#Ancient Artifacts Rediscovered

[marandsviet]

(via ""Bananas for Artifacts: Primate Excavators Unearth Human History" number 4" Essential T-Shirt for Sale by MarandSviet)

[blueiscoool]

Bronze Bust of Roman Emperor Caligula Rediscovered After 200 Years

The small bronze statue, which was unearthed at Herculaneum, had been missing for two centuries

A curator in England has rediscovered a tiny Roman-era bronze bust of the emperor Caligula, which had been missing for some 200 years.

The artifact was unearthed in the mid-18th century at Herculaneum, the ancient town preserved under volcanic ash since Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 C.E. Then, Horace Mann, the British ambassador to Italy, acquired the five-inch-tall statue and gave it to his friend, Horace Walpole, the British writer and politician.

The two friends even exchanged letters about the 2,000-year-old bronze, according to a statement from Strawberry Hill House, Walpole’s Gothic home in London.

“I gaze on it from morning to night. It is more a portrait than any picture I ever saw,” Walpole wrote in 1767. “The hair and ears seem neglected, to heighten the expression of the eyes, which are absolutely divine, and have a wild melancholy in them, that one forebodes might ripen to madness.”

Caligula is infamous for his eccentric and cruel behavior. Legend has it that the emperor was so obsessed with his horse, Incitatus, that he tried to make the animal a consul, though this rumor is likely untrue. His reign, which began in 37 C.E., was erratic. He was assassinated after only four years in power.

Today, only seven other small-scale bronze busts of the emperor are known to exist. When Walpole died in 1797, his Roman bust changed hands several times, with some owners mistaking the visage for Alexander the Great.

Silvia Davoli, a curator at Strawberry Hill, found the lost bust in the family collection of Sir John Henry Schroder, who had purchased it in the 1890s, per the statement.

As a curator of Walpole’s former estate, Davoli was familiar with the politician’s correspondence with Mann and knew of the statue’s existence. She had also seen a drawing of it, which Walpole had commissioned from the artist John Carter. When she came across the bronze in Schroder’s collection, she was able to match it to Carter’s drawing.

Schroder doesn’t appear to have known what the statue was or where it came from. According to Strawberry Hill, the family’s collection catalogs refer to the piece as a “possible Renaissance bronze of a youth.”

“They had no idea it was Caligula,” Davoli tells the Guardian’s Richard Brooks. “I was so happy when I finally saw the bronze and made the link.”

Because the statue hadn’t become discolored over time, experts had previously assumed it dated to the 16th century. However, a recent analysis of the metal confirmed that the bronze is, in fact, ancient.

Dietrich Boschung, an expert on imperial Roman iconography at the University of Cologne in Germany, has since examined photos of the statue.

“I’m convinced it is Caligula,” Boschung tells the Guardian. For him, the statue’s piercing silver eyes are a dead giveaway—a common feature of Roman-era bronzes depicting emperors. He also finds it feasible that the piece was once at Herculaneum. “Around that time, many Roman bronzes were found there,” he adds.

To celebrate the discovery, Strawberry Hill will include the ancient bust in its upcoming exhibition, “The Art of Treasure Hunting.” Visitors can check out the tiny Caligula statue for themselves when the show opens on June 28.

By Julia Binswanger.

[raedas]

actually fuck the louvre for having the code of hammurabi all my homies hate the louvre

[inbarfink]

I wanna go a bit full-circle with a post I did right after the first two episodes of ‘Fionna and Cake’ dropped - about the nature of Simon Petrikov’s sense of identity. And more specifically, with how his titular episode centered around the ways his deteriorating mental state and the new context of his life has really torn away at everything Simon used to define himself as. 

Because Simon Petrikov used to be a lot of things. He was an antiquarian and an archaeologist, a man deeply fascinated by the concept of Magic and the supernatural in a mundane world that ridiculed him for it at every turn, an adventurous outdoorsman, and a deeply caring and fatherly man.

But when we meet him at the start of “Simon Petrikov”, he has lost all the passion for his job - especially as he now has to perform it basically as a living museum exhibit. He is now stuck in a word filled with Magic and feels like the only mundane thing in it. He is unable to handle the sort of dangers you would find in an Oooian camping trip. And he made a little girl cry.

And there’s one more thing Simon used to define his identity as, and that is the one he ended up clinging to more than anything in that one episode, even though it was just as decimated as every other facet of his old identity, and the one that ends up jump-starting the plot. And that is being Betty Grof’s other half.

So now, looking back at this second episode at the end of the series, it really feels appropriate that throughout his adventures Simon managed to rediscover these old elements of his personality, that all these aspects of his identity managed to get reinforced and validated…

For most of the series he was basically doing his old job again - travelling around, trying to discover and uncover an ancient artifact.

And you can really see how he regains his excitement for research. 

And by the end of the show, he ends up really rediscovering a passion for his work (and also realized that this Living Museum Exhibit set-up is not conducive for his mental health, which is also a step in the right direction).

 

And he gets to show-off his understanding of Magic

And by the end of the show, Simon doesn’t feel like such an outsider in Ooo anymore. Probably helped by the fact his cellphone connection with Fionna gives him that little connection to 'normalcy' he was missing.

And he got to go on an adventure again, and handle it better than his Camping Trip Funtimes with Finn. Probably because he was around Adventure Novices Fionna and Cake, who were a bit closer to his ‘level’ than a crazy-seasoned adventurer like Finn

And by the end of the show, you can see him seeking thrills on his own terms.

And his ability be kind and fatherly and comforting was validated both by his constant interactions with Fionna - who isn’t a child, but is still a younger person who often needed his emotional support

And also by a very grim reminder of how truly important he was for Marcy.

And by the end of the show, he has managed to make a connection with Astrid, despite them starting out on such a sour note.

But 'Simon Petrikov, Betty Grof's beloved'? That aspect of himself did get some validation, via him getting to share their love story with Fionna

But it was not entirely validated, was it? That was the one aspect of himself that was actually challenged - the one part of himself was clinging to like a lifeline when he felt like he was falling apart, that was the one part of himself that he had to both recontextualize in his head and eventually realized he had to finally let go off…

[theplotmage]

Murder Mystery, Occult, Paranormal & Fantasy Prompt Ideas for Writers

1. The Cursed Amulet - A wealthy collector is found dead after acquiring a cursed amulet. The protagonist must uncover the artifact’s dark history to solve the murder.

2. Blood Moon Ritual - During a blood moon, a prominent figure is sacrificed in a forbidden ritual. The investigator discovers a cult trying to summon an ancient deity.

3. Witch’s Grimoire - A renowned witch is murdered, and her grimoire is stolen. The book contains spells powerful enough to alter reality.

4. Haunted Manor - Guests at a secluded manor start dying mysteriously. It’s said the house is haunted by vengeful spirits from a tragic past.

5. Necromancer’s Revenge - A necromancer brings people back from the dead to seek revenge on those who wronged him, resulting in a string of murders.

6. Sorcerer’s Apprentice - An apprentice sorcerer is killed during a magical experiment gone wrong. The protagonist must navigate a web of magical deceit to find the killer.

7. Alchemical Poison - A series of deaths caused by an untraceable poison leads to an alchemist who’s using forbidden knowledge.

8. The Phantom Assassin - A shadowy figure with supernatural abilities is killing off members of a secret society.

9. Demon Pact - A series of murders mimic those described in an ancient text about summoning a demon. The protagonist suspects a pact with dark forces.

10. Arcane Library - A librarian is found dead in a magical library where books can come to life. The books themselves hold clues to the murder.

11. Midnight Masquerade - At a masquerade ball, a guest is killed, and the murder is linked to an ancient ritual involving the masks.

12. Sacred Relic - A sacred relic is stolen, and those connected to its theft are being murdered by a guardian spirit.

13. Time-Worn Curse - An old curse reawakens, killing the descendants of the original cursed family. The investigator must break the curse to stop the murders.

14. Vampire’s Thrall - Murders in a town coincide with the arrival of a charismatic stranger who may be a vampire seeking revenge.

15. Elemental Fury - A mage controlling elemental forces is killing people who wronged him in the past. Each murder is committed using a different element.

16. Runic Inscription - Victims are found with runic inscriptions burned into their skin, leading the protagonist to an ancient prophecy.

17. Ghost Ship - A ship thought lost at sea reappears, its crew murdered. The investigator discovers the ship’s cursed history.

18. Puppet Master - An enchanted puppet is killing those who mistreated its creator, a deceased toymaker.

19. Celestial Alignment - Murders align with celestial events, suggesting a ritualistic pattern. The protagonist races against time to prevent the next murder.

20. Shadow Realm - Victims are being dragged into a parallel shadow realm, their bodies found drained of life.

21. Enchanted Forest - People who enter a forbidden forest are found dead, their bodies entwined with enchanted vines.

22. Murderous Djinn - A djinn, bound to an artifact, is killing people who come into possession of it.

23. Spellbound Love - A love potion gone wrong leads to obsessive love and murder.

24. Seer’s Vision - A seer predicts their own murder and enlists the protagonist to prevent it, but the future seems immutable.

25. Ritual Dagger - A dagger used in ancient sacrifices is rediscovered, and each person who touches it is killed.

26. Charmed Life - A person with a charm for eternal life starts aging rapidly and dies under mysterious circumstances.

27. Mystic Tattoo - A tattoo artist’s clients are being murdered, their tattoos turning into deadly curses.

28. Dragon’s Curse - A dragon’s curse starts killing those who stole from its hoard.

29. Mirror of Truth - An enchanted mirror reveals the darkest secrets of those who look into it, leading to a series of murders.

30. Ghostly Whisperer - A medium is killed by a spirit they summoned, who continues to haunt and kill.

31. Warding Sigil - A town’s protective sigil is broken, unleashing vengeful spirits on the townspeople.

32. Sorcerer’s Duel - A duel between powerful sorcerers results in one’s death, but the victor’s life is now in danger.

33. Forbidden Love - Star-crossed lovers from rival magical factions lead to a series of revenge killings.

34. Haunted Heirloom - An heirloom brings death to the family that inherits it, linked to an ancestor’s dark pact.

35. Shapeshifter’s Hunt - A shapeshifter is targeting a specific group, blending in seamlessly until the protagonist uncovers their true nature.

36. Arcane Academy - A student at a magical academy is killed during a spell-casting exam, and the murder is linked to a dark secret of the school.

37. Spectral Assassin - An assassin’s ghost seeks revenge on those who betrayed him in life.

38. Illusionist’s Game - An illusionist’s final trick results in real deaths, with magic and deception intertwining.

39. Golem Rampage - A golem goes on a killing spree, and the investigator must find its creator to stop it.

40. Philosopher’s Stone - A hunt for the philosopher’s stone leads to deadly competition and betrayal.

41. Mystic Caravan - A traveling caravan brings death wherever it goes, linked to an ancient curse.

42. Sealed Tomb - An ancient tomb is opened, releasing a vengeful spirit that begins killing those responsible.

43. Moonlit Beast - A werewolf’s attacks coincide with the full moon, but this werewolf is being controlled by someone with dark intentions.

44. Soul Harvest - Victims are found with their souls extracted, leading to a dark sorcerer seeking immortality.

45. Witch Hunt - A series of witch trials results in the wrongful deaths of innocents, whose spirits now seek vengeance.

46. Crystal Prophecy - A prophecy within a crystal ball foretells murders, but the seer is manipulating events to fulfill it.

47. Enchanted Theater - Actors in a theater troupe start dying in ways that mimic their cursed roles.

48. Dark Covenant - A secret society’s members are being killed off one by one, linked to a broken blood pact.

49. Doppelganger’s Curse - Victims are replaced by malevolent doppelgangers who are committing murders in their place.

50. Forgotten Sanctuary - An ancient sanctuary is disturbed, releasing an entity that begins killing those who desecrated it.

Hot New Release!

We’re thrilled to announce the latest edition of our beloved templates, now better than ever! Previously loved and highly rated, our new collection has reached new heights of excellence.

🧙‍♂️ Worksheets for Creating Your Supernatural Entity - Craft your own ghosts, ghouls, and otherworldly beings with detailed templates.

🕸️ Paranormal Fantasy Worldbuilding - Build eerie, mysterious worlds filled with enchantment and supernatural occurrences.

🎮 Gamified NaNoWriMo Writing Experience - Unlock special awards and challenges, rank up, and earn XP points as you write your spine-tingling tale.

🕵️‍♀️ Murder Mystery and Thriller Tools - Perfect for plotting dark and twisted stories that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

🤖 AI-Powered Writer Generator Tools - Use cutting-edge AI to generate fresh ideas and keep your writing flowing seamlessly.

Don’t miss out on this hauntingly good offer! Use code “MYSTERY60” to get a 60% discount and start creating your dark masterpiece today 🎃📚👻

[valen-f-f]

Transformers Priest au

In an alternate universe of "Transformers Priest," Cybertron is on the brink of destruction, caught in an endless war between Autobots and Decepticons. To prevent their sacred relics from falling into the wrong hands, the Priests of Primus, an order of devout guardians, decide to disperse these powerful artifacts across the universe. Among these relics, the most precious is the Chalice of Primus, a blood-red crystal with golden veins, capable of strengthening armor and granting near-miraculous regeneration to wounded Cybertronians.

This Chalice ends up on Earth in the midst of the Inquisition. Humans, upon finding this artifact and seeing the arrival of the Priests, interpret these visitors as angels sent by heaven. Convinced that their mission is divine, the humans take it upon themselves to protect the Chalice in secret, hiding it in an abbey and passing their mission down through the generations, as the Chalice gains the reputation of being a “Holy Grail.”

In modern times, the Chalice of Primus is rediscovered during an archaeological dig. When activated, its energy is detected in the cosmos, drawing the attention of the Autobots and Decepticons, who see in it a tool capable of tipping the balance of the war in their favor. Both sides head to Earth, where they find a humanity that still perceives the Autobots as angels and the Decepticons as fallen angels, corrupted by darkness.

Optimus Prime and the Autobots try to explain to the humans that they are not divine, but alien beings in a war to protect the universe. However, humanity's faith is unwavering: they see the Autobots as the embodiment of goodness and the Decepticons as absolute evil, demonic entities that seek to destroy everything they touch. Taking advantage of this perception, Megatron and the Decepticons sow fear among humans, forcing them to surrender the Chalice to their control.

Finally, the decisive battle takes place in the ancient abbey where the Chalice is located. In their confrontation, the artifact is destroyed, splitting into two halves: one falls into the hands of Optimus Prime and the other into those of Megatron. As each takes a part, both leaders are drastically transformed, with the power of the Chalice reflected in them.

Optimus Prime acquires imposing armor with golden details that shine, and on his back emerges a metallic cape that can unfold like wings, giving him an angelic and majestic air. The Chalice fragment he holds becomes a magnificent scepter, capable of healing and restoring his allies, renewing their strength in battle. Humanity now sees him as a true war angel, the god-like figure they had always imagined.

Megatron, on the other hand, upon absorbing his half of the Chalice, transforms into a shadowy figure. His armor darkens and takes on a dull golden glow, while the Chalice fragment in his hands becomes a sharp, dark scepter, radiating crimson energy. Megatron becomes a figure of destruction and chaos, fueling human beliefs that he is a demonic being, a corrupted, fallen angel, bringer of death.

The Chalice, divided, grants partial blessings to both sides. The armor of the Autobots and Decepticons is enhanced, with golden details reflecting the holy powers they now possess. Humanity is caught between these two colossi: the Autobots, whom they regard as sacred protectors, and the Decepticons, whom they view as harbingers of doom. The conflict over the Chalice of Primus becomes an epic battle between the sacred and the profane, a symbolic struggle whose outcome could decide the fate of both Earth and Cybertron.

[auntieoneandauntietwo]

My problem with AIVAS is that it’s not NECESSARY

The pernese don’t need deus ex AI, they’ve spent the last decade plus rediscovering their ancient history all on their own. And yeah, it speeds things up a bit to have a machine that magically tells everyone exactly what they need to know and do, but tons of other things could serve that purpose.

Imagine how much more fun it would be if the history of the first crossing and Landing was discovered when someone saw the murals painted at Honshu, and microbiology info was hidden in Wind Blossom’s labs at Fort, and a normal old computer with some files detailing the plan to move the red star was uncovered, along with Emily Boll’s desktop photo of her family.

Imagine the awe and eeriness of the pernese learning exactly what they need to know while touching tbe artifacts of their ancestors! But instead we get AIVAS rolling out lists of bland facts and taking the fun out of everything

[esotericworld]

Unknown ancient cultures are always fascinating. This one sounds nice to have lived in.

“Archaeologists recently rediscovered the long-hidden traces of an ancient Indigenous society in western Ecuador’s Upano Valley: more than 6,000 earthen platforms that once supported houses and communal buildings in 15 urban centers, set amid vast tracts of carefully drained farmland and linked by a network of roads. Stéphen Rostain of the French National Center for Scientific Research and his colleagues say they haven’t seen this unique brand of “garden urbanism” anywhere else in the ancient Americas. It is also the oldest such civilization uncovered in the area…

The artifacts that Rostain and his colleagues excavated from the house platforms suggest that people built this complex network of communities around 2,500 years ago and abandoned it sometime between C.E. 300 and 600. Rostain thinks “perhaps a series of eruptions could have made trouble for the people, because after [C.E.] 600, we don’t have any archaeological dates until [C.E.] 800.”…

Each settlement included several groups of platforms, with roads connecting them. Some settlements were small, with just a few house platforms per square kilometer, but others—such as Sangay, which overlooks most of the valley—packed more than 100 platforms into each square kilometer of a site the size of Central Park. And these larger, denser urban centers boasted taller, wider platforms that probably once held communal buildings where people might have gathered for rituals, shared work or social events, Rostain and his colleagues suggest…

Nearly all the open space between communities would have been covered with hundreds of hectares of fields, bordered by shallow drainage ditches that fed into deeper canals. That close link between the fields and the urban centers of the Upano Valley is a unique hallmark of the landscape and the people who built it. Rostain and his colleagues call it “garden urbanism.”

[helix-enterprises117]

Halo Reloaded: Master Chief & more about Spartans

Born and raised on Eridanus-II, John Downes was the son of bioengineers and gardeners, who wanted to genetically modify Earth-plants to be sustainable on other planets (everyone, up until this point, had just been using the indigenous plants from the alien worlds they colonized); up until he was taken into the Spartan Program, John attended a school known as "The Reach For Life Foundation," a prestigious upper-class school (that was created on Reach before expanding out to the rest of the galaxy) designed to turn all of it's students into the next generation of pioneers, colonizers and explorers who will bring life into the uncharted reaches of space. Humanity came in contact with The Covenant in the year 2511. The Spartan Program saw production in 2517; most of the Spartans were born in the year 2528, while John Downes was born in the year 2530. That two year gap may as well have been a chasm between him and his brothers-&-sisters-in-arms. But, like in canon, the main reason why John was chosen despite being everyone's junior was because he still exhibited the exact same unique genetic-markers that all of the others do. With John being the youngest, he's needed to prove himself to the others by working and training thrice as hard as everyone else; his angst comes from the fact that, because he's the youngest, he's the most generic one of the group. He's not the fastest (that's Kelly), not the strongest (that's Samuel), not the biggest (that's Jorge), the best combatant (Fred), the best at weaponry (Vannak), the best at demolitions (James), the best shot (both Linda & Kai, who are rivals to each other, beat John out), the smartest (Riz), the best pilot (Daisy), the best at technology (Joshua), the one with the best intuition (Kurt), or the most charismatic leader (Jerome); he's only really impressive in comparison to the standard marine, this angst he faces is something he later comes to accept as he gets older. He eventually embraces his status as 'The Generic One' and becomes the Jack-of-all-trades, the one everyone can lean on for just about anything; the "Swiss-Army Spartan," if you will. They all got augmented, and the rest is history; but it wasn't until Operation SILENT STORM, the Spartans' FIRST mission as Spartans, where John was given the rank of "Master Chief Petty Officer," the highest rank a non-commissioned serviceman in the Navy can attain; he even got his first metal, "The Purple Heart," after he got shot on the line of duty (and survived, obviously). When he was a kid, before being inducted, John had discovered an ancient Forerunner rock (not that anyone knew what it was) that had almost possessed him; his obssession over it resulted in his father forcing John to bury the drawings he made of it in the backyard. The training and conditioning of the Spartan Progran, while not designed to brainwash anyone, did result in John repressing any memory of the rock. In the present (2552), John had discovered a similar rock during an extraction mission on Biko, which brought a terrifying wave of memories back to him; this drives him to rediscover the rock he found as a kid back on Eridanus-II, in cave beneath the abandoned ruins of his father's old Solar-Paneled Garden Field. After some back and forth battles between The UNSC and The Covenant, John is quick to deduce that the rock he found on Biko is a keystone to the artifact that he found as a kid; with two rocks joined together, they create a starmap that leads to the one thing The Covenant had been after this entire time: Halo.

Spartans are much younger here than in canon, being in their early 20s as opposed to being in their 50s like in the show and the games. Their youth, combined with their less traumatizing upbringing, makes them more colorful in their personalities (still professional and their canon personalities are about the same, but they're less sociopathically brusque and terse like in-canon). Super-Soldiers in media are usually portrayed with two major qualities: Extreme Aggression and Complete Obedience. They're designed to be ruthless killers, desensitized to violence, who are more aggressive than the average soldier, as they are more than willing to make the hard-choices and will not stop until their opponents are dead ("They [Spartans] just... keep killing. Until there's nothing. Left. To kill... You in or out?" - Angus; Halo, Season 1 - Episode 1) and the battle is won. As for complete obedience? Well, that's self-explanatory; they are happiest when given an order and only do what's asked of them ("Good soldiers follow orders." - Crosshairs; The Bad-Batch). The Spartans as seen in Halo Reloaded are the opposite. They're trained in: Lateral Thinking, Improvisation and Freestyling. They're very creative, on and off the field, people who are capable of salvaging a busted plan and thinking on their feet in the midst of high-stress situations; which is precisely why they're so good at their jobs, BECAUSE they're not dependant on the word of their superiors. They're less an army of Robocops and moreso an army of Captain Americas. John himself, particularly in his later years at 22, is a more "Commander Shepard' type of person: Swashbuckling, noble, still emotionally guarded but far less traumatized, charismatic (again not as much as Jerome) and often goes with the flow. He's still much more brusque and aggressive in comparison to the other more lively Spartans (the others often call him "the mean one"), but he's still as nice and compassionate as he's always been.

@ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask

@mrtobenamedlater

@killer-orca-cosplay

@biomecharnotaurus

@authortobenamedlater

[namdubsar]

Drawing Cuneiform, Part 3/3

(Previous)

So, how can we draw these signs in a way that's clear and legible, without getting too overcrowded and busy?

We have to make it clear where strokes start and end, because these three are all different signs (the sounds qa, me, and bar). This means we can't only mark the heads.

And we have to be able to mark multiple heads on a single stroke, because these two are different signs (the number 2, and the sound a). This means we can't only mark the tails.

So how can we achieve both of those goals, without ending up with a mess of heads and tails everywhere?

Well, it turns out some ancient scribes tried to solve the same problem!

Ashurbanipal, the last of the "great" kings of the Assyrian Empire, was known for being a horrifically cruel and bloodthirsty ruler (which is part of why he was the last of them). But he was also a great scholar, and he devoted a lot of his time and effort to building the Royal Library, which was meant to include all the knowledge of the world. It's thanks to this Royal Library that we have as much ancient Mesopotamian literature as we do today!

Like any good librarian, he made sure that every tablet filed in the Royal Library was properly labelled, and like any good emperor, he made sure they all had his own name on them, just in case. Usually this was stamped into the clay the normal way. But sometimes the tablets brought back from sacking a city had already been fired. What then?

Well, in exactly three specific cases, we've found this library information (the "colophon") written on in ink.

Here are zoomed-in images of the two I was able to find in the British Museum's collection. The third should be somewhere in there as well, but I haven't been able to locate it.

The text is pretty badly faded, but we know what it says based on other tablets from the Library: "Palace of Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria".

Now this looks promising! This isn't just the improvised work of a scribe whose tablet dried too fast—according to Irving Finkel, the British Museum's cuneiform expert, the neatness and elegance of the writing suggests that there was a long tradition of this. Ink is just less durable than fired ceramic, and less likely to survive for the thousands of years it took us to rediscover these artifacts.

It's hard to extrapolate much from just these two inscriptions, but we can say a few things:

The heads are drawn with curved lines, and the tails with straight lines

Multiple tails can share one head, and multiple heads can share one tail

So let's see if we can render some text in this style! Here's what the full colophon should look like, if the rest of the text had survived:

I had to make a few guesses to make this work. We don't have any "Winkelhaken" strokes in the surviving text—the ones that look like big hooks, without a head or tail—so I just guessed at how they would be drawn.

But still, I think we've found our winner. This is the most readable style I've seen yet for writing cuneiform in two dimensions. You can see clearly where all the heads and tails are, you can tell the heads apart from the tails, and each wedge takes a maximum of two pen strokes to draw, a big improvement over our earlier versions!

So to finish off, here's how our Gilgamesh excerpt would look in this style:

Very readable, I think!

Next up: how exactly does this style work?

[madamlaydebug]

In the shadows of ancient civilizations, our ancestors left behind not just artifacts, but a trail of knowledge, wisdom, and identity. From towering pyramids to intricate writings on the walls, they etched their story into the fabric of time.​​​​​​​​​

As we stand on the threshold of today, we have the privilege to unearth these treasures, to reconnect with OURStory, our truth, and our culture. Let's honor their legacy by reclaiming the narratives that weave through generations.

These echoes from the past remind us that we're not alone in this journey. They guide us to rediscover our roots, embrace our heritage, and empower our future. Let's walk this path of reclamation with reverence, unity, and the understanding that our strength lies in the legacy that's been passed down.

[blueiscoool]

A Lost 4,400-Year-Old Tomb Found With Ancient Egyptian Mummy Inside

Archaeologists have rediscovered a lost tomb that contains the mummy of an ancient Egyptian official.

The tomb belonged to Ptahshepses, who lived around 4,400 years ago during the 25th and 24th centuries B.C. Archaeologists with the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Prague's Charles University said this week they located the tomb near the archaeological sites of Abusir and Saqqara in 2022 by using satellite imagery and studying old maps. Further excavations were conducted at the site this year.

The tomb was partially exposed almost 160 years ago by the French scholar Auguste Mariette, who uncovered an intricately decorated false door with a lintel, or a kind of supporting beam. But not long after the discovery, the tomb disappeared under the desert sand.

The false door and lintel contain information about Ptahshepses' official career, telling the story of his education at the court of Menkaure, an ancient pharaoh who was born in 2532 B.C. and died in 2504 B.C.

According to the information on the false door, Ptahshepses married the daughter of Userkaf, a pharaoh who reigned for a short period in the early 25th century B.C.

This reference itself indicates that Ptahshepses is the first known official of non-royal descent in Egyptian history who was given the privilege of marrying a royal daughter," the Czech Institute of Egyptology said in a Facebook post.

In addition, on the lintel there is a reference that is one of the earliest attestations of the deity Osiris, the god of fertility and the embodiment of the dead.

"This makes the official Ptahshepses even more unique because he can be credited with the idea of introducing the famous god of the Egyptian afterlife into the Egyptian pantheon," the Facebook post said. "Given Ptahshepses' political, historical and religious significance, the tomb is one of the most remarkable discoveries of the recent periods in Egyptian archaeology."

Excavations at the site uncovered an extensive, 137-foot-long and 72-foot-wide superstructure of the tomb. It includes a relatively well-preserved chapel with painted decoration in the entrance and a long access corridor.

This past spring, archaeologists examined the burial chamber, which appeared to have been robbed in antiquity. Nevertheless, it still featured some original funerary artifacts (including pottery), the remains of votive offerings, jars and a mummified fish.

In addition, researchers found a partially opened sarcophagus with the complete mummy of Ptahshepses inside.

Examination of the mummy by Egyptian anthropologists has provided important new data on the evolution of mummification during Egypt's Old Kingdom, which lasted from around 2700 B.C. to 2200 B.C.

One of the researchers, Miroslav Barta, said in a statement: "The tomb of a man who changed the course of Egyptian history has been rediscovered, representing one of the expedition's greatest recent discoveries. The research is still ongoing, and further discoveries will likely be made to shed new light on his family and times."

By ARISTOS GEORGIOU.

[untilteddocument]

After-Action Archive Caves of Qud - The Warmonger

Welcome again, one and all, to the After-Action Archive! This one is going to be a little different, in large part because I didn't think to get screencaps in the thick of it and, as Caves of Qud is a roguelike with only one save file allowed per playthrough, I can't go back and correct this. There will be screencaps just to communicate the graphic style.

Also bear in mind, these will be nowhere near plentiful enough to count as a full LP, but consider it a sort of highlight reel. With that in mind, let's get to the action.

For the Lucky 10,000, Caves of Qud is a roguelike set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fantasy world, where the ruins of unimaginably-advanced precursors have given way to humbler infrastructure. Villagers harvest watervine, the only way to get reliable drinkable water in the salt-suffused climate, and in between these havens lie jungles, salt marshes, rocky canyons, crumbling ruins, and chrome caverns filled with scavengers, stowaways, and ancient technology waiting to be rediscovered, for good or ill.

My foray into this world is as a humble Tinker, a collector and artisan of technology both current and ancient. While I do have some ability in direct combat, such encounters being all but unavoidable, my skills lie more in being able to find or harvest useful items, identify them, and either put them to use or disassemble them to make something else.

My mutations were intended to aid this (though this is hardly an "optimal" build, at least not intentionally so). Psychometry gives me the edge in properly identifying artifacts I find and learning how to build them. It also means that most security doors will do nothing to impede me. Electrical Generation serves as a high-damage "panic button" and, later on, will be able to provide emergency power for any number of properly-modded gadgets. Photosynthetic Skin and Regeneration work together to keep me solvent, letting me survive encounters intact and travel without having to pay as much attention to food supply.

I was traveling through the desert canyons, with no real objective in mind aside from finding what I could find. What I did find (or more accurately, ran into nearly-head-first), though, was an immediate cause for alarm.

The Putus Templar are an antagonistic faction in the setting, a genocidal group of True Kin (un-mutated humans who live in distant arcologies) who see any such mutations or sympathy for them and their bearers as an intolerable stain that must be cleansed. Even player characters who are of the True Kin themselves are regarded with disdain, tainted in spirit if not in body.

Furthermore, I saw a name shaded purple in the activity log, indicating that this band was being led by a legendary member of their people. In this case, it was a legendary Infiltrator:

Cytor Hadicte, Warmonger Amongst The True.

Threat Rating: Impossible.

So any given reader would understand why, when I saw the flurry of activity, including ripples in the fabric of reality as Cytor Hadicte, Warmonger Amongst The True and his entourage started teleporting at me, I turned around and ran the other way in blind terror.

From the map above, I fled south, trying to outpace my would-be killers. To this end, the trees were a boon, allowing me to break line of sight with the Templar squires, but the infiltrators, including Cytor Hadicte, Warmonger Amongst The True, kept pace easily, nipping at my heels and even casually teleporting me around with them. Even my recoiler (a teleportation device that can transport me to a predetermined area, in this case the village of Joppa) was of no use, because I couldn't get far enough away from my pursuers for it to be usable.

With no other options, I steeled myself and turned to make my stand.

Now that I wasn't scrambling to figure out how to get away, I could focus on figuring out how to survive. After a bit of thought, I realized that I had the advantage that infiltrators are built for reconnaissance, and are of little use in direct combat. Even with their Average challenge rating, I was able to crush the regular Infiltrators with little trouble.

However, this wasn't as much of an advantage against Cytor Hadicte, Warmonger Amongst The True due to its inflated stats and its having picked up an iron long sword during the chase. The stats in particular meant that I would still lose out in a fight.

Luckily, I had an answer for that.

In my earlier travels, I had managed to scavenge an intact Issachar rifle, a reliable workhorse of a gun that used less ammo than the chain pistol I started with, useful given how little ammo I had at the moment. With my expression grimly set, I decided to see how an enemy used to being the one to confound and disappear would react to a response in kind.

The tree cover was instrumental in my battle plan, letting me break line of sight and get precious distance for the rifle's advantages to tell. I would trade blows with Cytor Hadicte, Warmonger Amongst The True until it began to get the upper hand, then run into the trees before whipping around and giving it a taste of atomic number 82.

To my delight, I confirmed that most of my opponent's defenses lay in agility and dodging, so when a bullet did connect, the impact was devastating. HP peeled off in chunks of 20 or more, but even then, Cytor Hadicte, Warmonger Amongst The True kept coming, undeterred. This was, however, more of a product of programmed devotion than any sense of inevitability, because my plan held. With a final groan, the legendary Infiltrator shuddered and ceased to be more than artifacts and scrap. To the victor go the spoils.

A hoversled (one of two that it was carrying!) is a boon for heavy loads, and it would see much use. However, it wasn't the most welcome surprise.

Eaters' Nectar is a fantastically rare tonic, a relic of the precursors from whom both mutants and True Kin claim descent. Its benefits are likewise rare to find and, despite the warning, it is safe to use consecutively, since its benefit has no set duration. Even with the squires still there searching for me, I'm ready to give them what I gave their boss. It's safe to say that the juice, in this case, was well worth the squeeze.

[90stvqueen]

whenever i see something about the enneagram being an ancient system long-forgotten until it was rediscovered midway thru the 20th century i'm like ok and are the ancient artifacts proving the veracity of this statement in the room with us right now?

[galaxysharks]

every time maddox and auntie saw each other auntie made it a point to sit her down and tell her stories about her mom, all of which enraptured her because her dad downright refused to talk about her and getting angry every time maddox had tried to bring her up.

The phantom that haunts her, the woman everyone sees first. Maddox has learned so much about her. What she likes, how she cared, all the things she was going to do...

The every conversation, every sudden picture, rediscovered, all of it, ancient history. Maddox has become the archeologist of her home.

This buried history, the love lost to stone. Detached and alien, but here and human and irreparably finite.

Tales from word of mouth, inherently unreliable and bias, but important all the same. She sounded like you Maddie, you get your laugh from her. But Maddox wouldn't talk for another three years.

Artifacts found in the rock. Concert tickets from Maddie's favorite band. You must get it from her Maddie, she loved that band. And she might have, but so did all of L.A., they sold out six shows that week.

And the photos. The proof of concept, the one that can't lie. Maddie, you look like her, in your eyes and face. But Maddie's been fighting a losing battle with time. The older she gets the more prominent her almond eyes and tanning complexion. The picture fades in time, oil from palms and constant creasing blurring the details.

She goes to the grave stone, less now than she did, and she waits. She waits for the grief to find her, for the insurmountable weight that has dragged Auntie and her Father into the abyss of time.

But nothing, just artifacts and the people who knew her. She did like these times though, no one yells in a cemetery, and people are plenty content to leave even the tiniest of children unbothered.

Maybe she'll bring Jet here, he'd like the silence.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Despite what the song says, a kiss isn’t always just a kiss.

A kiss can be political, because it’s the first of its kind or because it’s between two heads of state.

A kiss can also become iconic when it’s captured on film, even if the kiss itself was invasive and unwanted.

With that in mind, here’s a list of some of the most memorable kisses in history.

Scholars debate whether kissing began as a trend that spread around the globe, or sprung up organically in different regions.

Whatever the case, the earliest known written mentions of it are in Vedic Sanskrit scriptures circa 1500 B.C., according to research by Vaughn Bryant, an anthropology professor at Texas A&M University.

These scriptures, known as the Vedas, were foundational to the religion of Hinduism.

After that, kissing continued to appear in ancient Indian and Hindu literature.

The Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic compiled by the 4th century A.D., has a line in which someone “set her mouth to my mouth and made a noise that produced pleasure in me.”

The Kama Sutra, an ancient Sanskrit text on eroticism and love, also has a chapter on kissing that identifies different methods of kissing and types of kisses.

Kissing isn’t just a romantic act. It can also be a sign of friendship or betrayal.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, written circa the 1st century, Judas betrays Jesus by identifying him with a kiss so that armed men can take him away and eventually kill him.

Judas’ kiss has since become a popular storytelling allusion.

It may have inspired the “kiss of death” that appears in mafia literature and film (but was probably never an actual mafia practice).

Perhaps the most famous example is in The Godfather Part II, when Al Pacino’s character gives his brother Fredo the kiss of death for betraying him.

The first people to smooch on film were May Irwin and John C. Rice, who appeared in a short film known variously as May Irwin kiss, Kiss, or The Kiss.

In 1896, the two performers went to Thomas Edison’s studio in New Jersey and reenacted their final kiss scene from a play they were putting on in New York City.

On stage, no one thought the kiss was that sensational. But many felt the close-up footage of them kissing was too risqué.

In 1898, black performers Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown starred in a short film titled ''Something Good-Negro Kiss,'' the first film to show Black Americans kissing.

In 2017, film historians rediscovered the footage, which was filmed by a white man named William Selig in Chicago.

“There’s a performance there because they’re dancing with one another, but their kissing has an unmistakable sense of naturalness, pleasure and amusement as well,” Allyson Nadia Field, a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Chicago who helped identify the film, said in a university press release.

“It is really striking to me, as a historian who works on race and cinema, to think that this kind of artifact could have existed in 1898.”

On the morning of 14 August 1945, patients burst into Greta Zimmer’s Manhattan office claiming the war in Japan was over.

The Austrian immigrant wasn’t sure what to think, so on her lunch break, she went to Times Square in her white dental assistant’s uniform to see what the news ticker said.

The atmosphere there was celebratory. The ticker confirmed that it was indeed V-J Day, and World War II was over.

As Zimmer looked away from the ticker, a Navy sailor named George Mendonsan — who’d started drinking early and mistook Zimmer for a nurse — ran up and aggressively kissed her, leaving his girlfriend behind.

Zimmer struggled to push the stranger off, and they parted ways.

But unbeknownst to both of them, photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt and Victor Jorgensen had each captured the moment, as recounted in The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind The Photo That Ended World War II.

Eisenstaedt’s photo became one of the most iconic WWII images in U.S. history, in part because viewers mistook it for a picture of a Naval officer and nurse celebrating together.

The photo has also stirred controversy, as many people have claimed over the years to be the couple in the image, while others point out that it depicts a nonconsensual moment.

Zimmer said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2005:

“It wasn’t my choice to be kissed...the guy just came over and kissed or grabbed!”

When William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols kissed on a 1968 episode of Star Trek, it was not technically the first interracial kiss on U.S. television.

But it was the one that seemed to have the most cultural impact.

In the episode, titled “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Captain James Kirk and Officer Nyota Uhura encounter aliens who force them to kiss each other through telekinesis.

In Nichols’ book Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories, she recalls that NBC was worried how white Americans would react to the scene, so they asked the actors to film two scenes: one with a kiss and one without a kiss.

However, Nichols and Shatner purposefully messed up all of the kissless takes in order to ensure that NBC aired the kissing scene.

During the Cold War, leaders of communist states often greeted each other with what’s called the “socialist fraternal kiss.”

This could be on the cheek or the mouth, but the most famous example is French photographer Régis Bossu’s 1979 picture of the Soviet Union’s Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany’s Erich Honecker kissing on the mouth.

The kiss occurred when Brezhnev visited East Berlin to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic (i.e., East Germany).

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the Soviet artist Dmitri Vrubel recreated the image in a mural on the wall’s east side.

He captioned it: “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love.”