Something I find incredibly cool is that theyβve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldnβt figure out what they were for for the life of them.Β
Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and saidΒ βOh yeah sure thatβs a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.βΒ
βWait youβre still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???β
βWell, yeah. Weβve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.β
Itβs just.Β
50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, weβve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply havenβt found anything better to do the job.Β
i also like that this is aΒ βask craftspeopleβ thing, it reminds me of when art historians were allΒ βthe fuckβ about someoneβs earΒ βdeformityβ in a portrait and couldnβt work out what the symbolism was until someone whoβd also worked as a piercer was likeΒ βuhm, heβs fucked up a piercing thereβ. interdisciplinary shit alsoΒ needs to include non-academic approaches because crafts & trades people know shitΒ ok
One of my professors often tells us about a time he, as and Egyptian Archaeologist, came down upon a ring of bricks one brick high. In the middle of a house. He and his fellow researchers could not fpr the life of them figure out what tf it could possibly have been for. Until he decided to as a laborer, who doesnt even speak English, what it was. The guy gestures for my prof to follow him, and shows him the same ring of bricks in a nearby modern house. Said ring is filled with baby chicks, while momma hen is out in the yard having a snack. The chicks canβt get over the single brick, but mom can step right over. Over 2000 years and their still corraling chicks with brick circles. If it aint broke, dont fix it and always ask the locals.
I read something a while back about how pre-columbian Americans had obsidian blades they stored in the rafters of their houses. The archaeologists who discovered them came to the conclusion that the primitive civilizations believed keeping them closer to the sun would keep the blades sharper.
Then a mother looked at their findings and said βyeah, they stored their knives in the rafters to keep them out of reach of the children.β
Omg the ancient child proofing add on tho lol
I remember years ago on a forum (email list, thatβs how old) a woman talking about going to a museum, and seeing among the womenβs household objects a number of fired clay items referred to asΒ βprayer objectsβ.Β (Apparently this sort of labeling is not uncommon when you have something that every house has and appears to be important, but no-one knows what it is.)Β She found a docent and said,Β βExcuse me, but I think those are drop spindles.βΒ Β βWhy would you think that, maβam?βΒ Β βBecause they look just like the ones my husband makes for me.Β See?βΒ They got all excited, took tons of pictures and video of her spinning with her spindle.Β When she was back in the area a few years later, they were still on display, but labeled as drop spindles.
So ancient Roman statues have some really weird hairstyles. Archaeologists just couldnβt figure them out. They didnβt have hairspray or modern hair bands, or elastic at all, but some of these things defied gravity better than Marge Simpsonβs beehive.
Eventually they decided, wigs. Must be wigs. Or maybe hats. Definitely not real hair.
A hairdresser comes a long, looks at a few and is like, βYeah, theyβre sewn.β
βDonβt be silly!β the archaeologists cry. βHow foolish, sewn hair indeed! LOL!β
So she went away and recreated them on real people using a needle and thread and the mystery of Roman hairstyles was solved.
She now works as a hair archaeologist and I believe she has a YouTube channel now where she recreates forgotten hairstyles, using only what they had available at the time.
^^ THE PERSON MENTIONED HERE IS JANET STEPHENS!!
Hereβs her YouTube channel with the recreated hair-styles
And the research she did got published in the Journal of Roman Studies (which is a big deal in the Classics world) βeven thoughβ she doesnβt have at least a Masters degree in the field.
[To give reference to the gate keeping in this field, she was, I think, only the second or so person without a PhD to be published in the history of the Journal]
But thatβs the point, she knew hair and she knew her craft so well that when scholars had ridiculous theories and scoffed at her own, she went ahead and experimented and proved her theories right.
