this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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Historical Artifacts

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Just a community for everyone to share artifacts, reconstructions, or replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!

Generally, an artifact should be 100+ years old, but this is a flexible requirement if you find something rare and suitably linked to an era of history, not a strict rule. Anything over 100 is fair game regardless of rarity.

Generally speaking, ruins should go to !historyruins@lemmy.world

Illustrations of the past should go to !historyillustrations@lemmy.world

Photos of the past should go to !HistoryPorn@lemmy.world

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[–] PugJesus 14 points 1 month ago

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/birch-bark-letters-001806

One of the reasons the birch bark manuscripts were so important in re-evaluating the literacy rates of medieval Novgorod is because birch bark is not particularly valuable or durable, making it a poor trade good. Amongst other factors, that suggests that the use of birch bark was predominantly by the poor and lower middle class, who would ordinarily be expected to be illiterate.

Fascinating stuff!