Antiquities Exhibits

Ancient Yemen was composed of a number of regional kingdoms including the Minaeans in the north in Wādī al-Jawf, the Sabeans on the southwestern tip, stretching from the highlands to the sea, the Qatabānians to the east of them, and the Ḥaḑramites east of them.  They were all engaged in the spice trade, especially frankincense and myrrh. They left behind many inscriptions in the monumental ancient South Arabian script or Musnad, as well as numerous documents in the related cursive Zabūr script.  Scholars disagree about their origins with some claiming these kingdoms arose about 1200 BCE.  Others say they did not begin to flourish until the 8th century BCE and lasted until they were conquered by the Himyarites.  The Himyarite Kingdom conquered neighbouring Saba' for the first time in c. 25 BCE, Qataban in c. 200 CE, and Haḍramaut c. 300 CE. The Middle Saba' kingdom rose in the early 2nd century CE with its capital established at Ma'rib. Himyar's fortunes relative to S...

   Neferhotep’s shroud bears a Roman-style portrait. Neferhotep  avoided the cost of the typical wooden panel often used for Roman period mummy masks by instructing the artists to paint directly on the shroud. In addition, Neferhotep’s artists used less-expensive tempera rather than encaustic paint. When Neferhotep’s shroud was excavated by the French archaeologist Bernard Bruyère in 1948, parts of it were missing and were replaced by painted patches in a restoration done about 1970. The shroud entered the Brooklyn Museum’s collection in 1975. Image: Elaborately Painted Shroud of Neferhotep, Son of Herrotiou, 100-225 CE, Romano-Egyptian at the Brooklyn Museum courtesy of the museum.

This funerary stela shows a boy who died when he was three. His father, a Roman soldier, was stationed near Alexandria. His Egyptian mother is not mentioned. The child’s costume and pose are Roman, but his long sidelock of hair is traditionally Egyptian, as are the jackal god Anubis and the falcon god Horus above his head. The griffin in the lower right corner represents the classical goddess Nemesis, who controlled life and death and appears to show Greek influence. In his left hand is a bucket perhaps a type of situla used as a libation vessel.  With his right hand he grasps a circular object, perhaps an offering he is about to place on the small altar. He is probably intended to represent Horus.  The Latin inscription provides the boy's name and age at death.  Extensive but faint traces of bright red paint remain on the hatched background. It is thought this monument was recovered at Terenouthis, Egypt, located in the western Nile Delta, about 70 km northwest of Cairo....

Bound for Disaster - Pompeii and Herculaneum through September 13, 2020 at the Moesgaard Museum in Højbjerg, Denmark.  This exhibition presents more than 250 objects on loan from seven Italian museums and cultural institutions. Visitors will be able to view reliefs and gravestones bearing inscriptions that provide vivid descriptions of and information about family relations, frescoes featuring maritime motifs, landscapes and everyday situations, military and maritime equipment and cargoes of commodities from distant destinations and the commercial harbour at Naples. There are also mosaics and marble statues, fountains and figures related to mythology and cult, together with jewellery and other luxury goods from the Romans’ high life before the cataclysm. The exhibition also includes exhibits demonstrating the terrible consequences of the volcanic eruption, including casts of corpses from Pompeii and skeletons of the dead from Herculaneum. This museum's permanent collections totalli...

The emperor Hadrian's tomb was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between AD 134 and 139. Now known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who died in 138. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217 CE. But much of the tomb  contents and decorations were lost when the building was converted to a military fortress in 401 CE then subsequently included in the Aurelian Walls by Flavius Honorius Augustus. The urns and ashes were scattered by Visigoth looters during Alaric's sack of Rome in 410, and the original decorative bronze and stone statuary were thrown down upon the attacking Goths when they besieged Rome in 537, as recounted by Procopius.  In the 14th ...

Anytime I read about a Roman imperial execution and the rationale given is a sexual tryst I become suspicious because sexual indiscretions have historically been used to justify Roman assassinations since the beginning of Roman history.  So, after writing that post about Constantine's wife, Fausta, yesterday, I did a little more research on Constantine's son, Crispus. Crispus was leader in victorious military operations against the Franks and the Alamanni in 318, 320 and 323. Thus he secured the continued Roman presence in the areas of Gaul and Germania. The soldiers adored him thanks to his strategic abilities and the victories to which he had led the Roman legions. Crispus spent the following years assisting Constantine in the war against by then hostile Licinius. In 324, Constantine appointed Crispus as the commander of his fleet which left the port of Piraeus to confront Licinius' fleet. The subsequent Battle of the Hellespont was fought at the straits of Bosporus. The ...

Flavia Maxima Fausta was Constantine's second wife, the daughter of the Emperor Maximian. She became empress in 307 CE when Constantine set aside his wife Minervina and married Fausta to seal the alliance set forth in Diocletian's tetrarchy.  In 310 CE when her father became involved in an assassination plot against Constantine, Fausta revealed the plot to Constantine, resulting in the death of her own father.  For her loyalty, Constantine eventually proclaimed her augusta in 324 CE, a promotion from her previous title of nobilissima femina. Fausta bore Constantine three sons, Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans, who all eventually became emperors, and three daughters, including Helena who married the Emperor Julian.  But none of this saved her from Constantine's wrath when he suspected Fausta of having improper relations with his son (by his first wife), Crispus. Zosimus reports Constantine killed Crispus then, to assuage the anger of his mother (the young man...

This ivory/bone relief is part of a larger plaque that illustrated a scene from the life cycle of the Greek hero Achilles from the Iliad. What remains is a composition of 4 figures, two females (one holding her left hand to her face in a gesture of concern, the other kneeling at her feet offering a stringed instrument—the lyre of Achilles) and two males (one older with balding head and beard, the other younger who is seen from behind) from the left side of the fuller scene, now lost. The use of the architectural setting (a colonnade with fluted columns) and the figure of the draped and worried woman suggests that this a scene from the life cycle of Achilles.The closest composition is found on a large silver luxury plate found in France (now in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris) seems to be a combination of the leading away of Briseis, the embassy of Phoenix, and the death of Patroclus. The plaque was probably part of a larger group of decorated bone panels that were attached to a wooden...

Today's featured "Antiquities Alive" exhibit:  The Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) will reopen to the public on July 28, 2020!  Here's a selection of images I have taken of their marvelous collections! Dionysos with lion garden statuary from Latium region of Italy Roman marble Etruscan Sarcophagus 3rd century BCE Mosaic thought to depict Theseus sailing away from the Cretan labyrinth, Utica, Tunisia, First half of the 3rd century CE Roman Theater Mask of a River God from a bath complex in Teano (southern Italy) Flavian Period limestone Recarved image of Ramesses II excavated at Harsaphes, Heracleopolis, Egypt 1897-1843 BCE Gilded Cartonnage Funerary Mask Ptolemaic or Roman Period ancient Egypt Plaster funerary portrait bust of a man from El Kharga (upper) Egypt Roman Period 2nd century CE Painted Pottery Horses Tang Dynasty China 7th to 10th century BCE Guanyin Jin Dynasty (1115-1234 CE or Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 CE) Chi...

A lekythos, usually a narrow-bodied ceramic or stone vessel with one handle and no pouring lip, was used to store and dispense oil.  Examples have been found dating as far back as 700  BCE.  Although lekythoi were used to apply perfumed oil to the skin of a woman about to be married, they were most commonly used to anoint the bodies of the dead.  Some scholars think their presence in  tombs of unmarried women was to allow them to prepare for a wedding in the afterlife. The images on lekythoi were often depictions of daily activities, mythological scenes, or rituals. Because they were most often used in a funerary context, many depicted funerary rites or a scene of loss or departure.  Some 5th century examples feature paintings on a white ground.  Spanning barely a century, the “white-ground” style developed in Athens alongside the red figure technique.  Although they appear to be minimally detailed outline drawings that some scholars think are due...