Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Octoparchaeology

Via that doyen of all thing tentacly, PZ Meyers, comes a news story about an Korean octopus fisherman. While trawling for his catch, he pulled up several octopuses with bits of pottery stuck to their tentacles. He didn't pay much attention until one octopus came up holding an entire plate. He took the finds to a local museum, where they were identified as rare 12th century Koryo porcelain. The cephalopods must have been visiting a local shipwreck, although it's not known how they acquired their affinity for fine antiques. Probably they were simply trying to grasp onto anything to avoid being pulled to the surface. Now, octopuses are smart. How long before some enterprising treasure seeker tries to train the critters to fetch objects from the sea floor?

Pedant note: the second article linked refers to pottery "shards." The proper archaeological term when referring to pottery is "sherds," though you can still speak of shards of glass.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its my elementary in good time always to transmit on this forum,well-founded wannat reap some friends here.if its not allowed to transmit on this enter,amuse strike out this thread.Nice to find you!

---------------------------------------------------------------
[url=http://www.sexybags.info/rssrock.html]My designer handabgs[/url]

Anonymous said...

I don't even know the way I finished up right here, however I believed this submit was great. I don't recognize who уοu аrе however ԁefinitelу you're going to a well-known blogger when you aren't alгeady.
Сheers!

my sitе; spinnaker.com.ar

Josh said...

Cancele hoje suas multas de transito do Detran atraves do Recurso online Levei Multa Modelos de Recursos de multa Recorrer multa de trânsito nunca foi tão fácil. Modelos de recursos exclusivos para você recuperar seus pontos da carteira.