A conspiracy theorist’s YouTube video about how this ancient Greek tombstone represents a laptop more than 2,000 years before personal computers were a thing has resurfaced and gone viral over the weekend.

Obviously, we don’t need to tell you that this is definitely not a laptop, and no, the ancient Greeks did not possess the technology to travel back in time in search of a better way to communicate with the Oracle of Delphi, a divine being. who acted as the official conduit between man and the gods, but what the hell is he?

Currently on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, the marble carving titled “Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant” dates to around 100 BC. C. and possibly comes from Delos, a small island east of mainland Greece with enormous mythological, cultural and archaeological importance.

Measuring 94cm high and over 120cm wide, the carved funerary relief depicts a wealthy woman reclining in an armchair, reaching for an object offered to her by a maid. “The representation of the deceased reaching for an object held by a servant has a long history in Greek funerary art and probably alludes to the hope of continuing earthly pleasures in the afterlife,” the Museum notes.

J. Paul Getty Museum

The official description of the laptop-like item is a “shallow chest,” and even though YouTuber StillSpeakingOut (it sure is) insists that a tourist’s photo taken from a different angle shows the object is too wide and narrow for a jewelry box, American classical archaeologist Dorothy Lobel told Discovery News what we’re all thinking.

The claim is ridiculous as it is clearly a box,” she says.

Another well-known classical archaeologist, Janet Burnett Grossman, told Discovery that the object is probably a flat box or mirror, while others have suggested that it is a wax writing tablet, which was used to record official documents at the time. like birth. certificates

“If we look at other similar representations in Greek art, we can see that a tablet, of the ancient variety, not the modern type, closely resembles a small laptop computer and the object on this tombstone,” writes Kristina Killgrove. for Forbes. “However, it is usually men who are represented with a wax tablet, so why this rich woman? There is also evidence that the goddess Athena is shown with a writing tablet and a stylus, so the association between the wealthy deceased and Athena via a wax tablet makes some sense.”

Red-figure vase by the Douris painter (dated around 500 BC), preserved in the Berlin Museum of Germany. Credit: Ceramics Hobbyist/Wikimedia

Okay, sure, but what’s with those weird USB port holes on the side?

As Killgrove points out, striking holes are not uncommon in ancient Greek sculpture work, as they were sometimes adorned with perishable materials, such as holes drilled into soldiers’ fists or horses’ heads to allow They will add royalist reigns. The box had an elaborately carved wooden face that fit the two holes. “This particular stele shows evidence of reworking,” Killgrove adds. “It was originally a three-sided tombstone, but is now missing the top pediment, the left side wall and an inscription at the bottom. The holes could relate to any of the pieces that are now missing.”

So there you have it: the conspiracy theory that didn’t need to be debunked: debunked.

If nothing else, it’s a good excuse to pay attention to incredibly beautiful and skillful work created by humans more than two millennia ago, and for archaeologists to take time out of their busy day to do a sick burn or two, like this one. by Lobel Rey:

“Any time traveler would know that laptops run on electricity, while the Greeks didn’t have plugs.”

By: https://www.sciencealert.com/people-are-saying-this-ancient-greek-laptop-is-proof-of-time-travel