23 points

So, after seeing this I ended up searching about how good is wood preservation with age:

Normally, when wood is buried it decays rapidly. However, if the burial environment is very wet it can be preserved for centuries. Bacteria and fungi will still degrade the wood, but when the oxygen supply is limited - under wet or waterlogged conditions - this process is much slower than in the air or in a well aerated soil. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/what-is-designation/heritage-highlights/wood-survive-underground-for-thousands-of-years

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19 points

ok. i’ll be the first to ask. if they replace the blade, is it the same axe?

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11 points

The Ship of Theseus would like a word.

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7 points

“Say you have an ax - just a cheap one from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don’t worry - the man’s already dead. Maybe you should worry, ‘cause you’re the one who shot him.”… “And you’re chopping off his head because even with eight bullet holes in him, you’re pretty sure he’s about to spring back to his feet and eat the look of terror right off your face.”

"On the last swing, the handle splinters. You now have a broken ax. So you go to the hardware store, explaining away the dark reddish stains on the handle as barbeque sauce. The repaired ax sits undisturbed in your house until the next spring when one rainy morning, a strange creature appears in your kitchen. So you grab your trusty ax and chop the thing into several pieces. On the last blow, however - Of course, a chipped head means yet another trip to the hardware store.

As soon as you get home with your newly headed ax, though… You meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded last year, only he’s got a new head stitched on with what looks like plastic weed-trimmer line and wears that unique expression of you’re-the-man-who-killed-me-last-winter resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life.

So you brandish your ax. “That’s the ax that slayed me,” he rasps.

Is he right?"

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2 points

Not even a little bit.

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1 point

I agree with that, actually. Would you like to explain why?

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12 points

Very cool, but something something watery tarts throwing hatchets does not kings make or whatever

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4 points

May be a better method than the electoral college in the states though.

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2 points

I’m a fan of ranked choice voting, and there are some other ideas floating around.

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7 points

Someone went and buried the hatchet, and now a 10,000 year old grudge has been unearthed.

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5 points

“Let’s dig up the hatchet”

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Historical Artifacts

!historyartifacts@lemmy.world

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Just a community for everyone to share artifacts, reconstructions, or replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!

Generally, an artifact should be 100+ years old, but this is a flexible requirement if you find something rare and suitably linked to an era of history, not a strict rule. Anything over 100 is fair game regardless of rarity.

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