History Memes

100%. I used to work in a museum. We had an exhibit come through all about Bog People. People killed and thrown in a bog, which preserved their bodies.

Most bodies were stabbed or hit on the head thrown into the bog with nothing on them. Not even clothing some times.

Anthrpologists: Sacrifices to the gods! Each person was chosen by a religious leader and carefully, lovingly, killed as a sacrifice to the gods to ensure the village had a good agriclutral season. Of course! So obvious.

Me: These dudes got robbed and murdered. Maybe not in that order.

Archaeologists believed that the women hairstyles depicted in ancient Roman statues were far too complicated, and therefore had to be elaborate wigs.

Janet Stephens, a hairdresser, took one look at the back of a bust, and immediately saw the underlying logic of the styles and how they could be achieved with a needle and thread.

When she got home, she found that archaeologists had consistently mistranslated the Latin phrase for "acus" which can mean needle and thread or single prone hairpin as only single prong hairpin. She goes on to film herself recreating all sorts elaborate hairstyles in Roman busts, and changed archeological viewpoint from then on.

Janet Stephens - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Stephens

EDIT: Janet Stephens uploads recreations of ancient Roman hairstyles on her YouTube channel if you are interested

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhacomyGRF2PBSm-ByuuNup6TGB3B8aAI

There was a similar story about a tool no one could figure out. They showed it to a leather worker and the worker pulled out a similar tool.

Also, archaeologists found the ruins of huts which had a curious circle of bricks, one brick in height, in the middle of the floor. They were stumped, and probably ready to declare it a ceremonial shrine of some sort, until one of them asked the local hired help, who immediately pointed out that the peasants in the area today have similar circles in their dwellings for penning up new-born chicks whilst allowing adult chickens to cross.

"Local mom reveals one weird trick that archeologists hate!"

I'm not saying something like this has never happened but I expect that such claims are simply anti-intellectual urban legends more often than not.

(How would we even know where pre-Columbian people stored knives? The sort of structure that would survive for centuries seems like it would be a palace or a temple made of stone, rather than a common kitchen. There the blades presumably would serve a ritual purpose.)

This is some facebook boomer shit.

Couldn't find anything to validate this specific claim of archeologists claiming obsidian blades were kept close to the sun (under a roof???) to keep them sharp, but you see things like this pop up from time to time, wherein specialists or people from the region point out that a poorly-understood archeological find is just a specialist tool or regional practice that's still in use.

I prefer this version. Also, as someone quite close to the field, there's an awful lot of misinformation in this thread. Tread carefully, readers.

Exoticizing ancient and foreign cultures is bullshit.

Yeah they believe dtuffthat sounds crazy to you,but they aren't fucking aliens. Having people with actual relevant experience participate in archaeology is essential. Wjenlooking at stonework, bring a mason. When looking at hair, bring a barber. When looking at textiles, bring a seamstress.

ITT: Lemmites upset that a WOMEN would dare say a man is wrong.

Something something field advances one funeral at a time.

The strongly held opinions of “senior” people in academics and sciences are defended for the sake of ego and maybe funding, and that blocks the ability of outside information and questions that could change those ideas.

Wonder what the pass/fail rate is for things like this. How many “facts” are toppled quickly after a defender’s demise.

This is why smug and archeology never go together. Literally I never bought Graham Hancock until smug archeologists admitted to ignoring evidence. Like wtf no shit he believes civilization is way older than we say because we are sitting on evidence waiting for it to be smug-worthy wtf!