| ▲ | Rings forged from meteorites may have been fashionable among ancient Greek elite(phys.org) |
| 68 points by pseudolus 5 days ago | 31 comments |
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| ▲ | andsoitis 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| > sheds light on how the ancient Minoan and Mycenaean elite Mycenaeans are considered Greek. Minoans generally not considered Greek. Their script, Linear A, has never been deciphered, so we don’t actually know what language they spoke, but most linguists think it wasn’t Greek, based on how poorly Linear A’s signs map onto Greek phonetics when tested as they do successfully with Mycenaean Linear B. Culturally the Minoans also look distinct from later Greek civilization. Different religious iconography (bull-leaping, goddess-centric imagery), different art style, no clear warrior-elite hierarchy the way Mycenaean and later Greek society had. |
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| ▲ | qup an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | > Their script, Linear A, has never been deciphered https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600107 | | |
| ▲ | gus_massa an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | That was only a blog post about a secret draft that has not been published, nor peer reviewed. Let's classify it as "unconfirmed". | |
| ▲ | andsoitis an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | I read it. The claim is still early and yet to be accepted. |
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| ▲ | throwawayffffas 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Linear B also maps poorly to Greek as far as I know. It's clearly an adaption of a foreign script. | | |
| ▲ | andsoitis 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Linear B maps onto Greek quite well once you understand that it is a syllabary, not an alphabet. The fit is imperfect in specific, well-understood ways. Once you correct for well-understood systematic gaps, though, the underlying grammar, vocabulary, and even some divine names (Poseidon, Zeus, Hera, Dionysus all show up) are recognizably continuous with classical Greek. |
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| ▲ | anon48293 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Except it does partially map into Greek, they had settlements on several Greek islands, influence on the Cyclades, and talk about similar Gods. Even the cave where Zeus was allegedly born is on Crete. | |
| ▲ | altmanaltman 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The actual paper doesn't claim that, it understands they are two distinct cultures but itn covers the georgaphical Greece in the title not cultural. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03054... |
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| ▲ | stefan_lec 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Something about this feels very Tolkien-ish. Nobody mention it to Peter Thiel, he doesn’t need any more ideas. |
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| ▲ | mr_toad 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Speaking of myths, one explanation of the mysterious metal adamantine is that it was iron, forged from meteors. To Bronze Age Greeks, lacking the ability to smelt iron, an iron weapon would have been surpassingly strong, sharp and rare. Later, during the Iron Age, Adamantine got retconned into something else (like diamond). |
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| ▲ | xbmcuser 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| In ancient times with no light pollution they could probably see and track meteorites falling. And it could have been easier to access to get those metals than mining. |
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| ▲ | russdill 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | They go completely dark at a very high altitude. I feel like a bright sunny day would give you a better chance of seeing a falling rock, at least once it gets closer to the ground | |
| ▲ | wood_spirit 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Perhaps sometimes they saw it hit and went to find it? But the night is long and people should be indoors asleep near the fire and meteorites fall all around the clock anyway? So perhaps they mostly just picked weird rocks up off the ground, as the Inuit did? When you spend time outside with the herds you probably notice unusual wrongs. |
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| ▲ | rithdmc 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| They're still fashionable! ... or maybe I'm a geek. |
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| ▲ | tikhonj an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| If I get lucky in IPO land I'll have my eye on a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch with a meteorite dial, so I guess things have not changed all that much in the last 3500 years :P |
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| ▲ | AdmiralAsshat 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| My engagement ring contains meteorite, supposedly from the Gibeon Meteorite, although the fact that a single meteorite is a component advertised in so many rings makes me somewhat suspicious as to the quantity or authenticity. But it looks pretty, anyway. |
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| ▲ | bell-cot 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibeon_(meteorite) is 26 tons, plus 100+ fragments in a strewn field of 10,000+ sq. miles. It proves nothing - but from just 100kg, you could put 1/2 carat bits of meteorite in 1,000,000 rings. | | |
| ▲ | rithdmc 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I believe the 26 tons includes the fragments. | | |
| ▲ | bell-cot an hour ago | parent [-] | | Point. The "good enough" scenario I guessed at has a semi-honest treasure hunter finding a 100kg-ish fragment somewhere in those 10,000 sq. mi., then selling it to someone making rings. Lab work (isotope ratios, grain structure, etc.) could confirm that it was very likely part of the Gibeon meteorite - whether or not the ownership paperwork was legit. |
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| ▲ | Brendinooo an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I wonder how many meteorites were laying around in the early days of humans caring about metal. |
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| ▲ | jayGlow an hour ago | parent [-] | | apparently several thousand small meteors strike earth per year. eventually they'd get buried but there would likely be a pretty huge number of them lying around after a few million years. |
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| ▲ | karim79 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'm 100% certain that such rings grant superpowers determined by a cosmic RNG. |
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| ▲ | IAmBroom 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The opportunity for fraud is immense, unless the elite sourced their own meteorites. |
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| ▲ | throwawayffffas 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Iron smelting had not been invented yet. Meteorites were the only readily available source of iron. Upon the invention of smelting all iron rings appear to be smelted. | |
| ▲ | mrec 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | How so? This was the Bronze Age; smelting iron ore wasn't really a thing yet, so meteoric iron was pretty much the only kind available. | |
| ▲ | SideburnsOfDoom 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > The opportunity for fraud is immense At the time, not so much. It was called "The Bronze Age" and "The Iron age" came later. The names aren't random. From the article: > The use of meteoritic iron particularly stands out during the Bronze Age because of the lack of iron smelting at the time. In other words, the main source of this special metal was when the Gods occasionally threw down a piece, in a column of fire. See also in ancient Egypt: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2013/09/01/23856/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S12962... |
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| ▲ | binaryturtle 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I can't get past the Cloud<bleep> check. I guess the site/information is for G(r)eek elites only too. |
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| ▲ | aftbit 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Usually I'm with you but it let me in this time without any XHRs or frames off-domain (my standard µMatrix settings). |
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