Archaeology · Observations · Mores · Ethnography
Remember the news about the skeletons holding hands that turned out to be the remains of two men? When it comes to Viking paired burials, such as those in these illustrations, there is a hypothesis far removed from the silly formula of "they lived happily ever after and died
Archaeology · Faith · Observations · Palaeontology
Though statements about the spiritual world of Palaeolithic people are pure fantasy, of course, given the complete absence of material. For the most part I take such theories as fantasy, but a SANCTUARY with mammoth bones is really something and fits my subject, so I could not help sharing it.
Archaeology · Faith · Science · Ethnography
Archaeologists have discovered a sacred place of people who lived 23,000 years ago at a Palaeolithic site in the Bryansk Region. It was a hearth with mammoth bones dug into it, and beneath them lay objects which, in the researchers' opinion, were used for ritual purposes. Among them
Archaeology · Art · Museums · Mores · Ethnography
One of many paired Etruscan funerary urns, 500s BC. It is generally held that the spouses depicted are sharing a meal. The wife may be passing her husband an aromatic liquid, perfume or oil, while in her left hand she holds a pomegranate, the symbol of immortality. Hm. Two on
Archaeology · Books · Observations · Science · Education
Friends! My book is out! It is a course of study on the peopling of the Americas, on which I worked for two years and which sets out exhaustive information on where the first people to reach the American continent came from, by what route, what drove them and what
Archaeology · The East · Observations · Humour
Remember the episode of Family Guy in which Peter Griffin recalled his grandfather's sister, whose legs went all the way up to her ears? I have recently found the archaeological prototype of this character. At first glance, these terracotta statuettes look like figures of Apollo: the lyre of
Archaeology · Museums · Mores
This is what a tin can looked like in Ancient Rome. This clay amphora of AD 70-100, for instance, states that it contains young tuna, matured for two years. The amphora is known to have been packed in the south of Spain. What sort of fish is matured for
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Observations
The furnishings from Tutankhamun's tomb are, for me, among the most powerful aesthetic experiences. It is scarcely credible that this dates from the 1300s BC. I can quite easily picture the golden couches in the form of lions and bulls, the heads of the celestial cow, the chests,
Archaeology · The East · Heritage · Society
Turkish authorities have confirmed that in October they will flood one of humanity's oldest permanent settlements, the city of Hasankeyf on the banks of the Tigris. The city, where Mesopotamian civilisation, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Turks and the Ottomans have all left their mark, still preserves Neolithic
Archaeology · Museums · Mores · Ethnography
Remember the expression "to okrutit' someone" (literally, to wind someone round, and so to ensnare them into marriage)? It is tied to the custom of winding a bride's hair around her head in a particular way: on her wedding day a Russian girl acquired the
Archaeology · Books · Mores · People
In 1902 Rudyard Kipling bought, at a bargain price, an ancient house near the hamlet of Burwash in Sussex. The road to the house ran over a high hill, and to climb it a carriage needed a second horse harnessed on, which did little for the property's appeal
Archaeology · Faith · Cinema · Books · Museums · Observations
These hands, too, have been raised from the depths, though not of the sea but of a marsh. The pottery found in 1891 in the marsh of Santa Gilla dates from the 4th-3rd centuries BC. These are votive hands, that is, offered as gifts in fulfilment of a vow,