Archaeology · Cinema · Museums · Ethnography

In Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" there is an episode in which Sophie Hatter, whose enchantment is almost undone, gives her plait to the demon Calcifer so that he may revive after the Witch of the Waste has all but snuffed him out, and the demon acquir

In Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" there is an episode in which Sophie Hatter, whose enchantment is almost undone, gives her plait to the demon Calcifer so that he may revive after the Witch of the Waste has all but snuffed him out, and the

A wooden board marked clear and rain, with a thin twig fixed to a log reaching towards it.

NB! · Archive · Geography · Nature · Ethnography

Willow twig barometer at a reindeer farm in Shebalino in the Altai

A barometer on a reindeer farm at Shebalino in the Altai. The secret is that the "barometer" uses a willow twig. As the humidity rises, the twig loses its springiness and droops. Photograph by the American Dean Conger, who travelled in the USSR in 1966-75.

Archaeology · Observations · Mores · Ethnography

Viking double burials and the hypothesis of the woman’s sacrificial role

Remember the news about the skeletons holding hands that turned out to be the remains of two men? When it comes to Viking paired burials, such as those in these illustrations, there is a hypothesis far removed from the silly formula of "they lived happily ever after and died

Archaeology · Faith · Science · Ethnography

Archaeologists Discover a Sacred Place of People Who Lived 23,000 Years Ago at a Palaeolithic Site in the Bryansk Region

Archaeologists have discovered a sacred place of people who lived 23,000 years ago at a Palaeolithic site in the Bryansk Region. It was a hearth with mammoth bones dug into it, and beneath them lay objects which, in the researchers' opinion, were used for ritual purposes. Among them

Archaeology · Art · Museums · Mores · Ethnography

Etruscan paired funerary urn of the 500s BC and the place of women at the banquet

One of many paired Etruscan funerary urns, 500s BC. It is generally held that the spouses depicted are sharing a meal. The wife may be passing her husband an aromatic liquid, perfume or oil, while in her left hand she holds a pomegranate, the symbol of immortality. Hm. Two on

Books · Ethnography · Humour

Another Alarming Superstition

Another alarming superstition. From a book of 1903: to carry unsalted meat across a road or a stretch of water will make the devil follow you. So do take care, and safe travels

Books · Observations · Ethnography · Humour

The author issues a warning without specifying its subject

Welsh Folklore of 1909 records this omen: if you wish to die, eat cabbage in August. As they say, I have merely done my duty and warned you.

Mores · Nature · Ethnography

Toads in British folk belief as companions of witches and the custom of seeing them out of the house

A Note for the Lady of the House:. in some parts of Britain toads were long held to be the familiars of witches, so if a toad happened to find its way into the house, it was swiftly but tenderly shown the door

Archaeology · Museums · Mores · Ethnography

Povoynik of the late 16th century from the Pokrovsky Monastery burial vault in Suzdal

Remember the expression "to okrutit' someone" (literally, to wind someone round, and so to ensnare them into marriage)? It is tied to the custom of winding a bride's hair around her head in a particular way: on her wedding day a Russian girl acquired the

Art · Observations · Ethnography

Sarafan, shugay and lunnik kokoshnik in the women's costume of northern Rus

Consider this: the image of a townswoman of Suzdal at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Before us is a northern costume. The boundary between the Great Russian North and South is usually taken to be the present-day Moscow Region, so the northern lands are generally held

Observations · Pop Culture · Ethnography

Speaking of fashion, historical costume deserves the serious attention of the modern industry

Here is a very enthusiastic young woman from the USA, Sara de Herrera, who made with her own hands a traditional feather mantle of the Choctaw people, who originally lived in the territories of the south-east of the United States. Choctaw women, among the most vivid representatives of the

Museums · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography

Yupik warrior's armour from Saint Lawrence Island, early 19th century, in the Kunstkamera

This stunning outfit is the attire of a Yupik warrior from Saint Lawrence Island, in the south of the Bering Strait. Early nineteenth century. The armour protecting the back is of sealskin; the parka, mittens, trousers and boots are of leather and reindeer fur. Below: a Yupik military breastplate of