Online conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts have made the bizarre claim that an ancient Greek funerary relief sculpture depicts a modern-day electronic laptop computer, and could be proof that time travelers from the twenty-first century visited the ancient Greeks and introduced them to the use of laptop computers.
The bizarre claim[1] was first proposed in a video uploaded to YouTube in June 2014, by online paranormal researcher StillSpeakingOut[2].
The video shows[3] a relief sculpture from the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty villa in Malibu, Los Angeles County, California, that depicts a young girl, presumably a slave girl or a personal servant, holding up a rectangular object with the upper part open like the lid of a small box or chest.
The image is titled[4] "Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant," on the J. Paul Getty Museum website.
According to the website, the sculpture shows a woman "Lounging in a cushioned armchair… [She] reaches out to touch the lid of a shallow chest held by a servant girl."
Although historians claim that the slave girl appears to be holding a small chest, paranormal researchers claim that the funerary sculpture, dated to about 100 B.C., actually shows the slave or servant girl of a Greek lady holding up a laptop computer while the lady views the monitor.
According to paranormal researchers, the laptop is an "out-of-place artifact" (OOPArt[5]) that provides evidence that time travelers from the future visited the ancient Greeks and brought laptop computers with them.
The YouTube paranormal researcher StillSpeakingOut, claims that the sculpture "depicts an astonishing object which bears a striking resemblance with a modern laptop or some hand-held device."
He responds to skeptics who claim that the sculpture shows a lady's vanity case or her jewel box, by pointing out that, "In another picture taken by a random tourist from a better angle we can see that the object is wide with a structure too narrow to be a jewel box."
Ancient Greek funerary relief sculpture shows woman with a laptop computer, according to conspiracy theorists [Image via J. Paul Getty[6] Museum/Open Content Program[7]]Conspiracy theorists also refutes skeptics who claim that the sculpture could depict a scene from the mythical Greek story of Pandora's Box[8], saying that the object in the sculpture "does not match the depictions of the mythical Pandora's Box" in other examples of ancient Greek art. Some skeptics claim that the object is a wax tablet, that is, a wax-coated device that ancient Greeks used for writing with a stylus or pen. But paranormal investigators argue that the object depicted in the sculpture does not match depictions of wax tablets in other examples of Greek art.
StillSpeakingOut, for instance, points out that the object shown in the relief sculpture is much thinner than wax tablets shown in other Greek paintings and sculptures. He also points out that the lady is not holding a stylus as in other ancient Greek depictions of people using a wax tablet (see image below).
Vase painting shows ancient Greek man writing with stylus on wax tablet (c. 500 B.C.) [Image via Wikimedia Commons[9]]The image above shows a vase painting from around 500 B.C. The painting depicts a man with a wax tablet. Note that the man is holding a stylus used for writing on wax tablets while the woman in the sculpture is not holding one. It is also clear that the man's attention is focused on the horizontal surface of the device, on which he writes with the stylus and not on the vertical surface like the lady in the relief sculpture.
Paranormal investigators also argue that strong evidence that the box is not a vanity case, a jewel box, or a wax tablet, but a modern-day electronic laptop computer, comes from the depiction of cable and USB ports in the side of the object.
The holes in the side of the device do not appear in ancient Greek depictions of objects such as ladies' vanity cases, jewel boxes, or wax tablets, paranormal investigators insist.
A laptop computer with cable ports [Image via Shutterstock]As noted previously, the lady's attention is focused on the inner face of the lid of the object, where computer monitors are located. In fact, the woman appears to be using the monitor like a touchscreen device, with her finger touching the face of the lid, conspiracy theorists claim. StillSpeakingOut goes on to argue that ancient Greek traditions about the Oracle of Delphi[10] that the priestesses had magical devices that connected them to the gods suggest they were connected to an Internet facility provided by technologically advanced aliens from space, or time travelers who visited them from the future.
According to the paranormal investigator, "When I look at the sculpture and think about Greek tales about the Oracle of Delphi which was supposed to allow the priests to connect with the gods and retrieve advanced information of various aspects, I can't help but think that Erich von Däniken had been right all this time and that most of these myths of magical artifacts given by the gods to a very restricted group of individuals in ancient civilizations were high-tech devices similar to what we have today."
Erich von Daniken[11] was a Swiss writer who claimed that extraterrestrials influenced ancient cultures and civilizations and that alien races helped early civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt, to achieve early technical sophistication.
[Image via J. Paul Getty[12] Museum/Open Content Program[13]]
References
- ^ claim (www.express.co.uk)
- ^ StillSpeakingOut (www.youtube.com)
- ^ shows (www.getty.edu)
- ^ titled (www.getty.edu)
- ^ OOPArt (en.wikipedia.org)
- ^ Getty (www.getty.edu)
- ^ Open Content Program (www.getty.edu)
- ^ Pandora's Box (ancienthistory.about.com)
- ^ Wikimedia Commons (en.wikipedia.org)
- ^ Oracle of Delphi (en.wikipedia.org)
- ^ Erich von Daniken (www.daniken.com)
- ^ Getty (www.getty.edu)
- ^ Open Content Program (www.getty.edu)
