John L. Taylor @johnnylogic@qoto.org

"Archaeologists have found two dozen bronze figures, more than 2,000 years old and perfectly preserved in the hot mud and waters of an ancient, sacred pool [in San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy]."

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/03/1138904735/italy-ancient-bronze-statues-discovery-tuscany

#Art, #Etruscan, #History, #Roman

In [a recent article](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/12/holocaust-remembrance-lessons-america/671893/) Clint Smith, author of _How the Word is Passed_, writes about what America can learn from Germany's memorialization of the murders of Jews, Roma, gays, and other victims of the holocaust. It is an excellent reflection on the use and abuse of memorialization by states and peoples.

#Holocaust, #History, #Memorial, #NeverForget, #Slavery

[This is a fascinating documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfygvjZ-ABs) about the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,000-year-old mechanical computer. I was aware of the mechanism and its place in computing history, but this documentary tells of the intellectual adventure of the mechanism's initial discovery, and the gradual discernment of its origins, operations, and purpose through the combined efforts of mathematicians, archeologists, astronomers, radiologic technologists and historians of science. Highly recommended if ancient technology, the history of computing, or scientific sleuthing is your thing.

#Antikythera, #Computing, #Greece, #History, #Technology #Video

"[A] fresh look at a 3700-year-old clay tablet suggests that Babylonian mathematicians not only developed the first trig table, beating the Greeks to the punch by more than 1000 years, but that they also figured out an entirely new way to look at the subject. However, other experts on the clay tablet, known as Plimpton 322 (P322), say the new work is speculative at best." ([Source](https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-babylonian-tablet-may-contain-first-evidence-trigonometry) )

Not recent, but interesting.

#History, #Math, #Maths

Maddow has produced a [remarkable eight-part series](https://rachel-maddow-presents-ultra.simplecast.com/episodes) on the history of authoritarian insurrectionists in 1930s and 40s America. It is a story of Christian nationalism, antisemitism, the America First movement, anti-democratic media figures, politicians sympathetic to authoritarian regimes, calls to armed insurrection, and violence.

Any similarities to recent events are entirely deliberate.

#Antisemitism, #Authoritarianism, #ChristianNationalism, #Fascism, #History, #Podcast

I recently stumbled upon the world's oldest preserved joke book, _[Philogelos](https://web.archive.org/web/20190402114641/http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/quinn_jokes.shtml)_ ("Love of Laughter"). It dates back to fourth century Greece and contains 265 jokes categorized into subjects. Some of these subjects are readily recognizable tropes in humor-- eggheads, fools, tricksters, etc. Some of it could pass on stage today, and much of it is quite raunchy.

#Books, #History, #Humor, #Jokes, #Greece