the continual discovery of fresh types of nonsense

~ Vessel: fish with open mouth.

Culture: Olmec

Date: 1150–550 B.C.

Medium: Ceramic and slip

A figurine of a horse found by a resident of the Abzelilovsky district of Bashkiria on the banks of the Buzykai river in 2014. The sculpture is 12.3 × 8.4 cm, made of quartzite. Based on the results of geological and paleozoological studies, experts concluded that it depicts Przewalski’s horse and is tentatively dated to the III-II millennium BC.

Photography by A. D. Tairov.

Source: С.Г. Боталов, Ю.В. Васина. Каменная скульптура лошади: случайная находка из урочища Бузыкай // Наука ЮУрГУ: материалы 66-й научной конференции. Секции социально-гуманитарных наук. Челябинск, 2014. С. 860-866.

it's TIME for the annual helen and aphrodite iliad book 3 repaint...im making it a tradition bc i get sick of my own art less than a month after i post it <3

(2020 version / 2018 version)

1,500-year-old Ceramic Maya Figurine with Removable Helmet [El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala]

I’m absolutely delighted by the book I got today. It’s a translation of the complete poems of Catullus, done by a poet named Frank O. Copley in the late ‘50s. To my eternal gratitude, Copley decided that his Catullus should be very modern, reflecting the avant-garde sensibilities of, say, E. E. Cummings. Which is a pretty good analogy! The neoteric school was certainly as brash, unconventional, and attuned to sound and construction as the modernists were. So Copley writes a Catullus you could have found on the streets of 1958 New York or San Francisco, slangy and sarcastic—though capable of great lyricism. Here’s his rendering of Catullus 13, the invitation of Fabullus to dinner:

Rowena Morrill

i never realized cuneiform was made with the corner of a cuboid tool, i thought the wedge shapes were carved such that you would press straight down with the tool at a 90° angle to the clay

Wow! My mind is super into this new information

i know basically nothing about hieroglyphs but what i can tell all of you is that this particular glyph is shaped like a Friend. thank you for coming to my tedtalk

#i think this is an F-glyph? egyptologist friends let me know if im talking out my ass

Yes it’s the ‘horned viper’ sign (Gardiner sign I9) and most commonly used to write the masculine first person personal pronoun ‘he/him/his’ as =f 

Here is a real one!

It’s venomous, and the venom can cause hemorrhaging, but still friend shaped if you’re into bitey friends

my pronouns are he/him/his (venomous)

he/him/hiss

I know I make fun of Pliny the Elder a lot, but I genuinely can’t stop thinking about this approach to taxonomy:

[There is a fish called the tursio, which bears a strong resemblance to the dolphin; it differs from it, however, in a certain air of sadness, and is wanting in its peculiar vivacity.]

Like, imagine someone describing an animal to you, but the only information they’ll provide is that it’s sort of like another animal, but much much sadder.

lovely cat sleeping in the Sanctuary of the Goddess Isis at Philae (now on the Agilkia island)

Apulian mouse vessel

400–300 BCE

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

I just spent a crazy amount of time making a Which Atreid lady are you quiz, and I’d love it if you’d check it out! :D

A wheeled asphalt and limestone hedgehog statuette, Iran (c. 1500 BCE) [2400x1600]

Saffron Goddess, Minoan (Santorini), Akrotiri Frescoes, c. 1600 B.C. [2185 × 2172]

today I met an Etruscan archeologist and learned many Etruscan facts, like that they were known for their literature and even had a revealed religion with a holy book and some kind of baby/old man prophet thing (??) but none of it survives since everything was written on linen, and something like 60% of greek vases we have come from Etruscan tombs, and that up until around 600 BCE they were really obsessed with ducks. A good culture. 

since this post is taking off (thanks e.), does anyone want to know why etruscans were obsessed with ducks? It’s because they pulled the sun across the sky. Think about it. If you live on the west coast of Italy (or indeed the west coast of anywhere), it’s apparent that if the sun is going to get all the way ‘round, it has to fly through the air and then duck under water for the return trip. And what can fly and swim? 

anyway, this is why waterfowl are an ubiquitous decorative motif on grave goods. 

ancient greek word of the day: ὑετόμαντις (hyetomantis), prophet of rain

#the prophets of rain are crows and the goddess iris btw