WV Glass Trip: Day Five

Tyrannosaurus skeleton 

Friday was a spectacular day, providing us with experiences at Carnegie Museum, Phipps Conservatory, and Hofbrauhaus.  The first stop was Carnegie, and it was real and spectacular.  It promised to be overwhelming, and it definitely delivered; I was unable to see even the entire Natural History Museum.  Of course there were the ubiquitous dinosaur and animal exhibits, and those were great, but the thing that really blew me away was the Roads of Arabia exhibit.  In this exhibit, visitors were able to see objects dating back to as far as 9000 years ago.  It was amazing
to see things that were so old, and yet were in such good shape; better than many things produced only 100 years ago.  The writing on carved stones was still as clear as if it had been written only a few years ago, rugs looked basically new, and even 3000 year old glass and pottery still in tact.  It was a must see.  Next on the docket was the Phipps Conservatory, a destination I enjoyed much more than I could have imagined.  It was very easy to spend hours wandering around the fantastic collection of plants from all over the world, and to top it off they have a great array of Chihuly glass sculptures intermingled
within the flora, which complimented the scenery very well.  Finally, we dined at the much talked about Hofbrauhaus, and it lived up to the hype.  This includes the charming birthday tribute I received, juxtaposed by the not annoying in any way "Chicken Dance."  With all this excitement, it was easy to forget about the underlying purpose of our visit; bringing experiences to students.  I thought it was interesting that we saw glass pieces that were thousands of years old, yet resembled works that we still see today.  The glass not only appeared pretty modern in and of itself in consistency, but also
looked similar in designs.  And to top it off, it was all still very much in tact, a testimony to the timeless nature of glass and ceramics.  My question is what other human produced objects offer that timelessness? Can you think of anything that has not only stood up as well, but are relatively unchanged in design?