A laptop in ancient Greece?

It sounds like one of von Däniken’s statements, but true or not the relief that triggers this assumption raises awkward questions.

The sculpture from around 100 BC is exhibited at the Getty Museum in Malibu and labeled as “Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant”. There is nothing wrong with that until you take a closer look. The attendant is holding a shallow box with the attached lid turned upwards and the woman facing her seems to look straight at the lid and not inside the chest.

A modern onlooker automatically will associate the “box” with a laptop, more so because of the two holes on the side of the bottom part reminding us of two USB ports.

It is not surprising that this image triggers the imagination of those believing in aliens and go so far as to connect it to the legend told about the Oracle of Delphi where priests got in touch with supernatural beings to pass along advanced technology and knowledge.

Some historians tend to see this “laptop” as a writing tablet although the woman in question is not holding a stylus to write on it, but then she may simply be reading the message on the tablet. Yet it is being argued that this “laptop” is much thinner than a writing tablet.

There is still a lot we don’t know about antiquity and till we find watertight proof speculations will continue to run high.

Meanwhile, this object reminds me of a similar yet thinner “laptop” I saw a few years ago at the Archaeological Museum of Sophia, Bulgaria, where it was labelled as being a soldier’s diploma. It is composed of two square bronze sheets tied together showing the inscription on the inside of these bronze sheets.

Maybe the lady on the grave relief is reading some message after all?

[The three top pictures are from Daily Mail]