Sheep and wool in the records of the Third Dynasty of Ur: flocks, weavers and wool grades

According to records from the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur (roughly 2112–2004 BC), the country's sheep population stood at about 320,000 head. One administrative document from Girsu mentions 74,533 sheep. Another lists 816 women weavers who worked under the command of overseers. The state classified wool into roughly ten grades, and wool accounted for as much as 62 per cent of the merchants' trading capital

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Fashion Is Cyclical

Fashion is cyclical

Black-and-white photograph of a young woman in a shimmering vest and two men in dark suits, smiling and moving casually in a studio.

Lyudmila Gurchenko, Muslim Magomayev and Polad Bulbul oglu in one photograph

Lyudmila Gurchenko, Muslim Magomayev and Polad Bulbul oglu

Manuscript spread showing rows of colourful fishes on a dark ground, with a crocodile and a turtle, in an ornamental border with Arabic text.

Fishes in a 17th-18th century manuscript at the University of St Andrews after the work of al-Qazwini

Illustrations from a copy of the "Book of the Wonders of the Age" of the 17th-18th century, held at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Marvellous fish illustrate the work of the Arab writer Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Qazwini, who lived in the 13th century.

Freshwater fish in the diet makes radiocarbon dates of bones from Danish monasteries look older

A fish diet can make radiocarbon dates of bones look older A Danish-Dutch team of scientists has checked the radiocarbon dating of 27 burials in medieval Danish monasteries. One would naturally suppose that monks and noble laymen could not have been buried at a monastery before the brethren had

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Fashion Is Cyclical

Lyudmila Gurchenko, Muslim Magomayev and Polad Bulbul oglu in one photograph

Fishes in a 17th-18th century manuscript at the University of St Andrews after the work of al-Qazwini

Freshwater fish in the diet makes radiocarbon dates of bones from Danish monasteries look older