Ancient Wonders
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2014 » November
Archive for November, 2014 The bearded lady: The most famous human curiosity of the 19th century. How we treat our fellow humans reveals much about our own humanity… Julia Pastrana: A “Monster to the Whole World” (The Public Domain Review) “Julia Pastrana, a woman from Mexico born with hypertrichosis, became one of the most famous human curiosities of the 19th century, exhibited the world over as a “bearded lady” while both alive and dead. Bess Lovejoy explores her story and how it was only in 2013, 153 years after her passing, that she was finally laid to rest. When Julia Pastrana was born, in the mountains of Western Mexico in…
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A Sordid History of The First Vampire Tale
A Sordid History of The First Vampire Tale Behold, the story behind the first fully realized vampire story in English, John William Polidori’s 1819 story, “The Vampyre.” (P.S. Lord Byron’s infamy knows no end!) The Poet, the Physician and the Birth of the Modern Vampire (The Public Domain Review) “From that famed night of ghost-stories in a Lake Geneva villa in 1816, as well as Frankenstein’s monster, there arose that other great figure of 19th-century gothic fiction – the vampire – a creation of Lord Byron’s personal physician John Polidori. Andrew McConnell Stott explores how a fractious relationship between Polidori and his poet employer lies behind the tale, with Byron…
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The Uncovering of The Concho Stone
The Uncovering of The Concho Stone Have You Heard of The Concho Stone? Neither had we, and in fact, hardly anyone has heard of it and less so have actually seen it — the stone has been purposefully covered with earth for the last fifty years in order to allude vandals. It may finally be uncovered at last… Will 5000-year-old Cochno Stone carving see the light of day once more? (Ancient Origins) “With dozens of grooved spirals, carved indentations, geometric shapes, and mysterious patterns of many kinds, the Cochno Stone, located in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, is considered to have the finest example of Bronze Age cup and ring carvings in…
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2014 » October
Archive for October, 2014 The Resurrection of an Egyptian Princess… May you be merry this Halloween and dance alongside the spirits… Also, we hope you watch and enjoy this film! — The Monster by Georges Méliès. (It’s about an attempt to bring an Egyptian princess back to life…) “A 1903 film directed by French filmmaker Georges Méliès and, as is common with his films, starring the man himself. The story centres on the chaotic, and ultimately futile, attempt to bring a dead Egyptian Princess back to life. According to the Lubin Catolog: An Egyptian prince has lost his beloved wife and he has sought a dervish who dwells at the…
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2014 » September
Archive for September, 2014 The Tablet That Contains The Secrets of Creation The Emerald Tablet. Have you heard of it? This enigmatic object has many presumed sources – one of which is the the city of Atlantis itself. Other possible associations include the Ark of the Covenant, the tomb of Hermes, and the Medieval and Renaissance era alchemical texts… The Legendary Emerald Tablet (Ancient Origins) “The origins of Western alchemy can be traced back to Hellenistic Egypt, in particular to the city of Alexandria. One of the most important characters in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes the Thrice-Great). The name of this figure is derived from the…
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Ancient Apocalypse: Zombies and Plagues
Ancient Apocalypse: Zombies and Plagues A plague so horrible that the dead were disposed of in unusual or violent ways is not just the stuff of zombie movies. Newly unearthed remains at Luxor in Egypt reveal an ancient plague so potent that religious burial rites were completely overlooked before the bodies were incinerated or buried under lime. “We found evidence of corpses either burned or buried inside the lime…They had to dispose of them without losing any time…” Here, a bonfire where many of the victims of an ancient epidemic in the ancient city of Thebes in Egypt were ultimately incinerated.Credit: Photo by N. Cijan © Associazione Culturale per lo…
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The automobile graveyards of Chatillon
The automobile graveyards of Chatillon As if the zombie apocalypse happened and everyone abandoned their cars trying to get out of town… Photos of a traffic jam stuck in the woods for 70 years (Death and Taxes magazine) “Around the town of Chatillon, Belgium, the end of World War II left a few creepy hallmarks of the armistice in the form of long lines of cars left abandoned by the hundreds in the woods. While one theory goes that the cars belonged to Americans who left them in a hurry on their way off the continent, B ored Panda points out that no one really knows for sure…” For more…
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An Old Book, A Video Piece: An Experience of Paintings…
An Old Book, A Video Piece: An Experience of Paintings… “Thumb” through a beautiful old book from The Public Domain Review… Women painters of the world from the time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the present day; 1905; edited by Walter Shaw Sparrow; The Copp Clark Company Limited, Toronto. “A heavily illustrated collection of essays, edited by British art critic Walter Shaw Sparrow, focusing on notable women painters from the 15th century to the beginning of the 20th. Of the eight essays only one is written by a woman, Helena Westermarck, a Finnish artist and women’s historian active in the suffragette movement. From the rather lavish preface…
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Poison Garments of the Victorian Age
Poison Garments of the Victorian Age …But would you have worn them anyway? Two skeletons dressed as lady and gentleman in “the Arsenic Waltz,” Etching (1862) (courtesy Wellcome Library, London) Fatal Victorian Fashion and the Allure of the Poison Garment by Allison Meier “Staying stylish in the Victorian period could be a dance of death. While industrialization and mass production made more beautiful fashions widely available, the green dresses were dyed with arsenic-based pigments, the mercury necessary to make shiny beaver top hats drove the hatters insane, and all that tulle and cinched corsets contorting women into airy nymphs would not infrequently cause them to tumble into gas lamps and…
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2014 » June
Archive for June, 2014 An Old Book, A Video Piece: An Experience of Paintings… “Thumb” through a beautiful old book from The Public Domain Review… Women painters of the world from the time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the present day; 1905; edited by Walter Shaw Sparrow; The Copp Clark Company Limited, Toronto. “A heavily illustrated collection of essays, edited by British art critic Walter Shaw Sparrow, focusing on notable women painters from the 15th century to the beginning of the 20th. Of the eight essays only one is written by a woman, Helena Westermarck, a Finnish artist and women’s historian active in the suffragette movement. From…
