Antiquities Exhibits

Those of us who study the ancient world are familiar with Athena's owl and its association with wisdom and vigilance but even in the ancient world owls were not always viewed in such a positive light.  Pliny the Elder tells us Rome had to undergo a lustration, a purification of the entire city normally performed at the conclusion of the taking of the census every five years, because an owl found its way into the Capitolia. Pliny describes the owl as a funereal bird, a monster of the night and the very abomination of human kind.  Virgil describes an owl's death-howl as a precursor to Dido's death and Ovid speaks of the bird's presence as an evil omen. Surprisingly, the same viewpoint was held by the Aztecs and Maya who considered the owl a symbol of death and destruction.  The Aztec god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, was often depicted with owls.  The Popol Vuh, a Mayan religious text, describes owls as messengers of Xibalba (the Mayan "Place of Fright").  Later...

Clazomenae was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia and a member of the Ionian League. It was one of the first cities to issue silver coinage. Its ruins are now located in the modern town Urla near Izmir in Izmir Province, Turkey. The city was originally located on the mainland at Limantepe, but probably during the early fifth-century BCE Ionian Revolt from the Persians, it was moved to Karantina Island just off the coast. Soon after that, the city of Chyton was founded on the mainland. For some time it was subject to the Athenians, but during the middle of the Peloponnesian War (412 BCE) it revolted. After a brief resistance, though, it once more submitted to Athenian supremacy, and repelled a Lacedaemonian (Spartan) attack. In 387 BCE Clazomenae and other cities in Asia were once more taken over by Persia.  Then came Alexander the Great, who eventually connected Karantina island to the mainland with a causeway, the remains of which are still visible. Later, under the ...

Archaeological evidence dates human occupation of the region of Colima, Mexico as far back as 1500 BCE. During the Los Artices era, which began around 500 BCE, shaft tombs and a distinctive ceramic style called rojo bruñido, or burnished red appeared. During the Comala phase, around 100 to 600 CE, the Comala perfected burnished red pottery and created representations of people and animals with skill and fluid lines. The best known are the so-called fattened dogs. Comala sites began to reflect the influence of Teotihuacan with the construction of monumental pyramids and plazas and the appearance of the gods Huehueteotl and Tlaloc. Playful Puppies earthenware 300 BCE-300CE Colima Mexico at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, California. Female standing figure, west Mexico, Colima, 300 BCE - 300 CE, earthenware, at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, California. Seated figure holding bowl, west Mexico, Colima, 300 BCE - 300 CE, earthenware, at the De Young Mus...

Bellerophon is a hero of Greek mythology considered to be one of the greatest slayers of monsters, alongside Cadmus and Perseus, before the days of Heracles. His greatest feat was killing the Chimera, a monster that Homer depicted with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail: "her breath came out in terrible blasts of burning flame." Bellerophon, is said to have been born in Corinth and was the son of the mortal Eurynome and either her husband Glaucus, king or Corinth, or Poseidon. Bellerophon was exiled after murdering his brother or another ruler of the Corinthians and was sent to Proetus, king in Tiryns, a Mycenaean stronghold of the Argolid. Proetus cleansed Bellerophon of his crime but when Proetus' wife took a fancy to Bellerophon ans was rejected, she accused the young man of ravishing her. Proetus dared not satisfy his anger by killing a guest (who is protected by xenia), so he sent Bellerophon to King Iobates his father-in-law, i...

Most people are familiar with the life-sized terracotta warriors from the Qin Emperor but many people are unaware there are terracotta armies from Han dynasty tombs as well, although they are about a foot tall instead of life-sized.  The first Han era-army was discovered in 1984 and it is displayed near the museum in Xuzhou.  The terracotta warriors and horses excavation site covers 6,000 square meters (1.48 acres) and includes 4,800 pieces of terracotta warriors and horses interred during the burial of Liu Wu, the third king of the Chu Kingdom during the Western Han Dynasty. The sculptures were found in 1984 in six pits, three infantry pits, one pottery-guard pit, one cavalry pit and one chariot pit. But, only two infantry pits and the pottery-guard pit have been fully excavated. The two infantry pits yielded 2,393 figures but they are smaller in size, about a foot tall, than the life-sized Xi'an terracotta warriors and horses from the Qin Dynasty. The figures were arranged ...

 In this fragmentary, openwork plaque, a rearing goat balances its forelegs on the intertwining tendrils of a stylized plant, nibbling on the leaves at the top. This piece was found in a large storeroom at Fort Shalmaneser, a royal building at Nimrud that was probably used to store booty and tribute collected by the Assyrians while on military campaign. A rectangular tenon preserved below the lower edge suggests that it may have been fitted into a frame, likely as part of a piece of furniture. The goat’s large eye, which bears traces of blue paste into which a colored glass or semiprecious stone inlay would have been set, is emphasized by incisions along the brow, as are its snout, ears, beard, mane, and ribs. The preserved fragment of vegetation emerging from behind the goat’s lower back suggests that the stylized plant depicted between its legs continued upwards and framed the goat in a vegetal landscape. While the goat’s large, heavy body and energetic pose are characteristic o...

Another Kushan piece illustrating an eastern take on the god Dionysus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This mature bearded man has grape leaves in his hair, suggesting that he is Dionysus. The furrowed brow, indications of age, and piercing gaze reflect a taste for naturalism, possibly the result of Hellenistic influence following the conquest of Alexander the Great. The head was buried, and over the centuries a hard crust developed on the surface. Image: Kushan head of Dionysus, 4th-5th centuries CE, from ancient Gandhara at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.