Thread: A Phrygian type, late Byzantine helmet, found 3 years ago in Northern Serbia...
This is what the helmet most likely looked like when it was in use...
And here is a depiction of Byzantine soldiers wearing this type of helmet, from the 12 century incensory, most likely made in Constantinople and currently in St Mark’s Cathedral, Venice, Italy...
The helmet was found in the rectangular field called "mali grad" (small city) 🙂 which is where the Byzantine fort once stood...
The field is in the village of Braničevo Once a very important Byzantine border fortress and the centre of a doukaton (duchy). It's name comes from from the Slavic root "bran" (defend)
Byzantines called it Branitzoba (Βρανίτζοβα) or Branitza (Βρανίτζα)...
This Phrygian type helmet is one of 3 such helmets discovered in the Balkans so far, all dated from the same period, 12th century...
Two found in Braničevo, Serbia. Third, this one, was found in Pernik, Bulgaria...
A lot more very interesting information about this archaeological site, the continuity of the use of Phrygian type helmets in the Eastern Roman Empire, and its spread to the west by Normans can be found in this article academia.edu/41423491/THE_P…
Mosaic from the St Mark’s Cathedral, Venice, Italy, second half of the 12th century, "St Peter in front of Herod Antipas". Soldiers wearing the same Phrygian type helmet. They look like Elves from Lord of the rings...🙂
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Thread: Illustration by Bernard Zuber for Maurice Garçon’s La Vie Execrable de Guillemette Babin, Sorciere, 1926.
May Day Eve (April 30) is across Northern and Central Europe known as Walpurgis Night, the night when everyone is trying to "ward off, scare, witches"...
Why?
Maybe this has something to do with the old Celtic calendar which divided the year into two halves:
Winter (Samhain, 1st of Nov - Beltane, 1st of May)
Summer (Beltane, 1st of May - Samhain, 1st of Nov)
Thread: This Is Mad! The almost complete collapse of the Earth's magnetic field around 41000 years ago most likely majorly contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals...
In the recent geological past, Earth’s magnetic field reduced to ~10% of the modern values and the magnetic poles shifted away from the geographic poles, causing the Laschamps geomagnetic excursion, about 41 millennia ago...
The excursion lasted ~2000 years, with dipole strength reduction and tilting spanning 300 years. During this period, the geomagnetic field’s multipolarity resembled outer planets, causing rapid magnetospheric changes...
Thread: Another interesting detail from this Daunian globular pottery askos, made in Canosa di Puglia and dated to 350BC-325BC, "painted with bands of decoration. This consists of flora and fauna, geometric patterns and swastikas"... metmuseum.org/art/collection…
Is this the symbol? Christmas cake from Serbia with the sun and "the hands of god" cross. The hands of god cross by itself in the next picture. The hands of god represent 4 seasons with 3 months each, which means that the god whose hands these are is the Sun
Thread: Daunian globular pottery askos, made in Canosa di Puglia and dated to 350BC-325BC, "perhaps for funerary use, painted with bands of decoration. This consists of flora and fauna, geometric patterns and swastikas"...
What about this detail? A curly swastika with each arm connected to a sun. Two of which are red and two of which are black.
That this is not a one off squiggle, can be seen from the fact that we find the same motif on this Daunian askos from the Heinz Weisz collection christies.com/en/lot/lot-572…
The problem was that The Roman winter was an Ugly Old Hag...And the woman on John William Waterhouse's painting was young and beautiful. I was sure I was missing something important, but I didn't know what...