#Ancient Rocks

[herbalnature]

Sunbeams break through the clouds above Navajo Point, casting a soft glow on the Grand Canyon's vast, layered beauty. This breathtaking view captures both the grandeur of nature and the quiet moment as light dances across ancient rock formations.

[summerartist]

Photos from recent cavern escapades

[blueiscoool]

Chinese Bronze Sword With An Inlaid Rock Crystal, Turquoise and Gold Hilt Warring States Period, Circa 4th - 2nd Century B.C.

[holycosmolo9y]

An Egyptian rock crystal of a chonky hinpopotamus amulet

(Middle Kingdom, ca. 2050-1650 BCE)

Amulets were worn by ancient Egyptians for their protective and regenative properties. Used in both in daily life and during funerary rites, amulets represented animals, deities, symbols or objects thought to possess the magical powers of warding off evil spirits.

As animals were popular representations, the hippopotamus was known for its apotropaic (e.g. ability to avert bad luck) qualities and was associated with rebirth.

[silentwhispersintheforest]

BUCKLE UP ! by Nick Green

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 172

So the team might be a bit lost. And a bit in danger. And were separated but have at least fixed that. 

But it’s definitely not their fault right? After all, you can’t expect anything when fighting Klarion! But uh, there’s something big approaching through the green and floating things, like big enough to make waves, and no one wants to get anywhere close to whatever it is. 

Danny- newly molted into his adult ghost-form- just wants to say hello to his sort-of cousin’s friends, and would like to also get them away from the deep area of the Zone where the beings would not be afraid to nab a living being for a collection or two. 

[thesilicontribesman]

Achnabreck Prehistoric Rock Art Panels, nr. Lochgilphead, Argyll, Scotland

[ladycharles]

My new track is a dreamy instrumental inspired by the flurry of emotions, limerance, anxiety and wonder of new love. I have been doing some soundtracks lately and this piece was for a dance scene between two Lesbian characters falling for each other, so I tried to evoke the ancient world of Sappho and the mystical beauty of those distant times while centering the character' emotions. Hope you enjoy!

If you like it, I have put a collection of some of my unreleased soundtrack work in the Bandcamp version as bonus tracks! Name your price and pretty sure you can stream them on there too. I hope it can be the soundtrack to some of your moments!

https://ladycharles.bandcamp.com/album/the-rites-of-sappho-bonus-tracks

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

[creaman]

Scarecrow Redesign because he pecks away at my mind.

[ownencyclopedia]

☀ Petoskey stone

A Petoskey stone is a rock and a fossil, often pebble-shaped, that is composed of a fossilized rugose coral, Hexagonaria percarinata. Such stones were formed as a result of glaciation, in which sheets of ice plucked stones from the bedrock, grinding off their rough edges and depositing them in the northwestern portion of Michigan's lower peninsula

[letmeinimafairy]

The making of painted stones

Well, a few times I was asked to show the process of miniature paintings on stones, and here is my first attempt to capture and explain it. Warning - I only have my phone's camera at my disposal, so the quality is not very good.

Firstly - an idea for the image. Every stone has something in its pattern that can be a starting point for developing an imagery. The stone I picked for this one is a beautiful Picasso jasper, and in this case I was looking for a stone for a specific idea I've already had in mind. Spontaneous improvisation dictated by the stone's pattern is also great but I decided to pick something more definitive for better illustrating the process.

This jasper's pattern already has outlines that can be developed into a landscape without painting it over too much. I don't like it when stones are just mindlessly covered by slapping a random image on it, ignoring the colours, textures and patterns.

Here's the idea - ruins of an amphitheatre overgrown with red gladioluses. I know, I know, but I'm very interested in the initial mystical sacrificial background of gladiators. So here it is, arena covered in red, swords in the sand, but it's finally quiet.

Before we start, a stone must be varnished - minerals are porous, and lacquer smoothes its surface. I paint with tempera - most artists who work in lacquer miniatures use oils, but tempera allows quicker process, which is important for me. I'm autistic and my executive dysfunction makes working with oils difficult - my sudden bursts of activity won't match with drying timings and such. So, tempera for me.

Starting with sketching the outlines of the ruins and painting our light source, the sun and red clouds. I'm trying to work with a palette that the stone already has and make the painting as harmonious as possible.

Erasing auxiliary lines as we continue.

Done with the first layer - the walls and the sky. After the paint dries, I apply varnish (I use Novol clearcoat, car varnish - it's very durable). There can be as many layers as you need.

Now - the flowers and details.

After the painting is finished, it'll need several layers of varnish. And some fine sandpaper (1500) in-between the finishing layers for better grip.

And here it is! time to think abou a necklace for this one.

I'm not sure how useful I can be and what aspects you would like to know, so feel free to ask. I'm not sure I can make a good enough video with my current phone, so this'll have to wait. I tried to skip all the musings about ideas and finding stories, but whatever. And the time needed for work - I don't know. There was a month-long pause in the making of this one, due to a couple of emergencies that knocked me down for some time, and it's not easy for me in general due to my mental state - sometimes I can make a painting in two days, sometimes it takes years, nothing is certain with me, especially now. But well, here's what I do.

[yemaema]

First greatest addition to Pikmin is Pikmin Dogs and the Second greatest addition was making them all Round

[yebreed]

Laughing Buddhas From The Flying Peak

Vivid figures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas carved in the rock on the Flying Peak, Feilai Feng (飛來峰石窟) in the Wulin Mountains (武林山), Zhejiang.

Their cheerfulness in no way contradicts the solemn and misty ambiance of the Feilai Feng Grottoes themselves. Limestone peak looks alien in the surrounding mountain landscape, so there is an opinion that it flew here by the power of Buddhist wonder-workers. The main cave is dedicated to the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Due to a natural crack in the ceiling, a radiant halo surrounds the statue.

The carvings are from different periods and date from the Tang to the Ming.

Photo: ©俊灵-

[blueiscoool]

Stone With 1,600-Year-Old Irish Inscription Found in English Garden

A geography teacher, Graham Senior, stumbled across a rock with mysterious incisions while tidying his overgrown garden in Coventry, England. The discovery of a small stone carved with an early form of Celtic script has caused excitement among archaeologists.

The rectangular sandstone rock was found by Graham Senior in Coventry during lockdown in 2020 while he was weeding, but its true value was only recently understood.

The 11-centimeter-long and 139-gram rectangular sandstone rock had cryptic inscriptions on it that suggested a history spanning over 1,600 years, all written in the mysterious Ogham alphabet.

Ogham is an early medieval alphabet used to write the Archaic Irish language from the 4th to the 6th century and Old Irish from the 6th to the 9th century. It is usually found carved on stones in Ireland, Wales, and western Britain. It was the first written language in Ireland. The majority of the 400 or so known inscriptions from the Archaic Irish period are family name pillars that were built to announce land ownership.

Ogham is an extremely unique writing system among all writing systems, with lines arranged in groups of one to five only. The stones provide insight into the Irish language before the use of the Latin insular script.

Finds liaison officer for the Birmingham Museums Trust, Teresa Gilmore, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the discovery on an Ogham stone in the English midlands was a rare find.

“These finds do not turn up in the midlands. The bulk of Ogham inscriptions are found over in Ireland,” she said.

Professor Katherine Forsyth of Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow conducted additional research that shed more light on the stone’s provenance. Her findings point to a period suggesting a timeframe ranging from the fifth to sixth centuries, with the possibility of an even earlier date in the fourth century.

The stone is inscribed on three of its four sides. The inscription on the stone, “Maldumcail/S/ Lass,” puzzled researchers, with interpretations pointing towards a version of the personal name Mael Dumcail, but the meaning of the S and LASS is unclear. Given the usual purpose and significance of ogham stones, it may be a location reference.

Theories regarding the origins of the stone abound, with speculations ranging from migration patterns to the presence of early medieval monasteries in the region.

The rock will be displayed at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, to which Senior has donated it permanently. It will feature in the forthcoming Collecting Coventry exhibition, which opens on 11 May.

By Oguz Kayra.

[movie-robotnik-positivity]

If you think about it, a majority of Sonic lore consists of undiscovered islands and ancient civilizations. Makes you wonder why so many of these advanced races just....vanish.

Every civilization that attempts to harness the power of the chaos emeralds meets the same fate. I just find that interesting.

[heckling-hydrena]

in my mind the earthshaker is less an absent father and more a father that keeps falling asleep on the couch while his kids are trying to get him to watch a movie with them