History geekodrome

[fragment]

Thread for posting cool history-related stuff so you can gloat over how you managed to beat liv to it...

"Lost" Language Found on Back of 400-Year-Old Letter

Notes on the back of a 400-year-old letter have revealed a previously unknown language once spoken by indigenous peoples of northern Peru, an archaeologist says.

Penned by an unknown Spanish author and lost for four centuries, the battered piece of paper was pulled from the ruins of an ancient Spanish colonial church in 2008.

...

The early 17th-century author had translated Spanish numbers—uno, dos, tres—and Arabic numerals into a mysterious language never seen by modern scholars.

[livius drusus]

I'll have you know I intentionally chose not to post about this story last week because I couldn't find a decent picture.

[fragment]

Like the picture of the letter in the link I just posted?

[livius drusus]

Yes, just like that picture. There weren't any in the earlier stories.

[Doctor X]

fragment --> <--Liv

--J.D.

[Leesifer]

liv, do you want me to ban fragment?

[Brimshack]

I do. Damn that Fragment anyhow!

[Watser?]

In the Dutch town of Utrecht heavy rains earlier this weeks uncovered two early medieval ships, one from 750 AD, the other from 956 AD. The ships were found in an area that used to be an old branch of the Rhine.



http://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/...e_middeleeuwen

[It's Me!]

The early 17th-century author had translated Spanish numbers—uno, dos, tres— ... into a mysterious language never seen by modern scholars.

I always wanted to count to three in a previously unknown language.

[BrotherMan]

SUCK IT DRUSUS, Alasdair Wilkins OF IO9 IS YOUR BETTER

Halley's Comet is the most famous of the short-period comets, which are comets that complete their eccentric orbits in 200 years or less. It's the only short-period comet that's visible to the naked eye, and its 76-year circuit means it's the one comet that pretty much everyone can hope to see once, if not twice, during their lifetime. Because of this uniqueness and its often dazzling appearances, it's become something of humanity's companion throughout human history, popping up again and again in historical records.

[Qingdai]

I was expecting to fume about this, but did liv cover this

BBC News - Treasure hunter finds rare antique in Cumbria

Nasty auction house and rare find!

[livius drusus]

I DEMAND A RETRACTION AND AN APOLOGY

[Watser?]

But this one not so much:

Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear used by the Vikings' ancestors faster than archaeologists can collect it from ice thawing in northern Europe's highest mountains.

"It's like a time machine...the ice has not been this small for many, many centuries," said Lars Piloe, a Danish scientist heading a team of "snow patch archaeologists" on newly bare ground 1,850 meters (6,070 ft) above sea level in mid-Norway.

Specialized hunting sticks, bows and arrows and even a 3,400-year-old leather shoe have been among finds since 2006 from a melt in the Jotunheimen mountains, the home of the "Ice Giants" of Norse mythology.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68D1L120100914

[Qingdai]

OK, but the retraction part is going to hurt.

I apologize.

Grawk!
Ouch.

[livius drusus]

[Angakuk]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

I DEMAND A RETRACTION AND AN APOLOGY

Excuse me! If it didn't happen in the forum, then it didn't happen. Blogs do not count.

[livius drusus]

Do so! That's the whole point of gloating that you beat me to it.

[Angakuk]

Just whom do you think you are talking to to?

[livius drusus]

Your mom.

[Angakuk]

My mom never gloated over beating you to anything (for that matter, neither did I). No doubt this will come as a great shock to your grossly bloated ego, but my mom is blissfully unaware that you even exist. On the other hand, my mother is painfully aware of my existence. Therefore, I win!

[Watser?]

I was just reading the local newsmagazine (6 pages in total) for the area in Nijmegen where I live, the Waterkwartier, which is the part that was inhabited in Roman days.

It turns out they have been finding a lot of graves (lot of building activity going on, therefore a lot of archeology). Most of them are 'normal' Roman graves of the period (3d century AD) which is buried ashes from cremations, but 80 of them were bodies buried in coffins. This was customary in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire (Greece, Turkey, Syria at the time say archeologists, who think there may have been soldiers from that area stationed here who brought that custom with them.
They have also been finding houses with central floor heating.

[fragment]

Germany finishes paying WWI reparations

This Sunday, Berlin will pay the last interest instalment on foreign bonds issued in 1924 and 1930 to cover the huge reparations demands made by the victorious First World War Allies.

...

Germany suspended payments during the Great Depression and Hitler refused to continue them when he came to power in 1933. But, in 1953, West Germany agreed to honour its Great War reparation obligations. Communist East Germany, however, declined.

It was agreed that Germany should be allowed to wait until it was reunited before paying some 125 million euros in outstanding interest on foreign debt accrued after 1945. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 followed by Germany's reunification less than a year later fulfilled the conditions of the agreement.

I had no idea this stuff was outstanding and that payment was still required. Ridiculous.

[Qingdai]

Tell it to Haiti.

[fragment]

Well, yeah, and many other places too, but the 90-year old war reparations and role in the rise of Nazism and therefore subsequent historical events does make this kinda interesting.

[Crumb]

I think Haiti is more interesting, and more ridiculous.