Architecture · Observations · Ethnography · Humour

If you wish to delight your beloved in the house with the carved front garden, do memorise the proper names of the parts of a window surround

Sit down and learn them; I shall return and test you

Gold mask made of a thin, crumpled metal sheet with raised nose, brows and lips, and small holes along the edges.

Archaeology · Art · Ethnography · Humour

Gold funerary mask of the Lambayeque culture from northern Peru, 8th to 10th century

You Look Better on Social Media... Golden funerary mask of the Lambayeque culture of northern Peru, 8th to 10th centuries.

Mummy of a woman with long dark hair and a pale fur hat lying on an ochre woven mat.

NB! · Archaeology · The East · Observations · Ethnography

Four-Thousand-Year-Old Mummy of a Woman from the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang

A beautifully preserved four-thousand-year-old mummy of a woman from the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. What lovely hair and headdress, even after all these years

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Ethnography

It must be observed that Queen Margrethe II of Denmark wears national dress as no other European monarch can

It must be observed that Queen Margrethe II of Denmark wears national dress as no other European monarch can. Only Elizabeth II in the Balmoral tartan might rival her for the fashionable crown

NB! · Archive · The East · Society · Ethnography

Armenian Women Pose for a Keepsake Photograph with Their Weapons Before Setting Out for the War with the Ottomans

Armenian women pose for a keepsake photograph with their weapons before setting out for the war with the Ottomans. It is impossible to believe that this picture is 126 years old

NB! · Monarchies · Mores · Society Pages · Ethnography

Quite possibly the best view of the magnificent gold embroidery with the heraldic eagle on the train of the wedding dress of Victoria Romanovna, now Romanova

Quite possibly the best view of the magnificent gold embroidery with the heraldic eagle on the train of the wedding dress of Victoria Romanovna, now Romanova. It is the work of the atelier of Sergio Marcone; the design, it is said, is by Elina Samarina

Observations · Society · Nature · Ethnography

The killing of a white deer by Liverpool police and its symbolism in European culture

This morning in Liverpool, police killed a white stag that had the folly to run into the city. Yes, the animal might have been temporarily sedated and carried off elsewhere, but someone took the decision to deprive it of its life. In my view, this is a very bad omen

Observations · Society · Reportage · Ethnography

Authorities allocate no land for a new cemetery in a dying Russian village

The Russian village has fallen still. Among their pressing problems, the villagers name the cemetery: the authorities will not allot land for a new graveyard, though for dozens of kilometres around the village lie abandoned fields, meadows and forests. "There is no land!" Once the village had its

Aristocracy · In the Press · Observations · Mores · Ethnography

Sergey Tolstoy married the singer Maria Shishkina after parting with Tatyana Bers

Sofya Bagdasarova has published an interesting piece on love between Romani women and Russian noblemen in the nineteenth century. And here I cannot help recalling the love story of Maria Mikhailovna Shishkina, a singer in the Tula Romani choir, and Sergey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the elder brother of Leo Tolstoy. At

Architecture · Art · Observations · Ethnography

Blacksmith Kirillov’s House in the Village of Kunara, Sverdlovsk Region, Built in 1954–1967

What does the country property of one's dreams look like? Here, for example, is the house of the blacksmith Kirillov in the village of Kunara in the Sverdlovsk Region, built in 1954-67 by a simple Russian man for himself and his family and decorated by his own

Archaeology · Cinema · Museums · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography

The funerary mask of the semi-legendary Empress Himiko in the film "Tomb Raider: Lara Croft" is a complete replica of a real woman's mask from the Oglakhty burial ground in Khakassia

The funerary mask of the semi-legendary Empress Himiko in the film "Tomb Raider: Lara Croft" is a complete replica of a real woman's mask from the Oglakhty burial ground in Khakassia. The painted plaster mask, made by a woman of the Tashtyk archaeological culture, dates

Archaeology · Art · Heritage · Science · Ethnography

Petroglyphs of the White Sea and Lake Onega inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List

Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the inscription of the Karelian petroglyphs on the UNESCO list:. For the first time, monuments of Russian rock art have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List: at the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, which is