On 5/22/12 7:11 AM, Rob H. wrote:

"mbuck" wrote in message
...
I'd be very curious about what estate sale this was found at. As Steve
mentions, they usually don't go missing from their temples, often
staying in use for hundreds of years until they are in far worse
shape than this one. There has been a serious problem of artifacts
going missing from temples in Tibet as the Chinese government has
been absorbing the culture and society there, but until recently it
would have been particularly hard for a westerner to have obtained
something like this, unless they happened upon it in a market in China.

If we knew the estate that was selling it, its origins might be
traceable. A lot of 'acquired' artifacts are actually looted items
that fell into circulation, and many altruistic people have been
returning such things. If this is an estate sale because of the death
of the owner, it might be a good item to be tapped for return.



I heard back from the owner, they sound enthused about doing some
research and returning the item if it is actually a missing temple block.

Here is the result of striking it with a stick:

"It really has no resonance when hit with a stick, just sounds like
hitting a wood stump."

They didn't remember seeing any other artifacts at the estate sale that
would suggest travel to Asian countries. They also said that they would
keep me updated on any other developments.


If an English baby was born in February of 1751, the local parish would
list his DOB as 1750. The Julian calendar wasn't synced with the solar
year; so farmers started their year at the spring equinox.

The equinoxes are the simplest ways to check the solar year because they
are the two days of the year when sunrise and sunset are 180 degrees
out. Telling time this way goes back more than 4,000 years. Many
countries did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until the 20th Century.
In those cultures, instruments to find equinoxes may have been common
even 100 years ago.

If you look at a post about 3.5" in diameter with both eyes open, it
should just block the setting sun when you are about 5 feet away. At
that distance, a degree would be about an inch, big enough for accurate
measurements using a plumb bob on pavement.

The brightness of the sun might reduce the accuracy of sighting. Using
a "ball" with a 3/8" slit around a 3.5" core may have made sighting more
accurate. I wonder if the bone spacers were for storage, to prevent
warping so that the slit remained at 3/8" on all sides.

Standing about 5 feet away so the core just blocked the setting sun, you
would hold a plumb bob a couple of feet in front of your face so that
your two eyes would see the string against each side of the ball. You'd
let the point of the plumb bob touch the pavement and read your exact
azimuth according to marks on the pavement. The ball would have to hang
over an exact point but would not have to be aligned like a compass. I
think the marks on the ball were charts, to convert the azimuth to the
day of the solar year.

If an English baby was born in February of 1751, the local parish would
list his DOB as 1750. The Julian calendar wasn't synced with the solar
year; so farmers started their year at the spring equinox.

The equinoxes are the simplest ways to check the solar year because they
are the two days of the year when sunrise and sunset are 180 degrees out.
Telling time this way goes back more than 4,000 years. Many countries did
not adopt the Gregorian calendar until the 20th Century. In those
cultures, instruments to find equinoxes may have been common even 100
years ago.

If you look at a post about 3.5" in diameter with both eyes open, it
should just block the setting sun when you are about 5 feet away. At that
distance, a degree would be about an inch, big enough for accurate
measurements using a plumb bob on pavement.

The brightness of the sun might reduce the accuracy of sighting. Using a
"ball" with a 3/8" slit around a 3.5" core may have made sighting more
accurate. I wonder if the bone spacers were for storage, to prevent
warping so that the slit remained at 3/8" on all sides.

Standing about 5 feet away so the core just blocked the setting sun, you
would hold a plumb bob a couple of feet in front of your face so that your
two eyes would see the string against each side of the ball. You'd let
the point of the plumb bob touch the pavement and read your exact azimuth
according to marks on the pavement. The ball would have to hang over an
exact point but would not have to be aligned like a compass. I think the
marks on the ball were charts, to convert the azimuth to the day of the
solar year.


Interesting theory, not sure how we could prove it one way or the other but
I'll pass it on to the owner.