Archaeology The East Museums Ethnography

Hippopotamus statuettes from Byblos in the Beirut Museum and their link to fertility

The hippopotamuses themselves are also represented in the Bronze Age galleries of the Beirut Museum. These, for example, found in the Temple of the Obelisks at Byblos, portray an animal the Egyptians detested for its gluttony and its merciless raids on their plantations, and the rather dismissive attitude is conveyed in the crude modelling of these trinkets. The figurines, however, were linked not with the destructive zeal of the hippopotamus but with the high fertility of its females, and held sacred significance within a female mystical circle

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Hippopotamus statuettes from Byblos in the Beirut Museum and their link to fertility

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s