history

Showing 17 posts tagged history

NY Met Museum to return statues to Cambodia.

Experts say the statues appear to have been looted around 1970, about the time federal prosecutors say another statue, of a mythic warrior figure, was also removed from Koh Ker. That statue was pulled from auction at Sotheby’s last year after Cambodia asked for its return.

Wow. I never expected this. I just saw this exhibit last year!

One thing about exploring the world is that I often am reminded of how the old colonial world order still remains in parts of our society - case in point - many Western museums have artifacts that are gained by wholesale theft, looting and force, usually greased by corruption and broken regulatory systems in the (often impoverished) countries of origins.

It’s starting to change as the developing world comes out of their doldrum and demands their history repatriated.

It’s inconvenient, but if that means I need to plan an overseas trip to see history in its proper place, then I should value that.

I was in Cambodia some years ago at Angkor Wat.  To see the immense edifices still standing vs statues whose heads and limbs were lopped off by looters to make their way into auction houses, private collections and Western museums — it was a huge shock.

I only hope the Cambodian govt can be good caretakers of their history.

Learning from the past means nothing when you can destroy in the present: The site also houses the astonishing remains of an ancient Buddhist city, which archaeologists are now racing to save. An international team has only until June to finish the excavations, which began in 2009. So far they have uncovered golden Buddhist statues, dozens of buildings and fragile Buddhist manuscripts buried within temples. Yet perhaps 90 percent of the site remains underground and unseen. To finish the job could take decades. In all likelihood, the destruction of the Buddhist sites will begin later this year.  NYTimes: Chinese Mining Push Will Destroy an Ancient Afghanistan Buddhist City High-res

Learning from the past means nothing when you can destroy in the present:

The site also houses the astonishing remains of an ancient Buddhist city, which archaeologists are now racing to save. An international team has only until June to finish the excavations, which began in 2009. So far they have uncovered golden Buddhist statues, dozens of buildings and fragile Buddhist manuscripts buried within temples. Yet perhaps 90 percent of the site remains underground and unseen. To finish the job could take decades. In all likelihood, the destruction of the Buddhist sites will begin later this year. 

NYTimes: Chinese Mining Push Will Destroy an Ancient Afghanistan Buddhist City

“One of the most significant dishes in all countries along the Silk Road, from the Sea of Japan to Anatolia, is dumplings. Dumplings across Asia are tell-tale signs of a shared common past demonstrating drastic similarities. From the Turkish perspective, the origins of mantı have been long forgotten and the dish is regarded as quintessentially Turkish. However, almost all etymological references state that the origin of the word comes from the Chinese word man tou.”

Turkish mantı, Chinese mantou
Aylin Öney TAN
librarysciences: How Forks Gave Us Overbites and Pots Saved the Toothless Until around 250 years ago in the West, archaeological evidence suggests that most human beings had an edge-to-edge bite, similar to apes. In other words, our teeth were aligned liked a guillotine, with the top layer clashing against the bottom layer. Then, quite suddenly, this alignment of the jaw changed: We developed an overbite, which is still normal today. The top layer of teeth fits over the bottom layer like a lid on a box. […] What changed 250 years ago was the adoption of the knife and fork, which meant that we were cutting chewy food into small morsels before eating it. Previously, when eating something chewy such as meat, crusty bread or hard cheese, it would have been clamped between the jaws, then sliced with a knife or ripped with a hand — a style of eating Professor Brace has called “stuff-and-cut.” The clincher is that the change is seen 900 years earlier in China, the reason being chopsticks. Read more [via theatlantic, Image: flickr].  I love these bits of re-revelations. High-res

librarysciences:

How Forks Gave Us Overbites and Pots Saved the Toothless

Until around 250 years ago in the West, archaeological evidence suggests that most human beings had an edge-to-edge bite, similar to apes. In other words, our teeth were aligned liked a guillotine, with the top layer clashing against the bottom layer. Then, quite suddenly, this alignment of the jaw changed: We developed an overbite, which is still normal today. The top layer of teeth fits over the bottom layer like a lid on a box.

[…] What changed 250 years ago was the adoption of the knife and fork, which meant that we were cutting chewy food into small morsels before eating it. Previously, when eating something chewy such as meat, crusty bread or hard cheese, it would have been clamped between the jaws, then sliced with a knife or ripped with a hand — a style of eating Professor Brace has called “stuff-and-cut.”

The clincher is that the change is seen 900 years earlier in China, the reason being chopsticks.

Read more [via theatlantic, Image: flickr]. 

I love these bits of re-revelations.

I’m in love with Zack’s gorgeous new project: New York Moon.  It uncovers such a referenced (but very lacking in coverage) topic: I’ve always been fascinated by things that are lost as we advance and hoard knowledge (?), facts (?) and cruft.  Wax and wane.  The Moon explores topics of time and space, structures trapped beneath the city, translation, neighborhoods, the desert, water and nostalgia. Foremost in all works is a fearless embrace of the changing world that is accompanied by a fascination with our rapidly aging past. For there is no way to step boldly forward without examining the minutiae of our history. Very excited to see what the editors have in the queue. High-res

I’m in love with Zack’s gorgeous new project: New York Moon.  It uncovers such a referenced (but very lacking in coverage) topic: I’ve always been fascinated by things that are lost as we advance and hoard knowledge (?), facts (?) and cruft.  Wax and wane. 

The Moon explores topics of time and space, structures trapped beneath the city, translation, neighborhoods, the desert, water and nostalgia. Foremost in all works is a fearless embrace of the changing world that is accompanied by a fascination with our rapidly aging past. For there is no way to step boldly forward without examining the minutiae of our history.

Very excited to see what the editors have in the queue.

curiositycounts:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” RIP, Steve Jobs (1955-2011). You will be missed.

Noted for posterity.

mother passing son over to father mother talking to father mother saying goodbye

todaysdocument:

Making the Impossible Decision

On August 12, 1961, immediately before the construction of the Berlin Wall this couple makes the decision to pass their son over barbed wire to west Berlin.

The original caption:

A German fate at the fence of barbed wire!

It may be that a couple from Berlin will never see each other again because it became separated by the drawing of the line across Berlin. On August 12, one day before Ulbricht had ordered to surround West Berlin with barbed wire, a man was flying into West Berlin. His wife should follow him a few days later as the little son was still in a holiday-camp. In the meantime the nearly impenetrable “iron curtain” was drawn around West Berlin. The couple met at the fence of barbed wire. The “Vopo” guard was indulgent and allowed the meeting. The couple discussed their situation and they decided that the little son shall grow up in freedom. At a moment when the “Vopo” did not watch them the mother handed the child over the barbed wire.  

FOTD.

“Scandalous as it may sound to the ears of Republicans schooled in Reaganomics, one critical measure of the health of a modern democracy is its ability to legitimately extract taxes from its own elites. The most dysfunctional societies in the developing world are those whose elites succeed either in legally exempting themselves from taxation, or in taking advantage of lax enforcement to evade them, thereby shifting the burden of public expenditure onto the rest of society.”

Francis Fukuyama (via azspot)

I’m thinking back to the estates of pre-Revolutionary France. Just thinkin’.

(via azspot)