Category Archive: Another thing

An ancient golden myrtle crown from Pydna in Greece What you are looking at is an extraordinary piece of ancient craftsmanship: a wreath or crown made entirely of gold, fashioned 23 centuries ago so as to imitate a myrtle ... Read More

A Roman statue of Aphrodite from Perge in Turkey: Love and War What are we looking at? A mostly nude marble lady with no head, holding a shield. In other words, just another typical piece of ancient sculpture: doesn't that form of ... Read More

An Ancient Tomb Relief at Teimiussa, modern Üçağız in Lycia, Turkey If you have any knowledge or experience of ancient art, the word that comes to your mind on looking at our image is probably "typical". That is entirely correct, and ... Read More

An ancient Bronze sculpture of Athena from Himera in Sicily As always, have a look at the image and take it in for yourself before reading what follows. Our image shows a small bronze figurine, just about 20cm (8") in ... Read More

An ancient fresco in the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki A small barrel-vaulted space, lavishly painted with scenes of plants, animals and humans: the interior of a vaulted tomb from the 4 th century AD. It is on display in ... Read More

An ancient ivory lyre-support from Samos in Greece Out of the many extraordinary objects we enjoy showing to our guests, this is one of the most arresting – and one of the most easily overlooked. It was my ... Read More

An ancient mask from Motya in Sicily: A Phoenician grimace This object is a life-sized clay mask, probably from around 500 BC, discovered among the remains of the Phoenician (or Carthaginian) city of Motya, off Sicily. What do you make ... Read More

A Hellenistic pebble mosaic in Rhodes, Greece As an archaeologist specialized in Byzantium and the Middle Ages, I should probably be expected to write about the glorious history of the Knights of Rhodes and what they left ... Read More

Ancient Athenian ostraka: Political Ostracism in Greek history A series of smallish, circular and concave pottery disks, all covered in a shiny black slip and all with letters incised around the edge. Not too exciting at first sight. ... Read More

An ancient altar from the Morgantina Treasure in Sicily Dazzling, isn’t it? Also, you are not likely to have seen one of these before. Virtually no objects of its kind are currently known to have survived from antiquity. Have ... Read More

Bronze Age copper ingots: a Vital Raw Material in history This object may look fairly uninteresting, even rather unsightly, at first sight. As a matter of fact, it is of great importance, illustrating a major landmark in the development of ... Read More

The Euaion/Perseus Krater in the Archaeological Museum at Agrigento, Sicily Look at him: A young man standing in a thoughtful pose, his left foot placed on a rock, the knee supporting his left arm, on which, in turn, his chin ... Read More

The Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women in Istanbul archaeological museum Do we need to tell you that these carvings are part of a sarcophagus, in other words a stone-carved receptacle for a dead body? Probably not - the figures speak ... Read More

Cycladic Figurines: An Archaeological Mystery Cycladic figurines (sometimes called "Cycladic idols") are among the most enigmatic and most evocative objects from Greek prehistory. They were produced in the Cycladic islands (whence the name) in the ... Read More