The East · Art · Books · Mores · Ethnography

Iranian Women of the Qajar Era in Japanese Woodcuts from the Book by the Engineer and Topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, Describing Japan's First Diplomatic Contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881

Iranian women of the Qajar era in Japanese woodcuts from the book by the engineer and topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, describing Japan's first diplomatic contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881. The mission was carried out under the leadership of Yoshida Masaharu. Besides recounting the incidents of the journey,

Archaeology · Archive · The East · Books

The Babylonian poem “The Poor Man of Nippur” on hospitality and revenge for an insult

The Babylonian poem "The Poor Man of Nippur", composed around 701 BC and devoted to the duty of hospitality and to vengeance for an undeserved insult. A poor man from the city of Nippur gives up his last possession and brings a goat as a gift to the

Archaeology · Architecture · Faith · The East · Art · Moscow · Museums · Heritage · Science · Paris · Nature · Saint Petersburg

Monthly digest for July on discoveries, restoration, art and science

Fet begged to “drive the living boat off with a single push”, to catch the fleeting before it vanishes. The monthly digest has a more modest task, though the same one: to hold on to what matters before the flood of news washes it away. Here is the main news

NB! · The East · Books · Mores · Humour

Gaspard Drouville observes that Persian women, though they wear the chador, and even when covered from head to foot, possess a peculiar art of recognising one another from a great distance, whereas their husbands often walk right beside them and cannot te

The East · Geography · Observations · Society

The author on the risk of Spain losing control over the Strait of Gibraltar

One must understand that the feral hordes now storming Spain are making their way not to the mainland part of the kingdom, but to Spain's African possessions. And this is not about the arrival of yet more multitudes of thousands in Europe, since they are arriving there quite

The East · Books · Mores

Gaspard Drouville on how Persians sleep on the floor and make their beds

The Persians sleep on the floor. Beds are made up every evening, cleared away every morning and stored in the closets for the whole day. According to the rank and wealth of the persons concerned, they are made of one mattress or of many, of broadcloth, of a fine chintz

Archaeology · Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage

Speaking of the Syro-Hittite Iron Age temple of Ain Dara in Syria, it is famous first and foremost not as the closest known architectural parallel to the biblical Temple of Solomon, though that is a fact, but for the gigantic footprints in its stone

Speaking of the Syro-Hittite Iron Age temple of Ain Dara in Syria, it is famous first and foremost not as the closest known architectural parallel to the biblical Temple of Solomon, though that is a fact, but for the gigantic footprints in its stone. The prints are a little

Archaeology · The East · Heritage · Society

Looting and military construction destroy the sites of Ain Dara, Palmyra and Apamea

A survey of 200 archaeological sites in Syria has established that in 2015-2025 59% of them were looted, 118 out of 200, almost five times more than in 2011-2016, when 26 of the 200 sites suffered. Traditionally, looting at these places means pits dug by hand. But they

The East · Monarchies · Mores · People

Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari, wife of the Shah of Iran, and her divorce over the lack of an heir

Empress or Queen of Iran: Soraya in 1953. Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary was born in 1932 to an Iranian diplomat and a German aristocrat. She spoke several languages fluently, received a European education and from her youth stood out for her extraordinary beauty. In 1951 Soraya married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah

Archaeology · The East · Heritage · Society

UNESCO Prepares to Expand the List of World Heritage in Danger

The vote will begin in Busan, South Korea, this Friday. The List of World Heritage in Danger is a separate status within the World Heritage register, to which are added sites threatened with destruction by war, natural disaster, development or neglect. The Director of the World Heritage Centre, Lazare Eloundou

Archaeology · The East · Museums · Heritage · New York · People

Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos and the fight against trade in stolen antiquities

An interesting man, to be sure, the Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos, who since 2003, when he witnessed the mass looting in Baghdad with his own eyes, has devoted himself to fighting the trade in stolen antiquities. The unit of the New York police that he heads has seized thousands of

Archaeology · The East · Observations · Science · Society · Humour

Hominins at Gesher Benot Yaakov sourced basalt for tools from different lava flows

By right of the first. When political regimes justify their claims to some territory by length of tenure, one can always object that somebody other than them was there first. And somebody other than those first ones. And than them, too. If one is so inclined, one may go all