What is the West? Is Greece part of the West?

[Razgovory]

It's really remarkable how little of the classical world survives.  People considered luminaries in their time have their entire work lost to us.  Even famous thinkers like Aristotle have lost works.  Hell, whole fields of endeavor are lost.  The Greeks had great painters you know.  Not just on pottery and mosaics. They painted on wood rather then canvas.  They had their great masters and artists in the field.  How much of that survives?  Almost none.  A half dozen commercial portraits have been found in Egypt, where the tombs and dry air preserved them.  We know they had some painters of great renown, and we even know a few names.  But of their work nothing is known.

[Siege]

It's really remarkable how little of the classical world survives.  People considered luminaries in their time have their entire work lost to us.  Even famous thinkers like Aristotle have lost works.  Hell, whole fields of endeavor are lost.  The Greeks had great painters you know.  Not just on pottery and mosaics. They painted on wood rather then canvas.  They had their great masters and artists in the field.  How much of that survives?  Almost none.  A half dozen commercial portraits have been found in Egypt, where the tombs and dry air preserved them.  We know they had some painters of great renown, and we even know a few names.  But of their work nothing is known.

Not even the dust of our bones will remains.
I wonder how much of our glorious technological civilization would survive if humans were to disappear, or civilization to collapse, or what-have-you.

[Tonitrus]

You can see how much is left of the dinosaur civilization.

[HVC]

If there's ever another dark age all our information will be lost. Try to get information off a cd or thumb drive without know how a computer works.

[crazy canuck]

It's really remarkable how little of the classical world survives.  People considered luminaries in their time have their entire work lost to us.  Even famous thinkers like Aristotle have lost works.  Hell, whole fields of endeavor are lost.  The Greeks had great painters you know.  Not just on pottery and mosaics. They painted on wood rather then canvas.  They had their great masters and artists in the field.  How much of that survives?  Almost none.  A half dozen commercial portraits have been found in Egypt, where the tombs and dry air preserved them.  We know they had some painters of great renown, and we even know a few names.  But of their work nothing is known.

Yes, the Christian mob has much to answer for.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It's really remarkable how little of the classical world survives.  People considered luminaries in their time have their entire work lost to us.  Even famous thinkers like Aristotle have lost works.  Hell, whole fields of endeavor are lost.  The Greeks had great painters you know.  Not just on pottery and mosaics. They painted on wood rather then canvas.  They had their great masters and artists in the field.  How much of that survives?  Almost none.  A half dozen commercial portraits have been found in Egypt, where the tombs and dry air preserved them.  We know they had some painters of great renown, and we even know a few names.  But of their work nothing is known.

it's the "law" of archaeology: about 10% survives, the rest is lost. Mobs, disasters, decay, etc... It takes a massive bite out of what once was. And it seems to be more or les consistent through the ages if you exclude methods of data-storage. Once there's a decent ay of massproducing printed works at least that segment sees a better survival rate. But much is still lost.

[Razgovory]

I imagine it's related to how far back you go.  I suspect we know much more about England in the high middle Ages then we do about Classical Rome.

[Tamas]

It's really remarkable how little of the classical world survives.  People considered luminaries in their time have their entire work lost to us.  Even famous thinkers like Aristotle have lost works.  Hell, whole fields of endeavor are lost.  The Greeks had great painters you know.  Not just on pottery and mosaics. They painted on wood rather then canvas.  They had their great masters and artists in the field.  How much of that survives?  Almost none.  A half dozen commercial portraits have been found in Egypt, where the tombs and dry air preserved them.  We know they had some painters of great renown, and we even know a few names.  But of their work nothing is known.

Yes, the Christian mob has much to answer for.

[Sheilbh]

There's still the unopened library in Pompeii which could contain a lot more.

[The Brain]

There's still the unopened library in Pompeii which could contain a lot more.

Maybe. Has any library card been found?

[Razgovory]

It's really remarkable how little of the classical world survives.  People considered luminaries in their time have their entire work lost to us.  Even famous thinkers like Aristotle have lost works.  Hell, whole fields of endeavor are lost.  The Greeks had great painters you know.  Not just on pottery and mosaics. They painted on wood rather then canvas.  They had their great masters and artists in the field.  How much of that survives?  Almost none.  A half dozen commercial portraits have been found in Egypt, where the tombs and dry air preserved them.  We know they had some painters of great renown, and we even know a few names.  But of their work nothing is known.

Yes, the Christian mob has much to answer for.

Julius Caesar: Crypto Christian time traveler.

[garbon]

It's really remarkable how little of the classical world survives.  People considered luminaries in their time have their entire work lost to us.  Even famous thinkers like Aristotle have lost works.  Hell, whole fields of endeavor are lost.  The Greeks had great painters you know.  Not just on pottery and mosaics. They painted on wood rather then canvas.  They had their great masters and artists in the field.  How much of that survives?  Almost none.  A half dozen commercial portraits have been found in Egypt, where the tombs and dry air preserved them.  We know they had some painters of great renown, and we even know a few names.  But of their work nothing is known.

Actually I find it amazing that so much has survived given the turmoil and strife of the past millenia. We're looking at times when we didn't have as many preservation efforts as we have today.