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                                                             on Gopher (inofficial)
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       COMMENT PAGE FOR:
   URI   How ancient people saw themselves
       
       
        ggm wrote 1 hour 8 min ago:
        This is calling out for experimental archaeologists to make the best
        possible front surface reflections they can from polished copper,
        bronze, steel, obsidian, glass. The Romans had metallised glass. They
        knew how to roast glass. They may well have known how to vaporise metal
        onto glass.
        
        The state of the reflecting surface with 2ky of corrosion does not
        match even looking at your reflections in water.
       
        orly01 wrote 2 hours 43 min ago:
        I didn't expect it to be about literally seeing.
       
          brap wrote 1 hour 11 min ago:
          About 3/4 into the article, “wait, it’s all about mirrors?
          ...Oh!”
       
        llamasushi wrote 2 hours 59 min ago:
        Am I the only one who thought this was referring to how people felt
        about the general zeitgeist? Like, how Romans viewed everyone outside
        Rome as barbarian, etc. Not in the literal sense like, mirrors. Nice HN
        switcheroo.
       
          tonyhart7 wrote 2 hours 37 min ago:
          Yeah, I thought it was a more avant-garde question, like Greek
          philosophical literature.
          
          It turns out the title has a literal meaning."
       
        raldi wrote 3 hours 22 min ago:
        I'm surprised more museums don't have modern replicas demonstrating
        what the ancient artifacts would have looked like when pristine.
       
          sanskarix wrote 2 hours 10 min ago:
          British Museum actually does this with their Greek statues - shows
          how they were painted. The gap between "marble perfection" and "gaudy
          colors" is wild. Makes you realize how much our idea of classical
          taste is just patina.
       
            1000units wrote 1 hour 22 min ago:
            So the sculptors had much better taste than the painters they
            allowed? Or are the reproductions not faithful?
       
              twelvechairs wrote 1 hour 0 min ago:
              One view is that the western idea of "good taste" was informed by
              people looking at greek and roman statues and buildings and
              incorrectly assuming they were always intended to be plain.
       
                mock-possum wrote 9 min ago:
                Sort of explains a lot doesn’t it
       
              ljlolel wrote 1 hour 15 min ago:
              sounds like partly they didn't have access to great pigments back
              then
       
          Joel_Mckay wrote 2 hours 58 min ago:
          There are stories of when near perfect mirrors entered trade.  Some
          stories are sweet, and others rather macabre: [1] Technology tends to
          influence cultures in subtle ways few remember a generation later. =3
          
   URI    [1]: https://www.japanpowered.com/folklore-and-urban-legends/mirr...
   URI    [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Animal_In_T...
       
        01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote 3 hours 52 min ago:
        It's about mirrors, it's about how they literally saw themselves in
        mirrors
       
          lurk2 wrote 3 hours 28 min ago:
          Called it.
       
       
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