If you’re interested in tracking the course of commonality in myth then looking into urmyths and how far back they can be tracked would be a topic of interest for you. Eric Csapo’s “Theories of Mythology” is a good overview of how myths work, evolve, and spread.
3 Likes
Will check it out.
Probably not. Unless you are referring to specific examples in South Asia which i know nothing about, the general impression of these sorts of works were that they were often very important projects that required skilled labour and provided a significant input into the local economies.
No doubt there were skilled artisans at work , but there also was a huge element of slave labour etc for lifting etc.
Again, that would have to be site or region specific, i dont think i have seen anything evidenced to suggest that was the case in the middle east, easter island or the americas for example.
I could be wrong, but as @Limiescouse says, these sorts of constructions are usually considered to be for the gods. The last thing you want is sloppy work that is carried out too slowly.
Take the pyramids for example , the huge chunks of stone that have to be hauled and then placed there.
A huge amount of slave labour would have to be there. I am not denying the architectural skills etc that are needed for the finer details. But the heavy lifting almost certainly involved slave labour.
The ancient kings weren’t benevolent rulers , what a king wants , he gets.
You can extrapolate that to any large scale constructions everywhere.
We have reasonable archaeological evidence that most of the Pyramids in Egypt were not in fact made with slave labour, contrary to what was thought. About 25 years ago, a stele was found detailing a system of national service whereby various settlements sent delegations of men to work for ~3 months in rotation to work on a pyramid. Certainly, a class system was in place, not all Egyptians were exposed to that selection process, but not slave labour.
5 Likes
As @Arminius says , there is enough evidence to show pyramids were not using slave labour. Akenahten is the one pharaoh who comes to mind where it there is evidence of labour being worked to death building his capital city Amarna but elsewhere i dont think i have seen it mentioned.
1 Like
This guy (probably his writing team) is very good. Try Megaprojects too. Great when you’re in podcast mode:
1 Like
I’m curious about ancient ships. Nothing detailed, just the basic idea about ships 2000 years ago. Google searches haven’t been fruitful.
Went to a book shop in Hull once, saw a load of ancient boat books on sail. Guy behind the counter wanted to rope me in to helping that afternoon as his other assistant had been shanghi’d but I told him to get knotted. He literally keeled over at my refusal. I blamed the management, thought it was rudderless.
There’s an article here about them:
The problem with ships that are anything more than a couple of hundred years old is that they were wooden and so unlikely to have survived unless there are some unusually favourable conditions.
I was going to suggest the Bremen Cog which is in the Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven but that is “only” 600 years old: Bremen Cog | DSM Bremerhaven
2 Likes
Ever read any Clive Cussler novels? Usually some good boat history involved. Just a thought.
Must have needed a quick cash float.
1 Like
One of my best friends from childhood ended up doing a PhD in Maritime Archeology with a focus on ancient boats. It was fascinating to me at first. Until he started talking about the job actually consisted of
1 Like
I sea what you did there,
very clever…
1 Like
I think 1177bc the year civiliation collapsed by Eric Cline has a little bit on ships during that period. Prior to the collapse there had been bountiful trade between islands around greece, Turkey and Egypt etc… And, some of what we know about that era has been learned from the discovery of shipwrecks.
Probably not the book if it is only the ships you are interested in but if you are interested in the context of what role they played in history, there might be something in it for you.
As we have a spare song at the moment… How about…
Si Sai-Lor… Give the Boat to lfti and he will Restore :0)
(Yo, @Iftikhar I’m re-writng the second verse, but it might take me some time)
Si Sailor , Give the oars to him and he will row.