Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Emperor's Body, Ancient Poop and More Reasons to Buy Shoes

I bought a couple of archaeology magazines about a week ago, and I'm going through them slowly, finding some interesting stuff.

Apparently, the statue of Emperor Hadrian that the British Museum has had since the 1860s is actually pieces of three or more statues plastered together. When the museum's conservators took the layer of plaster off around Hadrian's neck, they discovered that the head was too small for the body, the neck didn't fit together. Also, apparently, the hands are from different statues too. This seems a good way to create the perfect man, I think. Simply plaster the best pieces together. According to the Bristish Museum website, it was the museum staff who put the different pieces together, on assumption that all the pieces were found near each other in Libya.

Also, they were able to prove that humans lived in North America over 12,000 years ago. How? Poop, of course. Archaeologists apparently found the a dried piece of shit from 14,300 years ago in a cave in Oregon. They're actually able to isolate human DNA from this. As Kristen asked: How did they know it was poop? It looks like a rock to me...

I've bought three new pairs of shoes in the last month. I used to hate shoe shopping - apparently now I'm obsessed. But it's okay, because it's genetic. Turns out that humans have been wearing shoes for 40,000 years. An anthropologist analyzed the toe bones of a skeleton found in China and found that the shape of the foot indicated that this person wore shoes. Apparently, if you walk bare foot your whole life your middle toes curl under for traction. But not shoe wearers, they put all the pressure on the big toe and the rest of the toe bones are less developed. See, now I can tell myself that if I don't buy shoes, my middle toes might curl under....

2 comments:

Fae said...

What does it mean when your foot spazzes and your pinky toe jets straight out to the side?

Fae said...

I was referring to your toe...