Tower of Toghrul, Rey, northern Iran, circa 1860s.

Emerald Wine Cup 18th century. India (Mughal)　carved emeralds set with gold mounts dated. H 12.7cm, W 6.7cm, D 5.9cm, weight 411 grams. Simon Ray Ltd. (via About Time Magazine)

Nether Largie South Chambered Cairn, Kilmartin Glen, Argyll, Scotland

I think I remember this!  I was a little kid and my mom was watching something on T.V. showing how cavemen made primitive spraypaint art.  I was confused because the guy demonstrating it had glasses so he couldn’t be a caveman.

E.T. phone home.

Iron Age Stone Head, Harris Museum and Gallery, Preston, 7.1.18.

Whilst not dated, this stone head is thought to date from the Iron Age. They were made, however, up to the 1600s. This head was found in Ribbleton in 1961

Bronze bow fibula (safety pin) with four ducks

Villanovan culture, Italy,  ca. 900 B.C. 

Source: Met Museum

Fibulae aren’t safety pins they’re brooches lmao

Also bones.

Were the Mysterious Bog People Human Sacrifices?

A British archaeologist argues that the miraculously preserved bodies were left in the water as offerings to the gods.

Sometime around 60 A.D., a man was led into a marsh outside Cheshire, England to be killed. He was in his mid-twenties, stood about 5’ 7’’ tall, and had a trimmed beard, moustache, and brown hair. Except for an armband made out of fox fur, he was naked. It’s likely that he was accompanied, and restrained, by two or more individuals.

The details of his death make for grisly reading.

First, he received a blow from a blunt object to the top of his head, probably while he was seated, which fractured his skull. Then a cord was thrown around his neck. While he was being throttled, his throat was cut. Combined with the pressure from the noose, this would have caused a geyser of blood to erupt from the wound. Read more.

Has there ever been a horror film about the bog mummies?  If not, why not?

The Bronze Age Srubna Culture and their Unique Timber Graves for the Dead

Not much is presently known of the Srubna culture of the forest-steppe region in Eastern Europe who lived during the late Bronze Age. These interesting people created timber graves and wooden framed dwellings beneath impressive burial mounds that were said to remain standing generation after generation.

Read more …

Who else read that as “Tumblr Graves”?

A Viking Age amulet fashioned out of fossilised sea urchin and bronze from Lindholm in Denmark. Similar amulets were often hung in houses where they were believed to avert lightning and protect the home from evil.

Phoenician Painted Ostrich Egg - 8th-6th Century BC

An ancient ostrich egg painted with four Panels divided by cross hatched bands. The scenes include, two lotus buds, a small tree, and an abstract symbol of the goddess Tanit.

The use of the ostrich egg as a vase or decorative object dates back to the earliest Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures. The painted ostrich egg was, however, especially popular among the Phoenician (Punic) people. Examples have been found in tombs at Carthage and at Punic settlements in Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia.

Happy Easter!

Early Bronze Age Stone Double-Headed Disc-Shaped Figurine and Child - PF.0310 Origin: Central/Western Anatolia Circa: 3000 BC to 2500 BC.

So did they worship planaria or Goombas?

Etruscan Bronze Harpago, c. 7th Century BC

An underwater sponge collecting hook.

By Delia Deetz.

Greek coin from Eretria, c. 500-465 BC with octopus

More on my subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/new/

You never see an octopus on a coin these days.

The undeciphered & lost Brush Creek Tablet was found among skeletons of people over 8 and 9 feet tall in Muskigum County, Ohio, in the early 1880’s.

I'm not saying this is fake, but there is no additional information anywhere online.  It's just the original article quoted and paraphrased over and over.

A  Royal Inscription of Xerxes I (519-465 BCE).

Carved into a cliff face of the rocky citadel of Van (ancient Tušpa), this monumental inscription is written in Old Persian, Akkadian, and Elamite. The text itself recounts that, although Darius prepared the facade for the inscription, he never completed the task, so Xerxes had the cliff face inscribed during his own reign. (Read more.)

Achaemenid, c. 547-331 BCE.

Image from CDLI.

taq-e bostan

pahlavi script (middle persian)