Archaeology · Geography · Ethnography

PIERCING FIVE THOUSAND YEARS OLD

Labrets are traditional Neolithic ornaments, which in this case are made of slate. The plates, resembling gigantic teeth, were fixed to the body by piercing the skin. Labret lip plates are one of the many cultural bridges between Eurasia and America: they are found at Aleut, Eskimo and Indian sites.

NB! · Archaeology · Ethnography

Stone labret plates used as lip and cheek piercings found on the Taymyr Peninsula

Painted wooden model of three women and a man in white garments walking in line, two carrying baskets on their heads and one holding a bag.

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums

Servants carrying provisions for their master's afterlife in Ancient Egypt

Servants bear drink, food, cosmetics and valuables for their master's afterlife. Ancient Egypt

A white figurine of a cross-legged scribe on a white pedestal beside a black vessel with a relief pattern, against an orange wall.

NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Ethnography

Zapotec scribe figurine at the RGGU museum, named by analogy with Egyptian scribes

A Zapotec scribe figurine from the RSUH Museum. It received its name by analogy with the characteristic Egyptian scribe figurines, about which I wrote earlier: https://telegram.me/captainpaleo/74

NB! · Archaeology · Museums

The Ceramic Grenade of the Middle Ages

Archaeology · The East · Science

The first grenades of the early second millennium and theories of how they got their name

HAVE A POMEGRANATE. Yesterday's grenade from the time of the Crusaders, found by a power-station worker in Israel, looks like a giant stone persimmon (https://telegram.me/captainpaleo/85). So one wonders: why "grenade", of all things? I shall explain. Grenades entered active military use

NB! · Archaeology · Museums

A Medieval Hand Grenade

Old photograph of a narrow stone chamber with geometric patterns on its walls and four people sitting at its base.

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · Observations · Humour

Old photograph of a Mexican excavation with people seated by an ornamented wall

While we are in Mexico, here is another old photograph, from an excavation. I shan't go into details, just look at how romantic it appears. Indiana Jones would shed a tear

Archaeology · Architecture · Observations

Besides the design of the pyramid, with its nine-tiered sides and four staircases facing the cardinal points, it is interesting that beneath the building, at a depth of some 25 metres, lies a karst lake, which is thought capable of threatening the structu

Besides the design of the pyramid, with its nine-tiered sides and four staircases facing the cardinal points, it is interesting that beneath the building, at a depth of some 25 metres, lies a karst lake, which is thought capable of threatening the structure's survival in the future,

Old photograph of a car with a caravan trailer standing on the plain before the stepped pyramid of Kukulkan.

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage

The 24-metre Pyramid of Kukulkan in the Maya City of Chichen Itza on the Yucatan

Tourists at the 24-metre Kukulcan pyramid in the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. It is not merely a temple but a unique calendar as well, and beneath the building lies a karst lake

NB! · Archaeology · The East

More at http://www.livescience.com/55852-worker-discovers-bronze-age-treasures-in-israel.html

Archaeology · The East · Museums

A power-station worker in Israel amassed an impressive collection of antiquities washed up on the shore

From 1971 he collected metal objects that he came across at work. After his death, his relatives invited staff from an archaeology museum to make sense of the collection. It must be said that the assembled finds proved interesting not only from the layman's point of view. There