Monday Cup Of Links #47 - Mountain Cat, Woman Warriors, Street Fights
And 7th Century University.
Happy Monday, and happy Bay Area Lockdown Anniversary!
I woke up three hours ago to write this post (and get a few other things done), and I’m finally writing this after a feed, a diaper change, rocking to sleep, another feed and a diaper change, and another bout of rocking to sleep.
I’m honestly rethinking if a Monday Cup Of Links is what I want to do anymore, because every task in my life is competing against a screaming baby. I do enjoy writing a summary of all the random internet stuff I come across. But I’m actually not reading as many random articles from the internet as I used to. Or at least, I’m not reading interesting enough stuff. Previously, I used to spend some time everyday going through all the links I bookmarked, but now I barely even bookmark anything.
This is actually kind of an issue, because it’s been a while since I dug deep about something. It’s a completely different mindset to be digging deep into a topic. It gives you this confidence that you actually know what you’re talking about, clears the clutter in your brain, and you can discuss the topic from all angles. It’s been a while since I felt able to do that, even on topics I’ve been writing about on here.
But now I have a whole bunch of bookmarks I haven’t talked about much or shared in a while, so here we go!
They found a 4000 year old burial site in Sanauli in Haryana. The site has chariots, and swords. And the thing that’s making the airwaves is woman warriors buried there with full honors. The civilization here is thought to be a contemporary of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. This is very exciting. Discovery Plus has made a documentary titled Secrets of Sanauli, which has Manoj Bajpai as the host/narrator. I tried to watch this online, on the Discovery Plus app, and somehow couldn’t find it on there at all! Anyone else had any luck watching this?
Very close to Sanauli is Baghpat (which is also a site of the same civilization), where there are now famous warriors of a different kind. This rather dramatic fight between chaat vendors has been going viral on social media, sparking memes and lots of love for the fighter with the wild, red hair. Here’s a meme roundup. And here’s the same fight, but with lightsabers.
I saw this piece in the NYT about a cat being etched into the mountainside 2000 years ago in Peru. The article links to this story where Greenpeace activists left footprints near a similarly etched hummingbird design, angering the people of Peru. What, is this a thing? Turns out, it is. It’s called the Nazca Lines, a bunch of designs made between 500 BCE and 500 CE. This kind of etching is called a geoglyph. There’s hundreds of these etchings in the Nazca desert, spread around 50 square miles. Why were they made? There’s many explanations, including rituals, bringing water, stargazing, or for the Gods to view them from the sky. I personally think it’s the kind of thing people did back when there was no Internet to amuse themselves.
They found and excavated Telhara University, that’s about a day’s journey from the ruins of Nalanda University. Hiuen Tsang mentions and describes this university in his travelogue around India, and describes a three-storeyed hall, a prayer room, and a platform to seat a 1000 monks! And they finally found that structure! It’s an exciting time to be in archaeology in India.
GIF of the week: Jellyfish resin.