Saturday, June 07, 2014

This Gravestone from 110 B.C. Features a Child Holding What Appears to Be a Laptop


The image above of a Greek marble sculpture surfaced online this week and got a lot of attention on Twitter because it looks like a child showing her mother something on a laptop. Obviously, that wouldn't make since for something that was carved in 110 B.C., unless time travel really does exist and they just aren't telling us.

We did a little digging around the Internet (very little) and found the true, not-as-cool story behind the art. The sculpture is actually a gravestone of a woman and her attendant, and it is a part of the J. Paul Getty Museum's collection.

The Getty's description for the gravestone reads: "Lounging in a cushioned armchair, a woman reaches out to touch the lid of a shallow chest held by a servant girl on this funerary relief. The depiction of the deceased reaching out for an item held by a servant has a long history in Greek funerary art and probably alludes to the hope of continuing earthly pleasures in the afterlife."
We're not sure why a "shallow chest" would need two holes on the side (audio and USB ports, perhaps?) but we guess we have to take their word for it.

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