Table of Contents
Estranha História argues that time has moved some ancient worlds closer, not farther away. Two centuries ago a person in Napoleon’s seat had no idea who the Sumerians were, and Egyptian tomb writing was unreadable even in Egypt. Three tools are the reason the picture keeps changing. Lidar, a laser ranger, maps soil under thick forest. With underground radar it helped a 2022 team trace an Amazonian city in Bolivia, larger than many European cities of that era, with causeways and a tall pyramid. X-ray fluorescence names elements left in pigment, so a trace can suggest color on sculpture and temples that now look like bare stone. Phase contrast X-ray tomography then read a brittle silver slip from a Roman burial ground in Germany without unrolling it. A parchment from near the Dead Sea and the burned library at Herculaneum, buried by Vesuvius with Pompeii, are further cases. Machines do not interpret the marks. Specialists still have to, and people not yet born may stand closer to those texts than we do.
Key points
- The film’s claim is that new instruments have made some ancient societies easier to know, not more distant.
- Lidar under forest cover helped reveal a large Amazonian city in Bolivia in 2022.
- X-ray fluorescence is used to identify pigments and to imagine color on stone that now looks bare.
- Phase contrast scans read a brittle Roman silver text in Germany without unrolling it.
- The same family of scans is tied to a Dead Sea parchment and to the carbonized library at Herculaneum.
- The narrator insists the machines only supply marks, and that historians still have to interpret them.
Short quotes
ondas de rádio ele usa principalmente pulsos de laser infravermelho para fazer essas medições né e gerar esses modelos
Estranha História, Technologies that recover the past
In English, instead of radio waves it mainly uses infrared laser pulses to measure and to build models. Watch at 1:21
indo aqui essas estátuas não eram Originalmente assim né Essa estética minimalista não foi decisão do artista
Estranha História, Technologies that recover the past
In English, these statues were not originally like this, and that bare look was not the maker’s choice. Watch at 6:59
empregar uma ferramenta mais sofisticada e mais adequada para resolver o problema que foi justamente a tomografia de Rai X
Estranha História, Technologies that recover the past
In English, a more suitable tool finally solved it, and that tool was X-ray tomography. Watch at 10:01
inteira na verdade com rolos de papiro que foram carbonizados na erupção do vesúvio lá no primeiro século depois de
Estranha História, Technologies that recover the past
In English, it is really a whole library of papyrus rolls charred by Vesuvius in the first century. Watch at 12:15
Video by Estranha História. Watch on YouTube.