February 22, 2007

A golden-eyed priestess has been discovered by Lorenzo Costatini's team in Shahr-i-Sokhta.
posted by darling 17 years ago
  • Very cool story, darling. It is intriguing to ponder the influence this woman may once have had on those around her. The past continues to be full of surprises; imagine what is lost on a daily basis in places like China were archeological sites are currently being regularly unearthed, looted and built over with breakneck speed.
  • Fascinating! Great post.
  • Amazing, thanks.
  • And she had great teeth!
  • Indeed, she was the Underpants Monster of her day.
  • Goldpeeper She's the girl, the girl with the Midas stare You must beware
  • ...imagine what is lost on a daily basis in places like China were archeological sites are currently being regularly unearthed, looted and built over... Or Canada. Nice link, darling. That eye must be a particularly significant find at that site. The website says there are over 300 burials with a massive diversity of grave good abundance. But for the record, much of this article (like this line: "Archaeologists said the woman... would have transfixed those around her with her eyeball, making them believe she had occult powers and could see into the future...") is just educated conjecture. They may as well have said she had her eye removed and had the "gold eye" put in the socket to treat her glaucoma. Some may feel the pressure to pad discoveries for the media and public interest and, consequently, some interpretations win out to the rest in the final cut. I apologize if I pointed out the obvious, but often the handling of site discoveries in the media can be a pet peeve of mine.
  • No, you make a good point, Chimp. A thing like this must have an interesting story behind it, one which might indicate the need for a radical reappraisal of some aspects of the culture in question - but alas, we just don't really know what the story is. I'm no archaeologist, but religious or ritual use often seems to get invoked as a fall-back explanation when nothing else comes to mind. ...We believe that postulants hoped to appease a Monkey God of some kind (some sources suggest a squid-like being) by placing ritual invocations on this primitive web-site, of which, alas, only scattered fragments remain...
  • Maybe it was a fad where people poked out their eyes because some local artisan was painting these "really cool eyeball things". For all we know. Good point. And cool find.
  • Or maybe she won first place in a sharpshooting contest.
  • ...ritual use often seems to get invoked as a fall-back explanation... Too true!