This bottle of Chateau Margaux from 1787 has the initials “Th.J.” etched onto its side, which stand for the owner’s name: Thomas Jefferson. That is why, when a restaurant server took a bump that upended it, the insurance company ponied up $225,000, making it the most expensive bottle of wine never sold.
Thomas Jefferson’s Chateau Margaux Wine Read More »
This is a portrait of Emilie du Chatelet (d. 1749), a brilliant mathematician and physicist from the French Enlightenment. Multi-talented (by age twelve she knew six languages, she studied fencing and astronomy), Emilie supported her scientific interests like buying textbooks and lab equipment by using her math abilities to succeed at gambling. One of her
French Mathematician and Physicist – Emilie du Chatelet Read More »
In the midst of the Gila National Forest in New Mexico stands this cross-topped mound. It marks the crypt and burial site of Sergeant James Cooney, and the marker besides the grave tells readers that Cooney was killed by Indians in 1880 as he tried to warn settlers about an upcoming Indian raid. What the
New Mexico’s Gila National Forest Read More »
Squint a bit, and you will be able to see things that look like white circles along a horizontal axis in the center of this photo. They are not raindrops, but six of the twenty-seven enormous radio telescopes that make up the Very Large Array. Located on a remote plain off Highway 60 in central
Very Large Array Telescopes of New Mexico Read More »
10,000 years ago is young in geological history. This relatively small number seems counterintuitive when one encounters the vast space of white sands in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico. The dunes here make up the world’s largest gypsum fields: at 275 square miles, they can be seen by astronauts from space.
White Sands of New Mexico Read More »
You are looking at the footprint of a giant sloth – one of the megafauna mammals that died out by the end of the last ice age over 11,700 years ago. Nestled inside is a contemporary human footprint, one of the first concrete pieces of evidence that giant sloths interacted with people. At eight feet
Ancient Giant Sloth Footprints Read More »
Astrolabes were the medieval version of a GPS. Although still fashioned today in various manifestations, the most famous versions were those created by Muslim scientists living in the Medieval Middle East. If you’ve ever seen one, this photo from the Islamic world circa 1480 CE might look different: usually astrolabes were two-dimensional celestial spheres. I
Medieval Middle Eastern Astrolabes Read More »
This hooked metal tool was called a “strigil” by Ancient Romans. Centuries ago, such instruments were used in the process of bathing: you would scrape dirt, sweat, and the ubiquitous Mediterranean olive oil off your skin with it before your bath.
Ancient Roman Strigils Read More »
Structures known as Irish Round Towers, built from the late 8th-12th centuries CE, dotted the island in medieval centuries. The only monumental stone buildings in Ireland to come before the Normans invaded, the towers used to be thought to function as lookouts for Viking invasions. Historians now ascribe less martial functions to the buildings, thinking
Irish Round Towers Read More »
This painting from 1494 is possibly a depiction of the famed Lucrezia Borgia appearing as Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The oxymoronic nature of such a depiction is obvious if we have heard of the many legends (incest, poisonings, etc) of this _femme fatale_. Of course, many of the tales are completely unproven, and probably can
The Powerful Lucrezia Borgia Read More »
In the very late 19th- and early 20th- centuries, the Spiritualist movement had a strong influence in Western Europe and the United States. Many adherents believed that spiritual mediums could guide listeners in conversations among the living and dead during seances. One of the oddest components of these otherworldly gatherings was a substance called ectoplasm,
Seances and Ectoplasm Read More »
This photo of a Medieval staircase from Ballyhannon Castle in Ireland (c. 1490) shows a typical construction: the staircases were usually spiralled clockwise moving up, so that defenders could take the advantage using the center beam for protection, while attackers had a harder time using their sword-arms without exposing their bodies. An exception that proves
Medieval Clockwise Staircases Read More »
When the artist Larry Harvey first set fire to a 9-foot wooden effigy of a man and began a ceremony now celebrated annually at Black Rock City, Nevada, he had never heard of the famous 1973 cult horror film, “The Wicker Man,” which took its cue from an alleged Celtic practice of human sacrifice. In
Human Sacrifice in Ancient Celtic British Life Read More »
Musical instruments are one of the hallmarks of the radical change in complex culture that started to mark human history after 50,000 BCE. Some scientists even like to refer to our species after this benchmark era as _Homo Sapiens Sapiens_, stressing the “extra” smarts we apparently showcased after this time. But important questions remain. Pictured
The Neanderthal Flute Read More »
One of the earliest Medieval European depictions of an elephant as rendered by Matthew Paris in his Chronica Maiora II, 1235-1259. Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 16 f. 151v.
Medieval European Elephant Depictions Read More »
Kite flying was first recorded in Ancient China. Among the earliest accounts includes a story of the famed general Han Xin (d. 196 BCE), one of the most important leaders to establish China’s influential and long-lasting Han Dynasty. Desiring to tunnel under a city wall he was trying to conquer, Han Xin figured out the
Ancient Chinese Kite Flying Read More »
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 »
Rapunzel Syndrome gets its name from the fairy tale first published in writing in 1790, although earlier renditions go back to the early 1600s. Whereas the character Rapunzel uses her long hair to let a prince into her tower, in the syndrome, the person with the illness eats their hair. The hairball settles in the
Rapunzel’s Syndrome Read More »
My last post talked about Rapunzel’s Syndrome, in which unfortunate sufferers eat their own hair. Since hair cannot be digested, a mass forms in the patients’ stomachs, often requiring surgery. There is a fascinating but gruesome silver lining to situations such as these, however, which is that sometimes these masses can congeal and take shape
The Creation and Desire for Bezoars 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 »
