🪽 Ꮣεៜ ŊéʀéIδεៜ

💡 Un vélo pour quatre membres de la famille ! Bon la machine à coudre me laisse perplexe : la mère au lieu de profiter du paysage, doit continuer son ouvrage… Après faut avoir le cran d’essayer ! 🇬🇧 A bike for four members of the family! Well, I'm puzzled by the sewing machine: instead of enjoying the scenery, the mother has to carry on with her work... After all, you've got to have the guts to try! Rejoins nous dans le Labyrinthe aux Hypothèses

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Spent loads of time in Roman sewers, earned the nickname "Queen of Latrines." Etruscans started it in 500 BC, Romans followed suit. Those tunnels, made of fine stone, became standard in Roman cities worldwide. 🚽👑 #RomanSewers https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/rats-exploding-toilet-seats-and-demons-deep-hazards-roman-sewers-004611

Olive Tree of Vouves - the world’s oldest living olive tree is in Crete, Greece : The oldest olive tree in the world is located in the village of Ano Vouves of Kissamos in Chania, Crete, Greece. The ancient tree is 3000 years old, as determined by the international scientific community. This tree likely lived through writing of Iliad (golden age of Athens), rise of Roman Empire, and birth of Christ; and then lived for 2000 years after that. It still produces olives, as well. The ancient olive tree in Vouves has a trunk with a circumference of 12.5m, and a diameter of 4.6m. It belongs to the local tree variety of tsounati and was grafted at a height of three meters onto a wild olive tree. Because of the grafting, its trunk has been so beautifully shaped by nature that it resembles a sculpture. In 1990, after a unanimous decision in the prefecture of Chania, the Vouves Olive Tree was declared a Natural Monument of great importance due to its status as the world’s oldest tree of its kind. The fruits of the ancient olive tree produce the best olive oil in the world, making the area the cradle of olive cultivation on the island of Crete. Trunk of the tree is now hollow as there is no heartwood, so the olive is renewed outward and the heartwood gradually rots away. Since the olive tree is constantly renewing its wood, it has served as a a symbol of immortality since ancient times. Thousands of tourists visit the stunning tree every summer to marvel at it and learn its history. They are mainly impressed by its enormous shape and the imposing volume of the trunk but also by the fact that it has remained alive and fruitful for 3000 years. The site of the olive tree, including the entire hill on which several villages are situated, has thousands of olive trees and the villages are widely believed to produce the best olive oil in the world. The olive tree has been associated with Greece for millennia. It symbolizes peace and prosperity, as well as the hope of resurrection and prosperous life. The typically Mediterranean Greek landscape is dotted with these trees, and Greeks throughout the centuries have been inextricably linked with this plant. For Ancient Greeks, the olive tree was one of two of the most respected mythical trees, along with the oak. The deeply rooted love and respect shown to this tree by Greeks has survived throughout the centuries. In ancient Greece, Olive Oil is known as “Liquid Gold,” as Homer called it, has been part of Greece’s history since antiquity. It is an irreplaceable nutritional component of the Greek diet. Ancient Greeks also used olive oil as part of their efforts to enjoy a healthy life and to promote longevity, and used it as a cosmetic for the skin and hair. Today, Greek olive oil is considered by most as the best in the world. The history of humanity’s use of the olive dates back to ancient history. In his work “Origine des plantes cultivées,” botanist Augustin Pyrame de Candole writes that our cultivation of the tree started some time around 4000 BC and that its origin is from the coasts of Asia Minor. Today, throughout the world, there are approximately 800 million olive trees of which approximately 95% are cultivated in the Mediterranean basin, which has best soil and climatic conditions for olive cultivation. The olive is widely grown all over in Greece. Its cultivation, which is greater than any other type of fructiferous tree, occupies approximately 15% of cultivated agricultural land and 75% of arboraceous cultivations in the country. 🎥© heygilber (IG) #archaeohistories https://x.com/archeohistories/status/1812684949759119711?t=YowRPVHKjp7FmCfCCHi6jA&s=09

“The neuropsychological and ethnographic evidence that I have adduced strongly suggests that, in these subterranean images, we have an ancient and unusually explicit expression of a complex shamanic experience that is informed by altered states of consciousness.” - David Lewis-Williams, A Cosmos in Stone Around 30,000-35,000 years ago there was an explosion of symbolism in Paleolithic human culture around the world, primarily represented by cave art. This cave art is usually located in hard to access underground spaces that must have had significant meaning for artists and those who would have experienced these strange images by torchlight; And strange they are. Whilst many of images are naturalistic images of humans, mammals and birds, there is also extensive representation of therianthropic beings, that is part human, part animal shape-shifters. There are also many beings that seem to be distorted humans, perhaps better described as humanoid. These images suggest that Paleolithic artists were attempting to tell stories and incorporate messages and meaning within the stories, which they deemed important. The fact that many of beings represented in cave art are of a supernatural quality is symptomatic of what we might call folklore. This pictorial folklore is exhibited throughout Paleolithic world, but earliest reliably dated cave art can be found at sites in Europe, oldest being at Fumane, in northern Italy near Verona and at Grotte Chauvet in the Ardèche region of southern France. Cave art at these sites has been dated between 30,000-35,000 years old. It includes therianthropic images of a horned bovid with human body and a ‘bison-man’ straddling a ‘lion woman’. Later than these examples, but more well-known is the complex of cave paintings at Trois Frères in south-west France. Here we find perhaps the most famous therianthropic cave painting of ‘The Sorcerer’, an amalgamation of various animals including an owl, a wolf, a stag and a human. At Lascaux, also in south-west France, there is an image known as ‘shaft scene’. This shows a stick-man next to a grouse on a shaft. Stick-man has decidedly animalistic features, including a beak and hands with four digits, and it is suggested that this may be a shaman in midst of an altered state of consciousness. These are just a few examples of European cave art depicting therianthropes, supernatural beings painted in deep subterranean cave systems. There are probably more than 200 more such cave paintings throughout Europe, dated 10,000 BC. But Europe does not have a monopoly on supernatural cave art imagery. In southern Africa, the images tend to appear in more shallow rock-shelters, but they are equally bizarre in quality. Some of the artwork has been tentatively dated to between 25,000-30,000 years old, such as Tanzanian ‘insect men’ from rock shelters at Kondoa. San people of southern Africa also depicted therianthropes in their rock-shelters. The two images shown here have been described as a ‘flying boat’ or ‘area of invisibility’ from which therianthropic figures emerge, and an antelope-headed human wearing a skin cloak, probably representing a shaman. Again, these types of images are widespread throughout southern African rock art - supernatural shapeshifters are norm. In Australia, aboriginal cave and rock art is even more explicitly extraordinary. Oldest (30,000 years old) are found in Kimberley region of north-western Australia. Images differ from their European and African counterparts in depicting distorted humanoid figures, which have frequently been compared to folkloric faeries and even extraterrestrials of the modern phenomenon of alien abductions. They represent a remarkable record of Paleolithic culture’s interaction with entities that do not exist in consensus reality, but which were evidently experienced and chronicled in artwork by aboriginal peoples of this distant epoch. 📷 : Humanoid therianthrope, grouse and bison, Lascaux, France #archaeohistories

An ice-age bison was discovered... then soon eaten, once the foul taste was smothered : During Alaskan Gold Rush, eager miners used high-pressure water guns to sweep away frozen silt, possibility of gold right underneath it in gravel. They often came across mummified carcasses of large animals, but paid them little mind, tossing them to side to continue their excavations. In July, 1979, a busy miner uncovered a pair of bison feet poking awkwardly out of mud, but instead of working around it, he decided that maybe someone should take a look at his find. What the miner had uncovered was something remarkable. They unearthed the mummified body of a 36,000 year-old Steppe bison now called "Blue Babe" in Alaskan tundra and shortly after, they sliced off a piece of its neck to eat. As remains were often incomplete, and would be discarded by miners, who were more interested in gold than in frozen animal remains. In 1979, a family of gold miners, Walter and Ruth Roman, and their sons, were mining near Fairbanks. Water from hydraulic mining hose they were using melted frozen soil Blue Babe was embedded in, thus exposing part of bison’s frozen remains. Miners named their find Blue Babe, in reference to metallic blue sheen of creature’s hide, which reminded them of Babe the Blue Ox from American folklore of Paul Bunyan. Blue’s mummy was so well preserved that there was evidence of horns and male genitalia, allowing for sex identification. Horn remnants gave an annual sequence that helped estimate his age and claw. Miners, aware of potential significance of their discovery, decided to contact University of Alaska and palaeontologist Russell Dale Guthrie was sent to scene. Guthrie identified animal as being a steppe bison form Ice Age, and thus was probably tens of thousands of years old. In order to avoid deterioration of carcass, Guthrie opted to excavate immediately. This course of action, however, was not entirely possible, as ground was still frozen, and it was close to several large ice wedges. As it was summer, soil melted a little each day and eventually animal was freed, save its head and neck. Fearing that exposed parts of carcass would begin to decompose, Guthrie took decision to have it severed from its head and neck. After it was fully excavated, a necropsy was performed on bison by Dale Guthrie. Scientific analyses of carcass and frozen soil that entombed Blue Babe have yielded a large amount of valuable data, which allowed researchers to piece together story of bison, in particular last days of its life. Carcass was then brought back to University and refrozen. At University of Alaska, scientists began to conduct analyses on Blue Babe. Radiocarbon dating of a piece of Blue Babe’s hide indicated that bison had died 36,000 years ago. It has been suggested that Blue Babe was killed by an American lion (or several of them), an extinct subspecies of Ice Age lion that lived in North America. This is based on scratch marks on rear of Blue Babe, teeth punctures on its skin, as well as a piece of a lion’s tooth embedded in animal’s neck. In addition, Blue Babe’s fur coat, teeth and horns, as well as its fat content, indicated that it died in early winter, but lions were not able to return to finish their meal due to plummeting temperature, helped preserve Blue Babe for future. One of most bizarre stories about Blue Babe is that part of this ancient creature was cooked and consumed by researchers who were studying it. In 1984, Guthrie and his colleagues were preparing Blue Babe for a display. A piece of animal’s neck tissue was cut off and researchers decided to make a stew out of it, which they then split amongst themselves. Apparently, meat had a strong, earthy aroma, but it was delicious. It was also remarked that though meat was tough, it was edible. Today, Blue Babe or rather, a plaster model of bison covered by its tanned and treated skin, displayed in University of Alaska’s Museum of the North. #archaeohistories

The Ure Museum's Etruscan amphora showing Troilos is mid to late 6th Century BC, black-figure terracotta amphora of the 'Pontic' type attributed to Tityos Painter. The main decoration is a depiction of the ambush of the Trojan Troilos by the Greek hero Achilles. Both sides of neck of the amphora feature demi-Gorgons. The upper half of the main body depicts the ambush of Trojan prince Troilos by the Greek hero Achilles, with the two sides depicting differing scenes of event. One side has Achilles seizing Troilos outside the well-house or as Professor Percy Ure suggested, carrying him to the shrine. Achilles is shown fully armoured with ornate crested helmet, cuirass and greaves while Troilos appears almost completely undressed. The other side has two riders and an unmounted horse passing a fallen man. The lead rider next to the unmanned horse and above the fallen man is shown armoured with helmet and cuirass; the second rider and fallen man are clothed in a Thracian style, with soft caps and patterned cloaks. Ure believed this to be an illustration of Achilles's attack on Troilos, with the following rider coming to Troilos's aid. It has been suggested that changes to normal Greek telling of the story, for example the lack of a depiction of Polyxena, by Etruscan decorator may be a muddling of the tale as it travelled to Etruria or even a deliberate change to better suit local tastes. The lower half of amphora is decorated with wild animals: two male goats on their hind legs (as if rutting), two lions (one licking its paw) and a winged humanoid. The middle of amphora features a band of palmettes, and base a simple geometric triangle pattern. Both Ure and Professor Brian Sparkes noted that it is the rarity of the amphora opposed to its quality that marks it as an important example of 'Pontic' type. Ure acquired the amphora for the museum, then Museum of Greek Archaeology, at auction in London in 1947. Then, as now, very little was known of the amphora's provenance. It is thought to originate from the Etruscan city of Vulci, north-west of Rome – Ure noted that the scene of Achilles' ambush of Troilos was a popular one for decorating tombs in the area. A poorly written description in the auction catalogue enabled Ure,  after seeking advice from Sir John Beazley, to acquire it at a relatively economic price. The amphora is now on permanent display at the Ure Museum. It is one of the more prominent items in the museum's large collection, and is a popular attraction for both scholars and members of the general public. #archaeohistories

Ancient #Egyptians believed death wasn't the end; they envisioned an afterlife where the worthy fought for #eternal paradise, not merely passing to the other side. https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/through-twelve-chambers-hell-afterlife-ancient-egypt-008228 https://youtu.be/SoELyTmZTk0

In ancient Egypt there were no known words for midwife, obstetrician or gynecologist. But because ancient Egyptians did not have words for these things does not mean that they did not exist. In Ancient Egypt the midwife came in many forms. For peasants the midwife was a friend, neighbor, and/or family member who helped deliver the baby. For noblewomen and wealthier classes the midwife was usually a maidservant or nurse who already lived in household. Midwives at this time did not have formal training to learn their trade. Instead they learned by apprenticeships where knowledge was passed down from family member to family member or from friend to friend. The work of the midwife included providing emotional support, encouragement, medical care, and religious help and protection to women during their lives. The areas that midwives focused on were pregnancy, labor, fertility and contraception. Most ancient Egyptian women labored and delivered their babies on the cool roof of the house or in an arbor or confinement pavilion, which was a structure of papyrus-stalk columns decorated with vines (Parsons p. 2). In Ptolemaic times, women from the noble class gave birth in birth houses that were attached to temples. The positions that these women took when they delivered their babies were standing, kneeling, squatting, or sitting on their heels on birthing bricks, or sitting on a birthing chair. The midwife would then be positioned in front of the mother to help the delivery and catch the baby. Two other women or midwives would be placed on either side of the mother to hold her hands and arms while she was pushing and to give encouragement. Sometimes the midwife would place a dish of hot water under the birthing chair so that steam could help ease delivery. The birthing bricks that ancient Egyptian women used were 14 by 7 inches long and decorated with colorful painted scenes and figures of the birth process. Birthing chairs were made of brick and had a hole in the center. They were decorated with hieroglyphic inscriptions of the owner and painted scenes of the mother, baby, and goddesses. Since birth and delivery could be dangerous for both the mother and child, ancient Egyptian midwives used many goddesses and gods for help and protection. Goddesses and gods which ancient Egyptian midwives and women thought would help during pregnancy and birth were Hathor, Bes, Taweret, Meskhenet, Khnum, Thoth, and Amun. Hathor was the guardian-goddess of women and domestic bliss and watched over women giving birth. She took the shape of a cow. Bes was a dwarf-goddess who vanquished any evil things hovering around the mother and baby. Taweret was the pregnant hippopotamus-goddess and the chief deity of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. She carried a magic knife or the knot of Isis. Meskhenet was depicted in the shape of a birthing brick with a human head and gave strength and support to the laboring mother. Khnum was the creator-god who gave health to newborn babies after birth. The god Thoth helped the delivery along and the god Amun helped sooth severe labor pains by blowing in a cool northern breeze (Parsons, p. 3). Statues and pictures of these goddesses and gods were placed throughout room and painted on the walls, birthing bricks and chairs that the laboring women used. Another way that midwives called on divine help and protection during labor was to place magic ivory crescent-shaped wand, decorated with carvings of deities, snakes, lions, and crocodiles, on stomach of the women giving birth (Parsons, p. 3). On the Ebers, Kahun, Berlin, and Carlsberg papyri there are many tests and methods described for fertility, pregnancy, and contraception that ancient Egyptian midwives and women used. #archaeohistories

Throughout history, animals have been indispensable allies in battles, offering strength, speed, and unique tactical advantages that often determined the outcomes of major conflicts. (PREMIUM). #warfare #history #weapons #animals https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/animals-warfare-0021087