Birth of bling: world's first art studio found in South Africa

By Peter Hiscock

Could we have found the first artist’s studio in human history? We may well have.

We all recognise the material signs of wealth. Fast cars, large yachts and sparkling bling all tell us who has more. Crowns, insignia, mayoral gowns are material signs of rank or status.

Archaeologists have long pondered when these public displays of social difference first occurred. Emerging evidence suggests the antiquity of public symbolism is surprisingly great.

Bansky's Caveman, by Stefan Kloo (Lord Jim)
[Flickr, CC BY-2.0]

Indeed, the symbolism of social difference seems to have been present from the earliest period of our species existence. The rise of Homo sapiens may even have been linked to the use of public symbols.

Recent work in southern Africa, published today in Science, is helping archaeologists clarify the early history of painting and its use in creating symbols.

Discoveries at Blombos Cave

The latest discovery comes from Blombos Cave, a large cavern located on the southern African coast, south-east of Cape Town.

Location of Blombos Cave, archaeological site
[Vincent Mourre, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0]

Here a team, led by Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Bergen and Francesco d’Errico from the Université de Bordeaux, has found a 100,000 year old artist’s workshop.

Excavations of the deep sediments piled up in the cave have regularly yielded surprising finds. Archaeologists have previously recovered standardised bone tools, perhaps awls, and delicately-shaped tools of stone projectile points dated to 70,000 years ago.

Henshilwood and his colleagues suggest these tools show ancient artisans were able to plan and create a sophisticated technology.

Even more revealing is the presence of ochre, natural iron-rich rock that can be ground into powder and used as paint. Archaeologists have long suspected pieces of ochre with abraded facets in those early times might indicate paintings of some kind, on rocks, wooden artefacts or even human bodies.

Since 70,000-year-old ochre slabs have geometric engravings on their surface, it is clear early humans were artistic, but until now archaeologists could not be sure they were painters.

The world’s first studio

Now Blombos has yielded new materials that reveal the earliest artist’s workshop.

In a layer 100,000 years old, Henshilwood excavated two containers, which are probably artist’s palettes or mixing-bowls, and associated tools.

Each palette or bowl is a large abalone shell containing a residue of ochre, burnt bone and other materials that had been ground up and combined with some fluid into a vibrant red paste.


One of these containers also contained a small grinding stone and a number of bone fragments that had been used to stir the paste.

The other container was associated with fragments of ochre, in this case red ferruginous siltstone, that had been abraded to create the red powder and the grinding stones on which they had been rubbed.

Henshilwood speculates that for a short period about 100 millennia ago, the site was used primarily as a workshop for preparing and using the paint mixtures.

Why paint?

Henshilwood and his team think this early painting workshop may be an example of artistic developments associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens.

The genetic evidence, as well as ancient skeletons that have been found demonstrate humans evolved in Africa and migrated across the globe in the last 70-100,000 years.

Some recent genetic studies have even suggested our species originated in southern Africa, possibly not far from Blombos.

Did the earliest modern humans develop a knowledge of chemistry that helped them invent painting?
Or does this workshop reflect the emergence of art itself, a behaviour that was carried forth by humans in their global dispersion?

Bifacial points, engraved ochre and bone tools discovered in Blombos Cave, c. 75-80,000 years old.
[Chris Henshilwood, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0]

It turns out the evolution of art may have a very long history. Ochre has been found in far older African sites, dating back more than 300,000 years, as well as in Europe and the Middle East.

<< Learn more about Ochre in Paleolithic Burials in Origins >>

It’s been associated with hominids related, or ancestral, to us, such as Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis. If early hominids used ochre to colour themselves or their possessions then at least a basic form of painting had been present amongst hominids for several hundred millennia.

The artist’s workshop at Blombos 100,000 years ago is not the earliest use of ochre/paint but it represents a new intensity, a new scale, of artistry that may reflect a new role for painted public symbols.

This workshop was created near the start of the last Ice Age at a time when population size and resource availability changed.

In this context, signals of identity and differentiation perhaps assisted people to negotiate territory and trading relationships with neighbouring groups.

The Blombos discovery suggests the expression of social difference through painting was an important element in the development of modern culture.

We may well have found the beginning of a tradition that gave us Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and, of course, Banksy.

For Further Reading

Henshilwood, C. S. et al. "A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa." Science. 14 October 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6053 pp. 219-222. DOI: 10.1126/science.1211535

About the Author

Peter Hiscock is an archaeologist interested in the emergence and global dispersal of modern humans and long-term changes in their technology and social life. His research speciality is Australian prehistory and Palaeolithic technology; his research areas are France, Australia, and Africa.

Peter Hiscock receives funding from ARC. He is affiliated with the Australian National University.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.

An art exhibit has come to town to display the artwork and craftsmanship of Japan during the 1920s through the 1940s called Deco Japan. It features works from ornaments and pottery to paintings and postcards. This exhibit is sponsored by the Chrisholm Foundation, E. Rhodes, and the Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Many events will be held and present in partnership with the New Mexico Japanese Citizen League and the Japan America Society of New Mexico. 

The exhibit displays not only the artwork for the Deco time period, but the social tensions as well. The subject of many artworks in the exhibit are on the independence, liberalism, and what can be considered similar to a Japanese flapper period. It shows the lifestyle of Japan changing from influence from New York and Paris. Many artworks display women smoking out of odalisques. Others display the materialistic culture of Japan through household items and ornaments. 

Sunday, February 8th, the museum had a community celebration that featured a taiko drum performance, traditional Japanese dance, and an ikebana demonstration. On Thursday, February 21, the museum held another culture exhibition which allowed people to experience the Jazz age and get up and dance. Upcoming events in March and April include a discussion with the curator, Opera music from 19th century Japan, folk tale performances and a scavenger hunt, traditional Japanese music and Jazz, and a tour of the Japanese Botanical Garden.

For more Information and exact dates check out this PDF of events.

Check out our photos at the museum and videos of Japanese performances from the opening on February 8th!

PHOTOS          VIDEOS

All photos and videos by Melanie E Magdalena are licensed under Creative Commons-NonCommercial-Sharealike 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

An Interview by Melanie E Magdalena

Matthew Woodall has been painting since childhood. It all began with a gift from his mother, the 1963 World Book Encyclopedia set.

"I remember drawing a man from history in one of those books that had a top hat and handlebar mustache that literally shocked my parents. I drew it with an ink pen (no erasing) and it looked just like him with all his facial features."

Today he paints café and street scenes with a “hippie-day” setting as well as portraits of famous musicians and artists he admires.

How did you become a painter?

Though I took art and art history in college, I didn’t really get into painting as a serious career until after. Up until 2002, I only painted every 5 to 10 years. After that, I painted 43 paintings in 3 years, and in 2005 I went looking for a store gallery. Finding one that was impressed with my work, they advertised me as a regional Southeastern artist on every storefront window in my hometown Auburn, Alabama. Within 4 months I sold 41 of the 43 that I painted. I suffered from a painters’ block for six years. I just recently moved back to Auburn, after living in Denver, CO, Danville, PA, and Lake Mary, FL and have begun to paint again. I never took photos of the paintings I did from 2002 to 2005, except six of them. I wish that I had taken pictures of all my paintings that sold, for they would speak more of my abilities.

Why do people enjoy your work? Do you feel it brings something to them that is rarely seen in other paintings?

Pablo Picasso
Classical, with flair!

Relationships
A cafe scene that captures the lively
atmosphere of everyday relationships.

Well, in my paintings of cafe scenes especially, there is an air of romance in them. People love to see romantic scenes painted and on their walls evidently. They were the first ones of mine to sell, and I love doing them, especially in a setting from the 60's hippie days, guys with ponytails and with couples sitting having some coffee next to a window with the old Volkswagen bus on the street curb... that kind of scene. People from my generation and today's generation love scenes like that I have found.

I also paint portraits of other artists, such as Pablo Picasso. I took an old black and white photo of his and added some color. Today, it has become a favorite to people that loved him.

What makes your portraits so powerful?

Bob Dylan
A timeless moment captured in color.

Other than painting the portrait of Picasso, I did one of Janis Joplin, George Harrison, artist William Merritt Chase, and some others, including Andy Warhol. Warhol’s painting was unique. I try to paint portraits of famous people from a view that no one has seen. I try to look at several photos of the famous person, to get down in my imagination how they would look in a different stance, or countenance, so as to be somewhat more appealing than one original photo taken of them. My portrait of Bob Dylan was done that way, by looking at several photos over his career and putting down what I saw in my mind and painting it into one portrait.

                                               Pain n Anxiety                                                    Megan 

                     Where there is weakness there is strength.                 Beautiful and haunting determination.

Do you think artistic expression is important to culture? If so, how are you bringing cultural awareness to art?

Art awareness is important. For example, there was an article in the news recently about one of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous letters. In one of them he described a work-in-progress depicting two half-nude male wrestlers. No one knew this painting even existed until its discovery underneath the paint of a Van Gogh still life acquired in 1974 by the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, Holland. Thought to have been "uncharacteristically exuberant," the still life had been deattributed to Van Gogh in 2003 and removed from public view completely. The discovery of the hidden wrestlers, made possible by recent advances in x-ray technology, now confirms its authenticity, while offering unique insight into the great Post-Impressionist's working method. 

I think it is important for people to see how it really was during the 60's and 70’s. I know that photos tell the same types of stories, but there is something about paintings that make people frame them and hang them on their walls. I think it's very important for generations to come to see, being that a person that lived in those days saw it and painted it, even if it is that one person’s experiences of that era.

                                           Nancy & Rastus                                                      Girl with the Straw Hat

Absract
The story of an artist's mind.

About the Artist

Matthew Woodall, Regional Southeastern artist living in Auburn, Alabama, has sold his paintings to people all over the United States. For more information about his work, please contact woodallart@gmail.com and visit him on Google+ to view his latest paintings.

All images and paintings ©Matthew Woodall. All rights reserved.

The Zapotecs are a civilization who flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca located in what is now the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Archaeological evidence left at the ancient city of Monte Albán such as buildings, tombs, and grave goods including worked gold jewelry shows that the Zapotec culture goes back at least 400 BC. The Zapotec’s Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica and was the center of the Zapotec state that dominated much of Oaxaca.

Extent of the Zapotec civilization
[wikipedia]

They worshipped a pantheon of gods, but their most emphasized deities were Cosijo, the rain and thunder  god, symbolized by the jaguar and the snake, and Coquihani, the god of light, symbols common in Mesoamerican cultures. The Zapotecs had a predominance of deities associated with fertility and agriculture since they relied on mostly agriculture to survive. To insure a healthy growing season they worshiped Cosijo and Pitao Cozobi, the god of maize. Other deities from other civilizations are included such as the Teotihuacan serpent and the butterfly god.

Funerary Urn
[wikipedia]

Other than their gods, the Zapotecs also emphasized their ancestors and death. They believed their ancestors emerged from the earth, from caves, or that they turned from trees or jaguars into people; while the elite that governed them believed that they descended from supernatural beings that lived among the clouds, and that upon death they would return to such status. Religious rites sometimes included human sacrifice.

Jade Mask
[wikipedia]

There are several legends about Zapotec origin. One of them states that the Zapotecs were the original people of the valley of Oaxaca and were born from rocks, or descended from animals such as pumas and ocelots. There is also another legend which states that they settled in the Oaxaca valley after founding the Toltic empire, and that they descended from Chicomostoc.

Looking over the site... Situated on a mountaintop, the site overlooks much of the Valley of Oaxaca.
[Click on the photo for a larger view: wikipedia]

The city of Monte Albán was the Zapotecs main cultural center. This site is where the civilization flourished for about 2,000 years. Today, Monte Albán is considered one of the most majestic cultural centers in all of Middle America. Monte Albán is a complex array of pyramids, platforms, and ball courts -- built in honor of the Zapotec gods and in celebration of the military victories of the Zapotec people. From 200 to 700 AD, Monte Albán became the capital of the Zapotec and home to some 250,000 people, but mysteriously and gradually it was abandoned after 700 AD. The population of Monte Albán is said to have dispersed to several locations and thus weakening their integration with other groups such as the Maya and Aztec.

Find out more: http://www.aboutoaxaca.com/oaxaca/zapotec.asp

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.

The Inca Empire: Rise and Fall

The Inca Empire
Image courtesy of EuroHistory Teacher, Wikipedia Commons

The Incas began as a hill tribe from Peru. Over a course of 300 years, they dominated the whole area of the Andes mountains.

By the 1500s, their empire became known as Tawantinsuyu, “The Four United Provinces” in Quencha, the language of the people of the central Andes of South America.

Their four provinces (or suyu in Quencha) include ChinchaySuyu, AntiSuyu, KuntiSuyu, QullaSuyu, and the coners of these provinces meet at the center, Cusco, the Inca capital. 

Religion and Culture

The Inca referred to themselves as “children of the Sun,” as they belived they were descendents of the sun god, Inti. Other than Inti, they worshiped many gods that relate to nature:

• Viracocha (also Pachacamac) - Created all living beings
• Apu Illapu - Rain God, prayed to when they need rain
• Ayar Cachi - Hot-tempered God, causes earthquakes
• Illapa - Goddess of lightning and thunder (also Yakumama water goddess)
• Inti - sun god and patron deity of the holy city of Cuzco (home of the sun)
• Kuychi - Rainbow God, connected with fertility
• Mama Kilya - Wife of Inti, called Moon Mother
• Mama Occlo - Wisdom to civilize the people, taught women to weave cloth, and build houses
• Manco Cápac - known for his courage and sent to earth to become first king of the Incas, taught people how to grow plants, make weapons, work together, share resources, and worship the Gods
• Pachamama - The Goddess of earth and wife of Viracocha, people give her offerings of coca leafs and beer and pray to her for major agricultural occasions
• Qochamama - Goddess of the sea
• Sachamama - Means Mother Tree, goddess in the shape of a snake with two heads
• Yakumama - Means mother Water, represented as a snake, when she came to earth she transformed into a great river (also Illapa)

They worshiped their deities daily because they believed without doing so the gods would intervene and cause problems. The Incas also worshiped huacas - sacred places or objects. A huaca could range from being a large building or a tiny toy statue. Every family had a huaca amd would offer it daily prayers. Priests performed daily ceremonies at the temples, offering prayers to the huacas in their care.

The Inca believed in the afterlife and mummified their dead like the ancient Egyptians. Those who obeyed the Incan moral code — ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy) — "went to live in the Sun's warmth while others spent their eternal days in the cold earth." The mummies of dead rulers remained in their palaces and were treated as if they were still alive. They were brought offerings and were paraded through the streets on special occasions.

The Inca practiced cranial deformation. They would wrap tight cloth straps around the heads of newborns in order to alter the shape of their soft skulls into a more conical form; this cranial deformation was made to distinguish the nobility apart from the common people.

Once and every month, the Incas held a major religious festival. Festivals were held outside and included many kinds of games, songs, dancing, food, parades, and sacrifice (of animals usually). If something special was happening, like the crowning of a new emperor or a drought, the Incas would include human sacrifice as part of the festival. The biggest and most important festivity held once a year during the winter solstice of the southern hemisphere was Inti Raymi, the feast of the sun The "Inti Raymi" or "Sun Festivity". It was aimed to worship the "Apu Inti" (Sun God) in the great Cuzco Main Plaza.

Architecture

By far the best example of Inca architecture is the breath taking site of Machu Picchu:  

Machu Picchu, Image courtesy of Martin St-Amant, Wikipedia Commons

Inca buildings were constructed of white granite or limestone. The temples were constructed without any use or mortar because the stone block fit together so perfectly. The stones that were used fit together because they were sculpted by repeatedly lowering a rock onto another rock and carving away any sections on the lower rock. Another technique used was narrowing of the top than at the bottom of walls of temples and palaces. They are not perpendicular but slope slightly inward. The doors of Inca houses were usually high and trapezoidal shape. As in ancient Egypt, the bottom of the door is wider than the top.

Pictures of the exterior wall of the Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman, showing how the huge pieces of rock fit perfectly.
Image courtesy of Christophe Meneboeuf, Wikipedia Commons 

Stone wall, Image courtesy of Rutahsa Adventures

Doorway, Image courtesy of Lonely Planet Images

Social Order and Politics

The social order of the Inca varied from area to area, but it maintained the same basic structure. On top were the Sapa Inca. Inca translates to emperor, sapa means only - so Sapa Inca means "Only Ruler". Then came the nobles, these were often the priests and relatives of past emperors or the current ones. After, there were craftsmen and architects; they were very high on the social ladder because of their skills valued by the Empire. Then came the working class, often just farmers. After this, were the slaves and peasants of the society.

Inca empire expansion
Image courtesy of Spesh531, Wikipedia Commons

When the Chancas attacked, in the early 15th century, and Cusi Yupanqui took over his father's throne, Viracocha Inca, he managed to put the empire back together under the name of Pachacuti in alliance with his son Tupac Inca. With this, Tawantinsuyu was born.

"Through threat, negotiation, or actual bloody conquest, they subjugated new provinces, determined the number of tax-paying peasants, installed a local Inca governor, and then left an administration in place that was empowered to supervise and collect taxes before armies moved on. If cooperative, the local elites were allowed to retain their privileged positions and were rewarded handsomely for their collaboration. If uncooperative, the Incas exterminated them and wiped out their supporters. Peasants were a crop, a crop that could be harvested through periodic taxation. Docile, obedient workers who created surpluses, in fact, were more valuable than any of the ...potatoes...llamas...and alpacas..." - Kim MacQuarrie, "The Last Days of the Incas," pg. 45

Gold figurines, Image courtesy of Geyman.com

Art
The Inca sculpted pottery and ceramics which featured geometric designs painted in black, red, brown, yellow, and white. Metalworkers excelled making ornaments, tools, and weapons out silver, copper, gold, and bronze. Female statues are found with Inca offerings to the gods. Because llamas were very important in the Andean region, lots of stylized llama figures were made by metalworkers. 

Wooden llama, Image courtesy of lrb.com

Metal artwork is scarce. Spanish conquistadores took it upon themselves to melt down as much gold and silver as possible to send back to Spain. 

The Mystery of Machu Picchu
On July 24, 1911, Hiram Bingham (with the help of local Indians) stumbled upon what he believed was Vilcabamba, the lost city of the Inca where the last of the independent Inca rulers waged a years-long battle against the Spanish -- but what he found was not the lost city, but a forgotten city.

Since the Inca did not develop a writing system (they used a knotting system known as the quipu), they did not leave behind any documented clues on what the purpose of the location was. Bingham had to rely on excavating to determine what Machu Picchu was. At first he had belived it was some kind of a training ground for women since most skeletal remains found was mostly female (later analysis proved it was fifty-fifty male and female). The latest accepted idea (2007) is that this marvelous city, in fact, was a royal estate of Pachacuti.

"To commemorate his conquest of the Vilcabamba Valley, Pachacuti ordered that his third royal estate be built, this one very near the Chuquichaca bridge, on a high ridge overlooking what is now called the Urubamba River. The Inacas apparently called the new site Picchu, meaning 'peak.' Since the proposed citadel and nearby satellite communities were planned from the start to form a part of a luxurious private estate, the entire complex would display some of the finest examples of Inca engineering and art. [...] The citadel of Machu Picchu was thus the third and perhaps the most important jewel in the crown of architectural monuments that Pachacuti had created, after Pisac and Ollantaytambo." - Kim MacQuarrie, "The Last Days of the Incas," pg. 441, 443

Excavation at Machu Picchu is still continuing but any further evidence regarding the purpose of the location is highly unlikely. The best clues scientist and archaeologist have is only the remains that can reveal the reasons for its construction, the activities that took place long ago on the peak along the Urubamba River.

Learn more about the Incas!

Here are our recommendations:

  

References:

Jones, David M. The Myths & Religion of the Incas. UK: Southwater, 2008.

MacQuarrie, Kim. The Last Days of the Incas. UK: Piatkus, 2007.

"National Geographic Photo Gallery--Inca Culture." National Geographic. Web. 08 Jan. 2012. 

Williams, Bill. "The Incredible Incas for Kids." The Incredible Incas for Kids. Web. 08 Jan. 2012. 

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.

The Khmer empire flourished during the 9^th to the 15^th centuries in Southeast Asia. Kingdoms of the Khmer at times ruled over and/or controlled parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city during the empire's zenith. Angkor contains several testimonies to the Khmer empire's immense power and wealth, as well as the variety of belief systems that it patronized over time. The empire's official religions included Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, until Theravada Buddhism prevailed, even among the lower classes, after its introduction from Sri Lanka in the 13th century. Modern researches by satellites have revealed Angkor to be the largest per-industrial urban center in the world.

The end of the Angkor period happened during the 13^th and 14^th centuries. By the 15^th century all of the inhabitants of Angkor had abandoned the kingdom, except Angkor Wat, which is a Buddhist shrine. Some of reasons on why are:

• War with the Ayutthaya kingdom, Khmer capital abandonment was caused because of ongoing   wars with the Ayutthaya invaders. Since the entire population was obligated to participate, the kingdom was completely devastated by such wars.
• Natural disasters such as earthquakes and drastic climate changes caused water shortages 

The great temples of ancient Khmer remained largely cloaked by the forest. The few sites that are exposed are being maintained by archaeologist. Every year tourist come to see the great sites and is good for the economy but a little bothersome for the sites. Tourism to Angkor has increased significantly in recent years, with visitor numbers reaching 900,000 in 2006; this poses additional conservation problems but has also provided financial assistance to the restoration effort:

• Water-table dropping, With the increased growth in tourism at Angkor, new hotels and restaurants are being built to accommodate such growth. Each new construction project drills underground to reach the water table, which has a limited storage capacity. This demand on the water table could undermine the stability of the sandy soils under the monuments at Angkor, leading to cracks, fissures and collapses.
• Looting, Looting has been an ever-growing threat to the Angkor archaeological landscape. According to APSARA, the official Cambodian agency charged with overseeing the management of Angkor, "vandalism has multiplied at a phenomenal rate, employing local populations to carry out the actual thefts, heavily armed intermediaries transport objects, often in tanks or armored personnel carriers, often for sale across the Cambodian border."
• Unsustainable tourism, The increasing number of tourists, which the Cambodian government hopes will reach three million by 2010, exerts pressure on the archaeological sites at Angkor by walking and climbing on the (mostly) sandstone monuments at Angkor. This direct pressure created by unchecked tourism is expected to cause significant damage to the monuments in the future.

The Khmer kingdom lasted for over 500 years and occupied much of modern Cambodia and Vietnam. As the largest pre-industrial urban center in the world, and for its fascinating architecture, it is important that we conserve its remains so future generations can look back and ponder about their ancestors.

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.

The Indus Civilization

Mohenjo-Daro

About 4500 years ago, while in Egypt the pyramids were being built and scripture was being written Mesopotamia, in the great Indus Valley, todays Pakistan, the great city of Mohenjo-Daro was being constructed. Mohenjo-Daro, or “Mound of The Dead”, was one of the world’s largest and earliest urban settlements of the ancient Indus Valley civilization. It was built around 2600 BC and was abandoned 1800 BC. The site consisted of a planned layout based on a rectangular grid. Buildings were made of fired and mortared brick, others with mud-brick and some wooden structures. The city was rebuilt several times, over each other, due to floods from the Indus River.  

The great size and grid arrangement of the city suggested that Mohenjo-Daro was a made with a high level of social organization. At its peak, Mohenjo-Daro could have supported a population around 35,000. The city was then separated into two sections, the citadel and the lower city. The Lower City is yet to be uncovered, but the Citadel is famous for its large public baths or pools, a large residential structure that could house up to 5,000 citizens, and two large assembly halls, the Pillared Hall and the College Hall

The Great Granary was a massive structure built with solid brick foundations with sockets for a wooden super structure and doorways. The function of the Granary has not been determined because of the improper excavations done by local workmen, and no proper documentation of precise location of artifacts. The structure was probably a large public location, a storehouse, or a temple of some form.

North east of the Great Granary is a large and elaborate public bath called the Great Bath. From a colonnaded courtyard, steps lead down to the brick-built pool, which was waterproofed by a lining of bitumen. The pool measures 12m long, 7m wide and 2.4m deep. The baths may have been used for religious purification.

Great Bath

The Pillared Hall is thought to be an assembly hall of some kind. And the College Hall was a complex structure that contained over 70 rooms that is believed to house residence of upper class.

The city’s central marketplace contained a large central well. Individual households or groups of households obtained their water from smaller wells. Waste water was channeled in drains that lined the major streets. Some houses of the wealthier inhabitants included rooms that appear to have been used for bathing. One building had an underground furnace (known as a hypocaust)that was possibly used for heated bathing. Most houses had inner courtyards, with doors that opened onto side-lanes. Some buildings had two stories.

One of the well-known artifacts found in Mohenjo-Daro is a small steatite figurine of a priest-king:

The sculpture has two small holes under its ears and suggests it might have been worn as a necklace or a kind of ornament. The priest king is wearing a robe with an exposed shoulder, headband and an armband that has a small ring attached to it. Although there is no evidence that mohenjo-daro was a ruled by monarchs or priests, archaeologist suggest that the figuring is a preist king due to its appearance.  

Questions still being asked today include “who were the people who constructed this great and organized city?”, “why did they abandoned the city and what happened to the inhabitants?”

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.

Coke Bottle!

3D chalk art are a form of art with anamorphic perspective – anamorphism is a form of illusion or distortion, here the distortion is in the drawings that make the pictures pop out or appear in 3D if viewed at a set angle. Sidewalk artist usually tend to use chalk or pastels to draw their drawings. Chalk art is also known as: 3D Street Painting, 3D Pavement Art, 3D Chalk Art, or 3D Sidewalk Art. At first the drawing is seen as an elongated picture, but once you stand on the sweet spot looking at the picture, it pops out in amaizing 3D:

Wrong View

Right View

Two of the chalk art’well known artist are Kurt Wenner and Julian Beever. Beever is an English artist for over twenty years who’s famous for his chalk art all over the world including pavements of England, France, Germany, and U.S. he tends to draw cartoony or realistic drawings in his chalk art.

Batman and Robin Rescue

Boat in Puddle

Wenner is a master artist and architect and is said to be the inventor of chalk art. His work has been seen in over 30 countries and he sets the bar for 3D chalk art. He tends to draw classical drawings in his chalk art.

I personally am a fan of chalk art in would love to see one in person. I sometimes amaze myself with 3D pencil and paper drawings I draw, so seeing one of these in person I might just want to jump right in the world of the chalk.

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.

History of Celtic Jewelry
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The distinctive and beautiful style of Celtic jewelry was created by artisans from as long ago as 2000 BC. Ancient Celts are known to have settled in Ireland during this period and the craftsmen of the time created surprisingly sophisticated styles based on designs that they observed in nature itself. The clans of the time included the Huns and the Druids as well as the Celts and they revered nature, paying tribute to it by placing symbols on their clothing, shields, swords, and also their bodies. One of the popular patterns was Celtic knot work and into this they incorporated spirals, animal motifs, triskeles and crosses and wove these designs into bracelets, rings, earrings, torcs, pendants and brooches. 

This early Celtic jewelry was highly prized and was exported around the Mediterranean area because of its quality and beauty. Examples of these remarkable items of early jewelry can be seen on display in the National Museum of Ireland and includes torques, bangles, fibulae, brooches, lunulae and collars, made from gold and silver which were the precious metal used for around fifteen hundred years until 500 BC. Among the symbols used in addition to the knot work were pentacles and a variety of animals and birds.

Claddaugh

Synonymous with Celtic jewelry is the Claddagh, traditionally this is a symbol of love and friendship and has lost its origins with the passage of time. However it is believed to have originated from the Irish fishing village near Galway, named Claddaugh. There is a delightful story about an Irish jeweler called Richard Joyce who was captured by pirates in the sixteenth century and sold as a slave to a Moorish goldsmith who taught him the art of jewelry making. He missed his girlfriend so badly that he designed a ring for her to express his feelings. The design consisted of hands to depict their friendship, a crown to show his loyalty and a heart to express his love. When he finally returned after five years, he was thrilled to discover she had not married anyone else and he gave her the ring. Since then the Claddagh has become a popular wedding ring. Other stories attribute the design to a young man who was taken prisoner by the Saracens, wherever it came from the design is considered symbolic of friendship, love and fidelity. 

Celtic Cross

Irish monks have also played their part in the Celtic jewelry style as the Celtic cross became widely used in designs, but this style of cross is much older than Christianity, symbolizing the four quarters of the earth. When it was adopted by the Christians the shape became more elongated into the style we know today. The ring in the center is a symbol of love, but can also represent the halo of Christ. As an identifiable ethnic group, the Celts no longer exist, but their heritage lives on today in exquisite jewelry designs often copied from the treasured ancient manuscripts of Kells, Lindisfarne and Durrow and created by skilled craftsmen using the same techniques of those long dead Celtic artisans. 

About the Author: Steven Forsyth has studied Celtic Mythology and Irish Folklore, he has worked in the Jewelry industry for over 7 years with Celtic Rings Ltd in Dublin, Ireland.