Questions from my Networks list

[minoanmiss]

1) What is the oldest thing you own?

xiphias and his wife gave me a potsherd, from an archaeological dig, that is about 5000 years old. I love it. I keep it kind of tucked away but every so often I look at it and think of the hands that shaped it and the people who used it.

2) What is the oldest home you've lived in?

Despite going to the country's oldest university I lived in their newer buildings for the most part. Maybe Dunster House, which is about 100 years old IIRC?


3) What is the oldest book you've read?
In terms of text, Gilgamesh. Go Shamhat go!
In terms of physical book -- one benefit of going to said Oldest University was getting to handle a few books from the 1700s and more from the 1800s on all manner of topics.


4) What is the oldest electronic device that you still use?

My stereo is largely a desk riser these days, so probably the household TV (though technically I don't own that.)


5) What is the oldest work of art/architecture that you've seen?

With my own eyes? The MFA has Egyptian art going back to the 5th Millennium BCE, and I love it. See my comments about my potsherd.

Comments

[just_ann_now]

Oh, gosh, I miss the MFA. The year I was at Emmanuel College I had a student pass and was there all the time, and still never got to see it all!

[ororo]

Neat! I don't have anything that's older than the 20th century. Oldest home was a Victorian (we had the top floor) in Salt Lake City. Oldest book is parts of the Old Testament. Oldest device is an iPad Air. Oldest work of art/architecture? I'm not sure. Possibly some of DaVinci's sketches and notes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Oldest artifacts, I think would be Roman coins at the Chicago Art Institute.

Intersting things to contemplate.

[kore]

Aww, that's like the perfect present for you.

[baranduin]

It's Gilgamesh for me too :-)

[stranger]

Oldest things I own are a few of my grandmothers' pieces -- thimbles, jewellry, about 100 years old.
Houses -- all post-war, 1950s or later.
I've read Gilgamesh (on 20th-century paper); but have handled and translated (um, inexpertly) a 1500s vellum music manuscript for one class in college.
Electronics... my printer is 8 years old. Most devices have been replaced more recently.
Have seen and walked through the Chinese architecture exhibits at Royal Ontario Museum, which include things from 300 BCE.

[cappyhead]

1. A piece of petrified wood. I don't know how old it is.
2. The house I owned in Philadelphia, it was probably built in 1912-ish.
3. Beowulf? I vaguely remember reading it in high school.
4. I have a metallic pink Walkman from around 1988. It doesn't work, but it's so cute that I've held onto it. I recently dug it out of a storage bin. I now keep it on my desk. It looks like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/SONY-WM-20-Cassette-Player-Walkman-Pink-From-Personal-Collection-/174243283854
5. I've been to Greece and the island of Delos, so probably something there, or something in a museum.