph.

He is chairing the 5 day event so needs lots of one-liner type jokes to intersperse throughout the week.

Any suggestions?

Should I even bother trying to learn ancient Greek?

sid — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 21:00:08 -0800

I want to read Plato in the original Greek. Unfortunately, I don't know any. I want to gain sufficient reading skill in ancient Greek to be able to tackle Plato and Aristophanes. I have read a couple English translations but my thinking is that nothing quite beats the original.

I am currently a full time student in a field that is very far from classics, and I anticipate (fervently pray) that I will have a full time permanent job soon. I would be teaching myself the language from books without any live teachers.

How long term of a project is this? Is this a realistic undertaking for someone who doesn't have superhuman motivation and discipline? How should I begin my study of Greek with the aim of reading the classic texts?

Resource-friendly popular software alternatives?

sian — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:02:23 -0800

Any recommendations on software alternatives that are more resources friendly than their mainstream competitors? Examples: Firefox vs. IE, Winamp vs. ITunes, alternate anti-virus programs, etc.

Smokivivs Maximvs!

WolfDaddy — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:39:19 -0800

This week on Rome: Did ancient Romans smoke? What did they smoke, by Jupiter? "I'm going to drink all the wine, smoke all the smoke, and fuck every whore in the city," so says (fictional) Titus Pullo in the second episode. The first and last part of that declaration I can understand. But what would he smoke? Not tobacco, that's for sure.

Why should ancient foreigners speak ancient English?

skryche — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 19:37:12 -0800

Why is the dialogue in Rome all in quasi-Shakespearean English? You know what I'm talking about -- everyone's got classy British accents (okay, except for the plebes) and they avoid contractions and use the word “shall” a lot. I mean, if the creators are... conceptually... translating from ancient Latin, why not translate it into something resembling modern English?

I need a cable box

DrJohnEvans — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 13:09:09 -0800

I have regular television cable service, and I want to hook it up to an old television with only UHF/VHF and a coaxial port. If I recall my grandmother's set-up correctly, I need a little cable box which takes in the cable signal and feeds the television's coax port. Cable channels are selected through the box. Thing is, I can't seem to find this sort of thing in Radio's Shack catalogue, or anywhere online for that matter. With the advent of cable-friendly television sets, am I out of luck? How hard will it be for me to find a simple cable box?

Ancient Thinkers

grumblebee — Wed, 21 Jan 2004 11:34:10 -0800

Philosophy experts: were ancient thinkers conscious of the fact that they were making untested assumptions? [more inside.] I've been reading Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream of Reason" (a history of philosophy which I highly recommend), and he goes pretty deeply into the ancient greek philosophers. They tend to make grandiose assumptions, such as "everything is made of water" or "all matter is made of indivisible atoms."

As far as I can tell from Gottlieb's book, they just made these ideas up or "felt" them to be true. But they then used pretty rigorous logic to build on top of these assumptions.

Nowadays, if someone said "everything is made of water," we'd say, "um... and your evidence for this is ... what?"

Now I know that these philosophers lived long before the discovery of scientific method, and I know that modern experimental tools weren't available to them, but did they really feel that it was valid just to pull assumptions out of the air?

They may have HAD to pull them out of the air, but is there any evidence that they were embarrassed about this or questioned its validity?

Or am I wrong that they pulled assumptions out of the air? Did they feel that they had some reliable connection to an external source of truth?

By the way, I realize that ALL philosophy must rest on some assumptions, but to me there's a qualitative difference between "lets assume existence" and "lets assume everything is made of water."