Chapps

Awww … you’ve got to love the elderly tuxedo dogs. My girl Maya spends nearly every walk by going to all her favorite businesses at the bottom of our hill, conning them all out of treats. A howl as she enters an establishment announces her distinctly.

All the times that I’ve seen her, I had no idea that she could be rotated. I wonder if that’s still the case? The Spinario can also be rotated, but there was talk of ending that practice.

Oh, forgot the 📸 me on the pics … 🤷‍♂️

I so wish (except when I don’t want them messing up my shot).

It’s amazing how changing the display of an antiquity in a museum affects how you see it. The lighting - natural or artificial - and the ability to see an item in the round or restricted to a frontal view. La Dama Fonseca, below, in two different settings. 🏺

Quite literally, which pleases me no end.

And I do appreciate that you were viewing the antiquities while ‘punch drunk’. My head would spin.

Marble bust of a woman with a long, swan-like neck and a Flavian hairstyle composed of a tower of curls, known as the 'Dama Fonseca'. She has a mirror placed on the wall behind her, so that visitors can see the complex braids pinned up at the back of her head.

Yes, I had thought along the same lines, since turning it sideways robbed us of the full view of the lamb. The Musei Capitolini did just this a few years ago for the Domitian exhibition, placing small mirrors behind the heads of portraits of women, to better see the complex hairstyles.

The picture shows a vessel in the shape of a two handled basket of brown colour.

Fascinating world of ancient #glass: One of my favourite #Roman objects made of glass is this little basket (height 6.5cm). It is not clear what it was used for, possibly to hold cosmetics.

From Syria, dating 3rd century AD.

On display at British Museum

📷 me

🏺#archaeology

I’m actually going to send them a note today to see if they can turn it back the way it once was. I think whoever last cleaned it just didn’t understand how it had to be displayed.

Silver statuette of a young shepherd, carrying one skin bag in the crook of his left arm, and another slung over his shoulder with a small lamb looking out. This is a museum photo, taken from the rear, 3/4 view. You can see the body of the lamb and its rear hooves outlined in the bag.

That second pic above was taken several years ago, before someone turned the statuette forwards, hiding the little lamb. Odd thing to do. You can see from a museum photo, below, that the artist even shows the body of the lamb through the bag. Wonderful work. 🏺 2/

Silver statuette of a young shepherd - with apparently some worn gilding, given the golden sheen on his short cloak (which the museum doesn't mention) - facing forward, carrying an open skin bag in the crook of his left arm, and something slung over his shoulder. He's clean-shaven, with full short hair combed forward ('Caesar-style'), and wearing open toed boots. He's standing contrapposto, all his weight on his left leg, while his right foot, slightly back, is lifting - he's obviously walking towards us. British Museum (1867,0508.764)

A photo taken a few years ago, when the statuette was turned to the right, allowing us to see that the shepherd has another skin bag slung over his shoulder, in which a cute smiling lamb is taking a ride, its front hooves hanging over the front edge of the bag.

This little #Roman silver statuette of a shepherd is displayed incorrectly at the #BritishMuseum (1st pic). Because when he's turned, you can see that he's carrying an adorable smiling lamb in a skin bag slung over his shoulder. 😍 🏺 1/

Probably 1st c. CE.
📸 me #ancientbluesky

I totally understand. It completely blew me away, the first time I saw it. Trying to understand how, why it was used … how it survived. A unique piece of history.

Nice!

It is - they really nailed it.

Sadly, we don’t have any information on where it was discovered. It was donated by a Mrs. H.M. Davidson to the British Museum in 1950. It might have been part of a hoard, or found in a grave, but apparently Mrs. Davidson remained mum.

*Freshly* severed head. Usually the last ref.

I’ve been wanting the same thing.

Pottery drinking cup shaped like an animal’s head. The vessel is glossy black, featuring a rounded snout, raised eyes, and a handle. A red-digured banquet scene encircles the lower part. The cup is photographed against a plain light background

Weekend timeline cleanse!

A #Greek rhyton in the shape of a #dog's head. 🐕🐶

Vessels such as this were used in drinking parties. Since they didn't have a base, their contents had to be consumed before the vessel could be put down

Dating ca. 475 BC.

📷 Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 🏺

He was so difficult to find, and almost impossible to photograph. Worth the hunt - he was wonderful.

YouTube video by The Relay - Sci-Fi USS Athena lands on Earth | Star Trek Academy

And here’s that sequence. A good example of setting the tone at the start of a series.

youtu.be/G-BRjSxHZcI?...

Entirely my pleasure. Getting my hometown and that song in SA was a real treat.

My pleasure!

This bronze helmet is of the Corinthian type, and may actually be Corinthian, where it was thought to have been made. The Corinthian helmet originated in ancient Greece and took its name from the city-state of Corinth. It was made of bronze which in its later styles covered the entire head and neck, with slits for the eyes and mouth. A large curved projection protected the nape of the neck. Apparently (judging from artistic and archaeological evidence) the Corinthian helmet was the most popular helmet during the Archaic and early Classical periods. It was depicted on more sculptures than any other helmet; it seems the Greeks romantically associated it with glory and the past. The Romans also revered it, from copies of Greek originals to sculpture of their own. Over time, the helmet evolved, with the eye and mouth slits reducing in size as the helmet was designed to be worn back off the face (as seen in many illustrations). This is somewhere in the middle of that transition. Greek, about 500 BCE, from Corinth. British Museum, London (1873,0910.1)

I don’t know the intention of the way Corinthian style helmets were made, but they sometimes - but not always - look like this. I’m sure we’re just pervs. 📸 me

flic.kr/p/2rBN3Um

Thanks!

YouTube video by Subtitleman San Francisco - Scott McKenzie

For an added treat, here’s a video of Scott singing the song for the first time at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. I wish ‘Starfleet Academy’ had been able to license this original version for the series, but I still remain grateful for its inclusion. Enjoy. 3/

youtu.be/bch1_Ep5M1s?...

Photo of me, on the left with my two dogs Daisy (black Shepherd mix) and Dash (Great Dane-Aussie Shepherd mix), my friends Addie, A white haired and bushy-bearded Scott McKenzie holding his cane, and my friend Rob. Coincidentally, we’re sitting on a low wall of a dilapidated house in our neighborhood that a few years later - and after a full gut and restoration - became my house!

Album cover from 1967 with a black and white photo of a young mustachioed Scott McKenzie on the cover, and the text: ‘San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair), Words & Music by John Phillips, Recorded by Scott McKenzie on CBS’

Yep, that’s me on the left, with my sweet departed dogs, and my friends Addie and Rob flanking Scott. He was such a sweet guy, and his recording of ‘San Francisco’ (written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas) makes him immortal. A gentle song, just like the man himself, much missed. 2/

Still from the new ‘Starfleet Academy’ streaming series from Paramount/CBS. High above San Francisco Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge on the left, still partially wreathed in fog, and the Marin headlands in the distance, with futuristic buildings where Fort Baker is in the present time. Just below us, the enormous saucer of the Academy school ship is making its way to drydock at the Academy grounds. All wide screen and majestic.

I’ve loved #StarTrek since childhood, so of course I’m watching the new ‘Starfleet Academy’ series. But what brought tears to my eyes was the arrival of the ship to my hometown of San Francisco, with a version of my old friend Scott McKenzie’s song playing over the scene…. 🖖 1/

The article below adds some fascinating detail to the rule of the #Thracian king Seuthes III, whose bronze portrait head, greaves and helmet I've photographed, below. He straddled multiple cultures, as the treasures from his tomb attest. 🏺

📸 me #ancientbluesky

flic.kr/s/aHBqjBSifK

Super Bowl DXCIX ring. 🏈