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thefridayfive
Oct. 9th, 2020 11:21 am1) What is the oldest thing you own?
.... probably the piece of meteoric iron that I am not supposed to have. Long story short, years and years ago I went to a museum that had a very large piece of a very specific meteorite whose name I will not mention here on display, and I saw that lots of people had put coins on top of the meteorite for whatever reason. I figured it was a way to contribute a tiny amount of money to an institution I respected, so I put a quarter on top of the meteorite... and as I started to take my hand away a piece of the meteorite came loose under my fingers. Like, a piece smaller than my pinky nail, but still a genuine piece of the meteorite. I didn't know what to do about that- do I go to a guard? do I go to the front desk?- and made the decision to take the tiny piece home with me despite being saddled with the voice of Ross from "Friends" in my head going "that's millions of years old! people are looking for that!".
The original meteor fell thousands of years ago. I figure it counts.
2) What is the oldest home you've lived in?
The house I lived in back in New York was ... I don't know how old. I know when Dad converted the attic to properly insulated living space, he found newspapers jammed between the rafters that talked about Al Capone. The apartment I lived in back in Hoboken had old school gas fixtures sealed up on the walls; I don't remember seeing the date of construction. But the apartment I'm living in now is in a building that the insurance company says was built in 1910. That's probably the oldest.
3) What is the oldest book you've read?
There was a time when I would've cited the translation I read of the Walam Olum/Red Record of the Lenape, but apparently in between college and now it's been written off as a hoax. So not that. I've read part of the Epic of Gilgamesh and I have part of the Enuma Elish but I've never read either one all the way through. I had to read part of the Amarna letters for my religion major's classes in the Tanakh, but those don't really count as a book, they're ancient communiques... I've read the New American translation of the Bible all the way through; the commentators place the oldest portions of that at around 950 BCE. The I Ching was published around the ninth century BCE. I've read that. Regrettably I've never actually read the Indian text my Asian Medical Systems professor told us about, which was something like three thousand years old and heavily weighted towards reconstructive surgery, especially of the ears and nose. (Ancient Indian royalty went into battle with jewelry on. Cartilage gets torn.)
I should see if I can find a library with a decent English translation of the Rig Veda.
4) What is the oldest electronic device that you still use?
Probably my television. I bought it used sometime before late 2012.
Worth noting, before people get all "oh, modern electronic foo is so ephemeral and has such a short built-in existence, how incredibly easy to mock for its impermanence": it is purely and entirely because of the ephemeral Internet running on replaced-every-few-years electronic hardware that I know the name of Ea-nasir, a single specific individual who lived around 1750 BCE and was known for his horrible customer service and delivery of substandard copper. It is only because of the short-lived ephemeral electronica I work with every day that I know the oldest surviving joke on record outside of whatever might be passed down among the natives of Australia, a Sumerian joke which is dated to 1900 BCE: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap." I don't care how ephemeral electronics are. They give me access to the edges of the time abyss that I would not otherwise have.
5) What is the oldest work of art/architecture that you've seen?
It's in the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Human Origins. It's a horse carved on a piece of limestone. It's from the Gravettian period, which was between 33,000 and 21,000 years ago. They estimate the carving is probably about 25,000 years old.
Architecture, hmnh. Uh... probably the Temple of Dendur at the Met, which I realize was moved from its native country but I haven't had the privilege of visiting any Native American architectural sites of significant age and I've never been off the continent so I'm sticking with the Temple. It was built around 15 BCE.
.... probably the piece of meteoric iron that I am not supposed to have. Long story short, years and years ago I went to a museum that had a very large piece of a very specific meteorite whose name I will not mention here on display, and I saw that lots of people had put coins on top of the meteorite for whatever reason. I figured it was a way to contribute a tiny amount of money to an institution I respected, so I put a quarter on top of the meteorite... and as I started to take my hand away a piece of the meteorite came loose under my fingers. Like, a piece smaller than my pinky nail, but still a genuine piece of the meteorite. I didn't know what to do about that- do I go to a guard? do I go to the front desk?- and made the decision to take the tiny piece home with me despite being saddled with the voice of Ross from "Friends" in my head going "that's millions of years old! people are looking for that!".
The original meteor fell thousands of years ago. I figure it counts.
2) What is the oldest home you've lived in?
The house I lived in back in New York was ... I don't know how old. I know when Dad converted the attic to properly insulated living space, he found newspapers jammed between the rafters that talked about Al Capone. The apartment I lived in back in Hoboken had old school gas fixtures sealed up on the walls; I don't remember seeing the date of construction. But the apartment I'm living in now is in a building that the insurance company says was built in 1910. That's probably the oldest.
3) What is the oldest book you've read?
There was a time when I would've cited the translation I read of the Walam Olum/Red Record of the Lenape, but apparently in between college and now it's been written off as a hoax. So not that. I've read part of the Epic of Gilgamesh and I have part of the Enuma Elish but I've never read either one all the way through. I had to read part of the Amarna letters for my religion major's classes in the Tanakh, but those don't really count as a book, they're ancient communiques... I've read the New American translation of the Bible all the way through; the commentators place the oldest portions of that at around 950 BCE. The I Ching was published around the ninth century BCE. I've read that. Regrettably I've never actually read the Indian text my Asian Medical Systems professor told us about, which was something like three thousand years old and heavily weighted towards reconstructive surgery, especially of the ears and nose. (Ancient Indian royalty went into battle with jewelry on. Cartilage gets torn.)
I should see if I can find a library with a decent English translation of the Rig Veda.
4) What is the oldest electronic device that you still use?
Probably my television. I bought it used sometime before late 2012.
Worth noting, before people get all "oh, modern electronic foo is so ephemeral and has such a short built-in existence, how incredibly easy to mock for its impermanence": it is purely and entirely because of the ephemeral Internet running on replaced-every-few-years electronic hardware that I know the name of Ea-nasir, a single specific individual who lived around 1750 BCE and was known for his horrible customer service and delivery of substandard copper. It is only because of the short-lived ephemeral electronica I work with every day that I know the oldest surviving joke on record outside of whatever might be passed down among the natives of Australia, a Sumerian joke which is dated to 1900 BCE: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap." I don't care how ephemeral electronics are. They give me access to the edges of the time abyss that I would not otherwise have.
5) What is the oldest work of art/architecture that you've seen?
It's in the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Human Origins. It's a horse carved on a piece of limestone. It's from the Gravettian period, which was between 33,000 and 21,000 years ago. They estimate the carving is probably about 25,000 years old.
Architecture, hmnh. Uh... probably the Temple of Dendur at the Met, which I realize was moved from its native country but I haven't had the privilege of visiting any Native American architectural sites of significant age and I've never been off the continent so I'm sticking with the Temple. It was built around 15 BCE.
