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30 Dec 20, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Thread:

Luca: Ciao Giovani, Marko, Fabrizio!!! Where's Giuseppe?
Marko: He said he didn't feel the best. Probably a hangover...Or black plague...

Luca: Ah well...Valpolicella or Nero d'Avola?

A conversation overheard in front of a "buchetta del vino" in Florence in 1630...
A "buchetta del vino"???

Between 1629–1631, the bubonic plague tore across what is now northern and central Italy, killing possibly as many as 2 million people, about one third of the population. It was a dark, fearful time.

But, people still wanted to get drunk...
And so enterprising wine merchants came up with a "buchetta del vino": a hole in the wall of a wine merchant or a restaurant, through which flasks of wine could be passed to people on the street...
Here is the scary bit: CNN reports about reopening of these drinking holes with the title: "The charming re-emergence of 'little wine holes' in Florence"....CHARMING?!? Are people gone totally insane?

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More from @serbiaireland

oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
31 Dec 20
Thread: Romanian bear dancers...At the end of the year, boys and men in eastern Romania put on heavy bear costumes, often made of real fur, and dance through the streets of towns and villages... Image
They dance to the rhythm of drums. In the end a ritual scene is performed in which the bear collapses because a demon is inside him. The "Gypsy" comes with a knife and bleeds the bear, lets the demon out and the bear gets resurrected

via @YouTube
In some versions of the tradition, the bear, the Gypsy and the drummers also go from house to house in the village, singing and dancing to ward off evil and bring good luck...
Read 20 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
29 Dec 20
Thread: These strange looking things are "yeast logs", also known as "magic sticks". A "yeast log" is a piece of brewing equipment, unique to Scandinavia used to store live yeast between two brewing sessions...
The log was lowered into the fermentation vat to catch the yeast that formed foam on top. Then the log was pulled out, rolled in flour, dried for a few minutes, dipped again and this process was repeated a few times. When properly covered in yeasty paste, the log was hung to dry.
Whenever brewers needed fresh yeast, they would place the "yeast log" into a covered vessel amongst two or three pints of luke-warm wort, and in two hours thereafter they would have fresh barm fit for immediate use...
Read 8 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
29 Dec 20
Thread: Why is Medusa depicted surrounded by the representations of the seasons? In the place where sun is supposed to be???
Why are the snakes replaced with locks of hair, just like the ones seen on old Helios coins?

Is this grumpy face actually the face of the sun, rather than the face of Medusa? Of the sun which is "pissed off" for some reason and is not doing things it is supposed to be doing? Like shining🙁This mosaic was made during the period of time when temperatures were plummeting...
Read 4 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
28 Dec 20
Thread: Scheibenschlagen (Disc beating) de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheibens…

The "disc beating" is a fire ritual in which burning wooden discs are hurled into valleys from hill or mountain sides...The ritual is performed on the eve of the first Sunday of Lent. Here is how it's done...
Boys and men climd to the hill, mountain side above the village, town just before dusk.

They bring with them circular "discs", as a rule made of beech wood with a hole in the middle, long sticks, torches and firewood...
Once on the summit, they light a fire until a large bonfire is brightly burning...
Read 15 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
27 Dec 20
Thread: Double-sided stamp seal, late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC. Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Official interpretation of the images: "nude winged hero dominating snakes" on one side and "winged dragon" on the other.
metmuseum.org/art/collection…

Hmmm... ImageImage
About the "nude winged hero dominating snakes"...This is not a "master of the animals"...This is Mesopotamian Shamash (or his BMAC equivalent), the sun god, with sun heat rays coming out of his shoulders...
And he is not dominating the snakes, he is holding the snakes because they are symbol of sun's heat. They are out only during hot part of the year...Here is the same dude with snake hands...I talked about the snake symbolism on BMAC artefacts in this post oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2020/06/bactri… Image
Read 8 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
26 Dec 20
Thread: Inlaid ivory panel depicting "lioness devouring a boy"... From the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, part of an almost identical pair, originally part of a piece of furniture, perhaps a throne. ca 899-700 BC... Image
There is something very strange about this "boy" being devoured by the lioness...His gold tunic and particularly his golden curly hair, indicate that this is not an ordinary boy...

Where did I see such golden locks??? Ah yes...

I would suggest that this young boy (we know it's a boy because he is wearing short skirt of youth and not the long skirt of adulthood) is the symbolic depiction of the young sun of spring and summer. Shamash (Utu)...
Read 25 tweets

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