Archaeology · The East · Museums · Observations · Nature
A noble stump of Lebanese cedar from the 1st century BC, in excellent condition, which is, however, characteristic of the wood of this species. It stands in a place of honour by the main entrance of the National Museum of Beirut. With this venerable relic I should like to draw
Archaeology · The East · Museums · Ethnography
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
Archaeology · The East · Museums · Observations
This duck lying on its back was made in the Late Bronze Age from a hippopotamus tooth, and it is hollow inside. It is a special vessel for cosmetics and a true luxury object, an example of rare Lebanese work in ivory. From beak to belly, the duck was filled
Archaeology · Faith · Museums
The rhyton is a vessel like a horn, fashioned in the form of the lowered head of an animal. This rather rare Iron Age rhyton in the shape of a pig's head was found during the building of a road out of Tripoli in 1924, in a rich
NB! · Archaeology · The East · Art · Museums
Archaeology · Faith · Art · Museums
Relief of the 2nd century AD dedicated to the goddess Vesta, guardian of the hearth and patroness of the millers' guild, set up at the expense of the baker Pupius Firminus and his wife Mudasena Trophima. In one hand Vesta holds a sceptre, in the other a plate of
Archaeology · Faith · The East · Art · Museums · New York
An alabaster figurine from a Parthian-period necropolis, probably depicting Ishtar, the Akkadian goddess of love, fertility and war. The central female deity of the Mesopotamian pantheon is shown as a beautiful girl with a high bust and a narrow waist, ruby eyes, a headdress in the form of a
Archaeology · Art · Heritage · Rome
The back of the Ostia altar gave it a second name and a second life: it shows the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, which is why the monument is also called the altar of the twins. This subject, too, is bound up with the name of Mars, who, according
NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Art · Museums · Rome
In the month named after Mars, let us remember the god of war and the patron god of the Eternal City. The front face of the altar from the Ostian portico of AD 124, with its bas-relief of Mars, Venus and a goose, has survived rather badly, having probably
NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Art
The Stoibadeion, a phallus on a pedestal adorned with a relief of a cock with a penis for a head. One of two sculptures beside the sanctuary of Dionysus on the island of Delos. He was patron not only of parties but also of fertility, and was associated with phallic
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums · Rome
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums · Rome