An Apulian Red-figured Column Krater, attributed to the Painter of the Truro Pelike. Circa 350-330 B.C.
Painted in front with a standing woman and a seated youth, and on the back with two youths flanking a plant, the details in added white and yellow. Height 44.2 cm.
A section of mosaic flooring from the 5th century palace of Ostrogoth king Theodoric has been discovered in Verona. The mosaic was found during installation of new gas pipes in the Montorio hamlet less than four miles from Verona’s historic town center.
Remains of an enormous country villa more than five acres in surface area have been turning up in Montorio since the 19th century. While there is no direct evidence that it was one Theodoric’s many palaces, the sheer size and scale strongly suggests it was a royal estate. If it wasn’t Theodoric’s palace, it must have belonged to someone of enormous wealth who was very close to him.
Theodoric was not technically a Roman emperor. He was three different varieties of king, though, starting in 475 A.D. as King of the Ostrogoths, then adding King of Italy in 493 and of the Visigoths in 511. By the time of his death in 526, Theodoric reigned over most of what had been the Western Roman Empire. He spent his childhood as a noble hostage at the imperial court in Constantinople and was educated there in the Eastern Roman tradition.
As ruler of a territory stretching from the Atlantic to the Danube, Theodoric embraced the ancient imperial trappings. He donned the purple, accepted the regalia of the Western Empire from Eastern Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus and allowed all Roman citizens in the kingdom to be governed by Roman judicial law. He instituted a vast program of reconstruction of Roman cities and infrastructure, restoring ancient aqueducts, baths, churches, the Aurelian walls of Rome and the defensive walls of a myriad other cities in Italy. He threw in a few new palaces for himself while he was at it, most famously in his capital of Ravenna, but also in other northern Italian cities like Verona.
The mosaic will remain in situ. It will be cleaned and documented in detail before being reburied. Some local residents have proposed covering it with plexiglass so the mosaic can still be seen, something that has been done already in Verona’s historic center, but this mosaic is in a terribly awkward position, trapped under networks of old pipes surrounded by homes, so it’s not a good candidate for display, unfortunately.
A group of workers laying the foundation for a house on a piece of land owned by a dairy farmer in Thuthipattu village near Ambur in Tirupattur unearthed a 500-year-old shiva linga.
A lingam sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism.
A team of officials from the Government Museum, Vellore, led by curator K. Saravanan, inspected the linga on Saturday and traced its origin to the later Vijayanagara era in the 16th Century. “We found a similar green stone lingam on a house plot at Arani [in Tiruvannamalai district] a decade-and-a-half ago,” Mr. Saravanan said.
To build a small concrete house for farmer S. Ramesh, workers were deepening a portion of the land to lay the foundation when one of them struck a stone idol at a depth of seven feet. Workers alerted the landlord, who informed the police and the village administrative officer.
The workers lifted the stone idol with a mechanised crane in the presence of revenue officials and the police. The shiva linga, which is two feet tall and 1.5 feet wide, has no damage to its structure.
Officials said that under the Indian Treasure Trove Act, 1878, anything found below a one-foot depth belongs to the government. Such treasure should be handed over to the district treasury, with the Collector being the sole guardian.
In this case, a report from the Government Museum, Vellore, will be sent to the Director of Museums, Chennai, and the Tirupattur Collector. Museum officials said the Collector would be requested to display the linga at Vellore Museum for students and others learn the rich past of the region.
The shiva linga, archaeologists said, would be around 500 years old and belonged to the Vijayanagara era because it was during that period, the region witnessed more temple constructions. Furthermore, most of the sculptures and idols in the region, including idols that adore the Jalakanteshwara temple, an ASI- protected monument in Vellore, belong to this period, and are made of green stones found in abundance along the Jawadhu Hills in Tiruvannamalai.
Like Sriperumbudur (the birthplace of Saint Ramanuja), the region along the Palar was a great centre for both Vaishnavites and Shaivaites. The green stone linga found near Ambur is a detachable one, another feature of the era. With the finding of the linga, the area has been earmarked for excavation, officials said.
Egypt Announces Discovery of Five Ancient Water Wells in North Sinai
An Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Tell El Kedwa region of North Sinai has discovered five water wells believed to be from the 13th century BC.
The Egyptian Antiquities Ministry said that wells were built before the reign of Seti I (1292-1190BC), but it did not give an exact date.
They are believed to have been a part of the expansive Horus Military Road, an ancient route that was used by pharaohs, the ministry said.
The wells were found outside the walls of the Tell El Kedwa fortress, one of several massive strongholds found in the area, which were used as military control points to protect Egypt’s eastern frontier and guard access to its northern regions.
The mission’s leader, Ramadan Helmy, said that four of the discovered wells were reportedly filled with sand to prevent the Persian army, which invaded Egypt in 525BC, from obtaining water.
The fifth well, which was unfilled, was a little more than three metres deep, the ministry’s said.
Inside it, the mission found 13 pottery rings and several clay pots dating back to the 26th dynasty of ancient Egypt (664–525BC), also known as the Saite period.
The fifth well was built in a haphazard manner, which was incongruent with the style of that period, Mr Helmy said.
The ministry said the mission’s excavations were part of a larger national project to develop the province of North Sinai, which contains prominent pharaonic sites that will soon be open to tourists.
Another archaeological team operating at the nearby Tell El Kedwa fortress discovered a large storage centre dating to the Saite period.
Inside the large chamber, the mission found a pile of clay pots. And within the walls of the fortress, the mission found the remains of kilns, also from the Saite period.
The kilns are were part of a large copper-smelting workshop, the ministry’s said. Copper shards were also found near the kilns.
The Horus Military Route was used during the old, middle and new kingdoms of ancient Egypt and was depicted in inscriptions at some of Egypt’s other prominent archaeological sites, including Luxor’s Karnak Temple.
At its peak, the route measured 220 kilometres and connected Egypt to Palestine.
İasos (Milas/Muğla) Balıkçıların kenti Apollo ile Artemis korumasında Şarap tanrısı Dionysos adına düzenlenen tiyatrosu ile toplulukların dikkatini çekmiş.. Deniz üzerine pek çok efsanesi anlatılıyor…
Ancient glass beaker with Greek inscription that reads “Drink, and you will live well”. From a man’s grave at Stilling Trehøje, Denmark. Late Roman Iron Age. AD 350-400. On display at Moesgaard Museum, Aarhus
I have so many passions I’m not able to actually pursue any of them.
I want to learn about consciousness but I want to learn about the placebo effect in the brain but I want to learn about ancient cultures but I want to learn about history of art but I want to learn about religions but I want to learn about architecture but I want to learn about philosophy but I want to learn about quantum mechanics but I want to learn about cosmology but I want to learn about the brain.
Rock Art Panel Casts from The Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, (circa 3000 to 2500BCE), ‘The World Of Stonehenge’ Exhibition, The British Museum
