One of the oldest known copies of the Koran went on show at the British Museum today ahead of a new exhibition.
The Koran, lent by the British Library, will be part of the exhibition, Hajj: Journey To The Heart Of Islam, the first major collection dedicated to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to…
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Anti-Semitic propaganda used to be mass-produced and available in the guise of home accessories. Manufacturers in Europe and the United States caricatured Jews as shabby, greedy and menacing, and put these depictions on cigar boxes, candlesticks, trays, tiles, walking sticks, puppets and…
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Evolution: 1 Creation: 0
(Source: dangerousminds.net, via kaleidoscopicmind)
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Sokushinbutsu - Buddhist ritualistic self-mummification
For 1,000 days (a little less than three years) the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive.
(via theossuary)
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Stone Lion’s Head, Neo-Assyrian, about 680-670 BC, From Sippar, southern Iraq at the British Museum
This lion’s head of white limestone comes from the Temple of Shamash. Known as the Ebabbar (‘Shining Temple’), it was one of the most important traditional and prestigious religious centres in Mesopotamia. Rulers sent offerings to Shamash and there are records of numerous kings restoring and rebuilding the temple. This head, which was originally inlaid, bears a worn inscription naming the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680-669 BC) and his father Sennacherib. It is not clear, therefore, whether this is a Babylonian or an Assyrian piece. Esarhaddon was responsible for restoring the capital city of Babylon following its destruction by Sennacherib in 689 BC. Lions were regularly represented in Mesopotamian art on wall reliefs and as elements of furniture. The lion represented the power of nature and is often associated with the king, as it was his duty to defeat the forces of nature that the lion represented.
D. Collon, Ancient Near Eastern art (London, The British Museum Press, 1995) R.D. Barnett, Fifty masterpieces of Ancient (London, The British Museum Press, 1969)
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Varvakion Athena. Imperial Roman marble miniature copy, 2nd c. AD, of the colossal chryselephantine Athena Parthenos, ca. 432 BC, by Pheidias.
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Mictecacihuatl
Known as the Mistress of Bones and the Lady of the Dead, she is the Queen of Mictlan, the Aztec Underworld, who still presides over today’s Day of the Dead rituals. Sometimes known now as La Huesuda, she brings peace and joy to the spirits of the deceased, and blesses the living who do honor to those who have passed before them.
(Source: bluesforspacegirl, via cavetocanvas)
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“A would-be Palestinian suicide bomber freed by Israel in the prisoner swap for soldier Gilad Shalit told cheering schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip the day after her release on Wednesday she hoped they would follow her example.
‘I hope you will walk the same path we took and G-d willing, we will see some of you as martyrs,’ Wafa al-Biss told dozens of children who came to her home in the northern Gaza Strip.
Biss was travelling to Beersheba’s Soroka hospital for medical treatment in 2005 when Israeli soldiers at the Erez border crossing noticed she was walking strangely. They found 10 kgs (22 lbs) of explosives had been sewn into her underwear.”
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This is the severed head of Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) in the Basilica San Domenico in Siena. Her thumb, in a separate reliquary, hangs out nearby. Her foot, reportedly, is in Venice, and the remainder of her body is in Rome. From Wikipedia:
She was buried in the cemetery of Santa Maria sopra Minerva which lies near the Pantheon. After miracles were reported to take place at her grave, Raymond moved her inside the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where she lies to this day. Her head however, was parted from her body and inserted in a gilt bust from bronze. This bust was later taken to Siena, and carried through that city in a procession to the Dominican church.
When she was young, she had a vision of Jesus placing a wedding ring on her finger, and for the rest of her life she claimed she could still see the ring.
The ring? It was made of foreskin. Jesus’, of course.The mummified head of St. Catherine
(via theossuary)
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