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Found: A Lunch Box From 4,000 Years Ago
Atlas Obscura ^ | July 27, 2017 | Sarah Laskow

Posted on 09/16/2025 4:27:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Someone's lunch was full of whole grains.
Up in the high passes of the Bernese Alps, a team of researchers found a box. It was about 8 inches in diameter and made of pine, willow, and larch. It was 4,000 years old.

Now, the scientists report in a new paper, published in Scientific Reports, they have discovered traces of what was once held in the box -- someone's lunch (or dinner or breakfast).

The team thought that the box might have held porridge and looked for traces of milk. But they found nothing. Instead, using a newly developed technique, they were able to find traces of spelt, emmer, and barley inside the box.

As The Local reports, there's no way of knowing exactly why the box was carried up high in the mountains, but it might have belonged to a farmer grazing cattle on a mountain plateau or a traveller crossing the mountains. It's not a stretch -- there's probably a trail mix on the market right now that features spelt, emmer, and barley. A good lunch is a good lunch, at any time in history.

(Excerpt) Read more at atlasobscura.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: alps; atlasobscura; barley; bronzeage; dietandcuisine; emmer; godsgravesglyphs; larch; pine; spelt; willow
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To: Lazamataz
"...That’s when I learned, for that age, acting crazy was enough..."

Absolutely. Interestingly, there are plenty of stories of people who, when captured by Indians (Native Americans) simply acted crazy, and sometimes, Indians would leave them alone.

Many Indian cultures were afraid of insane people and didn't want anything to do with them, even didn't want to kill them.

By the way, it is funny how you can remember the name of someone who bullied you-I can see their face, but cannot remember their names!

I do remember the name of one guy who bullied me, probably for only two reasons:

First, he wasn't really seriously bullying me. He was the biggest guy in my class, and when he "bullied" me, it was not really all that adversarial-he would put me in a headlock and walk around with my stumbling 12 year old self being dragged behind. He would give me a noogie, all the while mildly giving me crap. There was oddly nothing malicious about it.

Secondly, he came from a family of nine kids, and his kid sister (Marilyn Bangle) was the first girl I ever kissed while playing spin the bottle in a concrete culvert near the Subic Bay Kalyaan Officers Club. I don't know if he knew that, but I remember thinking his headlock might not have been so loving if he had known!

81 posted on 09/17/2025 2:07:21 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Hahahahaha...that’s great! What eight year old kid wouldn’t love one????


82 posted on 09/17/2025 2:08:09 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Does it come with a thermos?


83 posted on 09/17/2025 2:09:10 PM PDT by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”.)
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To: rlmorel
>> "I may someday write a book about my extraordinary, yet ordinary life in which I have had many improbable yet completely average experiences." <<

Just reading your stories here, I can tell, you had a very adventurous life. ☺️
Your style of writing is absolutely captivating.
In my, and my daughters' humble opinion, you should seriously think about writing a book.
It's the average, ordinary people who can truly relate to your stories, which makes it so captivating and relatable.
Again, thanks for sharing.
84 posted on 09/18/2025 12:37:26 AM PDT by ANKE69 (The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults" Zelensky in 2019 )
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To: ANKE69

You are most welcome, FRiend.


85 posted on 09/18/2025 5:47:35 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: posterchild
I think I see both Joe Namath and Evil Knievel in the pattern.

No Mary?

86 posted on 09/19/2025 4:05:01 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Bob434

{{ American pickers went gagga over old lunch boxes.}}

Have an orgasm!

https://www.columbuscollectivemuseums.com/the-lunchbox-museum/


87 posted on 09/19/2025 4:14:17 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: rlmorel; Lazamataz

...and get hit all the time!


88 posted on 09/19/2025 4:18:44 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

Hahhaahaha!!


89 posted on 09/19/2025 5:25:56 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: rlmorel

My 6th grade teacher, Miss Mary McCarthy, gave our class a lesson on bullies and recounted how a student (grand father of a current class member) had tamed a bully with a suitable stick. She encouraged such activity.


90 posted on 09/21/2025 6:38:15 AM PDT by Lion Den Dan ( )
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To: Lion Den Dan

It is good advice!

For me, I had to get to the point where any pain or blood that might be incurred in a potential ass-kicking of me was fully overcome by the anger and embarrassment at being picked on.

To just pick up the stick (or, as my mother would implore me, to “sit on him”) would have been a leap for me, but...it would have learned me that lesson quicker!


91 posted on 09/21/2025 7:22:37 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Speaking of lunch boxes, at the Walmart checkout counter yesterday they were selling lunch boxes for $40. Some sports guys are on them.


92 posted on 09/21/2025 7:26:09 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: MayflowerMadam

Hey, mansions with seven stall garages filled with Lambos cost money, and somebody’s gotta pay for ‘em.


93 posted on 09/21/2025 7:39:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpin' -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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