Wooden tablets found on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the 19th century, thought to display writing or proto-writing. Never deciphered, since the native Rapa Nui said they couldn't read them when asked by the 19th century Europeans.
The first European to notice them was Eugène Eyraud in 1864, a friar stationed on Rapa Nui to proselytize. He reported seeing hundreds of tablets, but 4 years later, a French priest tried to recover as many as possible, and could only find a few.
Their disappearance might be explained by reports of the native Rapa Nui's apparent disinterest in their survival. This is perhaps connected to European-introduced diseases to the island and the brutal Peruvian slave trade. These might have killed all the literate Rapa Nui.
Rapa Nui also has tons of petroglyphs, the most in Polynesia. "Nearly every suitable surface has been carved." However, there seems to be limited connections between the petroglyphs and the tablets; the petroglyphs aren't "text-like."
Only about 2 dozen of the tablets remain, none on the island, all scattered through museums and private collections.
Also, shoutout to this dude on Rapa Nui whose job is pretty much roasting Jared Diamond
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Time for another art/perception thread that's gonna go...all over the place.
In societies filled with photography, movies, tv, phone cameras, and many other technologies, we don't often think of how weird it is to see a three-dimensional image on a two-dimensional surface.🧵
In 1895, the British formed what they called the East Africa Protectorate, taking it over from the Imperial British East Africa Company because they went bankrupt. In 1920, it became the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya.
There was lots of brutality. Whites were given 999 year leases on land, effectively creating a white monopoly on land use. Native Kenyans were forced to work the land. Floggings were common. We'll never know everything because of Operation Legacy.
The words "psyche," "spirit," "animal/animate," all come from ancient greek roots that also meant wind/air/breath - in many cultures, the air and the wind are understood to be something alive
(excerpt from Owen Barfield)
The ancient Hebrew word "ruach" means both spirit and wind - it's interesting to read the first line of the Hebrew bible with that in mind: “When God began to create heaven and earth - the earth being unformed and void,
with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind [ruach] from God sweeping over the water...”
Later, God blows into adam's nostrils to give him life
All of you have seen cave art, right? Either sketches or photos in books or online. If you're really lucky, maybe you've been in a cave yourself with a flashlight or something. But is it possible that the way we look at cave art today hides a key aspect of the art? 🧵
First off, something to note: Although the term cavemen still persists as a synonym for paleolithic human, and although the idea of cavemen is still replicated throughout society, there isn’t much evidence that prehistoric humans actually lived in caves that often.
They lived often in rockshelters or like, the mouths of caves, but further in, in the dark zone, they didn’t live or shelter there unless in extraordinary circumstances like natural disasters or people *really* wanting to kill them.
The ultimate failing upwards story is Timothy Dexter, who in the latter half of the 18th century, kept getting richer by making what appeared to be the dumbest business decisions. He had very little schooling, and began working at the age of eight.
At the age of 22 he married a rich widow in Massachusetts, his first stroke of luck. They bought a mansion together.
He also for some reason bought a ton of Continental currency after the American Revolution, currency that seemed worthless. Luckily, while the US gov't accepted the old currency at 1% of it's value, Massachusetts decided to accept it at face value, making Dexter much wealthier.