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NB! · Faith · Art · Moscow
Public Servants at the Palm Sunday Celebrations, Moscow, 1654
Public Servants at the Palm Sunday Celebrations, Moscow, 1654. Unknown artist
NB! · Archive · Faith · Art · Monarchies
Palm Sunday from the prayer book of Mary of Guelders, Queen of Scotland, who tormented King James II all her life, until he was killed by a fragment of a cannon that burst during a salute in honour of the ill-starred Mary
NB! · Archaeology · Monarchies · Rome · Humour
Castration as punishment for crimes against the emperor in Ancient Rome and China
In Ancient Rome and China, insulting the ruler, rebellion and other crimes against the emperor were punished by castration. Here, by way of illustration, are some Roman castration tongs. These ones, admittedly, were for animals. Something to ponder at your leisure
NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Nature
The fossilised trunk of an ancient giant clubmoss, Lepidodendron, at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; these trees reached 35 metres in height and a metre in girth
NB! · Nature · Humour
Pandas Come in Such Varieties, Too
Almaty · Books · Society · People · Saint Petersburg
Dzhambul Dzhabayev addresses the people of Leningrad in a poem of September 1941
Jambyl Jabayev Leningraders, my children! Leningraders, my pride! In the current of the steppe stream I see a glint of the Neva's current. If along the snowy ridges I glide my aged gaze, I see the arches of your bridges, The blueness of the Baltic dawns, The swarms
Almaty · Books · Moscow · Observations · Society · People
Akyn Jambul became famous in 1936 after the decade of Kazakh art in Moscow
The Kazakh poet Dzhambul won fame very late: he became known only in 1936, when he was already very old. It cannot be said that nothing had been heard of him before. Dzhambul Dzhabayev was surrounded by a large family and was, by all accounts, a distinguished akyn, the victor
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Heritage
Mosaic of Fishing Cupids at the Villa Casale in Sicily, Discovered in 1959
Another witty mosaic from the same villa in Sicily: cupids fishing. The Villa Cozele (Villa Casale), where this mosaic was uncovered in 1959, is one of the richest monuments of ancient Roman art in situ
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Humour
Mosaic from a fourth-century villa shows young women in bikinis at sport
A mosaic of girls in bikinis from a fourth-century villa. They run, lift weights and play ball. And judging by the tummies so carefully depicted, the aim of the exercise is weight loss. A girl in a toga presents a palm branch and a crown to the best of
NB! · Faith · Art
Fra Angelico's Annunciation from Cortona, with Golden Words Flying from the Archangel's Mouth
NB! · Faith · Art · Museums