Posted on 09/20/2010 7:40:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Chinese archeologists have found new evidence of international cultural exchange on the ancient Silk Road.
Four European-looking warriors and lion-like beasts are engraved on an empress's 1,200-year-old stone coffin that was unearthed in Shaanxi Province, in northwestern China.
The warriors on the four reliefs had deep-set eyes, curly hair and over-sized noses -- physical characteristics Chinese typically associate with Europeans.
The 27-tonne Tang Dynasty (618-907) sarcophagus contained empress Wu Huifei (699-737), Ge Chengyong, a noted expert on Silk Road studies, said Tuesday.
Ge said one of the warriors was very much like [Zeus], the "father of gods and men" in Greek mythology.
The coffin was also engraved with deer, tigers and goats.
"It's noteworthy that goats signify tragedy in Greek mythology. The word 'tragedy' itself means 'song of the man-goat singer'," he said.
He said the tragic element coincides with the empress's unhappy life: several of her children died young and she herself lived constantly in fear.
Ge said the exotic sarcophagus is rare for China, where ancient coffins almost always had Buddhist-themed reliefs and murals depicting harmony, happiness and peace.
The elements of Greek mythology on Empress Wu Huifei's coffin suggest cross-cultural exchange was common in Chang'an, capital of the Tang Dynasty, located in today's Xi'an, he said. "There could have even been clergymen from Western countries serving in the Tang imperial court."
Wu Huifei was Emperor Xuanzong's favorite concubine and was posthumously known as Empress Zhenshun, meaning "the virtuous and serene empress."
(Excerpt) Read more at english.peopledaily.com.cn ...
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You noticed? I think he founded the GGG ping list, which is not just for archaelogy, but pretty much any cool, interesting or downright wacky ancient history-related topics.
Fun stuff.
Hey! Don’t knock these posts by “SunkenCiv”! There are many on his/her “ping list” that are very interested in his/her posts. These posts are well recieved, saves a lot of research.
Hey! Don’t knock these posts by “SunkenCiv”! There are many on his/her “ping list” that are very interested in his/her posts. These posts are well recieved, saves a lot of research.
I am in awe of humans ability to (1) forget the past and (2) ERASE history. Very little of the real story of things gets through a handful of generations.
I personally experience the ERASURE factor, in one job I had where when I left for a while my competitor completed eradicated ALL the software I had written for a project. When I left it was working, but it was a different architecture than he thought was right. He eventually showed himself as incompetent and was canned. A year and half later they begged me to come back and try to save their butkas. I took the mess that was his software and got it to work.
I had to do that because he had spend — weeks and weeks? — TOTALLY eradicating all my work and archives of it.
The only software left of my invention in that company was an interrupt driver for a IO device which he had no idea how to replace, and a standalone controller that was burned into EPROM, using a development system he couldn’t figure out.
We’re talking hundreds of modules, and a few 100K lines of source code. Working stuff, a lot of which had been deployed in a preliminary system in the field. He erased it there too.
He even erased all my note files and such. It was as if I had never existed in that company.
Human History is truly a fragile thing. After all HUMANS keep it, and humans DESTROY it, when it is recorded, for reasons of human emotions and insecurities.
It’s not unlike the Free Republic posting and thread history — what is left from the Clinton years? We all thought we were recording and commenting on important issues, that could be reviewed by later generations!
As far as I understand much of it, most of it is gone. Lost forever.
As Solomon’s wisest advisers wrote “This too shall pass.”
Sometimes I look at all this stuff and think back to my school days - and feel like I was completely and totally lied to.
No offense to the poster.
It just seems like we are getting a lot of strange niche posters here...
...like the guy who posts countless stories about pit bull attacks, one after the other.
... and Willie Green, who posts nothing but public transportation stories one after another, all day long.
There are others like Astronomy Picture of the Day and others. But they post one per day. Not one every five minutes.
Couldn’t we have one master pit bull thread for those people?
And maybe one master archaeology thread (here on a political news forum) for those who have interest?
Just sayin....
These threads have been running for at least 10 years that can remember probably longer, my memory sucks.
I actually like the archeology threads so if there’s a dedicated one great, but otherwise it’s all really interesting if at least as a change of pace.
I dig archeology threads.
Sure, there are threads of special interest to certain people, that's part of the point, and it makes FR a more interesting place to visit.
Now, I'm not giving anybody a hard time, so please take this in the light spirit in which it is offered.
dayglored - Since Jun 11, 2005
earlJam - Since Nov 20, 2008
You will note that neither of us has been on FR for even half as long as it's been around.
And note that although I have been here more than twice as long as you, I would not presume to tell JimRob how to run his site, e.g. what was appropriate for thread material, or how to organize it. In fact, no matter how long I'm here, it'll never be long enough to tell JimRob how to run his site. I'm pleased to be a guest in his living room, am thankful for it, and contribute to its continuation.
I leave it to Jim and the AdminMods (hmmm, sounds like a rock band) to determine what's appropriate for FR. I don't always agree, but it's his site, not mine.
That said, since nobody's holding a gun to your head to read every thread, here's a piece of easy-to-follow advice, that I follow in similar circumstances:
Skip over the threads that don't interest you.OTOH, if somebody -IS- holding a gun to your head to read every thread, please notify the AdminMods. I think that is against site policy...
Cheers! and have a great evening. :)
I sympathize with you about chet99 and willie green, but GGG has been around for a very long time, and it’s probably one of the more popular and well liked ping lists around here.
The reason some posters seem to post “every 5 minutes”, is because they probably post several articles they’ve collected over the day for the ping list all at once. They aren’t constantly posting all day long, but in an hour, they might post a bunch of articles.
Yeah, it’s been a long time. I remember reading the original thread where they were debating what to name the ping list :)
I think I was still lurkin’ back then.
“Jim and the AdminMods (hmmm, sounds like a rock band)”
Now there’s an epic idea if I ever heard one. I’m sure we’ve got more than enough musical talent around here to put a band together.
Even better... Jim & the AdminMods, featuring VikingKitty!
Speaking of the Clinton years... those guys don’t need to sneak out the documents in their pants anymore.
Or we could do more of a punk band and just call it “The Zots”.
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