What is interesting to me is that he shows that the craftsman that fabricated it were familiar with the techniques. This was not a one off wonder device. Numerous copies were probably made and they’re buried somewhere just waiting to be discovered. This is the level of skill that was lost during the dark ages and then rediscovered afterwards.
I get that. I just thought there were a tonne of even more exotic finds of more advanced technology than woodworking — but it’s not always clear which are ‘fringe’ and which have been invested with the epistemic authority of institutional science. That is the confusing thing.
> maybe they were a journeyman piece for bronze crafters
If this were the case, shouldn't there be makers' marks on them? Something to identify them as being the work of a journeyman level artisan hoping to use it to prove their worth? Otherwise, one could fraudulently present someone else's work as there own, and undermine the system.
I feel that if they were really part of a 'graduation portfolio' for crafters, it would be much more obvious. Something like an inscription that says "crafted by Albertus in the 14th year of the Emperor Foo".
I like your fizz-buzz theory. If the object is a one-and-done throw away, then you might not bother to put your mark on it.
You comment sound like a “know-it-all”. We don’t know what these crafts are, where they are from and how they came here. A little humble attitude is more aligned with reality: there’s so much we don’t know.
There's something sacred in these old crafts. A blend of unknowns (no theory of anything), but personal involvement, patience, care, enough aesthetics but no quantified perfection..
Yes, I don't think they should have attempted a literal translation and instead described it as a museum of science and technology (as they do in the article).
"Arts and Crafts", at least in modern American English has a very different meaning, and would make people expect to find the kinds of things that are sold on Etsy.
EDIT: I'm not sure why you would be surprised to find looms there, even aside from the double meaning. I believe machinery for the production of textiles were among the earliest triumphs of the industrial revolution and the Jacquard loom (invented in France) was the first known programmable machine.
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