I can’t help but feel this is one of those things where we had actual documents saying “it was done with this and this”, and some old rich white guys looked at it and went “oh mirth, the ancients were so silly. They probably wrote this basic stuff down and the actual builders had Secret Techniques we need to Discover”
For a long time, archeologists didn’t know how greek women did their high-piled braids and hair. There was a word that translated to “needle” in the descriptions. They went, “seems like we’ll never know.” Then a hairdresser took a fucking needle (big needle) and did the fucking thing you do with needles, which is sew – and by sewing the braids into place, she replicated ancient styles.
The Egyptians had diagrams of construction steps for their pyramids. Archeologists went “oooh, ancient primitive people, how they do this?” LITERALLY MYTHBUSTERS OR THE OLD DISCOVERY CHANNEL or someone went “what if we did the thing the pictures said they did” AND GUESS FUCKING WHAT. GUESS FUCKING WHAT.
Also that thing with native Americans saying squirrels taught them how to get sap for maple syrup, and colonizers going “that’s a myth sweaty”
Sincerely, if the scientists had to do actual analysis like spectroscopy or whatever, kudos, and no flame. But swear to god, if all these years, we’ve had the recipes and there was just this fuckin institutional bias against just TRYING THE THING THEY SAID WOULD WORK, HELLFIRE AND DEMENTIA.
In this case, it was more they had roman writings saying what went into it but figured there was some secret because when they followed roman recipes it never turned out quite right.
Because the sources left by Romans always just said to mix with water. Because, if you were a Roman??? Obviously you knew that you used seawater for cement. Duh. That’s so obvious that they never really bothered specifying that you use seawater to mix it, because it wasn’t necessary, everyone knew that.
But then the empire fell, other empires rose and fell, time passed, and by the time we were trying to reconstruct the formula the ‘mix the dry ingredients with seawater’ trick had been forgotten, until chemical analysis finally figured it out again.
It’s sort of like the land of Punt, a ally of Egypt that’s mentioned all the time, but we don’t actually know where it was located. Because it isn’t written down anywhere. Why would they write it down? It’s Punt. Everyone knew where Punt was back then. It’d be ridiculous to waste the ink and space to specify where it was, every child knows about Punt.
3000 years later and we have no damned clue where it was, simply because at the time it was so blindingly obvious that it was never written down.
The character of Chief from Wonder Woman was played by Eugene Brave Rock who is from the Kanaii reserve in Southern Alberta. He took the inspiration for his character from real life WWI hero Mike Mountain Horse who is also from southern AB.
In the film Chief greets Diana in Blackfoot. Shortly after they have a conversation about how his people’s land was taken away by Steve’s people.
This is how you have First Nations representation: cast First Nations actors, draw from historical First Nations heroes and if they are going to speak a First Nations language cast someone who is part of that Nation!
He also personally created his whole look. Instead of the costume designer doing what they think a native man would wear. He included things that would have personal significance to his character, not because it looks “Indian” *side-eyes the lone ranger*
Not only did Eugene Brave Rock create Chief’s whole look, he did it because they asked him to. It was a case of, “you know this, please help us do it right.” He showed up on screen and I saw that hat and my heart was immediately happy because that is not a hat you see on Native people in Hollywood, that is a hat you see on actual Native people. That was my first inkling that Chief’s character wouldn’t hurt me. And then he introduces himself to Diana. And Patty is a gift because she didn’t caption it. And it made that line a gift to Native (especially Blackfoot) viewers, because it said, this is for you. I have a lot of feelings about both Napi and Eugene Brave Rock and they are all full of heart eyes.
This is one of the best stories we read in a long time. An arborist AKA a tree caretaker and tree surgeon from Redondo Beach, California had to watch the death of one of his favorite trees, which was ordered by the mayor. Although he lost a great battle, he won the war. Find out how he avenged the death of his 30-year-old pepper tree named Clyde.
His story was recently shared online and has already been shared over 150k times. RIP Clyde.
Hephaistos of the clever hands, the artist’s eye, the craftsman’s care, ingenious Hephaistos who sees what cannot be and brings it into the world, inventive one whose works stir awe and wonder in all who see, whose peerless jewels adorn the throats of goddesses fair and mighty. Hephaistos, friend of the blacksmith, the sculptor, the wright, friend of all who seek to join the mind’s devises to the work of the hands, granter of skill and vision to those who honor your art, to those who are called to your craft, to those who seek your favor.
sunshine or moonlight? fairy wings or angel wings? gardening or baking? velvet or silk? flowers or succulents? black coffee or milky coffee? road trips or hiking? mermaids or dragons?
The Carving Witch 