Ranked

Surprisingly Popular Archaic Technologies, Ranked

Surprisingly Popular Archaic Technologies, Ranked
Wax Figure Princess Diana, Panoptikum Hamburg, by Mark Michaelis via Flickr.

Angela Bassett's Waxen Likeness Has Gone Viral

  1. Wax figures

The viral response to Angela Bassett's quite good new Madame Tussauds waxen likeness (along with Jennifer Hudson and Tiffany Haddish's okay ones) has injected new life into the practice of wax modelling sculpture, a medium used by the Ancient Egyptians in funeral rites. In the age of Artificial Intelligence this charming material combines ephemerality (could melt) with temporary, wrong-feeling motionlessness.

  1. Meaningful fist clench
"Drinking cup in the shape of a fist Central Turkey, Hittite, probably reign of Tudhaliyas III, about 1400-1380 B.C. Silver" (via Wikimedia Commons).

  1. Passive aggression
Figure with strap, 2nd-3rd millennium BCE (via Wikimedia Commons).

  1. Ankle boots
English: Ancient Greek pair of terracotta boots. Early geometric period cremation burial of a woman, 900 BC. Ancient Agora Museum in Athens. (via Wikimedia Commons).
Photo by Andrew Neel via Pexels.

Jo Livingstone