Antiquities Exhibits

Buddhist monuments of the 4th and 5th century CE were decorated with elaborate scenes in stucco.  The heads were sometimes made separately and pegged in place, so they often became detached. This Head may be Kuvera or possibly a warrior belonging to the army of the evil god Mara, a demonic celestial king who tempted Prince Siddhartha (Gautama Buddha) by trying to seduce him with the vision of beautiful women who, in various legends, are often said to be Mara's daughters.  In Buddhist cosmology, Mara is associated with death, rebirth and desire. Modeled of lime composition, this sculpture reflecting Hellenistic influence introduced into the region by Alexander the Great, was found in Hadda, Afghanistan and is part of the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that I photographed in 2016.

 Less stylized Amarna portraiture During Akhenaten's reign, royal portraiture underwent dramatic change, often depicting the pharaoh in an androgynous and highly stylized manner. Artists showed subjects with  elongation and narrowing of the neck and head, sloping of the forehead and nose, a prominent chin, large ears and lips as well as lowered eyelids. Each figure was also illustrated with a more elongated body than previous representations. In the new human form, the subject had more fat in the stomach, thigh, and breast region, while the torso, arm, and legs were thin and long like the rest of the body. The skin color of both male and female is generally dark brown (contrasted with the usual dark brown or red for males and light brown or white for females). Figures in this style are shown with both a left and a right foot, contrasting the traditional style of being shown with either two left or two right feet and fingers and toes are depicted as long and slender and are car...

The cult of Aphrodite in Greece was imported from, or at least influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia, which, in turn, was influenced by the cult of the Mesopotamian goddess known as "Ishtar" to the East Semitic peoples and as "Inanna" to the Sumerians. Pausanias states that the first to establish a cult of Aphrodite were the Assyrians, followed by the Paphians of Cyprus and then the Phoenicians at Ascalon. The Phoenicians, in turn, taught her worship to the people of Cythera. Aphrodite took on Inanna-Ishtar's associations with sexuality and procreation. Furthermore, she was known as Ourania, which means "heavenly", a title corresponding to Inanna's role as the Queen of Heaven. Early artistic and literary portrayals of Aphrodite are extremely similar on Inanna-Ishtar. Like Inanna-Ishtar, Aphrodite was also a warrior goddess. The second-century CE Greek geographer Pausanias records that, in Sparta, Aphrodite was worshipped as Aphrodite Arei...

  Hephaestus  was  the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes and associated with those crafts that required heat. His Roman counterpart was Vulcan.  He was the patron deity of jewelers, armorers and blacksmiths. As a smithing god, Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, and almost any finely wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus. He designed Hermes' winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis breastplate, Aphrodite's famed girdle, Agamemnon's staff of office, Achilles' armor, Diomedes' cuirass, Heracles' bronze clappers, Helios' chariot, the shoulder of Pelops, and Eros's bow and arrows. In later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the Cyclopes in his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding.  In Greek myths and Homeric poems, Hephaestus had a special power t...

 In 2016, I had the opportunity to photograph some of the collections of the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany. Their collection of Egyptian mummy masks included some of the most meticulously conserved examples I have encountered in my travels.  TourEgypt's comprehensive article on mummy masks does an excellent job of explaining the evolution of this form of funerary art.  An excerpt: Funerary masks had more than one purpose. They were a part of the elaborate precautions taken by the ancient Egyptians to preserve the body after death. The protection of the head was of primary concern during this process. Thus, a face covering helped preserve the head, as well as providing a permanent substitute, in an idealized form which presented the deceased in the likeness of an immortal being, in case of physical damage. Those of means were provided with both a mask with gilt flesh tones and blue wigs, both associated with the glittering flesh and the lapis lazuli hair of the sun god. ...

Legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, who drew from the works of Ctesias of Cnidus, describe an Assyrian queen named Semiramis and her relationships to Onnes and King Ninus, a mythical king of Assyria not attested to in the official Assyrian King List. This powerful queen inspired a host of monuments and place names throughout Mesopotamia, Media, Persia, the Levant, Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Caucasus. She even became the heroine in plays, operas, and novels over the centuries. But, did she really exist? Historians, think this mythical figure actually evolved from a real queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire named Shammuramat,  the wife of Shamshi-Adad V (reign 824 BCE–811 BCE) , who ruled as its regent for five years until her son Adad-nirari III came of age and took the reins of power. She ruled at a time of political uncertainty, and it has been speculated that her success in the male-dominated martial culture may have made the Assyrians regard her with particular rever...

The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida will open its newly renovated galleries to the public on October 27.  Among the items now on display include a 3400 pound carved marble sarcophagus probably from Roman Syria featuring a reclining couple surrounded by Erotes and smaller animal figures.  The piece is on loan from a private collection.  The museum also displays a 2200-year-old bronze head of Dionysus, also on long-term loan to the museum from a private collector. The newly designed "Jade Room"  features jade, serpentine and obsidian works including masks, figurines, and a segmented crown from the  Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica. Although not ancient, a piece I found particularly interesting is a 17th century pietre dure commissioned by the Medici family that was once part of the decor of a Medici villa outside Florence, Italy.  Pietre dure is an intricate process in which colored marbles and other stones are cut in...

I was researching information about some of the objects I photographed at the Dallas Museum of Art and came across a picture of this elegant Proto-Hittite oxen-drawn cart, 2000-1800 BCE.  When I first photographed the piece back in 2006 it was still quite corroded but I see the museum has since conserved it beautifully. Writing in a guide to the museum's collection, Anne Bromberg observes, "This bronze cart drawn by a pair of long-horned oxen is one of many examples of an artistic type well known from the early second millennium B.C.E. Such models were probably votive offerings, to be left in shrines, sacred caches, or tombs. They reflect the distinctive moment when men first used domesticated horses or cattle to draw wheeled vehicles, creating the beginning of powered transport on land. Although drawings of wheeled vehicles occur all over Eurasia, this seminal development in human culture probably originated in Mesopotamia or the Russian Steppes in the late third millennium B...

More than 80 richly colored frescoes and artifacts from excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples will be on display in the United States only at the single venue of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art next June.  In addition to ancient paintings with  bold colors and designs ranging from mythology to landscapes to gardens to architecture, the exhibition will also explore the world of the ancient Roman painter and offer a glimpse into the process, materials and techniques that were used to create these frescoes.  The exhibit will be accompanied by classes presenting virtual visits to Naples and southern Italy and exploring archaeology, Roman deities and mythology, in a series of lectures by renowned classicists and art historians. Wikimedia Commons has a number of images of frescos from Pompeii: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_Roman_frescos_from_Pompeii_in_the_Museo_Archeologico_(Naples) and elsewhere: https://com...

In celebration of th 2500-year anniversary of the Battle of Thermopylae and the Naval Battle of Salamis, this exhibit presents 105 ancient works along with a model of an Athenian trireme of the 5th century BCE, assembled from the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and the archaeological museums of Astros, Thebes, and Olympia, as well as the Konstantinos Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology.  A Roman copy of a 5th century BCE Greek bust of Themistocles has also been contributed by the Archaeological Museum of Ostia. Displays show the military attire of the Greek hoplites and Persian warriors and votive offerings made in the large sanctuaries of antiquity following the battles, including the helmet of Miltiades, the arrowheads from the battlefield of Thermopylae, and fragments of vases with traces of fire from the burning of Athens by the Persians. Figures of gods and mythical heroes are used to represent  the subsequent legends developed over later centuries that r...

After decades in storage, 90 marble sculptures from the Torlonia Collection that I posted about late last year are finally available for public viewing in the newly-rebuilt Palazzo Caffarelli, overlooking the Roman Forum. The collection was originally assembled by Prince Alessandro Torlonia, who had found many of the pieces on the grounds of his family’s Roman properties. The prince subsequently purchased other well-known sculpture collections as well. In 1884, the Prince built his own museum to show off his collection but it eventually closed in 1976 and the pieces were stored. The sculptures will be on view until June 29, 2021. https://eu.greekreporter.com/2020/10/18/ancient-greek-and-roman-statues-re-emerge-after-decades-in-storage/ Sculptures included in the Torlonia Collection courtesy of the Torlonia Foundation

The Troy Museum, located just 800 meters from the archaeological site of ancient Troy on the western coast of Turkey, has reopened to the public. The modern facility originally opened in 2018, displays over 2,000 of its 40,000 artifacts from the  Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age presented in chronological order. Objects on display supplemented with models, drawings, maps, and multimedia presentations bring the Trojan War, as recalled in Homer's Iliad, to life including its heroes, minstrels, craftsmen, and dramatic events.  Archaeological remains from the ancient cities of Assos (Behramkale), Tenedos (Bozcaada), Parium, Alexandria Troas (Eski Stambul), Smintheion, Lampsacus (near Lapseki), Thymbra, Tavolia and Imbros (Gökçeada) are also presented. For images of some of the artifacts on display check out my original post from February: https://antiquitiesexhibits.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-troy-museum-in-tevfikiye-turkey.html A recent visitor's experience: https:/...

Discussion of a Roman sarcophagus with battle scene, Antonine Period, 2nd century CE marble at the Dallas Museum of Art:  The complex composition of this battle scene—with warriors, horses, captives, and trophies of armor intertwined to suggest the violence and bloodshed of war—is typical of Roman relief carvings during the Antonine period (138–192 CE). The sarcophagus was probably made to celebrate the victories of a Roman general in the series of wars that Rome fought with Germanic tribesmen along the Danube frontier, in what are now Hungary and Romania; however, the prototype for the scene might have been a monument created by the Greek King Attalos I of Pergamon in Asia Minor during the 3rd century BCE, which was erected to signify the Greek defeat of the barbarian Celtic invaders. The nude warriors with torques around their necks follow descriptions of Celtic warriors by classical authors. The powerfully modeled and lively Pergamene art style was much admired during the Roman ...

Born into a wealthy and traditional senatorial family, Gallienus was the son of Valerian and Mariniana. Valerian became Emperor on 22 October 253 CE and had the Roman senate elevate Gallienus to the ranks of Caesar and Augustus. Valerian divided the empire between him and his son, with Valerian ruling the east and his son the west. Gallienus defeated the usurper Ingenuus in 258 CE and destroyed an Alemanni army at Mediolanum in 259 CE. The defeat and capture of Valerian at Edessa in 260 CE by the Sasanian Empire threw the Roman Empire into the chaos of civil war. Control of the whole empire passed to Gallienus. He defeated the eastern usurpers Macrianus Major and Mussius Aemilianus in 261–262 CE but failed to stop the formation of the breakaway Gallic Empire under general Postumus. Aureolus, another usurper, proclaimed himself emperor in Mediolanum in 268 CE but was defeated outside the city by Gallienus and besieged inside. While the siege was ongoing, Gallienus was stabbed to death b...

Maya Classic Period rule (250-900 CE) was centred on the concept of the "divine king", who acted as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was also expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a closed system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the corresponding reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. The Classic period Maya political landscape has been likened to that of Renaissance Italy or Classical Greece, with multiple city-states engaged in a complex network of alliances and enmities. The largest cities had populations numbering 50,000 to 120,000 and were linked to networks of subsidiary sites. In 378 CE, Teotihuacan decisively intervened at Tikal and other nearby cities, deposed their r...

The iconic figurine of a woman holding a snake in either hand with a cat sitting on top of her head discovered by Arthur Evans in the "Pillar Shrine" within the Minoan palace of Knossus, Crete is probably one of the most instantly recognized artifacts from the Minoan world.  The original faience sculpture is displayed today at the Herakleion Archaeological Museum on Crete.  But a less well known delicate figurine composed of ivory and gold, dating from 1750 to 1580 BCE, can be seen in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. In the ancient world, snakes were symbolically associated with the renewal of life because the reptile was known for sheddding its skin periodically.  This belief was shared not only by the Minoans and Pelasgians, indigenous inhabitants of the Aegean Sea region and their cultures, but by the ancient Mesopotamians and Semites as well. Within the Greek Dionysiac cult, the serpent signified wisdom and was a symbol of fertility.  Other scholars...