Myth Crafts

Erotic Art in Pompeii and  Herculaneum has been both exhibited as art and censored as  pornography. Roman cities around bay of Naples were destroyed by  eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, thereby preserving their buildings and artefacts until extensive archaeological excavations began in 18th Century AD. These digs revealed the cities to be rich in erotic artefacts such as statues, frescoes and household items decorated with sexual themes. The ubiquity of such imagery and items indicates that treatment of sexuality in ancient Rome was more relaxed than in current Western culture. However, much of what might strike modern viewers as erotic imagery, such as oversized phalluses, could arguably be fertility imagery. Depictions of phallus, for example, could be used in gardens to encourage the production of fertile plants. This clash of cultures led to many erotic artefacts from Pompeii being locked away from public for nearly 200 years. In 1819 AD, when King Francis I of Naples visited Pompeii exhibition at Naples National Archaeological Museum with his wife and daughter, he was embarrassed by erotic artwork and ordered it to be locked away in a "secret cabinet", accessible only to "people of mature age and respected morals". Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years, Secret Museum, Naples was briefly made accessible at the end of 1960s (time of sexual revolution) and was finally re-opened for viewing in 2000. Minors are still only allowed entry to the once-secret cabinet in the presence of a guardian, or with written permission. 📷 : A 1st Century AD; Roman Mosaic from the entrance to the Caldarium in the House of Menander in Pompeii. The Mosaic depicts, a man carrying water vessels. #archaeohistories

Crocodile-skin Suit of Armour (3rd Century AD) : 'In ancient Egypt the crocodile was seen as sacred and divine, and worshipped as a god, so this suit might have been worn by priests of the crocodile sect who by wearing such a garment would take on the spirit of the deity. In many parts of Africa the crocodile is seen as a fearsome and invincible creature and so I think that by wearing crocodile armour and a headpiece like this, a warrior might be transformed in some magical way and take on the attributes of the animal.' When the province of Egypt became part of the Roman Empire, it put Romans into direct contact with Egyptian culture and religion. In Egypt Roman garrisons were closely integrated into civic and religious life and participated in local cults. Around Manfalout, on the banks of the Nile in central Egypt, Roman soldiers were particularly attracted to the crocodile cult centred on the sacred grottoes of the region. This imposing armour is made from the skin of a crocodile. It comprises a helmet and cuirass (body armour) and would have been used in military-style ceremonies of the regional crocodile cult. The skin has been radio-carbon dated to the 3rd Century AD. It was presented to the British Museum in 1846 by a Mrs Andrews, who was among a group of European travellers to Manfalut who found grottoes containing the mummified remains of humans and animals, including many crocodiles. Although the cold, dry environment of the grotto preserved the suit well, the cuirass in particular was flattened and brittle. It has been painstakingly remoulded by the British Museum's Department of Conservation. © British Museum #archaeohistories

Dogs have been man’s best friend from the beginning. It’s very possible, however, that the dog is a better friend to man than the converse. For instance, dogs likely helped modern man outcompete and thus outlive Neanderthals. Furthermore, dog ownership is linked to improved psychological and physical health, according to the CDC. In light of the special relationship with our four-legged friends, it’s interesting to explore when we first domesticated dogs, and why this relationship came about. Most modern dog breeds share European ancestry, and Europe is a crucially important geographic domain for the evolution of dogs. The oldest domestic-dog remains were discovered in Europe, with a 14,700 year-old jaw bone uncovered in Germany. (Older remains found in Siberia and the Middle East are more controversial in provenance.) To make things a bit more nebulous, ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) indicates a European origin of dog domestication, while mitochondrial and genomic data from modern dogs indicate East Asian, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian origins. In a study published in Nature Communications, Krishna R. Veeramah and co-authors wrote, ”[O]ur results are consistent with a scenario where modern European dogs emerged from a structured Neolithic population. Furthermore, we detect an additional ancestry component in the End Neolithic sample, consistent with admixture from a population of dogs located further east that may have migrated concomitant with steppe people associated with Late Neolithic and Early Bronze age cultures, such as the Yamnaya and Corded Ware culture.” Of note, the Neolithic period in Central Europe occurred between 7,500 and 4,000 BP (Before Present). Based on paleogenomic analysis, the investigators concluded that Eastern and Western dogs diverged between 17,000 and 24,000 years ago, representing a single origin for domestication, which existed between about 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. Dogs are the first animals to be domesticated by humans, and the only one domesticated by our mobile hunter-gatherer forbears. Intriguingly, wolves and humans competed for resources as pack hunters of large prey and were capable of killing one another. The question therefore arises as to how humans—who had a partially overlapping ecological niche with wolves—were able to turn them to the docile dog we know and love today. In a recent article published in Scientific Reports, Maria Lahtinen and co-authors hypothesized that humans domesticated this once-competitive species based on food/resource partitioning: “Our calculations show that during harsh winters, when game is lean and devoid of fat, Late Pleistocene hunters-gatherers in Eurasia would have a surplus of animal-derived protein that could have been shared with incipient dogs,” they wrote. “Our partitioning theory explains how competition may have been ameliorated during the initial phase of dog domestication. Following this initial period, incipient dogs would have become docile, being utilized in a multitude of ways such as hunting companions, beasts of burden, and guards as well as going through many similar evolutionary changes as humans,” they concluded. In other words, humans may have tamed wolves and made them dogs with excess lean meat provided during the harsh Ice Age winters. (Apparently, like man, the way to a dog’s heart is through the stomach.) After all, humans can only eat so much lean meat due to the liver’s finite ability to metabolize the stuff, whereas wolves/dogs could subsist solely on this lean meat for months on end. This early exchange could be one reason why dogs and man get along so well today. © Naveed Saleh (Psychology Today) #archaeohistories