Category Archives: Culture

Top Picks Named for 2015 Children and Young Adult Books on Middle East

meocEach year the Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC) selects children’s and young adult books that best promote understanding of the Middle East. Shirley K. Gazsi, president of AntiquityNOW, serves on the selection committee. According to Gazsi, research is revealing how storytelling has an enormous effect on children’s world views and attitudes.

“Studies are continuing to show how reading fiction enables us to put ourselves in others’ shoes, and actually shapes the way we see individuals and the diversity of their cultures and times. This is particularly influential during childhood,” she said. “MEOC’s book selections are powerful tools in bringing the rich expanse of cultural heritage in the Middle East to children and young adults, and in seeding a commitment to multiculturalism for generations to come.” Continue reading

Bon Appetit Wednesday! The Mysterious Origin of Black Garlic

black garlicToday’s recipe is for a Black Garlic Bruschetta. It is a fairly simple recipe, but its star ingredient is anything but. This week’s Bon Appetit Wednesday is bringing you not only a delicious dish, but an intriguing mystery as well.

Several years ago, around 2008, black garlic, a strange little food with an unusual color and consistency but incredible flavor, experienced a moment in the sun. Suddenly, it was in all of the finest restaurants in the world and chefs were clamoring to make the next best black garlic dish. But where did it come from? The two main origin stories—one ancient, one modern–couldn’t have been more different. We’re going to present you with these two tales and let you decide which seems more credible. Continue reading

Strata, Portraits of Humanity, Episode 14, “Youth Diving on Shipwrecks” and “Saving Cyprus Frescoes”

StrataImage-webNext up in the video news-magazine series Strata:  Portraits of Humanity, produced by AntiquityNOW’s partner, Archaeological Legacy Institute, is a segment on a group of young people learning the ins and outs of marine archaeology, and a report on the wonders revealed by restorers of a Renaissance fresco in Cyprus.

The first video shows how Biscayne National Park and the NPS Submerged Resources Center partnered with Youth Diving With a Purpose for a project on shipwreck archaeology.  Biscayne Bay offers a challenging and intriguing introduction for these young people into the mysteries of the deep and the role of marine archaeology in preserving the past.  The second video reveals how restorers are peeling back the layers of time to decipher a painting representing a tragic study in faith. For 500 years, an exquisite Renaissance fresco, the “Forty Martyrs of Sebaste,” has remained hidden, forgotten and neglected in a 14th Century church in Famagusta, Cyprus.  The video charts the painstaking work of rescuing the fresco from obscurity and ruin, a pioneering project that puts heritage above politics.  After decades of neglect, saving Famagusta’s forgotten frescoes begins. Continue reading

Bon Appetit Wednesday! Oliebollen (Dutch Doughnuts)

oliebollen

Only two more days until we ring in a brand new year! At AntiquityNOW we like to bring together traditions from all over the world, so this year we’re featuring a recipe for an ancient Dutch treat. Oliebollen are delicious dutch doughnuts with an unusual meaning and a dark history. Traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve, oliebollen is translated as “oily balls.” While this may not sound like the most appetizing name for a food, these deep fried sweets will make you forget their strange name at first bite.

Continue reading

2015 Recipes With a Past

Recipe Ebook 2015 coverThe wait is over! We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our 2015 Recipes With a Past e-cookbook, a compendium of dishes derived from our weekly Bon Appetit Wednesday! blog posts. This year’s book contains recipes from all over the world. With 22 gluten free and 13 vegan recipes for everything from appetizers to drinks and desserts, it’s easy to plan a historic international feast.

Recipes With a Past commemorates innovators of the past who have left their own culinary legacies for today’s tables.  These recipes reflect the great bounty of this earth and remind us to cherish and preserve our cultural heritage, in all its forms. Continue reading

Bon Appetit Wednesday! White Chocolate Peppermint Bark Martini and Homemade White Chocolate Liqueur

peppermint barkChristmas is known for its culinary delights:  pineapple basted ham, gum drop bejeweled gingerbread houses, decadently chocolate Santas, cookies galore and anything peppermint. Indeed, peppermint is a refreshingly cool taste that adds a distinctive flair to so many holiday recipes. With some added sugar, peppermint is particularly popular in the form of the colorfully striped candy canes that are stuffed in stockings and hung on Christmas trees. Today’s recipe is a twist on peppermint’s storied holiday tradition. This is definitely not a recipe for children, although this is the season that brings out the childlike delight in all. So what better celebration of the season for us “big kids” than a palate tickling concoction combining chocolate, peppermint and a hearty splash of liquor? Continue reading

The Slavery Project: Bringing the Past Alive With 3D Printing

The Slavery Project

Bernard Means

Bernard Means

Today’s technologies can bedazzle the mind and senses. One of the most amazing has been the development of 3D printing. For those of us intrigued with past lives, 3D printing allows us a unique intimacy with those who have gone before. Being able to hold the model of an artifact in hand, to realize how hundreds, even thousands of years ago, other hands similarly grasped this object, is profoundly moving. This is a vital component of The Slavery Project–to immerse ourselves in the past and to feel the humanity of those lost to enslavement. Not necessarily an experience easily had, but one of critical insight, especially for young people. And this is our hope for the legacy we hand the generations that follow. That through those painful memories of slavery can arise a global will, a new world of our collective creation, where human bondage is itself a thing of the past. Continue reading

Bon Appetit Wednesday! A Christmas Feast

christmas dinnerChristmas is fast approaching! Nine days left to buy and wrap gifts, pick out your best holiday outfit and plan a Christmas menu that will delight the senses and fill your guests with holiday cheer. AntiquityNOW is here to help. We’re bringing you recipes with a past that will tickle the taste buds and fill your feast with historic meaning. Each of the dishes below has a fascinating history you can share with your family and friends. And the foods are from all over the world, so you’ll be serving a truly international and timeless meal! Continue reading

AntiquityNOW Launches The Slavery Project With an Exploration of the Triangular Trade

The Slavery Project

Sunday, December 6, was the 150th Anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in the United States. This was a landmark ruling effectively changing forever the way in which the United States recognized and valued its people. For millions of former slaves, it was the difference between being seen as property and the recognition of personhood and all that it conferred.  The “peculiar institution”[1] had been a stain on the history of Great Britain and the United States in the early years of colonization. As abolition sentiments arose in the North and as the expansion west threatened the slave v. non-slave states calculus, slavery devolved into a sectional dispute. The South had built an economy based upon slave labor and abolition was vehemently opposed. The Civil War may have politically settled the question of slavery’s abolition, but the social and political fallout were profound. Inarguably, the currents of slavery have run deep in American life and its consequences are felt even today. Continue reading

Bon Appetit Wednesday! Punic Porridge

Bowl_of_porridge_with_spoon (5)It’s beginning to look a lot like winter! As snow blankets the ground and temperatures start to plummet, there’s nothing better on a chilly morning than a bowl of piping hot porridge. And if you want a dose of history with your breakfast, AntiquityNOW is here for you. This recipe, courtesy of On Agriculture by the Roman, Cato the Elder, was taken from the Phoenicians during the Punic Wars. It is considerably more exciting than the boring Roman version, also printed in On Agriculture. Continue reading