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[–] 35 points 7 months ago (8 children)

There's a city in France (Chambery) in honour of the Indian Maratha with four elephants surrounding a fountain, they only have the front sculpted so they're called "les quatre sans cul": the four without ass because the sculptor apparently didn't know their anatomy

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  • [–] 18 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    Is that actually true or just an urban legend? Full elephants would make the sculpture HUGE, it'd take up so much space

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 17 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Sorry, I meant the claim that the sculptor not knowing how to make the back half. I definitely believe you on the name! That wiki page isn't available in English but I translated it and only found this:

    The legend[Which?] says that this square is made up of four elephants without backs since its sculptor did not know how to do the back says the "ass" of the elephants. This is what would have given the name of the 4 without asses.

    I read about the construction elsewhere and only having the fronts seemed deliberate

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Oh right, yeah that one is probably gossip haha

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    It'd be pretty easy to guess, honestly. Just saying "a lot like a cow, with legs like in the front" would cover it for sculptural purposes - the flattish tail being an excusable detail.

    Medieval artists did a lot of this, although sometimes the results were less than perfect:

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  • [+] 26 points 7 months ago (15 children)
  • [–] 21 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    “So?”

    “So, war elephants are tropical. This is temperate zone.”

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  • [–] 18 points 7 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Wikipedia calls it doubtful, though there are sources which say it happened. I'm curious about Denmark though!

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    That's Roman Britain so it is probably glazing the territories held by the Roman Empire. This is likely a map of areas that were ruled by an entity that used war elephants.

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    [–] 25 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Where war elephants were used so far

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago

    You can help by expanding this list!

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago

    Now do middleearth

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  • [+] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

    I wish Lincoln accepted that set to fight in the Civil War.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    There's a story of a logistical miracle right here... 🙆🏼‍♂️🤔

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Those islands used to be connected ~2 million years ago, and thus all have native elephant populations.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

    Yep.

    Although any reasonably large cargo boat should be able to carry an elephant, anyway. That would be how the Romans did it in Britain.

    Edit: Maybe? Apparently the only source on that episode is from much later.

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  • [+] 4 points 7 months ago
    [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    poor phanties 😭

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago*

    in age of empires, i would mass build them all the time. after using the "trade market trick"

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    How did they get to the islands

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    But elephant big. Trireme small.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    I am curious, is the Yellow in South Arabia in reference to Year of the Elephant or is that seen as not credible and there was a whole different Elephant event in that region I never knew about?

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