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[femoso-seben]

Immortal Shenanigans

Chapter 2: Bullets and Pots

pt.1 pt.2, pt. 3

You stare at them. And they stared at you. You grow and twist your arms until the rope becomes loose. You really had to remove the bullet from your head. You violently dislocated your shoulder and pulled your left hand free.

You throw your head forward dislodging the bullet in your head. You reach into the hole pull out the bullet and drop it onto the ground. You rotate your neck before freeing your other arm.

“You know it’s impolite to shoot someone from that distance.” You hum as the hole in your head begins to close. “Next time shoot me up close, so the bullet doesn’t get stuck.”

You reach down untie your feet, stand up, and walk toward the group. “What with those expressions? It seems like you're seeing a zombie—“

Bang!

Another bullet hits you point blank in the face. You fall backward as they lay more bullets into your body. They quietly stare at each other before leaving, your eyes open and you stand up in the empty… where were you?

It didn’t matter you picked up your bag and left. As you leave the large room you hear a low voice talking. We’re they still here? Might as well scare the shit out of them.

“Hey,” you round the corner as a bullet hits you in the heart. You stare down at the hole in your chest. “That’s not very nice.” You look up shaking your head.

“How the fuck are you still alive?”

“I’m immortal.”

“We killed you.”

“You tried.”

They stared at you with horror in their eye. You were still alive. I looked down at their map, they were planning something.

“Mmh, colonizing shit, you make your ancestors proud.” You look up at the British military men. They give you a cold look.

Ghost raises his gun, “Don’t waste your bullets on me.” You say not looking at him. “We both know it won’t work.” He slowly lowers his gun and looks down at you.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m Egyptian…. I’m from Egypt. This is my home territory.” You’d rate the obvious.

“How old are you?” Soap folds his arm curious about the answer.

“About 5,000 years old.” You casually stare looking down at your ruined clothes. “I was born a little after Egypt was unified. So about 5,000 years old.” You looked him in the face.

“How are you still alive?”

“I don’t know.”

“How don’t you know?”

“We didn’t have science back then!” I shout at Soap.

“I’m older than your Goddamn country, show me some respect!”

“You act like a bratty child.” Ghost hums looking at you with annoyance.

“I am still 20, there’s a dichotomy, between my age and my mental age. I’ve been through a lot and processed it like a 20-year-old.” You explain. The mustache man nods somewhat understanding.

“You do act your age.”

“What you guys doing?” You stand on your tippy toes trying to catch a glimpse of what they're doing. They move to block your view.

“This is private information.”

“Geez ok,” you put your hands up, “it’s not like I’m gonna retain that information. It’s not important to me.”

“Why do you wanna know then?”

“Because I’m nosy,” you shrug. In this decade you decided to be the most immature person ever, to truly act your mental age. A little dumb and completely insufferable.

“Anyways I need to head back… I’m thinking the lady I’m staying with is looking for me.” You begin to walk off, humming a tune so old it was ingrained in your very soul.

“Where do you think you're going?”

“Back to my Airbnb,” you turn around spreading your arms to the mustache man. “Don’t worry I won’t mention you, all four of you aren’t worthy to be remembered.” You give them a bow and Waltz out.

You have rented the Airbnb for a month. you open the door and set your bag down. If the police are looking for you, you're going to have to call in and clear up the misinformation. You take a shower and change to less damaged bloody clothes.

“Hey is this the police?… this is yn… I wasn’t missing just went on a spiritual journey without my phone… sorry for the inconvenience… of course, I’ll tell someone next time.” You hung up, bored and slightly numb.

You should call in that temple site, and get your pots in a museum; not the British Museum, but a local one. You found the right phone number of an old colleague.

“Hey is mister Renfield there? Yes, this is Sofia, Mary’s daughter. Me and my mother stumble across a hidden temple.” News travels fast and you soon we’re back in your temple this time willingly and unstuck.

“Sofia,” you look up.

“Look at these pots, they are your specialty,” Benjamin said. He was an archeologist from America helping with the dig.

“These are in great condition,” you hum, of course, they are. Nobody touched them but you. “These artifacts might tell us more about this temple.”

“This site gonna be a new tourist attraction.” You smile but deep inside you hate the idea of random people ruining your sacred temple.

You walk the street at night. You didn’t need sleep, you didn’t need food, you didn’t need water. But you like those things, they make you feel more mortal more human. You found it ironic you wanted to be human again when for many years you’ve seen yourself as a god amongst men.

“These pots look expensive.” You froze and looked to your right.

“We can sell this to the British Museum.”

Hell no!

You begin to walk down the alleyway, those pots— must have come from your site. Those were your pots, nobody else but yours. You found three men packing them into boxes.

“What do you think you're doing with my pots?” You coldly asked in Arabic. They turn to you like deer in headlights. One pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot. You stare at them coldly arms folded.

“Back off bitch!”

“Why?” You walk closer and they frown. They turn to each other and begin to speak another language.

You could understand them. They were talking about your looks. They could sell you. Or harvest your organs. You frown if they discover your immortality they keep you as a slave.

“Human trafficking?” They froze and turned to you horrified. You knew the second language too. You pull out your tactical whip and hit the one with the gun. You took the gun and turned it on them.

“Take me to your hideout.” You demand. You will take all the artifacts they have stolen back. They slowly took you to an abandoned warehouse at the end of the city. They tried to take the gun back but your whip took good care of their attempts.

It hurt like hell and it culled their attempts to fight you. You knocked out both men, with one hard punch and tied them up with the rope you carried in your bag. You enter the abandoned warehouse. It was mostly empty, besides the shit tone of guns, but you didn’t care for that.

“Damn, what is this? An incels’ wet dream?” You mutter staring at the boxes of guns.

You walk around taking in all the stuff. Most of it was military, not your problem. You found your artifacts all in a single box with little care put into it. You deer in frustration. You pull out your phone to call in the stolen items and the military-grade gun.

“Hello, police?”

“Price over here.” Your voice does as you slowly lookout to find those four military men. You end the call and stand up.

“Hey.”

Bang!

“Hey, these pots are old!” You yell back trying to protect the box.

“What are you doing here,” mustache man roars in anger.

“Stolen museum pots!”

“How can we trust you?” They all had their guns pointed at you. You roll your eyes.

“I’m an archeologist first, a historian second, and a bitch lastly. I don’t give a shit about your damn mission only these pots!” They turn to each other. Was she for real? They look at you. Yes, she is.

“Alright you're here for pots, how did you get here.”

“Two looters try to steal my temple pot.”

“How did you take out two men?”

“Tactical whip,” you hold up your metallic whip. Soap sighed and the mustache man simply covered his eyes.

“Does it work?”

“Very well.”

“I’m going to call the police—“

“No, we’re going to call the military.” Mustache man interrupted you. You sigh and stretch your arms.

“Alright, when they get here just tell them that box is historically important.” You pick up your stuff and begin to leave.

“Where are you going?”

“You guys got this handle, and I still need to report another problem.” You wave your hand.

“Let’s not meet up again.” You state as you leave the warehouse.

You called in the temple pot theft and your colleagues explained the frustrating situation. Looters are the first enemy of knowledge and history.

Bang!

You fall forward and your world turns black.

[unstableforensicscientist]

Okay these are the head cannons I have so far, and yes I will always add more 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Herbert West headcanonnons:

a gay or unlabeled trans man

also aroace

AuDHD

Hates loud noises or bright lights specifically

Clenches his jaw or grates his teeth when he sleeps

Rarely ever remembers to shower but also needs everything around him to be clean

Despises coffee but if he had to drink it, he would either drink it purely black and probably like the bottom of the coffee pot or so much sugar it’s insane

He secretly has a sweet tooth (PLS HEAR ME OUT ON THIS)

Literally only wears suits and will sometimes sleep in them

Doesn’t remember to take care of himself like ever

he loves compression socks (once again just hear me out)

He wears sock garters

smells like either mold/corpses or hand sanitizer, no in between.

he has two different handwriting, one that is like a mix of cursive and his normal in pen, and really shitty writing in pencil.

Rarely would ever care for music but he would occasionally go with classical

LOVES the rain/thunderstorms

Wanted to study archeology when he was younger (I’m projecting)

will go through math equations when he gets bored or stressed

Definitely stims, but specifically hand taps, leg taps, facial movements, and scrunching his hands or opening and closing his hands into a fist shape, or swaying/pacing.

He also Stims by breaking the fuck out of No.2 pencils and sometimes even pens if he’s stressed out/agitated enough

He fidgets with his tie and watch a lot, especially when he’s nervous, it’s one of the only ways you can tell he’s on edge

Either can’t sit still for hours or will be so silent/still you won’t notice he’s there.

Has a collection of encyclopedias that are really fucking old.

Will read fiction on very, and I mean VERY rare occasions. They will most likely be science fiction too.

Gruber was 100% a father figure for him.

Genuinely couldn’t give less of a fuck about your opinion on him unless you say something about his work.

did his own top surgery with perfect performance and had guidance from Gruber

Doesn’t drink much besides water or just well nothing, but will have some tea on occasion.

I also like the idea of him liking 7 up from the cut scene because it’s silly

used to wear socks with fun yet sophisticated designs on them in high school.

He definitely dressed like your average high school nerd when he was younger, suspenders and all.

Used to have glasses that would make his eyes look 10x bigger

His vision is absolute shit without his glasses, basically a male Velma.

also I think it’s silly to say he did ballet when he was younger (reference to the bride commentary)

used to have his hair a bit more shoulder length in high school

literally sleeps with one single pillow and a sheet. Also his bed feels like a rock when you lay on it. (He never fucking sleeps)

actually really enjoys nature and not just in the experimental environment way, but you would have to water board that info out of him.

Genuinely wants some kind of reptile as a pet.

he has so many random facts on the most niche things you could possibly not want know/hear about.

Genuinely likes the color green, but more of a forest green and not bright ass neon.

has gone camping ONCE.

has a specific routine for everything and will breakdown if it doesn’t go accordingly

never ever shows his meltdowns to anyone but himself

Has gone to the psych ward during his time in Switzerland after Grubers death

Doesn’t trust psychiatrists

this one I think is just funny to me but he has tried to read fiction with magic and shit and HATES IT. Read love craft and he had called that man out for his writing and bigotry so many times to Gruber and probably Dan.

Has the most manic laugh/giggle you’ve ever heard

smiles with his teeth if he’s being an asshole, almost like the Cheshire Cat, smiles with his mouth closed in a tight line when he’s sarcastic or annoyed, only has smiled genuinely like twice.

Hates showing emotions, even negative ones. He prefers to seem entirely neutral unless provoked

never looks himself in the mirror

hates going to the barber shop and prefers to cut his own hair

Literally cannot legally drive

Speed walks, he cannot walk at a normal pace ever.

Enjoys puns and jokes but only if he’s the one making them.

Death glares that could kill a man if it were possible.

thinks he’s very clever but sometimes he really is just stupid 🙁

thinks logically but not rationally

His morals are so fucking grey, like he has his lines he won’t ever cross but besides that, he does not give a fuck at all

He sits with his legs crossed or he sits like a bird perched on a branch, no in between

He either really loves or really hates small spaces

loves curling his body into himself or have his chested puffed out really proudly once again, no in between

He has SERIOUS back problems, and has kinda bad posture

He paces so much that it freaks Dan out sometimes

Talks to himself a LOT

If he lets himself relax, he often does crossword puzzles or just reads medical textbooks and highlights the misinformation in them

does actually care for Dan, just has a really hard and shitty way of showing it

Finds the realism art movement very interesting, and did a lot of research on Eakins to understand how to draw anatomy for his subjects

[chocolateteapotsvis]

Barry surveys the table. It's strewn with what looks like every craft supply from his not-insubstantial model painting stash. They start orderly enough, the paint pots and brushes lined up neatly besides the mat by his chair, and then devolving into a chaotic mess of paper towels, plastic cups, and loose sprues from who-knows-what heaped precariously around the model airplane kit.

He could ask about when Hal had set this up, since they've just returned from Barry's surprise birthday party - a surprise, mostly, because he'd assumed that by April his friends and family would have moved on to something else. But he'd spent so long choosing between the pile of socks Wally had gifted him over the years that he could have missed the Rogues parading through the apartment in their rush out the door.

So instead, he taps a finger against his barely-suppressed smile. "How many birthdays ago is that plane from?"

"You mean when I gave it to you, or you gave it to me?" Hal whips Barry's apron from the back of the chair with a flourish and holds it out for him. "As for that Justice Society tabletop RPG, I assumed you excavated it from an archeological dig somewhere. So are we going to get painting, or are you going to spend another year sighing about how you wished you had time to paint it?"

Barry's fingers are already twitching towards the box. Does he start with the Flash, or does he warm up with another figure first? From Hal's smirk, Barry's thought process is plain on his face.

"It's practically a tradition at this point. It would be a shame to actually do something about it." Barry doesn't bother hiding his smile anymore at the strangled noise Hal makes from behind him as he ties his apron. He pulls back Hal's chair, offering it to him with a mock bow. If it doesn't really do much to hide the heat in his ears, well, he knows a lost cause when he sees one, and in this one, he's more than happy to lose. "But I know better than to get between you and your model airplanes."

(Also, yes, it's supposed to be the same model from The Color of Fear, as seen most recently in toytle's awesome redraw!)

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

This just in, my Principals of Archeology Professor is hilarious! Some quotes from the first lecture...

"Some of you are going to come up with some wacky ass shit"

"The one rule of archeology is don't die"

"Fuckin hell... today's gonna suck"

"Do not die for archeology. It's just not that cool."

"I don't care about the french unless they're dead"

"The King Tut shit pic is how I got my Job"

"killing each other, basic human things"

"Antiques Road Show is devils spawn"

"La Paz Bolivia is the one exception. The rich people live at the bottom and the slums are at the top because its frezzing in high altitudes. This means when it rains the shit from the slums is now on the rich peoples lot and I just- I feel like if more places were like that the world would be a better place"

"Stop being nice in this class" *starts encouraging students to be dicks and take pot shots at dead people*

*Actively encouraging students to pirate or steal the text book*

"After 1 week extension, you will need an act of God for me to take your paper"

"Classroom behavior policy... I prefer the term Don't Be A Dick"

"Threatening behavior... Don't."

"You gotta be the person who enjoys getting dysentery with 20 of your closest friends"

[vaiztohirez]

Please explain the connection between traditional Persian art/music/expression and where we see it integrated in western society today

Uhhhhhh rugs? elephant motifs? tiles? The Persian Empire was pretty large so -- Oh did they do the massive cliff(?) face tomb carvings? I think that was a side note in my Art of Ancient Egypt course and it might have been by the Persian kings -- Anyways I'm sure there was a ton of cultural exchange. The archeological evidence was probably coins and pots because it's usually coins and pots. idk I just know this guy is supposed to be based off the Persian emperor Darius III who fought Alexander the Great a lot

[jarognieva]

Ok so i’m sorry i don’t remember if i already ask about your headcanons on Micolash background story before Byrgenwerth? But if you already answer this, you said a while ago that you hc he studied history right? Could you tell is more?

Noo you didn’t ask:) So

Let me begin from this: I'm not sure how to interpret the game world - whether it is placed in a world similar to ours in which there are the same nations and countries as ours (and Yharnam is in one of them or is a city-state) or maybe it is a completely different world? Anyway, my point is that Micolash is a Czech name (as you probably already know), but anglicized - in Czech (and Slovak) it is Mikoláš or Mikuláš. I think that the game's creators used many Slavic names (and motifs) for a reason (but I will write about that in another post...) So I think he is either Czech, or it is a way to show that he is a foreigner? Or Yharnam is actually based on Prague and Slavs are actually native here? Either way - my headcanon is that in both situations he is either a foreigner or the child of foreigners. Eventually Yharnam became such a cultural melting pot that people gave different names to their children regardless of origin, because different names from different cultures became popular here. Therefore, since childhood, he has an idea of such things as cultural differences, language differences, etc. It was something that made it easier (or even motivated him?) to study history.

Early on when I joined the fandom, I adopted the headcanon that he and Rom were siblings. Well... They had a rough childhood (BUT this is absolutely not an attempt to excuse Micolash - I hate the type of Disney villain who is made into a poor victim, so all the bad things he did were not his fault uwu). They supposedly had both parents, but... both parents severely neglected them. There was often physical and psychological violence between them. All this happened for years in front of Mico and Rom. Emotional neglect always has a strong impact on the child's psyche... And in this case, the younger Rom suffered the most. Mico was the one who had to keep calm and take care of and protect them both. And it was Mico who convinced her to join the university. For them, studying was a chance to escape from this terrible everyday life. Of course, that wasn't the only reason, they were both very intelligent and curious about the world. Yes... VERY curious, especially Mico. But more on that in a moment. And at that moment I had a dilemma - because I couldn't decide whether they were studying history or medicine. Or maybe something else?

Yes, I told you once that Mico studied history (because Byrgenwerth was mainly a place to study history and archeology). The "Byrgenwerth squad" must have had some idea about the Pthumerians, what their history was like, and what their contacts with the Great Ones were like. But he might as well have studied medicine! Whereas there is a theory that the Mensis Scholars were actually kidnapping people to study the corpses. It wouldn't make so much sense if Mico didn't know anything about it, right? And honestly, I REALLY like Katy's theory about Mico's strange "fascination" with women's organs and their ability to give birth in general (I can't find it now, but you probably know what I mean xD). Already in his childhood, he did not have a good example when it comes to treating women as equal (as I already said... a difficult childhood and severe domestic violence). He saw only Rom as his equal. What I'm getting at is that this is where history and medicine come together! A woman's ability to give birth and the possibility of being an "incubator" for the Great Ones was connected to the history of the Pthumerians (Queen Yharnam and Mergo) and Cainhurst (Annalise and the child of blood). Fascination with these two topics led to experiments in Yahar-Gul, the creation of The One Reborn and an attempt to make contact with the Great Ones! Apparently history likes to repeat itself... Did it stop Micolash to do all these things? Absolutely not.

[queer-starwars-bracket]

Queer Star Wars Characters (Round 1): Aphra's Exes Match 3

(Having Aphra's main love interests face off in round 1 was the result of random generation)

Sana Starros | Identity: wlw | Media: Star Wars comics

Sana Starros has appeared in a variety of Star Wars comics, primarily the main series, Doctor Aphra, and now her own eponymous series. She was first introduced as Han Solo’s fake wife (they got married as part of a scheme), but quickly became a proper character in her own right. A former archeology student of the University of Bar’leth, she is now a smuggler and scoundrel with her own ship. She is Aphra’s main ex, and the Aphra comic series is currently leaning towards a poly ending with her, Aphra, and Magna Tolvan. Despite frequently being pulled into Aphra’s schemes, she gathered a team of everyone important to Aphra to save her from the Spark Eternal. 

Magna Tolvan | Identity: wlw | Media: Doctor Aphra comics

Magna Tolvan began as an Imperial officer and the homoerotic rival to Doctor Aphra. This culminated with them kissing when they thought they were going to die. They worked together on a mission to steal information from a Rebel flight academy, before parting. Tolvan later received a message from Aphra informing her about Vader’s plan to overthrow the Emperor. Aphra was being interrogated in Accresker Jail, and knowing this put Tolvan in danger if Aphra’s interrogation was successful. Their plan to escape eventually spiraled out of control into Vader being called to the prison and Tolvan having her memories altered through use of a Bor Gullet relative to forget Vader’s plan and thinking that she killed Aphra. 

After this, she joined the Rebel Alliance. Her ethical guide was still order, but seeing all the corruption of the Empire caused her to view the Alliance as the best way to bring order to the galaxy. She became a captain of a Rebel Intelligence strike force, which planned to use a lightsaber gun to assassinate Palpatine. This plan involved forcibly recruiting Aphra, causing her to realize her memories had been altered. The assassination plan turned out to be a honey pot, which Aphra, like usual, turned into a complex scheme. Because of Tolvan, Aphra was motivated to oppose Project Swarm and delete the first discovery of Echo Base. This gave the Rebellion enough time to built up their defenses and have a successful evacuation.

Sana Starros recruited her as part of the team to save Aphra from the Spark Eternal. They haven’t entirely made up for all the drama in the previous run of the comic, but the narrative seems to be leaning towards a poly ending with her, Sana, and Aphra.

[peri-helia]

Okay I love the thought of the Guard and museums or galleries and heists to get back stuff they’ve lost or spotting each other in artwork but I was thinking about Andy’s conversation with Nile.

Nile : Time steals it all away, I guess.

Andy : It's not what time steals... it's what it leaves behind. Things you can't forget.

And museums are as much proof of the time they’ve walked the Earth as…tombs of all the things they’ve loved and lost and times they can never go back to. There are fossils and skeletons of animals. Ghostly impressions of plants and animals that Andy can remember walking past, hunting and eating, can remember how they taste, though there’s no meat on the bone now

There’s Booker’s son’s doll on exhibit, for all the world to see.

The baby’s pig shaped rattle filled with dried beans, that Joe can hear like it was yesterday.

Nicky looking at rows of coral amulets, lost or retrieved from archeological sites as fine examples of the workmanship.

Sculptures and cooking pots and combs and gravestones that people loved and lost, scrimped and saved for, had buried with them so they could have them in their afterlife splintered by time and split across the globe. And these things are remembered and their kept safe and treasured and their stories are told or at least as much as can be but it’s bittersweet, because it’s over, and separated from it’s time and it’s the nostalgia, the opening of old wounds, just the same.

And the Guard are walking museums in their own right, secret libraries of intangible culture. Of skills and songs and stories that they can share, to keep alive, as part of the good they put into the world, as maybe part of the reason why they are still alive. Because it’s not time yet, for them, for the memories they carry to end.

Because it’s not what time steals, it’s what it leaves behind. The things you can’t forget.

[classicschronicles]

Hi lovelies,

A few days ago this new Bollywood movie called Pathaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan and John Abrahams, came out and so obviously I HAD to go and watch it. But fun fact about me is that I am literally a melting pot of different cultures. My dads family are Indian-Kenyan. My mums family were initially (back in the 5th-7th century) a family of Jewish royalty in what is now Afghanistan (which is actually pretty cool). They converted to Islam some time later and became part of a very particular Afghani tribe called the Pathaan (also another reason I had to watch this movie). Over the course of the next few centuries they migrated from Afghanistan to India, before being forced into Pakistan because of colonialism. Throughout all of this, my mums branch of the Pathaan tribe stuck together and so even still, my mum’s family in pure Pathaan, but I’m only half Pathaan because my mum married out. However, me being me did some deep diving into this because it’s actually pretty cool that my family tree can be traced back that far. Okay so at this point you’re probably wondering how on earth this related to Classics, but I found out that the Pathaan langue (Pashto) is actually about 2500 years old, which makes it about the same age as Latin and therefore a classical language! And so today I thought I would tell you a little bit about Pashto.

The Pashto language belongs to the Indi-Iranian language family and is mainly spoken by the ethnic communities of Afghanistan and western provinces of Pakistan, which is partially inhabited by Pashtuns (aka Pathaan’s). It is also still the native language of the indigenous Pathaan people. The language is said to have originated in the Kandahar district of Afghanistan and is said to be one of the two national languages (the other being Dari, a Persian language).

The vocabulary of Pashto has actually not been borrowed or derived from other languages, which is extremely rare for any language still spoken in a modern setting. Many of its lexis do, however, relate to other Eastern Iranian languages such as Pamir and Ossetia.

The exact origin of the Pashto language and the Pathaan tribes are unknown, but the word ‘Pashto’ derives from the regular phonological process. Nevertheless, the Pathaan are sometimes compared with the Pakhta tribes mentioned in Rigvenda, around 1700-1100 B.C., apparently they are the same people that the Greek historian Herodotus referred to Paktika (a northern province in Afghanistan). However, this comparison appears to be due in large part to the apparent similarity between their names, despite the fact that etymologically it can’t really be justified. But there are some archeological compilations and historical data and so the majority of researchers now believe that the Pashto language is around 25000 years old.

Herodotus also mentions the Paktika ‘Apridai’ tribe but it is unknown what language they spoke. However, Strabo (who lived between 64 B.C. and 24 C.E.) suggests that the tribes inhabiting the lands west of the Indus River were part of Ariana and to their east was India. Since about the 3rd century B.C. and onwards from that, these tribes were mostly referred to by the name ‘Afghan’ (or ‘Abgan’) and their language as ‘Afghani’.

Many historians and scholars believe that the earliest piece of written Pashto work dates back to the 8th century. However, a lot of history outside of the western empires lacks the same clarity and information and so even this is highly disputed. However, during the 17th century, Pashto poetry became very popular amongst the Pathaan.

To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot of information on the Pashtun language or the origin of the Pathaan, other than that they have been around since the B.C. But it’s pretty cool to me that my families culture has such a long history. This entry was pretty special to me so hopefully you all enjoyed it and I hope you all have a lovely rest of your weekend!

~Z

[all-souls-matinee]

A Ghost Story for Christmas

Throughout the 1970s the BBC ran a holiday special that adapted the works of M.R. James into made-for-TV-movies; celebrating the ‘tradition’ of telling scary ghost stories at Christmastime. They later included a few exceptions to the James rule, and then rebooted it for limited releases in 2005. James is a horror staple; even if you haven’t read his stuff you would recognize the setups and themes of his stories because he was widely publicized in 1910s Cambridge and came to have a ton of influence on the genre. I’ve always been pretty indifferent towards his writing, only familiar with ‘Casting the Runes’ and ‘Rats’ (neither adapted here), but was so charmed by this thing’s existence that I picked out seven episodes that sounded the most interesting and watched in a randomly generated order. All of them are available for free on YouTube/Tubi and run from 30-60 minutes if you’d like to check it out for yourself.

A View from a Hill (2005), story by M.R. James

An archeologist visits a bankrupt squire at a country estate to assess his family’s collection of local archeological finds. Against the protests of his servant, the squire lends our protag a pair of binoculars from the collection.

The editing on this one sucks so hard. There’s a ton of potential in using binoculars as a kind of adder stone that allows you see both shadowy figures and an entire building that isn’t there, and it’s too bad that it’s just flashing images and jump-cut edits. We do get a taste of James’ penchant for stories within stories, usually conveyed by a wise old man, which I love. A certain je ne sais quoi in inviting the unpaid manservant to sit down and talk about how the local weird guy was gallows-robbing and boiling skeletons in a big pot and then went crazy, made a pair of magic binoculars, and got killed by ghosts. Respective reactions to this were to take a long drag on a cigarette say “that didn’t happen” and take a sip of wine and say “it’s an interesting story.” Thank you British people for my life.

The Ice House (1978), original teleplay by John Bowen

A man vacationing to cope with the death of his wife begins to suspect brother-and-sister resort owners are up to something when they show him a mysterious vine growing on their property.

The concept of gothic horror set at one of the country health clubs that were popular in 70s England is honestly very clever. A forbidden room, a mysterious object, the image of a middle aged man wandering around at night with a candle instead of a young woman, it all mostly works, but doesn’t ever quite get anywhere. These are simple stories intended for sharing around a hearth or at a sleepover so shouldn’t want for things like character development or complex filming, but because this one was so ambitious you can feel how lacking it is. Gothic horror also isn’t my thing even at its best, and here its definitely... not (tw for incest.) The biggest point in its favor is the ending, which is at least a natural resolution to the story Bowen was trying to tell.

The Ash Tree (1975), story by M.R. James

Squire Richard inherits a beautiful estate from his distant uncle Matthew, only to be troubled by the sins of Matthew’s past as a ruthless employer of witch hunters. 

The framing of Richard-as-Matthew was confusing, the lighting and editing off, and I really dislike the witch genre so was predisposed against this one. I did like the wise old man character (the mild affect he has while explaining that anyone who touched Matthew’s body was physically wounded in bizarre ways??), and will give it credit for going from the most boring to the most insane one of the bunch. All of these are pretty tame so it was kind of a shock to have them cut to a topless witch torture scene and then to have an ending where he’s mauled by, um, spiders made from human baby heads. The titular cursed tree does burn down at the end, so that’s all good then.

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (2010), story by M.R. James

Pressured to take space from his wife’s care home, an old man goes to stay at a seaside hotel and finds a mysterious object™ while beach combing.

John Hurt is putting in such a powerhouse performance that it almost feels unfair to compare this to the cheaper 70s stuff. Cinematography and set dressing convey a subtype of loneliness that feels like scum on glass, and tension is built up wonderfully with nasty audio, a scary statue, the image of a pillow slowly dragged under a door. A figure on the beach is made frightening only through film techniques. It also strays much further from the source material than other adaptations, but that’s not without purpose. Hurt’s aside that losing someone to dementia is the opposite of our concept of a ‘ghost’ is more chilling than any of these goofy little vignettes have a right to be; no wonder they replaced the whistle with a wedding ring.

Stigma (1977), original teleplay by Clive Exton

Katherine and her teenage daughter take a trip out to their summer cottage, stopping to watch a team of workers attempt to remove a boulder from the property. Katherine is exasperated with her family, distracted by the workmen, and while cooking dinner finds her hand covered in blood. Only problem is she hasn’t cut herself.

This one was so fucked up and bizarre and I really liked it. As a kid one of my favorite ‘true’ stories was about a house in the Southern U.S. that inexplicably dripped blood from its walls, and this reminded me of that with an added human element. There’s a lot packed into the runtime and characterization considering how simple the plot is. Something both very charming and very chilling about amateur acting and grainy film stock that’s then transformed by moments of pure pathos and truly beautiful shots. The image of blood welling from skin with no visible wounds made me physically shudder; my only issue is that it over-explains itself at the end. So close.

Lost Hearts (1973), story by M.R. James

A preteen named Steven is sent off to live with a distant relation, an eccentric, kindhearted old man obsessed with the occult, and keeps seeing mysterious children around the grounds of his estate.

This one surprised me because I can’t stand the premise, but it really grew on me with time. Even though there’s no mystery (’those children you’re seeing definitely Aren’t little dead ghost children, why, the old man loves kids he adopted two orphans that mysteriously vanished’), it had the best pacing out of any episode I watched. There are some truly arresting and memorable shots like Steven’s benefactor clipping a flower with garden shears and grazing over a cherub statue, or his untimely demise filmed entirely in silhouette. The ghost children’s makeup has them in grey body paint with long vampire fingernails (and, later, open rib cages), which would have terrified me as a child. Even as an adult the image of them tapping on glass windows and humming a leitmotif is memorably creepy.

The Mezzotint (2021), story by M.R. James

Curator Edward Williams comes into possession of a print, a mezzotint, depicting a country estate. When a friend takes a look at it there’s something ever-so-slightly different about the image. Maybe Williams simply missed the moon peeking between the clouds and the figure stepping onto the lawn (spoiler alert: he didn’t.)

The prosthetics that traumatized so many kids who watched The Witches in the 90s never bothered me growing up, but that painting in the beginning gave me nightmares for months, ergo The Mezzotint is the most compelling of any James story. A deep-seated fear of something moving when you can’t see it is just so deliciously scary; I wish it hadn’t had such an unimpressive filming style (Mark Gatiss wrote/directed, and you may remember him from another show), but the pacing, the acting, and the mezzotint itself were great. The wise old man in this one is even played by an old woman- #feminism!

[blueiscoool]

Intact Burial Cave From Time of Rameses II Discovered on Israeli Coast

In what experts are calling a “once-in-a-lifetime discovery” likened to an Indiana Jones film set, a 13th century BCE burial cave from the time of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II was discovered in Israel on September 14.

Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) inspector Dror Sitron was called to Palmachim Beach National Park in Yavneh-Yam, where during routine work by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, a mechanical digger had accidentally penetrated the roof of an ancient burial cave.

Sitron climbed down a ladder into a square cave with a central supporting pillar that appeared frozen in time.

He encountered several dozen intact pottery vessels and bronze spear- or arrowheads, exactly as they had been placed in a burial ceremony some 3,300 years ago – in the belief that they would serve the dead in the afterlife.

IAA Bronze Age-expert Eli Yannai dates the cave to the Late Bronze Age, before the biblical Exodus from Egypt, when the city of Yavneh – then still in Canaan – was under the control of the 19th Egyptian dynasty. Egypt provided secure conditions for international trade along the coast at that time.

“These economic and social processes are reflected in the burial cave that contains pottery vessels imported from Cyprus and from Ugarit on the northern Syrian coast, as well as from nearby coastal towns, including Yafo, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza and Tel Ajjul,” he said.

The cave’s finds include deep and shallow bowls – some painted red – along with footed chalices, cooking pots, storage jars and oil lamps.

The storage jars were likely manufactured along the Syrian and Lebanese coasts, said Yannai. Small jugs were used for keeping expensive commodities imported from Tyre, Sidon and other coastal ports.

Because the cave lay unopened for over three millennia, modern technology will be able to retrieve valuable organic information from the artifacts and provide a picture of Late Bronze Age funerary customs.

IAA director Eli Eskosido said the news had ���spread like wildfire in the academic world,” and that requests from scholars to join the upcoming excavation were pouring in.

He called it “a feast for the archeological world and for the ancient history of the land of Israel.”

By Marion Fischel.

[chocolateytruth]

Chocolatey Beginnnings

Do you think an object such as food could shape a whole group of people around it or do the people shape the food into what it needs to be? Figuratively, yes, people shape food into what they want it to become, but in a way for chocolate it was different in Mesoamerica. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree, named by a botanist in the 1750s, Carl Linnaeus, who created the modern system of naming living organisms- binomial nomenclature. Theobroma in Latin means “the foods of the gods” while the word cacao was taken from the native peoples in Mesoamerica, but linguists have issues tracing which group and where the word originated from in Mesoamerica. Amongst historical linguists they are in between two groups of native people: the Olmec language, mixe-zoquean, calling cacao, “kakaw(a)” and the Aztec or Mexica language related to contemporary Nahuatl calling cacao, “kakawa-ti.” These variations in the words from quite different Native civilizations from different time periods show that cacao had definitely originated from Mesoamerica, but that cacao had a long history that could have been passed throughout Mesoamerica through trade and the meeting and mixing of many people. Through the Olmecs and the Mayans, we could observe the symbolism of cacao held in the two distinct cultures and how the symbolism of cacao had transformed when it came into contact with the Mayans.

The major similarity between the Olmecs and the Mayans is how cacao was held to be a particularly important part in spiritual thought. The Olmecs included cacao in their burial rituals and Archeologists found pottery that has traces of cacao on the plate that were found in a supposed Olmec burial site. The Mayans as well as believe that their people should be buried with cacao so, their spirits may have some cacao to offer to gods. With the meaning came a deep belief that cacao is the food of the gods and that if you had cacao with you when you died, you would have an offering to give to the gods and move on to your eternal resting place. With these beliefs, many people wanted to have cacao with them. Another belief that showed to be fairly similar between these civilizations would be telling stories onto pottery. Most of the accounts we are able to retrieve are through the pottery that have been uncovered in archeological searches of the areas where Natives people have resided. Some of the other accounts are through Codexis, but the best way to know that the pottery found is for chocolate is the glyph that could be seen on numerous amounts of pottery. It said that the earliest evidence of cacao for the Mayan dates back from pottery that belongs to the preclassic period, 2000 BCE-250 CE, located in Belize. Archaeologists believe the pot found in an elite’s burial site could possibly be from 600 BCE, which depicted the cacao glyph, ka-ka-w. The cacao glyph consists of three signs: a fish preceded by a comb-like sign that represents the fin of a fish followed by a last sign that refers to the sign of corn. You can see this glyph of cacao shown on all the pottery placed in the image grouping above. Other pottery like the Popul Vuh, depicts the gods they believe to have significance in their lives such as maize god. The pottery reveals that cacao is used to create humankind which reveals the connection between cacao as an important sustenance in this society as well as the connection to the gods. This is especially important because the Natives placed cacao as an important food commodity that is used in a lot dealing in their daily lives.

The materialistic side where the origins of cacao are seen from the Mayans in the societal classes and where cacao was held in the class system. In the Mayan civilization cacao is held by those who were fortunate enough to have a lot of it in stock in their homes. With this very obvious interest in cacao that is being shown off by the Mayans through pottery to tell their story, we can even see scenes of gatherings that are possibly by the elites who could afford such events as well depicts the elites sharing their wealth with the people that are serving them or lower in their societies standards. This depiction of cacao to be able to share with their people shows how the people can be seen as almost equals and that they are human in comparison to what we will see soon by the Europeans to show that they treat others differently.

The transformation of chocolate can be seen mostly through the depictions of cacao onto pottery, telling the stories of their daily lives, but also why cacao was important in their daily lives. In a way, spiritual ideologies played a key reason cacao was held at such a high importance to the civilizations. The transformation of the bringing together of cultures marks how chocolate transformed Mesoamerica. Spiritual ideologies brought chocolate to a higher standard than that of other goods such as gold. To the Europeans, they sought gold to be the most important commodity, but cacao was the most important ingredient that would have brought the most riches more than gold would have ever.

Bibliography

Lecture

Edgar, Blake. The Power of Chocolate. Archaeology, Vol. 63, No. 6. pp. 20-25.

[tiredfoxtf]

🔥 minecraft as a game

I understand why Mojang do updates the way they do, however. I think that all recent updates are too raw and only half finished.

Like yeah, the archeology is cool, but all we have is pots' shards to collect and one ancient beast to revive. Cherry blossom as biom looks raw, even though the trees are pretty. And that we can't use copper in any good way but lighting rods is very upsetting. Or armor don't have any use, but to be honest this one is good, but maybe if they added also a way to have trims on tools and weapons. I wish more use was added to stuff. Because I'm pragmatic like that.

[mjauwee]

I had to satisfy my history/archeology interest on my recent trip to Aalborg Denmark and I was not disappointed!

The place I visited is Lindholm Høje (Hill/Mound). I've seen some iron/viking age burial sites in Norway, but never this big! This site was used as a burial ground for 600 yrs, before burials were moved to churchyards. The place is littered with stone circles, ovals and boat-shapes outlining the burials. Even though many stones were taken over the years as road-fill, it is still impressive.

Since these were pagan burials, many grave goods have been found are are on display at the adjacent museum. The museum has an entire wall of burial pots. There were also a couple different villages at this site over the years, so a lot of everyday items have been preserved as well, such as the gaming pieces and wooden bowl below.

Finally, the site sits right above an important crossing of the Limfjord, and became a trading hub. Many glass beads and coins from the middle east have been found there. The reason these items are so well preserved is the same reason the villages were abandoned: sand. Northern Denmark is quite sandy, and because of the demand for timber to build ships for viking raiders, traders and settlers, the forests got too thin to prevent sand from blowing in from the west and eventually covering the place. Seems to be an environmental lesson there.

Visiting in November, I got a good blast of that bracing wind from the west!

[cocoabubbelle]

Watching “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” (1969-1970 CBS) + Thoughts

Episode 12: Scooby Doo and a Mummy, Too

Haven’t started the episode yet, but the title card made me randomly wonder if the Scooby Doo Franchise has ever done a crossover with Brendan Fraser or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? If not, they should. That would be a movie I’d enjoy seeing.

Background art is getting better.

Gee, I wonder who might be the culprit: the kindly looking caucasian archeologist, or the Egyptian man with super stern eyebrows?

“Anka is over 3000 years old.” “That’s funny. He doesn’t look a day over 2000 to me.”

I don’t remember much about this episode, but somehow I remember the siamese cat figurine and the identical real siamese cat confusing Scooby.

Ah, so the Scooby Gang are good students. They are at the Archeological Department to help out the professor.

We can obviously rule out the professor from being the masked culprit, as he is the one who hears the sudden crash and sees the shadow of the “mummy” while waiting for the Scooby Gang to return with food.

I’ve never been to a malt shop. Are they any good?

Liverwurst + Ice Cream Sandwiches…🤢

Shaggy accidentally gives the malt shop owner an Egyptian coin he forgot to return to the Professor earlier. He doesn’t give the malt shop owner the actual 50 cents he owes. Shame on you, Shaggy.

Yo, I thought this was a mystery surrounding an Egyptian mummy, not a gorgon; either way, the good professor is suddenly turned into stone. I have half a mind to retract my retraction of my suspicion of him as a potential culprit. On a side note, I am trying to calm down my shipper heart because Shaphne and Frelma are literally doing nothing but standing right next to each other (Freddy and Velma observing the stone professor, Shaggy and Daphne close to each other at doorway.) help why am I like this.

Everyone agrees that only the mummy could have turned the mummy into stone. I am embarrassed to admit I had to rewind a bit to the beginning to make sure they weren’t randomly saying that (the Egyptian guy named Dr. Najib confirmed it.).

“The first thing we better do is split up and search the school for clues.” “Like, what kind of a clue?” “The mummy! What else?” Look Fred, It’s not like you guys had a mystery related to a mummy before to warrant that kind of tone; Shaggy was just asking, sheesh.

Once again, the split ups are: Daphne and Fred in one team, and Velma, Shaggy and Scoob on the other team. Also, I guess the broom and trash can lids could have been found in a janitor’s closet, but where did they find the pots?? The teacher’s lounge or cafeteria???

The grumpy look on Shaggy’s face and him mumbling “spoilsport” at Velma’s insistence that he and Scooby put the lid, pots, and broom back in the closet made me giggle more than it should have. (also: semi Shelma)

I should have known that the mummy was hiding in that closet.

Dude how strong is this guy to punch a hole in the door? Or is the wood material very weak. Also ARE YOU KIDDING ME JUST UNMASK THE GUY YOU HAD HIM TRAPPED!! (Then again he did make a hole in the door so it’s common sense for teens to run from a potentially dangerous person I guess, but still.)

Gee, I wonder if the mummy looking at the darker skinned Egyptian mannequins and the lighter skinned “mannequins” wearing modern day clothing with the display costumes can tell where the teenagers hid themselves. (Also: another Shelma moment with the two of them posing as Marc Anthony and Cleopatra.)

Scooby is able to somehow teleport himself between different vases without actually exiting out of them to evade the mummy. Cartoon Physics and Logic? Yes. Shenanigans? Oh absolutely.

Mummy turns at the sound of Velma’s sneeze, and my suspicions of him being the Egyptian professor increase because of their similar profiles.

Velma’s attempt to ward off a large, physically imposing and potentially dangerous man dresses as a mummy: “Shoo! Go away!” *waves him off like he’s a fly* 😆

“Your mummy’s calling you!” *angry groan* “No sense of humor, huh.” Shaggy I love you but anyone would groan at a mom joke.

Mummy’s voice sounds exactly like Dr. Najib’s. I will be impressed if he turns out to be the Archeology Professor after all. (Cue random prediction that Dr. Najib made this convoluted plan to infiltrate Archeology Department as a mummy to swipe the Egyptian coin Shaggy accidentally swiped.)

Oh come on Scooby! You growled at a gorilla, a vampire, and a werewolf; why is a mummy more scary than either of those??

Seriously what are in those Scooby Snacks?

Betcha Scooby swiped the karate outfit from a Japanese martial arts display. (Shoutout to Hong Kong Phooey!…also why was he called ‘Hong Kong’ Phooey when he did karate??)

Mummy just stands there in disbelief as Scooby just pulls all sorts of shenanigans trying to get him to go away.

*when Scooby dances into another room* “How do you like that? He danced out and deserted us.” *when revealed that Scooby actually had a plan and manages to incapacitate the mummy from behind* “I knew he wouldn’t let us down!” Girl.

If we cut to the next scene and we don’t see what Fred and Daphne were doing to help solve the mystery while these three were engaging in shenanigans before reuniting with them, I will riot.

You all are spared from my rioting.

“Let’s follow [the footprints], and stick close to me.” As if doing that before has helped Daphne from getting into trouble. (Also, semi Fraphne? Dred??…okay what is their ship name I just realized I don’t know.)

Dr. Najib is apparently frozen into stone as well. If it weren’t for the fact that this show loosely uses logic to explain the mysteries + Velma noticing earlier that the glass entrance of the department was broken into inward and not broken outward, I would be less suspicious of Najib.

Confirmation that this department is part of the school the Scooby Gang attends since Velma decides to check out the authenticity of the ripped mummy wrap in the school testing lab??

“This place makes me so nervous that all I can think about is food!” Dude. Any emotion you feel makes you think about food.

Scooby you better not drink any of those mysterious liquids-!

DA HECK WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?!? 🐸

Anyone who works in archeology: do you use potassium disulfate? If so, what for and what does it do? (From someone who is genuinely curious and knows nothing related to archeology.)

DA HECK HOW DID THE MUMMY GET THERE WITHOUT ANYONE SEEING OR HEARING HIM?! (shenanigans, that’s how.)

Since Velma’s the intellectual of the group, I trust that she actually knew what chemicals to use to create a smoke screen that wasn’t poisonous. Otherwise this would be a very different show.

Did they just trap Scooby inside with the mummy by mistake?

“Where’s Scooby?” That answers my question.

 Okay how in the world did the mummy conjure up a stone replica in Scooby’s exact likeness in a short amount of time??? Also, cue character-A-crying-over-character-B-they-think-is-dead-only-for-character-b-to-reveal-themselves-as-alive-and-not understanding-what-is-going-on-and-then-be-caught-up-in-the-shock-and-despair-of-them-having-died-and-are-now-crying-alongside-character-A gag 😆

If the mummy is trying to get the Egyptian Coin because he thinks it will make him rich, he should stop breaking doors because that definitely racks up a bill.

Animation Goof: one of the colorists colored Shaggy’s neck as green as his shirt in some frames.

Danger-Prone Daphne doesn’t look at the switches and turns on the one for a raving mad power saw instead of switching the lights off. Because of course she does.

The mummy is one of the more homicidally dangerous foes that the Scooby Gang face because HE INTENTIONALLY GRABBED THE POWER SAW AND THREW IT RIGHT AFTER THEM when they fell in the school’s pool through the hole the saw made. Dude!!! All of this for a stupid coin?!

I call shenanigans on the electric power saw not electrocuting anyone as soon as it fell in the pool.

AASDGHJKL-HOW DID THE MUMMY GUY GET THERE WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING?!

Shaggy and Scooby show their smarts by accidentally finding quick drying mold cement and spray molds, then piecing together the clues over how the “mummy” is able to turn others into stone, all while trying to escape and hid from said mummy.

Which brings up a question: how long was the culprit planning this theft and deception?Even if you have “quick drying cement,” I know for a fact that artists who use molds to create things have a process involving creating the right shape for the mold and its container in order to produce the right shape of whatever object they desire to create, and there is NO WAY this guy is that good of an artist to have the molds creating practically identical replicas of the professor, doctor, and Scooby in a short amount of time.

Some of you guys: “@cocoabubbelle , it’s just a cartoon show aimed at kids. Stop over thinking it and hurting your brain.”

Me: “Okay, okay, I’ll try…”

Immediately after I write this, somehow in just a few seconds after Shaggy and Scooby escape into a shed, the mummy has already prepared wet cement and managed to have half of a brick wall built to barricade our two heroes from escaping.

Aha! The professor of archeology just happened to be in the same shed they were hiding in, all tied up and gagged. I knew the writers were planning on making Dr. Najib the bad guy.

Shaggy just undid the professor’s gag to talk to him only to re-gag him and leave him behind. BOY. I-! (Okay it’s because he and Scooby plan to bust out to free the three of them, but still. The professor is frightened enough as it is)

Rest of the Scooby Gang watches, dumbstruck, as Shaggy and Scooby man an uncontrollable power mower and chase the mummy. Also, the animators and writers seem to want to convince the viewers that Daphne x Fred is a thing and we should ship it by having Daphne hold onto Freddy while Velma stands awkwardly behind them. (Sorry ladies and gentlemen; I’m all aboard the Shaphne Cruise Ship and you can’t make me get off.)

“TURN IT OFF!!!” 😱; “WEEEE!!!” 🤩 oh Scooby…😆

Impossibly strong trampolines are impossibly strong as usual.

First “Now let’s see who’s really behind this mask” stated in this show (ok techically Fred said “these bandages,” but still.)!

First “_insert-surprised-exclamation-of person’s-name-who-happens-to-be-the-culprit_!” used in this show!

How did I get to the point from where younger me would have been thrilled to see Fred’s arm around Daphne to the current me who sighed and shook my head in response?

Don’t get me wrong; I still like Fred x Daphne to an extent, but watching these episodes from the very beginning after so many years makes me feel like the writers and animators have been actively trying to convince us they should be together purely because they are the “conventionally attractive” male and female character of the group, and then throwing in blatantly obvious physical cues of Daphne holding Fred or visa versa at what feels to be a last minute reminder to help out the audience.

Am I the only one who’s thinking this? I am honestly trying hard to find the chemistry I thought I remembered they shared to warrant the “ship tease” that made little me thought they were meant to be together in the first place, but the majority of the dialogue so far between them has given me nothing to go on… Even Shaggy and Velma have the occasional witty banter that gives credence to why Shelma could be a possible ship that could be read as romantic as well as platonic, even if not officially canon. Freddy x Daphne, on the other hand? 🤷‍♀️

Ah well. There’s still more episodes to watch.

Day 12 of no “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!”

You guys: “@cocoabubbelle , why are you obsessed with needing the culprits to say that line in that exact manner when you are okay with the other well-known lines not being exactly said as they are remembered to say these days?”

Me: “Because it’s THE line!!!”

[jambenvs3000f24]

Unit 06 Blog Post

“There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it."

- Edward Hyams

This quote reflects on the value of history and historical education and reflection.Before I begin let me define my definition of “history” for the remaining blog post. I am using the word “history” to encompass all past events, recorded or not, anthropogenic or not, tangible or not. 

I’m going to begin with the second half of the quote first. Edward Hyams uses a metaphor to illustrate the relevance of history in daily life; the train representing an individual and the station a moment in time. Even if the individual never saw that moment in time, continuing the metaphor, maybe they got on the train after it had left a particular station, that station still exists, its passengers are still on the train, maybe someone threw a tomato at the side of the train, the mark would still be there. While the metaphor is maybe getting out of hand, the idea that the past is relevant even if we aren't actively “seeing” it. 

An example more grounded in reality and in nature interpretation: we know Canada was at one point mostly covered in glaciers, no human alive today was there to see it, but we know it happened due to geography, biotic distribution, etc. Even though we can’t directly perceive it, its effects have greatly shaped where human settlements are, where and how organisms live, and the cultural connotations of those two factors. The past shapes the present and to think it doesnt is like closing your eyes and saying the world disappeared.

Now before moving on to the first section of the quote, one more detour; why I chose to address the second half first. The second half of the quote in my opinion is a reflection on the relevancy of history while the first half is a more philosophical approach to why history matters to humans. One is a reflection on how history is perceived and influences daily life and actions, the other an explanation as to why history has such an important role. So in very short, I wanted to address the how before the why. History undoubtable shapes the present and the future, but why it so deeply impacts humans specifically is in my opinion the aim of the first half.

Now for the first half. Humans ascribe meaning and value to ancient things because they are a piece of our whole. Hyams describes history as pieces of a whole scattered throughout time, each individual peice is worth very little, but when combined int a whole with integrity it becomes part of something so much larger. A good example of this is archeological context. Seeing a pot shard on a table doesn’t tell you much about it. You can maybe discern it’s age, use comparative analysis to discern similarities with other pots. But, finding the same pot shard in a grave along with tools, a skeleton, and other pieces of art, more can be discerned about the cultural significance of the pot shard, the people who used it, and its context. Taking a single historical event, object etc. and isolating it renders it useless.

In terms of nature interpretation this is so important to keep in mind and reflect on, the interpretation, presentation, and reflection of the past shapes how we move forward.