It must be a remarkably slow news day as some of the world’s biggest and most widespread publications are wasting a lot of digital ink on the notion that the Ancient Greeks were visited by time travelers and given… a laptop.
“Is this ancient Greek statue proof someone took a laptop back in time?” England’s Daily Mail asked in a headline. The story on their website has been shared almost 8,000 times, prompting hundreds of people to comment.
The Daily Mail piece and all the rage it was generated prompted another publication from across the Atlantic to take its own jab at its British cousin… “No, That’s Not A Laptop On An Ancient Greek Grave Marker,” Kristina Killgrove wrote in Forbes.
Apparently the Daily Mail has nothing else to do today, as they’ve scared up a conspiracy theory from 2014 about an ancient Greek funeral stele (grave marker) that some fringe pseudo-archaeologists think shows a laptop computer with USB ports. And since I apparently have nothing better to do this afternoon either, I’m debunking this crazy claim, Killgrove wrote in her column.
Well, news travels fast on the internet and now you have a bunch of Chinese believing that the Ancient Greeks had laptops.
Picking up on the craze, New York Magazine adds its two drachmas: “So you’re telling me the ancient Greeks invented democracy and were pioneers of technological accessories? Truly remarkable.”
The Huffington Post chimed in, as well, explaining that the Ancient Greeks didn’t have wifi in 100 BC, not before they jokingly and hypothetically ask… “The notion of this sculpture featuring a laptop raises all kinds of obvious questions. What did it plug into? Did they have wifi? Netflix and chill? Why a laptop and not an tablet? And where did it come from? Was it made by an ancient Steve Jobs, left behind by a time-traveling Bill Gates or was it a gift from ancient aliens?”
Even the mainstream USA Today, simply with its headline (and we know a lot of people just look at headlines) will leave the impression with millions.
“Does this ancient Greek statue show a laptop with USB ports?” the newspaper headline asked.
Enter Yahoo News, further adding fuel to the conspiracy theorists. Is This Ancient Greek ‘Laptop’ Proof That Time Travel Is Real?
In the book “Greek Funerary Sculpture: Catalogue of the Collections at the Getty Villa,” author Janet Burnett Grossman described the woman in the relief as reaching for “the lid of an open flat box or mirror.”
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