more pennies

Apr 28
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

These make use of relict penny prints. Mostly.

Two of my favorite words are relict and palimpsest. Mostly I like the way they sound, but I like the technical meanings also.

Relict is left-over but not man made (that would be relic), and is used in geology to describe something left behind like relict stream deposits, or relict bedding planes still visible in marble from the original limestone.

Palimpsest is a little more complicated. It is usually used when refering to manuscripts on parchment, vellum or papyrus, and describes the remains of one set of writing that has been more or less completely erased/scraped off so the page can be used for new writing. Because parchment and vellum were hard to come by and durable enough to scrape, many old documents are written over their predecessors. I refer you to the Wiki entry here  because it is fascinating, and especially because you should go read about finding the Archimedes Palimpsest.

In geology, palimpsests refer to glimpses of former geological times in the currently visible landscape or outcrop. My favorite has always been the palimpsest of dunes over stream structures that are visible near the edges of glaciers.

But mostly I like to say them, or work them into everyday conversation.