Author Topic: Archeology Culture  (Read 382 times)

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Online Michael Hardner

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Archeology Culture
« on: September 26, 2022, 10:45:59 am »


Wow... fascinating site - very very old and mysterious

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Offline Super Colin Blow

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2022, 06:55:43 am »
Can't get enough of archaeology and history. I particularly like ancient Egypt and Iraq; but Rome and its successor state, Byzantium, are equally fascinating to me.

I could talk about archaeology and ancient history all day long, even though my knowledge of the profession, and the histories and societies it reveals to us, also scratches the surface.

Anything in specific you're interested in?
« Last Edit: October 05, 2022, 07:06:24 am by SuperColinBlow »
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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2022, 10:12:29 am »
I'm interested in the transitions from agrarian culture to urban... The strangeness of Sumerian cities having a lot of the same conventions that we have today really makes me wonder. 

The urban / rural conflict seems to have originated then... long before Covid & Trucks.

But - yeah - fascinating... the older the better...

Online Spike The Hike Shady

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2022, 10:35:23 am »


Wow... fascinating site - very very old and mysterious
Apparently it pre-dates the pyramids by a couple thousand years.

Online Spike The Hike Shady

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2022, 10:36:33 am »
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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2022, 10:42:29 am »
Sumerians and Babylonians is basically... Us.

We inherited their laws, religion, money...

Offline Super Colin Blow

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2022, 10:24:53 pm »
I believe that, in the early 20th century, historians/archaeologists started to believe that the roots of western civilization were not in Greece and Rome but in Sumer and Egypt. When I took 'western civ' in college, we began with ancient Iraq and Egypt, the "fertile crescent".

I need to really step it up and start reading the Archaeology magazines that I've received so far. I have ten of them sitting in the magazine rack, and I still don't have even the first one read.

I did read a little of the article on taxation in the first one. Apparently, Egypt did not have money as such. Taxation was with labor. A worker had to work a certain number of days for the Pharaoh as the substitute for an income tax. The wealthy and the high officials could often "pay" a peasant to work the labor tax for him. In the afterlife, you still owed Pharaoh the tax, so the tombs of these officials and wealthy individuals included little statuettes of peasants to do the labor for the deceased! They essentially "gamed the system" according to the article. (from Archaeology magazine, May-June 2021 issue).
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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2022, 06:52:29 am »
Yes, probably true.  The initial "money" was a system of accounting of contributions to the community store, etched onto clay tablets.  The guys in charge of that eventually became the elite, including the religious elite.

Offline Super Colin Blow

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2022, 06:26:31 pm »
This Youtube video is about the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians, and it covers how they lived and worked with no money. Seems to have kept them in their place. I'd imagine if it advantaged the government they would have had some sort of money. But that's just a guess.

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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #9 on: November 26, 2022, 07:27:03 pm »
Must watch this later
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Offline Super Colin Blow

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2023, 10:30:23 am »
Hey all, sorry I haven't been around in a while.

I picked up this book on Mesopotamia (I'm just going to call it ancient Iraq because it translates as "the roots", which I think is more meaningful anyway). I've only scratched the surface of it but I figured you might want to take a look at it. It's brand new and the reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive.

https://www.amazon.com/Weavers-Scribes-Kings-History-Ancient/dp/0190059044/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

It covers Iraq's ancient history beginning in 3500 BC. I think you said you were interested in how farming turns into city life. I believe it concentrates in the area of Ur/Uruk. I believe, but am not positive that that was the oldest city-state in Iraq.

Did you like the ancient Egypt video?
« Last Edit: April 19, 2023, 10:44:20 am by Super Colin Blow »
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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2023, 10:50:29 am »
It's been awhile.

I went to the Toronto Reference Library at Yonge/Bloor to review translations of the ancient scrolls from the era and photographs.

It's absolutely amazing when you read it, you are looking at ancestors possibly literally... and a society that sounds so much like our own.

Looking forward to reading this.

Offline Super Colin Blow

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2023, 11:17:57 am »
Wow! That's fantastic.

I saw the actual copy of Hammurabi's Code (I say "copy" but it was not a scroll, but a thick round pillar of Basalt with the characters etched into it) in the Louvre, back in 1998. (I had such a shitty film camera on that trip and the pictures all came out lousy  :(

I would love to see old scrolls and stuff! When/where are they from?
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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2023, 11:32:44 am »
They are from the Sumerian cities of that time.

I also heard a podcast that placed a lot of the credit for this civilization on the creation of bronze.

What is clear is that trade, cultural mingling, and knowledge pushed forward to create accounting, writing, and laws.

I just read the intro to your book and it describes a poor businessman whose complaint letters were found and translated.  Basically YELP comments from 3000+ years ago.  Hilarious.
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Online Michael Hardner

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Re: Archeology Culture
« Reply #14 on: April 19, 2023, 02:45:49 pm »
I would like to see the odds that one of the people in that exchange is related to either of us.
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