📌 hello dear traveler ! ☀

this is my own "encyclopedia" , a place for my own notes , and information finds on the Internet and that i learned myself .... i'm still learning x)

here i publish information about the art of the ancient world , ethnic art , paintings , art in general , interesting architecture , sometimes maybe something of the world history ... kinda ... ( loudly/roughly speaking and summarizing everything that will be published here)

simply put , i share here what inspires me.... =)

un/fortunately my notes will be published in order from different absolutely random eras , times and themes ... ☀

☀Rongorongo

Material : wood

Place : Rapa Nui

Rongorongo is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that has the appearance of writing or proto-writing. Numerous attempts at decipherment have been made, but none have been successful.

Four tablets were sent to a congregation in Rome for preservation, where they remained for over 150 years.

Until now, it was presumed that the Rongorongo script was composed of elements introduced by foreigners. But a team of scientists from Italy and Germany recently found reason to believe the elaborate language predates any European colonization, and it comes with extraordinary anthropological implications.

Of the four preserved tablets, radiocarbon dating of the wood determined that three of the tablets were created with trees grown in the 18th or 19th century. Surprisingly, though, the radiocarbon date of the fourth tablet indicated it came from a 15th-century tree—more than 200 years before Europe’s arrival on the island and before the wood was shipped for preservation.

This radiocarbon dating analysis of the wood suggests Rongorongo is an ancient language completely indigenous to Rapa Nui and perhaps even that it was intentionally kept secret from outsiders until the mid-19th century. If so, this would be an example of a previously unknown language—a rare writing system invented without any influence or prior knowledge of other writing.

Dating the emergence of Rongorongo is also difficult because philologists debate what type of script it is. It’s unclear whether Rongorongo is a form of proto-writing or a fully fledged system. It contains an astounding number of pictographic characters—more than 15,000—depticing animals, plants, geometric shapes, and anthropomorphic figures. It’s written in horizontal lines resembling sentences, but in a unique style called reverse boustrophedon, where every other line is upside down.

To this day, Rongorongo is considered undecipherable. Its use was mostly restricted to Indigenous priests, who were eventually captured in the Peruvian invasion, and no one familiar with reading the scripts has since been found.

☀wonderful textile art by Tete Vargas Machuca !

☀ Μηχανισμός των Αντικυθήρων

☀ Antikythera mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient Greek astronomical calculator, has challenged researchers since its discovery in 1901. Now split into 82 fragments, only a third of the original survives, including 30 corroded bronze gearwheels.

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery (model of the Solar System) . It is the oldest known example of an analogue computer. It could be used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games similar to an olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games.

The artefact was among wreckage retrieved from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. In 1902, during a visit to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, it was noticed by Greek politician Spyridon Stais as containing a gear, prompting the first study of the fragment by his cousin, Valerios Stais, the museum director.

reconstruction 2007 ↑

The lack of evidence and the nature of the mechanism's front section led to attempts to imitate what the ancient Greeks would have done. Due to this lack of evidence, many solutions have been proposed over the years. But as progress was made in analyzing the internal structures and deciphering the inscriptions, earlier models were discarded, and more sophisticated ones were developed.

☀Mesmerizing stained glass window in Cafe "Pripyat"

Pripyat , Chernobyl | Ukraine

☀ Ammonite suture patterns

Ammonites are extinct cephalopods that lived in shells. That means their closest relatives are the modern day Nautiluses, Octopi, Squid, and Cuttlefish. Like the Nautilus, Ammonites gradually add onto their shell to accommodate their increasing body mass. As they extend their shell they build a wall, closing up the now too narrow portion of the shell behind them as they move into the larger portion of the spiral.

Now the really cool thing about the Cleoniceras Ammonite , is that unlike the Nautilus , the morphology of the tissue wall they build between the chambers is not just a smooth curved wall . Instead it has a bizarrely complex fractal 3-dimensional shape . These patterns are called “suture patterns” and they mark the intersection of the septum walls with the shell.

☀ Eoplatax

Eoplatax ("dawn Platax") is an extinct genus of prehistoric spadefish that lived during the Early Eocene. It contains a single species, E. papilio (=E. subvespertilio (de Blainville, 1818)), from the Ypresian-aged Monte Bolca site of Italy. As its name suggests are closely allied to the extant genus, Platax, more commonly known as "batfish."

☀Fossilized corals

☀ A Roman rock-crystal icosahedron | Louvre

It’s ancient, and an icosahedron – a 20-sided dice.

Each face has a Latin letter on it, and also the corresponding Roman numeral. The ten lateral faces bear the letters A to K, and the numerals 1 to 10. The upper five triangles bear the letters L to P and the numbers 11 to 15. The lower five triangles bear the letters Q to V, and the numbers 16-20.

What were these things used for? Obviously they were intended to be thrown, and to give a random result. But what then ?

One often-heard explanation is that they were used in conjunction with divination handbooks. There is a 2nd/3rd century Greek oracle book, the Homeromanteion, preserved in three papyri, which refers to throwing lots to obtain a number, which can be used to look up ready-prepared oracle questions and answers.

It is amusing to discover a website that allows the reader to throw the three dice and looks up the answer! It’s at http://www.homeromanteion.com/.

☀A Roman rock crystal die from the 1st-2nd century CE. Housed at The British Museum.

☀ Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone Mayfly - Germany

☀Quetzalcoatl

Mesoamerican god

Also known as: Ce Acatl, Ehécatl, Feathered Serpent, Kukulcán, One Reed

Quetzalcoatl is a deity in Aztec culture and literature. the Feathered Serpent, one of the major deities of the ancient Mexican pantheon. Representations of a feathered snake occur as early as the Teotihuacán civilization (3rd to 8th century ce) on the central plateau. At that time Quetzalcóatl seems to have been conceived as a vegetation god—an earth and water deity closely associated with the rain god Tlaloc.

In Aztec times (14th through 16th centuries) Quetzalcóatl was revered as the patron of priests, the inventor of the calendar and of books, and the protector of goldsmiths and other craftsmen;

☀ Xochicalco | Quetzalcoatl | Mexico

☀Hermaphroditic butterfly

one half is male , another half is female !

☀ tafoni rock / tafoni weathering

Tafoni are cavities that develop in granular rock .

Although there are various definitions in the scientific literature, tafoni are commonly defined as small (less than 1 cm (0.39 in)) to large (greater than 1 meter (3.3 ft)) cavity features that develop in either natural or manmade, vertical to steeply sloping, exposures of granular rock (i.e., granite, sandstone) with smooth concave walls, and often round rims and openings. Recognized subcategories of tafoni include honeycomb, stonelace, alveolar (less than 2 cm (0.79 in)), sidewall, basal, nested, and relic tafoni .

☀ Nut (Goodness)

Nut (Ancient Egyptian: Nwt, Coptic: Ⲛⲉ[citation needed]), also known by various other transcriptions , is the goddess of the sky , stars , cosmos , mothers , astronomy , and the universe in the ancient Egyptian religion.

In Egyptian mythology, Nut was the goddess of the sky, and consort of the earth god Geb, her twin brother. As the goddess of the sky, Nut swallowed the sun in the evening and gave birth to it again in the morning. Nut was usually depicted as a giant, naked woman whose body, sometimes studded with stars, spanned the sky, while her elongated legs and outstretched arms symbolized the four pillars of the firmament.

☀ A pictograph at Barrier Canyon in the central Utah desert , depicting an anthropomorph with bug eyes and antennae .

2000 BCE-500 CE

USA

☀ hello everyone !

i am so sorry for not making posts lately , i see that people continue to follow to this blog , so i really want to welcome all the newcomers =) ☀