Much of south-central Pennsylvania’s landscape is extremely ancient. For instance, a large swath of Cumberland County, where this photo was taken, straddles the Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian Ages, dating from 570 million to 417 million years ago. Limestone was one of the major types of soil generated in these millennia. There was also a mass […]
Ancient History of the Cumberland County Swath Read More »
It might feel like the dog days of summer are upon us already, but if we’re going by the original use of the term, they don’t really begin until mid-July. The most sweltering days of summer in the Ancient Mediterranean take their name from the way that the Ancients recognized that these hot days echoed
Hot Days, Canis Major, of Ancient Mediterranean Summers Read More »
The Ancient Mediterranean didn’t produce many women writers: society left little room for girls’ education and artistic creativity. One important exception was the Hellenistic poet Anyte (writing about 300 BCE), whose epitaphs survive as poignant markers of moments of grief felt by people now long-dead. Compared to her male contemporaries, Anyte’s subjects included more women
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Many Ancient Greek and Roman physicians (male) developed intricate theories about the female body which dovetailed neatly with their assumptions of women being inherently flawed and lesser than men. Among the most hysterical (this is a pun: “hysteria” comes from the word for “uterus,” and hysteria was a medical diagnosis for a grab-bag of female
Physicians of the Ancient World Read More »
Throughout history, we humans have wanted to feel special, and often this has meant felling specialer than others. The Ancient Greek philosophers engaged in lively debates about which sorts of beings were more important: were they men? Fellow philosophers? Fellow (male) philosophers who agreed with each other? Diogenes the Cynic (d. 323 BCE) made fun
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Western History has no corner in the market for crazy leaders, as the example of Gao Yang (aka the Emperor Wenxuan) shows. Ruling for only nine years (r. 550-559 CE) in the tumultuous and short-spanned Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Yang would have given Nero a run for his money. Known for his narcissistic, unpredidictable, and
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The cities of the Ancient Roman Empire harbored a density of populations that humans hadn’t naturally developed to accommodate. However, urban planners evolved sophisticated strategies for removing the piles of sewage that the cities incessantly churned. These included running water, a workforce paid to collect and transport the waste, and public toilets. Rome itself had
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Tomorrow, July 20, 2019, will mark the 50th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon: the module of the spacecraft called _Eagle_ settled on the _Sea of Tranquility_, a relatively smooth, basalt area of its surface. The poetic name Mare Tranquilitatis was coined by two astonomers: the first was the 17th-century scientist
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Displayed here are the “Amanita Phalloides,” the “Death Cap” mushrooms responsible for 90% of fatalities caused by mushroom poisonings in the world today, and favored by assassins historically. The fungi are said to be delicious, and their toxicity lasts regardless of cooking, freezing, or drying. But the Death Caps’ common looks and tasty flavor belie
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This late 15th-c illustration shows a man preparing a mixture called “Theriac,” which for over a millennia was perhaps the most valued curative substance (or so it was advertised) across Eurasia. You can see the snakes unfurling under the man’s feet: they’re there representing the serpentine venom the ancient recipe demanded. Another crucial ingredient was
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Five thousand years ago, ancient Middle Eastern Mesopotamian civilizations developed the written word, and this invention galvanized other areas of culture such as literature and the visual arts. And so we see seals — such as the one here made of shell from the Akkadian period (2334-2154 BCE) — which often showcased religious and political
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Across the millennia, one of our common traits is the desire to feel special: this has been played out in terms of aristocratic status, patriarchal markers, race, and middle-school politics. Finding a solid boundary between “human” and “non-human” is yet another instance of seeking specialness. However, both scientists and historians are making this boundary increasingly
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The use of magical amulets and charms was common in the Ancient Roman world, where most people didn’t think material causality determined their futures. Instead, more people considered the dangerous forces of fate, the daemonia who embodied those forces, or the Gods to be the primary agents in everyday existence. In order to gain some
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Across the world, prehistoric cultures have marked the landscape with monuments expressed as mounds, circles, and ditches. Anthropologists frequently interpret these structures in light of their astronomical or religious focus, but recent research by Lynne Kelly has argued for a more pragmatic function. It turns out, cultures transitioning from nomadism to full-time agriculture across the
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Here are the Indian deity Krishna and his beloved gopi (milkmaid) and constant companion Radha, playing the ancient Indian board game known as chaturanga. In Sanskrit, “chaturanga” means “four-limbs,” and in this game, the name refers to a millenia-old Indian military setup that included four branches: elephants, chariotry, cavalry, and infantry. Chaturanga was the predecessor
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You are looking at one of over half a million pieces of ancient papyrus writing, found in perhaps the most famous trash-heap in history: Oxyrhynchus. Located in Egypt, Oxyrhynchus was a flourishing city between the 200s BCE to the 600s CE, with the sort of weather patterns that make archaeologists’ hearts flutter because they preserve
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The interpretation of art highly depends on context. This figurine from the late Classical Maya world (600-900CE), for instance, might appear to modern viewers as a seated woman with a pained expression: indeed, the figure has a hunched back. The statue might even evoke pity in us — but these impressions and sentiments were probably
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These gold dentures from the Ancient Etruscan culture seemed to have been popular on the northern portion of the Italian Peninsula from the late eighth through the mid sixth centuries. Even though extant Etruscan writings are limited to inscriptions, archaeological evidence suggests that they were worn to show off the wearer’s elite status, and those
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The odd-shaped object you are looking at is none other than the Liver of Piacenza. This slightly three-dimensional object d’arte was fashioned by Etruscans living in the second century BCE. The main disk represents a sheep’s liver, with the three protrusions standing for the gall bladder and two other parts of a liver (called the
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Although the Ancient Roman aristocracy certainly showed off their social status with elaborate banquets, they did not actually purge themselves in rooms called “Vomitoria.” This misconception arose from some 19th- and 20th- century writers, who claimed that a Vomitorium was where Romans deliberately threw up their food so they could keep eating. In fact, the
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