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May 04, 2004
Dunhuang star map
One of the most mind-numbingly boring rhetorical devices employed by archaeology reporting is how much older and wiser Chinese/Egyptian/pick one/etc. civilization is than the European version. Take this Independent article trumpeting the "supremacy of early Chinese astronomy", for example.
This makes the chart several centuries older than the first star maps produced in Europe during the height of the Renaissance when astronomy benefited from the invention of the telescope. The chart is written on paper - a Chinese invention - and is a representation of the complete sky with some 1,585 stars grouped into 257 clusters or "asterisms".
Paper, a Chinese invention! The article omits the heroic invention of pasta and ice cream. There is a peculiar racism in projecting a romantic mythicized past onto peoples I suspect this article's author knows next to nothing about.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at May 4, 2004 10:29 AM
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Comments
In its defense, I suspect it's a counter to the "By damn, these wogs are primative sorts -- we must take the God-given products of our Cradle of Civilization and educate them, by damn" attitude taken by many a century or two back.
Not that it's any better, mind you.
Posted by: *** Dave at May 4, 2004 11:33 AM