[Gruffalux]

Originally Posted by ednwireland

largest metal vessel found on antiquity. 1.63m high
vix burgundy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vix_Grave

Wow, same heights as me

I saw this lady with a horn yesterday ....



Woman holding a bison horn, from Laussel, France, ca. 25,000-20,000 BC (!!) Painted limestone, 1’ 6"" high.

part of frieze of four female figures which adorned the back wall of a rockshelter. Further engravings of vulva were also discovered on rocks within the archaeological deposits. The woman holding a bison horn is pregnant and the shape of her waist and hips suggest that she had already had children. Her head is turned to the right but seems to look down at her breast rather than towards the horn. She has no face but her neck and shoulders are well defined. Her large breasts are placed high and again suggest previous child bearing. The sexual triangle is well defined and her legs, sculpted slightly apart, are complete and in proportion to the length of her body. The fingers on her left hand rest on her stomach whereas her right arm bends upwards supporting a bison horn marked with 14 vertical incisions. Traces of red ochre occur on her head, body, hips and stomach.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/sculpture/laussel.php

I wonder did she say to her sculptor afterwards that he could have done a little photoshop on the hips - they are rather lumpy-looking! Not exactly the smoothly curvaceous bottoms of the ancient carved Maltese ladies.

Here is one of my favourite artefacts ever - I saw it in person and she is gorgeous and peaceful. 3000 ish BC. Quite small at 12 cm long. Found in the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum - a mind-blower of a place. I was a bit spooked down there, himself was high as a kite

[Gruffalux]

Originally Posted by Smiles35

If it was 6 thousand years then these would be concurrent with farming here. It's 9,000, so this is around the time of the first people arriving in Ireland.

They were farming much earlier than us in the Fertile Crescent.

Though yesterday I read somewhere (I cannot find now of course!) that organised settlements were much earlier than agriculture anyway. The picture is always changing

[magicbastarder]

i may be bending the rules slightly with this:

https://twitter.com/gillianmobrien/s...23325669494791

[LorenzoB]

Rome 4th century AD. It is the only complete example of a very special type of glass, known as dichroic, which changes colour when held up to the light. The opaque green cup turns to a glowing translucent red when light is shone through it.

[Gruffalux]

Originally Posted by magicbastarder

i may be bending the rules slightly with this:

https://twitter.com/gillianmobrien/s...23325669494791

I would so definitely like a pair of those.

[Gruffalux]

Those ancients and their enviable swag..

Hot-water bottles in the shape of human body parts for therapeutic purposes. From Paphos, Cyprus, 1st c. BC - 1st c. AD.
These clay vessels were filled with hot liquids (water or oil), and applied to the aching parts of the body in order to relieve pain.

[Gruffalux]

I don't know if the Archaeology forum is known for breaking fast happening news, but here goes. Ceremonial carriage unearthed at Pompeii. And, goodness me, but it looks from the decorations that people where having rather jolly good times.

Archaeologists have unearthed a unique ancient-Roman ceremonial carriage from a villa just outside Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD.

The almost perfectly preserved four-wheeled carriage made of iron, bronze and tin was found near the stables of an ancient villa at Civita Giuliana, around 700 metres (yards) north of the walls of ancient Pompeii.

Massimo Osanna, the outgoing director of the Pompeii archaeological site, said the carriage was the first of its kind discovered in the area, which had so far yielded functional vehicles used for transport and work, but not for ceremonies.

"This is an extraordinary discovery that advances our understanding of the ancient world," Osanna said, adding that the carriage would have "accompanied festive moments for the community, (such as) parades and processions".

https://www.journalpioneer.com/news/...ompeii-557618/



The full dig described - https://www.journalpioneer.com/news/...ompeii-557618/

[Professor Moriarty]

Originally Posted by Gruffalux

Those ancients and their enviable swag..

I'm pretty sure they're Apple Airpods.

[Gruffalux]

Something very stark and yet beautiful about this, including the gouged eye. Supposedly (but not for certain) Sargon of Akkad. Bronze Head. 2300 BC. Nineveh.




https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sargon

According to a folktale, Sargon was a self-made man of humble origins; a gardener, having found him as a baby floating in a basket on the river, brought him up in his own calling. His father is unknown; his own name during his childhood is also unknown; his mother is said to have been a priestess in a town on the middle Euphrates. Rising, therefore, without the help of influential relations, he attained the post of cupbearer to the ruler of the city of Kish, in the north of the ancient land of Sumer. The event that brought him to supremacy was the defeat of Lugalzaggisi of Uruk (biblical Erech, in central Sumer). Lugalzaggisi had already united the city-states of Sumer by defeating each in turn and claimed to rule the lands not only of the Sumerian city-states but also those as far west as the Mediterranean. Thus, Sargon became king over all of southern Mesopotamia, the first great ruler for whom, rather than Sumerian, the Semitic tongue known as Akkadian was natural from birth, although some earlier kings with Semitic names are recorded in the Sumerian king list. Etc etc rest at link...

[Smiles35]

Originally Posted by Gruffalux

Something very stark and yet beautiful about this, including the gouged eye. Supposedly (but not for certain) Sargon of Akkad. Bronze Head. 2300 BC. Nineveh.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sargon

Two very attention grabbing snip-its from Encyclopedia Britannica.

The first reminds me of the story of the finding of Moses. I can only guess that it was an older, sort of group story for a home audience about being temperamentally possessive.

The second one is beyond interesting. The king he was supposed to have killed was called Lugalzagesi. That's Lug, from the Book of Invasions. If you think of the book of invasions as a series of cathartic challenges, then you have to ask why were the monks interested in actual personages from that time. If you figure in the other island, it's makes a little sense. We were united under Catholicism at that point and a little more talk out of you would be required accordingly.
Now, Sumner is very interesting. The first writing came from there. It's possible to come up with a practical and serious use for writing if you think of a bunch of spread out cities where the vagrancies of the weather could actually affect your food supply. To actually have to keep informed of a leaders name there(you can't have Lug without Sargon) is extra deep.

Really though, it's a great time to mention there are countries down there now in need of assistance after we all know what. Take an interest all if you have not already.

[Gruffalux]

To make a nice even mirrored number on my post count. The lovely and mysterious Venus De Milo.

The Venus de Milo (/də ˈmaɪloʊ, də ˈmiːloʊ/; Greek: Αφροδίτη της Μήλου, romanized: Afrodíti tis Mílou) is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Initially it was attributed to the sculptor Praxiteles, but based on an inscription that was on its plinth, the statue is now thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch.

Created sometime between 130 and 100 BC, the statue is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, although some scholars claim it is the sea-goddess Amphitrite, venerated on Milos. It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high. Part of an arm and the original plinth were lost following the statue's discovery. It is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The statue is named after Aphrodite's Roman name, Venus, and the Greek island of Milos, where it was discovered.

Adieu.