ajcontr

Antonio Jesus Contreras Father, husband, Medical Staff Services, and a Early Modern European Historian. As a historian, I am dedicated to furthering, preserving and spreading historical knowledge and appreciation of the history of science to a wide variety of audiences, including academic scholars, government officials, and the general public. • Recent graduate in History, with a specialization in the history of Early Modern Europe. • Knowledge of historical research methodology and one year of graduate assistant experience. • Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate complex historical ideas in creative and engaging ways. Research Interests:Modern European History, Protestant Reformation, Counter-Reformation, Anglican Church History, Christianity, Hagiography, and Early Christianity

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at Heavener, Oklahoma

[ginger-girl-world]

[electras]

Feel

[medievalpoc]

This wooden chest containing nine porcelain bottles once held expensive aromatic oils. I love objects like these because they almost always tell a story. This one was apparently used as a bribe to an important Indian official, commissioned by The Dutch East India Company.

The porcelain bottles were commissioned from a Japanese artisan, in the Kakiemon Arita ware style. The box itself was created by joiners in Jakarta, Indonesia. However, the oils it once contained were more expensive than the box or the bottles, and comprised the actual gift.

Something like this makes me wonder about what kind of oils exactly were in these bottles. Because American education is Eurocentric, we might imagine oils that would have been expensive in Europe when this gift was made (around 1680 or so). Instead, I wonder what kind of oils or extracts would have been precious or rare in India at that time? What about…attar of roses?

It makes me remember this post submitted by @aseantoo about 2 years ago, about the obsession that upper class Mughal women of the 17th Century had: a passion for inventing, blending, and mixing perfumes!

This is Mughal Empress Nur Jahan / نور جهاں‎ (1577-1645). She’s said to be the inventor of attar of roses, a key ingredient in rose perfume. Although other accounts say that it was actually her mother-in-law who made the discovery:

According to the emperor, once Asmat Begam, the mother of his wife Nur Jahan, was making rose water when she noticed “a thick mass on the surface of pots where hot rose water was poured from jugs”. Asmat collected the mass and finally realised that it was so rich “that a single drop of it rubbed into the palm filled the air with an enchanting scent of tons of red roses blooming simultaneously”. Jahangir was charmed by this delightful fragrance. “There is no other scent that could compare to it. It lifts the spirit and refreshes the soul. As a token of my gratitude for this discovery, I presented the discoverer with a pearl necklace”.

I posit that this box was a perfume-making kit, and probably a gift to an Indian noblewoman.

[historical-nonfiction]

Archaeological work at the foot of the Great Temple of the Aztecs, in downtown Mexico City, uncovered an unusual burial: a young wolf, surrounded by golden artifacts, in a stone coffin. The golden finds are an interesting mix of items one would normally find decorating a human Aztec warrior, from ear and nose ornaments to a piece of body armor known as a pectoral. The offering was buried during the reign of Ahuitzotl (1486–1502), a period of war and great imperial expansion for the Aztecs.

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All Tesla vehicles produced in our factory, including Model 3, have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.

When I rich, I want one of these cars. Pst.. Please, as if !!

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Directed by Torsten Hoffmann, Michael Watchulonis. With John Barrett, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Jeffrey A. Tucker, Matt Miller. For anyone who has not fully understood the controversial Bitcoin yet, this is a concise and informative crash course about Money and Crypto Currencies.

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A Syrian refugee has filed a lawsuit against Facebook in Germany, after a selfie he took with Chancellor Angela Merkel was used in a series of fake news stories linking him to terrorism. The...

A Syrian refugee has filed a lawsuit against Facebook in Germany, after a selfie he took with Chancellor Angela Merkel was used in a series of fake news stories linking him to terrorism. The refugee, Anas Modamani, is seeking an injunction against Facebook that would require the social network to prevent the photo from being shared, and to delete all false news stories that have previously used it. A court in Würzburg heard opening remarks in the case on Monday, The New York Times reports.

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The GOP is changing its tune on the repeal of Obamacare

Republicans are switching from "repeal" to "repair" in an attempt to soften their tone on Obamacare.

An increasing number of House Republicans have shifted to the "repair" terminology when referring to the Obamacare issue.

"I think it is more accurate to say repair Obamacare because, for example, in the reconciliation procedure that we have in the Senate, we can't repeal all of Obamacare," Sen. Lamar Alexander, the chair of the Senate Health Committee, said last week.

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Evening Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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Death Valley in California, USA

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