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Spam from the Ancient Phoenicians


Some months ago, I received this email:
Common Phoenician transportation was by means of ships. Most often Phoenicians would travel by sea on ships called galleys. Galleys ate large ships that can be used either for trade, travel or war. The Phoenicians were one of the first people to make and use galleys along with the Greeks. More than often galleys were used for transportation for trade between varios civilizations such as the Greeks, Syrians and many other civilizations.

Galleys were made from wood found in local regions in Phoenician territories. Galleys had large masts that had sails used to propel the galleys via wind power. They also included a set of oars on both sides o the ship so that oarsmen could row the ship when's winds were in unfavorable conditions. As time passed a many renovation to the galley occurred. Biremedes were introduced as an advancement on the original galley. The biremedes were a second row of oars to further increase the rowing capabilities of the galleys and increase the speed. And a later advancement was the trimede, which is three rows of oars for even more speed.

This information helps to illustrate the advancement of th Phoenician civilization.

Aj

It certainly appeared to be spam. I had no knowledge of the person sending it. It contained numerous misspellings. I was sent multiple copies of the same message. (It was sent to me three times over the course of an afternoon.) But there were no hyperlinks. Who would be sending me spam whose sole message was to tout the shipbuilding prowess of the ancient Phoenicians?

I recalled that my cousin Jillian had posted a Facebook update recently indicating that she was working on a school project involving various peoples of the ancient Mediterranean. She had drawn the Phoenicians. Was it possible that this email was intended for her? Her email address is the same as mine with a single digit appended at the end. Could my Phoenician spam have been intended for her inbox? I wrote her an email to find out:

This is quite hilarious, but I think I have deduced that this email must have been meant for you. I remember you saying in a Facebook update some time ago that you are doing a school project on the Phoenicians. Add in the fact that it really doesn't look like a spam message and that your gmail address is very close to mine (I'm sure you're jealous that I got jmandresen with no number as my username), and I bet this was intended for you.

Was I right? Or do you not know an AJ?

Your cousin,

Josh Michael

Her response:

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh my goodness that was for me! He said he sent it multiple times (no wonder it didn't get to me for a while!) You have quite a good memory for remembering I was doing a project on the Phoenicians... haha but yes, I was bummed I had to add the number to my email, and now I know who stole the base 'jmandresen' from me is! But really that is quite hilarious, and yes AJ was one of my group members! haha this just made my morning!

Your cousin,

Jillian

Comments

  1. Rebecca9:26 PM

    That was super funny! I'm glad I looked it up! Although I am jealous that Jillian got in your blog!

    ReplyDelete

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