Minerva Magazine 202
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Making a splash
How did water go from being something to fear to a place of privilege in Greece and Rome? Karen Eva Carr plunges into the cultural history of swimming.
Secrets of their craft
Many metalworkers and ceramicists in Renaissance Europe seemingly had no qualms about killing a lizard – or other animal – for their art. Pamela Smith investigates the intriguing practice of life-casting that turned nature into art, and why artisan authors recorded practical knowledge in words.
Early ochre workshop discovered in east Asia
The study suggests that the site may represent an early colonisation attempt by modern humans.
Museo Barracco: a head for sculpture
Having brought together ancient Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian artefacts to create a museum of comparative sculpture, Baron Giovanni Barracco gave his collection of antiquities to the city of Rome in 1902. Now housed in a 16th-century palace in the Italian capital, the little-known Museo Barracco showcases ancient artistry and the activities of collectors, both at the turn of the century and in ancient Rome. Dalu Jones is our guide.
Persepolis, 1935
Persepolis paintings perfectly glorious’ was the verdict Prentice Duell cabled from Egypt to James Henry Breasted, founder of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (OI). He had just seen the
H of H Playbook
Review by Lucia Marchini. The myth of Heracles, his heroic strength and ability to meet seemingly insurmountable challenges, has proven an enduringly popular one. Emperors and kings made use of his mighty
Archaeologists unearth Roman London’s luxury lodgings
Excavations found the mosaic in what is thought to have been a Roman dining room at The Liberty of Southwark site.
The search for Shackleton’s ship
The excellent state of preservation of the ship meant that once this wreck was located it was easy to identify, with its name still visible.
The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts
Review by Andrew Robinson. All academics would presumably regard writing as one of the world’s great inventions, perhaps even the greatest invention. Philologist Silvia Ferrara certainly does. An expert on the undeciphered
Jeanne Dieulafoy (1851-1916)
“The Dieulafoys were unconventional to the point of scorn: Jeanne routinely wore male clothes…”
Trench Art: the Art of War
From buttons to artillery shells, a range of items from battlefields have been transformed – often by soldiers – into powerful and personal pieces of ‘trench art’. Nicholas J Saunders explores some of the human stories of life and death sealed within these creations.
Neolithic ritual complex discovered in Jordan
Two stelae are examples of some of the oldest artistic expressions in the Middle East.
On show in 2022: exhibitions from around the world
The dates listed below may have changed since we went to print. Check the websites of the museums for the most up-to-date information and bookings.
Institutions acquire new artworks inspired by the ancients
A rare history painting by the French artist Marie-Guillemine Benoist (1768-1826) has recently joined the collections of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Photographing Mosul, 1944
Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery: ‘Anthony Kersting: Kurdistan in the 1940s’
Converting the Caucasus
According to legend, a king who had been saved after being turned into a boar ordered the conversion of Armenia to Christianity. From these royal beginnings came fights between crown, clergy, and defenders of different creeds. Christoph Baumer takes us on a journey through the ecclesiastical conflicts of the Caucasus and to its magnificent early churches.
Words of Wisdom: ‘At home, you can say or do anything’
What buddies could you prefer to a faithful wife? What brothers can you imagine skipping out on her for? A wife’s more trustworthy than friends, more faithful than a brother, and a beautiful bride even beats your mom for loyalty.
Minerva Magazine 194
Solar Power at Stonehenge
The people of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe explored their connection to the sun in a range of ways, from monumental stone circles to small gold discs. As a new exhibition opens at the British Museum, Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Wexler to find out more about the ideas that linked them.
At Home in Roman Egypt: A Social Archaeology
At Home in Roman Egypt offers the first full-scale investigation of life as experienced by the ordinary people of Roman Egypt in the 1st to 4th centuries AD. It approaches the subject
Ancient Greek necropolis to welcome visitors in June 2022
The Ipogeo dei Cristallini is situated just outside the limits of ancient Neapolis.
Off with their heads! The emperors of Chiragan
One of the finest collections of Roman emperors is to be found far from Rome in the Musée Saint-Raymond in Toulouse. But where did they come from, and how did such a magnificent gathering of Roman emperors come to lose their heads? The late Roman Empire was a time of growing religious intolerance. In the East, a Christian mob destroyed the Serapeum temple at Alexandria: did a similar outburst of violence take place in south-western France? Andrew Selkirk investigates.