Archaeology · Science · Nature

Ancient DNA reveals plague in 18 of 46 hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region

Continuing our reading on plague among the hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region 5,500 years ago. An international team has studied ancient DNA from human remains at four burial grounds in the Lake Baikal area and, by sequencing genetic material preserved in teeth, has reconstructed bacterial genomes and identified

Archaeology · Science · Society · Ethnography

Model estimates Australia's Indigenous population at 2.22 million in 1788

A new estimate of the Indigenous population of Australia before the arrival of Europeans has been published. Modelling based on archaeological, genetic, ethnographic and ecological data has produced a median estimate of 2.22 million people by 1788, that is, by the arrival of the First Fleet. Earlier estimates ranged

London · Museums · Heritage · Ethnography

The Bayeux Tapestry Is Now on Show at the British Museum, but Photography Is Forbidden

The seventy-metre eleventh-century embroidery of the Norman conquest of England has arrived in London for the first time in almost a thousand years. France has lent it to the British Museum under an intergovernmental agreement for the period from September 2026 to July 2027, while the museum in

NB! · Observations

Yesterday's Sunset on Novaya Ploshchad

Hall with white walls covered in black drawings of a tree, birds and faces. Concrete tables with books stand on a mosaic tile floor; one reads «Reflection Square».

NB!

Exhibition hall with black-and-white wall drawings and concrete tables with books

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

What does Titian say to Cardinal Filippo Archinto?

What does Titian say to Cardinal Filippo Archinto? Quite right: I'll finish it later

A stylized sculpted head with angular features and an open cut-out around one eye stands on a white cubic plinth. A museum label is on the wall to the left.

NB!

Ernst Neizvestny, Head, 1961: sculpture on a plinth in a museum

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums

At the AZ/ART Contemporary Art Centre on Maroseyka, a Joint Exhibition of the AZ Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery

At the AZ/ART Contemporary Art Centre at Maroseyka, 11/4c1, a joint exhibition of the AZ Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery is under way. Until 29 November it shows 43 sculptures of the late 1950s and the 1960s from the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, the AZ Museum and

Old photograph: an elderly bearded man in a white tunic stands before a crowd of men and boys; an umbrella and flag at right, a wooden fence and a hill with houses behind.

NB!

Gray-bearded man in a white tunic among a crowd on a hillside

Archive · Architecture · Faith · Monarchies · Heritage · People

On 28 June 1899, the Tsarevich and Heir Apparent, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, third son of Alexander III and younger brother of Nicholas II, set out from Abastumani towards the Zekari Pass on a petrol-engined tricycle

On 28 June 1899, the Tsarevich and Heir Apparent, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, third son of Alexander III and younger brother of Nicholas II, set out from Abastumani towards the Zekari Pass on a petrol-engined tricycle. He had been taking treatment here for tuberculosis for many years. The newspaper

Art · Museums

Adriano Cecioni, "First Steps", 1868–1869

Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Faith · Art · Observations

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also

Matthew 6:21 A good Van Dyckian night to you! We are all on our own flight into Egypt, and like the Holy Family, we sometimes need a rest.

Alexandr Radayev