Source: blog.thedpages.com
Casa Moulat, Amanali, Tepeji del Rio, Hidalgo, Mexico,
Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica
Kisawa Sanctuary, Benguerra Island, Mozambique,
Developed through a partnership between entrepreneur Nina Flohr and the Bazurato Center for Scientific Studies, a Mozambique-based nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of the local subtropical ecosystem, Kisawa Sanctuary will be 3D- Printed using a combination of local sand and seawater to reduce material waste on the site.
Ancient North African Rock Art in Tassili n’Ajjer, Tamanrasset, Algeria
Located in the Sahara Desert, the Tassili n’Ajjer National Park is the site of about 15,000 prehistoric rock art engravings. The rock art dates from about 12,000 years ago to the first centuries of the present era. The art found in the park depicts aspects like animal migrations, humans partaking in activities like hunting and dancing, and the climatic changes that occurred thousands of years ago when northern Africa shifted from a habitable savanna to the current Sahara desert.
Source: Flickr / gruban
Depiction of an antelope carved into a rock in Tin Taghirt, in the Tassili n’Ajjer region of southern Algeria. This art and other artifacts like it are estimated to date from 10,000 to 6,000 years ago.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
sugarmeows
Minotaur (marble, Roman, c.1st–2nd century)
From the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé
Source: christies.com
Face of the god Amun reign of Seti I (1294-1279) Basalt Official: Louvre Museum.
Oldest olive oil - The nearly 2,000 year old bottle filled with solidified olive oil from Pompeii (and carbonized bread on the left). Roman, 79 AD
but for real, nothing can match the tenderness, the warmth, the private & public love & fondness of the couple portrayed in the Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses…I mean. look at them:
the way they chose to be pictured in this loving moment, so they could remain together for eternity! she used to be holding what we assume was a tiny pomegranate (a symbol for eternity), and she was pouring perfume in his hand… i….the tenderness. but also the way their bodies connect, almost being inextricably tied to one another; the playfulness of their expressions, the intelligence of their eyes, the expressiveness of their gestures (italian legends lol), and the sweet domesticity of their position, which was typical for dinners with friends - husbands and wives remained under the same blanket and conversed w their guests over dinner……..
but most of all. how wordlessly beautiful it is to see their heads from behind, looking (with all the differences in costumes of their time) like a couple we could easily see sitting in front of us at a restaurant. they’re lost in a lively conversation with their friends. the man’s arm is around her shoulders, and she’s laughing, moving her hands animatedly while telling a story. they love each other. it’s a story that never ends.
It should also be stated that this piece was meant to hold the ashes. This was someone’s burial piece, and it was the most important thing to them that they and their spouse be depicted together and very visibly in love, and participating in a banquet as was the norm in Etruscan culture.
Etruscan art, especially funerary art, is made of couples. The Boston Museum of Fine Art holds the burial tomb of the Tetnies families, and both the husband and wife and then their son and his wife? The tenderness on both pieces is absolutely remarkable.
But nothing, and I truly mean nothing, prepares one for seeing il Sarcofago degli Sposi in person. You can see them down the corridor in Villa Gulia, and the closer to get, the more inviting they are. Warmth radiates off of them, off of every angle of this piece, and there is a fluidity and life present that the photographs capture, but seeing them in person only amplifies.
Etruscan art has such liveliness and joy in it, and nothing captures it better than these two.
If you are ever, ever in Rome, go visit them. It is worth every moment.
Oh, wow. I’d never seen the Tetnies sarcophagi before, and they’re wonderful. Incredibly intimate:
And that sent me down an Etruscan sarcophagus rabbit hole — this was my other favorite couple. I love that they’re sculpted as they must have been in life, with their age showing clearly in their faces, and the pose is wonderful too:
The solo sarcophagi are also great! Love that they were probably all painted, and some of them still have a lot of their paint left:
anyway, a+ genre of ancient funerary art that I knew almost nothing about