On Apr 12, 2009, at 1:27 PM, Vaj wrote:
I read a book several years ago on technology in the middle ages and
what we now know, as compared to just 50 years ago, has quite
changed. It turns out a lot of Arabic technology and innovation came
from China, as a spur off the silk road came into that region. It's
only recently thanks to a British institute that collects
accumulated wisdom and western contacts with China that this has
come to light. This would have been at the then eastern border of
the Roman empire. It turns out the Arabs were mainly great
transmitters of knowledge they'd received. Another huge source was
India--Baghdad itself was designed by sthapatis
Cosmic .
-- there was actually an old Sanskrit university in Mesopotamia.
But having said that one of the greatest ancient civilizations would
have to be the Achaemenid Empire.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about them.
My first guess on the troubadours would have been pagan survivals
like the scholares vagantes,
Vaj, just out of idle curiosity, do you ever get
tired of showing off arcane factoids or
bringing up crap that serves little purpose
except to maybe miff everyone? Are we
supposed to be impressed by your grasp
of endless historical and spiritual trivia?
OK, we're impressed. You can put away
the Cliff's Notes now.
the wandering scholars who used to sing Latin poetry and teach
forbidden pagan classics. That or Celtic civilization. In any event
it seems, much like alchemy, to be a pre-Christian survival.
