I know my recent and forthcoming books are a bit pricey, but my first book is available open access: kismet.press/portfolio/th...
21.02.2026 11:43
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I know my recent and forthcoming books are a bit pricey, but my first book is available open access: kismet.press/portfolio/th...
Dem Institut für Klassische Archäologie der HU Berlin droht die Schließung! Hier gehts zur Petition, die das verhindern will.
The Institute of Classical Archaeology at HU Berlin is facing closure! Click here for the petition to prevent this from happening.
weact.campact.de/petitions/sc...
This thymiaterion has five individually hand-made women sitting on the edge of a red-painted wellhead, with one sitting in her own high-baked chair. All are brightly painted, and each woman has a 'hat' with a cup on top for the burning of the incense. All painted slightly differently - three with orange-yellow tunics, two with red tunics; two red himatia (cloaks), two purple-black himatia, and one yellow himation. They each once carried an attribute in each hand, but several are missing. In this photo, one woman carries a yellow (meant to be gold) phiale, an offering plate, and a pomegranate; the other woman facing us carries a spindle with wool. Met Museum (2012.546)
One of the best examples of ancient #polychromy that I know of is this terracotta thymiaterion - incense burner - in the form of a group of colorfully dressed women sitting around a wellhead. The iconography reflects a local cult, perhaps of Demeter and Kore. 🏺 1/
4th c. CE. #MetMuseum
📸 me
Always excited when new work on the Great Palace comes out - this is based, as far as I can see, on an extensive (Spanish) PhD the author submitted in Madrid in 2023.
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Closeup of medallion with four bearded and mustachioed hunters wearing Sasanian-style (?) crowns, riding winged horses, facing rear, drawing bows to shoot at rampant lions. Surrounding a central fruiting tree.
Medallions of silk textile.
Some Sasanian-ish hunters on a lovely example of the shared luxury culture of late ancient and early medieval Eurasia.
“Brocade with Four Heavenly Kings,” Tang dynasty silk brocade (jin 錦) from the Hōryū-ji (法隆寺) Buddhist temple in Ikugara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Mid-7th century CE.
A fantastic-and better yet-Open access book by Susanna Elm : www.ucpress.edu/books/the-im...
The Formation of the Sasanian Empire: Administration and Elites in Comparison with the Roman Empire
Purwins, Nils. 2025. Der Aufbau des Sasanidenreiches: Administration und Eliten im Vergleich zum Römischen Reich (Ancient Iran Series 18). Leiden: Brill. The work provides in two volumes the first…
Tatsuya Nakadai, one of Japan’s most celebrated stage and screen actors who was a frequent collaborator of director Masaki Kobayashi and led Akira Kurosawa titles such as “Ran,” “Kagemusha” and “High and Low,” has died. He was 92: variety.com/2025/film/ob...
Orangish ceramic floor tile with a sketch of a pharos (lighthouse) scratched into its surface before firing, the sketch lines appearing dark grey against the lighter ceramic. Two such lighthouses flanked the Roman harbor at Dover, the main base of the British fleet. Those lighthouses, in turn, were based on the design of the pharos of Alexandria. 1st-4th century CE (the period of Roman occupation), probably from London. British Museum.
This unassuming #Roman ceramic floor tile from ancient Londinium (London) sports a sketch of a pharos, a lighthouse. It's very much like the two lighthouses that flanked ancient Dover harbor, where the Roman fleet was based. Those, in turn, were based on the pharos of Alexandria. 🏺 1/
📸 me
Illustration of a lion with wings in profile, coloured with six different colours on different sections. The colours represent phases of casting, and phases 1 and 2 (the majority of the main body) are ascribed to the original Tang sculpture.
A real globe-trotting cat for #GlobalCatDay 🐈
Isotope analysis of the Winged Lion sculpture in St Mark’s Square, Venice suggests it began life as a tomb guardian in Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907) China, travelling to the floating city via the Silk Roads.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
A cartoon of a man in a suit pointing and laughing at an abstract painting with the caption НА НА WHAT DOES THIS REPRESENT? In the next panel, the painting angrily points back at the shocked man with the caption WHAT DO YOU REPRESENT?
Things I found on my laptop, an occasional series
[Ad Reinhardt, How to Look at Modern Art in America (detail), 1946]
From the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase, now held at the Met. Description from the museum: “Perseus is about to rescue Andromeda from the ketos, a snaky sea monster painted in a brilliant blue-green palette. The creature raises his head with gigantic open jaws and frightful teeth toward Andromeda, who stands with outstretched arms in the center of the panel. One hand appears to be chained to the crag; the other elegantly placed on the rocks. Perseus flies in from the left with his lyre in one hand, winged shoes on his feet, and a windblown cloak over his shoulder. In the upper right portion of the fresco, he is greeted by Andromeda's grateful father, a scene that alludes to the myth's “happy ending” the marriage of hero and princess.“
✨Perseus and Andromeda, the villa at Boscotrecase✨
This fresco captures moments from the myth of Andromeda and Perseus. Perseus swoops in stage left to rescue Andromeda—trapped on a crag at centre stage—from the sea monster Kêtus. The monster takes up most of the lower left of the fresco panel.
Apotheosis of an emperor who, carried by the eagle, rises towards the sky. The bird's body is seen from the front, its three-quarter legs to the left, its head turned towards the heart of the emperor who, in his right hand, holds a lituus, in his left a double cornucopia. The emperor looks at a flying Victory who, with her two outstretched hands, is preparing to place on his head a laurel wreath with flowing bands.
#ReliefWednesday - Apotheosis of the Emperor Claudius on a Roman sardonyx cameo: ca. Mid-1st century AD (mount: 1686). He is crowned by Victory and borne aloft by Jupiter's eagle. #Roman #Art 🏺
Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France (Cameo.265). Link - medaillesetantiques.bnf.fr/ws/catalogue...
✏️ An Ottoman Miniature Portrait of Francis I, King of #France, 16th Century
Finde ich jetzt nicht so überzeugend. Ein Regierungsabo hat ja mindestens genauso die Union, links von der es nicht nur keine Regierungsmehrheiten, sondern eher gar keine Mehrheiten gibt. Und ob es rechts von Rot-Grün keine Regierungsmehrheiten geben kann, hängt auch stark vom Handeln der Union ab.
A carved ivory relief showing a relic procession towards a church with buildings behind and people looking out of the windows
The back of the ivory relief and hands in white gloves
The back of the ivory relief criss crossed by black markings and a triangular shaped indent at the right hand side
And now attention, late antique people!
Today in Trier I was shown the Trier Ivory up close,
from the front and
- unseen before, at least by me-
from the back!
Note the strange markings, apparently by the craftsmen, and the hole for the elephant’s nerve reaching into the tusk
Person cleaning a mosaic floor with intricate patterns and a central circular design, surrounded by stone walls.
Sobesos site sheds light on urban history of Cappadocia
👉 www.hurriyetdailynews.com/sobesos-site...
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use
...and it's out!
"‘People and Things Have Always Been Mixed Up’: Notes on the So-Called Global Middle Ages", my very short essay for the Journal of Medieval History's 50th-anniversary special issue, is now published; limited free access at the link below!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/RAEXD...
Still from the "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode "Bread and Circuses" showing the alien Mr Spock being arrested by what looks like ancient Roman soldiers with machine guns.
Finally someone admits it!
Various examples of color reconstruction on ancient statues
Please help us understand what experts expect from digital
reconstructions of ancient color!
We're running a short (10 min) anon survey for professionals in archaeology, art history, architecture, conservation/restoration, museums, and digital humanities.
👉 forms.gle/aEhYwGiveiNi...
Please Share!
Black-figure amphora. Designs black on red panels, with borders of lotus-buds along the top; accessories of white and purple. In the main panel, four male figures stung by bees, all nude and bearded - the men, not the bees!
For #WorldBeeDay - Attic Black-Figure amphora, ca. 540 BC, showing the four men who attempted to steal honey from the hives that fed the infant Zeus - Laios, Keleos, Kerberos, and Aigolios - being punished by the bees! 🐝
Image: BM (1847,0716.1). Link - www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
The last few days were so stressful (on my own with our son without childcare!) that I forgot to promote the newest addition to my newsletter. This time I wrote about the myth of Kyvian Rus as the first Russian state and why the success of this narrative is linked to Russian colonialism in academia.
It was a delight writing this article in response to Alexander Demandt. Together with other colleagues we were invited to reflect on a recent essay of his. An opportunity to engage in "courteous polemic". The entire theme-issue is open access, but give a shout if you like a PDF of this piece!
Happy (Latin) Easter to everyone who celebrates! I got a little Easter Egg for you, a new Curihistory Episode!
Today's subject is Saint Elena, also known as Olha of Kyiv!
#history #Youtubers
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNl...
Warsaw Late Antique seminar on 10 April: Zachary Chitwood (München), Eastern Roman Law, Islam and the First Millennium: Prolegomena to a ius commune orientale. As always, in person and online.
When I scripted this episode I didn't think a conflict between the US and Canada would be topical again, but he we are in this wacky timeline. Fortunately this one didn't end up so bad!
Also: Curihistory is back, baybay!
#history #youtubers #Canada #USA
youtu.be/eiQoo8FXdGY
