In a disturbing story, a Korean man fishing for octopus brought several aboard that were clinging to some pottery shards, which led to the discovery of rare 12th century Korean bowls left on the sea floor by a shipwreck.
No word on whether the guardian cephalopods were going to receive a cut of the loot, or even whether they were given a reprieve from being served up for dinner.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
In the early 15th century, Imperial Chinese mariners under the eunuch admiral Zheng He made great voyages of discovery in enormous ships. Then the Hongxi Emperor decided that what they had found on far shores was underwhelming, the whole fleet was scuppered and the Chinese paid no further attention…
Re-run from 22 December 2005.
The Viking Period was a funny time, only three centuries long, leaving a huge footprint in terms of ideas and archaeology. Speakers of Scandinavian languages lived mainly in the fertile southern third of Scandinavia, most of them being subsistence farmers. The…
In a rare treat on the usually quiet and contemplative Island of Doubt, I now bring you the 12th edition of the Carnival of the Blue, a celebration of all things wet and wonderful. Islands are only islands, after all, if they're surrounded by water.
Hong Kong, for example, is what it is because of…
The giant cephalopods (squids and octopuses) of the deep sea have captured the imagination for centuries. But despite our fascination with these creatures, they are still enigmas, their behaviour illuminated only by the occasional lucky video or the presence of scars on animals they fight with. For…
That is disturbing. I've been keeping six octopodes on staff for three months now and they've never brought up anything of value.
"Hoard". Unless there were a heck of a lot of bowls.
Those are very nice-looking bowls, a very fine glaze, considering they've been on the bottom of the sea for 800 years.
Has it occurred to anyone that those might have been the cephalopod equivalents of creationists? Perhaps they were spreading the lie in the Octopus' Garden that those pottery pieces were really mollusks. They destroyed those ancient relics for their silly superstitions. They don't deserve a cut; they should be sharing a cell with Kent Hovind.
;-D
octupus and pirate treasure?
The octopuses themselves were the pirates, as all Pastafarians know, there is a correlation between number of pirates and global warming, so this is a real blow to the environment.
Pah, a disgrace to their species; they deserve to be calamarized. Any proper Tentacled Guardian of Ancient Treasure would have dragged the interloping fishermen screaming from their boat and strangled them. You just can't get good help these days.
In Korea, there is a tradition of eating live octopus. I prefer a salad, with lemon and olive oil, oregano..mmmm..
Far be it from me that I should dispell the romantic and adventurous notion of an ancient shipwreck, but isn't it far more likely that a box of wares just fell over the side of the boat?
Nah, just more proof of the Flood...
"Pharyngula"...aka Prof. Myers... if no on else sees it, which I am certain more than one blogger does, you have a heart of gold. Recognizing once history is lost (whether it be entwined in tentacles or a ship's anchor), a piece of history is lost and/or open for misinterpretation (which loses humanity). I almost feel a funeral for what has been, and what can never be.
How come I own a plate for a week and after one run through the dishwasher it comes out chipped and scoured, yet if I'd chucked it into the sea 800 years ago it'd come out looking spanking new?
Nobody has asked why the octopuses were clinging to the pottery shards. I propose that this fishing expedition has decimated a cephalopod tool using culture. Shame on them.
I'm with #13 on this - isn't it obvious that the reason why the "800 year old" bowls are so shiny is because they're recent products of a sophisticated pottery making OCTOPUS CULTURE?
Isn't it?
Anyone?
Hello...?
Actually GodlessHeathen (#6), if you had read the Gospel of the FSM more closely, it states that there is an inverse relationship beween number of pirates and global warming, so this actually bodes well for our environment.