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MajorGeneralInternet t1_itc7apm wrote

Amazing that these bones used to be people with unique identities and stories, but they will never be fully understood because writing wasn't invented yet.

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Quantentheorie t1_itcd5w0 wrote

this is a thought that has crossed my mind a couple of times seeing full roman skeletons presented in a museum; laid out under glas in their sarcophagus to just... look at.

Not that I personally would mind if it were mine. But its a weird conflict because the reason this is "fine" is that they're just bones, not people, their identities and in any real way something intimate and private - but the only real reason we display old skeletons like this (which are completely ordinary modern human skeletons in most regards) is also because we're fascinated and interested in the fact that this used to be a person that walked, talked and had a life.

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berry90 t1_itcprnq wrote

I remember going to a museum when I was younger where they had a skeleton on display. They had a little video display with an actor portraying the skeleton.

It was interesting because it seems that the person died from a head injury. It could have been an assault, it could have been a fall. We'll never know. Just another human story lost to time, kind of. We have the body, and we can make assumptions from the burial, but we'll never really know.

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skyblueandblack t1_itd4vjl wrote

At the La Brea Tar Pits, there's a display case with the bones of a woman that was discovered there. It's a holographic display, though, so as you move past it, you see her how she might have looked thousands of years ago.

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xiaorobear t1_itd7b0e wrote

Just a funny little trivia fact, "la brea" means "the tar," so writing out the La Brea Tar Pits is like writing 'the the tar tar pits.'

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NakatasCat t1_itd89hl wrote

The Los Angeles Angels

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Odie_Odie t1_itemgxb wrote

The Angels Angels of Anaheim. They were the Anaheim Angels seventeen years ago, what an unfortunate change.

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SillyFlyGuy t1_itdces6 wrote

Just around the corner from The La Brea Tar Pits is an automatic ATM machine where you use your personal PIN number.

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MrWhite t1_ite70y1 wrote

"Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence" Boys

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Holychilidog t1_itfqsos wrote

Ah yes, the plaque pits it is. The place is bad for your teeth.

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FunkrusherPlus t1_itfjxpy wrote

There are ways forensic anthropologists and osteologists can determine cause of death by studying other details of the skeleton. Even old ancient ones.

ie. If there’s an injury on the skull and also damaged bones in the arms and hands, one can determine that the person was assaulted and died. If there’s an injury on the skull and fractured spine but no signs of struggle it’s possible the person died falling off a horse. These are overly simplified examples — the experts can take a million things into account just by studying the bones and come to solid conclusions with evidence to back it up.

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gabriel1313 t1_itcvat2 wrote

What was the name of the clown in Hamlet whose skull was held while being rumina te d upon in the same way? Such an interesting line of thought

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25hourenergy t1_itcwo9h wrote

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow

of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath

borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how

abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at

it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know

not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your

gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,

that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one

now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?

Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let

her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must

come; make her laugh at that.

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the_YellowRanger t1_itfu26k wrote

When i see skeletons it makes me wonder; if reincarnation was real, would i know it if i ever saw my old skeleton on display?

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Quantentheorie t1_itfuufs wrote

without the rules of the reincarnation specifically outfitting you with that feature, I don't see how. Its not like we're usually able to identify any part of our body by any means other than our known senses.

Heck, I've had a limb fall asleep, then wondered who's f*ing arm this is often enough to know I can fail to recognise my own body part while its still attached to me.

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Bervaa t1_itfmh2q wrote

We’re all just pieces of the same body, flares of the same fire

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ecm1413 t1_itccqbl wrote

Right? So many lost thoughts and ideas over time :/

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jackedtradie t1_itckfon wrote

Blows my mind. The billions of people that lived before us. Gone like dust in the wind. They have families, problems, struggles, successes, thoughts and ideas, happy times and sad times. They were the centre of their own world for a second in this universe, then gone and forgotten

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Oblivisteam t1_itcmbdx wrote

The way I always reconcile with that thought is that we live on through the interactions and imprints we leave upon others. Your face and your name may be forgotten, though it could be remembered by history somehow, but those whose lives you touched will echo forward endlessly. It's all we can do to make sure it's a calm ripple and not a violent riptide.

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RubySapphireGarnet t1_itdtd8a wrote

They're not completely gone, their DNA lives on in their ancestors in sort of beautiful way. You and are the culmination of millions before us. Pretty cool

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ecm1413 t1_ite2iq7 wrote

I totally agree. I've thought about that before and definitely take solace knowing we all carry on through our DNA. It's cool when someone makes a (good) impact on history and gets to live on through history too.

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Latyon t1_ite4euf wrote

Not all of us have kids though

But that's fine, I'm cool with just being a branch on this crazy tree of life.

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ecm1413 t1_ite4qrg wrote

I meant like our ancestors before us but I get what you're saying!

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Metalhed69 t1_iterenz wrote

My 23 and Me DNA report says I’m descended from one of the groups that inhabited Doggerland (mentioned in the article). So yeah, still here.

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gmorf33 t1_itcj7k3 wrote

Makes sense why early writing could have been seen as magic. Capturing memories, ideas, and knowledge into something physical that can be shared and passed down. I wonder, if similar to photographs which were looked at with a lot of superstition, if early writing/runes had this same aura.

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David_bowman_starman t1_itdbohs wrote

Currently we think that writing arose more as just a slow evolution from counting, as the symbols for amounts became more streamlined and abstract over time, eventually turning into a full written alphabet. But it definitely was reserved for only an elite few for a long time, even if more just for accounting purposes.

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EnkiduOdinson t1_itdrxnc wrote

I visited the Neues Museum in Berlin yesterday where they had the mummies of three girls and a quote by one of the researchers there saying something like „you have to realize that these were once people like us with hopes and dreams“.

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SirMaha t1_itdo4nm wrote

Yeah, i also hate that old bones have no writing on them!

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dasmikkimats t1_itellbb wrote

Imagine in thousands of years when people unearth us and find gold grillz and boob/butt implants among other things.

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