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 […]
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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
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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!
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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
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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
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Statue made of Birchwood of the Virgin Mary, with glass eyes. Autun region of France, c. 1130-40.
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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
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This is a near life-size wooden sculpture of the birth of the Virgin Mary with her mother Saint Anne. It comes from a church called Ebern in southern Germany and dates to around 1480. The sweetness of this pair really stands out, especially Anne’s exhausted but happy expression as she rests after giving birth, one
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This wooden base for a small statue features Eve and Lilith, two primal females in Christian mythology. These characters also underlined negative assumptions about women’s basic nature. Eve on the left shows weakness and over-curiosity by consuming the fruit forbidden to her. Lilith, thought to be Adam’s first wife, shows disobedience perhaps arising from her
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View of the Pallisades from the Medieval Cloisters at the New York Metropolitan Museum, where over 200 million years ago the supercontinent Pangea ripped apart.
Today (January 22, 2023) marks the lunar New Year in Chinese culture, marked by many festivities and foods as the celebrants hope to usher in a year of prosperity and happiness. This reel and the following images show the New Year Lion Dance, an ancient tradition wherein people (often martial artists from a local school)
Slide from a lecture by Dr. Robert Miller from Catholic University, who spoke this evening at Shippensburg about his new book on dragons in Ancient Near Eastern history. The dragon was often symbolic of chaos, and associated with the sea – appropriate because many cultures adapting this myth were not seafaring, and to them oceans
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Shippensburg University was very lucky to have Dr. Francesco Lodá speak this evening about dueling in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Focusing especially on the Italian Marcelli familial school-of-arms, Professor Lodà demonstrated that the most advanced Masters of Arms achieved very high status, despite the fact that they had not originated from the aristocracy
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We had a full house this evening at Shippensburg University with guest speaker John Maietta, who gave a fascinating talk on some of the best-loved beverages in history: “Strong drinks and heavenly brews: a history of beer, wine, coffee, and tea”. Here I am with Dr Mark Spicka of the history department and guest speaker
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Presenting research today (February 25, 2023) at the Wilson College Humanities Conference, which was focusing on non-human animals! Here I am with my fellow presenters Catherine Clay (who talked about the role of bees in Russia), Christina Luo (speaking about chickens in Ancient Europe). I talked about horses in the Middle Ages. The papers today
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