This was just assigned to my US History 2 class, and I've been thinking about it. I think it's probably either an oil lamp that was my grandfather's grandfather's, or it's some piece of furniture, but I'm really not sure. What about you?
Posted by Olivet (Member # 1104) on :
I have a Roman era ring that was dated c. 300B.C. It was an anniversary gift from my Beloved.
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
I have several pieces of furniture (trunk, dressing table, dresser, and 2 small cabinets) that belonged to my great grandmother. IIRC, they are about 80-90 years old.
Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
The oldest things in our place are some arrowheads and spearpoints -- found in Tennessee near Diane's old house. We don't really know how old - could be anywhere from 150 years to a thousand or more.
(The location they were found was obviously a dump for flawed/rejected arrowheads, etc.)
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Oh Olivet, your husband is wonderful,thats so cool.
Ludosti, I think my mom's oak dresser is about that old, my grandma bought it used in 1940.
Sndrake, I've always wanted to find an arrowhead, but there haven't been any found in my woods for about 40 years, and the neighbors still look. In the sixties they found 4 or five.
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
My grandma and grandpa's wedding portrait from Germany. They were married in 1920.
Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
I think either Jamies saber from her grandpa, or whoever, or her grandma's wedding ring.
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
I have an illuminated vellum sheet of music from the 1600's. It was a gift from a friend some years ago. He sent it to me after discovering it on a business trip to Ireland, had it framed and sent it for my birthday. It's one of my most prized possessions.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
Our house was built in 1900. I'm not sure if anything of its contents are older than it is itself.
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
I was going through a box and I found an original Game Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel old. Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
The room itself is the oldest thing in my room. My student residence was built at the turn of the last century.
The next oldest thin, at a very distant second, is me.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
My professor offered the oppurtunity of waiting till after thanksgiving, and including parents recidences and belongings for that reason Teshi. We either have to bring it in or take a picture of it.
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
The house I'm living in for college was probably built circa 1900. It used to serve as a house for Acacia brothers and when Taft came to visit them, he came to our house.
As for thing, I'd have to do some scrounging.
Posted by Architraz Warden (Member # 4285) on :
A silver dollar from the 1870's.
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :
I have a coin from around 600 CE.
Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
Hmm...I have a collection of rocks that predate mammals. If you're referring to manufactured items, then it's another matter. I have some old coins, dating around 100 years old, give or take.
Most of the things in my apartment are hopelessly modern; I'm a computer guy, after all.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:I've always wanted to find an arrowhead, but there haven't been any found in my woods for about 40 years, and the neighbors still look. In the sixties they found 4 or five.
What you need is a good earthquake to shake up the strata some.
I have a piece of fossilized dinosaur poop somewhere, does that count? Or is this human-made objects? I'd have to think about that.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Thats it, I'll take in a chrynoid stem!
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
Dang! Too slow. I was going to say that I have a fossilized snail shell I brought back from Provence that is surely a couple million years old. Besides that I have a couple of geodes that must predate most species.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
Oh right, we've got fossils and geodes too.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Yeah, we have tons of geodes too, but I think the chrynoid stem might really be the most ammusing. Though to my US History teacher, it might not, so I'll take in a bolt off my dad's 1925 Model T Ford (under restoration), because that's pretty mobile too.
Posted by Mama Squirrel (Member # 4155) on :
Probably my Great-Grandmother's pearls (necklace and earrings). I don't know if they started in the family in an earlier generation or with her. I got them on our wedding day (you can see them here ). We really need to have a daughter so I can give them to her on her wedding day. I don't want to wait until a granddaughter gets married to give them away (like my Great-Grandmother had to wait for my Mom).
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
I have a Byzantine era oil lamp with a certificate verifying that it dates to ~500 AD.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
My Y chromosome dates back to Adam. Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:My Y chromosome dates back to Adam.
Not ALL of it, I would assume.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
you, nor any part of your body counts! Nor does your grandpa (according to my teacher)
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
My idea of God goes back to Adam as well.
Or do ideas not count either? Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
Couple of books from the 1920s.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Ooh, books! That's probably it!
I have copies of two volumes of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag by Louisa May Alcott that date to the 1890s or so. Those're probably the oldest man-made things in the apartment right now.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Take that back, I have an older book by Frances Hodgeson Burnett.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
Oldest thing I know of is a ring that my grandfather gave to my grandmother for their 10th wedding anniversary. My grandmother gave it to me for my high school graduation. I never knew that grandfather, he passed when my dad was still in high school, so it's kind of the only thing I have of him. I'm guessing that the ring is probably about 60 years old, assuming Grandpa bought it new.
Next oldest (not counting humans LOL) is my Atari 2600 Woody.
OH wait, I have first edition Stephen Kings that are definitely older than the Atari, and I probably have paperbacks that predate as well.
Posted by ? (Member # 2319) on :
I collect old books. The oldest is from the 1850's.
?
Posted by Vadon (Member # 4561) on :
I can't find it now in the mess of stuff I have, but I do have an old dollar coin. Like, from the 1840's.
The oldest things in my house... my parents. Well, actually no. We have this odd little silverware set that my great grandmother bought. (I think it was great grandmother.) So that might be like seventy or eighty years old.
Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
Not sure if it's the oldest, but the most interesting old thing I have is someone's scrapbook I found in an old used bookstore. There are random clippings in it from the 1880s and 1890s.
Posted by BGgurl (Member # 8541) on :
The oldest thing in the house is a bible from the 19th century. It used to belong to my grandparents, but I'm not really sure why they gave it to us. If you want to know, the oldest thing that I own is a copy of The Hobbit from 1937.
[ October 26, 2005, 10:43 PM: Message edited by: BGgurl ]
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
? I have an unofficial collection of old books as well. Most are not in good condition, few are well known, and I don't think any are first editions, but some date from the 1850's, and many from the early 1900s. (By many I mean about half a dozen).
I have a remake of a 1920's Emily Post on etiquette.
I have my wife's great grandmother's Christmas tree we still put up each year--about 1920's.
My house was built in 1927, out of stones that are much older.
Posted by unicornwhisperer (Member # 294) on :
A ring that belonged to an ancestor. I would think it's easily 150 or more years old.
Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
I'd have to go with my computer. It was used during WW2 to help guide Allied artillery.
I just wish I was kidding.
Posted by Troubadour (Member # 83) on :
My birth certificate.
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
You know, the air in my house has been around forever. But somehow I don't think that counts...
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
1) trilobite fossil 2) fossil fern 3) pocket watch 4) the house 5) me 6) Zenith tube radio 7) dkw 8) old stereo 9) desktop computer with Windows 98 10) the dog (although she moves up if we count dog years)
If I could find the dates, there are some things
Posted by JaneX (Member # 2026) on :
quote:Originally posted by Teshi: The room itself is the oldest thing in my room. My student residence was built at the turn of the last century.
Same here. My residence house was built in 1893.
The next oldest thing in my room is probably one of the things I inherited from my parents' college years. Like the blanket on my bed, or my avocado-green mini-fridge. (The latter was a novelty on my floor when I first got it - people kept coming in and asking to see "the green fridge".)
~Jane~
Posted by Troubadour (Member # 83) on :
Good point - I live in what used to be the French consulate in Melbourne, built, I believe, before Canberra was established as our nation's capital. Which would peg it at over 100 years old.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
Currently in my room, the oldest thing I have is an 1896 French edition of the Aeneid in Latin. It's actually wonderful - not too cluttered with commentary and notes, older vocab, and it's fun to read in two languages.
At home, I have no idea. I've got a rock from a red beach on Santorini which is probably pretty old, but I don't count that as an actual "artifact." Maybe in a few years.
Posted by Vasslia Cora (Member # 7981) on :
1)Dinosuar fossil 2) A pocket watch 3} desktop computer with Windows 1.5 (or whatever it was that came before 95)
Posted by EarlNMeyer-Flask (Member # 1546) on :
I have a US penny from the 1800's. It think its worth more than $20 now.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
quote:3} desktop computer with Windows 1.5 (or whatever it was that came before 95)
That was 3.11 (Before that... I don't know. We were still using the Commodore 64). And I know for a fact there's a 486 at my home running that.
![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)