The J. Paul Getty Museum today placed on view a Decree Relief with Antiochos and Herakles, the first Greek loan to arise from a 2011 framework for cultural cooperation between the Getty and the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture.
Decree Relief with Antiochos and Herakles, about 330 B.C. Greek; found in Athens. Marble. Lent by the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and the Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Culture and Tourism.On loan from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the marble relief bears a historical decree, dated to 330 B.C., which honors Prokleides, a military officer (taxiarch) in the Athenian army. The relief will be on view at the Getty Villa for three years in a second-floor gallery devoted to Religious Offerings.
The relief takes the form of a stele, a stone slab decorated with images and text, crowned with the figures of Herakles and his son Antiochos, who was the mythical hero of the tribe Antiochis. Herakles is depicted as an athletic nude, holding a club and the pelt of the Nemean Lion he vanquished, referring to the first of the twelve labors he had to perform. Seemingly the elder, Antiochos wears a dignified mantle and holds a staff (no longer visible, but probably added in pigment). Both father and son heroes were the subject of cult worship, and are shown standing within a small temple framed by columns and a pediment.
Written in ancient Greek below the figures, an inscription describes the honors bestowed upon Prokleides by his soldiers and comrades, all members of an elite infantry corps known as the epilektoi. This is the earliest known inscription referencing the epilektoi, a group of men bound together by their military service, participation in sacrifices and theatrical performances, and membership in the Athenian Council. According to the decree, Kephisokles of the village of Alopeke proposed the resolution to praise Prokleides, who “has well and with distinction taken care of security,” and crown him with a gold diadem worth at least 1,000 drachmas (an enormous sum, considering the average worker in classical Athens could support a family of four on one drachma a day).
Soon after arriving at the Getty, the stele was photographed using a technique that captures the object numerous times with varying degrees of raking light. The resulting composed image reveals the shallow lettering with unprecedented depth and clarity and enables a more accurate reading of the inscription. A transcription of the ancient Greek text, translation, and detail photography of the historical inscription accompanies the installation.
“The Antiochos relief commemorates the affection and respect of troops for their commanding officer,” explains Claire Lyons, acting senior curator of antiquities at the Getty Villa. “We are delighted that it will be on view at the Getty Villa in time for Memorial Day, when we honor the contributions of fallen soldiers to their communities and country.”
This long-term loan results from the Framework for Cultural Cooperation signed in September 2011, which provides for joint scholarship, research projects, loans, and exhibitions between the Getty and the Hellenic Republic. “As part of this framework of cooperation between the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture and the Getty Museum, we are pleased to have the Antiochos relief on display at the Getty Villa,” said Maria Vlazaki-Andreadaki, director general of archaeology in Athens. “We believe that this collaboration will promote classical studies in the United States and will spread the values and the spirit of ancient Greek civilization.”
Historical Background
The relief was discovered in 1922 in the foundations of a house in the Athenian neighborhood of Dourgouti. In antiquity, the area was known as Kynosarges and was the site of a public gymnasium and a sanctuary of Herakles, the greatest of the Greek heroes. Believed to have stood in this sanctuary, where several other inscriptions mentioning the tribe Antiochis were found, the relief was a votive dedication erected in a prominent public location befitting a successful military leader.
The Antiochos relief is a primary document of democracy, and the language of its inscription shows that voting and public speech were deeply ingrained in civic life two centuries after the foundation of democratic political institutions in Athens.
The creation of the Attic tribes was the most important feature of the revolutionary reorganization of Athenian politics that followed the overthrow of the tyrants in 508 B.C. In this system, ten tribes composed of approximately 3,000 citizens and their families were created. Each tribe was assigned the name of a mythical Athenian hero: Antiochos was the eponymous hero of the tribe Antiochis.
Drawn from villages in three distinct zones of the Athenian territory—the coast, the inland farming region, and the urban/suburban zone—the tribes represented the entire citizenry of Athens. Josiah Ober, Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University, observes: “Imagine a reorganization of the United States that would require citizens from Maine, Texas, and California to work, fight, and feast together on a regular basis. The communities constituting the tribe of Antiochis included Alopeke, the philosopher Socrates’ home village—so we might even imagine that a descendant of Socrates as among the signatories to the decree.”
The Royal Ontario Museum unveiled The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors, presented by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation with Manulife as Lead Sponsor. The exhibition is on display in the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall from Saturday, March 8 until Monday, September 1, 2014. Presented in collaboration with Beijing’s Palace Museum, the show brings to Canada for the first time approximately 250 treasures that were part of Chinese imperial life for five centuries in a city strictly off-limits to all but the emperor, his family, and his personal servants. These objects are the relics of a momentous chapter in China’s long and fascinating history.
More than 80 of the exhibition’s objects, including textiles, calligraphy, paintings, and armour, have never before travelled outside the Forbidden City. Complemented by stunning artifacts from the ROM’s own internationally celebrated Chinese collections, these objects tell captivating stories and reveal the fascinating characters that made the Forbidden City the centre of an immense empire for more than 500 years. Due to the significant number of light-sensitive textiles and paintings, there will be an extensive rotation of objects half way through the exhibition’s engagement, presenting a new opportunity to experience the stories and exquisite objects of the Forbidden City.
The emperor's role as head of the military required special ceremonial 'armour'. Worn for reviews, it was made more for show than active battle [Credit: ROM]“The ROM’s exhibition takes visitors on a remarkable journey to the heart of the Forbidden City — once off limits to all but a privileged few,” said Janet Carding, ROM Director and CEO. “Carefully selected by our curatorial team, these extraordinary artifacts from Beijing's Palace Museum will give visitors an inside view of life within the Forbidden City and immerse them in China’s rich history. The exhibition is the centerpiece of the Museum’s Centennial, bringing to life our promise to connect our visitors with their communities, world, and with each other.”
The ROM has partnered with Beijing’s Palace Museum to create an exhibition that uncovers untold stories about life in the courts of the Chinese emperors. Dr Chen Shen is the exhibition’s lead curator and the ROM’s Vice President, World Cultures and Senior Curator, Bishop White Chair of East Asian Archaeology. He said, “This exhibition allows Canadians to see, for the first time, the finest objects hidden from view in the Forbidden City. We have worked with our Palace Museum colleagues to develop untold stories about life in the courts of the Chinese emperors; ensuring ROM visitors will enjoy many of China’s national treasures, many of which have never left the palace. These objects — both luxurious and everyday — provide the unique opportunity to advance our understanding of the people who lived within the walls of the Forbidden City.”
The emperor's role as head of the military required special ceremonial 'armour'. Worn for reviews, it was made more for show than active battle [Credit: ROM]In December 2012, Dr. Shen travelled to China with co-curator Dr Wen-chien Cheng, the ROM’s Louise Hawley Stone Chair of Far Eastern Art, and curatorial advisor Dr. Sarah Fee, the Museum’s Curator, Eastern Hemisphere Textiles and Fashion to spend time in the vaults of the Palace Museum and select the most compelling objects in the vast and storied collection.
Robert H. N. Ho, Founder of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, said “The Foundation is pleased to present The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors in Canada. Advancing the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture is a key mission of our foundation. Robust educational programming in support of the exhibition should encourage wider exploration by the public, especially teachers and students. The Foundation is also proud to once again be working with the ROM, an outstanding institution which together with Beijing’s Palace Museum, has developed this wonderful exhibition, bringing to life the 600-year-old imperial palace and revealing for the first time many of its treasures and secrets. ”
This gemstone-decorated gold ewer was used only on special occasions such as the emperor’s birthday [Credit: ROM]“The Forbidden City is a true celebration of Chinese culture and history," said Nicole Boivin, Chief Branding and Communications Officer for the exhibition’s Lead Sponsor Manulife, “As a global company, Manulife is committed to engaging the international communities in which we live and work, including China where we've been operating since 1897. Partnering with the ROM to support this exclusive exhibit is an excellent way to honour the China-Canada Cultural Exchange and the ROM’s 100th anniversary.”
The ROM’s exhibition uncovers the stories of the Forbidden City and China’s last emperors who led their lives deep within the palace’s opulent interior. Through intimate encounters with everyday objects, visitors meet a cast of real characters, including emperors, court officials, concubines, and eunuchs — castrated men who served the imperial families. The ROM’s exploration of life inside the mysterious Forbidden City transports visitors through increasingly restricted areas — the palace’s great halls, grand courtyards, and intricate terraces and roofs, until visitors ultimately gain access to the most private space of all: the emperor’s personal study.
'Being Ruler is Tough' was the motto Emperor Yongzheng inscribed on this seal. At his wish, copies of this seal were placed in different rooms for his use and as a reminder of his role [Credit: ROM]Upon arrival, before reaching the admissions desk, visitors are introduced to the Forbidden City in the exhibition’s Prologue. An intricate model including many of the complex’s significant features is displayed in the Thorsell Spirit House, complemented by the one of the ROM’s most recent acquisitions — a yellow-glazed bowl, commissioned by Ming Emperor Wanli. The colour yellow was strictly reserved for royal families and could not be used in any way outside the Forbidden City unless explicitly permitted by the emperor himself.
Thrones were not made for comfort, but as a symbol of the ruler’s imperial and authoritative power. All the pieces here are part of the 'throne set' [Credit: ROM]Visitors next enter The Inner Court, the residential space where only the imperial family and their eunuchs lived. Empress Dowager Cixi, a towering presence over the Chinese empire for almost half a century, is profiled in this section. Stunning gilt silver nail guards represent her. Up to six inches long, they protected the extremely long nails of imperial women — signifying their leisure status. Also on display are the opulent objects of the emperor’s everyday life including silk dog coats, gold eating utensils, and the last emperor’s gilt bath tub.
The exhibition’s climatic section takes visitors inside the Emperor’s personal spaces that were once forbidden to all but the emperor. As rulers, emperors were bound to strict institutionalized governance. However, their choices were their own in collecting and personal cultivation. This area showcases some of the most exquisite objects in the imperial collection including jades, calligraphies, and ceramics and an exceedingly rare porcelain “chicken” cup, commissioned by Emperor Chenghua for his mother; only two such cups exist today in the Palace Museum. In this section, a British-made musical clock and the character of a Western missionary represent the foreign dignitaries who gained access to the Forbidden City with gifts from their homelands — pieces much admired by Qing dynasty emperors.
Pages like this, in a fourteen-sheet album, presents the emperor assuming various ethnicities and characters – in each he is accompanied by an animal or a bird. [Credit: ROM]Finally, Twilight of the Last Dynasty portrays the Forbidden City’s last chapter as it began its transformation to the Palace Museum. Here, visitors learn of the fall of the empire during the last dynasty and the imperial collection’s fate. The magnificence of imperial life is countered by the poignancy of the last emperor’s departure. As visitors are brought back to their own world, they gain an appreciation for the Forbidden City then and now.
The Forbidden City
China’s imperial palace, known to the world as the Forbidden City, was built from 1406 – 1420. It was the center of government and home to China’s last 24 emperors of the Ming (1368 – 1644) and Qing (1644 – 1911) dynasties. Made up of about 980 buildings and 8700 rooms in over 90 architectural complexes, the Forbidden City remains to this day the largest palace complex in history. Once strictly forbidden to all but the emperors, their families, servants, invited guests, and most trusted officials, the palace gates are now open to all.
The Palace Museum
The Forbidden City became the Palace Museum in 1925, one year after the last emperor was forced into exile. Located in the heart of Beijing, the magnificent site spans over 720,000 square metres and houses the largest collection of China’s imperial treasures. Designated by China’s State Council as one of that country’s most important protected cultural heritage sites in 1961, it became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. Today, it is considered one of the world’s most important museums. Popularly called The Forbidden City, it houses over 1.8 million art treasures spanning 5,000 years of Chinese history with many from the Qing imperial court. It is one of the world’s most visited museums, welcoming a record 182,000 visitors on October 2, 2012.
For last two years, Chrysler has created quite a buzz with their Super Bowl advertisements. In 2011, their “Made in Detroit” commercial featuring Eminem was particularly well received, as was their 2012 Clint Eastwood-narrated “Halftime in America” spot. As a result, many were anxiously waiting to see what the automaker had up its sleeves for this year’s game. Predictably, Chrysler continued the tradition of tugging on the heartstrings of the American public with their fan favorite “Farmer” and “Whole Again” commercials.
Featuring the narration of Oprah Winfrey and opening with her words, “We wait. We hope. We Pray. Until You’re Home Again,” on the screen, Chrysler’s “Whole Again” commercial is an advertisement for their Jeep brand—more specifically—for the partnership between Jeep and the United Service Organizations (USO). Throughout the two minute spot, the commercial depicts military families going about their lives while missing their loved ones who are overseas on active duty. The message Oprah relays is that like military families, the United States, as a nation, will not be whole again until all of our service men and women return home. Until then, however, Jeep—through its partnership with the USO—proudly supports “our nation’s heroes.”
As Chrysler well knows, patriotism is the one emotion that unites like nothing else. In fact, it’s hard to resist a commercial like this—one that celebrates the sacrifices that service families make—especially when those sacrifices are so clearly depicted on screen. The question remains, however, as to whether it’s right to capitalize on these sacrifices. Though it’s easy to forget, Chrysler’s main purpose behind the “Whole Again” commercial is to sell more Jeeps. And while their secondary purpose may very well be to advertise their partnership with the USO or even to give the USO some free publicity, presumably, they’re only doing this to sell more Jeeps as well.
Regardless of Chrysler’s true motivation, for a brief moment, the “Whole Again” commercial brought our attention back to America’s real heroes and away from the athletes who are too often idolized as such. For doing that, and for not featuring a Jeep until at least midway through the ad, we’re thankful and are already looking forward to next year’s Chrysler commercials.
This post was contributed by Brittany Cermak, senior editor at MotorCar.com—the World’s Largest Luxury Car Marketplace.
More than 2,000 years ago, China’s First Emperor built a burial complex guarded by a large terracotta army, intended to protect him in the afterlife. Now, some of those warriors are making the journey to Chicago’s Field Museum in their latest exhibition China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, opening March 4, 2016.
The exhibition features more than 170 objects including stunning bronze artifacts, weaponry, and ten of the famed terracotta figures. Terracotta Warriors will introduce visitors to Qin Shihuangdi —China’s First Emperor—who united a country and built an army to last an eternity.
Around 7,000 of these six-foot-tall and taller warriors—significantly taller than men of the time—were found buried in three pits at the emperor’s tomb [Credit: Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum]An Emperor’s Rise to Power and Lasting Influence
One of greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century, the terracotta army was created by Qin Shihuangdi, the First Emperor of China. His rise to power in 221 BC ended an era known as the “Warring States” period, during which China was composed of seven competing states and was marked by instability and broken alliances.
Emperor Qin Shihuang, depicted here, commissioned the giant tomb for himself before he died [Credit: Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum]Qin Shihuangdi used an organized military, superior weapon technology, and a strong cavalry to defeat his enemies and establish a unified state. During your visit to the exhibition, you’ll discover crossbow bolts and a reconstructed wooden crossbow. This weapon revolutionized warfare, allowing archers to shoot nearly 900 yards, with less skill and strength than was needed for a bow and arrow. You will also encounter other weapons used by Qin military forces, including a long, chrome-plated sword, lance heads, dagger-axes, and spears.When the Terracotta Warriors were excavated from the emperor's tomb, starting in the 1970s, many were broken like these ones, and needed to be put back together by conservators [Credit: Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum]Although the First Emperor’s reign was relatively short, he enacted several important innovations that left a lasting impression on China. Many of these are still evident today. He worked to strengthen his newly founded empire by building a great wall (the pre-cursor to China’s “Great Wall”) to protect his land in the north and west. In an effort to increase trade, he constructed new roads and canals and even regulated cart axles so that wheels uniformly fit the newly constructed roads.This archer, one of the guardians of the emperor’s tomb, likely once held a crossbow [Credit: Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum]In order to rule effectively, a single currency, a standard form of writing, and a standardized system of weights and measures were all put into place. Examples of these innovations are all on display within the exhibition, including several Qin banliang (ban-lee-ang) coins—round coins each with a square hole—as well as a mold used to mass-produce these coins. This coin type became the standard form of Chinese currency for the next 2,000 years.
An Emperor’s Final Resting Place
Even though the Emperor made public improvements in his country, he was not without enemies; three unsuccessful assassination attempts increased his fear of death and drove his quest for immortality. With death constantly on the Emperor’s mind, and a desire to rule forever, Qin Shihuangdi began constructing a palace for his afterlife and instructed craftsman to make a terracotta army to protect him after his death.
The Chinese painted the Terracotta Army figures, but the pigments deteriorated over the years. Conservators try to preserve the remaining colors [Credit: Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum]For more than 30 years, legions of workers contributed to this massive undertaking—some even paying with their life. Around this underground palace were representations of the Emperor’s officials, warriors, buildings, parks, and animals—everything he would need to carry on his rule without end. The First Emperor even included what are believed to be acrobats, musicians, and exotic animals in his tomb to provide entertainment.Each warrior has a unique face and hairstyle due to different molds and details added by hand postconstruction [Credit: Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum]After the Emperor’s death, the terracotta warriors, generals, and others lay buried until 1974, when a farmer digging a well discovered them. Although the tomb itself was known historically and was visible on the landscape, the vast burial complex surrounding the site had been unknown until then. Archaeologists began work excavating the site, a process that continues today. Hundreds of pits, covering an area of nearly 22 square miles, have been located so far, and it is estimated that more than 8,000 figures were buried at the site.Chariots were an important part of China's army during the emperor's reign—hence the more than 130 models like this one discovered in the Terracotta Army pits [Credit: Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum]Terracotta Warriors has nine full-size human figures, including several warriors, a general, an acrobat, and an official, on display as well as one life-size horse. Although most of the clay figures have lost the bright hues of their original paint and only provide faded glimpses of the way the army looked during the Emperor’s lifetime, you will encounter two replica warriors, painted in the vivid purple, teal, and red that the terracotta army wore.
Excavations continue today, but the central tomb of Qin Shihuangdi remains sealed. Stories tell of a celestial ceiling mapped out in pearls and a mercury river, but none of these written accounts have been confirmed. Visitors to the exhibition will learn about the scientific investigations hoping to shed light on the mysteries of the tomb.
China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors was organized by The Field Museum in partnership with the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Army Museum of the People’s Republic of China. Major sponsors: Discover, Exelon, United Airlines.
China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors is currently showing at The Field Museum, Chicago, and will run until January 8, 2017.
The US president Barack Obama insists on carrying out detailed audit of the American arsenal of nuclear arms, newspaper The New York Times writes on September, 8th.
Results of this work will allow to define, as far as possible to reduce their stocks within the limits of the new contract which is planned to sign with Russia.
Last time defensive department of the USA carried out similar audit in 2001. Military men have come to conclusion, that the American army will enough have from 1700 to 2200 nuclear warheads ready to application. This indicator suited also administration of then US president George Bush. Now Moscow and Washington are full determination to reduce the nuclear arsenals even more, that is one of the diplomatic purposes of the American president.
Nevertheless, as underlines The New York Times, the detailed analysis of a condition of the American nuclear arsenal in this situation is critical for the USA. He will allow to define a minimum quantity of necessary arms, and also to answer other questions. In particular, what rockets, bombers and submarines the Pentagon, and also what means to spend for their modernisation taking into account if the nuclear weapon appears at other states should keep.
In 1960th years of the USA possessed an arsenal in 32000 nuclear warheads, however by the moment of signing of the contract on reduction and restriction of strategic offensive arms in 1991 their number was reduced to 10500. In 2009 The Federation of American Scientists has informed, that Washington has lowered number of warheads ready to application to 2200. It happens for three years before the terms provided by the international arrangements.
belonging to army of the USA and being in National museum of health and medicine of the USA, it becomes fast entirely it is free of charge accessible on Flickr according to licence Creative Commons.
This earlier not published archive contains more than 500 000 unique images — from them approximately 225 000 on the approach and prepare for publication this year. All numbering and the publication was executed by Mike Roud, the main employee of archive.
Working in the evenings, Mike with colleagues has selected almost 800 photos from archive and has laid out in the Network (they are on a hyperlink above), without the special permission from military men. "People pay taxes", — Mike, — "And here speaks your photos. You should have possibility them to see."
The new “Vikings” exhibition at Discovery Times Square is, in a sense, built around something that isn’t there.
The exhibition, which opens on Friday, was organized by the Swedish History Museum in conjunction with MuseumPartners in Austria, and the people behind it really want you to know that during the 350 years (750 to 1100) that Viking culture flourished, horned helmets were never a thing. They have amassed 500 artifacts — some copies; many the genuine article — to make the point.
There’s not a horned helmet among them (unless you count an amusing sight gag as you exit), because no such headpiece has ever come out of an archaeological dig. The ubiquitous headgear often associated with Vikings, we’re told in the exhibition, actually came out of the imagination of an 1876 costume designer staging a Wagner opera. And that’s not the only misperception this exhibition is intent on correcting.
The first thing you see in the introductory film as you enter is a farming scene. Raiding was certainly part of what Vikings did, but it is de-emphasized here — perhaps too much so — in favor of displays that highlight social and religious life and try to give women their due.
Countless fictional portrayals might have left the impression that Viking culture was somehow 90 percent male, wild-haired and sword-wielding, but of course it wasn’t, as the jewelry and many other women’s artifacts here attest. The now-rusted keys on display, we’re told, were often carried by women, because with men frequently on the road, they ran the farm.
A display of swords in the “Vikings” show includes the prized Ulfberht [Credit: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times]If Viking society wasn’t all male, it probably wasn’t all that wild-haired, either. Both women and men possessed combs, generally made of bone. Tweezers and other grooming tools are also on display. There’s even a bronze “ear spoon,” because apparently Vikings were no fonder of waxy buildup than anyone else.
What’s most interesting about the exhibition, though, is the way it places Vikings within the evolving world. It includes, for instance, a shell found on Gotland, the Swedish island, that came from the waters off distant Cyprus, because one thing Vikings were good at was getting around.
The Gokstad boat [Credit: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times]“The word ‘viking’ was something that you did, it wasn’t something that you were,” Sophie Nyman, director of exhibitions, marketing and visitor services for the Swedish History Museum, explained during a pre-opening tour. In the original meaning, one went “on a viking” — a journey for trading, raiding or settlement. Only in the 19th century did the word come to mean the people themselves.
From Scandinavia, the Vikings vikinged far and wide, encountering other emerging cultures. The exhibition is organized by themes rather than chronologically, and the cross-cultural pollination is especially clear in a section on religion. Norse gods and Christian symbolism combine on brooches and pendants, tangible evidence of the kind of slow cultural conquest or merging that is harder to dramatize than a plain old military invasion but fascinating to contemplate.
Rune stone reproductions at the “Vikings” exhibition at Discovery Times Square [Credit: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times]“We think that people were very pragmatic,” said Lena Hejll, senior curator and project manager at the Swedish museum. “They used the gods they needed for different parts of life.”
The ships that made all this roaming possible are well represented. There’s a reproduction of a Viking boat, but just as compelling is a display that speaks to the archaeologist’s frustration: So many materials, including wood, deteriorate in a harsh climate. The display — “We call it the ghost ship,” Ms. Hejll said — consists only of what might be left of a ship at an archaeological dig: the metal hardware that held it together. Dozens of weatherworn rivets and other pieces of ancient hardware dangle from strings, creating the shape of a vessel; only the actual vessel is missing.
A hanging boat sculpture features iron rivets [Credit: Hiroko Masuike/ The New York Times]Ms. Hejll and Ms. Nyman said public interest in the Viking age has been high of late, both in Scandinavia, where a certain nationalist sentiment is associated with Vikings, and elsewhere, as evidenced by the television drama “Vikings,” which returns for its fourth season this month on the History channel. That presumably makes this traveling exhibition attractive for a for-profit museum like Discovery Times Square — it has already made nine other stops, including Chicago and several cities in Canada — as well as giving the show’s creators a chance to expand the public perception of the Viking era.
The exhibition is geared toward a general audience, with several interactive features likely to appeal to children. One especially illuminating one involves shipbuilding. It presents a graphic display of a landscape, then asks you to select what you’d need to build a Viking ship. Rope? Sure — make that choice and all the horses in the landscape lose their tails, because horsetail hair was used for rope. Wood? Of course — make that selection and all the trees disappear. Deforestation, it turns out, was not just an Industrial Age problem. The Viking commitment to a seafaring life was also a commitment to expend a lot of natural resources.
A gilded trefoil brooch, made of bronze [Credit: Hiroko Masuike/ The New York Times]The threat of exhausting environmental resources isn’t the only problem 21st-century inhabitants share with the Vikings of a millennium ago. There are, of course, swords in this wide-ranging exhibition. One display is devoted to the Ulfberht, a particularly prized type of sword inscribed with that moniker — the Gucci bag of medieval blades. And, we’re told, as with Gucci bags, there were imitation Ulfberht swords. The long tradition of street-corner knockoffs is, it seems, considerably longer than most people realize.
The Vikings Exhibition runs from Feb. 5 – Sept. 5, 2016, at Discovery Times Square: 226 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NYC.
Author: Neil Genzlinger | Source: The New York Times [March 02, 2016]
Clearing of prisoners Guantanama — accident or law? Destruction of vineyards in California — of what does not remind? And turns in food shop of Seattle? The analysis of these and other data unequivocally speaks — to the USA at full speed there is a reorganisation.
Former Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev hopes, that new US president Barack Obama will undertake reforms and will essentially change the American policy. Already now, for the promised changes in the country, some name Obama "the American Gorbachev"...
"Own reorganisation" is necessary to America, — Gorbachev in interview to news agency Associated Press has declared. With it some ill-wishers of mister Obama agree also: they recollect, that after Gorbachev's liberal reforms in 1991 Soviet Union has collapsed, and wait, that policy Obamy will lead to the USA to crash.
Gorbachev, however, is convinced, that strong America is necessary to the world, and financial crisis has clearly shown it. The ex-president of the USSR has urged Washington to use the influence on the blessing of all planet. "That is bad for America, is bad for all world", — he has noted.
Earlier Gorbachev already declared, that only by means of new reorganisation it is possible to win world financial crisis, and also asserted, that the future US president should change seriously a former course to restore balance on a planet.
Now Gorbachev has added, that many world leaders, including heads of Russia and Iran, aspire to improvement of relations with Washington, and has urged the president not to miss this possibility.
He has suggested a policy to reconsider the decision on placing of systems ABOUT in Poland and Czechia. Making comments on threat of president Dmitry Medvedev to place a short-range missile in Kaliningrad, Gorbachev has noticed, that it was not attempt to check up on durability of the new US president. — It was simple an echo of the past epoch, — he has declared. — If you will make it to us, we will answer you the same... — It it is not necessary To us.
Speaking about, whether Vladimir Putin can return to the Kremlin by early election, Gorbachev has told: "To tell the truth, I do not think... It all the same that the United States initiate new elections right after these". He has added, that many Russian consider Putin as stronger leader, but has underlined, that Putin and Medvedev is one command. "To Russia a tandem, a normal tandem, it does not represent danger", — Michael Gorbachev has calmed.
On the river Potomac near to the Pentagon doctrines of the Coast guard of the USA on September, 11th have taken place, informs CNN.
Doctrines have coincided on time with speech of the US president at mourning ceremony in memory of acts of terrorism on September, 11th, 2001. Eyewitnesses have heard, as the Coast guard boat through a loudspeaker demands, that other vessel has stopped. Then local residents have heard shots: it was informed, that them was ten.
Officials in Washington, however, have declared, that during doctrines nobody shot. The coast guard fulfilled actions at intrusion of a suspicious vessel into the given zone.
Barack Obama has arrived on September, 11th to the memorial complex opened one year ago in the Pentagon. One of four planes stolen by terrorists in September, 2001 has fallen to headquarters of the Ministry of Defence of the USA, 184 persons there were lost. In total victims of acts of terrorism on September, 11th became more than 3000 persons.
On October, 28th, 1929 The Wall Street Journal left under heading: Dow Jones Industrial has fallen on 38,33, that meant index falling on 12,82%. Next day the index has fallen to 30,57 points or 11,73 %. These two days of falling of the market of a steel the second and the third among record days of falling of an index in percent the relation.
Within 6 days the index (Dow Jones Industrial Average) has lost more than 96 points or about 30%. Within six days the industry has lost 96 points is about 30 % of cost. So one of the most serious economic crises in history began: «Great Depression».
In a photo — the leading article of newspaper The London Herald from October, 25th, 1929 with heading «WALL STREET CRASH!» And article describing events «Black Thursday in America».
Soon after elections of the American president on the country the wave of propaganda processions of gays and lesbians has swept.
They demanded equality. If to face the truth, they have equality, anybody does not punish them for in what they are engaged in the personal bedrooms, but they have not enough of it, they constantly excite the public, drawing to themselves attention, propagandising the sexual life, imposing the given type of sexual relations all and all.
Impose by means of a megaphone of mass-media. Some weeks all television screens, even rather serious news programs, were shaken with war round the Ms. of America. Well the statement of the Ms. of America was not pleasant to one of gays, he has expressed in this occasion rather cynically, but what for to make around it noise all over the country?
Have pulled together huge forces, put a microphone to lips of stars and inhabitants, millionaires and politicians.
The Ms. of America has decided «to beat out a wedge a wedge»: has declared, that the same sights at marriage at an idol of the country of Barack Obama.
But campaign did not stop, because with arrival of liberals to all double-entry bookkeeping takes place: two we write — one in mind. Officially the president has the wife and children, but informally (because the official press does not discuss this problem) on book shelves there was Larry Sinclair's book «Barack Obama and Larry Sinclair — Cocaine, Sex, Lie and Murder?» About unisex sex of the author with «the future Supreme commander in chief». Why the white House is silent? In his hands the unknown power is concentrated... Probably to the White House it is favourable, that in air hung — "perhaps". After all it too voters.
Meanwhile, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation — GLAAD with pride has informed on the achievements: «this year after three-year recession number of gays and other representatives of sexual minorities in films more than will double. Programs with heroes LGBT will make 2,6% from all displays of TV in 2009 in comparison with 1,4% in 2005, 1,3% in 2006, and 1,1% in 2007». Active workers of sexual minorities are happy with work of television channels ABC and NBC, but criticise cable networks where the number of their heroes has decreased with 40 to 32, and also channels CBS and Fox.
Owners of the White House throw down a challenge of traditional morals.
According to approximately 2,8% of men and 1,4% of women lesbians or bisexuals are identified as gays. Thanks to huge advertising last years of men of 9,1% and 4,3% of women participated in unisex sexual relations at least once. Why participated without physiological predisposition? Because it is fashionable.
The percent grows thanks to propagation influence. The propagation, the come to power liberals. US State Secretary Hillari Clinton has published an explicit statement on the occasion of a month of gays and the lesbians, founded by her husband in 2000 in which the governmental plans accurately appear: «... I highly appreciate courage and resoluteness of gays, lesbians and the bisexuals, shown by them within last forty years, and I offer our support in that important work, which else it is necessary to execute».
She has noted and State department work: «We are grateful to our employees-lesbians, gays, bisexuals and the transsexuals working in Washington and worldwide».
Proceeding from this extremely frank statement, the government is going to entrust these people any extremely important work, important in universal scale...
What happens when you take two brand new Audi RS4s, put them in a military aircraft hanger designed to house fighter jets, mount high performance paintball guns on the bonnets and challenge them to the ultimate paintball duel? This happens and it is awesome.
The drivers are Jim Dowdall & Colin Skeaping, two of the UK's most experienced stuntmen, listen as they talk about their day job and CVs that include doubling for Luke Skywalker & Stormtroopers in the early Star Wars films, clip below.
Here is a cool behind the scenes look at the duel in the making.
and a list of what you'll need to get it done: 2 2013 RS 4 Avants — S Tronic 2 Stunt drivers 1 Decommissioned MOD aircraft hangar 3 Browning.50 cal replica paintball guns 12k Paintballs 6 Paint grenades 400L Poster paint 2 RED EPIC cameras 14 Go Pros 6 DSLRs 1 Hexacopter (aerial camera) and then 48hrs of clean up!
An island at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Sicily occupied a pivotal place in antiquity between Greece, North Africa, and the Italian peninsula.
Statue of a Youth (The Mozia Charioteer), Sikeliote (Sicilian Greek), 470–460 B.C. Marble. Courtesy of the Servizio Parco archeologico eambientale presso le isole dello Stagnone e delle aree archeologiche di Marsala e dei Comuni limitrofi–Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi. By permission of the Regione Siciliana, Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana. Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana. Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, on view at the Getty Villa April 3–August 19, 2013, will showcase ancient Sicily as a major center of cultural innovation from the fifth to the third centuries B.C., when art, architecture, theater, poetry, philosophy, and science flourished and left an enduring stamp on mainland Greece and later on Rome.
“This is the first major exhibition to arise from the Getty’s 2010 Cultural Agreement with Sicily, presenting masterpieces that are among the most accomplished examples of ancient Greek art in the world,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
“We are especially thrilled to have on view the exceptional statue of a victorious Charioteer from Mozia that the Getty has recently conserved. This object is a unique expression of the marvelous artistry of Greek sculptors at the dawn of the Classical era.”
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, features some 150 objects, a major portion on loan from institutions in Sicily, including stone and bronze sculptures, vase-paintings, votive terracotta statuettes and reliefs, carved ivory, gold and silver metalwork, jewelry, inscriptions, architectural revetments, and coins.
“These splendid objects bear witness to the athletic and military victories, religious rituals, opulent lifestyles, and intellectual attainments of the Sicilian Greeks, which shaped Greek culture at its peak,” explains Claire Lyons, acting senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition.
The Mozia Charioteer
The Mozia Charioteer, widely considered one of the the finest surviving examples of Greek sculpture, serves as the exhibition’s centerpiece. Recently on view at the British Museum in London during the 2012 Summer Olympics, the statue has since undergone conservation treatment at the Getty Villa. Part of the Getty’s cultural agreement with Sicily, this 18-month collaborative conservation project involved remounting the sculpture and the provision of a seismic isolation base, which will accompany the object when it is reinstalled at the Whitaker Museum on the island of Mozia.
The triumphant Mozia Charioteer, discovered in 1976 on the island of Mozia in western Sicily, is believed to represent a charioteer who competed at Olympia on behalf of one of the Sicilian rulers. The extraordinary style of the sculpture, especially notable in the sinuous pleating of the long linen xystis that sheathes the figure’s athletic physique, is a tour-de-force of stone carving. Clearly a master of his craft, the sculptor was able to reveal the torso and limbs beneath the thin fabric. With its confident gaze and proud stance, this statue conveys the high level of originality and experimentation achieved by Greek sculptors working in Sicily.
The “Signing Masters”
Important evidence of Sicilian artistic innovation is also apparent in the exquisite coins of the time. Beginning in the late fifth century B.C., a group of Sicilian Greek coin engravers, mainly based in Syracuse, added their signatures to the dies used to stamp coins. Known as the “Signing Masters,” these remarkable craftsmen created extraordinary works of art on a miniature scale. Departing from the traditional profile view, they devised novel ways of representing the human body in a lively three-quarter perspective or striking frontal pose. This testimony of individual mastery of the medium is virtually exclusive to Sicilian Greek coins created around 400 B.C. Often abbreviated in tiny but legible script, the artists’ signatures are typically all but hidden in locks of hair or elements of jewelry.
Known as the “coin of coins,” the unique Aitna tetradrachm from the Royal Library of Belgium is one of the most precious ancient coins in the world. On view in the exhibition along with 50 other exceptionally crafted Sicilian Greek coins, the image on the tetradrachm depicts the head of Silenos on the obverse and on the reverse, Zeus enthroned with an eagle perched beside him, imagery that alludes to the cult of Zeus on Mt. Etna. Greek settlers and their gods
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome will also examine how settlers from the Greek mainland brought their myths and religious practices to Sicily. To sanctify new colonies and maintain ties with mother cities, they built altars and temples to such gods as Apollo, the patron deity of colonists, as well as the deified hero Herakles. Included are terracotta heads of Apollo, Hades, and Persephone, created as cult or votive images of deities that played a central role in ancient Sicilian worship. The skillfully modeled clay, embellished with striking polychrome pigments, compares favorably with the most accomplished works in marble and bronze. An exceptional example of metalwork is a religious offering dish made of two and a half pounds of gold. Known as a phiale mesomphalos, the vessel is embossed from the center outward with bands of beechnuts, acorns, and bees above blossoms; the owner’s name —Damarchos, son of Achyris— is inscribed beneath the rim, together with its equivalent weight in gold coins.
The divine hero Herakles was also embraced by Greek settlers, who linked his deeds to their cities. Contrasting aspects of Herakles’ identity —peaceful healer, solitary herdsman, and violent aggressor— heightened the appeal of his cult among the men of rural Sicily, who tended flocks and worked as mercenary soldiers. Among the objects on view is a finely preserved bronze statuette of Herakles recovered from a river-bed in Contrada Cafeo (Modica), which suggests that a shrine to the hero was situated nearby.
Preeminent among the honored deities was Demeter, goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone (or Kore). Sanctuaries of the goddesses dotted the island, but their cult was most enthusiastically embraced in central Sicily, where, according to myth, Kore descended to the Underworld as the bride of Hades. Depictions of these deities include a terracotta bust with a rare painted figural scene that may represent part of a ritual honoring or celebrating the goddesses, and a cult statuette disc overed near an altar in Gela together with an offering jug of carbonized seeds of grain.
Archimedes of Syracuse
A section of the exhibition will focus on Archimedes of Syracuse (about 287–212 B.C.), one of history’s foremost scientists and mathematicians. More than a millennium ahead of its time, his work laid the foundation for branches of math, physics, engineering, and even computer science. When Syracuse’s King Hieron II asked him to determine whether a crown was made of pure gold, Archimedes made his legendary deduction that a solid displaces a volume of liquid equal to its own volume, a discovery that supposedly caused the scientist to leap from his bath and run naked through the streets crying “Eureka” (“I have found it!”).
On view is a leaf from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the only surviving manuscript containing copies of Archimedes’ writings. The medieval prayer book that included this leaf was inked by a scribe onto recycled parchment that originally bore the theories of Archimedes. The pages were scraped clean before being overwritten, but with the use of advanced imaging technology, the original writing is visible. The leaf on view is a section of text from “Proposition 1” from Archimedes’ Method, a work integrating geometry and physics.
Literature on Sicilian art
Finally, the exhibition examines the reflections of literature in Sicilian visual arts. Many mainland Greeks became familiar with Sicily through the epic poetry of Homer, including Odysseus’s wanderings after the Trojan War, which took him to the western Mediterranean.
Often depicted in vase-painting and sculpture, Odysseus’s encounters with strange creatures like the Cyclops and Scylla were allegories for early colonial settlement and trading enterprises that spread Greek culture to distant, exotic regions. The pastoral genre created and perfected by the Syracusan poet Theokritos (about 300–after 260 B.C.) flourished as Sicily was falling under the dominion of Rome in the third century B.C. He is renowned for his Idylls (literally, “little pictures”), which paint nostalgic word-images of Sicilian country life from the point of view of a sophisticated urbanite. Theokritos’s rustic characters—including satyrs, shepherds, and the woodland deity Priapos—also populated the visual arts of the period, attesting to the appeal of rural fantasies during a time of civic turmoil. On extended loan from Syracuse, a life-size statue of the fertility god Priapos, the earliest such figure in Greek art will be featured in the exhibition. Like the Mozia Charioteer, it was also the subject of a collaborative conservation project undertaken by the Getty Museum.
The importance and popularity of Greek comedy and drama outside of Athens is evident in the theatrical figurines, masks and scenes on vases, many of which come from the island of Lipari. The celebrated “Father of Tragedy,” Aeschylus (Greek, 525–456 B.C.) traveled to Sicily on at least two occasions, where his plays found fertile ground in the strong local tradition of performance on the island.
On display is a terracotta mixing vessel with the earliest known depiction of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, which likely reflects a performance of Sophocles’ Andromeda (about 450 B.C.). The Greek inscription painted above the figure of Perseus—“Euaion, the son of Aeschylus, is handsome”— names the actor, son of the great tragedian.
Rich harvests, bountiful seas, and a favorable trade location brought immense wealth to the Sicilian city-states, and the exhibition highlights their widespread reputation for luxurious lifestyles with five gilt-silver vessels, part of a larger group of fifteen. The silver treasure had been buried for safekeeping beneath the floor of a house in Morgantina during the Roman sack of the city in 211 B.C. The entire hoard comprises religious vessels as well as a set for the symposion, a convivial drinking party for men that was an important part of the social life of well-to-do Greeks.
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome is the latest in a series of cooperative efforts between the Getty and the Sicili an Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity arising from a 2010 agreement that calls for a number of collaborative projects, including object conservation, seismic protection of collections, exhibitions, scholarly research, and conferences. Recent related projects include the 2010 loan of the Gela Krater, a monumental red-figured volute krater (wine mixing vessel) attributed to the Niobid Painter; The Agrigento Youth, a rare example of an early classical marble statue called a kouros (an idealized nude young man), loaned to the Getty from the Museo Archeologico Regionale in Agrigento (2010/2011); and most recently the loan of thirty-six objects from the sanctuaries of Demeter at Morgantina (2012/January 2013).
The exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, and celebrates 2013 as the Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realized under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Italy.
As a member of the Macy's Military Executive Development Program, Michael Byard shares his thoughts on the vital role veterans can play as leaders at work an in our communities.
“The archaeologist,” said Sir Mortimer Wheeler, one of the grand old men of archaeology, “is digging up, not things, but people.” The point about sites of antiquity is that, often surviving in a fragmented state, their meaning doesn’t immediately rear up and hit you between the eyes. It can be hard on a 21st century holiday to see a temple and imagine the priests and priestesses, the colours, the crowds, the ceremony and the sacrifices.
Selinunte – ancient Greek archaeological site in Sicily, Italy [Credit: Chiara Marra]But tours with the specialist company Andante are led by archaeologists who understand how to translate the remains left by real people into the story of ancient lives, lived thousands of years ago.
Sicily’s archaeology is extremely high calibre. The island was at the centre of trade routes in the days when travel was often easiest via sea. Ancient empires, from the Greeks and Romans to the Moors and the Normans, cast covetous eyes upon Sicily and left an enduring imprint with a great many magnificent buildings.
When the Greeks arrived here shortly after the turn of the first millennium BC, they quickly settled and started building their magnificent stone temples on an enormous scale. At Agrigento, they were erected along a ridge to create an intimidating line of massive architecture visible from the sea, which remains visually arresting today.
At Syracuse — once occupied by the Corinthians and over which the Greeks and Romans waged a drawn-out war – much of the story is told by remaining monuments: temples, fortifications and the famous stone quarries which doubled as the final prison of thousands of enemy soldiers used as slaves, most of whom died.
All of ancient life is here; religious, military, those of vast fortune with their showy villas, as well as the gifted craftsmen and artists who made them.
In some places in Sicily, the archaeologist’s trained eye helps put together the less obvious clues to bring the place vividly back to life.
The 12th century cathedral at Monreale is one of Sicily's most impressive sights [Credit: Telegraph]At others, such as the grand 12th-century Norman cathedral of Monreale, or in the private chapel of Roger of Sicily at the palace in Palermo — both decorated with glittering swathes of Byzantine mosaics — you put the brain on hold and simply succumb to the pulse-quickening visuals.
The Graeco-Roman theatre at Taormina, set against the formidable backdrop of Mount Etna, also takes some beating for sheer emotional impact.
Andante stresses the “knowledge worn lightly” aspect of these comprehensive tours of the island, and also offers a Relaxed Break here – seven days based in one lovely hotel on the island of Ortygia with your own archaeologist, as well as Andante With Independence, for those who want the archaeologist and the specialist arrangements, but less of the “group” aspect.
Sir Mortimer would have been proud — on every tour it is not the monuments that are the focus, but the people who made them.
Author: Jack Wilkinson | Source: The Telegraph/UK [February 03, 2012]
When MJZ Director Rupert Sanders and Grey New York needed high-end VFX to bring a World War II epic, a medieval fantasy battle, and a bit of science fiction together in a new spot for DIRECTV, they turned to the team at MPC. The spot is a showcase of MPC’s impressive skillset and resources. The LA office led a team that included artists across MPC’s global family of studios, taking the project from rough concept design to photo-real rendering to flawless compositing.
“This was one of those projects that only comes along once in a while,” noted MPC LA Managing Director Andrew Bell. “To help create three disparate and fantastic environments with such an incredible director and agency is a VFX team’s dream come true.”
Acclaimed production designer Dominic Watkins (National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Bourne Supremacy) and his art department helped MJZ transform a quiet canyon two hours north of Los Angeles into the otherworldly scenes. Working with MJZ’s footage of a battle scene populated with 50 extras in authentic military garb, Jeeps, a burnt-out half-track, derelict troop carriers, and a Sherman tank, MPC joined forces with the physical special effects experts at Full Scale Effects to help provide in-camera explosions and balloon lights to illuminate the vast canyon. MPC enhanced these elements in VFX as well as adding the parachute flare in CG.
They also collaborated to create the computer-generated dragon and a spectacular live-action fireball of dragon’s breath. Watkins worked closely with Sanders to recreate the backdrop with several imaginative twists, including a matte painting, a gnarled tree reaching toward the moon from a built-up hill, and a valley rippling with trees, scorched earth, and the skeletons of fallen combatants. The spot’s samurai warrior was shot onsite with a high-speed Phantom camera and lit by glimmering heatwaves to match the CGI dragon.
“One of our greatest challenges in this sequence was to have the dragon’s fireball interact with, but not touch, the warrior and his stallion,” said Mike Wynd MPC LA’s VFX Supervisor. “We solved this problem by digitally rearranging the scene to provide more distance between the two opponents with some of the live-action trees moved and foreground scrub added.”
To create the UFO scene, a small second-unit MJZ team shot the car traveling down a darkened country road. MPC then added the computer-generated spaceship and digitally added light to the ground, the car, its shadows, and the surrounding scenery. The studio also added additional atmosphere and jolted the power poles and cables with an alien-induced shake.
MJZ shot the plates of the back-seat observer with a green screen outside the windows and MPC composited the outside environments in afterward. MPC sealed the effort with interactive lighting in both the live-action and digitally enhanced segments.
View the: 60 version below the credits.
Credits: Client: DIRECTV Spot: “Road Trip” Air Date: May 2013 Agency: Grey New York President/CCO: Tor Myhren Executive Creative Director: Todd Tilford Executive Creative Director: Perry Fair SVP Creative Director/AD: Denise O’Bleness Executive Producer: Andrew Chinich Associate Producer: Lindsay Myers VP Account Director: Tamar Arslanian VP Account Director: Beth Culley Production Company: MJZ Director: Rupert Sanders DOP: Greig Fraser Producer: Laurie Boccaccio Editorial Company: Work/Spotwelders Editor: Neil Smith VFX: MPC LA Managing Director: Andrew Bell VFX Supervisors: Franck Lambertz, Mike Wynd VFX Team: Ben Persons, Brendan Smith, Sharon Marcussen, Brinton Jaecks, Ryan Knowles, Mike Wynd, Ross Denner, Daniel Marsh, Fred Durand, Ian Wilson, Danny Wynne, John Cherniack
The exhibition "The Roman villa in Chatalka site. The wealth of a Thracian aristocrat" is a result of a successful collaboration between the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum and the Regional Museum of History Stara Zagora. It presents the lifestyle of wealthy Thracian aristocrats, owners of villa rustica, built in the 1st c. AD in Chatalka site, close to the city of Stara Zagora.
The exhibition includes valuable artifacts found in Roshava Dragana tumulus, where some of the family members who possessed the estate were buried, as well as items from other tumuli of the necropolis of the villa.
Protective and offensive weapons, a rare bronze helmet mask among them, refer the owners to the local military aristocracy. The gold jewellery and breastplates found in graves of a man and a woman, and the gold wreaths confirm their high social status. Luxury items imported from the East and Italy, parts of the furniture, such as candelabrum with an image of herma with faces of two youths, balsam-containers and perfume vessels reflect their exquisite lifestyle.
The implements attest to the main activities of men and women who lived in the villa. Various inquisitive objects, usually neglected and forgotten in the museum depots, are displayed for the first time at one place. Agricultural tools, model mould and pottery indicate the source of the wealth of the owners of this estate. Votive tablets of the Thracian Horseman discovered close to the residential sector of the architectural complex and the mound necropolis of the villa reveal the Thracian origin of the inhabitants.
Group of silver cups of Boscoreale type and rare glass vessels found near the city of Stara Zagora, complete the notion of the rich urban life of the local Thracian aristocracy comparable to the lifestyle of the Roman nobles in Italy.
The opening is on May 22nd 2015 in the National Museum of Archaeology, Sofia. The exhibition will be on display until September 10th, 2015.
Source: National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences [June 01, 2015]
Gorbachev, however, is convinced, that strong America is necessary to the world, and financial crisis has clearly shown it. The ex-president of the USSR has urged Washington to use the influence on the blessing of all planet.
Speaking about, whether Vladimir Putin can return to the Kremlin by early election, Gorbachev has told: "To tell the truth, I do not think...
Have pulled together huge forces, put a microphone to lips of stars and inhabitants, millionaires and politicians. 
According to approximately 2,8% of men and 1,4% of women lesbians or bisexuals are identified as gays. Thanks to huge advertising last years of men of 9,1% and 4,3% of women participated in unisex sexual relations at least once. Why participated without physiological predisposition? Because it is fashionable.
