Concordia, located in the north of Italy, was the birthplace of the early Christian author Rufinus. Among its archaeological remains are a Christian basilica and the “Trychora Martyrum,” a 4th c. martyrs shrine. By the end of the century it was transformed into a small basilica
🪔 #OnThisDay, in 17 BC Secular Games of Octavian continued in Rome: spectators were offered games in Circus and an animal hunt. On the photo - the Temple of Apollo Palatinus build by Octavian and where choirs of boys and girls sang the Carmen Saeculare, composed for the occasion of Games by the poet Horace. 📸 me
Archaeologists have traced the origin of the horse and why humans ride them
“Researchers believe the very earliest horse ancestors arose in North America, then sauntered across the Bering Strait into Asia around a million years ago. They flourished in Asia, but went extinct in the Americas.”
🪔 For eyes pleasure: This statue depicts the river god Arno and it dates to the time of Hadrian. It was heavily restored during the Renaissance times. Curiously, a small lion's head has been carved on the vase, probably in homage to Pope Leo X Medici (1513-1521). Now in Musei Vaticani. 📸 me
🪔 #OnThisDay in 323 BC Alexander the Great died in Babylon, possibly from malaria. The marble bust in the post was likely produced in Alexandria in 300 BC - 150 BC. It is now in the BM, London. 📸 me
The arch of Titus stands on the Via Sacra which leads from the Colosseum into the Roman Forum. It marked Titus' campaign in Judea which led to the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. Titus' deified image is depicted lifted up to the heavens on the back of an eagle.
The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant
“We find that Levant-related modern populations typically have substantial ancestry coming from populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros and the Bronze Age Southern Levant. These groups also harbor ancestry from sources we cannot fully model with the available data, highlighting the critical role of post-Bronze-Age migrations into the region over the past 3,000 years.”
Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe
“The historical and archaeological record leave no doubt that the development of culture and population in southwestern Germany was temporarily characterized by profound discontinuities, particularly during the third to first century BCE. The definitive end of the 2,000 years of relative genetic continuity from the Bronze throughout the Iron Age in southern Germany is marked by a sudden, sharp increase of Steppe-related ancestry during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.”
Gretzinger, J., Schmitt, F., Mötsch, A. et al. Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01888-7
Biblical Gilgal: A Common Place Name or a Cult Site near Jericho?
“Gilgal was a national cult centre of the Kingdom of Israel, and in several references its name appears alongside that of Bethel (1 Sam 7:16; 2 Kgs 2:1–2; Hos 4:15; 12:12; Amos 4:4; 5:4–5). Bethel, located in the highlands, was the seat of a national temple (see Amos 7:13) and the place where the golden calf, the animal sacred to the Storm God, represented the God of Israel in his temple.”
“_ The implication is that Anglo-Saxon elites had access to significant quantities of Byzantine silver, something that dramatically alters our view of how economically and politically connected they were._”
“This episode examines the origins of Hebrew and its relationship with Canaanite dialects in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. The episode will explore archaeological artifacts such as an inscription from Izbet Sarteh in Israel, which may be one of the earliest inscriptions of the Hebrew language.”
#Video length: ten mintues and fifty nine seconds.
Remains of a triconch room in a 4th cent. Roman villa in Patti Marina, #Sicily. The room is comprised of three curved apses and a mosaic floor decorated with geometric patterns and animals.
“The fakes created during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century tell us another story, one of the rediscovery of the ancient Near East within the Orientalism movement. This fascination about the Orient and the past led certain individuals to create some fantastic stories and theories, such as those published by the writer Zecharia Stichin (1920–2010) who took the mythological battles of gods related in the authentic Babylonian Epic of Creation to be real astronomic phenomena.”
Michel, C. 2020. Cuneiform Fakes: A Long History from Antiquity to the Present Day. In: Michel, C. and Friedrich, M. ed. Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 25-60. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110714333-002