Artifacts of the Past

I find religious artifacts to be interesting items. There are many relics that are left. The best ones are the stone idols. In these most of the gonads and/or breasts were greatly enlarged. These two items were shown as a symbol of fertility.

When I visited Rome, I saw many Christian etchings in walls. If I remember them correctly I think the movie Nero (really dumb and bad) used one of the caves as a set.

One of the more common, non-coinage, artifacts that are left are rosaries. These do not usually tell us much beyond that a religious people lived there.

Coins are my favorite items and I have an okay collection of coins. Many ancient coins are quite cheap.

Wigs of the 1600s

One of the items that always amaze me: History and people almost never change. Men always like to look masculine regardless of the times. Hair Replacement tricks have been going on for centuries. Think of all the wigs that were used from the 1600s to the early 1800s.

Today we think we are the first generation who ever worried about this problem. We are not. I would like to think that perhaps we can have an easy and quick solution to this problem.

Old Pens

I have recently added to my collection some old pens. I amazed at how many of these fountain pens are custom pens. I guess a few decades ago (like ten of them) most things were custom made. I am not to sure what I will do with them. Like many items I will find some way to use them in classroom.

What I really want is some authentic quill pens. Usually I want something that was in use around the revolution. However, this will be very expensive.

A world of gifts

When looking at history we find that things change over times. As an example, once Christianity was thought to be the highest form of thought.

Many christian gifts were given to western civilization and the world.

This is a very short non-exhaustive list:

Hospitals
Medicines
Science
Art
Music
The keeping of the ancient records
The printing press
modern mathematics

Most every field in existence today, including evolutionary science, owes a large debt to the Christian religion and the knowledge it has given to the world.

One of the odd things I find when studying other ancient cultures is that we are almost always told that this group had better system of keeping time. However, look at the above list and imagine yourself without any of that. oops.

The Big Purchase

I have always found it odd the story if the sale of the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon was in financial need and we still liked the French. I know that seems odd as I many people still call the Freedom Fries. France was in dire need of money after the revolution and Napoleon running all over countryside with lovers and troops.

The story is that Napoleon slipped into the bath tub next to something like Powell furniture and made the deal.

Jefferson went against his personal beliefs in government and purchased the land. Oh yeah at the time the land belonged to Spain.

guerilla warfare.

I am wondering how history will look back at this time in history. History is an odd thing. Coolidge was beloved president in his time. He is remembered as one of the worst presidents of all. He was unable to control his administration. I question if this administration will be remembered as a good one or a bad one.

I think that Bush II will be remembered as a bad president. In the same way Johnson and Nixon are remembered. They both dived in to Nam with both feet. The bad part of the whole thing is that we have never won a 'fair' fight against guerilla warfare. Sure we managed to Tenuate the American Indians as the fought a guerilla warfare. However, it was guns, germs and steel against bows and arrows. By the time the Indians adopted the guns it was to late.