#ancient artefacts

[bulljumpingfresco]

The Lycurgus Cup, probably made in Rome, 300s CE

This remarkable cup is the only complete example of a very special type of glass, known as dichroic, which changes colour when held up to the light

Source: The British Museum

[uncleclaudius]

Etruscan duck-shaped askoi (sort of a flask), created in the period around 350-325 BC in Clusium (today's Chiusi).

[greekmythcomix]

[copperbadge]

I didn't know about the Tesori dei Faraoni exhibit at the Scuderie del Quirinale museum when I booked the trip, so it was simply serendipity that I found out about it. The exhibit opened in October but has proved very popular, so I was pleased to get a ticket and delighted with the exhibit itself. Despite those fucking murderous stairs you see in the photo above.

These are just some shots of some of the more compelling art (at least in my opinion). The incredible preservation of some of these items, like the remarkably clean and cohesive papyrus showing a woman bathing in a river, are wild to see. And the carved wooden sarcophagus on the right, above, demonstrates how texture was as important as material in many Egyptian embalmings. Absolutely captivating in person. I wanted to touch it all over.

Also there's this. This is the elevator to the second floor and the stairway you can take instead. The actual second floor is two flights up from the first floor, so you will be climbing those shallow, slippery, and narrow spiral stairs for approximately EVER.

Roman architecture is wild.

[thesorceresstemple]

Ritual Taoist mask

[retroscifiart]

Ancient artefacts art by Steve R Dodd x 2, Robert Andre, Mark Zug

[ea-nasir-my-beloved]

Akhnatens letters

*These are five of the Amarna letters in the british museum

The Amarna letters features letters directed to Akhnaten and before him his father about the fall of conquered terratories in Caanan and Syria to the kingdoms of the Mitanni, the Babylonians and the Hittites.

These letters are featured in the opera Akhnaten in the third act and are transcribed from Samuel A.B Mercers translation from his 1939 book "Mercer, The Tel-el-Amarna Tablets". The book is hard to find so I cannot connect the letters to their correct tablets at this time but I will when I get ahold of the book.

The letters are used to paint a good picture of the severe losses Egypt suffered during Akhnaten and his ancestors reign. His descendants in the 18th dynasty mitigated the issue but the 19th dynasty namely Seti I and Ramesses II probably reclaimed the most.

Letter No. 1: I have written repeatedly for troops, but they were not given and the king did not listen to the word of his servant. And I sent my messenger to the palace, but he returned empty-handed - he brought no troops. And when the people of my house saw this, they rediculed me like the governors, my brethren, and dispised me.

Letter No. 2: The king's whole land, which has begun hostilities with me, will be lost. Behold the territory of Seir, as far as Carmel; its princes are wholly lost; and hostilities prevail against me. As long as ships were upon the sea the strong arm of the king occupied Naharin and Kash, but now the Apiru are occupying the king's cities. There remains not one prince to my lord, the king; every one is ruined. Let the king take care of his land and let him send troops. For if no troops come in this year, the whole territory of my lord, the king, will perish. If there are no troops in this year, let the king send his officer to fetch me and his brothers, that we may die with our lord, the king.

Note: Naharin meant the land of the Mitanni claimed by Thutmose III in his military campaign.

Letter No. 3: Verily, they father did not march forth nor inspect the lands of the vassal-princes. And when thou ascended the throne of thy father's house, Abdashirta's sons took the king's lands for themselves. Creatures of the king of Mittani are they, and of the king of Babylon and of the king of the Hittites.

Letter No. 4 Who formerly could have plundered Tunip without being plundered by Thutmose III? The gods of the king of Egypt, my lord, dwell in Tunip. May my lord ask his old men if this not be so. Now, however, we belong no more to our lord, the king of Egypt. And now Tunip, thy city, weeps and her tears are flowing and there is not help for us. For twenty years we have been sending to our lord, the king of Egypt, but there has not come to us a word - no, not one.

[ofruinsandmyth]

Dating to more than 6000 years old, The Dispilio Tablet is a wooden artefact bearing linear marks that might be an early form of the written word. The markings on the tablet, and on a few other ceramic objects from the site, have been compared to those on other Neolithic clay finds from other sites in the southern Balkans, such as the Vinča symbols and the Tărtăria tablets, as well as the (much later) Linear A script.