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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29415716

Wow. 40,000 year-old hand stencils. Amazing.

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The pyramids of Giza, Egypt, 1880s, photographed by G. Lékégian & Cie.

(New York Public Library)

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This is a poignant photograph. It was taken in 1918 towards the end of the First World War and shows Ludwig Wittgenstein on leave from the army with his family, before he returned to the Italian front, where he was taken prisoner. On the left is his eldest brother Kurt, who shortly after this photograph was taken, committed suicide at the Italian front, when the men under his command refused to obey his orders. Next to Kurt is Paul, who you will see if look closely has no right arm. He lost his arm while fighting the Russians. He was a pianist &, remarkably, continued his career after the war, performing with just his left arm. Next to Paul,standing up, is Hermine, the oldest of Wittgenstein's three sisters. Then Max Salzer (brother in law), Poldy (mother), Helene (sister) & finally Ludwig himself. If anyone knows anything about the uniforms Kurt and Ludwig are wearing (like what colour they would have been), I would be very interested to hear it. 

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This is the mathematician, logician and philosopher, Georg Kreisel, who, I discovered tonight, might be the last person left alive who knew Wittgenstein personally.

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It’s not all that easy to see, but inside this cabinet are the opium scales used by the most famous “opium eater” of all time, Thomas de Quincey. They’re housed at Dove Cottage, in the Lake District, where de Quincey lived for a while at the invitation of his friend, William Wordsworth.

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Just returned from a few days in the Lake District, where, among other things, we saw this: Castlerigg Stone Circle just outside Keswick. It was built around 4,500 years ago &, as you can see, is in the most beautiful setting imaginable.

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Recumbent bull with man’s head. Mesopotamia, c. 2350–2000 BC.

Louvre

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Babylonian medical treatments for the prolapsed rectum of a male virgin, from Uruk c. 300 BC

I’ve included a few of the more interesting prescriptions here. See the source for a full translation.

If a youth who has not known a woman suffers a prolapse of the rectum, you crush a… and a … and you have him drink it in beer, and/or massage him with it in oil. If it is not relieved by potions or salves, if it is his right testicle apply heat to his left shoulder blade; if it is his left testicle, apply heat to his right shoulder blade. If a youth who has not known a woman suffers a prolapse of the rectum, you boil up a lizard; he drinks the fluid and he will recover. If a youth who has not known a woman suffers a prolapse of the rectum, you sit him up to his waist in stale fine flour and wheat flour in a … of … sesame, and he will recover.

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Lord Nelson’s pocket watch. He was wearing it when he died at the Battle of Trafalgar. It was mounted into this case and sits at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

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Milky Way Galaxy Doomed: Collision with Andromeda Pending

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It’s just impossible not to love him.

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Signs. Patterns written in stone. Coding and decoding reality. Petroglyphs of Three Rivers. 

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Interesting new poster for tonight. 

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100 years ago today, the first shots by the British were fired by this gun, now on display at the Imperial War Museum, Manchester.

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Spent a most interesting day today with extremely talented people. The guy on the left is Óttar Martin Norðfjörð, an Icelandic novelist & screenwriter with whom I am writing a movie that I am very excited about. On the right is the writer and artist Edward Chaney, who we bumped into in the old part of town who showed us his extraordinary house, the most cluttered, untidy and fascinating house in Southampton.

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The Investiture of Ardashir I, the first Sasanian King. Rock relief at Nashq-e Rostam.