baccanalia (13. 916)

After centuries of study and several attempts to understand and recreate the colour-changing effect, a team from the University of Sheffield—an area instrumental to the Industrial Revolution, many technologies emerging from there including large scale stainless steel and commercial glass manufacture—have rediscovered the sixteen hundred year old methods that went into dichromatic the Lycurgus Cup (see previously here and here). The caged-chalice (diatretum) was made in Alexandria in the fourth-century of unknown provenance before the 1800s depicts a scene of the mythological Thracian king Lycurgus (Tamer of Wolves) who banned the cult of Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans) in his home territory and punished the followers of the god of wine, and in the iconography on the cup, Ambrosia, Dionysus’ human nursemaid, is shown acting in self-defence, transformed into a powerful vine as she is being pursued by the enraged despot, whereupon entangling him, rending his wardrobe (a act called sparagmos (σπαραγμός) and strangling him to death. Embedded flakes of silver and gold (molten nano-crystals forming a lattice work in the glass invisible to the naked eye) shift the absorption and scattering of photons depending on whether the artefact is backlit or viewed in ambient light. Our favourite part of the interview was how one of the scientists imagined how Roman craftspeople would be bemused and incredulous on the effort and experimentation that went into recreating the effect, “‘Why does she not know how to make this?’” The new cup, a local glass artist commissioned to make it, will be unveiled to the public next month at the university.

sonnenobservatorium goseck und naumburg (13. 881)

Discovered through aerial photography of a wheat field whose cropmarks were particularly visible due to recent drought conditions in the 1990s and not disclosed to the public until archeological excavations were completed—having drawn the lesson from the nearby artefact, the Nebra Skydisk—in 2003, the Goseck Circle is a Neolithic enclosure, approaching seven thousand years in age and the oldest such solar observatory known in Europe. The reconstructed alignment just a few kilometres north of Naumburg near the confluence of the Unstrut and the Saale consists of wooden posts following the concentric rings of the structure’s foundations and has openings that mark sunrise and sunset on the summer and winter solstices. A tourism route, Himmelswege, links the circle to the Himmelsscheibe von Nebra and other astronomical archeological sites in Saxon-Anhalt.

The village also has an impressive eleventh century palace, built on the grounds of a secularised (previously here and here) Benedictine monastery, with the castle church dating back to its original founding.

On the way back to the campsite, we stopped at the main city of the region, Naumburg (previously), established in 1012 by the Margrave of Meissen at the crossroads of two important trade-routes, the Via Regia and the Regensburg Road and took in some more impressions of the Naumburger Dom Sts Peter und Paul and market square. The tenth century Late-Romanesque cathedral became the first see of a German Protestant bishop, remaining an evangelical parish to the present, in the course of the Reformation in 1542, whose later Gothic embellishments, including architectural and figural elements by an anonymous mason known only as the Master of Naumburg, have earned it a place on the UNESCO’s register of World Heritage.

synchronoptica

one year ago:  reprogramming government funding to dull the public pain of the US government shutdown (with synchronoptica), penmanship instruction plus more oblique strategies 

two years ago: university commas, Peabody visual aides, an out-of-season bloom plus Dungeons & Dragons as group therapy 

three years ago: assorted links to revisit plus unlucky thirteen  

four years ago: another MST3K classic,  the world’s first personal data protection law plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: your daily demon: Focalor, The Style Council plus a psychedelic design collective

six years ago: a fashion show with puppets plus Witchtok community doing the Lord’s Work

seven years ago: the introduction of the Ampelmännchen (1961), more links to enjoy plus more mushroom finds

eight years ago: democracy by lottery, vintage Sainsbury’s packaging plus a music video from Bob Sinclar

 

10x10 (13. 753)

cycle of cathay: a look at the etymology of the antiquated exonym 

landslide: over three thousand dead and missing in the aftermath of Himalayan flood catastrophe  

not the droids you’re looking for: a group of kids swede a brilliant remake Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 

modern toss: the sweary comic workplace comic by Mick Bunnage and Jon Link honoured with an anniversary exhibition—via friend of the blog Nag on the Lake  

non-zero probability: idiomatic extensions of Black Swan Events  

pennywise: an homage to the gleeful villains of Tim Curry (RIP)  

game, set, match: a gallery of tennis-related art ahead of the US Open 

ice stupas: locals in the northern Indian desert valley are engineering artificial glaciers as a reservoir to safeguard water 

skålspænder: a Viking woman’s grave uncovered in Jutland with surviving remnants of her clothing  

nusantara: defining the maritime region of South East Asia by mapping its borders to the Java-based thalassocracy

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica), the origins of Fanta plus Trump’s lack of public appearances 

two years ago: the K-Pop Fab Four plus weird academic book jackets 

three years ago: artist Victor Ekpuk plus Higher Love (1986)

four years ago: a stylistic departure for the Byrds, Canada and the UK’s Manhattan Project plus more links to enjoy

five years ago: a news music anthology, even more links to check out, Hey Jude (1968) plus very strong animadversions

six years ago: the Moscow-Washington hotline (1963) plus lockdown fantasy levels

house elf (13. 702)

We‘ve heard of several road construction projects diverted or completely derailed in Iceland to avoid encroaching on the dwellings of supernatural beings according to local lore. We learn, however—and not for the first time, fans of the Harry Potter franchise have successfully petitioned to reroute a multimillion pound energy project linking County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland with a pebbly beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, which would have cut through the shrine to the memory of the fictional familiar Dobby.

The submarine copper cables connecting the Republic of Ireland to the UK national grid, following a rather massive outcry, was shifted to avoid the memorial—though in the process could possibly have damaged an archaeological site, an actual Bronze Age tomb with grave goods not fully excavated and conserved.

8x8 (13. 643)

elbows up: Trump threatens to impose a fifty percent tariff on a range of Canadian export, claiming that the country discriminates against American dairy products, alcohol and automobiles  

ashurbanipal: massive stele discovered by the Sun Gate of Nineveh in Mosul  

no mutation without representation: the 1974 manuscript, The Periodic Table of Energy, authored by Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson during their unfortunate incarceration inside Vacaville Prison—via Boing Boing  

the old man and the strait: with apologies to Ernst Hemingway on his birthday 

calves and calves nots: guides’ exodus over global warming tourism  

fungus among us: mapping the underground of rhizomal networks—see also here and here 

 ziwiye horde: actor Zendaya, in the role of Athena, sharply criticised for wearing three-millennia old Assyrian earrings to an event promoting Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey—see previously  

fellow travellers: US department of state continues Red Scare on left politicians as Cuban agents

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump’s push to bring back the Redskins (with synchronoptica) plus Appetite for Destruction (1987)  

two years ago: an entrepôt on the Seine, assorted links worth revisiting, more from Marshall McLuhan plus Joe Biden steps down as the Democratic presidential nominee

three years ago: more links to enjoy 

four years ago: a concert in Potsdamer Platz to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall plus meandering along the Spey

five years ago: a nuclear powered cruise ship, the Scopes Monkey Trial (1925) plus the outskirts of Göteborg 

six years ago: the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World plus remote screaming into the void

9x9 (13. 621)

space jam: erythrulose, a simple sugar found in raspberries and fake-tan lotion, detected in an interstellar cloud  

vindolandia: a Roman “genius”—a familiar and household spirit sculpture discovered at Hadrian’s Wall  

the kingdom of hyrule: hand-drawn maps of the The Legend of Zelda, the land inspired by the Kyoto countryside, with a bestiary of monsters 

our lives are woven together in a fabric—but the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable: the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the legacy and lessons of Threads—via tmn  

médicos sin fronteras: US launches a global pressure campaign against Cuba’s last lifelines, exporting expert physicians 

the escherian stairwell: the invented legend of an impossible campus architectural feature and a perpetual downward loop 

clipart.studio: make and share cut-out collages from the Internet Archive’s magazine collection—via Waxy  

the lore of the rings: science is only beginning to appreciate the richness of the archives inside trees  

pop iii: astronomers scan the skies for elusive non-metallic behemoths, the first stars in the Cosmos

9x9 (13. 382)

aegis: a unique monumental statue of Athena uncovered in western Türkiye (ancient Laodicea) whose breastplate is follows the description of Book VIII of Virgil’s Aeneid  

alien abduction: conspiracy theorists connect spate of missing US nuclear scientists to UFOs—see more  

big tree stories: a hunt for the world’s tallest firs and imagining prehistoric forests studded with such giants—via MetaFilter  

₂he: although the second most abundant element in the Cosmos, the noble gas is hard to come by on Earth—via Web Curios  

frozen conflict: like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump’s war of choice likely to be a simmering, unresolved stalemate 

wishful hinking: an 1987 edition of the Collins Dictionary contains a trap word (see also), presumably to counter plagiarism 

paper theatre: home entertainment flourished during the Regency Period for lack of sufficient live venues  

νεῶν κατάλογος: golden tongued (so they can speak in the afterlife) Roman era mummies found in Egypt’s Minya governorate, whose tomb contains a manuscript of Book II of Homer’s Iliad, the Catalogue of Ships—via Kottke

casco de leiro (13. 327)

With hammered decorations and repeating repouseé work, the register of patterns similar to other headgear of the era, like the hats of Schifferstadt, the so called Helmet of Leiro is a ritual golden cap dating to the Late Bronze Age (circa 1000 BC) was discovered by chance on this day in 1976 on a rocky point above the beach at the comarca (a subdivision, like a county, used in Galicia) of O Ribeiro by fisherman called José Vicente Somoza. The view from the outcropping is a commanding one of the bay and would have made an inspiring location for rites as well as a reference point for navigation, the waterways receding landward from the estuary the optimal route to the nearby site of Santiago de Compostela and according to legend the same path chosen by St James. Retrieving what he appeared to be a crude earthenware bowl (artefact is suspected to have a dual use as a basin), the outer layer broke away upon handling it, revealing a gold object, which the discoverer immediately reported to local archaeological authorities.

ancient aliens (13. 288)

Half buried in the storied vineyards of Nemea, near the mythic and archaeological sites of the Peloponnesian peninsula, architecture studio 314 has installed a winery that evokes an imaginative narrative that reaches back even further in prehistory with its saucer-like construction that suggests the crash site of a UFO, the extraterrestrial material comprising the hull unweathered by the passing eons but incorporated into the arcadian landscape as a unique visitors’ centre to sample reds made from the area’s renowned Agiorgitiko grape. More images from designboom at the link above.

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