When archaeologists work to understand an ancient civilization, they often use that civilization’s texts to get a clue as to how they saw themselves. But these people didn’t live in isolation. They traded; they invaded. They carried inventions and knowledge back and…
I am mindblown right now. Chinese people writing about Rome in the 3rd century AD? I don’t even know, man. It simply doesn’t fit into my image of ‘history’. Sounds like a crazy, impossible thing. Goes to show how skewed my idea of history is! The translated text has some really interesting stuff in it, I especially recommend reading the author’s comments in the end.
I had reblogged this for an Ancient Art Week, but I really have to say it’s one of those articles that can really shake people up. I think the best part is once you *think* about it for a minute, it seems really obvious, like, “well, of course they would write about it”. Writing things down as a human activity has a long, long history.
I also really recommend that people read the actual text/translation. It’s cool stuff! Keep in mind-the third century was not that long before the beginning of what we term the “Middle Ages”-historical periods do not involve racial reset buttons, and these labels for chunks of history were created much later than the people and events involved were active.
I was complaining to my friend the other day that my ‘Ancient History’ class is really just ‘Ancient Western History’. When asked about China and the Far East, my professor said “The Chinese were so far away from Rome that nobody in Rome really thought about them.”
So this feels appropriate.
Ouch. Well, as for Roman thoughts about China:
According to the Greek historian Strabo (63-24 CE) the Greeks “extended their empire as far as the Seres” (xi.ii.i). `Seres’ was the name by which the Greeks and Romans knew China, meaning `the land where silk came from’. It is thought, then, that the first contact between China and the west came around the year 200 BCE.
Speaking of Strabo’s writing on Asia, you can read Strabo’s account of India here, in which he apologized for replying heavily on earlier accounts of people who’d actually, you know. Been there. It’s amusing at least for the attempts to describe what sugar cane is, by someone who’d never seen/tasted it, to people who’ve never seen/tasted it:
An abundance of fruit is produced by trees; and the roots of plants, particularly of large reeds, possess a sweetness which they have by nature and by coction…
Nearchos states that [the] reeds yield honey, although there are no bees, and that there is a tree from the fruit of which honey is procured, but that the fruit eaten fresh causes intoxication.
When archaeologists work to understand an ancient civilization, they often use that civilization’s texts to get a clue as to how they saw themselves. But these people didn’t live in isolation. They traded; they invaded. They carried inventions and knowledge back and…
I am mindblown right now. Chinese people writing about Rome in the 3rd century AD? I don’t even know, man. It simply doesn’t fit into my image of ‘history’. Sounds like a crazy, impossible thing. Goes to show how skewed my idea of history is! The translated text has some really interesting stuff in it, I especially recommend reading the author’s comments in the end.
I had reblogged this for an Ancient Art Week, but I really have to say it’s one of those articles that can really shake people up. I think the best part is once you *think* about it for a minute, it seems really obvious, like, “well, of course they would write about it”. Writing things down as a human activity has a long, long history.
I also really recommend that people read the actual text/translation. It’s cool stuff! Keep in mind-the third century was not that long before the beginning of what we term the “Middle Ages”-historical periods do not involve racial reset buttons, and these labels for chunks of history were created much later than the people and events involved were active.
I was complaining to my friend the other day that my ‘Ancient History’ class is really just ‘Ancient Western History’. When asked about China and the Far East, my professor said “The Chinese were so far away from Rome that nobody in Rome really thought about them.”
So this feels appropriate.
Ouch. Well, as for Roman thoughts about China:
According to the Greek historian Strabo (63-24 CE) the Greeks “extended their empire as far as the Seres” (xi.ii.i). `Seres’ was the name by which the Greeks and Romans knew China, meaning `the land where silk came from’. It is thought, then, that the first contact between China and the west came around the year 200 BCE.
Speaking of Strabo’s writing on Asia, you can read Strabo’s account of India here, in which he apologized for replying heavily on earlier accounts of people who’d actually, you know. Been there. It’s amusing at least for the attempts to describe what sugar cane is, by someone who’d never seen/tasted it, to people who’ve never seen/tasted it:
An abundance of fruit is produced by trees; and the roots of plants, particularly of large reeds, possess a sweetness which they have by nature and by coction…
Nearchos states that [the] reeds yield honey, although there are no bees, and that there is a tree from the fruit of which honey is procured, but that the fruit eaten fresh causes intoxication.
i tried to draw in sorachi’s style, some are redraws and some i just made up
Track
Marching Bands of Manhattan
Artist
Death Cab for Cutie
Wow I can’t believe I just hit 4000 followers! Hundreds are injured. My fists are sore and the police are coming.
Interactive map shows how the world would look at various different sea levels. (Of special interest to those of us writing stories set in the near future.)
more twitter dump feat. self-inserts and gintoki
about the pedalsona:
