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The Monterozzi necropolis is an Etruscan necropolis on a hill east of Tarquinia in Lazio, Italy. The necropolis has about 6,000 graves, the oldest of which dates to the 7th century BC. About 200 of the gravestones are decorated with frescos. Monterozzi was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
Komlod-Bottyansane, 1st c. AD.
He was a veteran of an auxiliary unit.
Oplus Lae / pocus Vols / etis f (ilius) Aexil / vas vet (eranus) ann (orum) / LIII stip (endiorum) XXIX / h (ic) s (itus) e (st) / L (ucius) Petillius C ( aii) / f (ilius) he (res) pos (uit)
Hungarian National Museum.
Roman, 25 BC - AD 100
Marble
Probably Dendera, Egypt
Photographed at the Getty Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Apis was the most important and highly regarded bull deity of ancient Egypt. He was originally a god of fertility, then the herald of the god Ptah but, in time, was considered Ptah incarnate. He was also, in some eras, depicted as the son of Hathor and was closely associated with her goodness and bounty.
Bronze
Late Period
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
Apollo Cup
c. 480-470 BCE
Delphi Museum, Greece
White-ground kylix (two-handled wide drinking cup) with a beautiful image of the god Apollo holding his turtle-shell lyre and pouring out a libation (offering), probably wine. I'm not sure whether the bird is a crow or a raven, although my hunch is it's a raven, since that bird is usually known for its intelligence.
© 2005 Ellen Brundige
Illustration for Ancient Greece Odyssey: A Traveller's Journal
P.S. For more information and photos of Apollo in Greek art, check my Greek God Apollo Trivia Quiz.
Ada Negri (Lodi, 3 febbraio 1870 – Milano, 11 gennaio 1945) è stata una poetessa e scrittrice italiana. È ricordata inoltre per essere stata la prima donna ad essere ammessa tra gli Accademici d'Italia.
Ada Negri (February 3, 1870 - January 11, 1945) was an Italian poet.
She was born in Lodi into an artisan family to Giuseppe Negri, and his wife Vittoria Cornalba, and became a village school-teacher. Her first book of poems, Tempeste (1891), tells the helpless tragedy of the forsaken poor, in words of vehement beauty.
Her second volume of lyrics, Fatalità, confirmed her reputation as a poet, and led to her appointment to the normal school at Milan; but her later verse, while striking in its sincerity, has been thought to suffer from a tendency to repetition and consequent mannerism.
Ada Negri was a frequent visitor to Laglio in Lake Como, where she wrote her only novel "Stella Mattutina" (Morning Star) published in 1921.
She became the first woman member of the Italian Academy in 1940.
The apron is formed of a belt of tiny faience beads in a geometric pattern. The two semi-oval pieces were probably the clasp and may have been covered with a plate bearing the name of Neferuptah. This apron was probably placed around the abdomen of the mummy of the princess, over the bandages.
Blue frit and faience
Middle Kingdom, 12th dynasty
Tomb of Neferuptah, Hawara
(JE 90189)
NMEC National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Fustat Cairo
Ancient stone frieze of a lion hunt in ancient Assyria. Originally in the palace at Nimrud, Iraq. Now in the British Museum, London.
These rock paintings were made over 2,000 years ago by the San People, an indigenous hunter-gatherer culture of southern Africa. The paintings depict hunting scenes and have a profound spiritual significance. Brandberg, Namibia, Africa.
Please contact me to arrange the use of any of my images. They are copyright, all rights reserved.
These rock paintings were made over 2,000 years ago by the San People, an indigenous hunter-gatherer culture of southern Africa. The paintings depict hunting scenes and have a profound spiritual significance. Brandberg, Namibia, Africa.
Please contact me to arrange the use of any of my images. They are copyright, all rights reserved.
Princess Neferuptah is the daughter of king Amenemhat III. Her collection of jewellery is renowned for being one of the rarest and most beautiful collections of jewellery. It was discovered in her tomb in 1956 near her father's pyramid in Hawara at Fayum.
Gold, Carnelian, Faience
Middle Kingdom, 12th dynasty
Hawara, Fayum
NMEC National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Fustat Cairo
The sarcophagus made of limestone has a polished surface at the body but not at the head so that the eyes are merely indicated. The oval face with full cheeks and a beard is rather large concerning the body; the chin rests on the chest. The nose is elongated and thin and the mouth displays a smile. Calves and shins are visible, its foot stands on a plinth. The sarcophagus' decoration consists of a small collar, a ba-bird and one vertical line of inscription, containing only the owner's title, name and affiliation. The relief was manufactured simply and hastily; the text shows an abbreviated orthography regarding the names.
The wsh-collar with falcon-head terminals is fashioned only with very roughly carved lines; the falcon heads on both top sides are almost unrecognizable. The ornaments of the collar are tear-shaped beads (1st row from below), triangles, probably representing papyrus leaves (2nd and 5th row), and dots (4th row). Inside the beads of the bottom row, rests of red colour are visible, so the collar was presumably once coloured completely. The wsh-collar is often found in the decoration of sarcophagi, as it is on mummies.
The ba-bird can be understood as part of the vignette belonging to BD 89. Usually, the ba is shown lowering on the mummy of the deceased. The spell expresses this action already in its title: "Spell to let the ba rest on its corpse / Spell to let the ba join its corpse in the necropolis". In this case, the deceased is represented by the text column with the name and title of the sarcophagus' owner, carved immediately below the ba. The spell aims at reassembling the deceased's body and "soul", which have been thought to be dissociated after death.
(AUC Press Archaeological Reports edited by Christian Leitz, Zeinab Mahrous, Tarek Tawfik 'A Selection of Ptolemaic Anthropoid Sarcophagi in Cairo')
The Sarcophagus of Nephorites
Material Limestone
Dating Ptolemaic Period
Provenance Saqqara
JE 4740; TR 13 / 1 / 21 / 10
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Shabti statues serve as servants to the deceased in the afterlife. Shabti statues were often shaped with hoes in hand and a basket hanging on a string on his back so that he would be ready for fieldwork at the invitation of the deceased. The spell of the book of the dead was often written on the body of the statue to bring the statue to life and work.
Faience
26th dynasty
Provenance unknown
Cat. 2620 Museo Egizio
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
Sarcophagus (and Mummy) of Neshkons
Material: Painted Sycamore Fig Wood
Origin: Ancient Egypt (Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty XXI)
Dated: c. 900–940 BCE
The interior of the trough of the coffin features large, iconographic elements and hieroglyphs. Centered at the top there is a human-headed Ba-bird, labeled on both sides, “Lord who comes forth/ascends from the horizon”, with seated mummiform jackal deities below the wings (not pictured; however, on the right there is a female Anubis and on the left — an Ipt).
At both shoulders, the hieroglyphs read, “A Royal Offering Formula to Osiris, Lord of Eternity, the West”.
The upper end of the topmost inside panel, where the mummies head would rest, has a sacred bark containing the sign Axt — a solar disk, meaning “horizon”. The second register from the top is suited with a cartouche, which reads “Osiris, Lord of Eternity”, between two seated gods each holding an ankh. The next register down with the Axt (solar disk) in the center is flanked by wadjet-eyes and shrines.
Acquired and sold by Samuel Merrin and Moshe Bronstein of the Merrin Gallery.
The surface of the sarcophagus is polished and decorated with sunken relief. Its finely carved, rather large oval face shows smiling lips, a round nose and a beard. The forehead is shallow in relation to the facial skull; the chin rests on the chest.
The Sarcophagus of Padiharendotes (Padihornedjitef)
Nummulitic limestone
Ptolemaic Period
Provenance probably Saqqara
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
From the sarcophagus of Hekenut, both lid and bottom are preserved. The sarcophagus shows a mummified person with a triangular face wearing a wig while the chin is raised and beardless. Furthermore, a neckband is rendered. Concerning the legs, one can see calves indicated on the lid and bottom with hardly recognizable shins on the lid. A slightly raised area next to the rear pillar forms the buttocks on the bottom. The feet rest on a rectangular plinth. The front of the lid is divided into four scenes and the decoration is very carefully engraved and many details are rendered.
Below the scenes, five columns with the text of the Book of the Dead spell 89 (a spell to let the Ba join its corpse in the necropolis) and the beginning of the so-called Book of the Dead spell 191 extend over the rest of the body's frontal area. The chapter of the Book of the Dead 191 (a spell for bringing the Ba to the body) is continued on the feet of the mummy in three lines. The latter chapter of the Book of the Dead is known since the 30th Dynasty.
The main themes of the texts, that ofter occur together, are to secure the Ba for the owner so that he can be with him daily and to help with the regeneration of the body.
Sarcophagus of Hekenut
Limestone
Ptolemaic period
Provenance: Saqqara
JE 17431
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
New installation of the Tomb of Kha.
One of the greatest masterpieces of the Egyptian Museum of Turin was discovered during an excavation in 1906: the 506 objects of the Tomb of Kha were found intact. This material is important enough to constitute a museum in itself. The Tomb contents provide an extraordinary amount of evidence and details about daily life of Kha and Merit, a married couple who lived around 1400 BC.
The rich tomb furnishings tell us much about the eating habits, fashion and lifestyle, hobbies and funerary customs of a moderately well off family of ancient Egypt.
The new installation is set in one of the most elegant galleries of the museum, where the lay-out allows the visitor a 360° view for many of the most important objects. Major conservation was carried out after a century of static display and work continues on the numerous textiles. This has been possible due to the precious contribution of GLI SCARABEI, Association of Supporting Members of the Egyptian Museum.
The lighting design was created and sponsored by ILTI LUCE and employs an innovative, low consumption LED system that imbues the objects with a gemlike quality but at the same time respects the highest standards of conservation.
Text: Museo Egizio Torino
Three large falcons are engraved below the line of text and must be read as ntrw "gods". Together with the scene on the left shoulder, where three snakes represent the female deities, the protection of the body and mind of the deceased by gods of both sexes is guaranteed.
In the last register below the protector gods, the two sisters Isis and Nephthys are kneeling. Their respective positions are the same as those on the front side where they figure as snake-goddesses beside the pectoral.
The gods are the protection of your limbs.
Sarcophagus of Hor-Re
Provenance Qaw el-Kebir
Ptolemaic Period
JE 35198
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Words to be spoken by Hapi: "I bring for you your heart inside your body without it being separated from you, forever."
Sarcophagus of Hor-Re
Provenance Qaw el-Kebir
Ptolemaic Period
JE 35198
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
charming reverse has puzzled numismatists from Eckhel to Mattingly, none whom could find a satisfactory explanation. Its decorative appearance suggests it is a punning or canting type (like the Augustus aureus with the floral reverse offered in this sale), but the moneyer’s name, M. Durmius, does not support that conclusion. Further, the combination of a crab and butterfly does not yield any obvious answers when compared with Roman art in other media. The design is loosely comparable to denarii struck some three generations earlier by the imperator Cassius (Cr. 505/3) since they show a crab clutching an aplustre, with a diadem and a rose positioned below. With Cassius’ denarii, though, the meaning of the design is both historical and clear since he had just scored an important victory over the Rhodian fleet – the crab thus represented the city of Cos and the rose the city of Rhodes.
An entire wall of the tomb-chapel showed a feast in honour of Nebamun. Naked serving-girls and servants wait on his friends and relatives. Married guest sit in pairs on fine chairs, while the young women turn and talk to each other. This erotic scene of relaxation and wealth is something for Nebamun to enjoy for all eternity. The richly dressed guests are entertained by dancers and musicians, who sit on the ground playing and clapping. The words of their song in honour of Nebamun are written above them. "The earth-god has caused his beauty to grow in every body... the channels are filled with water anew, and the lands is flooded with love of him."
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Greywacke
26th dynasty
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
Funerary equipment of Sennedjem
New Kingdom, 19th dynasty
Tomb of Sennedjem TT1, Deir el-Medina
NMEC National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Fustat Cairo
Greek, 550–545 B.C.
The Tyrrhenian-style neck amphora has a typically tall, ovoid body; a short neck with a raised fillet at the join of the shoulder; and an inverted echinus foot. The scene on side A depicts a wedding procession of the gods. At right, Hermes is at the head of the procession. He wears a short white tunic, red chlamys, winged boots, and holds a caduceus. He looks back at two goddesses, one of whom stands with hands raised in front of a black and a white horse pulling a biga (chariot). Behind the pair of horses, a second goddess holds up wreaths and torches. The goddesses greet the bridal couple, a bearded man and a woman holding her veil before her face, who stand in the biga. Behind them is Dionysos, who wears a crown of white ivy leaves and a long red mantle. Dionysos looks back at two goddesses at the rear of the procession, the first of whom carries a wreath. Between the figures are vertical nonsense inscriptions in the field.
Side B shows two warriors in single combat, each holding a shield in front of them and brandishing spears. Behind the nude warrior on the right, who is armed with a Corinthian crested helmet and greaves, is a woman holding a wreath, and old man with white beard and hair, and another woman. Following the warrior at left, wearing a Corinthian crested helmet, white tunic, and greaves, is a similar threesome: a woman who raised both hands toward the combatants, an elderly man holding a spear, who raises one hand to his forehead in alarm; and another woman. There are nonsense inscriptions in the field.
The outer edge of the rim is decorated with intertwining lotus buds. On the neck is a frieze of addorsed lotus-palmettes, below which is a thick black band. The top of the shoulder has alternating black and red tongues. Below the figural frieze on the shoulder, from top to bottom, are three thin bands, a thick black band, three thin bands, alternating black and red tongues, an addorsed lotus-palmette frieze, alternating black and red tongues, a pair of thin bands, a broad black band, intertwining lotus blossoms and buds, a black band, and rays around the base. The top of the foot is black with two red lines at the outer edge. Substantial areas of the black glazed handles, bands, and foot are misfired red. Added red is used for the figures’ drapery, the chest of the black horse, and on the subsidiary ornament; added white for female flesh, a horse, and the drapery of the groom and Hermes.
This type of ovoid amphora with densely patterned friezes is known as "Tyrrhenian," a term derived from the Greek word for Etruscans, "Tyrsenoi." Some two hundred amphorae of this shape and bold style were produced during the second quarter of the sixth century B.C. in an Athenian workshop for export overseas, and most have been found in Etruria. A majority come from the cemeteries of Vulci and Cerveteri.
A winged scarab under a pt-hieroglyph forms the top of the decoration.
The Sarcophagus of Padiharendotes (Padihornedjitef)
Nummulitic limestone
Ptolemaic Period
Provenance probably Saqqara
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Before the Franco-Italian mission began excavating at Tebtynis, wooden windows of the Graeco-Roman period were only known through representations within model houses in stone or terracotta and by discoveries at Karanis (Fayum), where windows with a simple frame, subdivided by horizontal or vertical bars, had been discovered. The excavation of the mission uncovered three windows with rotating shutters and carved grills very similar to those shown in models of houses and for which no museum in the world has parallel examples.
From the exhibition of 'Unexpected treasures - 30 years of excavations and cooperation in Tebtynis (Fayum)'
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
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This is gorgeously engraved, but the copper oxide occludes the engraving. You'll notice the museum didn't bother polishing the mirror. I increased the contrast a little to bring out the engraving a little.
The mirror dates from 325-300 BC, so it's a bit late in Etruscan history, as the Romans are kicking butt "unifying" (read - conquering) the Italian peninsula. By another half-century, that's completed, and then the Romans can kick Carthaginian and Greek butt as well. And then...
This mirror was made, the Museum tells me, in Praeneste. That's about 20-25 mi east-southeast of Rome.
A biophysicist, I managed to sneak in a few ancient history courses at Florida State University, until the biophysics kahunas told me to stop. They had a point. It's not like a biophysics graduate degree doesn't give one enough work! But the prof, Nancy deGrummond (and was she ever a wonderful professor - very engaging and intelligent) did Etruscan archaeology and she specialized in Etruscan mirrors - one of the reasons I had to get the photo.
In those days, they couldn't make glass plates, and so their mirrors were solid metal. The other side of this mirror would be finely polished.
Did you know that our mirrors today are STILL made of metal? That's right; the glass is just the cover for a thin layer of metal on the back, which is what actually reflects the light. The glass protects the layer of metal so that it doesn't get oxidized or scratched. To make thin panes of glass like that, we had to learn to pour molten glass onto a big cauldron of molten tin. The glass layers on top of the tin, which doesn't bubble because tin has a very low vapor pressure, and you get a very smooth pane of glass.
Sheesh, what a pedant I am. Sorry....did I tell you I'm a teacher?
Vaciado en yeso de XVII de copia romana de original griego del s. V a. C.
Atribuido a Fidias.
Exposición "Velázquez. Esculturas para el alcázar."
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
This is very rare to find a Julio Claudian Princeps on something other than coinage or in the round. This radiate portrait of Claudius quite rare and shows the Princeps as Pontifex Maximus (see items flanked rt. and left) simpuvium and littus. Claudius ruled from 41-54 A.D.
Artist or Maker:
CIRCA MID TO LATE 1ST CENTURY A.D.
Title:
A ROMAN BRONZE IMAGO CLIPEATA OF THE EMPEROR CLAUDIUS
Description:
CIRCA MID TO LATE 1ST CENTURY A.D.
Of hammered sheet, sculpted in high relief within the concave tondo, the Emperor depicted wearing a radiate crown, with a full cap of short comma-shaped locks of hair, a single hooked lock before each prominent ear, with a broad cranium and tapering chin, his face with emphatic signs of aging in the two furrows of the forehead and bags under his wide eyes, the pupils articulated, the brows modelled, the rounded nose with pronounced naso-labial folds, the small mouth with full lips, the neck creased, wearing a toga with V-shaped folds at the neck and a pallium over the shoulders, the bust flanked by the symbols of the office of pontifex maximus, a dipper (simpuvium) to the left and a wand (lituus) to the right, framed by a raised band of Lesbian kymation off set by beading, the edges folded over a lead backing
9 3/4 in. (24.7 cm.) diameter
Provenance:
Found at the Roman settlement of Derventio, near Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, England in 1991.
The Property of a Gentleman; Christie's, London, 8 July 1992, lot 168.
The Property of a Gentleman; Christie's, London, 5 July 1995, lot 197.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1996 (Art of the Ancient World, 1997, no. 53).
Notes:
THE STAMFORD BRIDGE TONDO
PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTION
Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus was born in Lyon, France (ancient Lugdunum) in 10 B.C. He was the youngest son of Drusus and Antonia the Younger (the niece of Augustus and daughter of Marc Antony). Due to poor health and a pronounced stammer, his family assumed that he would never achieve success. According to Suetonius (Lives of the Caesars: Claudius, III,2), even his own mother considered him "a monster, a man whom Mother Nature had begun to work upon but then flung aside." He was not granted any major position during the reigns of Augustus or Tiberius, but in 37 A.D., during the reign of his nephew Caligula, he shared the consulate and presided at the public games in the Emperor's absence. Claudius was possibly involved in the plot to assassinate Caligula, and he succeeded his nephew at the age of 51 as the fourth Emperor of Rome on 24 January 41 A.D. (see Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, pp. 129-134 and Varner, ed., From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny & Transformation in Roman Portraiture, p. 114).
In 43 A.D. Claudius ordered the invasion of Britain by a force of 40,000 soldiers. Following the successful campaign, Camulodunum (Colchester) was made the capital. After his murder in 54 A.D., Claudius was deified by a decree of the Senate under Nero. A temple was begun at Camulodunum in his honor, but was destroyed during the Boudican revolt of 60 A.D. Another was completed in Rome by Vespasian.
The presence of the radiate crown worn by Claudius on the Stamford Bridge Tondo suggests that, like the temples dedicated in his honor, this portrait was a posthumous creation, as Claudius's successor Nero was the first Roman emperor represented wearing such a crown during his lifetime (see Varner, op. cit., p. 128). The discovery of the Stamford Bridge Tondo in Yorkshire attests to Claudius's popularity in Britain. Its original function is unknown.
For another imago clipeata of Claudius now in the Louvre see p. 166 in Massner, "Zum Stilwandel im Kaiserporträt claudisher Zeit" in Die Regierungszeit des Kaisers Claudius (41-54 n. Chr.).
According to the Lonely Planet guide to Iran,
"Most impressive of all, however, and among the most impressive historical sights in all of Iran, are the bas-reliefs of the Apadana Staircase on the eastern wall [of the Apadana Palace]."
"The panels at the southern end [of the Apadana Staircase] are the most interesting, showing 23 delegations bringing their tributes to the Achaemenid king."
"This rich record of the nations of the time ranges from the Ethiopians in the bottom left center, through a climbing pantheon of, among other peoples, Arabs, Thracians, Indians, Parthians and Cappadocians, up to the Elamites and Medians at the top right."
According to Donald N. Wilber's book Persepolis, The Archaeology of Parsa, Seat of the Persian Kings, this group "represents the Yauna (Ionians), who wear garments similar to those of the Lydians, but are bareheaded. They carry what may be beehives and skeins of colored wool."
Persepolis, Iran
Ancient sculpture art as contrast to the modern one like Freezing Water (previous picture posted).
Totem pole as seen in Vanier Park Vancouver.
These are great art pieces from the native artist of First Nations in Western Canada.
The one who creates his own name.
Sarcophagus of Hor-Re
Provenance Qaw el-Kebir
Ptolemaic Period
JE 35198
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Obverse
German eagle, mintmark below. F = Stuttgart
Lettering: BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND ∙ F ∙
Translation: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ∙ F ∙
Reverse
Two oak branches on either side of the face value.
Lettering: 1 DEUTSCHE MARK 1957
Translation: 1 GERMAN MARK 1957
Engraver: J. Bernhart
Edge Smooth with imprints
Lettering: ~*~ ~·~ ~*~ ~·~ ~*~ ~·~
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