#antiquity — Public Fediverse posts

🔺️Explore the "Pyramid of Hellinikon" (Πυραμίδα του Ελληνικού), a monument in #Greece, situated along the ancient road to Tegea.
37°35′14″N 22°40′17″E.

Archaeologists have debated its origin and purpose. Although in late antiquity, Pausanias referred to a local "polyandrion"(πολυάνδριον/ collective burial mound), today it is regarded as a fortified watchtower (pyrgion/πυργίον) or a fire-signal tower (fryktoria/φρυκτωρία).

#Architecture #PleiadesGazetteer #Archaeology #Antiquity #pyramid #art

🎧 Podcast alert: The myth of Meleagros and the Iliad (August 2026).
MYTHLAB, a digital space for ancient Greek myth in our contemporary world 🏛️✨
Explore stories, geography, & ancient texts from the Judgment of Paris to the wrath of Achilles and more.

➡️ MANTO Database: https://www.manto-myth.org/
➡️ The Greek Myth Files: https://www.manto-myth.org/gmf
➡️ Canopos Mythography: https://www.manto-myth.org/canopos

#Classics #Greek #Mythology #DigitalHumanities #TrojanWar #MANTO #Antiquity #podcasts #Archaeology #History

Today was unboxing day for my book on Venantius Fortunatus! I'm incredibly happy, and frankly relieved, finally to see it in print. Cream Cheese here played my desk gargoyle through much of the writing.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Prose-Lives-of-Venantius-Fortunatus-Hagiography-and-the-Laity-in-Sixth-Century-Gaul/Navalesi/p/book/9789463725699

@bookstodon
@histodons
@medievodons
#Latin #Christianity #LateAntiquity #medievalists #religion #ReligiousStudies #history #histoire #Geschichte #WhiskersWednesday #MiddleAges #antike #antiquity #bookstodon

Today was unboxing day for my book on Venantius Fortunatus! I'm incredibly happy, and frankly relieved, finally to see it in print. Cream Cheese here played my desk gargoyle through much of the writing.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Prose-Lives-of-Venantius-Fortunatus-Hagiography-and-the-Laity-in-Sixth-Century-Gaul/Navalesi/p/book/9789463725699

@bookstodon
@histodons
@medievodons
#Latin #Christianity #LateAntiquity #medievalists #religion #ReligiousStudies #history #histoire #Geschichte #WhiskersWednesday #MiddleAges #antike #antiquity #bookstodon

Today was unboxing day for my book on Venantius Fortunatus! I'm incredibly happy, and frankly relieved, finally to see it in print. Cream Cheese here played my desk gargoyle through much of the writing.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Prose-Lives-of-Venantius-Fortunatus-Hagiography-and-the-Laity-in-Sixth-Century-Gaul/Navalesi/p/book/9789463725699

@bookstodon
@histodons
@medievodons
#Latin #Christianity #LateAntiquity #medievalists #religion #ReligiousStudies #history #histoire #Geschichte #WhiskersWednesday #MiddleAges #antike #antiquity #bookstodon

Today was unboxing day for my book on Venantius Fortunatus! I'm incredibly happy, and frankly relieved, finally to see it in print. Cream Cheese here played my desk gargoyle through much of the writing.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Prose-Lives-of-Venantius-Fortunatus-Hagiography-and-the-Laity-in-Sixth-Century-Gaul/Navalesi/p/book/9789463725699

@bookstodon
@histodons
@medievodons
#Latin #Christianity #LateAntiquity #medievalists #religion #ReligiousStudies #history #histoire #Geschichte #WhiskersWednesday #MiddleAges #antike #antiquity #bookstodon

Today was unboxing day for my book on Venantius Fortunatus! I'm incredibly happy, and frankly relieved, finally to see it in print. Cream Cheese here played my desk gargoyle through much of the writing.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Prose-Lives-of-Venantius-Fortunatus-Hagiography-and-the-Laity-in-Sixth-Century-Gaul/Navalesi/p/book/9789463725699

@bookstodon
@histodons
@medievodons
#Latin #Christianity #LateAntiquity #medievalists #religion #ReligiousStudies #history #histoire #Geschichte #WhiskersWednesday #MiddleAges #antike #antiquity #bookstodon

In the rugged Cretan mountains --about 60 km south of Chania-- this enigmatic conical limestone structure is believed to have been related to the city of Syia (Συία) (modern Sougia/Σούγια) or the nearby Elyros (Έλυρος).

Local tradition refers to it as "O Fournos" (i.e. The Kiln). Traditional dome-shaped wood-fired ovens (fournoi) built across rural Greece resemble this monolith.

Siya: <https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/590064

#pleiadesgazetteer #Antiquity #Crete #architecture #history #archaeology #GrecoRoman

Isis, the Egyptian goddess of Love (2026).

I'm not a pagan, but I think these are beautiful statues and characters, and I've been studying statues from antiquity, and the old world in general.

Watercolor and ink on Arches 100% cotton paper.

29.7 x 42cm (11.69 × 16.54 inches),

#love #antiquity #goddess #gods #pagan

Isis, the Egyptian goddess of Love (2026).

I'm not a pagan, but I think these are beautiful statues and characters, and I've been studying statues from antiquity, and the old world in general.

Watercolor and ink on Arches 100% cotton paper.

29.7 x 42cm (11.69 × 16.54 inches),

#love #antiquity #goddess #gods #pagan

Isis, the Egyptian goddess of Love (2026).

I'm not a pagan, but I think these are beautiful statues and characters, and I've been studying statues from antiquity, and the old world in general.

Watercolor and ink on Arches 100% cotton paper.

29.7 x 42cm (11.69 × 16.54 inches),

#love #antiquity #goddess #gods #pagan

Isis, the Egyptian goddess of Love (2026).

I'm not a pagan, but I think these are beautiful statues and characters, and I've been studying statues from antiquity, and the old world in general.

Watercolor and ink on Arches 100% cotton paper.

29.7 x 42cm (11.69 × 16.54 inches),

#love #antiquity #goddess #gods #pagan

Isis, the Egyptian goddess of Love (2026).

I'm not a pagan, but I think these are beautiful statues and characters, and I've been studying statues from antiquity, and the old world in general.

Watercolor and ink on Arches 100% cotton paper.

29.7 x 42cm (11.69 × 16.54 inches),

#love #antiquity #goddess #gods #pagan

The Odyssey: Lots of Good Stuff, Some Bad Stuff as Well 🔱

What’s likely to be the biggest cinematic hit of 2026 is Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey. Anyone and everyone have already said their bit about the film, but we’ve decided to crop up with our opinions all the same!

At nearly three hours it’s a monstrous undertaking. Unquestionably a mighty cinematic experience in IMAX, it does also suffer from stumbling stuff that drags it down, but all of it adds up to a glorious time of it. We had fun.

Guilt and PTSD in The Odyssey

Right. You probably know the plot already as this is adapted from Homer’s ancient Greek poem of the same name. Christopher Nolan has taken various liberties with the text, but the thrust of the story is sort of the same.

Star, front and centre, is Odysseus (Matt Damon) the King of the island of Ithaca. He’s been away from home for 20 years as he’s been battling it out during the Trojan War of 12th century BC.

After winning in a thrilling, last ditch Trojan Horse war move thing, it’s now left to Odysseus and his men to finally head on home. His wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) tentatively awaits him, in his absence she’s barely able to hold off 100 suitors eager to take Odysseus’s throne.

But on the way back, Odysseus hits a series of relentless problems that escalate steadily into increasingly disastrous nightmares. As each episode plays out, the reality of the previous decade weighs heavily on his mind.

For Nolan’s Odyssey, it sees Odysseus become mired in an increasing sense of PTSD. The reality of war plays on his consience to the extent he questions whether he even wants to return home.

Hmmm! Well, there aren’t any official scenes available on YouTube yet, but you can get a great sense of the film with some sequences in the below.

Okay, the great stuff sits with the set pieces. The cyclops, the giant dudes in armoured plating, the Trojan Horse build-up and battle sequence, and Circe the witch are all goddamn outstanding.

It’s up to you which is best of the lot, but for us it’s the Trojan Horse stuff. Nolan at his absolute best and one of the best cinematic moments we’ve ever seen.

However, quite a chunk of The Odyssey is also a bit on the flat side of things. Some of the acting and casting are questionable (we’re looking at you Tom Holland), the script can be Mickey Mouse, plus there are big chunks of dull stuff. Mainly anything involving Tom Holland’s bland performance.

Plus, the super talented Mia Goth is in this film and she’s utterly wasted with almost no screen time or character development. As is the case for the excellent Robert Pattinson, whose Antinous is the main antagonist but 97% of the time is only ever in one room whilst grimacing.

It’s almost like Nolan should have spread this out into two films to properly develop out the story. To get everything into three hours was hellish ambitious of him and it often works, but for us this isn’t a 5/5.

It’s a very good film all the same. Highly recommended you see it in IMAX as this is the whole point. Take in the full cinematic spectacle, revel in the set pieces, and don’t get too upset about the story dwindling around a little bit. Well done to Mr. Nolan, he’s got people interested in history!

A Quick Note on Odyssey’s Soundtrack

Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson handled the music for Nolan’s latest film. The result is often very beautiful, he went to great lengths to use musical instruments that were around in antiquity.

This meant his team had to bring many of them back to life, re-inventing instruments that haven’t been around in thousands of years. That included an ancient lyre and aulos (a wind instrument). Hurling in Albanian iso-polyphony choral music over the top and it’s quite distinct as a soundtrack, although does lapse into bombast when it needs to.

Our favourite pieces? Sirens above is eerie and fabulous, then you’ve got the lush Ithaca theme below.

The sound effects in the film are frequently deafening, too. In IMAX, the scream from Polyphemus the cyclops registers in at 125 decibels. That’s the loudest scream in modern cinema and up there with Roger Daltrey’s big moment in The Who’s hit single Won’t Get Fooled Again (for reference).

Anyway, full credit to Ludwig Göransson as he does create some excellent moments with his score. Although, following Nolan’s lead, he’s often left to produce less intriguing pieces than the above.

The Production of The Odyssey

Okay, so this launched on 17th July 2026 and is still very much in cinemas. It’s just had its IMAX run extended into at least September as the tickets keep fully booking out. It’s really triggered a big response from the public, many of whom will experience the glory of IMAX for the first time.

It’s like being hit by a sledgehammer of cinematic spectacle and that’s why we love it.

The downside? It’s had a tedious backlash from the alt-right (headed by Elon Musk), who claim the film is whitewashing “history”. Their main beef is it’s “woke” as it was a trans actor in a small role and Helen of Troy is Lupita Nyong’o (i.e. not white). The hysterical meltdown they’ve had about it has done nothing to dent global box office figures. The film has already made $1.301 billion off its $250 million budget.

Go woke, go broke indeed…

As for the production cycle, following Nolan’s last film (2023’s Oppenheimer) he hadn’t worked out what to do next. Once decided, he went on to write the screenplay for The Odyssey and take on directing duties.

The shoot last for 91 days across February and August of 2025. He worked so effectively everything wrapped nine days ahead of schedule! Despite shoots taking place all over the shop, including locations such as Morocco, Western Sahara, Greece, Italy, Scotland, and the US.

Nolan is famous for embracing practical effects, so pretty much everything you see in the film most definitely isn’t CGI. That included building a 30ft cyclops for that scene, plus setting 5ft stunt actors against 7ft ones for others.

The Odyssey is almost certain to win a big bunch of Oscars. No way a film earning this much, and getting so much internal attention, isn’t going to win a load of them. Watch this space in 2027 then for the Academy Awards.

Super spannende Rezension zu einem Buch, das erstmals die Geschichte Skandinaviens als Region am Rande des Imperiums rekonstruiert. Man erfährt die coolsten Dinge & wird schlauer was Methodologie für so prä-schreibende Kulturen angeht. Und ja: Eisbären im Kolosseum.
#history #antiquity #prehistory #scandinavia #romanempire #books #Review

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/michael-kulikowski/polar-bears-in-rome

“We now know that the interiors of wealthy people's homes in #Pompeii smelled woody and earthy, with a hint of citrus.”

Ashes From Pompeii Reveal What The Doomed City Smelled Like 2,000 Years Ago : ScienceAlert https://www.sciencealert.com/ashes-from-pompeii-reveal-what-the-doomed-city-smelled-like-2000-years-ago #science #archeology #archaeology #anthropology #incense #rome #antiquity

"Modern #textual #scholarship has shown that #ToledotYeshu never existed as a single, fixed #composition. Unlike the #Mishna or the #Talmud, whose textual traditions gradually stabilized through widespread printing, Toledot Yeshu remained fluid for centuries. #Scribes copied from whatever exemplars were available, frequently introducing additions, omissions, stylistic revisions, and entirely new #narrative episodes. Rather than preserving a single "original" version, the #manuscript tradition reflects a living #text continually reshaped by its transmitters.

The #Łomżamanuscript is especially noteworthy because it preserves a substantially expanded #recension. Its elaborate title-page introduction immediately distinguishes it from many simpler copies. Throughout the text, the #Hebrew is unusually polished, employing a consciously #biblical style that lends the narrative an air of #antiquity and #literary refinement."

https://jewishpress.com/a-medieval-jewish-counter-narrative-about-the-life-of-the-founder-of-christianity/

Temple of the Obelisks, Byblos, Lebanon [OC]

@historyruins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_the_Obelisks
@histodons
#MiddleEast #geschichte #histodons #history #histoire #antiquité #BronzeAge #ReligiousStudies #Bronzezeit #antiquity #antike #Lebanon

It‘s half past #moon.

https://www.thomasweibel.ch/meton/

#newmoon #moon #astronomy #mathematics #mechanics #history #moonphase #antiquity #archaeology #webdev #javascript #sciencehistory #digitalhumanities #astrophysics #physics #coding #solstice

Und nicht vergessen: Morgen ist Neumond.

https://www.thomasweibel.ch/meton/

#newmoon #moon #astronomy #mathematics #mechanics #history #moonphase #antiquity #archaeology #webdev #javascript #sciencehistory #digitalhumanities #astrophysics #physics

Archaeoethnologica: HATTANNAS - Festschrift Theo Van der Hout

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/11/hattannas-homenagem-theo-van-der-hout.html

#Hittite #Indoeuropeanstudies #Anatolia #epigraphy #linguistics #AncientNearEast #BronzeAge #hittitology #Antiquity #book #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: HATTANNAS - Festschrift Theo Van der Hout

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/11/hattannas-homenagem-theo-van-der-hout.html

#Hittite #Indoeuropeanstudies #Anatolia #epigraphy #linguistics #AncientNearEast #BronzeAge #hittitology #Antiquity #book #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: HATTANNAS - Festschrift Theo Van der Hout

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/11/hattannas-homenagem-theo-van-der-hout.html

#Hittite #Indoeuropeanstudies #Anatolia #epigraphy #linguistics #AncientNearEast #BronzeAge #hittitology #Antiquity #book #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: HATTANNAS - Festschrift Theo Van der Hout

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/11/hattannas-homenagem-theo-van-der-hout.html

#Hittite #Indoeuropeanstudies #Anatolia #epigraphy #linguistics #AncientNearEast #BronzeAge #hittitology #Antiquity #book #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: HATTANNAS - Festschrift Theo Van der Hout

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/11/hattannas-homenagem-theo-van-der-hout.html

#Hittite #Indoeuropeanstudies #Anatolia #epigraphy #linguistics #AncientNearEast #BronzeAge #hittitology #Antiquity #book #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Linguistic Concta in Anatolia - Book / Contato Linguístico na Anatólia - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/07/contato-linguistico-na-anatolia-livro.html

#Linguistics #Antiquity #Anatolia #Mediterranean #hittite #luwian #phrygian #ancientlanguages #languagecontact #culturecontact #IronAge #epigraphy #Archaeology #books #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Linguistic Concta in Anatolia - Book / Contato Linguístico na Anatólia - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/07/contato-linguistico-na-anatolia-livro.html

#Linguistics #Antiquity #Anatolia #Mediterranean #hittite #luwian #phrygian #ancientlanguages #languagecontact #culturecontact #IronAge #epigraphy #Archaeology #books #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Linguistic Concta in Anatolia - Book / Contato Linguístico na Anatólia - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/07/contato-linguistico-na-anatolia-livro.html

#Linguistics #Antiquity #Anatolia #Mediterranean #hittite #luwian #phrygian #ancientlanguages #languagecontact #culturecontact #IronAge #epigraphy #Archaeology #books #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Linguistic Concta in Anatolia - Book / Contato Linguístico na Anatólia - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/07/contato-linguistico-na-anatolia-livro.html

#Linguistics #Antiquity #Anatolia #Mediterranean #hittite #luwian #phrygian #ancientlanguages #languagecontact #culturecontact #IronAge #epigraphy #Archaeology #books #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Visitors from beyond Grave - Book / Visitantes de Além-Túmulo - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/04/visitantes-de-alem-tumulo-livro.html

#Antiquity #AncientHistory #literature #history #dead #revenant #ghost #ghostbeliefs #Folkore #books #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Visitors from beyond Grave - Book / Visitantes de Além-Túmulo - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/04/visitantes-de-alem-tumulo-livro.html

#Antiquity #AncientHistory #literature #history #dead #revenant #ghost #ghostbeliefs #Folkore #books #openaccess

Archaeoethnologica: Visitors from beyond Grave - Book / Visitantes de Além-Túmulo - Livro

+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2025/04/visitantes-de-alem-tumulo-livro.html

#Antiquity #AncientHistory #literature #history #dead #revenant #ghost #ghostbeliefs #Folkore #books #openaccess