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Over 3,000 years ago the Assyrians developed a remarkably advanced underwater technique, as illustrated in this ancient relief. It shows Assyrian soldiers using goatskin bags filled with air to breath (i.redd.it)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by ooli2@lemm.ee to c/archaeology@mander.xyz

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[-] nibbler@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 1 day ago

The garden hose as a snorkel is completely different. The air pressure is at above sea-level pressure, while your lungs are compressed by the weight of the ocean - so depending on your depth.

These bags, as depicted, are also under pressure at roughly the same depth as your lungs. So you can easily breath. It's just that the volume of the air gets smaller as you press the bag under water.

To overcome the force pushing the bag upwards, you can use stones or lead, like scuba divers do. It might be less flexible as the volume of the bag changes with depth in contrary to modern scuba diving equipment. So surely depth will be limited, but it's not as bad as you depict it.

this post was submitted on 20 May 2025

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Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

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