antique culture rome
Everyday human life is unthinkable outside of things. Things are what he eats, what he sleeps on, what he wears and puts on, what he works with - that world of culture that was created throughout social history, gradually alienating man from nature, and making it easier for him to communicate with her. In the philosophical sense of the word, things are all entities that have an independent existence in the world, it makes no difference whether they are created by nature or by man; the thing is the person himself. But, of course, the place of things in the human world was constantly changing: culture developed, consciousness differentiated, the material and technical base of production, both means of production and tools of labor, became more complex and enriched. Things changed, the idea of a thing changed, the attitude towards a thing changed - the person changed.
This axiom is hardly capable of causing a serious objection: its validity is obvious to everyone who looks at history as a constantly developing and dialectical phenomenon. However, in practice something different is observed. Works concerning the history of things in antiquity (related to the study of life, culture, Everyday life), usually reveal a modern view of them, which has developed in late XIX- beginning of XX century2. Things appear in them as soulless, motionless, dead objects, entirely subordinate to man, who is the main “acting force” ancient history. Their role in human life is perceived as more or less mechanical. The spiritual status of things, their intrinsic vitality, does not interest researchers at all, although just today a new, profound turn is being made in the problem of studying things, including ancient ones.
At the same time, monuments of ancient literature and art reveal to us a completely different picture of the existence of things. For clarity, we will give only one example, and a widely known one at that. Plutarch in his Comparative Lives, completing the story of the life of Crassus, a contemporary of Caesar and a former member of the triumvirate, cites the following fact (Plut. Crass. XXXII--XXXIII). Crassus was trapped in Parthia and executed by having his head cut off. right hand. However, Artabazus, the king of the Armenians, to whom Crassus was to be handed over, was informed that he was being taken alive, and a kind of triumphal procession was organized, reminiscent of a riotous farce, with an actor in the role of Crassus. When they arrived at the palace of the Parthian Surena, where Artabazus was located, dinner had just ended in the banquet hall and a theatrical performance was taking place. The actor Jason from Thrall read Euripides' "The Bacchae" and came just to the moment when Agave, blinded by Dionysus, mistaking her own son for a lion cub, tears off his head in bacchanalian ecstasy. At this moment, the head of Crassus is thrown into the center of the hall, and Jason takes it in his hands, continuing to read the poems, but already having in front of him, as it were, their material embodiment. Those present are delighted with the extraordinary wit of the reader, generously awarded by the king. “This, they say, was the end with which, like a tragedy, the campaign of Crassus ended,” Plutarch concludes.
The described episode does not conclude things in the modern, everyday sense of the word. The item is the head of a killed military leader. This fact alone overturns the rooted idea of a thing as a soulless object, although the head of Crassus is, indeed, devoid of its “soul.” But, moreover, what today seems like a blasphemous mockery of man (and could have been superficially perceived in antiquity), in its deepest essence is a truly worthy, heroic end for Crassus. His head - the main part of the body, the container of vital substance - ends up on the banquet table and is filled with the tragic meaning of a victim, torn to pieces and eaten by the feasters, like the same mythological Pentheus or the dying and resurrecting god Dionysus, of which he is a hypostasis5. The “sacrifice” and the “priests” who brought it (i.e., the enemies of Crassus) are connected both in genesis and in meaning, just as Agave is connected with Pentheus. They are connected by a single cycle of mythological existence, in which there is no death, but only a change from the old form of life to a new one. The fact that in the last minutes of Crassus’ existence (in the form of a thing-head) the tragic word6 of Euripides sounds among the living above him speaks of precisely such a change: the thing comes to life in a new quality, recreating a new, heroic image of the Roman commander in the minds of his contemporaries and descendants.
This example gives an idea that in antiquity a person had his own special relationship with a thing and that these relationships should be considered from the point of view of a specific form of ancient worldview - myth. In addition, an antique thing, regardless of its true artistic value, must be considered in an artistic context, in the “frame” of art, just as the death of Crassus in Plutarch’s story is framed in the “frame” of tragedy, since art in antiquity continued to maintain its original role as a universal form of ideology .
As far as we know, the thing has not yet been studied in this aspect, and the history of the ancient material world does not yet exist. Therefore, there is a need to somehow comprehend the problem of ancient things, which have survived in many beautiful examples, as a whole. One of the options for such comprehension is to create a sketch of the future picture of the development of things in ancient Greece and Rome, which is what this article is an attempt to do. This sketch will inevitably suffer from a certain schematism and impoverishment of material, since it will have to abstract from the exceptional richness and variety of things. But at the same time, only by abstracting from the particulars can one see behind this diversity the general line of historical fate, even if only in a very approximate, hypothetical form. Identifying a common line seems very necessary right now, since the end of the science of antiquity has reached such a degree of differentiation and specialization that the common roots of all the phenomena generated by this era have partly ceased to be recognized. A thing as an object of science in this regard represents the most fertile material, since it characterizes the life of antiquity as a whole.
IN historical movement things can be distinguished into three conventional stages: Cretan-Mycenaean (late 1st - 2nd millennium BC), Greek (1st millennium BC) and Roman (1st century BC - IV century AD), which corresponds not so much to the accepted historical periodization, but to the most important stages in the development of ancient culture. We will try to prove that each of them was characterized by its own special type of thing and its spiritual status - an “idea”, fundamentally different from those inherent in the other two, but also associated with them by a single cultural tradition, which throughout the ancient era “completes its complete circle movement - its own cycle. The fate of things will be considered only in two fundamental relationships: to the world - on the one hand, and to man - on the other.
If you think that some of your things have already served their purpose and become dilapidated, then you should look at what scientists managed to dig up from the depths of history. According to research conducted on lice, humans began wearing clothing approximately 170,000 years ago. The oldest fibers used by humans are approximately 34,000 years old. Given that clothing is typically made from organic materials such as leather and cloth (which deteriorate quickly), there are very few ancient garments and accessories in the world.
10. The oldest jewelry in the world (130,000 years old)
In 2015, scientists announced that they had found the oldest jewelry in the world - eight eagle talons were found at the site of a Neanderthal settlement in Croatia. The eagle's talons came from three different birds. Several holes were made in them for stringing. There were also cuts and evidence of polishing, leading scientists to believe the claws were part of a necklace or bracelet.
This find supports the claim that Neanderthals were not stupid cavemen, but part of a complex, intelligent society that included religion and art. The researchers say it is likely that the claws were chosen for ceremonial purposes, demonstrating that Neanderthals understood the concept of symbolism. Given the fact that this jewelry dates back to approximately 80,000 years before the advent of modern humans, it was simply impossible for Neanderthals to have stolen or copied this design.
Before this discovery, the oldest jewelry in history was shells found in Israel and Africa, which were approximately 100,000 years old. The shells were found far from the coast and bore evidence of their use as beads strung on some kind of thread.
9. The oldest shoes (9300 years old)
The oldest pair of shoes in the world was discovered in the Fort Rock Basin in Oregon in 1938 and both shoes were found together. Fort Rock sandals were made from the twisted bark of Artemisia tree, they were without soles and had a closed toe. Several specimens have been discovered, the oldest being between 9,300 and 10,000 years old. Scientists believe that the straps on the sandals were tied around the ankle and then tied in a knot.
Well, the oldest leather shoe was discovered in the Areni-1 cave in southeastern Armenia in 2010. The shoe, estimated to be around 5,500 years old, is a brown leather lace-up boot for a small right foot (approximately size 37 or 38). This suggests that this shoe is a woman's. Researchers say the shoe was cut from a single piece of leather tanned using vegetable oil, and adjusted to the foot that was to wear it. In addition, the shoe was stuffed with grass, either for insulation or to keep it from losing shape while not being worn.
The crown was discovered along with the Nahal Mishar Hoard. This treasure contained more than 400 items. The treasure was found in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea in 1961. The crown, dating from the Copper Age (4000-3300 BC), is made of blackened copper and measures approximately 18 centimeters in diameter (the New Yorker described it as a "little man's hat" in circumference). The top edge of the crown is decorated with five figures, including two long-necked birds (believed to be vultures), a pair of stylized doors or gates, and a T-shaped object thought to be the handle of a sword. It was discovered along with a scepter decorated with images of horned animals, a copper wicker basket and many clay bowls and vessels.
However, scholars do not think that the crown was worn by the real ruler of this area. They suggest that the crown was used for public ceremonies and during funeral rites for important people. It is also completely unclear how the crown and other treasures remained in a cave in the desert for so many centuries.
An Armenian cave became an ancient clothing storehouse for archaeologists, providing them with not only the oldest surviving skirt in the world, but also the aforementioned leather shoe. The skirt was discovered in the Areni-1 cave in southeastern Armenia. Only fragments remain of it, but this is enough to determine that the fabric is made of woven reeds with a ribbon woven in the opposite direction along the edge of the hem. It is impossible to say exactly what the skirt looked like when it was finished and whether it was worn by a woman or a man. However, scientists believe it represents the world's oldest example of clothing made from woven reeds.
Scientists were delighted to find in Areni-1, in addition to a skirt and a shoe, a mummified goat, which dates back to the same period as the skirt. If the scientists' calculations are correct, then the Armenian goat mummy is approximately a thousand years older than most mummified animals discovered in Egypt.
6. The oldest dress (5000 years old)
The Tarkhan dress, often considered the oldest piece of clothing in the world, was discovered in an ancient Egyptian cemetery, about 48 kilometers from Cairo. This dress, dating from the First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt or the Old Kingdom, is made from linen (and is the oldest piece of clothing made from textiles). The sleeves of the dress are ruffled, and a yoke is sewn to the hem. Researchers say the garment was clearly worn, as it clearly shows folds at the elbows and armpits. It was also found inside out, although some believe it was deliberately placed in the grave to impart funerary significance.
The dress was originally found in 1913, but the significance of the find was not realized until 1977. The tunic was part of a heap of flax that was removed from the grave but had not been thoroughly cleaned or examined for 60 years. Curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London attached the dress to a base of fine silk so it could be displayed as it was worn in real life.
5. The oldest pants (3000 years old)
The oldest pants in the world were discovered in the Yanghai necropolis in China in 2014. Despite their obvious use they are still in very good condition. Researchers believe the pants were made to order by stitching together three pieces of material - the legs and crotch area - which were sewn together using matching threads. The pants also feature an intricate geometric pattern that has been woven directly into the fabric to create a comfortable pair of pants. Researchers believe the pants most likely originated among horse-using tribes that lived in the region approximately 4,000 years ago. They were used for protection and convenience when riding horses.
The desert surrounding the Yanghai necropolis has helped preserve a huge amount of fine textiles and fabrics. Items such as colored sheepskin boots, feathered hats, a fringed skirt and a tiny loincloth were also found there.
This bag can be called the first bag with a dog tooth decoration. In 2012, archaeologists unearthed the world's oldest bag from a grave near Leipzig, Germany. The bag was made of leather or fabric that had since decomposed and was covered in more than a hundred teeth from dozens of animals. Scientists say that what is left of the bag is very similar to an ordinary modern bag with a hinged lid with all the teeth pointing in the same direction. Dog teeth have also been found in hair ornaments and necklaces, leading scientists to speculate that they "were quite fashionable at the time."
A huge number of artifacts from Stone and Bronze Age settlements were discovered at the excavation site. Among them were stone chairs, bone buttons and an amber necklace. The researchers also discovered a later burial of a woman (circa 50 BC) with approximately 450 grams of gold jewelry.
3. The oldest sweater (1700 years old)
The world's oldest sweater was found on a Norwegian glacier in 2013. A greenish-brown crew-neck sweater made from sheep's wool with a diagonal diamond pattern was knitted for a man approximately 175 centimeters tall. This design may well have been fashionable in Iron Age Europe. The cut and size of the sweater are very similar to another item of clothing discovered in a swamp more than 150 years ago.
The sweater appears to be well preserved and has obviously been well looked after as it has been sewn twice. It may also be one of the oldest examples of reuse - some scholars suggest it was originally a sleeveless vest, with sleeves added during a second repair. More than 50 textile fragments were discovered in the glacier, many of which are still undergoing age determination and analysis. Researchers believe that global warming will lead to the discovery of more ancient clothing and accessories in the coming years.
2. The oldest socks in the world (1600 years old)
Less old than the rest of the items on this list, the world's oldest socks are still quite old, dating back to between 250 and 420 BC. These socks, of Romano-Egyptian origin, were discovered in the necropolis of an ancient Greek colony in central Egypt in the late 1800s.
Some observers have called them "alien socks" or "lobster socks." These are knitted wool socks of a bright red color with a separate big toe, which, according to scientists, was made for comfortable wearing with sandals. They are considered a very rare example of a knitting technique known as "Nålbindning" or single needle knitting - which is described as a very slow technique, more similar to embroidery than modern knitting. It starts with tying the big toe and ends at the ankle.
1. Oldest bra and panties (600 years old)
They're practically new compared to the rest of the list. The oldest underwear in the world was discovered under a floorboard in an Austrian castle in 2008. Four linen lace bras were discovered in a pile of more than 2,700 different textile fragments under the floor covering at Lengberg Castle. Researchers believe the bras date back to between 1390 and 1485 (when they were charmingly called "breast bags"). All four had distinctive cups and straps, while two of them appeared to be more of a bra and crop top combination, including a series of loops on the left side for lacing.
Also found in the mountain of clothing were several pairs of surprisingly modern-looking underpants, worn by men rather than women. If you are wondering what the world's oldest bra would look like on you, then you can sew your own version by looking at its patterns on the Internet.
Modern man is surrounded by many newfangled gadgets and high-tech inventions that our distant ancestors did not have at their disposal. But the fact that ancient people from the distant past did not have the opportunity to send SMS or take a selfie did not prevent them from having everyday household items at their disposal. Such benefits of civilization as a flush toilet, a bra and even a prosthesis three thousand years ago were available to our ancestors and still serve us faithfully, modern people. Here are 16 of the oldest things of their kind, miraculously preserved to this day.
Socks (age – 1,500 years)
The oldest known surviving pair of wool socks dates from 300-500 AD. The socks were found in Egypt in the 19th century, and the splitting of the toe was presumably made so that they could be worn with sandals.
Oldest written recipe (5,000 years old)
The Sumerian beer recipe dates back to 3,000 BC. According to the recipe, the beer is very strong and contains pieces of bread floating in it.
First sunglasses (800 years old)
Oldest in the world Sunglasses were discovered on Baffin Island in Canada. They were similar to modern ski goggles, which reduced the glare from the sun's rays reflected from the snow.
Ancient sculpture in the shape of a man (35,000 – 40,000 years old)
The Venus of Hohle Fels is the oldest Paleolithic Venus known to science, discovered in 2008 in the Hole Fels cave near the German city of Schelklingen. The figurine, depicting a human figure, was made from the tusk of a woolly mammoth.
Oldest shoe (5,500 years old)
This cowhide moccasin was found in caves in Armenia under a layer of dry sheep dung and grass. The left moccasin was never found.
Ancient musical instrument (40,000 years old)
This flute, made from the radius of a vulture, was found in southern Germany. Scientists suggest that music could have been an important strategic advantage of the ancestors of modern humans over Neanderthals.
Oldest trousers (3,300 years old)
The oldest pair of pants was found in Western China.
Oldest flush toilet (2,000 years old)
In the ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey, people relieved themselves in these public flush toilets. The running water under the seats carried everything into the nearby river.
Oldest bra (500 years old)
This bra was used between 1390 and 1485 in Austria. There are earlier historical descriptions of "breast pouches", but they have not survived to this day.
The oldest prosthesis (3,000 years old)
This prosthesis helped someone in Egypt walk again 3,000 years ago. An experiment conducted with its exact copy proved that the prosthesis was indeed functional, comfortable, and intended not only for cosmetic purposes.
Wallet (4,500 years old)
These dog teeth are all that remains from a disintegrated 4,500-year-old wallet discovered in Germany. The teeth were probably part of the exterior decoration.
Ancient condom (370 years old)
This sheepskin condom was used in 1640 in Sweden. It was reusable and came with instructions in Latin, which recommended cleaning the product with warm milk to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Chewing gum (5,000 years old)
This chewing gum was chewed in Finland 5,000 years ago. It contained birch bark and was probably used to treat oral infections and was also used as an adhesive.
Ancient recorded melody (3,400 years old)
The oldest surviving melodies were composed in the ancient city-state of Ugarit, which is now part of southern Syria. The music was written for the lyre.
Oldest coin (2,700 years old)
The oldest coin was found in the ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey. On one (and only) side the coin has a relief design in the form of a lion's head.
Antique globe (510 years old)
A map of the globe is painstakingly engraved on the surface of an ostrich egg in Italy. Before the globe's true age and provenance could be determined, it was sold to its current owner at the London Map Fair in 2012.
Digital Camera (1975)
In December 1975, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson invented a device that would revolutionize photography decades later: the first digital camera. It had a size comparable to a toaster and allowed you to make black and white photographs resolution 100 by 100 pixels, or in modern terms, 0.01 megapixels. The process of shooting one frame took 23 seconds, the information was stored on a tape cassette. It is noteworthy that the structure of the camera was the same as her modern descendants, including a Fairchild Semiconductor CCD sensor. To view the photographed images, a special device was required, the photos were shown on a regular TV, and it took 23 seconds to read one photo. And that was only 34 years ago...
Motel (1925) The Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, California, was built in 1925 by Los Angeles architect Arthur Heineman, who called the inn a motel by combining the words “motor” and “hotel.” It was originally called Milestone Mo-Tel and cost $1.25 a night. Arthur didn't bother with copyright issues, and the word "motel" is now used by thousands of small hotels for travelers around the world.
Album cover (1938) Previously, records were sold in identical brown paper cases, but in 1938 Columbia Records released the album Smash Song Hits by Rodgers and Hart, the cover of which was designed and drawn by 23-year-old designer Alex Steinweiss ), creating the world's first music album cover.
Novel (1007) More than 1000 years ago, a Japanese aristocrat named Murasaki Shikibu finished writing a massive novella, Tale of Genji, featuring over 350 characters, spanning over 75 years, and chronicling the life of the emperor's son, his love affairs and other events. Now this work can be considered the very first novel.
Web server and website (1990) This happened in 1990. The address of the first accessible site is Info.cern.ch, it was running on a computer with the Next operating system at CERN University, and the address of the first web page created by Tim Berners-Lee is . Compare what happened to the Internet over 19 years, and what one page has grown into during this time.
Motorcycle (1885) The first motorcycle was designed and assembled in 1885 by German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach from Stuttgart. The names don't remind you of anything? It was a bicycle on which a gasoline engine was mounted, called Reitwagen (Pleasure Cart). This was, by the way, the first vehicle with a gasoline engine.
Computer Mouse (1964) This engineering marvel was created in 1964 by Douglas Engelbart, the design included two gears located perpendicularly and perceiving movement along one axis. Ergonomic body, convenient location of buttons, stylish “wooden” design - these are the advantages of this manipulator. But jokes aside, the development of various graphical interfaces and manipulators began with such a “bad thing.”
Skyscraper (1885) Just think! Back in 1885, the first skyscraper was built in Chicago using metal and concrete, which housed Insurance Company. It was demolished in 1931 to make way for a building national bank. But nevertheless, it was the first skyscraper with internal supporting steel columns; its height with 10 floors was 42 meters - this is higher than modern 9-story buildings!
MP3 player (1998) Released in 1998 by Eiger Labs, the player called MPMan had a built-in memory of 32 MB, expandable to 64 MB. This miracle of electronic technology cost $69, its dimensions were 91 x 70 x 16.5 mm. It is impossible to imagine what players will look like in 10 years, if in the past 10 years they have gone from MPMan to Ipod...
Magazine (1731) This tabloid was called “The Gentleman's Magazine”, the first issue was published in 1731 in London. Its chief editor, Edward Cave, wrote articles in the magazine under the pseudonym “Sylvanus Urban”, and he also coined the term “magazine”, i.e. “magazine”, by analogy with a warehouse of various military uniforms and ammunition, called Arabic"makazin" The magazine existed until 1907, that is, almost 200 years! I don't think that modern Cosmopolitan and other meaningless analogues will live longer
Have you ever asked yourself - how much does the International Space Station cost? How much should you pay for the most expensive watch ever made by man? How much for one and a half kilograms of truffles? Yes, you may say that it is impossible to buy each of the following things. And. maybe that's true. But in our time, anyone can take out a loan and afford a loan for pleasant little things, and in 5 minutes, more details: http://dengivsemza15minyt.ru/zajm-za-5-minut/. And now we present to your attention the rating of the fifteen most expensive things in the world.
15. Antarctic Nail Ale beer.
Cost: $1815
This is the most expensive beer in the world, costing a whopping $1,815 a bottle! For its production, water from Antarctic glaciers is used, which means the purest and most ancient water in the world. It is these two facts that determine such a high price. The taste of the drink is based on traditional recipe multiple award-winning Nail Ale, the flagship product of Australia's Nail Brewing Company. Only 30 numbered and certified bottles of Antarctic Nail Ale were produced. All proceeds from their sale were donated to the Sea Shepherd whale conservation fund.
14. Italian white truffle.
Cost: 160 thousand dollars
Truffles are the most expensive mushrooms in the world. The most valuable type of truffle is the Italian white truffle. The specimen shown in the picture weighs 1.51 kilograms. It was sold for $160,000 to a taster from Hong Kong.
13. Champagne Gout de Diamants.
Cost: $1.2 million
This is what the most expensive champagne in the world looks like. It is worth noting, however, that it is not the contents of the bottle, but its design that is most valuable here. Gout de Diamants has replaced its standard, crystal logo with a white gold emblem. Additionally, she received a 19-carat diamond. All together it costs 1.2 million dollars. There is also a “budget option” - a standard bottle of Gout de Diamants costs 250 thousand dollars.
12. Bonsai tree.
Cost: $1.3 million
By Bonsai trees different ages, size, origin and, as we see, also price. The most expensive specimen of this Japanese tree was sold at the 11th Asian Bonsai and Suiseki Exhibition. Suiseki is the Japanese art of artistic display of river stones and rock fragments that resemble people, animals, insects and objects. Already on the second day of the exhibition, a 300-year-old tree of fairly substantial size found its buyer.
11. Henry IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne.
Henry IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne is the most expensive cognac in the world. As with champagne, its value is primarily influenced by the cost of the bottle. Produced since 1776, the drink must be in a barrel for at least 100 years before bottling. The bottle itself is a real work of art. It consists of 24-karat gold and platinum of the highest standard. Additional decoration consists of 6 thousand certified diamonds.
10. The most expensive dog breed.
Cost: $2 million
Of course, a dog is not a thing or an object, but it cannot but be present in this rating. The Tibetan Mastiff breed can be proud of itself. Officially, this is the most expensive dog breed in the world. The record was broken in China, in the Zhejiang province, when an anonymous dog lover purchased a Tibetan Mastiff puppy for $2 million.
9. A. Lange&Sohne Grand Complication.
Cost: $2.5 million
This is the most expensive watch ever put up for sale. In total, only 6 copies will be made over the course of six years, costing $2.5 million each. Every year, only one such watch, made by one specific master, will appear on the market. The watch is made of the highest quality gold and silver. The strap is made of crocodile leather.
8. Rhein II.
Cost: $4.3 million
Christie's auction house has many interesting records, but none have generated as much controversy as the auction of Rhein II, a 1999 photograph by German photographer Andreas Gursky. This photograph was purchased by an anonymous collector for $4.3 million. This is an absolute record. We will probably never know why someone paid such a large sum for such a monotonous photograph. The author himself considers it his most successful work, which, according to him, allegorically describes the meaning of life.
7. Lamborghini Veneno.
Cost: $4.6 million
Veneno is a super-car of the Lamborghini brand, presented during the Geneva exhibition in 2013. A total of three copies of this car were made, each of which was sold for $4.6 million.
6. Napoleon's saber.
Cost: $6.4 million
A white gold inlaid saber was used last time at the Battle of Moreno more than 200 years ago. The French auction house Osenat, even before the start of the auction, assured that the weapon was given as a gift for the wedding of Napoleon’s brother immediately after the battle, and then passed on from generation to generation. The saber was sold for $6.4 million to an anonymous collector.
5. Leicester Code.
Cost: $30.8 million
The Codex Leicester is a collection of Leonardo da Vinci's 16th-century records. It is one of nine codices created by the great scientist and contains his illustrations and sketches related to art and science. In 1994, the manuscript was sold at auction to Bill Gates for $30.8 million, thus becoming the most expensive book in history.
4 Stradivarius 1719 MacDonald.
Cost: $45 million
The most expensive violin in the world? Of course, it can only be an instrument made by the great master Stradivarius. A record price of $45 million was set by Sotheby's auction house for a 1719 MacDonald violin.
3. Airbus 318 Elite Private Jet.
Cost: $60 million
Few people in the world can buy their own private jet. Even among the rich, only one in five can afford such luxury. It’s not surprising, because the most modern, luxurious and, at the same time, the most expensive aircraft in the world costs about 60 million dollars. The Airbus A318 Elite can accommodate 18 passengers and is equipped with a separate office, dining room, bedroom and shower room. The A318 also offers spacious luggage space.
2. Tianhe-2.
Cost: $400 million
Tianhe-2 is a Chinese supercomputer created with the participation of 1,300 scientists and programmers. " Milky Way 2" - this is how its name can be translated, is intended for simulation and analysis in government defense systems. The supercomputer runs the Kylin operating system, specially created by the Chinese army.
1. International Space Station.
Cost: $150 billion
This is, without a doubt, the most expensive thing ever created by man. The International Space Station is also the largest enterprise in the history of space exploration. Its first module, Zarya, produced in Russia with American funds, was launched into orbit in 1998. Now there are already 15 such modules (there should be 16 in total) - they were produced in Russia, the USA and Europe. The ISS flies above our heads at an altitude of about 350 kilometers.
