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[ta0]

I would even say that the boy on the left is throwing tip up 

When I first quickly read the remark above, I misread it. I read the sentence without the word "tip". Since it still is a gramatically correct sentence, I did not realize the mistake immediately. So I checked the picture to see if I could see what I had read. - Well, yes kind of..... but not really. Was ta0 really trying to make as cheap a joke as I usually do?   I only realized my reading mistake a good while later....

Yo-yo players often say that they "throw down." Top players have borrowed it a few times.

Should we all be in awe at the circular perfection of that stone from 5000 years ago?  The question is, did they use Pi or Tau? 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Totally in awe of the circular perfection. But how would the maker have managed that 7 5 millennia ago?

There can only be one answer: Must've had help from Prometheus. The wheel episodes...



The entire series (right up there with Rocky and Bullwinkle)...

[ta0]

Cuper send me this photo (by G.dallorto). The caption says: Ancient Roman wooden spinning top, from Tebtynis (Egypt), dating from the 1st-3rd century AD. I'm not too sure why is it called Roman if it was found in Egypt. Wikipedia says that Tebtunis was a city and later town in Lower Egypt, founded in approximately 1800 BCE by the Twelfth Dynasty king Amenemhat III. But in Tebtunis there were many Greek and Roman buildings. Did this kind of tops appear first in the Roman Empire?



This top looks pretty similar to a "modern" peg top. It's in the collection of the Archaeological Museum in Milan and I'll be in Milan in a few days. Unfortunately, its seems that the photo was from a special exhibition and it's not normally on display 

[Texture]

I remember that picture from the “history” tab on the Top wikipedia article:

[ta0]

This top is not from the Louvre but the National Archaeological Museum of Orvieto, Italy.
The poster shows an Etruscan (ancient Italy) ceramic decorated top from the 4th or 3rd century B.C. The top contained eight small pebbles inside which emitted noise when the toy rotated. It's not clear to me if it was a real top that fell when it didn't rotate or if it could stay upright when not rotating.

[johnm]

There looks like some damage to the decoration (paint?, glaze?) on the region at the upper-most part in that picture.  If spun on that point it looks like it would topple and thus classify as a real top.  Remembering the thread about loose ball inside a top for balancing, while spinning the small pebbles should not be rattling around inside to create noise except at the start and extinction.  I wonder if there is damage that allowed the pebbles to be dumped out (thus they may not be original) or if x-rays for example were used to image the inside.  If the pebbles are original and trapped, how is it decided to call it a top rather than a musical instrument like a maraca?