Goatster aussie goatmonade

I've seen the collections of favorite tumblr fiction posts; now I'd like to see what your favorite "humans being human" historical posts are. (Because sometimes it is Nice to be reminded that compassion is not something easy for us to lose; we laugh at the same bad jokes; there are entire fossil records of our kindness.)

Here are my favorites-- add on yours.

The story of the RMS Carpathia, with a follow-up (aka one of if not the best pieces of short nonfiction historical writing in the modern age and one that reduces me to tears every goddamn reread)

Bronze-age grave of teenage gamer girl lovingly buried with her sheep ankle bone collection

The 1st-2nd century CE Roman tombstone with a bar joke that reads like a Dril tweet

And even earlier: A 4500-1900 BCE Sumerian bar joke

"Please know that there's an 84yo museum docent in the Bronx who would cry simply at the thought of you spending so much effort to quietly create something that's beautiful to you"

Reconstructing Otzi's shoes

The Paleolithic grandmother and the child's fingerprint

Stone-age toddlers had art lessons

Ice-age children played in megafauna-footprint puddles

There once was a little boy who loved ducks

The oldest human burial found in Africa is a toddler; they made a pillow for his head

Henry Kenelm Beste's father loved him very much

"A Timeline of Humanity"

"I have a folder called Time is a Flat Circle in which I collect evidence of humanity. Here is most of them."

"I got to hold a 500,000 year old hand axe at the museum today. It's right-handed. I am right-handed"

A 3rd century dog carved on a marble tomb; a 1st century dog lovingly described and named for posterity

Patrice, a 1st-2nd century dog, was dearly loved

And: we found a Paleolithic dog, buried with its bone

Humanity, unified across time by everyday experiences

The Golden Record sent into space in the 1970s

Ancient Egypt had archaeologists

Egyptian figurine of a woman waiting for her bread to finish baking

The graffiti of Pompeii

Ancient Greek tourist graffiti at the tomb of Ramses V

Hidden messages on circuit boards

The earliest examples of someone chewing on the end of their pencils

"im having feelings about the uffington white horse again"

The vast relatability of Medieval marginalia (and cats peeing on things)

Potoooooooo

What our ancient ancestors would think, seeing us prosper

Engage with older art; it keeps you from forgetting their humanity

"They were just like you and me. They write don't forget eggs, and wondered if their neighbors secretly hated them or if they are reading into it too much. They loved and were loved and they wondered. They wondered about you."

"Why do you study history" web-weaving

Remember…

If you didn’t know, on the night the Titanic sank, it sent out many distress signals. One of the ships that received them was the RMS Carpathia.

The Carpathia was asleep. Her wireless operator, Harold Cottam, had ended his shift and shouldn’t have been listening in. Luckily, he was. He caught a message from Boston, MA stating there was traffic on the wireless for the Titanic. He decided to be helpful and reach out to tell them. He received a distress signal back, and rushed to tell the bridge. They were skeptical, and didn’t really believe him. This is the Titanic, you know? Largest ship, marketed as unsinkable, etc. He rushed the message to the captain since he wasn’t being taken seriously, and woke him up. The captain, Arthur Henry Rostron, after being convinced of its legitimacy, rushed to answer the call.

The Carpathia was 58.22 nautical miles away (107.82km), with a top speed of 14 knots. This put the expected time of arrival 4 hours out.

They arrived in three hours. The top speed reached was about 17 knots. They’d turned the heating and hot water off to make as much steam as possible, and doctors were set to wait for the influx of injured. He sent out a message to the Titanic, telling them they’d be there in 4 hours, and left the airways clear for her distress signals. Going faster than possible in the ship, and dodging the very same ice that had brought the Titanic to heel in the first place, they made it to the site of the Titanic after she had sunk, and saved as many as they could.

To put the speed and effort into perspective, the odds of them reaching the Titanic when they did is like a normal everyday sedan winning an f1 race. The engine was tearing itself apart. Fourteen knots was do or die, last resort speeds. The engineers were covering gauges and physically holding valves closed to keep the pressure needed.

Even the passengers assisted, handing out clothes, food, and warm drinks as the survivors were rescued. The Carpathia decided to bring the survivors to New York City, the original destination. They were speeding there at their original top speed of fourteen knots, and the Carpathia was never able to reach that speed again.