ludus coriovalli (13. 251)

Though our knowledge of the history of gaming of in Antiquity is somewhat obscured by the absence of manuals, we have plenty of artefacts (see previously here and here) that hint at rules of play. One more mysterious board game discovered at the Roman site of Coriovallum in city of Heerlen in the present day Netherlands, is a rounded limestone tablet with grid marks that did not seem to follow any known rules. A wear-use analysis informed an AI-driven simulation of all possible permutations and can trace out the order of play based on other blocking games from the region. More from Open Culture at the link above.

9x9 (13. 183)

chinamaxxing: sinophiles dominate online forums  

next sunday a.d.: Mystery Science Theater 3000 to reunite almost all of the original cast and crew  

blue monday: analysis of the quintessential 80s drum beat  

sol invictus: unique Mithraic altars uncovered in Scotland go on display—see previously  

bloqueo: US regional tactics fomenting rebellion in Cuba—see previously—with siege strategy  

the golden road: Sanskrit and Tamil inscriptions uncovered in ancient Egyptian tombs 

orchestral strike: you know this sound but not its name  

just to be safe, here’s a scrollfrog: Cabel Sasser on one of the most incredible XOXO talks ever—see previously—via Waxy 

lilliputian hallucinations: a common dietary mushroom, if undercooked, causes diners to see tiny humans on their plates—via Kottke

synchronoptica

one year ago: a papal bull on artificial intelligence (with synchronpticæ), the purge of US civil servants plus the foundations of ancient London

thirteen years ago: horsemeat and an explosive meteor 

fourteen years ago: a mascot for the eurozone plus a Vatican political thriller

fifteen years ago: sovereign debt 

seventeen years ago: lint eggs from the laundry fairy 

 

milestone ground (13. 072)

Recent excavations of a Romano-Briton grave of a young woman in the northern Cotswolds have uncovered an item unique in the archaeological record with no comparable artefact yet found in this delicate bone box with sliding lid and decorations similar to the circle and dot pattern of Roman dice. Finely crafted from the femur of a deer, researchers conjecture the petite object might have been a compact for makeup or a precious ointment but who knows? This nameless woman could have been a skilled assassin and kept her poisons in this precious keepsake buried with her. Learn more from The History Blog at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Dr Who intertitles (with synchronopticæ), a pristine ancient tomb plus familiars on trial 

twelve years ago: rebus sentences 

thirteen years ago: the US treasury secretary’s signature plus avatars and entitlement

fourteen years ago: prolefeed 

9x9 (13. 043)

the unforgivable sin of ms rachel: Tedium’s Online Video Awards and the problems with platforms 

grunt work: AI has the potential to destroy career ladders—via Damn Interesting  

grove press: the Mid-Century Modern covers and jackets of Roy Kuhlman  

turbo moka: a thermodynamic redesign of the classic Italian coffee pot—see previously  

gânditorul de la hamangia: reflections on a palaeolithic pair of artefacts  

ieee spectrum: top climate tech stories of 2025—including atmospheric ammonia harvesting 

i dislike dune with some intensity: JRR Tolkien was not a fan of Frank Herbert’s work  

the imperfect homework machine: students’ experience with AI mirrors a Shel Silverstein poem 

 the year in search: more of Miss Cellania’s annual superlatives

9x9 (13. 016)

brought to you by the inkjet lobby: the amount of redactions in the US justice department’s release of the Epstein files sparks outrage  

christmas and commerce: a David Sedaris holiday classic—see previously  

global building atlas: an ambitious project mapping all three-billion built structures worldwide  

grabenanlage: rescue archaeology in southwestern German town of Herxheim in 1996 suggests ritual cannibalism on a massive scale with research still ongoing  

your attention is all you have—wasting it is annihilating: Blackbird Spyplane on a life of screen-time—via Kottke

pithos: Roman amphora of sardines found in Switzerland 

orthorectified panorama: the Apollo transforming printer that developed cartographically accurate photographs of the Moon 

a christmas memory: Truman Capote recalls holidays past  

formerly known as the kennedy center: the history of the US national stage for the performing arts—see previously

ys (13. 014)

Via Strange Company, we learn that a substantial undersea wall discovered by marine archeologists off the coast of the Île de Sein near Finstère in Bretagne—which has its own lore according to classical sources and historians, including Strabo, writing that men were forbidden on the island sacred to the Gallizenae, a caste of Druid priestesses whom could control the wind and foretell the future, but also accused of luring sailors to the their deaths, bashed on the rocky cliffs. Researchers believe that the seven millennia old wall may have been a fish-trap to harvest between tides that became submerged or possibly a protective dyke (though unlikely that humans could have forward-planning) and abandoned with sea-level rise, and pre-dating the ensemble of menhirs of the area, may be behind the legend of the sunken kingdom of Ys.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the year in memes (with synchronopticæ), the first European communications satellite plus US federal government narrowly averts a shutdown 

fourteen years ago: a chilli recipe plus Christmas markets

fifteen years ago: Alien Jesus 

seventeen years ago: a remembrance of my grandmother

 

8x8 (12. 997)

you think hamilton wrote the federalist papers in trebuchet ms: Times New Roman turns rightwing 

the night that the loving ended and the killing began: Hitchcock knock-off Crescendo! reviewed in depth  

mercatino di natale: Brothers of Italy host a week-long winter wonderland named after the protagonist of The Never Ending Story—see also, see previously 

the glazed pagoda: East meets West through cultural depictions of Nanjing’s Great Bao’en Temple  

running on empty: peak copper’s coincidence with peak oil and what that means for the renewable transition with or without the matinee darlings of Rare Earths—via Web Curios 

castello di sammezzano: the Moorish and Oriental follies of Cesare Mattei and Ferdinando Panciatichi  

asahi illusion: from the Japanese for morning sun, the centre of this optical deception is no brighter than the background 

журнальная рубленаяa: Journal grotesque and typographical options in the Soviet Union—via Kottke 

little big town (12. 863)

Though a bit of an inconvenience to have to go into the next bigger Marktstadt outside of the village for any kind of shopping, it always pays off in spades, by sheer dint of concentration of attractions there and spots for a nice wander, even on a foggy day: 

Ostheim vor der Rhön has the Altstadt lining the main road with several mills, manors, breweries and bottlers and fortified church, an organ museum and manufacturer and a castle ruin with tower above—plus a lot more. We had visited the ensemble of Celtic hill graves (Hügelgraben) right down the road from the grocery store several times but hadn’t before now hiked up to the top which hosts a model aircraft runway—opposite the higher summit that has a glider Flügplatz—see also. 

The grove of maples at the top of the hill is known as the Sporkhöhe and has a monument dedicated to silk merchant Kaspar Friedrich Sporck. A native of Ostheim and having learned the art of passementerie—elaborate braidwork trimmings for clothing and furnishings—from his father, made a sizeable fortune in Rouen. Sporck married his business partner Marie Catherine Leprince and remained in France, although visiting his hometown nearly every year, always bringing remittances for support of the poor. 

The couple passing away at an advanced age in the early 1890s, they established a philanthropic foundation (Stiftung) for the town, underwriting an elementary school, the general welfare of the town and a hospital, then hosted in the Gothic Schloß Hanstein, presently the organ museum from above.

rock on gold dust woman (12. 844)

Missing this gift exchange during the last leg of Trump’s Asia in the chaos of last week—which netted no concrete trade deals other than a tepid tariff rapprochement with China—it seems in poor taste at first blush for South Korean president Lee Jae Myung to have presented the US president with a replica of an ancient gold crown, particularly right after the No Kings demonstrations, and bestowed on him the Grand Order of the Mugunghwa (Pink Hibiscus) and it’s of course pandering to his doltish vanities. A little low-effort research reveals, however, a possibly deeper meaning that’s half again cleverer than the copy of the birth certificate that Germany gave Trump of his ancestor who fled to avoid the draft and was subsequently stripped of his citizenship. Dating from the Silla dynasty (see previously) and designated among Korea’s National Treasures these delicate gold crowns, with the tensile strength of a tin-foil hat, which were discovered during an excavation of a royal tomb in the old capital city of Gyeongjuwere likely crafted as funerary wares and not to be worn by the living, due to their inherent flimsiness and impractical design, with this lavish headdress a burial good. That’s some apt diplomacy (see also), especially after the US deported all those South Korean workers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: private language creation among twins (with synchronopticæ), the Collins’ Direction Word of the Year, assorted links to revisit, caesaropapism plus the Balfour Agreement of 1917

twelve years ago: an operatic live-stream

fourteen years ago: Palestine is admitted to UNESCO 

 

8x8 (12. 839)

house of dynamite: Trump’s call to resume nuclear weapons testing—on hiatus since 1992—throws Washington into chaos 

trick-or-treat: Illinois governor calls for Halloween armistice on ICE raids in Chicago 

fяiends: an AI generated montage of the show is an accidental Lynchian fever dream  

monster-palooza: the musical stylings of Verne Langdon as amanuensis for the vampire at the harpsicord  

gold ¼ starter: ancient Celtic coin discovered near Leipzig  

mister mountbatten windsor: Prince Andrew stripped of all styles and evicted from the Royal Lodge over his association with Jeffrey Epstein 

7 500: Trump lowers refugee admissions cap with priority for white South Africans—see previously  

nuclear option: Trump urges senate to end the filibuster rule to reopen US federal government without Democrats 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Halloween tragedy from 1974 that ruined trick-or-treating for everyone (with synchronopticæ) plus ghoulish ABBA

twelve years ago: US scolds Germany and Japan for their economic policy 

thirteen years ago: forever chemicals in outdoor wear, catastrophic weather events, in praise of Wikipedia plus Disney to acquire the Star Wars franchise

fourteen years ago: more debates about daylight savings time 

sixteen years ago: Halloween and the Swine Flu 

seventeen years: what’s scary this spook season 

thirteenth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty (12. 832)

After a pause of more than three year after the discovery of the undisturbed burial chamber, the mummified remains of Tutankhamun were discovered on this day in 1925 by Egyptologist Howard Carter and his team. Over three thousand years after his death, the king is notably the only mummy yet found completely intact and with no sign of tampering and despite the famous find and iconic nature of his gold and lapis lazuli death mask, very little is known about the individual’s circumstances or cause of death, other than a reign of about a decade dedicated to undoing the much the cultural and religious reforms enacted by his predecessor and father Akhenaten and expiring only as a young adult, hence referred to a the boy-king. Laid to rest in a series of nested coffins which we carefully opened to reveal the golden sarcophagus—the headdress crafted to give him the likeness of the god Osiris. Inlaid with faience and precious stones, the back of the mask is inscribed with a chapter from the Book of the Dead, a collection of creation and resurrection texts, spells and incantations used in funerary rituals. Studied forensically for nearly a year, the body was indelicately separated from the gold coffin and reinterred within one of the larger ones and stays in repose in Luxor in the Valley of the Kings. Although contributing much to public awareness of the field of archaeology, Tutankhamun’s treasures and alleged curse—published and propaganda in the following decades, turned out to be more captivating than his mortal remains.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a tarot card inspired garden (with synchronopticæ), more air-based food plus a Trump rally in Manhattan

twelve years ago: the NSA espionage in Germany 

thirteen years ago: a Halloween greeting plus a seasonal recipe

fourteen years ago: China relations plus a gathering of the Common Wealth realms

fifteen years ago: polarised politics plus US government budgetary outlays  

seventeen years ago: proving you are not a robot 

crypt of civilisation (12. 803)

With the suggestion of the belief in reincarnation over hundreds of generations following the Platonic theory of metempsychosis with rebirth coming in thousand year cycles and setting the unsealing date six millennia in the future, calculated to be the difference from the height of Egyptian culture until the present, courtesy of Strange Company, we learn that the hermetically preserved installation (entombed in an unused swimming pool on campus)—inspired by the same contemporary craze of Tutmania (see previously here, here and here) and the notable dearth of information that the Ancients left for the Moderns—organised by history professor Thornwell Jacobs of Oglethorpe University in the American state of Georgia gave us the coinage time-capsule. Finally shunted away in 1935 after five years of careful, considered archiving and curation, the collection includes over eight hundred books, The Iliad, the Bible, a manuscript of Gone with the Wind among others, a seed vault, contemporary scientific instruments, cultural artefacts like Lincoln Logs, dental floss, fashions, an electric toaster, a radio—a windmill is also supplied to provide electricity to the appliances and equipment—as well as vocal recordings from Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and FDR with a hand-cranked device called the mutoscope for playback and teaching the eighty-second century openers of the crypt the English language. Designated to be unsealed in the year 8113 CE at noon US Eastern Time on Thursday 28 May, with the assumption being human beings (see also) are conducting the ceremony and a request that they respect and adopt this legacy for future generations.

the king in the carpark (12. 672)

After exhumation and reinterment with honours befitting, the mortal remains of Richard III, the last English monarch killed in combat—on 22 August 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field, the final skirmish of the Wars of the Roses—and the last Yorkish ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty, discovered (see also) on this day in 2012 beneath a parking garage on the site of the former Greyfriars friary in Leicester, were confirmed following an extensive and exhaustive scientific battery of tests that built solid consensus over the identity of the skeleton. The original tomb in the care of a Franciscan brotherhood lost with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and subsequent subdivisions of land and modern development, and triangulating historical records, forensic archaeology (the remains showed evidence of severe scoliosis and a deadly blunt wound to the back of the skull as well as other posthumous “humiliation injuries” consistent with the king’s disposition), radio-carbon dating as well as mitochondrial DNA lineages of descendants. Excavation and studies were granted on condition that if Richard was found, his remains were to stay in Leicester, the infamous king given a place in the cathedral. A legal controversy followed this condition with counter-claimants proposing alternate sites proposed deemed more in keeping with tradition, like Westminster Abbey or York Minster, though the courts eventually, after much consideration, recused themselves—judging they had no say in public matters having had exercised their due diligence, absent a last will and testament. Reburial ceremonies took place during the last week of March 2015 with a requiem mass and a prayer for all souls fallen in battle and distant relative Benedict Cumberbatch read a poem for the service with special Latin missals composed for the occasion.

anthropoclastic rock cycle (12. 624)

A couplet of recent postings about synthetic geology caught our eye—first about the accelerated process of material formation reduced to decades instead of the usual millions of years in the cases of slag heap debris fusing into sediment along the English coast and colourful industrial waste prepared with concrete to solidify and stabilise it—allowing for easier disposal without the normal caretaking required for liquid toxic waste and instead leech it out over aeons. We wonder what future archeologists will make of this anthro-littoral strata.

8x8 (12. 601)

field office: Trump withdraws the US from UNESCO for a second time 

vidi, quod aperuisset agnus: the Four Horsemen in art  

shoulder-top secretary: indirect communication, etiquette filters and letting the parrot speak for one  

symphonies of glass and steel: a century on, the spirit of Art Deco has shifted from enlightenment to oppression through the lens of a new property listing  

interlockers: chunky sandals that mimic zig-zag paver blocks 

game genie: a 1990 video game cheat cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System and its landmark legacy establishing reverse-engineering (see also) as fair-use and in-play premiums

velvet sundown: responding to the public backlash of AI slop on the internet, some companies are deplatforming or at least threatening to demonetise such tedious content crowding out everything else  

anamorphic sculpture: Thomas Medicus’ 2014 Emulsifier—the term, in the main, refers to the cinematography technique for translating the widescreen to narrower native aspect ratios 

national governing body: US Olympic Committee bars trans individuals from the teams in order to conform with Trump’s directives about protecting women on the anniversary of the 2001 found of the American Paralympics

patrimoine mondial (12. 590)

As NPR reports, twenty-six new sites from all over the world have been inscribed into the UNESCO list of World Heritage (see previously) for 2025, including many we’d have thought would have already been among them like the ensemble of castles commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Jamaica’s Port Royal, the memorials of the Cambodian genocide and the coasts of Morbihan with the megaliths of Carnac, necropolises in China and Sardinia and Minoan archeological sites in Crete. Click through at the link above for a full list of the new additions with extensive information about each location.

steudadoù karnag (12. 574)

Via Strange Company, we are serendipitously directed to an academic update in partnership with the University of Gothenburg with its share of megaliths (I still need to repair those posts from our Sweden trip made on a third party app...) on the Carnac Stones, excavating alignments in a previously unstudied area, Le Plasker adjacent to the ten kilometre stretch inland from Erdeven to the Bay of Morbihan, dating after several trials the original placements to 4700 BC (the landscape and the inventory has been significantly altered in pre-historic times and going forward) and thus not only confirming their age but also pre-dating other standing stone arrangements in Europe, like in England and Malta.

7x7 (12. 571)

edge of eternity: Poseidon’s Underworld’s cinematic vacation to the Grand Canyon 

the open-hearted many and the broken-hearted-few: the venerable and ongoing Leonard Cohen Files—via Metafilter  

litra: an ancient Byzantine scale complete with a set Greek letter-shaped counter-balances discovered in Türkei  

voulez-vous danser avec moi: the mambo scene of Brigitte Bardot and Dario Moreno from Michel Boisrond’s 1959 « Come Dance with Me? »  

flatland: the four dimensional world of Alicia Boole Stott—see also  

and if i haver: an endurance run of The Proclaimer’s I’m Gonna Be—via Web Curios 

it happened here: a contemporary table-read of Stephen King’s what-if premise of Apt Pupil considered during a staycation from Today in Tabs—via ibidem

qin shi huang mausoleum (12. 570)

Having been discovered by a group of farmers, Wang Puzhi and his neighbour Yang Zhifa (with his five brothers), in March of the year prior, the archaeological community marked a pivotal moment on this day in 1975 in the excavation of the site, unearthing the central burial pits around the tomb of Qin dynasty’s founder and first emperor (皇帝, huángdì) of a unified China to reveal a retinue of some eight thousand life-sized terracotta figures of soldiers and horses standing guard for his journey into the afterlife.  The necropolis is a microcosm of the imperial palace with halls, offices and the thousands of replica units, armed, standing in formation. The tomb itself at the centre of the terracotta army (previously) is hermetically sealed and remains unopened to prevent degradation of the body, artefacts and grave goods inside as well as out of concerns for safety of researchers, with artificial rivers of mercury and other toxic decorative elements suspected to be contained within—possibly also an element of revenant superstition. Aside from the Qin emperor, a mass though ceremonious grave holding the remains of one-hundred-twenty-one individuals has been uncovered, whom researchers believe to have been labourers and artisans that built the necropolis.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: double-click jargon (with synchronopticæ), more on the zombification of the legacy web plus Biden vows to stay in the US presidential race   

thirteen years ago: a hundred-handed cactus plus subversive stickers 

fourteen years ago: odious debts 

tumuli (12. 559)

Although closed to visitors due to protect the site still being researched by archaeologists, wandering through the archway of thick ferns and undergrowth approaching the Tumulus of Tumiac, the monumental burial mound (Hügelgrab) in the town of Arzon was very impressive to ponder.

The fifteen metre high and two hundred metre circumference man made hill with an interior vault filled with precious grave goods constructed around 4000 BC provides a commanding perspective of the area and out to sea. According to local lore, hence the nickname Caesar’s Butte, it was from here that the Roman general witnessed the naval victory of his fleet against the Veneti in 56 BC, four millennia later, who were more skilled pilots and whose sturdy ships were impervious to ramming, and thus sealed the conquest of Gaul—though assimilation was more of a negotiated peace particularly with this sophisticated tribe who allowed the Romans entry to their trading partners on the British Isles. The tomb itself was not excavated and studied until 1830.

We also visited the nearby le Petit Mont also at the head of the Rhuys peninsula by the Port of Crouesty, the older and slightly smaller megalithic cairn was converted to a temple of Venus during Gallo Roman occupation and originally contained three tombs, though one was destroyed during WWII when the mound was converted into a bunker by the Nazis, though the exterior architecture mostly remains true to the original.