This picture of the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, is not only beautiful but also scientifically important. It was taken by British scientist Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), and was the first physical test of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Of course, in retrospect, over 100 years later it might seem obvious that massive objects
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The Chi-rho page beginning the Gospel of Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels from the 8th century.
Dr. Timothy May, specialist in Mongolian history, spoke at Shippensburg University this evening. My favorite annecdote was when he talked about the Daoist monk who warned Chinggis Khan that he would live longer if he quit drinking, hunting, and having quite so much sex. The leader of ored the monk, and Chinggis Khan died from
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A reconstruction of the Jerusalem palace of King Herod the Great (d. 4 BCE). Only ruins remain, but the opulance and decor of the palace/fortress meant to many contemporary Jews that Herod was a Roman accomodationist. This had many Jewish groups – the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Zealots, for example, upset.
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Sheila na gigs are medieval sculptures of females holding exaggerated vulva. The highest concentration are found in Ireland, where they were popular in the 12th century – perhaps to ward off evil. You are welcome.
St. Daniel (5th century) was a “Stylite” or pillar saint. That meant sequestering oneself to the top of a tall column and living there. An example of early Christian asceticism, Daniel actually had worms coming out of his feet because he stayed still and pillar-bound for so many years.
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This is an early 14th copy of the _Trotula_, a medical text on women’s conditions. Trota of Salerno was one of the book’s authors. She was from the 1100s, and was called “magistra” or “female master” because her medical knowledge was so respected in her day.
Diogenes followed the Ancient Greek philosophy Cynicism (meaning rejection of conventional materialism and a desire for extreme simplicity and authentic living). He was said to have lived in a jar, and carried a lamp around during the day in search for an honest man.
The origins of human history keeps getting pushed further back in time, as a recent analysis of a wooden structure in Africa dating back almost a half a million years demonstrates. For reference, anthropologists now date the emergence of homo sapiens to about 200,000 years ago (although some argue for 300,000). The wooden structure discovered
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And what, pray tell, is going on here? This macabre device is a 1694 illustration of the weighing chair of Sanctorius Sanctorius (1561-1636), an Italian scientist who was the first (that we know of) to mesh quantitative experiments with the study of how the human body works. For thirty years, Santorio measured people’s sweat. Influenced
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Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? The tale of the Greenbrier Ghost of West Virginia is among the finest in 19th-century American history, and I think it deserves more attention. As you can see in the second slide, the ghost, Elva Zona Heaster Shue (first image), is commemorated on a West Virginia state historical
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The Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia is definitely worth visiting. It was a unique and highly influential prison, and the current site now has first-rate displays with the buildings intentionally kept in a state of semi-decay. The ambience perfectly matched the subject. Once the USA’s largest prison, Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829 with
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The image you see here conjures up the Biblical Satan, but it originates from a 19th-century Christian socialist and has everything to do with a niche occultic revival rather than Biblical ideas about the devil and dark forces. In fact, the illustrator, Eliphas Levi, believed that all religions came from an ancient primitive source, and
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This is the _Medusa Rondanini_, an Ancient Roman copy of a Classical Greek. It is one of the most famous ancient sculptures to show Medusa as lovely — before the 5th century BCE, artists depicted her as horrifying. Regardless, her image was often used to ward off ill fortune.
Many scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry – commissioned shortly after the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066 – are familiar, but some of my favorite elements are ones that need decoding. For example, many places show left hands gesturing, seeming to indicate something awry or sinister (sinestra is Latin for left). The English
She looks wide-eyed in this picture to me, but Milunka Savic was the opposite of an ingenue. This 20th-century Serbian fought in the Balkan Wars and the First World War, and in World War II spent time in a Concentration Camp. She cleared these hurdles with chutzpah to spare and is the most decorated female
Without even googling, I am certain that what you see here has been the subject of a multitude of (probably very expensive but one hopes well-executed) tattoos: this is the famous Dendera zodiac of about 50 BCE, one of the most complete star-charts from the Ancient world. What you can see on it is fantastic.
Orpheus turning back to look at Eurudice, from an early 15th century manuscript known as “L’Epitre Othea” or Harley 4431 (folio 126v)
This tiny bottle contains a unique substance: a perfume called _Fougère Royale_ created by the master perfumer Paul Parquet back in 1882. The line has since been discontinued or altered, so the smell in this bottle might actually be found nowhere else on the planet. This perfume, and 400 other unique fragrances, make up only
