Apr 22, 2022 07:43 PM
Humans created ‘moving pictures’ 20,000 years ago
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressa...fbd6834c41
IEXCERPTS: A study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE argues that our early ancestors probably created the illusion of moving pictures using figures engraved onto stones and the flickering light of a fire.
The study, by researchers at the Universities of York and Durham, looked at the collection of engraved stones, known as plaquettes, which are now held in the British Museum. They are likely to have been made using stone tools by Magdalenian people, an early hunter-gatherer culture dating from between 23,000 and 14,000 years ago.
[...] "In the modern day, we might think of art as being created on a blank canvas in daylight or with a fixed light source; but we now know that people 15,000 years ago were creating art around a fire at night, with flickering shapes and shadows."
Observed under daylight, the carvings seem to show just a series of overlapping figures of - at the time - common animals, like ice-age bison and horses. But under the flickering light of a fire, the carved lines suddenly seem to move... (MORE - missing details)
"Viking skin" nailed to medieval church doors is actually from farm animals
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-an...m-animals/
EXCERPTS: The quiet unassuming St. Botolph’s church in Hadstock, near Cambridge, has a gruesome myth attached to it. In the late 19th century, during repairs, it was discovered that the doorway contained a large fragment of skin under its metal bands. Legend says that the skin was from a Danish (Viking) raider who tried to pillage the church in the 11th century. Subsequently, he was flayed alive and nailed to the door as a gruesome warning
This church is not the only one that has this "human leather" decoration on the front door. At least three medieval churches in England have these skin remains: St. Botolph’s; St Michael & All Angels Church in Copford, near Colchester; and Westminster Abbey in London.
In the past, scientists have been interested to know if these myths were true, performing scientific examinations on some of the samples.
[...] It was discovered that none of the skin samples were human at all. Two samples were bovine in nature, whereas the St Michael & All Angels Church sample came from horse or donkey. The latter sample could not be identified any further as these species have a very similar collagen fingerprint.
But why did this story even occur in the first place? (MORE - missing details)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressa...fbd6834c41
IEXCERPTS: A study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE argues that our early ancestors probably created the illusion of moving pictures using figures engraved onto stones and the flickering light of a fire.
The study, by researchers at the Universities of York and Durham, looked at the collection of engraved stones, known as plaquettes, which are now held in the British Museum. They are likely to have been made using stone tools by Magdalenian people, an early hunter-gatherer culture dating from between 23,000 and 14,000 years ago.
[...] "In the modern day, we might think of art as being created on a blank canvas in daylight or with a fixed light source; but we now know that people 15,000 years ago were creating art around a fire at night, with flickering shapes and shadows."
Observed under daylight, the carvings seem to show just a series of overlapping figures of - at the time - common animals, like ice-age bison and horses. But under the flickering light of a fire, the carved lines suddenly seem to move... (MORE - missing details)
"Viking skin" nailed to medieval church doors is actually from farm animals
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-an...m-animals/
EXCERPTS: The quiet unassuming St. Botolph’s church in Hadstock, near Cambridge, has a gruesome myth attached to it. In the late 19th century, during repairs, it was discovered that the doorway contained a large fragment of skin under its metal bands. Legend says that the skin was from a Danish (Viking) raider who tried to pillage the church in the 11th century. Subsequently, he was flayed alive and nailed to the door as a gruesome warning
This church is not the only one that has this "human leather" decoration on the front door. At least three medieval churches in England have these skin remains: St. Botolph’s; St Michael & All Angels Church in Copford, near Colchester; and Westminster Abbey in London.
In the past, scientists have been interested to know if these myths were true, performing scientific examinations on some of the samples.
[...] It was discovered that none of the skin samples were human at all. Two samples were bovine in nature, whereas the St Michael & All Angels Church sample came from horse or donkey. The latter sample could not be identified any further as these species have a very similar collagen fingerprint.
But why did this story even occur in the first place? (MORE - missing details)