Ever since I was a little kid I collected stuff... rocks, bottle caps, marbles, even the matchbooks from weird restaurants and taverns my parents would go. I still collect things, but now OLD things--very old. I have an Egyptian ushabti from about 3000 yrs old; fossil shrimp that are 400 million years old (plus a heap of gorgeous ammonites, trilobites, etc. from dinosaur and pre-dinosaur time). I also have some ancient Greek and Roman coins, plus a few Medieval manuscript pages written by monks in the 1200s.
Why? Because the times these things existed come alive when I touch a Roman coin handled by real people 2000 yrs go. And to heft the weight of an agatized ammonite larger than my handspan, I can visualize this amazing thing zipping through long-vanished oceans next to sea-going reptiles the size of my house. Handling a manuscript inked and embellished 800 years ago in some freezing monastery makes the history of a time and place breath again.
Besides the history, these things are breathtaking in their own right. Some are gems--such as tiny ammonites replaced entirely by pyrite. They look like gold spirals. The coins are hand stamped little pieces of art. And the manuscripts are crafted with devotion and near-impossible precision. Maybe I'm nuts, but I really like my 'old stuff.'
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