Sylvan Spells Symposium

04/08/2024

Closeup of a Terracotta soldier"s hairstyle. Qin dynasty, China, 221-206 BCE

More:

04/08/2024

Anubis Shrine of Tutankhamun

This statue of Anubis was fixed on the sliding cover of a casket in the form of a shrine. The shrine rested on a litter which was used to carry the image of the god in processions. The statue was found at the entrance to the Treasure Room with its nose turned towards the funerary chamber. Probably so that its threatening appearance would frighten any intruders.

When it was found, it was wrapped in a linen cloth dated to the seventh year of the reign of Akhenaten with only the head left uncovered. A finer piece of cloth, a scarf and a garland of lotus and lily flowers encircled the statue’s neck. Between the front paws there was a scribe’s ivory tablet that had belonged to Meritaten. She was one of the six daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, reign of Tutankhamun, c. 1232-1223 B.C.
From the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), Valley of the Kings, West Thebes.
Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 61444

Read more:

04/08/2024

This footprint depicts the action that took place in Ur (Iraq), in the year 2000 BC, when someone stepped barefoot on a mud brick that had been left out in the sun to dry.

04/07/2024

Perhaps one of the most beautiful objects recovered from Tutankhamun’s funeral pyre is a magnificent throne that Howard Carter located among thousands of artifacts of all sorts cluster up in the Antechamera of the Pharaoh’s tomb. Due to its perfect bill and excellent state of preservation, the famous Egyptologist did not hesitate to assert that the throne back was surely the most beautiful object ever found in Egypt.

04/07/2024

The Trier Gold Hoard is a hoard of 2516 gold coins with a weight of 18.5 kg, found in Trier, Germany, in September 1993 during construction works, nearly 1800 years after it was hidden. It is described as the largest preserved Roman gold hoard worldwide.
Greater inspection revealed that it was not simply someone"s personal fortune but most likely an official treasury. The treasury had been carefully administered and had grown over time. The Hoard equated to the annual salary of around 130 Roman soldiers.
The aurei (gold coins) feature a total of 27 emperors, empresses and members of the imperial family, and some are still considered unique to this day. The gold coins were buried in a cellar during a civil war in 196 AD.

04/07/2024

Relief of Scribes at work

A fragment of a wall relief showing scribes intent on writing, probably under dictation, holding their tablets in their left hand and their pens in their right. The relief was part of a more elaborate composition from the memphite tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara.

New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, ca. 1336-1292 BC. Limestone, height: 24 cm, width: 31.5 cm. Now in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence. 2566

Read more:

04/06/2024

1,500-year-old Ceramic Maya Figurine with Removable Helmet, from El Perú-Waka", Petén, Guatemala

More:

04/06/2024

A 34,000-year-old Aurignacian lunar calendar carved on a bone-tablet, found in Dordogne in France

More:

04/05/2024

A lead tank (1st Century AD), found in Pompeii in Villa Arianna, to which water was supplied via a single pipe, and from there it was directed to different parts of the house through two other pipes, capacity of which could be regulated using valves.

The tank was above ground level, so it was visible. That"s why it gained decoration. Even technical devices had to have an appropriate appearance back then.

Roman artifacts:

04/04/2024

Sphinx of Amenhotep III
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1410-1372 B.C.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. INV 10152

04/04/2024

04/04/2024

Guardian of Philae 🇪🇬

04/04/2024

Roman Blue Glass Pitchers (3rd-4th Century AD), from Cologne, Germany.

Blue colored glass has been made since the very beginning of glass making. Most blue glass is given its color either from cobalt oxide or from copper oxide finely ground and added to the molten glass. Copper is a more delicate colorant than cobalt. It only requires a small amount of cobalt oxide to produce a deep rich blue.

More:

04/04/2024

Detail of the Outer Coffin of Henuttawy

The outer coffin lid of Henuttawy, intended to resemble a wrapped mummy, wears an elaborate pectoral topped by a cavetto cornice in the shape of a small shrine within which are two winged wadjet eyes, with suspended uraeus cobras holding ankhs. Below these, Horus falcons flank a central scarab that pushes a sun disk upward, an image of the rising sun and of rebirth.

The composition is similar to the Middle Kingdom pectoral of Sithathoriunet. At the sides of this pectoral are figures of Anubis, god of mummification, represented as a jackal wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt and holding empowering scepters.

Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, ca. 1000-945 BC. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 25.3.182a, b

Read more:

04/03/2024

محاكاة لتمثال الملك منكاورع صاحب الهرم الأصغر. 🥰

04/03/2024

Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years, without cutting down trees :

In 14th Century CE, "Daisugi" technique was born in Japan. Daisugi provide that these trees will be planted for future generations and not be cut down but pruned as if they were giant bonsai trees.

By applying this technique to cedars, wood that can be obtained is uniform, straight and without knots, perfect for construction. A pruning as a rule of art that allows tree to grow and germinate while using its wood, without ever cutting it down.

More:

04/03/2024

𓊨𓏏𓆇𓁐

Goddess Isis, Canopic Shrine of Tutankhamun.

📸 Dr. So Miyagawa

04/03/2024

Statue of Amun with features of Tutankhamun

New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, ca. 1332-1323 BC.
Now in the Penn Museum, Philadelphia. E14350
Photo: Tom Jenkins

Standing graywacke statue of Amun, preserved from the knees up. Amun wears a short kilt fastened with a tyet amulet, a broad collar. The tall plumes of his crown are missing. In his hands, he holds two ankh symbols.

The statue is an indication of Egyptian religion reverting to traditional presentations connecting the king and the god Amun at the head of the pantheon. In this statue, the god Amun typically appears as a man wearing a tall, double-plumed headdress. His tall headdress is missing from this statue, but his crown bears traces of gilding.

Read more:

04/03/2024

Isis and the young Seti at Abydos.’ This relief shows Isis caressing pharaoh Seti I as a child. She says to him: “You are my son, you have come forth from me, I have nursed you, in order to be Ruler of the Two Lands.” Sitting in the lap of Isis, Seti has taken the role of Horus, Isis’ child. Behind the pharaoh we see his Horus name (Powerful Bull in Thebes), written within a rectangle (a “serekh”) on which a falcon is perched. The rectangle is held by Seti’s “ka” (life force) which is depicted as the hieroglyph for ka (two upraised arms) in an anthropomorphic form: below the hieroglyph two arms appear, one of which holds a standard. The standard is topped by a pharaoh’s head and another ka hieroglyph. The relief is located on the west wall of the Second Hypostyle Hall of the Seti I Temple at Abydos, between the entrances of the Chapel of Amun-Ra and the Chapel of Osiris. For a wider view see pictures 29865 and 64. The Seti Temple at Abydos was begun by Seti I and completed by his son Ramses II in the 13th century BC

04/02/2024

Anubis!

- Tomb of Twosret "KV14 "
- Valley of the Kings

📸 me
‏♦️ All Rights Reserved ©♦️

04/02/2024

Emissaries of Kingdoms and Countrys either knelt or lying on the ground come to implore king Tutankhamun, through the intermediary of his representative Horemheb, to grant them the "breath of life", and therefore his clemency!

📸 Egypt With Ahmed
Tomb of Horemheb - Saqgara

03/28/2024

Face from a Composite Statue, probably Queen Tiye New Kingdom, Amarna Period ca. 1353–1336 B.C.

This quartzite head once belonged to a composite statue made of several different materials. Based on the color of the stone (red being the conventional color for men), the owner was originally identified as Akhenaten. However, the subject seems to have worn the standard tripartite wig, which frames the face with two thick hanks of hair while a third section hangs down the back. This wig and the very close similarity of the face to known images of Akhenaten"s mother, Queen Tiye, make it virtually certain that she is represented here.

The sensitive modeling of the face is typical of the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose at site of Amarna. The existence of gypsum plaster casts excavated in Thutmose"s studio suggests that this may have been part of a group statue depicting Akhenaten with his parents, Tiye, and Amenhotep III.

From Egypt; Probably from Middle Egypt, Amarna (Akhetaten)

Medium: Quartzite

Metropolitan Museum

03/28/2024

The Cosquer cave is a Palaeolithic decorated cave, located in France, that contains numerous cave drawings dating back as far as 27,000 years BP. The cave has more than 200 parietal figures and is also the only decorated cave whose entrance opens under the sea

More:

03/28/2024

1,400-year-old Buddhist sculpture that was recently painted by some elderly villagers, which has been criticized as

03/27/2024

Tomb KV17, located in Egypt"s Valley of the Kings, is the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty. It is also known by the names "Belzoni"s tomb", "the Tomb of Apis", and "the Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois". It is one of the most decorated tombs in the valley, and is one of the largest and deepest tombs in the Valley of the Kings.