10 ms·

Eh, so too good to be true.

• griffzhowl 8mo ago
  Yeah, it was quite a compelling story, and it's at least a genuinely beautiful and intriguing tablet. The author Hempsell does have some talent though, in seemingly getting a reputable university to publish his book... I'm thinking he was quite canny in finding this attractive untranslated tablet with little else written about it, and then employing enough knowledge about a combination of different subjects (ancient Sumerian, asteroid orbits, Alpine geology) that no single reviewer was able or motivated to properly evaluate all the arguments. Or he just had a friend at the press.
  • johngossman 8mo ago
    There are true stories that don't involve asteroids but are just as compelling. Anything by Irving Finkel, such as: https://youtu.be/LUxFzh8r384 https://youtu.be/LUxFzh8r384
    • natmaka 8mo ago
      There is software working at - finding correspondences (solve parts of the puzzle) and reconstructing at least part of certain documents ( https://arkeonews.net/new-ai-tool-fragmentarium-brings-ancient-babylonian-texts-together/ https://arkeonews.net/new-ai-tool-fragmentarium-brings-ancie... , https://virtualcuneiform.org/ https://virtualcuneiform.org/ ) - somewhat 'infering' some missing parts ( https://voices.uchicago.edu/ochre/project/deepscribe/ https://voices.uchicago.edu/ochre/project/deepscribe/ ), - 'normalizing' (find the 'standard' form) of glyphs ( https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/03/ai-models-make-precise-copies-cuneiform-characters https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/03/ai-models-make-prec... )
  • deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
  • hbarka 8mo ago
    Erich von Däniken comes to mind.