This is the so-called “Buddha bucket” — one of the many great archaeological remains from the most important Viking burial ship ever discovered — the Osenberg ship, dating from 834 CE (says dendrochronological analysis). 70 feet long and 16 feet wide, the ship had been intentionally set up on high ground away from other settlements, […]
Werewolf stories existed in Europe as long ago as Ancient Roman times, but the ways people imagined them changed. Whereas for much of the Middle Ages, werewolves retained some of their sympathetic human nature, by the late 15th century they began to figure as evil servants of the devil. Some men were even executed for
Olifants were Medieval horns carved out of elephants’ tusks. Their artistry borrows from cultures across the Mediterranean east, and they were used for special ritual occasions. In literature, the rash hero Roland ends up causing his entire army’s slaughter because he refuses to call for help on his olifant. The horn pictured here is from
This is John Tenniel’s famous 1871 illustration of the poem “Jabberwocky,” the most famous nonsense poem in the English language. Linguists have long remarked upon the genius of the way Lewis Carroll’s poem explores questions about language and meaning. But Tenniel’s illustration better shows the new Victorian awareness of Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution and
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“Ostara” by Johannes Gehrts (1884). The word “Easter” comes from the name of a Germanic fertility goddess. Very little is known about her (as is often the case about western European pagan deities), but the English writer Bede recorded in the 8th century that pagans had been partaking in rituals celebrating the goddess during one
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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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Being a hat maker was a deadly profession of the 19th century, as the life of Boston Corbett (died probably 1894) shows. Corbett is most famous for being the man who shot President Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Less well known is his unfortunate history of mental illness, likely caused or very much exacerbated by
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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
Big history post here (big history meaning all of history, not just human), about the fabulousness of how evolution works. This is about the ways bees created the colors we see on flowers. We know that bees are super-pollinators critical for much of earth’s plant life. And we observe how bees are drawn to sweet
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Here’s a nit-comb from Viking-era Denmark (late 700s). Today I am reading through arguments why we shouldn’t think of the Vikings as a filthy and unhygienic culture. On the plus side, we may observe the following: 1. Vikings combed lice from their hair (whoopie so do baboons).2. Vikings had “ear-spoons” to remove the wax from
Today I am discussing a little snippet, a slice (if you will), of an alleged Viking practice known as the Blood Eagle. Featured prominently in modern portrayals of Viking culture, the Blood Eagle was a horrifying method of execution in which the victim’s entire back was split open (perhaps by a spear with a hook
I’m not usually the kind of historian who gets ultra verklempt about weapons, not even Medieval ones. But these Viking-era swords were just mighty bitchin. From about 750-1100 CE, “Ulfberht” swords emerged in northern Europe, and they were different than the rest. Vikings and other peoples in northwestern Europe had already improved sword-making techniques: they
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
These six images of animals depicted in cave art come from an ice age dating up to 20,000 years ago, when hunter-gathering Homo sapiens created many vivid paintings such as the famous ones at Lascaux (15,000 BCE). This month in an article in the _Cambridge Archaeological Journal_ a team of researchers argue that they have
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Ringing Rocks County Park contains a 7-acre boulder field with an unusual feature: about a third of these rocks clang with a metallic ring when struck. The boulder field reached its current position about 12,000 years ago when the last Ice Age melted the great Wisconsin Glacier away from this part of Bucks County Pennsylvania.
What is the luckier life? The one where you get to do what you want and live authentically, or the one that lasts longer? For much of history, much of humanity had neither of these options, but for the mother-daughter royal pair featured here, the options were split. In Denmark during the age of the
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Check out this 12th century mosaic on the west wall of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello, Venice, Italy. The animals that have eaten up humans have to barf them back up again when it’s resurrection time. Eww. But this picture gets at some of the crazy logic loops that Medieval people had
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This is a post about a legacy of surrealistic and evocative art that originated from a very old book and a nearly-as-old garden, which influenced a philosopher who lived hundreds of years later and an artist living even later still. Might I present to you, dear readers, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili? The famous printer Aldus Manutius
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Check out the exhibit “Empresses of China’s Forbidden City: 1644-1912,” at the Arthur K. Sackler Gallery, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.. This epic portrait of the last dowager empress, Cixi, was commissioned by her. I love the fingernails!
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A gargoyle, from Notre Dame (these famed water spouts were only installed in the 1800s). The term comes from old French “gargouille” meaning “throat” but also the gurgling sound made by liquid in the throat. This of course refers to the rain-spout functionality of the gargoyle. But it also pertains to a medieval legend about
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