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.
Saturday, 12 July 2025
steudadoรน karnag (12. 574)
Friday, 11 July 2025
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

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 (็ๅธ, huรกngdรฌ) 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 synchronopticรฆ), 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
Saturday, 28 June 2025
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 (Hรผgelgrab) 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.Tuesday, 24 June 2025
the carnac stones (12. 552)
Just a short drive away, we visited—I suspect revisited at least in part we'll have to check an earlier version of the blog, the monumental arrangement of prehistoric dolmen, menhir and burial chambers surrounding the village of Carnac (Karnag).
Three main groups of monoliths in the adjoining fields and forest at Menรฉc, Kermario (House of the Dead) and Kerlescan are aligned to mark the spring and winter solstices. Although escapingly ancient, dating to 4 500 BC, a pious legend surrounded them from the late Middle Ages (imagination insufficient for such time scales--see previously) that the discipline of the formation was owing to an enchantment cast by Pope Cornelius, an early pontiff serving just after the Decian persecutions, on a legion of pagan soldiers in pursuit—or alternatively by the wizard Merlin’s spell, Bretagne having its own Arthurian matter. A bit removed from the main site, we discovered another ensemble of transept graves at Manรฉ Kerioned including an underground chamber with an inscription.synchronoptica
one year ago: exploring Maccagno (with synchronopticรฆ)
ten years ago: assorted links to revisit, fidelity plus even more links to enjoy
eleven years ago: the importance of boredom, distinctions among German terms for immigration plus alternative currencies
twelve years ago: capitalism and moral bankruptcy
fourteen years ago: advances in solar energy generation
Monday, 23 June 2025
route des menhirs (12. 550)
Though there’s a continuous trail through the region, about ten minutes south begins a really high concentration of megalithic monuments, mostly standing stones and dolmen (tombs) and tumuli (burial mounds), starting in the village of Kerzerho in the commune of Erdeven (An Ardeven) stretching all the way to the peninsula of Quiberon in the Bay of Biscay.
Over eleven hundred stones are placed in a narrow area stretching for two kilometers and bear witness to a number of arrangements and alignments which have not all been triangulated with a purpose, one stone circle cutting across the highway, some corresponding with the rising sun and seemingly part of a much larger structure. These monuments were erected by Bronze Age pre-Celtic people and are thought to be a form of ancestor worship, new stones stood up for each successive generation, but there are no definitive theories or archaeological evidence as the benchmark of scholarship, Stonehenge, if fully removed by the transition of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to settled farming culture.synchronoptica
one year ago: Lukmanier pass (with synchronopticรฆ) plus arriving at Lake Maggiore
ten years ago: assorted links to revisit, the concept of the personal and unperishing soul plus the passing a chimeric lamb
eleven years ago: a visit to Koblenz
twelve years ago: a mistaken anchor
thirteen years ago: endonyms and exonyms in sport
Friday, 30 May 2025
hohenwartetalsperre iii (12.497)

one year ago: a US supreme court justice flies provocative flags (with synchronoptica), a WWII battle for an Aleutian island, the anatomy of a limerick plus Trump found guilty of falsifying business records
seven years ago: all about Ostheim
nine year ago: a wearable, in-ear translator plus giving Tumblr a try
ten years ago: Swiss cheese goes blind plus Alf’s hip-hop album
eleven years ago: mourning a ruined laptop, semi-conducting cement plus getting ready to travel to Lake Como
catagories: ๐️, ๐ฐ, ๐บ, Thรผringen
Thursday, 15 May 2025
vini, vidi, vici (12. 461)
Authorities in Tokat have confiscated an illegally excavated mosaic unearthed in the Zile district of the north-central city in Tรผrkiye, the motifs suggesting it dates to the Roman Imperial era, embodying a pivotal historical moment when Julius Caesar, fresh from his siege of Alexandria and heady with success, built on that momentum and defeated in the Battle of Zela (ฮแฟฮปฮฑ, as it was known in Antiquity) the forces of the Anatolian kingdom of Pontus under the ruler Pharnaces II with such swiftness that the victor proclaimed the title phrase, the words inscribed on a cylindrical column of the city’s castle. The female figure depicted on this decorative fragment is captioned ฮคฮกฮฅฮฆฮ (Tryphรฉ) as the personification of indulgence and debauchery as a symbol of conspicuous consumption—which did not carry positive conotations necessarily among Roman philosophers and the general populace, a bit of a signifier for BRAT for the hedonistic aspect. Much more and more archaeological discoveries from the History Blog at the link up top.
Saturday, 10 May 2025
helle and phrixus (12. 447)
A recently excavated domus of an elite family in Pompeii (previously)—so named above for a fresco in one room depicting a part of the myth of the Golden Fleece—recounts one family’s rather heart-rending attempt to escape from the pyroclastic eruption by barricading themselves in the main hall of the richly appointed residence, events reconstructed from the voids the long since decomposed wooden barrier of a bed litter or the dining sofas of the triclinium, an arrangement for three to eat supper semi-reclined with the fourth space left open for the servants to present various courses—an aristocratic dining format that continued into the Middle Ages, in the volcanic ash and debris.As with an estimated sixteen thousand inhabitants who perished by this disaster, the residents of the so-named Ella and Frisso home did not make it.

Saturday, 12 April 2025
tabella defixionis (12. 386)
Popular and widely employed during Greco-Roman times well into the Christian era, curse tablets (ฮบฮฑฯฮฌฮดฮตฯฮผฮฟฯ—a binding spell) were often discretely or surreptitiously buried with the dead to settle a grudge with surviving competitors over business and romantic affairs and even among rival sports teams as a way to petition the chthonic gods or place spirits to compel malediction for the after life. Like the cache of twenty-two curses recently discovered in an ancient cemetery near Orleans, the most common media was thin lead scrolls as due to their malleability could be easily inscribed and were also an element associated with the underworld deities. What makes this particular discover unique is that one grave contained a curse written in Gaulish, the vulgar language of the region in common parlance (though really preserved in written form) for centuries after the Roman conquest. Because of the paucity of documentation for Gallo-Roman translating is a challenge but there is a another class of curse tablets called Voces mysticae (vox magica) which do not seem to be rendered in any known language and are a secret invocation that only demons can decipher—with scholars teasing out palindromes (previously here and here) and boustrophedon. Much more at The History Blog at the link above.
Sunday, 23 March 2025
8x8 (12. 331)
fork in the road: AI misapprehension of a machine translated simple yes/no survey from Spanish rendered ‘i griega’ (upsilon) as a y-junction and all affirmative responses as the utensil
hunter-gatherer: the handbag theory of human advancement—via Strange Company
signature authority: after declaring his predecessor’s pardons invalid over the use of autopen, Trump faces scrutiny over unsigned deportation orders

spring issue: the fourth instalment of the achingly beautiful HTML Review—see previously—is out, via MetaFilter
vexatious lawsuits: mob boss Trump partially reverses executive order rescinding law firm’s contracts and security clearances for millions in pro bono services, prompting mass resignations
schlachthof: ancient butchery for mammoths discovered in Austria
cousin german: a comparison between English and Lower Saxon
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Cityspeak in Bladerunner plus The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound
seven years ago: the Ecosia web browser, an ancient passing red dwarf plus Cambridge Analytica
eight years ago: Trumpland, Trump’s triumphs, recreating the bedroom from 2001 plus more on concrete poetry
nine years ago: the christening of Boaty McBoatface, humorist Richard Littler plus a tubular tree house
ten years ago: God Bless You Mr Rosewater plus the crusades and the reconquista
Friday, 7 March 2025
life’s good (12. 282)
The abstract corporate logo of the South Korea multinational conglomerate LG (formerly known as Lucky-Goldstar) we learn was inspired (see also) by an ancient roof-end tile with a human face and nicknamed for it’s era (roughly spanning the first millennium) as the Silla Smile (์ ๋ผ์ ๋ฏธ์). Iconic and considered a national treasure, the artefact was first discovered in an antique shop in 1934. Much more from Amusing Planet at the link up top.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a music video from GMUNK (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus Sol Invictus
seven years ago: moving day
eight years ago: invasive pat-downs, a tree with its own postal code plus a self-driving concept car
nine years ago: metro lines mapped as Super Mario levels
ten years ago: cultural norms, ISIL’s destruction of heritage sites plus overzealous zoning
Saturday, 15 February 2025
paydirt (12. 236)
The foundations of the first Roman basilica in London (Londinium) have been unearthed beneath the basement level of an office building scheduled for demolition and redevelopment on Gracechurch street. Much expanded as the conquest of Britain continued through the first century AD, this structure before an open public courtyard would have been the civic centre of the settlement and seat of the administration and judicial and commerce, the public-facing edifice for festivals and announcements. After a series of exploratory excavations, a plan has been developed to create a sublevel access for the archaeological site (see previously), preserving the remains under the high street.
Thursday, 6 February 2025
aplicรณ (12. 208)
The amazing mastery of Andean weaving and dyeing that surpassed the craft as known to Europeans at the time of contact is showcased in the vivid patchwork tunics of the Wari (Hurari) tribe, centred in what is now the western province of Ayacucho in Peru, which were well-preserved in desert burials. Surviving textiles also including hats and tapestries as grave goods, featured abstract motifs—possibly coded and too make through geometric distortions to make the wearer appear larger and more imposing befitting of their rank. These garments, whose requisite skills and traditions predate the Conquista by hundreds of years (circa the sixth to the tenth century) and have been transmitted and appropriated to an extent by successor cultures, both pre-Columbian and settlers, imparted as tribute along with treasure, but none can compete with this ancient that involved the multidisciplinary practise that involved exotic pigment-sourcing and precise llama husbandry for the ideal substrate, revealing social stratification and hierarchy. View a whole gallery at Public Domain Review at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Saint Mรฉl
seven years ago: women’s suffrage in Britain (1918), MLK, Jr on capitalism, more links to enjoy plus a vocabulary lesson
eight years ago: amoeboid robots
nine years ago: the evolution of corporate logos, high-definition rewatches plus threatening dust bunnies
ten years ago: vaccine scepticism plus even more links
Friday, 31 January 2025
12x12 (12. 196)
happy to be hard core: a sampling of the genre produced on Amiga computers—via Web Curios
biodiesel: grassroots efforts opposing plans to transform Hungary into an EV battery manufacturing hub—see previously
pc gamer: vintage scans of computer and arcade hobbyists’ magazines
eureka moment: the account of the rediscovery of one of Archimedes’ lost manuscripts—see previously
signature block: as part of Trump’s attempt to redefine gender as a sexual binary and “defend women,” US federal workers are directed to remove preferred pronouns from their emails
the cruel kids’ table: a look at the resurgent fratocracy of Americans under thirty, as witnessed at Trump’s inaugural parties
hexaflexagons: fun with paper models—via MetFilter
m23: Rwandan-backed rebel forces take provincial capital of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, possibly with designs on annexing the eastern region
hold the line: the new legal council of the US Office of Personnel Management (previously and under new management) is a soi-disant “raging mysogynist”
clu clu land: the Video Game History Foundation opens its archives to the public—via Ars Technica
doggerland: archeological exploration of the submerged North Sea region
mixolydian mode: compose chords and compare output in a range of dozens of scales—see previously—via ibฤซdem
synchronoptica
one year ago: a film by Rosa von Praunheim (with synchronoptica), assorted links to revisit plus another banger from ABBA
seven years ago: telepresence, more links to enjoy, credit for the discovery of x-rays plus an executive order from the desk of Richard Nixon
eight years ago: film-strip leader ladies
nine years ago: even more links plus perspectives in price-lists
ten years ago: chance decision-making, the mad monk plus electromagnetic moats
Sunday, 26 January 2025
13x13 (12. 185)
embossed: turn of the century tactile teaching aids for the visually impaired for lessons on nature and geography
lab-leak theory: US Central Intelligence Agency embraces controversial vector for COVID-19 pandemic, discounting zoonosis factors
ghostwatch: the supernatural horror BBC mockumentary broadcast on Halloween (see also) 1992 and never shown again due to the panic it elicited
sb593: Oklahoma legislature introduces bill to “restore moral sanity” and criminalise production, distribution and possession of adult material—see previously
minimoog: a fully-functional analogue synthesiser in LEGO
haptics and macros: an idea to add gait gestures to one’s smart phone—we can hardly do the right kind of fake kick to open the rear hatch on our car
mox nix: language borrowings from German propagated by US and UK soldiers stationed there post WWII
electric garden: a run-down lodge transformed into a living museum mapchat: interact with AI shopkeepers for local businesses—results may vary
wassergรถttin: prehistoric figurine from the Hallstadt culture found in 2022 in Lower Franconia goes on display at the Bavarian State Archaeological Museum in Mรผnchen
walk without rhythm and you won’t attract the worm: graboids—see also—the other in-jokes that Tremors leans into
underrepresentation: as part of order to eliminate DEI programmes, US Food and Drug Administration curbs clinical trials aimed at diverse populations for cancer research
switchmen: the sign language of railroad workers
Thursday, 16 January 2025
10x10 (12. 183)
compliments of the season: Poseidon’s Underworld reviews 1973 British anthology series Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries
hagiography: breathtaking hidden murals in the Cathedral of Angers depicting the life of local saint called Maurille, who fled due to embarrassment for failure to perform a miracle, unveiled for the first time
wmw: a list of endangered historic and cultural sites for 2025, around the world and beyond
infinite nonsense honeypot: a lure for AI scrapers
there is a plot—what would be the point of just a bunch of things: legendary director David Lynch dies, aged 78—see previously
run the bricks: a mother in New Zealand completes a hundred metre sprint barefoot over a track of Legos—setting a Guinness Record—via Metafilter
but is it like the old playboy magazine—do you have essays there by the modern day equivalent of gore vidal and william f buckley jr: US supreme court justice Samuel Alito asks if people visit PornHub (previously) for the articles—via Super Punch
cozy rewatch recommendation: the 2003 New Wave film The Dreamers (Innocents) that follows the exploits and adventures of an American university student in Paris during the 1968 riots—via Messy Nessy Chic
๐ธ๐ฉ๐๐: a paranoid ruler’s illiteracy and a torched library behind a glimpse of everyday life in the Assyrian Empire
celebrity is a broad church: BBC1’s 1985 entertainment magazine Friday People
synchronoptica
one year ago: artist Monica Sjรถรถ (with synchronoptica), generational perceptions, an ethnographic study of bathroom graffiti, another banger from ABBA plus words for lighthouse
seven years ago: laser-cut note pads, Madrid reinstates direct rule on Catalonia plus free-floating exoplanets
eight years ago: theatres protest the inauguration of Trump
nine years ago: a slipper-shaped wedding chapel
ten years ago: misattributed quotations plus McDonald’s new slogan
Monday, 13 January 2025
8x8 (12. 176)
cryptobiosis: a nematode was reanimated when pulled out of the Siberia permafrost after forty-six thousand years
fresh air, town square: Mastodon is becoming a non-profit organisation—via Waxy

a sprained ankle on a country walk is allowable but you must not go very far beyond this: in praise of Jane Austin
hollywood hills: architects reckon with the scale of destruction from the Los Angles fires—more here
luthersadt eisleben: a horde of coins found hidden in a statue’s leg in the reformer’s home church
the joe rogan experience: Elizabeth Lopatto summarises the three-hour interview with Zuckerberg
™: Sweden’s attempt to copyright Sweden thwarted plus other assorted legal stupidity
Saturday, 11 January 2025
hohe schule (12. 166)
Taking advantage of a brief period of sunshine, H and I took the dog on a hike up to the summit of the Hohe Schule—previously, the tallest plateau in the eastern foothills of the Rhรถn mountain range, to inspect more of the recently restored Wanderweg.
Formerly known as the Aalhauck—“eel hill,” now called “high school” for unknown reasons—German toponymy can be deceiving, as with Schweinfurt, not where the pigs can ford the river.
The flat top hosts the ruins of a fortification from the Hallstatt period, presumably built to monitor trade through the Ellenbach valley and reoccupied in the Middle Ages with a newer rampart and collapsed walls, hardly recognisable and reclaimed by the forest but fenced in as several Bronze Age artefacts were discovered there during an emergency survey conducted in the 1980s, including prehistoric millstones, primitive glass vials and a brooch, but further excavations are still pending and archeologists want to preserve the site, and affords some spectacular views on the valley and village below and mountain peaks beyond.
Friday, 10 January 2025
๐ซ๐๐ (12. 163)
A rather spectacular tomb (mastaba) was recently excavated in the necropolis of Saqqara in the Giza campus, a burial grounds for the royalty of the ancient capital of Memphis dating to the Sixth Dynasty (circa mid 2200 BC) of one multi-hyphenate called Teti Neb Fu, via Strange Company. Richly decorated with relief depictions of everyday life as well as a catalog of offerings and grave-goods (the body and the originals were looted ages ago) and tools of the trade, the individual was not only physician to the pharaoh and chief doctor of the court, inscriptions also bestow the titles great dentist, director of pharmabotany and priest and magician of the goddess Selket (the scorpion deity who governed venom and its antidotes), providing insight into the intersectionality of religious ritual and medicine of the Old Kingdom. The Swiss-led archaeological dig has uncovered other sites in the area in recent years including one of the vizier Uni with an extensive autobiographical record of his administrative and political achievements, greatly augmenting the knowledge and chronology of the time. More from The History Blog at the link above.