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2k-year-old wine and the uncanny immediacy of the past

(resobscura.substack.com)
244 points benbreen | 1 comments | 15 Jan 25 21:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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bglazer ◴[16 Jan 25 15:59 UTC] No.42727042[source]▶
Nice article about artifacts that make the past more immediate, that allow us to connect our experiences to people hundreds or thousands of years ago.

My favorite example is the writings of Onfim, who was a little boy in the 1200s in present day Russia whose scribbling and homework were exquisitely preserved on birch bark fragments. It’s so immediately recognizable as a little boy’s endearing doodles about knights and imaginary beasts, yet its 800 years old.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onfim

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zehaeva ◴[16 Jan 25 21:59 UTC] No.42731457[source]▶
Similarly, when I read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius I was struck by how normal everything seemed. While he was an Emperor the everyday banality of what he talked about going through 2,000 years ago was amazing.

Humans really haven't changed that much at all.

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thesz ◴[16 Jan 25 22:25 UTC] No.42731707[source]▶

  > Humans really haven't changed that much at all.
I guess you are quoting Woland from The Master and Margarita [1], the words he said in a show at the Variety theater.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita

Woland is the Satan in the novel. What he said has a deeper meaning, but superficial one is most probably wrong.

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1. rcxdude ◴[17 Jan 25 12:16 UTC] No.42736733[source]▶
I'm sure it's been said at many points by many people, fictional or real. It's not a particularly unique insight (especially amongst historians and archeologists), though one I think that bears repeating often as it's easy to lose sight of it.