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Lo sfogo in diretta: “Basta tollerare l’odio sul web”

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Baghdad digitalizza la Biblioteca per salvarla dalle minacce dell’Isis

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A Pompei torna visibile il mosaico Cave Canem

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Gustav Klimt

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Cuneiform tablet containing administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression

Sumerian (probably from Uruk), c. 3100-2900 B.C. 

clay 

Metropolitan Museum of Art 

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Anthropological and Archaeological Approaches to Mortuary Rituals - a Synthesis

by Ciprian Crețu

“Anthropology and archaeology have a long tradition in shaping a discourse on the phenomenon of death. From the very beginning of the archeological discipline there is to be noticed a special interest regarding the funerary contexts –  the funerary inventory, the body of the deceased and the treatment applied to it. This paper is an attempt to review a vast literature concerned with the significance of funerary rituals, from both disciplines –  cultural anthropology and archaeology –  while seeking to capture the emergence of some research paradigms that marked the history of archaeological thought from the beginning of the 20th century till today. In an attempt to determine what funerary archaeology means for the researcher of the 20th and 21st century, I bring into discussion the two major current of archaeological thought known as processual and post-processual paradigms. What information may be obtained from the analysis of mortuary rituals and what methodologies have been formulated within such research? Which were the purposes of funerary rituals? What is the relevance of funerary archaeology in shaping of a discourse about past societies? These are just some of the questions whose answers I am seeking for (read more/open access).

(Open access source: CICSA Journal– New Series 1:4-16, 2015 via Academia.edu; images: Aditu Arkeologia Zerbitzuak)

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Six month inter-Korean excavation project announced

The two Koreas will work together on a six-month project excavating Manwoldae Palace on the North Korean side of the border, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said Sunday.

The site, located in the North Korean border village, is the central palace from the Koryo Dynasty (919-1392) that precedes Joseon. As part of the plan, more than 10 members of a historians’ association were to travel to the site Monday, to be followed by about six-dozen more over the next six months.

The Manwoldae excavation project has been taking place off and on since 2007. The project is one believed to be of great interest to late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, current leader Kim Jong Un’s father. Read more.

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Columbaria (“dovecote” niches used for holding cinerary urns) at Ostia Antica, Italy.

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New York celebra l’opera di Afro

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Nei sotterranei di Teheran la collezione di Farah Diba: tra Picasso, Warhol e Bacon opere per 5 miliardi di dollari

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1915-2015, l’Italia nata in trincea

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Una funivia tutta nuova tra le meraviglie del Bianco

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Pulverized human skull in pharmacological preparations: Possible evidence from the “martyrs of Otranto” (southern Italy, 1480) 

by Valentina Giuffra and Gino Fornaciari

“Ethnopharmacological relevance: Ever since the Late Medieval Ages historico-medical literature has attested the use of cranium humanun as an ingredient in pharmacological preparations for the treatment of epilepsy. Some authors suggest the use of pulverized bone obtained from individuals who died a violent death and were not buried. 

Materials and methods:  The skeletal remains of hundreds of male inhabitants from Otranto, killed by the Ottomans in a mass execution on 14 August, 1480, are preserved in the Chapel of Martyrs in Otranto Cathedral (Apulia, southern Italy). The so-called “martyrs of Otranto” were beatified in 1771 and canonized by Pope Francis on 12 May, 2013. A cranial vault with 16 holes of different sizes, with regular rounded shape, was noticed among the skeletal remains, symmetrically arranged behind five large rectangular windows. Eight of the 16 holes, which exposed the diploe without reaching the endocranial surface, are incomplete perforations, while 8 holes are complete perforations; no evidence of bone reaction is visible. 

Results:  The lesions are the result of a multiple trepanation performed by using an instrument equipped with a large rounded tip. This tool could not produce bone discs, but only bone powder. It is impossible to establish with certainty the reasons for these multiple trepanations, but several hypotheses can be advanced, ranging from experimental surgery to a procedure designed to obtain relics. However, saint bones are very likely to have been regarded as having medicinal properties. As a matter of fact the martyrs of Otranto died a violent death and were not buried, and the pulverized bone obtained from their skulls might have been considered a particularly powerful ingredient for pharmacological preparations, as attested in the historico-medical literature. 

Conclusions: The skull of Otranto might represent a unique evidence of multiple trepanations carried out to obtain bone powder as ingredient for therapeutic preparations” (read more/open access).

(Open access source: Journal of Ethnopharmacology 160:133-139, 2015 via Academia.edu)

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Procession of Twelve Gods and Goddess

Taranto, Italy (place of discovery)

The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

The figures from left to right are: Hestia (goddess of the hearth), with scepter; Hermes (messenger of the gods), with cap and staff; Aphrodite (goddess of love and beauty), with veil; Ares (god of war), with helmet and spear; Demeter (goddess of agriculture), with scepter and wheat sheaf; Hephaestus (god of fire and metal-working), with staff; Hera (queen of the gods), with scepter; Poseidon (god of the sea), with trident; Athena (goddess of wisdom and the arts), with owl and helmet; Zeus (king of the gods), with thunderbolt and staff; Artemis (goddess of the hunt and moon), with bow and quiver; and Apollo (god of the sun), with “kithara.”

Walters