Just how alien were the barbarians in the late Roman Empire? If you have visual images of fur-clad screaming warriors beating up clean-shaven and well-coiffed toga-wearing Romans after reading that sentence, no shade, but you are behind in your Ancient Roman history studies. By the time of the Western Empire’s collapse in the 5th century,
Ancient Rome’s Genetic Admixture Read More »
This memorial at Grandview Cemetery in the Pennsylvanian steel town of Johnstown commemorates the flood of 1889. As you can see, hundreds of tombstones mark the anonymous dead, and there were hundreds more besides — 2,208 to be exact, making it one of the worst national disasters in USA history. Visiting the memorial is a
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The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia is no mere roadside attraction, but a destination well worth the four-hour drive it took to get there. The Civil-War Era institution has been featured on a number of ghost-themed shows and appears in the video game Fallout 76, but you don’t need to believe in spirits
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Hannibal Barca was the GOAT character of the entirety of the Ancient Roman Republic, and he wasn’t even Roman. Far from it, he led the great Mediterranean power of the Kingdom of Carthage against the Roman state, very nearly crushing the nascent Empire during the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE). This coin, minted during the
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One of the earliest documented prisons is also among the grimmest in history. This is the Tullianum of Ancient Rome, today called the Mamertime prison. Surviving the centuries because it gained a reputation as a Christian holy site where the saints Peter and Paul might have been held, the Tullianum carcer, or jail, dates back
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A profile worth celebrating for Black history month is American-British Ira Aldridge (1807-1867), one of the first Black tragedian actors. Here you see him depicted as the character Othello from the Shakespeare play, in this exquisite bust of marble and metal rendered by the contemporary Italian artist Pietro Calvi. The texture of the marble looks
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The story of Queen Nijinga of Ndongo (1583-1663), one of the most skilled diplomats and military tacticians in African history, is a perfect way to usher in Black history month. There is simply not enough space here to do this ruler’s legacy full justice, but today people in modern Angola recognize her as one of
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The familiar nursery rhymes of today come from a myriad of sources and some have macabre origin legends. “London Bridge Is Falling Down” is among the earliest known, appearing in the 1659 play “The London Chaunticleres.” The theme of dilapidated bridges appeared in other European rhymes, including “Le Porte” from 14th century Italy, but also
London Bridge is Falling Down: The Myths Behind Its Lyrics Read More »
Hildreth Meière (1892-1961) was one of the most important architectural designers of the early 20th century, and made her reputation with large-scale murals in a pronounced Art Deco style. Born in Flushing, Queens, New York City, Meière was influenced in her artistic career by a year of study in Florence, where she received training and
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Julia Morgan is an American architect we all should know about. Her career spanned decades in the first half of the 20th century, and the mark she made – with over 700 commissioned buildings– defined the contours of northern Californian architecture. Because she was a woman and because of her reticent personality, her work was
Julia Morgan and her Belltower “El Campanil” Read More »
Here is the Late Medieval ideal of the most beautiful woman imaginable, and I want to draw your attention to her hair – specifically where it isn’t. Yes, Bathsheba’s golden locks, seen in this exquisite late 15th-c illumination, trail down her back in full glory, but also check out her pubes, or not – because
Female Pubic Hair and its Removal in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe Read More »
The master artist Raphael rendered this portrait of a maiden with a unicorn. It’s a paean to the way Italian 16th-century men concieved of beauty and virtue — the two were inextricably woven together. And perhaps Raphael didn’t mean it, but his painting also shows how fantastical and unrealistic these expectations were for most women
Raphael and Patriarchal Standards in Renaissance Italy Read More »
Today I was treated with a personal tour of Ancient Coptic textiles from Shippensburg University’s very own collection from the Fashion Archives and Museum. Undergraduate intern Steph Craven has developed a focus on textile analysis and restoration, and brought out four boxes of these sumptuous embroidered fragments from Egypt’s earliest Christian communities for me to
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The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC is an astonishing and powerful testimony to this country’s heritage. Showcasing the trajectory of African American history from the centuries of enslavement through the period of legalized apartheid and Jim Crow laws, the exhibits also portray the ways that Black Americans from
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This Ancient Greek statuette, a votive offering showing a pregnant women wearing a supportive binder, speaks to the palpable fears and worries that pregnant women from this part of history all faced. The figurine’s mouth seems to be contorted in pain, perhaps due to her labor. In the Ancient Greek world, when a woman became
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Who doesn’t like themselves a good frightening Ancient Egyptian death mystery? These four statues here, found in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, depict Sekhmet, the cat goddess of sickness. Because she controlled disease, worshippers prayed to her for health. Tension between Ancient Egyptian health and disease-causing agents was recently resurrected by several articles
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This is an actual Ducking Chair, made in England in the 1600s, designed for publically humiliating and frightening those strapped into it by plunging them into water. Importantly, it was only for women.In England — and its burgeoning North American colonies — urbanization, capitalism, and religious and political turmoil were all on the rise, which
Oh, the poor, damned site of the Colonial Jamestown settlement in Virginia. Here you see a recreation of the fort, originally built in 1607, less than a year that three ships set out with 104 men from England under a charter by the Virginia Company to colonize this part of the New World. Money-making and
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Theophrastus was an Ancient Greek dude, whose imporance I hope to persuade you of. Living between 371-287 BCE, he was one of Aristotle’s besties, and even ran the Lyceum as Aristotle’s successor.The reason people know him today is because Theophrastus wrote some books about plants that were among the most important on that subject for
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Behold the Ishango bone! It may seem small (10 cm or almost 4 inches), but not only is it ancient — to the tune of 20,000 years old — but it also might be the first known recorded lunar calendar, perhaps indicating that a woman developed some of the earliest mathematics.But let’s back up a
