Philadelphia Toynbee Tiles
July 24th, 2006 by JJ
I can’t believe I’ve lived in Philly for more than a year and I’m just finding out about this:
(pic borrowed from flickr)
People refer to them as “Toynbee tiles.” They started appearing embedded in Philadelphia streets back in the 80’s. Sometimes they’re bigger than license plates, other times as small as a business card. And they all have a similar message:
TOyNBEE IDEA
MOViE 2001
RAiSE DEAD (or RESURRECT DEAD)
PLANET JUPiTER
Check out the videos from Philly’s local ABC station for a quick primer. And here’s a news clip from St. Louis.
People have found at least 130 of them in various cities over the years, including Philly, New York, St. Louis, even Rio de Janeiro. Toynbee.net has a relatively extensive list of known locations. There are several possible explanations for their origin and meaning.
Most people say it’s a link between the Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and the writings of British historian Arnold Toynbee. Others claim it has something to do with a Ray Bradbury story. And some even believe it’s a reference to a David Mamet play. Wiki has a lot of info on these theories. There’s even more over at Resurrect Dead, a website run by filmmakers who are shooting a documentary on the subject.
Fascinating shit…
(Hat tip: joethe)
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Weirrrd. Maybe they contain Scientology dust & are a secret brainwashing tool…
that’s because you have a car and don’t walk everywhere. i see them all over the place. i’d heard about them before, but never really paid that much attention to it.
what i want to know is HOW they embedded them. it’s not like they’re spray painted on there.
that is very interesting!
Fascinating! Seems very “DaVinci Code”.