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from the Who-knew-The-Italian-Stallion-could-translate-ancient-texts?-"Stele!" dept.
Archaeologists in Turkey Have Uncovered a Mysterious Ancient Kingdom Lost in History:
Last year, archaeologists were investigating an ancient mound site in central Turkey called Türkmen-Karahöyük. The greater region, the Konya Plain, abounds with lost metropolises, but even so, researchers couldn't have been prepared for what they were about to find.
[...] With the aid of translators, the researchers found that the hieroglyphs on this ancient stone block – called a stele – boasted of a military victory. And not just any military victory, but the defeat of Phrygia, a kingdom of Anatolia that existed roughly 3,000 years ago.
The royal house of Phrygia was ruled by a few different men called Midas, but dating of the stele, based on linguistic analysis, suggests the block's hieroglyphics could be referring to the King Midas – he of the famous 'golden touch' myth.
The stone markings also contained a special hieroglyphic symbolising that the victory message came from another king, a man called Hartapu. The hieroglyphs suggest Midas was captured by Hartapu's forces.
[...] What's significant about this is that almost nothing is known about King Hartapu, nor about the kingdom he ruled. Nonetheless, the stele suggests the giant mound of Türkmen-Karahöyük may have been Hartapu's capital city, spanning some 300 acres in its heyday, the heart of the ancient conquest of Midas and Phrygia.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snotnose on Wednesday July 01 2020, @12:12AM (5 children)
Back in the 80s the gf and I went to southern Mexico, flying into Merida, driving to Chitzen Itza, then to Uxmal, finally to Cancun and Cozumel. I did not want to visit the ruins, it was her idea.
We get to Chitzen Itza, something happened. It was way cool. At night (we spent the night there) they had a sound/light show. Very, very cool. Keep in mind I don't have a spiritual bone in my body.
Anywhoo, we drove to Uxmal (and spent the night). Again, very cool, and another really cool sound and light show. We spent more time than planned at Uxmal, I was really into it. There I heard about a place called Kabah, which wasn't too far out of our way. Drove up, it was a pile of dirt. Got out, walked around, and on the backside they were digging something out of the dirt. Way cool.
Plane tickets set schedules, so off to Cancun via Merida we went. Grabbed some flyers, and "Hey, more ruins are a day trip!". Her: "We. Are. Not. Seeing. Any. More. Ruins."
Over the next 10 years I saw all the ruins in Mexico. Was planning to hit Costa Rica and places south (Macchu Picchu anybody?). Then I met my wife, who had no interest in traveling outside of the country.
3 unrelated stories
1) In Merida there was a local beer you could not get anywhere else; as in Chitzen Itza nor Uxmal. Very very tasty. This was 10-15 years before craft beers showed up in the US.
2) Flying out of Cancun to Cozumel there was a crashed airplane at the end of the runway. Guessing it had been there 6 months or so. Not what you want to see as you take off in a puddle jumper.
3) In Cozumel we rented mopeds. Ran across a couple hot chicks in bikinis (not kidding, nor exaggerating here) next to a dead VW bug. My everloving GF said "Snot here is really good with cars, bet he can fix it". I have no tools. I opened the back hood and poked around while my GF talked to them. Lo and behold, the distributor cap had somehow come loose. I re-attached it, said "try it now", car started, and off they went. The GF thought I was some kind of mechanical god after that.
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:12AM (2 children)
Haha we rented a VW bug in Playa del Carmen to drive to the ruins at Coba in the middle of the Yucatan. The wash griddle roads vibrated the poor vehicle so much that one by one the mirrors fell off, then the knobs on the radio, the window handle, the inner door handle on the passenger side. When we turned the car back in at the end of the day we handed them the keys with one hand and a bag of parts with the other.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:11AM (1 child)
A car rental bloke in Peru had to try three for us before he could get one to start.
We thought, what's the worst that could happen? If it breaks down we'll just make Carl fix it.
It broke down and Carl fixed it before lunchtime. I think it was running better when we turned it in actually.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @03:12AM
A 60s-70s race circuit driver used to rent a car to get around while in town for a race. He always drove rentals in 1st gear only. One day the engine seized on a highway and ripped it along with the transmission out of the car. He was banned from rentals.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 01 2020, @03:44AM
I did a similar Yucatan trip with a friend around 1986, the caves are cool - literally, good break if you're there in the summer like we were.
Unrelated: was in a rental van with a coworker and it started to stall out as we headed for the hotel from BFE just around sunset. Initiated the formal "call the company for help" protocol, but after about 2 minutes into waiting for the 90+ minute cavalry to arrive we decided to take a look under the hood - an apparently important intake hose had come loose, reattached and running as good as ever in less than 60 seconds under the hood.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 1) by jelizondo on Wednesday July 01 2020, @06:05AM
Sorry pal, I think you wanted to post to the Maya [soylentnews.org] thread and not here.
Turkey, see, it's kind of between Europe and Asia, the Maya were right around the Gulf of Mexico, in the Yucatan peninsula, kind of the other side of world.
Just sayin'