#The Ancient Americas

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Crab Vessel with Double Spout.

Place of origin: Colombia, Calima Region

Period: Ilama Period

Date: 1500 B.C.-A.D. 100

Medium: Ceramics

[125bluemachine125]

DpxDc Being a Green Lantern’s ghost is quite different from being one in life.

When a Green Lantern falls, their ring leaves the body. Some souls find paradise, but others remain obsessively bound to their Green Lantern duty, even in death.

The Infinite Realms are bast, so much so that it's rare to encounter a Green Lantern. Thus, they arrive too late to witness Phantom’s battle with the Tyrant King, only catching the moment he is sent to his final rest.

Some of the Green Lanterns still remember the reign of Pariah Dark. Unable to confront him directly, they turned their duty toward relocating ghosts, hiding those the Tyrant King wished to erase.

But being a Green Lantern’s ghost is quite different from being one in life. They can feel the new king’s core, a primordial need for protection and space. It feels like home.

There is no Oa, but there is King Phantom. And if he asks, they will serve.

Until the living world wounds the king in his human form. There is no way to kill him before his time, but he can… had been hurt. And as he sleeps, the realms scream for war.

Earth is under siege. The skeleton army forms a ring around the planet, awaiting the ancients command. Who, out of kindness for the king’s love of Earth, gives mortals a warning: destroy the GIW, or perish.

It’s chaos. The ancients does not appear in their usual form. They are titans to those who look up to the sky.

The Green Lanterns don’t stay to see more. They fly to Oa, because the ancients power of destruction will not stop with Earth.

[cosmicportal]

Paracas textile (Peru)

[baebeylik]

Vessel made from clay. Nasca, Peru. 300-400 CE.

Benaki Museum, Athens.

[1five1two]

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Curly-Tailed Animal Pendant from Panama, c.350-450 CE: this gold pendant depicts an animal with stubby feet, a rounded head, and a long, thick tail curled up over its back

This design is often referred to as the "curly-tailed animal," and other pendants of the same style have been found in Panama, Colombia, and Costa Rica.

Above: two "curly-tailed animal" pendants from Panama, c.450-950 CE (top) and c.50-450 CE (bottom)

As this publication explains:

Among the intriguing and much-favored Panamanian cast pendants is the curly- tailed animal, a form that is found in both Colombia and lower Central America. Believed to date to as early as the second century A.D., when gold working was introduced into Panama from Colombia, the Panamanian versions are said to belong to the "Initial" style. The curly- tailed animals, so called for the impressively large tails that extend up over their backs, vary considerably in detail and have been identified as everything from dogs to ducks, but the tail, at least, is thought to be simian in derivation. It is clearly the significant element of the composition, and, when the pendant was worn, the tail would have been the most visible part of the ornament.

Produced for centuries in lower Central America, the "curly tails" were rendered in both gold and semiprecious stone; they were one of the few ancient images to be made in both materials.

Above: a "curly-tailed animal" pendant made of agate, c.100-800 CE

This page also expands on the blended characteristics that define the "curly-tailed animal" style:

Artists in the lands that are now part of the modern nations of Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica created pendants and figures of a hybrid creature known to scholars as the curly-tailed animal.

The diversity of zoological attributes present on this and similar pendants precludes a definitive identification of any specific animal, but the capuchin monkey (Cebus capucinis), coatimundi (Nasua narica), or even domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) may have provided inspiration.

Why Indigenous Artifacts Should be Returned to Indigenous Communities

Sources & More Info:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Curly-Tailed Animal Pendant

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Curly-Tailed Pendants 2, 3, 4, and 5

Cleveland Art Museum: Agate Animal Pendant

Museum Publication: Gold of the Americas (PDF)

[iidilio]

Hmmm… yes, Julio Caesar & George Washington were bffs

[musette22]

Orpheus & Eurydice || Steve & Bucky

Moodboard for the @wintershieldbingo

Square: Mythology AU ✔️

I've always felt that the story of Steve and Bucky, particularly as told in Captain America: The First Avenger, had a lot in common with the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. For that reason, I have chosen to fill the Mythology AU square on my Wintershield Bingo card by creating a moodboard to draw narrative and visuals parallels between these two tragic love stories.

Orpheus & Eurydice

Orpheus was an artist, the greatest lyre player in the world, who was happily married to the love of his life, the beautiful Eurydice. Their happy life together gets cut short, however, when Eurydice is bitten by a viper and dies, leaving a heartbroken Orpheus behind. Orpheus cannot accept his true love’s death, and so he travels to the Underworld on a quest to get Eurydice back.

Orpheus manages to overcome various hurdles, such as getting past Cerberus, the three-headed hound who guards the gates to the Underworld, and finally pleads with Hades, the king of the Underworld to let Eurydice live again. Hades allows this on one condition: Eurydice is to follow behind Orpheus while walking out of the darkness of the Underworld towards the light of the land of the living, but Orpheus should not turn to look at her before she is fully out in the light again. However, as they begin to ascend towards the land of the living, Orpheus, afraid that his lover is no longer behind him, looks back to make sure she is following, causing Eurydice to tragically fall back into the shadows and be trapped in the Underworld once more. 

Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes

Steve and Bucky are very close friends and most likely even lovers, who live a mostly happy life together in Brooklyn. When World War II breaks out, Bucky is drafted and joins the army, while Steve stays behind in New York. In Italy, Bucky's squad is taken by the enemy, and he is kept prisoner in a dark, abandoned factory housing the lab of Hydra (incidentally also a multi-headed beast from Greek mythology).

When Steve, who received a superserum which turned him into the world's greatest soldier (as well as an artist), eventually also joins the army and gets to Italy, he is told Bucky is most likely dead. Steve point blank refuses to accept that, and embarks on a one man rescue mission - a quest, if you will - to get Bucky back. Armed with a wooden shield, the shape of which bears a similarity to a lyre, overcomes numerous obstacles, fighting Hydra goons and even Red Skull, who looks like the devil incarnate. Steve manages to free Bucky and even jumps over what strongly resembles the fiery pits of hell to get to freedom, only to lose Bucky again a short while later, when Bucky tragically falls from a train and is subsumed once more into the Underworld, i.e. Hydra’s claws.

Aside from the many narrative parallels, many visual parallels also exist between depictions of Orpheus and Eurydice in classical art and various scenes and images in CA:TFA. The moodboard above attempts to illustrate these parallels and similarities.

[deuxide]

All I Want For Christmas Is You

[specialagentartemis]

daydreaming about the academic papers I want to write to procrastinate on the academic papers I'm supposed to be writing

[mouthtapedguy]

How can someone be this wrong ?

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Portrait Head.

Date: A.D. 0 - 600

Place of origin: Chimbote, Peru

Culture: Moche

Medium: Clay

[darkwood-sleddog]

If you have a deep fascination with sled dog genetics, breed split, and sled breed histories this is a very interesting study.

[salmonella-destroyer-of-worlds]

[1five1two]

Los Guachimontones is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

[nuwibo]

Forgot to post this here!!