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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;moreotherstuff, post: 1252387, member: 56&quot;]With stuff like this: if you don&#039;t consider it important, then it isn&#039;t.&nbsp; Billions of people have never heard of the green vaults and could care less.&nbsp; There are people who would point to any similar collection as an exemplar of excess.&nbsp; This was a collection amassed by royalty at a time when deprivation and abject poverty were norms for large percentages of any population.&nbsp; It&#039;s not difficult to make the argument that the money could have been better spent by rulers who were responsible for the well-being of their subjects.</p><p><br /></p><p>But this was also the very best stuff being made.&nbsp; The materials can be exotic and one of a kind and the workmanship unsurpassed.&nbsp; Nobody can get stuff like that without trade and commerce, so it speaks to economic expansion and development, cultural exchanges and the spread of ideas.&nbsp; The techniques required to produce these items were state of the art and they advanced technology in general.</p><p><br /></p><p>Aesthetically, they are magnificent.&nbsp; This is the best work from the finest craftsmen in the latest styles.&nbsp; There are few people who ever rise to such levels of artistic expression.&nbsp; This is the level of achievement that cannot be surpassed.&nbsp; These are the standards to which everyone else aspires.</p><p><br /></p><p>A jewel is a gem in a setting, and gems are gems.&nbsp; If you are willing to discount the workmanship, what you&#039;ve got are some rare and decorative stones and a bit of gold or silver.&nbsp; It&#039;s the workmanship that elevates them, but there&#039;s value in the pebbles, and that&#039;s the worry here.&nbsp; These things will disappear forever if someone just wants to strip them for parts.</p><p><br /></p><p>Maybe that&#039;s just tough luck.&nbsp; Lots of stuff is lost forever through natural disasters, wars, misadventure.&nbsp; The world isn&#039;t going to change, but a bit of the beauty of which mankind is capable, the beauty that can exist even in the depths of want and deprivation, will be lost.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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