Hacker News with Generative AI: Ancient Civilizations

Digital cuneiforms: Updated tool expands access to ancient Hittite texts (phys.org)
From cuneiform to code: section of a Hittite cuneiform text found in Boğazköy-Hattuša in 2024 (photo and XML text). Credit: Daniel Schwemer, University of Wuerzburg
History, Linguistics, Technology, Ancient Civilizations
36 points by ardanarac 6 days ago | 18 comments
The Mystery of the Oldest Writing System Remained Unsolved Until 1856 (smithsonianmag.com)
On a late-summer day in 1856, a letter carrier stepped from a mail coach in front of a three-story townhouse in Mayfair, in central London. Crossing the threshold, the courier handed a wax-sealed envelope to a clerk. The missive was addressed to Edwin Norris, the secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, one of Europe’s leading research institutions.
History, Archaeology, Writing Systems, Ancient Civilizations
80 points by wyclif 11 days ago | 6 comments
The Race to Decipher Cuneiform in the 19th Century (smithsonianmag.com)
On a late-summer day in 1856, a letter carrier stepped from a mail coach in front of a three-story townhouse in Mayfair, in central London. Crossing the threshold, the courier handed a wax-sealed envelope to a clerk. The missive was addressed to Edwin Norris, the secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, one of Europe’s leading research institutions.
History, Archaeology, Language, Ancient Civilizations
38 points by Petiver 14 days ago | 2 comments
Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Clay Puppets with Open Mouths, Detachable Heads (smithsonianmag.com)
Researchers have discovered a trove of ancient clay puppets at an archaeological site in El Salvador.
Archaeology, History, Ancient Civilizations, El Salvador
4 points by pseudolus 26 days ago | 0 comments
Pied Beauty: Wari Tie-Dye Textiles (Ca. 425–1100) (publicdomainreview.org)
When the lords of the Inca were forced to send tribute to the Spanish, they made their payments, in part, in panes de grana — “cakes” or “loaves” of the cactus-eating cochineal beetle (magno or macnu in Quechua), which when pulverized and mixed with mordant produces a blood-red pigment whose intensity was unrivaled by anything previously known to Europeans.
History, Art, Textiles, Ancient Civilizations, South America
12 points by prismatic 51 days ago | 0 comments
Pyramid structure discovered near Caral Peru (omniletters.com)
A team of archaeologists has made a significant discovery at the Chupacigarro settlement, located just one kilometer from the sacred city of Caral in the Supe Valley, Lima region.
Archaeology, Peru, History, Ancient Civilizations
69 points by namanyayg 61 days ago | 27 comments
Engineered waterways helped Ancient Amazonians became master maize farmers (sciencenews.org)
Water engineers in ancient South America turned seasonally flooded Amazonian savannas into hotbeds of year-round maize farming.
Agriculture, History, Archaeology, South America, Ancient Civilizations
60 points by andsoitis 63 days ago | 9 comments
$1M prize offered to decipher 5,300-year-old Indus Valley script (archaeologymag.com)
The government of Tamil Nadu has offered a $1-million reward for anyone who can decode the cryptic script of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), one of the world’s oldest urban cultures.
Archaeology, History, India, Ancient Civilizations, Prizes
30 points by bookofjoe 63 days ago | 1 comments
Archaeologists just mapped a Bronze Age megafortress in Georgia (arstechnica.com)
A sprawling 3,500-year-old fortress offers tantalizing clues about a culture that once dotted the southern Caucasus mountains with similar walled communities.
Archaeology, History, Georgia, Ancient Civilizations, Bronze Age
4 points by thunderbong 84 days ago | 0 comments
Did OpenAI's O1 Decipher the Indus Valley Script? (yashgoenka.com)
A few weeks ago, I had a fascinating conversation with OpenAI's O1 model about decoding the Indus Valley script - one of the world's oldest and still undeciphered writing systems.
Artificial Intelligence, History, Linguistics, Ancient Civilizations
7 points by yashvg 86 days ago | 3 comments
A Visual Guide to the Aztec Pantheon (2022) (pudding.cool)
South American and Mesoamerican civilizations have fascinated me since childhood, when I would watch The Mysterious Cities of Gold.
Art, History, Ancient Civilizations, Mesoamerica
20 points by cromulent 120 days ago | 2 comments
'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost (aljazeera.com)
A ceramicist in Mexico retraces his Maya roots to recreate a long-lost pre-Hispanic pigment for the first time in more than two centuries.
Art, History, Mexico, Color, Ancient Civilizations
5 points by mooreds 122 days ago | 1 comments
Hundreds More Nazca Lines Emerge in Peru's Desert (nytimes.com)
With drones and A.I., researchers managed to double the number of mysterious geoglyphs in a matter of months.
Archaeology, Peru, History, Ancient Civilizations, Technology
33 points by morninj 130 days ago | 22 comments
Psychoacoustic and archeoacoustic nature of ancient Aztec skull whistles (nature.com)
Archaeologists have discovered numerous ceramic or clay whistles at Aztec sites, dubbed "death whistles" because of their distinctive skull shapes.
Archaeology, History, Mexico, Sound, Ancient Civilizations
62 points by tosh 132 days ago | 33 comments
Over 300 New 'Nazca Lines' Geoglyphs Have Been Revealed by AI (thedebrief.org)
AI, Archaeology, Peru, History, Ancient Civilizations
91 points by thunderbong 189 days ago | 32 comments
Temple and theater 3,500 years older than Machu Picchu discovered in Peru (cnn.com)
Archaeology, History, Peru, Ancient Civilizations
64 points by begueradj 264 days ago | 2 comments
The lifespans of ancient civilisations (2019) (bbc.com)
History, Archaeology, Ancient Civilizations, Sociology
17 points by doener 280 days ago | 2 comments
Yupana: The Fibonacci number grid-based calculator of the Incas (2019) (mathematicsmagazine.com)
Mathematics, History, Ancient Civilizations, Fibonacci Sequence
41 points by zdw 285 days ago | 25 comments