So it lasted about 2k years where it was, then was removed, put in storage and damaged by moths in the museum?
skybrian · 10m ago
> Roman Egypt preserves a much larger slice of our evidence than any other place in the ancient world. This comes down to climate (as do most things); Egypt is a climatically extreme place. On the one hand, most of the country is desert and here I mean hard desert, with absolutely minuscule amounts of precipitation. On the other hand, the Nile River creates a fertile, at points almost lush, band cutting through the country running to the coast. The change between these two environments is extremely stark [...]
> That in turn matters because while Egypt was hardly the only arid region Rome controlled, it was the only place you were likely to find very many large settlements and lots of people living in such close proximity to such extremely arid environments (other large North African settlements tend to be coastal). And that in turn matters for preservation.
yep, the worlds oldest shirt was found in an ancient rubbish pile in eygypt, nice shirt, but obviosly thrown out from ancient wear and tear.....it NEVER rains in eygypt...or to be exact any area can expect rain once in 400 years or something ludicrous, so ya stuff just sits, and in just the right conditions lasts for millenia, so we have ancient chit chat letters sent back and forth between women that represent the earliest first person dialogs in existance
edit, on reflection there are older summerian letters sent back and forth by traders in....cloth, who had a "shop" in one city/country but the main production was in mesoptsmia proper, and if memory serves the distant trader was a woman asking for more products to sell, and again other chit chat, but both instances required exceptional conditions and the use of very durable materials, papyrus paper and dried and protected clay
goscript · 6h ago
> it NEVER rains in eygypt...or to be exact any area can expect rain once in 400 years or something ludicrous,
The northern part of the country receives some rainfall in the winter. heavy winter rains occasionally cause flooding in Cairo, Ptolemaic Egypt was centered around Alexandria, which gets the most rain in the country - about 200 mm (7.87 in) annually. while that's still relatively low, it's not nearly as extreme as you make it seem.
He was complaining to "Lord Bezos," about receiving sub-standard material.
I'll just get my coat...
cwmoore · 6h ago
Great context, but in reminding me of Bob Dylan’s Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, potentially many conversations from even those most auspicious regions went unpreserved.
kinj28 · 3h ago
I wonder how authentic the hat must be after restoration? And how exactly restoration is done ? It seems restoration had to be funded so must be some elaborate process.
wileydragonfly · 10m ago
The hat of Theseus
sokols · 7h ago
Pileus (plis) can be found amongst older Albanians (especially on the north) to this day.
ekianjo · 44m ago
> As it turns out, even the Romans understood the power of a good hat.
The author thinks Roman had low intellect or something?
throwaway173738 · 7h ago
It looks like a bucket hat.
accrual · 1h ago
Bucket hats are pretty useful as far as hats go. Glad to see they have a long standing heritage!
thebruce87m · 2h ago
There’s a joke about Oasis in there somewhere.
daft_pink · 5h ago
Just waiting for some tech bros to add ai and re-invent the bucket hat with a new private equity funded company.
> That in turn matters because while Egypt was hardly the only arid region Rome controlled, it was the only place you were likely to find very many large settlements and lots of people living in such close proximity to such extremely arid environments (other large North African settlements tend to be coastal). And that in turn matters for preservation.
https://acoup.blog/2022/12/02/collections-why-roman-egypt-wa...
edit, on reflection there are older summerian letters sent back and forth by traders in....cloth, who had a "shop" in one city/country but the main production was in mesoptsmia proper, and if memory serves the distant trader was a woman asking for more products to sell, and again other chit chat, but both instances required exceptional conditions and the use of very durable materials, papyrus paper and dried and protected clay
The northern part of the country receives some rainfall in the winter. heavy winter rains occasionally cause flooding in Cairo, Ptolemaic Egypt was centered around Alexandria, which gets the most rain in the country - about 200 mm (7.87 in) annually. while that's still relatively low, it's not nearly as extreme as you make it seem.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Egypt#Rainfall
I'll just get my coat...
The author thinks Roman had low intellect or something?