The term asynchronous communication sounds like something enabled by only the most recent wave of technology innovation. This weekend I was reminded again that the problems --and wonder-- of communication across time are as old as civilization itself.
We entertained some visitors from the US last weekend, and took them to one of my favorite spots in Ankara: the world class Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which houses treasures from some of the world's earliest civilizations. Whenever I visit the museum I'm always struck by two things. First, that there was such a dramatic explosion of creativity and technological innovation at the very dawn of human civilization, as if everything sprang at once from the void.
Second, there is no question that the actors in this artistic and technological revolution were essentially us. We see their products as clever, beautiful and practical, and as things that we ourselves might have made. Even the most ancient of sites yield objects that remind us of ourselves.
In keeping with the spirit of experimentation, in the next few posts I'm trying out some Slideshare slides to combine images with my thoughts in a more compact way than the more mundane text-slide-text-slide format.
Google Earth's Great Granddaddy
The museum is home to a major exhibit from Çatalhöyük, arguably one of the oldest urban settlements ever found, dating to about 7500BC. Excavations turn up endless supplies of figurines and other decorative objects like jewelry and the bear-shaped clay stamp in slide 4. Archaeologists even found mirrors of polished obsidian, begging the question, do people wear jewelry because they have mirrors, or is it the other way around? The most amazing thing found so far, though, is what might be the world's oldest map (slide 5).
Spatial arrangements and ymbols for different features such as houses and doors were used in a consistent manner apparently for the first time in this mural, 3000 years before the introduction of writing; the map mural also covered all four interior walls of the dwelling, giving a panoramic effect. Also for the first time, the map depicts the territory from above, representing a view that no one would have ever actually seen. Slide 6 shows an artist's rendition of the now faded mural. Off in the horizon the mural shows the volcano Hasan Dağı in eruption. Slide 7 shows the same volcano on Google Earth.
But why a map?
Next: The earliest operating system upgrade
Great post Tom.
I would love to visit that museum in Ankara one day.
Posted by: Ardent | April 08, 2008 at 09:33 PM