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submitted 2 years ago by Zerush@lemmy.ml to c/science@lemmy.ml
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[-] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 128 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

What I would like to know is if tablets like this are being scanned digitally into three dimensions so that they can be reproduced. I feel like everything we find from antiquity needs to be scanned this way. With humans constantly going to war destroying history, I'd hate the idea of losing things like this forever.

UPDATE: And thus a journey down the interwebs rabbit hole begins. I need better internet and PC to check this out more later, but answering my own question, here's the entrance to the rabbit hole should others wish to venture with a few examples:

[-] lemmingnosis@lemmy.world 34 points 2 years ago

Didn’t all kinds of antiquities get destroyed in Iraq? Totally irreplaceable stuff.

As you alluded, probably common in many places. How sad.

[-] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 years ago

Most recently I remember it happening really really badly within Syria. Very intentional destruction. But yes, it happens all the time--Iraq included. With the technology we have now, we can preserve a lot of it (digitally at least).

I hate how it's so damn hard to find these things and yet so easy to destroy it.

[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

A lot was destroyed but a lot of it was looted and and sold to sleazy collectors. Remember when the guy who owns Hobby Lobby got caught buying looted artifacts?

Still horrible, obviously, but at least there’s some hope looted items will be recovered.

[-] nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 2 years ago

I wonder how many artifacts could be recovered if we could search all the rich people mansions...

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

Yea ISIS and other extremist groups like to destroy evidence of their ancestor’s greatness for some reason.

Lesser sons of lesser sons

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Oh man.

It's only recently that the idea of "archaeology" has been a thing. Before then there were only "antiquarians" which were just looters.

Often they had royal backers. There's a podcast series called "stuff the British stole"

There's pretty well documented instances in the 1800s in Egypt, and pompeii.

Honestly the amount of amazing stuff that has just been "collected" is just eye watering.

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[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

There's also the https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/about Obviously, losing a dimension isn't great but still pretty cool

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 99 points 2 years ago

I knew Pythagoras was smart but I never knew he invented time travel. So cool!

[-] Pronell@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago

I took the opposite tack.

You ain't shit, Pythagoras! You just wrote it down, you didn't figure it out, you absolute fucking fraud. We're taking your immortality back!

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

Quick! Change all the textbooks to “clay tablet theorem”!

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[-] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

And he invented plagiarism too!

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

nah he probably stole that as well.

[-] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

Poor poor Plagiar, everything he invented people stole and took credit for.

[-] fishbone@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

The Plagiarian theorem is a real bummer.

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[-] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 90 points 2 years ago

This makes a strong case on the discovery side of the discovery vs. invention controversy.

Ironically, my dad idolized Pythagoras and the notion of discovering a scientific fundamental to be remembered for thousands of years, for which the secret is not to actually do science, but raise a cult of scientists who attribute their inventions to you. Like Thomas Edison.

[-] No1@aussie.zone 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

raise a cult

*cough* Elon Musk *cough*

[-] Jessvj93@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

Edison, Watson/Crick, Musk, Jobs....I hope today it's much harder to get away with being an idea stealing tool bag since the internet has competent archivers, sans working under a company that owns anything you make.

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[-] kromem@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It was most of the Greeks. We credit Democritus with atomism even though the Greeks said it came from an earlier Phoenician, Mochus of Sidon. Even Democritus's teacher doesn't get credit.

Democritus wrote it down in a way that survived.

That's it.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

Not really. The Pythagorean theorem (or whomever you want to credit for it) assumes plane geometry. It’s not true in general.

Plane geometry is the invention that makes all of the math work. The earth is not a flat plane (not even close to flat pretty much anywhere). If you want to do Pythagorean-like calculations between cities on earth, for example, you’ll get a much more accurate result with spherical geometry operating on geodesics. Unfortunately, spherical triangles not obey the Pythagorean theorem!

[-] AtariDump@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

🎶 They say Thomas Edison he’s the man to bring us into this century

And that man is me…

[-] canis_majoris@lemmy.ca 52 points 2 years ago

Cool but is there a better source on this than "I fucking love science"?

[-] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 80 points 2 years ago
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[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 30 points 2 years ago
[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 years ago

Cuneiform scripts were frequently coppied by scribes, so the theorem could be even older

[-] Wogi@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

A handful of people can be credited with discovering the theorem prior to Pythagoras, this isn't the first time this has come up, and incidentally there is almost no evidence to suggest Pythagoras did.

[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Good to know! TBH, I'm specifically excited to see it was present in the fertile crescent. I really like clay tablets.

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[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

I think that this theorem is at least as old as the pyramids.

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[-] Juice@midwest.social 23 points 2 years ago

I thought it was pretty well established that Pythagoras didn't invent it, he was just the leader of a Math and Murder cult so he stole it

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 years ago

"Math and Murder Cult" sounds metal as hell. I'd join.

[-] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

math murder cult = my new band

[-] Juice@midwest.social 2 points 2 years ago

Send me a demo. Or hell I'll play bass

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[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

I bet Pythagoras had substandard copper too

[-] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 years ago

Pythagoras has superior copper. All other thagoras has inferior copper.

[-] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 years ago

This is one of the reasons why we shouldn't name things after people.

[-] Muffi@programming.dev 7 points 2 years ago

This, and the fact that most stuff is invented by teams and not individuals. I think our tendency to name after a single person helps keep the hero/savior/Messiah complex of western society alive, and blinds us to the power of community and cooperation. It's like "individual-washing" the past.

[-] mukt@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 years ago

Isn't this common knowledge that the Indians knew the theorem well before Pythagorus?

[-] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago

Yes and also I have a hard time believing the builders if the great pyramid didn't understand it in some capacity either. They just didn't have symbolic algebra to express it the way we do .

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[-] kromem@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

I feel like at this point I've seen this story in 1,000 year old reposts.

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

What a classic situation. Some hype man taking credit.

[-] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 7 points 2 years ago

And garden of eden as well as the story with a baby in a basket in Nil, are already in Atrahasis epos, from which Gilgamesh epos copied btw.

[-] affiliate@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

people joined a cult because of this theorem. that must be awkward

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this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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