old things meme
Oct. 16th, 2020 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
corvi1. What is the oldest thing you own?
This ammonite fossiljuli gave me. The smooth outer surface of the shell has been polished away, making visible the seams between plates. I love the autumnal oak leaf pattern of the shell seams. The ammonite is what inspired me to answer these questions in the first place.
2. What is the oldest home you've lived in?
I think it would be the farmhouse I lived in until I was two, which only had electricity in a couple of rooms, though I don't remember it very well or know exactly when it was built.
3. What is the oldest book you've read?
After consulting Wikipedia's list of ancient literature, I have determined that the oldest text I have read is portions of (in translation) is some of the later-written parts of the Rigveda, from which I read a dozen hymns for a college class on the historical development of Indian philosophy. We focused on the more philosophical ones, like the Nasadiya Sukta, which discusses what things were like "before" the beginning of time and the universe:
As far as old physical books, I bought a tattered copy of Washington Irving's The Bold Dragoon at a yard sale for five cents as a kid, thinking that "dragoon" was an old-timey way to spell "dragon" and that this book would contain some scaly mayhem. Alas, my young self was very disappointed. Looking at pictures online, I think it was the 1931 edition. Apparently it is a comedic ghost story, so I might have actually enjoyed it if I'd ever been able to forgive its lack of dragons.
4. What is the oldest electronic device you still use?
Leaving aside things like cars (2006) and the oven that came with the house (1990s), probably the laptop I'm typing on right now, from 2011. Fan very loud all the time, sometimes too warm for laps. Two of the arrow keys unresponsive. Haunted trackpad. Only about half a working USB port. Periodically have to delete files to make disk space. Overdue for replacement, but it has a Japanese keyboard layout I really like and can no longer get, so I've been putting off the inevitable.
5. What is the oldest work of art/architecture you've seen?
I once ended up on a field trip the see the Dead Sea Scrolls with a bunch of seminary students, and the exhibit had been supplemented with a large collection of personal document seals that were about the same age. I got the impression that one's choice of seal was mostly down to personal aesthetics. There were signs explaining grand trends in seal design, but also signs explaining how this or that one was eccentric, or copycatting Assyrian designs, or similar to some more prestigious person's personal seal, or otherwise influenced by the owner's weirdo opinions and aspirations. Like visual screen names. The seals gave me a happy sense that humanity hasn't actually changed that much in the last two millennia.
This ammonite fossil
juli gave me. The smooth outer surface of the shell has been polished away, making visible the seams between plates. I love the autumnal oak leaf pattern of the shell seams. The ammonite is what inspired me to answer these questions in the first place.2. What is the oldest home you've lived in?
I think it would be the farmhouse I lived in until I was two, which only had electricity in a couple of rooms, though I don't remember it very well or know exactly when it was built.
3. What is the oldest book you've read?
After consulting Wikipedia's list of ancient literature, I have determined that the oldest text I have read is portions of (in translation) is some of the later-written parts of the Rigveda, from which I read a dozen hymns for a college class on the historical development of Indian philosophy. We focused on the more philosophical ones, like the Nasadiya Sukta, which discusses what things were like "before" the beginning of time and the universe:
Then even non-existence was not there, nor existence,
There was no air then, nor the space beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic fluid, in depths unfathomed?
There was no air then, nor the space beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic fluid, in depths unfathomed?
As far as old physical books, I bought a tattered copy of Washington Irving's The Bold Dragoon at a yard sale for five cents as a kid, thinking that "dragoon" was an old-timey way to spell "dragon" and that this book would contain some scaly mayhem. Alas, my young self was very disappointed. Looking at pictures online, I think it was the 1931 edition. Apparently it is a comedic ghost story, so I might have actually enjoyed it if I'd ever been able to forgive its lack of dragons.
4. What is the oldest electronic device you still use?
Leaving aside things like cars (2006) and the oven that came with the house (1990s), probably the laptop I'm typing on right now, from 2011. Fan very loud all the time, sometimes too warm for laps. Two of the arrow keys unresponsive. Haunted trackpad. Only about half a working USB port. Periodically have to delete files to make disk space. Overdue for replacement, but it has a Japanese keyboard layout I really like and can no longer get, so I've been putting off the inevitable.
5. What is the oldest work of art/architecture you've seen?
I once ended up on a field trip the see the Dead Sea Scrolls with a bunch of seminary students, and the exhibit had been supplemented with a large collection of personal document seals that were about the same age. I got the impression that one's choice of seal was mostly down to personal aesthetics. There were signs explaining grand trends in seal design, but also signs explaining how this or that one was eccentric, or copycatting Assyrian designs, or similar to some more prestigious person's personal seal, or otherwise influenced by the owner's weirdo opinions and aspirations. Like visual screen names. The seals gave me a happy sense that humanity hasn't actually changed that much in the last two millennia.
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Date: 2020-10-18 12:08 am (UTC)