Naa blog!

Architetural historian-in-training. 3d artist and avid Wikipedia reader. 3d prints musical instruments.

[underthelion]

I made a painting!

This is Gustave Corbet's Woman with a Parrot, in the jewelry of one of the mandakini-s at the Chennakeshava Temple in Belur.

The Kannada text is a line from a poem by poet DV Gundappa, who asks the mandakini, "Oh, damsel with your parrot, what news are you giving to it?"

[aro-langblr-deactivated20240924]

Is there a fun language fact you've been thinking about lately that you want to share?

here's a linguistics fact I've wanted to rant about for a while now lol. the idea of "the oldest language in the world" is illegitimate and based on misinformation. when someone says that a given language is significantly older than others (think sanskrit, lithuanian, icelandic, etc) what they mean to say is that the language retains more features from its proto-language form as compared to other languages. but the way this information is presented makes people wrongfully think "oh, so X came into existence before Y?"

languages evolve at different rates, and these "oldest languages" have slower evolution rates. it's also quite difficult to state when a language "started existing" because language is in a constant evolutionary process that changes in the face of isolation, community, necessity, language barriers, and more. sure, certain modern-day speakers of a given language, may be able to parse through ancient texts, but that just means the language has linguistically evolved less substantially than surrounding languages would in the same amount of time. (note: a modern speaker's ability to read an old text would still be dependent on personal knowledge about the language history).

there certainly is intrigue to researching these so-called "oldest" languages, but the merit isn't found in the fact that the language existed in such a distant past; the merit is found in how the ancient features of the language have persevered even into modern day

[druid-for-hire]

[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled “immortality” after the poem by clare harner (more popularly known as “do not stand at my grave and weep”). the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, “do not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.” page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, “i am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.” the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, “when you awaken in the morning’s hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.” the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, “i am not there. i did not die” / end id]

a comic i made in about 15 hours for my school’s comic anthology. the theme was “evolution”

[iamafanofcartoons]

Tumblr Folklore Stories/Blogs Directory/Masterlist

There are so many great Tumblr Blog stories here! But things are best when organized! Here you are! I’m going to use Tumblr Blaze in a couple weeks to spread this to everyone, but if all of you can reblog this to everyone you know, we can spread the joys of Tumblr to EVERYONE!

Credit to https://www.tumblr.com/dannnnnnnnnnnnex/700073427344736256/love-how-tumblr-has-its-own-folk-stories-yeah-the

The God of Arepo (graphic novel 1 / 2 / 3) (ebook)

The Monster of Sentan

The Witch’s Cat

Raise Both Children

Stabby the Roomba (honorable mention)

Cinderella Marries the Prince (comic)

My Arch Nemesis Cynthia

Pirates and Mermaid

Eindred and the Witch

The Demon King

The Cornerwitch

Grandmother Beetroot

Apocalypse Daycare Worker

Grandmother Accidentally Summons a Demon

New Year Saga

A Story About Changelings

Ranger in the King’s Forest

The Difference Between a Hare and a Rabbit

Goblin Men (Canines)

Faceblind Prince Charming and Cinderella

 The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship

The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

Doctors Without Borders

The Queen with Three Cursed Children

25. Tiny Dragon with one coin hoard

26. Haunted house

27. Shark hero was about to go rogue

28. Grandma lives in the woods comic

29. A Different Aftermath comic

30. Battery (microstory but I love it so much)

31. It’s A Date comic

32. Supervillian kidnaps rival’s kid and they want to stay

33. Narrative Town

34. I have been hired to clean the wizard tower comic

35. Robot Apocalypse

36. The Statues That Do Not Weather

37. Kushiel

38. Tooth Fairy

39. Alien abduction

40. Felonious wish-granting

41. When humans met actual space orcs

42. Space cousins

Well, now they’re categorized.

 https://www.tumblr.com/inkvoices/700033965299531776/love-how-tumblr-has-its-own-folk-stories-yeah-the

https://www.tumblr.com/lightningladybug/699931426130444288/love-how-tumblr-has-its-own-folk-stories-yeah-the

https://www.tumblr.com/blitzlowin/699840636252225536/love-how-tumblr-has-its-own-folk-stories-yeah-the

Also, this is a RWBY-positivity BLOG, so please watch RWBY

[archaeologicalnews]

Ice age children frolicked in 'giant sloth puddles' 11,000 years ago, footprints reveal

More than 11,000 years ago, young children trekking with their families through what is now White Sands National Park in New Mexico discovered the stuff of childhood dreams: muddy puddles made from the footprints of a giant ground sloth.

Few things are more enticing to a youngster than a muddy puddle. The children — likely four in all — raced and splashed through the soppy sloth trackway, leaving their own footprints stamped in the playa — a dried up lake bed. Those footprints were preserved over millennia, leaving evidence of this prehistoric caper, new research finds.

The finding shows that children living in North America during the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) liked a good splash. “All kids like to play with muddy puddles, which is essentially what it is,” Matthew Bennett, a professor of environmental and geographical sciences at Bournemouth University in the U.K. who is studying the trackway, told Live Science. Read more.

[aristoteliancomplacency]

Guys.

Y’all.

I…

I just. I just… i have discovered something. And I have laughed too much. I have laughed every time I have tried to explain it to someone. I cannot get through this.

Look. Okay.

There are two things you need to know, here.

First: There’s a style of Greek pottery that was popular during the Hellenic period, for which most of the surviving examples are from southern Italy. We call them ‘fish plates’ because, well, they’re plates, and they’re decorated with fish (and other marine life).

Like this one, currently in the Met:

Or this one, currently in the Cleveland Museum of Art:

They’re very cool. We’re not 100% sure what they were for, because most of the surviving ones were found as grave goods, but that’s a different post.

The second thing you need to know is that when we (Classics/archaeology/whatever as a discipline) have a collection of artefacts, like vases, sculptures, paintings, etc. and we do not know the name of the artist, but we’re pretty sure one artist made X, Y and Z artefacts, we come up with a name for that artist. There are a whole bunch of things that could be the source for the name, e.g. where we found most of their work (The Dipylon Master) or the potter with whom they worked (the Amasis Painter), a favourite theme (The Athena Painter), the Museum that ended up with the most famous thing they did (The Berlin Painter) or a notable aspect of their style. Like, say, The Eyebrow Painter.

Guess what kind of pottery the Eyebrow Painter made?

[secifosseluce]

but for real, nothing can match the tenderness, the warmth, the private & public love & fondness of the couple portrayed in the Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses…I mean. look at them:

the way they chose to be pictured in this loving moment, so they could remain together for eternity! she used to be holding what we assume was a tiny pomegranate (a symbol for eternity), and she was pouring perfume in his hand… i….the tenderness. but also the way their bodies connect, almost being inextricably tied to one another; the playfulness of their expressions, the intelligence of their eyes, the expressiveness of their gestures (italian legends lol), and the sweet domesticity of their position, which was typical for dinners with friends - husbands and wives remained under the same blanket and conversed w their guests over dinner…….. 

but most of all. how wordlessly beautiful it is to see their heads from behind, looking (with all the differences in costumes of their time) like a couple we could easily see sitting in front of us at a restaurant. they’re lost in a lively conversation with their friends. the man’s arm is around her shoulders, and she’s laughing, moving her hands animatedly while telling a story. they love each other. it’s a story that never ends. 

[megkips]

It should also be stated that this piece was meant to hold the ashes.  This was someone’s burial piece, and it was the most important thing to them that they and their spouse be depicted together and very visibly in love, and participating in a banquet as was the norm in Etruscan culture.

Etruscan art, especially funerary art, is made of couples.  The Boston Museum of Fine Art holds the burial tomb of the Tetnies families, and both the husband and wife and then their son and his wife?  The tenderness on both pieces is absolutely remarkable.

But nothing, and I truly mean nothing, prepares one for seeing il Sarcofago degli Sposi in person.  You can see them down the corridor in Villa Gulia, and the closer to get, the more inviting they are.  Warmth radiates off of them, off of every angle of this piece, and there is a fluidity and life present that the photographs capture, but seeing them in person only amplifies.

Etruscan art has such liveliness and joy in it, and nothing captures it better than these two.

If you are ever, ever in Rome, go visit them.   It is worth every moment.

[nonasuch]

Oh, wow. I’d never seen the Tetnies sarcophagi before, and they’re wonderful. Incredibly intimate:

And that sent me down an Etruscan sarcophagus rabbit hole — this was my other favorite couple. I love that they’re sculpted as they must have been in life, with their age showing clearly in their faces, and the pose is wonderful too:

The solo sarcophagi are also great! Love that they were probably all painted, and some of them still have a lot of their paint left:

anyway, a+ genre of ancient funerary art that I knew almost nothing about

[memories-of-ancients]

Clay figurine of a hedgehog drinking from a bowl, Greece, 2800-2300 BC

from The National Archeological Museum, Athens

[can-i-make-you-some-tea]

3- art by peopleiveloved

[underthelion]

23 April 2023

Video game blog #01

I watched Suzume in the movie theatre earlier today, and I was blown away by two things: the visuals and the Hero's Journey.

The story of Suzume fits in almost perfectly with the Hero's Journey! I wanna use it for my video game.

[underthelion]

7 April 2023

Sangam era poetry and songs are so beautiful!

Unlike other "ancient Indian" poetry and songs, these are different imo because they talk of people and things which we find normal today.

They're extremely relatable: some talk of people being angry with their significant other, some talk about how beautiful the sunset from the city is, and some about how sad someone is feeling because their spouse passed away.

The poem below, for instance, is a romantic song.

And this one, is a song telling how a woman met her significant other.

It's all... Very human.

[underthelion]

Croc Maga is when people do Krav Maga but in Crocs.

[underthelion]

The cat went meow and the Egyptians named it miau.

The goat went mæ and the Telugu people called it mæka.

[underthelion]

3 April 2023

My first Tumblr post! Well there's a repost in my feed already but eh, it's alright ig.

The tumblr aesthetic is nice.

[peonycats]

Thoughts on IVC (Indus Valley Civilisation)? 🥺💖

Since we know so little about the Indus Valley/Harappan Civilization, I can't really speak that much about her ^^'' but here's some fun facts!

It's very likely that she was one of the many city states that made up the Indus Valley/Harrappan Civilization.

She and Mesopotamia knew each other!

Indus often came to visit Mesopotamia on her ships to trade and exchange goods, but Mesopotamia herself never went to Indus's lands. Indus's minerals, gems, and jewelry were all the rage in the west (though Indus never understood the hype around the lapiz lazuli)

I imagine that in comparison to Mesopotamia and other ancient states, she may have been more light-hearted and open in nature.

Very fond of makeup and jewelry and bathed frequently.

Likes making crafts, and often busied herself making toys for children.

Despite never meeting one another, she and Pakistan have a striking resemblance to each other, both appearance-wise and personality-wise; this often makes India melancholy.

Historical Notes:

I referenced her clothes based on statuettes found in IVC sites but it is entirely possible that they were just statuettes and not meant to be referenced for everyday female wear lmao- we do know for certain that women did wear knee length skirts tho! Most of her jewelry is directly referenced from IVC archaeological finds!

In the IVC, both men and women wore metal ornaments. Women wore headdresses, earrings, bangles, girdles, bracelets, and ankles.

Oval mirrors, ivory combs, and even small dressing tables have been found at sites. They've also found small jars, meant for holding makeup and other cosmetics. Statuettes sometimes depict women with low buns, so I went for that hairstyle for her.

The golden headband is actually historically accurate tho prbably would've been moreso worn on the forehead haha

The people of IVC did have access to indigo dye at the time so I gave her a blue cotton skirt in the bigger drawing

Very few weapons or other signs of institutional violence have ever been found in the Harappan archaeological sites, and incredibly, homes and graves were remarkably uniform, not showing typical signs of social hierarchy! for those reasons, i think that even if she may have had her own struggles, especially towards the end of her life, she perhaps didn't see the world in such fatalistic and cynical terms like Mesopotamia and others did.

There was a site found in modern day Afghanistan using IVC standard measurements and building conventions where lapiz lazuli was mined, tho no IVC artifacts have ever been found using lapiz lazuli. Therefore, it's speculated that the people of IVC didn't use lapiz lazuli, and instead traded and sold the mineral to others.

Mesopotamia/Sumer's (idk havent decided yet) outfit is mostly based off of priestesses!

Man ignore the fact that I put a red marigold in her hair i thought it looked nice before I realized that marigolds were indigenous to the Americas and therefore she would've never been able to see one QvQ but some statuettes from the sites do depict wearing flowers in their hair tho!

The design on her belt center is based off off this symbol found commonly in IVC sealstones!

the chad vs virgin meme text is from a video about the Indus Valley Civilization from cogito lol

and here's a close up on her lovely face pls appreciate all the blood sweat and tears spent on coloring her jewelry 😭