Cinema · The East

Sophie Marceau Picking Cotton on a Kibbutz in the Golan Heights

A still from the 1991 film Pour Sacha, in which the beautiful violinist Laura, played by Marceau, follows a French professor of philosophy to Israel in 1965. Then the Six-Day War begins… Recommended viewing, if only for Marceau.

Archaeology · The East · Science

First probable case of nose amputation as punishment found at Sanzhiyuan cemetery in China

Chinese historical texts repeatedly mention the cutting off of the nose as a judicial punishment, one of the so-called five punishments. Until now, archaeologists in China had found no skeletal confirmation of the practice. Now researchers describe the first probable case. The remains of a woman who lived some

Coming Up · Archive · The East · Art · Moscow · Museums

The State Museum of the East, at 12A Nikitsky Boulevard, presents an exhibition devoted to the artistic legacy of the Volkov-Rybnikov dynasty

The State Museum of the East, at 12A Nikitsky Boulevard, presents an exhibition devoted to the artistic legacy of the Volkov-Rybnikov dynasty. The display runs until 8 November and comprises some one hundred and fifty works of painting, graphic art and sculpture by three generations of the family. The

Archaeology · The East · Science

Arrowheads 80,000 Years Old Found in Obi-Rakhmat Cave in Uzbekistan

Tiny stone points 80,000 years old have been found in Uzbekistan's Obi-Rakhmat cave, which by wear traces and mass can only have served as arrowheads: that is, the earliest evidence of ranged weapons in Eurasia. Such technology has hitherto been associated exclusively with Homo sapiens, so

Archaeology · Faith · The East · Art · Books · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Science · Society · Nature

August digest covering archaeology, art, heritage, science and nature

Marcus Aurelius advised retreating into oneself, for nowhere does a man withdraw more quietly. In the digest, for my part, I try to gather what has been published over the month while the memories are still fresh. So, the main things on the channel for August. The section on archaeology

Archaeology · Faith · The East · Science

Ring from Herodium inscribed ΠΙΛΑΤΟ probably did not belong to Pontius Pilate

A cheap copper-alloy ring, dug up in the 1960s at Herodium, King Herod's fortress-palace in the Judaean Desert, bearing the image of a vessel and the Greek letters ΠΙΛΑΤΟ. Despite suggestions that the signet might have belonged to the most famous official in history, Pontius Pilate,

The East · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage

Theft of Queen Nazli's diamond necklace from the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna

Two men bought tickets to the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, walked up to a display case and smashed the protective glass with a hammer. They pulled out a diamond necklace and vanished in an unknown direction. They made no attempt to hide their faces, so the surveillance cameras

NB! · The East · Society

One of the Main Reasons Assad Was Ousted

Archaeology · Architecture · The East · Science

At Göbekli Tepe, the world's oldest megalithic temple complex, more than 11,500 years old, rectangular buildings have been found that may have served as dwellings

The site is being surveyed by means of geomagnetic mapping, ground-penetrating radar and lidar scanning. The head of the excavation reports that the new rectangular structures are concentrated chiefly in the eastern and southern parts of the hill and lie next to the already known circular monumental buildings with

Archaeology · The East · Science

Midianite pottery as a trademark, distributed from an oasis to the Levant and Arabia

An analysis of several dozen Bronze Age vessels from the Qurayyah oasis in north-western Arabia may have identified the first branded goods in human history. The two-colour painted pottery of this region has long been known to specialists as "Midianite", and its origin remained a matter

Black-and-white photograph of a camel driver leading a camel with a tourist along a road, with more camels and a building behind a wall.

NB! · Archive · The East · Mores

Soviet tourists travel by camel to the pyramids, Cairo, 1958

A caravan of Soviet tourists makes its way to the pyramids. Cairo, 1958

Coming Up · Archive · The East · Art · Moscow · Museums · Heritage

In October 1944 the head of the Ancient East department of the Pushkin Museum submitted an official memorandum to the museum's director about a business trip to the town of Sukhoy Log in the Sverdlovsk region

In October 1944 the head of the Ancient East department of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts submitted an official memorandum to the museum's director about a business trip to the town of Sukhoy Log in the Sverdlovsk region. Vsevolod Pavlov, a specialist in Ancient Egypt who had