Pair of Winged Deities, c. 874-860 BC Assyrian (Iraq), Reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC).
The Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 b.c.) at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) is the earliest of the surviving royal residences of the Assyrian kings, lavishly decorated with monumental gateway figures and reliefs, whose discovery in the mid-nineteenth century created a sensation throughout the Western world.
First uncovered by the pioneer British traveler and archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1845, the Northwest Palace consisted of a series of long, narrow rooms grouped around large courtyards. Seven-foot-high stone slabs that lined the walls of many of the rooms were carved with elaborate narrative, mythological, and ritual scenes in low-relief. The greatest and most original artistic achievement of the Assyrians, these images and accompanying inscriptions record the kings’ military campaigns and testify to their prowess as warriors and hunters as well as their sanctity as the representatives of the Assyrian pantheon on earth. One of the most recurrent and potent images on these reliefs is the depiction of a magic purification or protective ritual, in which winged griffin-demons (apkallu, “sages”) or winged anthropomorphic deities, holding ritual “buckets” and pinecone-shaped objects, flank a “Sacred Tree” that they sprinkle with holy water or pollen.
The Kimbell’s pair of winged deities are fragments of two such full-length figures enacting this magic ritual, sprinkling or pollinating the central tree motif. As such, each figure would originally have held a bucket in his left hand and a cone in his right. The deities, marked as divine by their wings and horned helmets, are conceived in the image of the monarch, reflecting his facial features, stance, and physical strength. Their exaggerated musculature and luxuriant, tightly curled hair and beards suggest something of the king’s vainglorious power and virility. These reliefs come from a room that may have been used by the king for ritual ablution. (x)
Courtesy & currently at the Kimbell Art Museum, Texas. Photo taken by FA2010
Roman couche and footstool with bone carvings and glass inlays
1st – early 2nd century A.D.
Made from wood, bone and glass. The legs are made from bone and are decorated with a frieze of huntsmen around the mythological figure of Ganymede.
Perhaps from the villa of Lucius Verus on the Via Cassia, just outside of Rome.
Source: The Metropolitan Museum
Moray an unusual Incan archaeological site in Peru
Photos courtesy & taken by McKay Savage:
The gorgeous circular terraced bowl of Moray are thought to be an experimental agricultural nursery for the Incas, with different micro-climates allowing for different varieties of corn to be planted at deeper levels of the circular bowl. Others, both locals and foreign spiritually-minded, feel such a technical explanation fails to match the obvious effort, aesthetics and position the amazing circular site took.
Whether a testing ground or an energetic site or somewhere in the middle, the site has an undeniable beauty, power and mystical feeling, like an agricultural amphitheatre.
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The Ivory carved head seen at the left is from Nimrud and dates to the late Assyrian period, around 720 BC. It was originally thought to be stolen, but was later found in the Museum, so survives today. She has been nicknamed the “Mona Lisa of Nimrud”.
Her hair has been painted black, and the artwork is originally believed to have been attached to a piece of furniture. (Perhaps a throne for a Queen? “
Plaque for protection against the female demon Lamashtu, Neo-Assyrian, 934-612 BC, made of bronze.
Intended to be hung over the patient’s bed, this plaque afforded protection from the terrible female demon Lamashtu, who appears on the front. She was believed to cause many illnesses. Her husband Pazuzu, shown on the back, is invoked to persuade her to go away and thus speed the patient’s recovery. (x)
Courtesy & currently located at the Louvre, France. Photo taken by Rama.
Medieval eye candy
This manuscript is one of the treasures of Leiden University Library. It was made around 1200, likely in the north of England, and was used by the French king Louis IX (1214-70). Not when he was king, mind you, but as a child. As was common practice in medieval times, the Psalms were used for learning to read, and that is the reason why royal hands once held the object. These spectacular miniatures are found in front of the book. They are fit for a king to be: eye candy with a great historical past.
Pics: Leiden University Library, BPL 76 A (c. 1190). Photography: Julie Somers (pic 1-4), UB Leiden (pics 5-8).
Axe blade with the name of Adad-nirari I, Kassite period. from 1307 until 1275 BC, made of bronze.
Courtesy & currently located at the Louvre, France. Photo taken by Marie-Lan Nguyen.
The golden bull is a symbol of the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash. The bull-headed lyre of Ur is among the most significant artifacts that shed light on early Mesopotamian funerary rituals. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
Plaque made of gold with horned lion-griffins from the Achaemenid era (6th - 4th century BCE). The city of Babylon became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire when Cyrus the Great proclaimed himself king of Babylon around 540 BCE. Babylon remained the central office of the Achaemenid Empire until the end of Greco-Persian Wars that made Alexander the Great the new ruler of Babylon. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY.
Photo by Babylon Chronicle
The Ancient Egyptian Famine-stela on Sehel Island, near Aswan. It is thought to date to the Ptolemaic dynasty, 332–31 BC, though speaks of the reign of 3rd dynasty king Djoser.
Photo courtesy & taken by HoremWeb
Medieval dentist
Dreading the dentist dates back centuries. Judging from this image individuals in medieval times had good reason to fear such visits. Pulling teeth was not exactly a subtle activity back then. Moreover, the fact that the dentist kept pulled teeth as trophies is worrisome. The image is part of a heavily illustrated encyclopedia compiled in fourteenth-century London. With a total of 650 illustrations it must have cost a small fortune. Why depict such a fearful event? I like to think the image is included to show just how brave the owner of the book was during his torture trips to the dentist.
Pic: London, British Library, MS Royal 6 E.vi (c. 1360-75). More images from this manuscript here.
Israel Antiquities Authority press release:
A spectacular colorful mosaic dating to the Byzantine period (4th–6th centuries CE) was exposed in recent weeks in the fields of Kibbutz Bet Qama, in the B’nei Shimon regional council. The mosaic was discovered within the framework of an archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out prior to the construction of an interchange between Ma’ahaz and Devira Junction, undertaken and funded by the Cross-Israel Highway Company.
The photo here is by Yael Yolovitch for the European Pressphoto Agency and I snagged it from NBC News’s PhotoBlog.
The Archaic Greek Lion of Kea, thought to date to around the 6th century BC, sculptor unknown. Ioulida, island of Kea.
Though much ambiguity still surrounds this stone carved smiling lion, it is thought relate to the mythology of Kea, which was once known as “The Water Island”
The island was considered to be inhabited by water Nymphs. Due to its exceptional beauty, the Gods were jealous of the island and sent a lion down to ravage it of its beauty. The lion drove all the Nymphs out of the island and the island dried out.
The inhabitants of Kea then asked Apollo’s son, Aristaeus for help and he built a temple to the mightiest of all Gods, Zeus. This act pleased Zeus and he brought rain to the island and the nymphs back to it, as well. (x)
Photos courtesy & taken by Phso2
Marble Sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons
ca. AD 260 - 270
Late Imperial Roman
This is a highly ornate and extremely well-preserved Roman marble sarcophagus. In contrast to the rough and unsightly back, the sides and front of the sarcophagus are decorated with forty human and animal figures carved in high relief. The central figure is that of the god Dionysos seated on a panther, but he is somewhat overshadowed by four larger standing figures who represent the four Seasons (from left to right, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall). The figures are unusual in that the Seasons are usually portrayed as women, but here they are shown as sturdy youths. Around these five central figures are placed other Bacchic figures and cultic objects, all carved at a smaller scale. On the rounded ends of the sarcophagus are two other groups of large figures, similarly intermingled with lesser ones. On the left end, Mother Earth is portrayed reclining on the ground; she is accompanied by a satyr and a youth carrying fruit. On the right end, a bearded male figure, probably to be identified with the personification of a river-god, reclines in front of two winged youths, perhaps representing two additional Seasons.
The sarcophagus is an exquisite example of Roman funerary art, displaying all the virtuosity of the workshop where it was carved. The marble comes from a quarry in the eastern Mediterranean and was probably shipped to Rome, where it was worked. Only a very wealthy and powerful person would have been able to commission and purchase such a sarcophagus, and it was probably made for a member of one of the old aristocratic families in Rome itself. The subjects - the triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons - are unlikely, however, to have had any special significance for the deceased, particularly as it is clear that the design was copied from a sculptor’s pattern book. Another sarcophagus, now in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Kassel, Germany, has the same composition of Dionysos flanked by the four Seasons, although the treatment and carving of the figures is quite different. On the Badminton sarcophagus the figures are carved in high relief and so endow the crowded scene with multiple areas of light and shade, allowing the eye to wander effortlessly from one figure to another. One must also imagine that certain details were highlighted with color and even gilding, making the whole composition a visual tour de force.
Very few Roman sarcophagi of this quality have survived. Although the Badminton sarcophagus lacks its lid, the fact that it was found in the early eighteenth century and soon thereafter installed in Badminton Hall means that it has been preserved almost intact and only a few of the minor extremities are now missing.Source:Metropolitan Museum of Art
Supplementary photos belong to admin
Terracotta Vase in the Form of a Lobster Claw
ca. 460 BC
Greek, Classical
Because so many aspects of Greek life depended on the sea, a vase in the shape of a lobster claw is not surprising. It is, however, exceptional and may be a variant of the askos—a bag-shaped oil container provided with a vertical mouth and strap handle. The Dionysiac iconography of the lobster claw suggests that it was a novelty item used at symposia (drinking parties).
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art
