The Ancient Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet has a fascinating double role as both a vengegeful deity of destruction — especially bringing plague — but also a force that was thought to ward off disease. Her name can mean “The Mighty One” but she was also called the “Mistress of Dread.”. A particularly entertaining myth associated with […]
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“The Thunder, Perfect Mind” is a mesmerizing poem dating perhaps to the second century CE. It reflects the mingling of many different belief systems in the Roman Empire, such as those ideas popular with the Cult of the Egyptian Goddess Isis, shown here in a Roman-styled rendition.It takes the voice of a female divine being,
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You are looking at a highly sophisticated mnemonic devise representing ideas about the nature of reality crafted by one of the most famous thinkers killed by the Catholic Church for heresy. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) is well-known for refusing to recant his ideas in the face of the Inquisition. Many notions he favored ultimately found support
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The dates of the objects in this composite image are far removed from the origin of their subjects: in the background is the Edwin Smith Papyrus, dating from the 17th-century BCE, but ultimately stemming from about 2500 BCE. In the foreground is a Greek Hellenistic statue of Imhotep, the Ancient Egyptian polymath whom many suspect
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It might make us uncomfortable to think about death, but it gives us a space to connect with each other across the eons. Once we reach a certain age, the end of our lives is something every person considers. And that is exactly what the subject of this sculpture is doing.We all know about the
Ancient Egyptians Obsession With Death Read More »
In this third crossover history post on “fashion statements that made history” with Katie McGowan, I feature one of the most famous beards in history, worn by the Pharoh Hatshepsut, which means “foremost of women.” Yep, you read that right: Hatshepsut dressed in drag.Hatshepsut (c. 1503-1482 BCE) had been wedded to the powerful ruler Thutmose
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These pottery remains might not look like much to the untrained eye, but they are in fact recently discovered elements from what may be the world’s oldest beer factory.Located in the ancient Egyptian burial ground of Abydos, the collection of enormous units of pottery basins that heated the mixture of water and grains to make
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Check out this recently discovered mummy with a gold-foil tongue — It’s about 2,000 years old and comes from the Ancient Egyptian city of Taposiris Magna. Scholars believe the special tongue was to be able to speak in the afterlife — maybe to answer to Osiris, the divine judge of the dead.News of this discovery
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Folks, step right up and cast your eyes on the oldest known monastic site to be excavated. Located in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt West of the Nile (see second image), the most recent dig happened in 2020 as the COVID pandemic wore on.It is simply incredible that such rich discoveries are still being made.
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Today’s post is about the history of a symbol — one which appeared in numerous civilizations across time and whose meaning reflected the concerns of each culture it appeared in. I’m talking about the snake that eats its own tail — the ouroboros.In Ancient Egypt the ouroboros appeared in the 13th-century tomb of “King Tut”
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Graduation ceremonies are in abundance in many parts of the world right now, and I love to point out just how Medieval these ceremonies are. Y’all in the robes — you’re Cosplaying, because those outfits are from back in the Middle Ages. And relative to another tradition from these times is the university ceremonial mace,
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The 14th-century BCE Pharaoh Tutankhamun’ s burial is the most famous in Egyptian history. Although the tomb was discovered in the early 20th century, it was only in 2016 that a team of scientists demonstrated that the object shown here was made of a substance more valued than gold: it is a dagger with an
One of the best things about studying history is that it has the potential to make one’s day just a little bit better because The Past had so many shitty components. For instance, there’s a fairly good chance that if you are reading this, you are not dealing with head lice.Lice are just enough of
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It’s always super fun to look at eccentric Victorians, and I think the extreme Egyptian-philes of the 19th century take the cake. On that note, might I introduce the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? Pictured here are two of the most (in)famous members, Aleister Crowley (he trained there before breaking off to start
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The Victorians loved themselves a good Ancient Egyptian mummy, but it turns out that 16th and 17th century Europeans did too — as ingestible medicine. But let me not get ahead of myself.First, one must acknowledge the enormous usage of mummies that Victorians did indeed employ. Starting in the 16th century, “mummy brown” became prized
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“Worked up to desperation, he applied the wires of the battery and put the apparatus in motion, whilst a demonic laugh of derision appeared to ring in his ears, and the surrounding mummies seemed starting from their places and dancing in unearthly merriment . . . .” These are the first words in English to
Jane Loudon’s “The Mummy” Read More »
Many, many places have I loved in London, but Highgate Cemetery has a special place in my heart. Construction began on this Victorian burial ground in 1839, when the city had long outgrown real estate for the dead. Only the very wealthy afforded tombs and mausoleums there. Tourists today can seek out the graves of
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Last on a series of posts on Victorian Egyptomania. One of the ways Victorians enjoyed themselves a good mummy was from the mummy unwrapping parties that became popular, beginning in 1821 when a man named Giovanni Belzoni did a highly publicized event near Piccadilly Circus that attracted over 2000 people. The fad took off from
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This Ancient Egyptian “shadow clock” dates to the Ptolemaic Period (330-306 BCE), but is representative of the earliest known timepieces. The earliest extant dates to about 1500 BCE, but this fragment is much more interesting to look at. Check out the parallel and oblique lines engraved on the sloping face: one would have placed a
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We might not realize it, but the Christian culture of today carries with it a footprint of the spiritual universe of the Ancient Mediterranean world. Although modern scientific models overlay most of our ideas about what the universe looks like, the pagan, Christian, and Jewish religions of Ancient Rome had undergone a sort of revolution
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