Arseny

🏛 University of Glasgow researchers have made an unprecedented discovery of golden paint on a Roman altar.

🎨 The altar, found near Hadrian’s Wall, was part of a Mithraic temple, a mystery cult associated with light and dark popular with soldiers.

🖌 Read on! historyhit.substack.com/p/monday-23r...

Oh that's lovely!

I definitely remember the times when Google couldn't do russian, but I didn't realize it's still a problem until trying to search for a Circassian word today

Which means that some agglutinative/synthetic languages are supported (e.g. Turkish, Hungarian), but as you go smaller, you hit languages that are large enough to be of note, but are small enough to not be supported, like Circassian, Nahuatl, or Greenlandic. That are virtually impossible to google?

til search engines are super-discriminatory towards certain languages. If your language uses little unchangeable words (my cat is red) you don't care. But if words change by case, or verbs are synthetic, or grammar is packed into prefixes, the search should actively _support_ your language to work!

(I mean, "hate" is even a wrong word here, as it's usually used for bad movies haha. The problem with Selma Songs is how good the movie is, but how mercilessly soul-destroying :(

Same here!! I just ignore this album, despite it being theoretically good and aligned with my tastes, but I just can't. Hate this movie.

Wow, they found medieval painted planks under a house in Toledo!
Look, MORE COLOUR ;)

www.eldebate.com/espana/casti...

Thsi platform is better tho :(

Back when taught biology, I used to draw on a board all possibilities of what would happen if a centaur marries a mermaid, assuming that the centaur is a first generaton horse-human hybrid, and the mermaid is a first generaton fish-human. It's fun! Lots of options!

A concrete boulder shining in the dark. Photo by Erbsensuppe via Wikimedia Commons

The folded concrete interior of the church, rising high above rows of movable chairs. On the edges one can see the different levels of balconies. Photo by Gunnar Klack via Wikimedia Commons

The rose window that shines throughout the interior (also designed by Böhm). Photo by Saintambroise via Wikimedia Commons

To the left, nuns’ rooms; to the right, the church. Photo by Seier + Seier via Wikimedia Commins

#100: Gottfried Böhm, Church of Mary, Queen of Peace, Velbert-Neviges (1966-68)

A beige-grey concrete building. There are many parts and levels, and it looks almost Aalto or Scharoun-esque. The back entrance on the lower level is to the left, through a short colonnade topped by massive concrete lintels. One enters the lower level community center/youth center; the worship space is on the upper level toward the right. The roof has metal panels that fold over the roofline. Photo by Arnoldius via Wikimedia Commons.

A straight-on view of the other entrance between other buildings. The entrance is on the right side up a few steps, through a one-story entrance. The main mass is of concrete with narrow horizontal windows that seem to have stained or other dark glass. Photo by Horst Kerschowski via kirchbau.de, https://www.kirchbau.de/300_datenblatt.php?id=11222&name=keiner

The worship space, dominated by a mosaic by Erentrud Trost called "God's History with People" depicting various moments of God/human interaction. The walls are of concrete, and two rows of wooden pews look toward the altar. Light enters from narrow horizontal clerestory windows. Photo by Horst Kerschowski via kirchbau.de, https://www.kirchbau.de/300_datenblatt.php?id=11222&name=keiner

The old church tower of the original church (built by Gerhard August Fischer in 1872-1889), into which a store has been integrated. Photo by Mbdortmund via Wikimedia Commons

#68: Theo Schwill, St. Bonifatius, Herne (1973-74)

A exterior photo of a massive curved niche of yellow brick with some red and brown bricks. Photo by Elke Wetzig via Wikimedia Commons.

A yellowish brick church seen across the edge of a park with tall slit windows. Photo by Elke Wetzig via Wikimedia Commons

A very tall brick worship space with, to the right, irregular stained-glass windows letting in light. The altar is housed in a deep niche and is raised by a few steps. There are four rows of wooden pews. photo via https://www.katholisch-in-koeln.de/ueber-uns/st-alban/index.html

#61: Hans Schilling, New St. Alban, Cologne (1958-59)

I also think that both camps are right. Why not two?

Thank you!! What a collection!! I'm always interested in sacred spaces, and this is such a lovely exhibit, and so alien in a way, so unlike either older or modern prayer spaces! Aesthetically, it's as if they belonged to a different, alternative religion!!

Two brick walls framing a window wall whose bluish glass is ethced with a swirling pattern and crossed by white steel trusses. Photo by Christian Huhn via https://bigbeautifulbuildings.de/objekte/heilig-kreuz-kirche

A brick worship space. Two rows of pews flank an aisle that leads to an oval altar. There is a wood ceiling. Photo by Christian Huhn via https://bigbeautifulbuildings.de/objekte/heilig-kreuz-kirche

A picture of a curved church from the outside (the front of the picture is the altar). White-painted piers divide a brick wall into bays. A glass-brick clerestory at the altar lets in light. To the rear is a brick bell tower. Photo by W. Strickling via Wikimedia Commons.

A view up into the parabolic clerestory of the altar. An eye of God by Theo Heiermann is in the center of the clerestory window. The ceiling is made of wood. Photo by Christian Huhn via https://bigbeautifulbuildings.de/objekte/heilig-kreuz-kirche

#17: Rudolf Schwarz, Church of the Holy Spirit, Bottrop (1953-57)

This is a thread of about 200 (!!!) modernist mid century retrofuturistic German churches. What an experience!!

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

I cannot speak as to the accuracy of the piece yet I found it a fascinating exercise @adamroberts.bsky.social @drlauravarnam.bsky.social

Wow if true that's the real pavement/sidewalk situation of our times...

Family answer feels like the right one for me :)

Yeah I would have never wanted to teach it. Feels unpleasant, interesting. I would have written poetry in on though, poetry and journalism.

What's the point in knowing a language if you can't use it.

Irl I would have probably picked a living minor language to try to help to revive it, to become a big fish in a small pond. Something from my family history, like Udmurt, Belarusian, or Nogai Crimean Tatar...

Imagine opting for Crimean Gothic only to realize with horror that you got a late version so riddled with loanwords no one is interested in entertaining it

I love varieties of this question (magic language acquisition) as it pushes for a good novel plot. Picking German is a waste, but PIE or tocharian would be unusable: you'd never be able to share what you've learned as ppl wouldn't believe your pronunciation, vocab, idiosyncrasies of a living tongue

A collection of complex Namkha

Namkha is a ritual object, sometimes described as a "yarn cross", used in Tibetan religion Bön (that is sometimes described as pre-Buddhist, although not sure this term applies in 21st century)

Source of the image: namkha-encyclopedia.com/maintenance/

The lararium in color: a stela with a niche, with faint paintings on it

An old photo of the niche of this stela, still half-covered with pumice, with two small figurines raising their right hands up, and something like a plate

a BW photo of the painting on the lararium. A river scene

Another Lararium (a home shrine); this one from Pompeii, depicting a local river god Sarnus and adorned with port scenes. When the lararium was found in 1954, it still had inside two bronze figurines (Lares), a lamp, and an offering dish!

(from a very old post of @pompei79.bsky.social )

A single Kermes insect

A crystal of cinnabar

A weird thing about pigments: their names become names for colors

And then it may get confusing: vermillion and cinnabar are not synonyms if you're talking pigments: vermillion (cognate to worm) comes from insects, cinnabar is a mercury salt

but if you're talking colors, they are synonyms!
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The original sketch / plan for the Guggenheim Museum building, by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is bright rosa

A photo of an actual building, after it was opened. It's light beige

Modern photo of the building, and it is white

The famous Guggenheim building was originally supposed to be pink (rose?). The city was against it, so it was compromised as beige, and only later somehow further devolved into white.

The act of tsujigiri against defenceless civilians was widely and socially condemned as immoral, cowardly, and associated with rogue samurais and bandits, and was not considered common or respectable samurai practice. It was made a capital offence by law in 1602 by the Edo government.

Close-up of a stone altar featuring the bust of Luna with a serene facial expression, and draped cloak. Perforated crescent moon above her head.

Close-up of a stone altar featuring the bust of Sol with long curly hair, serene expression, and draped cloak. Perforated radiant above his head. The upper part of the altar is missing.

Two perforated altar reliefs from the Mithraeum at Mundelsheim. One depicts Sol, the sun god, with the radiant. the other shows Luna, the goddess of the moon, with the crescent.

In Roman times, they were illuminated from behind, creating a striking play of light and shadow that must ...🧵1/2