Well, the mummification of the corpses was a counter-indicator of the episode's "meanwhile, two thousand years ago..." approach. They should have been nothing but dust after all that time exposed to the elements.
Inara: You don't have to die alone. Mal: Everybody dies alone.
'Out Of Gas'
Lost 2: Tied to a Tree in a Jungle of Mystery
[NAFDA] This is where we talk about the show! Anything that's aired in the US (including promos) is fair game. No spoilers though -- if you post one by accident, an admin will delete it.
Hayden - May 13, 2010 9:19:11 am PDT #5708 of 5968
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
-t - May 13, 2010 9:22:16 am PDT #5709 of 5968
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I'm getting that "several thousand years" from the interview Cindy linked, btw. Probably should have contextualized that when I brought it up.
sumi - May 13, 2010 9:29:48 am PDT #5710 of 5968
Art Crawl!!!
While the Allison Janney character may have been there for a couple of thousand years, I really didn't think that the boys had been. I mean, when did Spanish develop as a language separate from Latin and whatever the original Spanish people spoke?
On the other hand, I think that the Island has too many time oddities to make a straightforward chronology possible.
le nubian - May 13, 2010 9:37:09 am PDT #5711 of 5968
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
The wiki page on Senet (the board game that appeared) has some very interesting details about the game and its significance:
It was found in graves dating from about 1500BC. Thing is, where the game and Latin would coexist would be closer to 400 BC, IMO. I'm not sure the game was around for those thousand years in between though.
-t - May 13, 2010 9:44:10 am PDT #5712 of 5968
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
On the other hand, I think that the Island has too many time oddities to make a straightforward chronology possible.
That's a good point. Once the donkey wheel was built, who knows what might have happened.
If Allison Janney really did leave the Senet board for the kid to find, it wouldn't have to be contemporaneous with the ship people. She could have had it for a long time.
Were they speaking Spanish? I thought so initially, but my ear for languages is atrocious
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - May 13, 2010 9:47:01 am PDT #5713 of 5968
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
Were they speaking Spanish? I thought so initially, but my ear for languages is atrocious
I thought it was Latin. It wasn't Spanish as far as I could hear - but then my Spanish is basic.
Reading up on the game of senet. It's thought to be the ancestor of backgammon. Huh.
Dana - May 13, 2010 9:56:44 am PDT #5714 of 5968
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."
I'm pretty sure it was Latin. Or, at least, it was supposed to be Latin, though some of the pronunciation might have been dubious.
Theodosia - May 13, 2010 10:03:10 am PDT #5715 of 5968
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
Latin was a lingua franca for a long time, too. "CJ" could have been around since ancient days, and had it for her native language, until Claudia was shipwrecked in more modern times....
(My roommate's uncle, a nice Irish Catholic boy from Boston, was with a lost patrol in WWII Algeria, and was able to get aid & directions from a small mission of native Catholic nuns... the only language they had in common was Church Latin.)
erin_obscure - May 14, 2010 2:42:03 am PDT #5716 of 5968
Occasionally I’m callous and strange
they were speaking Latin before switching to English...i can only assume for our ease in understanding. Or maybe that was when the realized they both spoke and understood the same language? Up till the last century everyone with an education learned Latin as a base, so educated folks from all over the world could communicate to an extent via Latin even if they didn't share a spoken language.
Claudia's garment and hair were pretty darned Hellenistic, so i'd buy 400BC for Jacob's birth-era.
eta: heh, maybe i should have read all the comments. Bit of an overlap.
-t - May 15, 2010 3:21:37 pm PDT #5717 of 5968
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
There's discussion in Lightbulbs about setting an end date for this thread. Go and discuss if you have an opinion (maybe even if you don't).