Posted on 10/22/2010 5:16:07 PM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies
Even thousands of years ago, written messages were sent over long distances. Unfortunately, the concept of including your return address hadn't been invented yet, so we don't know where ancient letters came from (and which cultures were talking)...until now.
Professor Yuval Goren, an archaeologist at Israel's Tel Aviv University, has modified a standard portable X-ray scanner to determine the secret origins of ancient letters. At its most basic, the scanner can determine the soil and clay composition of any artifact. Since different regions at different times have different mixes of soil and clay, this allows Professor Goren to place the exact origin of the artifact - which is particularly useful when it's the sort of artifact that travels far away, like a letter from one ancient king to another.
He is also able to draw upon years of painstaking sampling of various Near East artifacts to build a database of different soil compositions throughout the ancient world. By uploading this data into his scanner, Goren can provide an instant date and place of origin for any artifact he scans. It will work on other traveling artifacts like coins, Goren says, as well as potentially imported materials like ancient plaster and glass.
(Excerpt) Read more at io9.com ...
HEY
Return to sender, return to sender I gave a letter to the post man, he put it his sack. Bright and early next morning, he brought my letter back. She wrote upon it:
Return to sender, address unknown. No such number, no such zone. We had a quarrel, a lovers' spat, I'd write "I'm sorry" but my letter keeps coming back.
E. Presley
Trying to give us all a boner?
veddy veddy interestin
Not guilty!
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