Archive · Faith · Ethnography

Which horns are used for the shofar at Rosh Hashanah services and what it symbolises

At the synagogue service for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), the shofar, a wind instrument made of a ram's horn, is sounded a hundred times, the very instrument whose blasts brought down the walls of Jericho. A shofar is made from the horns of rams, antelopes and

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

Indecency, 1799

Indecency, 1799. It reminded me of a woman artist of my acquaintance who, rather than queue for the lavatory at Simachev's, went to relieve herself round the corner, where she was caught in the act. Since then we have conversed only across the fence

Museums · Observations · Society · Society Pages

The May Decrees of 2012 excluded copy exhibitions from museums' state assignments

At a museum dinner marking Leo Tolstoy's 190th anniversary, I learned that among other things the May Decrees of 2012 included a provision that exhibitions of copies do not count towards the state assignment, so a museum cannot report them as fulfilment of its plan. The innovation was

NB! · Architecture · Art · Books · Heritage

The archivolt of the north portal of Modena Cathedral may contain the earliest depiction of a scene from the life of King Arthur, dating to 1120–1130

Archaeology · Palaeontology · Nature

Fisherman Raymond McElroy hauls giant deer skull from Lough Neagh in his net

A simple Irish fisherman, Raymond McElroy, has found the skull of a giant deer (otherwise known as the great-horned or Irish deer). The find landed in a fishing net in the largest lake in Great Britain, Lough Neagh (in Northern Ireland, not far from Belfast). This is the second

NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Nature

A Skull Found by a Fisherman in an Irish Lough Lay Underwater for More Than Ten Thousand Years and Belongs to the Vanished Giant Deer

NB! · Faith · Museums · Mores · Paris

The Very Reliquary with the Teeth of Abelard and Heloise, Once Owned by Alexandre Lenoir

Books · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage · Paris

In one of the tales in Alexandre Dumas's "A Thousand and One Ghosts" we meet a certain Monsieur Ledru, keeper of an entire collection of royal relics, which he acquired by attending the despoiling of the burial vaults in the Basilica of Saint-Denis and ta

In one of the tales in Alexandre Dumas's "A Thousand and One Ghosts" we meet a certain Monsieur Ledru, keeper of an entire collection of royal relics, which he acquired by attending the despoiling of the burial vaults in the Basilica of Saint-Denis and taking

NB! · Faith · Heritage

The Foot of Saint Catherine of Siena, Patron Saint of Italy, in the Altar of the Right Aisle of the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, One of the Largest Churches in Venice

Skeletons of deer and horned hoofed animals in a hall with tall arched windows, with two large-horned skulls in the foreground.

NB! · Museums · Palaeontology · Paris · Humour

The Parade of Skeletons in the Paris Palaeontology Laboratory Exhibition

The exhibition of the Paris palaeontology laboratory is called a parade of skeletons, because all the skeletons face the same way. And yes, these beasts look as though they have only just reached retirement age in Russia

A hand touches the flipper bones of a whale skeleton displayed in a museum hall, with other skeletons visible behind.

NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour

Blue whale flipper in a museum display and its resemblance to a human hand

The flipper of a blue whale. Isn't it practically a hand?

Archaeology · Moscow · Observations · Science · People

Moscow bids farewell to Ekaterina Devlet, specialist in early forms of art

Today in Moscow we bade farewell to the distinguished scholar Ekaterina Georgievna Devlet. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academic Secretary of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Centre for Palaeoart, Professor Ekaterina Devlet was a leading specialist in early forms of art and in

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