It’s the most romantic day of the year and you’re not quite sure how to show your one true love that you’ll love him or her for a thousand years…. We have the answer. Give a Valentine’s Day inspired by the ancient past and remind your one and only that no matter how many years pass, your love is as timeless as the Mona Lisa and as enduring as the pyramids. Continue reading
Category Archives: Public Life
5 Ways to Celebrate an Ancient Valentine’s Day, Courtesy of AntiquityNOW
Posted in Art, Blog, Culinary, Culture, Holidays, Literature, Public Life
Tagged ancient food, ancient history, ancient love, AntiquityNOW, valentine's day
To Repatriate or Not to Repatriate, That is the Question….James Cuno’s Case Against Repatriating Museum Artifacts
The Elgin Marbles, one of the most famous cases in the debate over repatriation, are seen here in the British Museum.
The topic of repatriation of cultural artifacts is hotly contested, with intense opinions and emotions on both sides of the argument. Repatriation of cultural artifacts is a process by which an item is returned to its country of origin. Whether or not an item should be returned to its country of origin may seem like an easy question to answer. Of course a nation’s cultural history should rest with the nation itself. However, the issue is not so simple. Most people agree that when repatriation is requested because an item has been looted and illegally removed from its origin, it should be returned, but when the repatriation request is based solely upon a nation’s claim to their cultural heritage, the issue becomes extremely complicated. There are questions about a nation’s ability to safeguard the item, questions surrounding regions at war and embroiled in violent conflict, issues with humanity’s right to its shared cultural heritage and problems that arise when multiple nations claim a right to the artifact because the original home of the artifact no longer exists. In fact, the topic is so nuanced and is impacted by so many different forces, it is sometimes difficult to figure out which side you’re on. Continue reading
KIDS’ BLOG! Proverbs II: Timeless Words and the Soul of a People
An ancient Viking rune symbolizing fertility and new beginnings. In modern times, it is often used as a symbol for the saying “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
In Part I, we discovered how proverbs, sayings that carry a message or truth, seem to be a part of every culture going back millennia. In the oral tradition, before writing could delve deeply into the world of ideas, societies needed ways to instruct people as to how they had to behave. Proverbs arose as an effective way to do just that. Their wise and often witty words and images embodied the values of a culture. And while cultural values can be quite complex, proverbs were popular because they conveyed that idea, that value, that moral in a distinctive and memorable way. Continue reading
Bon Appetit Wednesday! Ancient Roman Ostrich Ragoût
In our exploration of ancient foods and recipes, we’ve often found that ancient people not only ate extremely healthy foods, they also ate some things that seem very unusual to us today. We’ve learned that ancient Britons ate nettles, the Greeks and Romans ate fish sauce doughnuts and in ancient Japan they fried maple leaves! Today we’re bringing you another unusual but delicious recipe straight out of an ancient Roman cookbook. Although you may never have considered eating ostrich, it is actually a highly nutritious form of protein. The accompanying sauce in the recipe, which is quite savory, is adaptable for other meats as well. (You can substitute turkey or beef steak for the ostrich.) Continue reading
KIDS’ BLOG! Proverbs I: Timeless Words and the Soul of a People
Book of French proverbs published in 1845.
Every culture has a story to tell, and that story is told in many ways. Artifacts, legal records, letters, journals, art, music, dress, even the detritus of daily life uncover the ways of a people. Values and mores are realized through rituals, religions, oral and written histories, monuments and palaces, and many more touchstones of culture. In particular, language and the expressive arts have produced some remarkable observations of lives lived long ago. Continue reading
Strata: Portraits of Humanity, Episode 3, “Turkey’s Anatolia” and “English China Shipwreck”
This month we’re pleased to bring you Episode 3 of the new video newsmagazine series, Strata: Portraits of Humanity, produced by AntiquityNOW’s partner, Archaeological Legacy Institute. In this two-part episode we explore the diverse cultural antecedents of the eastern and southeastern Anatolia region in Turkey as well as a 19th century shipwreck in Florida. Continue reading
Bon Appetit Wednesday! Mix It Up With a Mead Cocktail for the Super Bowl
The Seahawks and Patriots are playing in the National Football League’s Super Bowl XLIX in the United States this Sunday. There’s lots of planning to do before you throw the Super Bowl party of the century. You’re probably stocking up on chips, dip and of course beer, but maybe this year you should consider serving your guests a different libation. We’re bringing you a simple recipe that features what is believed to be the first alcoholic beverage: mead. Surprise your fellow fans with this ancient drink and impress them with a bit of history behind its main ingredient. And just in case you want to prepare for next year’s big game, we’re also providing an easy and delicious recipe for making your own mead. Get started early, though. It takes about six months to mature. Continue reading
Tattoos and the Body as Canvas: Erasing the Past With Modern Tattoos
We’ve written before about tattoos in our post Tattoos and the Body as Canvas. How from ancient times people have etched into flesh the story of their lives. From designs that heighten beauty, signify status, show affiliation or even scourge a social outcast, tattoos have always been about designations. Indeed, our body as canvas is at once both intimate and public. For some, tattoos depict their innermost beings for the world to see. For others, particularly when used to announce a person’s outlier status in society, tattoos are meant to be felt as a visceral destruction of self. Continue reading
Posted in Beauty, Blog, Crime, Culture, Healing Arts, Human Rights, Public Life, War and Violence
Tagged ancient art, ancient history, ancient tattoos, AntiquityNOW, Basma Hameed, scar removal, tattoos over scars
The Fable of “The Sheep and the Horses”: Take a Listen to the 6,000-Year-Old Language of Our Ancestors
UPDATE! This post was originally published on February 25, 2014. The post below reveals the amazing technology that is helping linguists rediscover languages from our past that were lost long ago. Specifically, it discusses the discovery of a Proto-Indo-European language that was spoken over 6,000 years ago. Today’s update is about saving a language before it becomes extinct. Some young people in Louisiana, United States, are fighting to preserve the language of their people, a little known Native American tribe called the Houma. Continue reading
Posted in Art, Blog, Communications, Computer Technology, Culture, Engineering, Public Life, Science and Technology
Tagged ancient history, AntiquityNOW, Eurasia, language, linguist, Native American languages, Native American tribes Louisiana, Proto-Indo-European, The Sheep and The Horses, translation, United Houma Nation
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