okay enbies, nerd thread time
I can't believe I had ancient Greek in school for six years and ONLY NOW heard about this guy called Pytheas, a contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander the Great
Pytheas' original work didn't survive, sadly (otherwise I'd get a copy ASAP to translate it for my own entertainment), all we know about him comes from younger Roman sources
but he was a man of his time, and in my book far more admirable than a crazed conqueror like Alexander
so strap in
Pytheas was a sailor from Massalia, the Greek colony in what is now southern France - wanna guess the modern name of that place?
Of course, it's Marseille.
An ancient sailor isn't exactly the kind of person you'd expect to write books that make historians question their assumptions, but then Pytheas wasn't an ordinary guy. He had a mission.
Pytheas was wondering where all that tin - you know, the metal - brought to Massalia by traders actually came from. All he was able to get out of people he asked was "from the North" so... he did The Greek Thing and set sail to find out.
Now obviously you can't just sail upriver from the Mediterranean into France and expect to find something extraordinary, so he thought he might as well see this through and sailed through the Pillars of Hercules i.e. (the Strait of Gibraltar) - apart from some scattered colonies and trading posts along the coast of what is now Portugal, that place marked the western boundary of the Hellenic people's world at the time.
(... okay, according to one hypothesis, Atlantis might actually have existed on the Iberian peninsula, but that's a whole different book.)
@anarchiv Fascinating, thank you for the post. Tin mining in Cornwall, today's southwestern UK was a big motivation for sailors to travel very very far, risk it all in the open Atlantic on their small ships. Phoenicians had outposts in the coast of today's Portugal long before the Romans came.
Combining History, Geography and Economics is a great way to better understand the times they lived in.
@anarchiv I really enjoyed the way you posted it. My reply wasn't as intriguing and elegant as your post.
Thanks for sharing it.
I love Historical novels, and this trade has been part and described on some of the ones I have read. I find it fascinating, giving us a better understanding of the world they lived in.
@anarchiv I kind of feel bad for posting into what could have been a continuing stream of narration - if that is the case, please accept my apologies.
I did not know that Marseille had a name with such ancient roots. Reminds me of Évora, in Alentejo, Portugal, which has been around for a long time. The root of the current name goes to pre-Roman times, I remember seeing information at their local Museum.
I visited Alcácer do Sal, in the coast of Portugal, just South of Lisbon. It's located on a sheltered estuary, and Phoenicians had trading posts there, supporting the seamen traveling up the coast from the Med into the Bay of Biscay and on to Cornwall and other locations.
Tin was a vital resource, one of the components of Bronze, which for some time was the best metal people knew how to produce.
Until they developed Iron smelting skills, the demand for copper and tin moved enterprising people into those very long and risky journeys.
I am sure you know all of this and much more, but it's nice to reminisce and think about life in these times. And by talking about it, we might get people's interest and curiosity.
Maybe I could post a similar thread, like yours - I visited the Archeology Museum in Lisbon and was fascinated by an exhibit they had, all artifacts excavated in the Algarve region of Portugal.
I took it in one display at a time, which in a way is similar to the posting style you made above. Fragments of information from each surprising and intriguing me. And on to the next display and some more.
Spent hours and had a great time. I love History, and after visiting Europe, it kinds of soured me for travel here in North America, where 'old' might be 300 years. 😄
@design_RG awesome, it'd astounding how we tend to underestimate people in antiquity. also, please don't feel bad for "posting into" my thread, this website is designed for interaction and so are my posts!
@anarchiv Thanks - I just thought you might not have finished the stream of posts you were working on; and it would be a pity to cut into it.
Your writing and presentation were very interesting - I think they would attract people who would not read it, if posted in one or two larger posts.
@design_RG that's valuable feedback, and also I'm looking forward to that thread you intend to write, if you'll do it!
@anarchiv I had not thought about it until seeing and reading your thread here this morning.
It's amazing what you did with just words, well chosen, and delivered in small packets. For this medium it seems a good way to do it - attracting people in, without overwhelming them with longer texts.
I tend to write long form, and enjoy that Mastodon and fediverse allow that, unlike birdsite.
But I see the value of well done, not overly terse posting like you did here. Well done.
I will get around to writing it this morning, make it the morning's project.
@design_RG thank you, I've been here for two years but I'm still in the process of figuring out what makes sense and what does not, of discovering the possibilities - when you're following me now, be warned: this is not my typical style of posting. I shitpost a lot, or tell anecdotes from my everyday life. but I've got some ideas about branching out, maybe using more accounts or using Plume more.
@anarchiv Yeah, I noticed the content warning right at the head of your profile, but found that someone who thought and posted what you did here was worth following. No worries, you can proceed as usual and I will respond to interesting bits if I see them.
A sad thing here is that it's pure chance, and sometimes we hit into great things, sometimes we have a conversation and it goes haywire due to some odd person jumping in. But, it's stil much better to have it all.
More accounts are a good idea. I have a couple more, just started on fedi a month ago and still learning. Some topics you might want to do on a lower profile, more discrete account.
Hard part is keeping active in various places, but it might be easier as I get more used to it.
Just started trying out Write.freely learning yesterday, which was interesting. A good thing is that it could be a place to collect ideas and info from various posts, like when I am trying something out, and post impressions, screenshots, notes.
These could be valuable as references to other users, but I am afraid they would be buried into the huge amount of data we have here, without bookmarking for the most part.
I did sequential posts like that when trying out mastodon clients, like Fedilab and Pinafore. They helped me understand the working of these apps and remember it, by explaining and documenting in writing.
I would like to bring these into one or two blog posts for each of them, and have a more permanent URL to point to when needed.
@design_RG for some reason, I find threads like that much, much easier to write than blog posts of the same length, probably because I'm a writer (English isn't my first language, as you've surely read in my bio) and too much of a perfectionist and this way I can just let myself get carried away much more. maybe there's a lesson to be taken away for making progress on my novel...
@anarchiv Ah, wonderful that you are a writer!
A smaller job like a short story must be much easier than a long project like a full novel.
A Blog post, easier yet, and the shorter posting like you did are the least inhibiting if you do have perfectionist tendency (which I do too).
Comparing that based on my similar experiences with woodwork and home little projects. A full renovation is a scary thought for me, a small project, done in one day, much easier and nice to complete without all the angst of a long process.
@design_RG I prefer to tell the story in a more long-winded way, but I'm glad you took something away from it.