"The dance of the maenads", roman copies of greek originals (ca. 420 a.C.).
Around 410 B.C. In Athens, which was then celebrating Dionysus with the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides, a large monument decorated with reliefs of bacchantes had to be built. It was undoubtedly intended to honor the memory of some winner in dramatic contests, and its motifs had lasting success, being imitated on multiple occasions. From four of these maenad reliefs, attributed to Callimachus.
The maenads were legendary nurses of Dionysus, who protected him in his childhood and became his first followers. However, the Dionysian cult involved the conversion into maenads or bacchantes of those women who, seized by Bacchic ecstasy, danced until exhaustion at the god's festivals, waved their thyrsus, wore the nebris or fawn skin and destroyed animals, feeding on its raw meat.
πΈ Prado Museum, Madrid
Around 410 B.C. In Athens, which was then celebrating Dionysus with the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides, a large monument decorated with reliefs of bacchantes had to be built. It was undoubtedly intended to honor the memory of some winner in dramatic contests, and its motifs had lasting success, being imitated on multiple occasions. From four of these maenad reliefs, attributed to Callimachus.
The maenads were legendary nurses of Dionysus, who protected him in his childhood and became his first followers. However, the Dionysian cult involved the conversion into maenads or bacchantes of those women who, seized by Bacchic ecstasy, danced until exhaustion at the god's festivals, waved their thyrsus, wore the nebris or fawn skin and destroyed animals, feeding on its raw meat.
πΈ Prado Museum, Madrid
The Scythian Cup is a world-famous gold piece found in the Kul-Oba mound (near Kerch, Crimea, Ukraine) with images of the Scythians (Northern Black Sea region, second half of the fourth century BC).
It was discovered in a woman's grave and is rightfully considered an exceptional find of ancient jewelery art. The relief frieze depicts three paired scenes and the figure of a Scythian warrior pulling a bow. This find was a real discovery: the paintings on the vessel gave us for the first time an idea of ββββwhat the Scythians looked like.
The goldsmith, probably a Greek, conveyed with impressive ethnographic accuracy the features of the appearance, clothing and armor of the Scythians. Such a realistic reproduction of details leaves no doubt that the artist knew well the life of the local "barbarian" population. The master managed to recreate the original image of the brave lords of the steppes. According to one of the versions, the scenes presented in the cup can serve as an example of Herodotus's story about the origin of the Scythians.
πΈ The Hermitage Museum
It was discovered in a woman's grave and is rightfully considered an exceptional find of ancient jewelery art. The relief frieze depicts three paired scenes and the figure of a Scythian warrior pulling a bow. This find was a real discovery: the paintings on the vessel gave us for the first time an idea of ββββwhat the Scythians looked like.
The goldsmith, probably a Greek, conveyed with impressive ethnographic accuracy the features of the appearance, clothing and armor of the Scythians. Such a realistic reproduction of details leaves no doubt that the artist knew well the life of the local "barbarian" population. The master managed to recreate the original image of the brave lords of the steppes. According to one of the versions, the scenes presented in the cup can serve as an example of Herodotus's story about the origin of the Scythians.
πΈ The Hermitage Museum
Roman egg found in Aylesbury still has contents after 1,700 years
The find was made by Oxford Archaeology which has been working on the Berryfields housing and community development site near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire for nine years. Here they found βa middle Iron Age settlement and the agricultural hinterland of the putative nucleated Roman settlement of Fleet Marstonβ
Among the organic items found were four eggs, thought to be chicken eggs. They were all found intact but as they were being moved, three of them broke, as they were so fragile. The broken eggs emitted a very powerful and unpleasant smell, this was not a surprise as they were centuries old, after all.
One of the eggs was extracted intact from the muddy ground, after some painstaking work. This was astonishing as only fragments of eggshells had been found, previously in Britain, mainly from Roman-era graves.
The find was made by Oxford Archaeology which has been working on the Berryfields housing and community development site near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire for nine years. Here they found βa middle Iron Age settlement and the agricultural hinterland of the putative nucleated Roman settlement of Fleet Marstonβ
Among the organic items found were four eggs, thought to be chicken eggs. They were all found intact but as they were being moved, three of them broke, as they were so fragile. The broken eggs emitted a very powerful and unpleasant smell, this was not a surprise as they were centuries old, after all.
One of the eggs was extracted intact from the muddy ground, after some painstaking work. This was astonishing as only fragments of eggshells had been found, previously in Britain, mainly from Roman-era graves.
18th century wooden church surrounded by pine trees,
πΈ KuΔani village, Serbia
πΈ KuΔani village, Serbia