Last Sunday, I got to see a terrific exhibit on early Buddhist art at the New York Metropolitan Museum. Called “Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India 200 BCE-400 CE”, the artworks show, among other things, how pre-Buddhist nature deities and imagery were absorbed by the new religion. In this sculpture — part of […]
Early Buddhist Art Naga Mucalinda Protecting the Buddha Read More »
The Temple of Dendur is a must-see in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Hundreds of tourists check out this Ancient Roman-era Egyptian building every day, where it stands in an enormous glass-walled room, surrounded by a huge moat of water evocative of the Nile River from whence it originally came. The
The Temple of Dendur Read More »
Here are scenes from the High Line of New York City, considered one of Manhattan’s most popular attractions. It isn’t that old: a group called Friends of the High Line formed in 1999 to create the public park, and they attracted enough wealthy donors to create and open it by 2009. The High Line is
The New York City Highline Read More »
Just to the west of Las Cruces New Mexico, along the I10, is this ginormous statue of a roadrunner. It is built out of completely found materials — stuff like shoes, cell phones, old wire, crutches, headlights, and old toys. Artist Olin Calk created the recycled bird in 1993 to examine “consumption, recycling, and just
Roadside Roadrunner Attraction Read More »
The Franklin Mountains have seen human activity since at least 12,000 years ago, but their name came from a much more recent source, when a rancher named Benjamin Franklin Coons settled in El Paso in 1849 — he was such a heavyweight in the region that locals used to call the city “Franklin” in the
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Here are photos of a sculpture and the cultural museum outside the Mescalero Apache Tribe on the Mescalero reservation near Tularosa, New Mexico. Ulysses S. Grant formally created the Mescalero reservation, comprising almost half a million acres in 1873, and today three sub-tribes of Apaches live there. The Lipan Apache at the reservation arrived in
Mescalero Apache Tribe Read More »
The Robledo Mountains lie to the north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and to the east of the Rio Grande continental rift. Much of the exposed rock is from about 280 million years ago (Paleozoic), and the geological footprint is obvious and amazing. You can see a slot canyon in most of these pictures, when
The Mexican flag flies over the city of Palomas, just over the border from the city of Columbus, New Mexico. Today Palomas is a town frequented by American tourists (like me) who cross over to shop and eat — the Pink House (second image) is its most famous establishment. (It even has its own Wikipedia
Today (September 16, 2023) several students from Shippensburg University’s history department travelled with Dr. John Bloom and me to the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, an American Indian site in eastern Pennsylvania. The first slides you see come from the sandstone overhang that made a natural roof for the Meadowcroft encampment, as well as the main area
Meadowcroft Rockshelter Read More »
The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art has a fantastic exhibition on the color of Ancient Greek statues right now. When we look at the statues of the Ancient Mediterranean today, we are familiar with the unadorned stone or bronze, like the sphinx from about 530 BCE featured here. However, a team of art
These photos taken last weekend show vistas along the Loyalsocks Trail, one of the many stunning forested hiking pathways in Pennsylvania. Taking its name from the Loyalsock Creek (which translates from an American Indian name for “middle” creek), the Loyalsock trail is nearly sixty miles. The portions shown here include Sones Pond, which was built
Twenty-one years ago in 2001, the Burd Run Nature Trail and Restoration was established to reverse the damaging effects of an artificially straightened stream channel which had caused erosion and environmental degradation. (See second image). Shippensburg University (particularly the Geography and Earth Science Department), Shippensburg Township, the Cumberland County Conservation District, and the Conodoguinet Creek
Burd Run Restoration Read More »
The Clash of Claymores 2019 happened this weekend at Shippensburg University- it was a weekend of Historic Eurpean Martial Arts (HEMA). The workshops and tournaments were fascinating, professional, and intense!
2019 Clash of Claymores Read More »
Every year, I write a historically themed Christmas Carol because history geek. So here’s this year’s! “Wake up Ye Blinded Gentlemen/Greek Metaphysics” (from “Oh Come Ye, Merry Gentlemen”) Wake up ye blinded gentlemenChained up here in this caveSee that the shadows facing youCome from a fire that wavesBehind you is the source of lightFrom illusion
History Themed Christmas Carol Read More »
Buddhist stele with the Thousand Buddhas motif, from the Northern Wei Dynasty, about 521 CE. Notice the Chinese-drapped sleeves of the historical Buddah in the center, but the surrounding Buddhas are wearing the off-shoulder monastic garb of Indian monks. Smithsonian, Sackler Gallery.
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The Tyrannosaurus Rex had arms so small that paleontologists debate whether they were merely evolutionary leftovers. But research by Sara Burch, one of the world’s few leading experts on dinosaur anatomical structure, suggests that these puny extensions still functioned – the T-Rex held their prey while using their colossal necks, jaws, and teeth to do
The Temple of Dendur is a must-see in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Hundreds of tourists check out this Ancient Roman-era Egyptian building every day, where it stands in an enormous glass-walled room, surrounded by a huge moat of water evocative of the Nile River from whence it originally came. The
This finial crowning the top of an elaborately carved tusk from 19th-century Kongo depicts a nursing mother. A skilled artisan would have made the tusk as part of a commissioning by a community leader. The few women depicted on this tusk form a striking counter-narrative to most of the images. One woman carried a small
Finial Crowing Top of Tusk Read More »
Statue made of Birchwood of the Virgin Mary, with glass eyes. Autun region of France, c. 1130-40.
Birchwood Statue of Virgin Mary Read More »
If you wanted to feel special in the 14th c., you might have tried to get ahold of objects like these: reliquaries were sacred containers of the holy bodily remains of Europe’s medieval superheroes, the Christian saints. This shoe (suggesting that inside was part of a foot) depicts Saint Margaret just having busted her way
Medieval Reliquaries Read More »
