Archaeology · Art · Museums · Observations · Rome
In the collection of the National Museum of Rome there is an extraordinary marble block with a relief of a half-naked woman rising with the help of two attendants whose heads and shoulders, regrettably, have been broken off. This monument of the 5th century BC is usually called the
NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Observations · Mores · Humour
I thought Soviet baby dolls were creepy, and then I saw these Roman bone dolls with movable limbs, 3rd to 4th centuries AD. Shall we talk about the psyche of the children of Ancient Rome?
Archaeology · Art · Museums · Rome
The young centaur from the celebrated pair of Furietti Centaurs of the 2nd century, found in the 18th century at Hadrian's Villa and kept in the Capitoline Museums. Copies of these sculptures are displayed all over the world; this two-coloured replica, for instance, dates from the Hadrianic
Archaeology · Monarchies · Museums · Observations · Mores · New York · Humour
This couch is assembled from fragments, some of which come from the imperial villa of Lucius Verus near Rome and date to the 1st-2nd centuries AD. It is kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The glass inlay may not correspond to the original, but the bone panels are
Archaeology · Museums · Rome · Humour
Roman artefacts are the Chanel of the antiques world. A plain stone from the ruins of Rome may turn out to be a fragment of sculpture from an ancient temple, a mosaic from a senator's house or a column from a sumptuous palace. In the 18th century a
Archaeology · Art · Museums
In the 1st century BC the Roman general Lucullus commissioned a marble copy of the bronze group by the celebrated sculptor Lysippos, which commemorated Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians at the Battle of the Granicus. Of the marble statues there survive a couple of torsos, a
Archaeology · The East · Monarchies · Museums · Science · Paris · Humour
In September 1976 Egypt issued a passport for the Pharaoh Ramesses II. The document certified that Ramesses II was indeed the Pharaoh of Egypt and had been born in 1303 BC. Egyptian scientists had noticed that the pharaoh's body had begun to decay rapidly, possibly owing to the
Archaeology · Palaeontology · Nature
A simple Irish fisherman, Raymond McElroy, has found the skull of a giant deer (otherwise known as the great-horned or Irish deer). The find landed in a fishing net in the largest lake in Great Britain, Lough Neagh (in Northern Ireland, not far from Belfast). This is the second
Archaeology · Moscow · Observations · Science · People
Today in Moscow we bade farewell to the distinguished scholar Ekaterina Georgievna Devlet. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academic Secretary of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Centre for Palaeoart, Professor Ekaterina Devlet was a leading specialist in early forms of art and in
NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Mores · Humour
Badges like this were a popular souvenir among medieval pilgrims. True, they say little about the holy places visited, but in every other respect they are eloquent enough. This travelling vulva is from the 14th century
Archaeology · Museums
In 1859, a boy walking along the bogs at Stidsholt in Denmark spotted a woven ribbon sticking out of the ground. Pulling at the ribbon, the lad drew out of the peat layer the mummified head of a red-haired woman. The local doctor established that the head had been
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums
The Etruscan terracotta Apollo of the 3rd century BC from the Scasato temple at Falerii was long held to be a sculpted portrait of Alexander the Great. But what is more interesting about the statue is the splendid rendering of the suntan