Soldier’s wrist purse discovered at Roman legionary camp | Hacker News Reader

Soldier’s wrist purse discovered at Roman legionary camp

heritagedaily.com

108 pointsbookofjoe27 comments

Better photos available e.g. at https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/2688552

Keep in mind the bright shiny copper color one is just a modern interpretation of what it may have looked like when it was complete, and what was found was just the small fragment next to it.

The article just neglects to mention this directly.

The model seems to make a lot of assumptions based on such a small fragment.

It's a "highly detailed reconstruction" (bottom of TFA). Agreed that TFA is light on details and annoyingly disables text selection, which is something I haven't been annoyed by since 2007.

Not only does it manually disable text selection, it also disables the right click menu and most ways of opening the dev tools... for some reason... (you can still reach dev tools using the top right menu on chrome though)

Using "Find" in my browser says those words are on the page somewhere but I cannot find them anywhere.

Weird. It's the last sentence in TFA.

I think it actually slipped under the ad. Using a browser with Adblock I see it.

>The model seems to make a lot of assumptions based on such a small fragment

this could be said about a shocking amount of historical study

It would have been bright and shiny when new back then too

Personal items of dead people always make me emotional.. do you know what I mean? Even ~2000 years after the fact.. This person's life ended and all that he was and thought and felt is now gone.. so we do not know much, except that this item was important to him.

You might enjoy this then:

  Davenports and kettle drums
  And swallowtail coats
  Tablecloths and patent leather shoes
  Bathing suits and bowling balls
  And clarinets and rings
  And all this radio really needs is a fuse

  A tinker, a tailor, a soldier's things
  His rifle, his boots full of rocks
  And this one is for bravery and this one is for  me 
  And everything's a dollar in this box

  Cuff links and hubcaps
  Trophies and paperbacks
  It's good transportation
  But the brakes aren't so hot
  Neckties and boxing gloves
  This jackknife is rusted
  You can pound that dent out on the hood

  A tinker or tailor, a soldier's things
  His rifle, his boots full of rocks
  Oh, and this one is for bravery, oh, and this one is for me
  And everything's a dollar in this box

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNwC8ETa0pg

thank you for that :)

Someone loved that child very much: https://greekreporter.com/2024/07/02/ancient-greek-girl-buri...

I expected the link to be to they https://www.dw.com/en/they-called-her-jamila-the-mystery-of-...

I often find myself overcome with sonder and dustsceawung (the infinite complexity of others lives, and that the dust all around me is made from the lives and civilisations before us [and alongside us])

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sonder https://medium.com/etch-to-their-own/dustsceawung-866aff795a...

I most definitely am reminded of how few people leave an archaeological mark when I read these. Though from my perspective, I see him as one of the special ones, even if we know very little. There are so few folks remembered even a generation later -- even the wealthiest industrialists and movie stars quickly fade.

agree. its quite an intimately human thing

The single photo is remarkably elegant - a spare, almost modernist design.

Pretty slick and functional given the materials of the time. I wonder if it could be made to work today. I think adapting it to cards and cash would make it an awkward package, but maybe if you lay them out along the arm it could work.

Bronze is a VERY nice material. It's a shame it's actually too expensive to see much use in our modern consumerist lives.

It's also easy to steal

Not when it's a solid band around your wrist. Materials in isolation don't tend to have an inherent difficulty level of theft.

Damn, I’ve read “pulse” and was both very confused and very excited!

> The camp was established by the 10th Legion, who was stationed in the area between AD 172 and 180

This is interesting wording. I have a strong urge toward saying either of two other options:

- "The camp was established by the 10th Legion, who were stationed in the area between..." [The Legion is a collection of people]

- "The camp was established by the 10th Legion, which was stationed in the area between..." [The Legion is not a person]

I have difficulty interpreting the Legion as a single person, though. Does the wording in the article work for other people?

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As to the item itself, I find it a little odd to call it a "purse", since it's reconstructed as a solid metal object. That sounds inconvenient and uncomfortable at best.

How do you get that over your hand, and simultaneously have it tight enough to hold the little flap closed?

Seems jingley

Wrap the silver in cloth. Can't open without removing from arm so within limits stops petty theft.

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