#Classic Period

[barbucomedie]

Statue of "The Creator" from Xochicalco, Mexico dated between 650 - 900 on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, Mexico

Photographs taken by myself 2024

[hipatias]

Favourite Roman Emperors (2/5):

Octavian Augustus.

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Maya, Early Classic 300-400 CE 10.16 cm x 5.72 cm x 0.64 cm (4 in. x 2 1/4 in. x 1/4 in.) jadeite

A pendant that may have been worn as part of a Maya ruler’s belt assemblage, this jadeite belt plaque offers intriguing clues to the process of reworking objects for different purposes. In its original form, the piece was lightly incised with two hieroglyphs, which were carefully framed by a double cartouche. A hole for suspending the plaque slightly overlaps the outer cartouche, as if placed with no regard for the incised line. The line of the cartouche has also been ground away along the bottom of the plaque, which now shows a slightly beveled edge.

At some point in its history, the plaque was deliberately reshaped with grinding and cutting tools into a figural form. The object was inverted so that the ground “eyes” of the figure are located in the middle of the lower hieroglyph. The cut marks on each side and from the edge of the plaque to the suspension hole imply limbs, and these alterations may indicate that the object was recarved in the shape of an axe god, an ancient Costa Rican form. The cut that defines the legs does not extend all the way to the suspension hole, although cut marks are visible on either side of it.

A remarkable object in terms of its material and inscription, the Dumbarton Oaks plaque is particularly interesting in the context of changes in its meaning and function, evidenced in its modifications. These changes are especially intriguing because this work may have belonged to a set of six inscribed belt plaques. Three plaques, possibly from this set, were discovered in the Early Classic tomb at Calakmul. Together, glylphs on the six plaques would have formed a text—whose meaning was lost once the plaques went their separate ways. As this objetc was modified and reworked, its initial textual significance was apparently replaced by other narratives and symbolism related to its value as a precious gift and heirloom.

Belt Plaque

Maya, Early Classic, 300-400 CE

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[honkaigakuen]

romy schneider in ludwig (1973) x empress elizabeth of austria painted by franz winterhalter

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

The Mezcala sculptural style of Guerrero emphasizes geometric abstraction in both human figures and architectural models. Few examples have been found in their original context, and thus the function, meaning, and even the length of time during which the style was in use remain ill defined. Contributing to the question of chronology is the fact that other Mesoamerican peoples, from the latter centuries of the Late Formative to the Late Postclassic periods (200-1500 CE), acquired and preserved these works as heirlooms. They have been found at sites throughout Mexico, and large numbers were excavated from ritual caches in the Templo Mayor, the main temple of the fifteenth-century Mexica (Aztecs) of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). In the twentieth century, the minimalistic Mezcala artworks fascinated the Mexican artist and cultural historian Miguel Covarrubias, who compared them favorably to other sculptural traditions such as the celebrated Cycladic style of ancient Greece. This example features the typical Mezcala four-columned structure atop a pyramidal platform articulated by apron-moldings on the uppermost tier. A central staircase leads into the structure at the midpoint between the columns. A lone figure stands between the columns and inside the structure. No buildings of this type have survived in Guerrero, however, which leaves open the question of whether this carving faithfully represents the architectural traditions of the region during the Formative and Classic periods.

~ Temple Model.

Culture: Mezcala

Date: 300 B.C.-A.D. 500 (?)

Period: Terminal Formative-Early Classic

Medium: Stone

[fairweathermyth]

VELVET GOLDMINE dir. Todd Haynes, 1998 Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Brian Slade costume design by Sandy Powell

[todays-xkcd]

Personally I think mercury is more of a 'wet earth' hybrid element.

Classical Periodic Table [Explained]

Transcript

[Title text: Classical Periodic Table]

[A diagram in the shape of the periodic table of elements is split into labeled colored regions. Each region is labeled with a large letter over a word in smaller letters.]

[The regions and colors are as follows:

A: Air: light blue: the first element and the upper-right of the main body, which includes noble gases, halogens and some non-metals.

W: Water: dark blue: two separated cells in the main body.

F: Fire: red-orange: the bottom stripe of both the main body and the separated section.

E: Earth: brown: everything else, the majority of the diagram.

]

[the-evil-clergyman]

Two Kittens by Kawano Kaoru (1950's)

[escapismsworld]

[barbucomedie]

Skull Fragment from Xochitecatl, Mexico dated between 650 - 900 on display at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, Mexico

This skull has dental work with inlays of obsidian and green stone in the teeth. These practices were for aesthetic reasons and were a regular part of daily life in Xochitecatl. The green stone was a signifier of wealth and social status.

Photographs taken by myself 2024

[hipatias]

Favourite Roman Emperors (3/5):

Marcus Aurelius.

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Xochipala is a minor archaeological site in the Mexican state of Guerrero, whose name has become attached, somewhat erroneously, to a style of Formative Period figurines and pottery from 1500 to 200 BCE.[1] The archaeological site is much later and belongs to the Classic and Postclassic eras, approximately 200–1400 CE.[2]

Acrobat

Mexico, Guerrero, Xochipala style, 900–500 BCE

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Plaque.

Culture: Italic, Etruscan

Period: Late Archaic Period or early Classical Period

Date: ca. 470 B.C.

Medium: Terracotta

[nicandros]

The real problem with the classics corner of tumblr is that it's deeply unbalanced. There are not enough hellenists going insane over random ancient greek politicians. The latinists are giving it their all and being completely unhinged on main and we aren't matching their energy. This simply cannot stand.

[lionofchaeronea]

Bronze head of a goat. Artist unknown; 3rd-1st cent. BCE (Hellenistic period). Now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Photo credit: Cleveland Museum of Art.