Without even googling, I am certain that what you see here has been the subject of a multitude of (probably very expensive but one hopes well-executed) tattoos: this is the famous Dendera zodiac of about 50 BCE, one of the most complete star-charts from the Ancient world. What you can see on it is fantastic.
This tiny bottle contains a unique substance: a perfume called _Fougère Royale_ created by the master perfumer Paul Parquet back in 1882. The line has since been discontinued or altered, so the smell in this bottle might actually be found nowhere else on the planet. This perfume, and 400 other unique fragrances, make up only
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced this month (3/23) that archaeologists have recently discovered a small Sphinx statue dating to the Roman period with unusual features. Its facial expression has a slight smile, and some experts believe that its head might be a representation of the Roman Emperor Claudius, who ruled from 41-54
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This is a 16th century translation of “The Emerald Tablet”, among the most famous texts on alchemy ever. Although it purports to be from Egypt (that’s where a lot of medieval alchemists thought their sources originated), the first text we know of comes from an Arabic 6th/7th century source. Isaac Newton, himself an occultist, translated
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This object, now in a musuem in Harare, Zumabwe, dates from 1300. Purely indigenous drum? Replica of the Ark of the Covenant? The ways we attach meaning to ancient objects tells us far more about the present than about the past.
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This is a 15th century aquamanile (pouring water vessel) representing the humiliation of Aristotle by Phyllis: a sort of “world-turned upside down” motif that actually reinforced ideas that men’s real place is above women. Picture taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
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This is Plympton 322, and this mathematical tablet written in cuneiform has been studied a lot to work out how much the Babylonians understood trigonometry. I love how much we still can learn and study about the history of math!
These are shoes from Roman Britain. Not a lot of support in the soles, eh? (Even considering the decay over centuries.)
Roman Britain Shoes Read More »
This is the Ishtar Gate to the entrance of the city of Babylon, dating to the 6th century. The lion was important to the Goddess Ishtar, who was worshipped as one of the main deities of Mesopotamia.
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Sumerian is the first written language and linguists think of it as a “language isolate”; it isn’t related to any other known languages. This tablet is from the 26th century BCE.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s writeup of this 12th-c painting of a camel found on the walls of the monastery Church of San Baudelio de Berlanga in Spain somewhat charitably declares that the painter “could have been inspired by an actual camel”. After all, there is the single hump of the dromedary camel, and this
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This is a tablet from Ancient Mesopotamia dating to 1800 BCE. It is a hymn to Ninsaki, the goddess of beer. It is also a beer recipe. Some scholars think that beer might have been invented even before bread – whether this is true or not, beer was super important (calories, socialization, nutrients, safer than
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General Flavius Aetius, considered by many to have been the last capable Roman leader in the Western Empire, defended Rome from the invasions of the Huns. He was assassinated by a weak Roman Emperor who allegedly boasted how well he had done by the act. Supposedly, one of the emperor’s courtiers responded: “whether you have
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This wild grass was of the first plants humans intentionally harvested. Einkorn’s seeds scatter more easily than modern wheat, and they are smaller as well. This plant flourished in modern northern Syria and northern Iraq.
“Thunder, Perfect Wisdom” is a super trippy text from around the second century, probably Egypt. Although it’s not Daoist, it has a lot of similarities. I also like it because it’s told through the voice of a woman.
“Thunder, Perfect Wisdom” Text Read More »
I really enjoyed the Freer Gallery of Art’s small permanent collection dealing with the history of the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsula, or modern Yemen. The area has suffered from horrific warfare since 2014, which has endangered much of its historical heritage. This is tragic, because although the area never boasted the wealth of
Ancient Egypt lasted thousands of years, but across the millennia a few pharaohs stand out, and Ramesses II (c 1303-1213 BCE) was one of them. His 66-yesr reign witnessed great successes economically, he won military conflicts that made Egypt a world power, and he promoted his accomplishments in art that still today remain as some
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This painting, “The Soldier of Marathon”, by Luc-Olivier Merson (1869), shows a nude runner reporting a victory of the Ancient Athenians against the Persians. The information was of extreme military importance, as the autonomy of Ancient Athens was partially dependent on it, and so the runner traversed an arduous distance of 40 kilometers or 26.2
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This is the best illustration I could find of a “Pyrrhic Victory”: and if you are familiar with this phrase, you will understand why. The first-century historian Plutarch tells of battles the Greeks waged against the Romans over three hundred years before his lifetime. At Heraclea (280 BCE) and Asculum (279 BCE), the armies of
This scene of Jesus’ condemnation by the Roman governor of Judea, painted by Antonio Ciseri, is one that millions of Christians contemplate each Easter. In it, Pilate asks his audience whether they want to have Jesus released, and that he had “found no case against him.” In reply, they shouted that they wanted Jesus dead.
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