Funerary complex of the 5th Dynasty pharaoh Unas at Saqqara / Photo by Kurohito, Wikimedia Commons By Mary Harrsch / 08.25.2016 Roman Historian Ancient Times A history resource article by Mary Harrsch © 2016 King Unis is one who eats men and lives on gods, Lord of messengers, who dispatches his messages; It is ‘Grasper-of-Forelocks’ living in Kehew Who binds them[…]
An example of a French salon, by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier, 1812 / Musée national du Château de Malmaison, Paris By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages The Enlightenment: British The major philosophers with whose work we are primarily occupied represent only a portion of the eighteenth century’s great cultural upheaval, often known as the Enlightenment. A[…]
Figure 1. Rhodian rectangular amphora stamp with the name of Agathoklês [Delos, TD 4033]. By Dr. Nathan Badoud / 09.11.2017 Professor of Classical Architecture Université de Fribourg One day in July 1555, the great Sicilian scholar Tommaso Fazello (1498-1570) found near Heloros an amphora handle on which he read the name Agathoklês (fig. 1). Thoroughly steeped in the literary[…]
A perfume-pot made from amber and depicting cupids and a panther. Roman, Aquileia, 100-120 CE. (British Museum, London) By Mark Cartwright / 09.11.2017 Amber, the fossilised resin of trees, was used throughout the ancient world for jewellery and decorative objects. The main source was the Baltic region where amber, known to mineralogists as succinite, was washed up onto beaches[…]
Painting of David Hume, by Allan Ramsay, 1754 / Scottish National Portrait Gallery By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Life and Works Soon after completing his studies at Edinburgh, Scottish philosopher David Hume began writing his comprehensive statement of the views he believed would contribute to philosophy no less than[…]
By Emmy Blotnick / 12.15.2015 1. MECCA Coffee was banned in Mecca in 1511, as it was believed to stimulate radical thinking and hanging out — the governor thought it might unite his opposition. Java also got a bad rap for its use as a stimulant — some Sufi sects would pass around a bowl[…]
Ambroise Paré, Les œuures d’Ambroise Paré, conseiller, et premier chirurgien du roy (Paris: Gabriel Buon, 1579), pp. 939–40. Wellcome Images By Sarah Pipkin / 07.26.2017 In the collected works of Ambroise Paré (c. 1510–90), first published in French in 1575, a ‘Book of monsters and prodigies’ appears alongside other subjects including the setting of bones, the identification[…]
Figure 1. 1684 depiction of Vitruvius presenting De Architectura to Augustus (Source: Vitruvius on Architecture by Thomas Gordon Smith) By Shirley N. Chen / 12.04.2015 Purpose Books III and IV of De Architectura will mainly be used to provide an focused analysis of how building principles containing previous knowledge gathered and organized by Vitruvius in combination with his[…]
Waldseemüller map (Martin Waldseemüller) from 1507 is the first map to include the name “America” and the first to depict the Americas as separate from Asia. There is only one surviving copy of the map, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2001 By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Pierre Bayle:[…]
Palace Acropolis at the Maya city of El Peru-Waka in northern Guatemala. (Map by Damien Marken) 09.12.2017 The tomb of a Maya ruler excavated this summer at the Classic Maya city of Waka’ in northern Guatemala is the oldest royal tomb yet to be discovered at the site, the Ministry of Culture and Sports of[…]
Oak Grove Acapella Singers, a Gospel group of Chester County, Tennessee, being recorded while singing in the office of the preacher at the Oak Grove Church of Christ. Tennessee State Library and Archives By Dr. Jerry Zolten / 06.29.2017 Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Pennsylvania State University The first truly African-American musical form, the[…]
Entrance to Prosilio tomb 2; horse bits found with the burial (Yannis Galanakis) The discovery this summer of an impressive rock-cut tomb on a mountainside in Prosilio, near ancient Orchomenos in central Greece, will shed new light on Mycenaean funerary practices. 09.14.2017 For the first time, archaeologists have uncovered and carefully documented an intact burial in[…]
Waldseemüller map (Martin Waldseemüller) from 1507 is the first map to include the name “America” and the first to depict the Americas as separate from Asia. There is only one surviving copy of the map, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2001 By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Baruch Spinoza:[…]
The Knight from the Ellesmere Manuscript of the Canterbury Tales By Dr. Eric Weiskott / 09.15.2017 Assistant Professor of English Boston College In the 13th century, English poetry changed dramatically. There were no battles, no pamphleteering, or Ezra Pound-style polemics, and no warring factions. Yet by the end of the century, a poetic revolution had[…]
Roman Forum / Wikimedia Commons Lecture by Dr. John Scheid / 02.07.2001 Professor of Ancient History Collège de France The Romans never departed from their custom of paying homage to the gods every time they started a new activity. Our predecessors in these premises, like the first royal lecturer of Latin Eloquence, Barthélémy Latomus born[…]
By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Life and Works After receiving a sound education in mathematics, classics, and law at La Flèche and Poitiers, René Descartes embarked on a brief career in military service with Prince Maurice in Holland and Bavaria. Unsatisfied with scholastic philosophy and troubled by skepticismof the sort expounded by Montaigne,[…]
Adolph Hitler greets members of the clergy at a rally Lecture by Dr. Alec Ryrie at Barnard’s Inn Hall / 03.09.2017 Professor of Theology and Religion, Dunham University Visiting Professor of Religion, Gresham University I have given a series of lectures on ‘extreme Christianity’, and it does not get much more extreme than this. You[…]
The Melnikov House. View from the courtyard. 2015. © Pavel Kuznetsov A new grant will enable conservation specialists to study this cylindrical house by Russian architect Konstantin Melnikov in preparation for its restoration as a public museum. By Antoine Wilmering / 08.28.2017 Senior Program Officer Getty Foundation Over the past four years the Getty Foundation[…]
Pons Fabricius, built in 62 BCE By Ian Dahl / 10.04.2013 Introduction and History When I first heard about the “Oldest Bridge in Rome,” I was intrigued to say the least. While everything in Rome is old, it is rare to find anything built in the first century BC that has been preserved in its[…]
Waldseemüller map (Martin Waldseemüller) from 1507 is the first map to include the name “America” and the first to depict the Americas as separate from Asia. There is only one surviving copy of the map, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2001 By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Humanism and[…]
Studio portrait of Ernst Haeckel in his tropical explorer’s gear, date unknown / New York Public Library An early promoter and populariser of Darwin’s evolutionary theory, the German biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel was a hugely influential figure of the late 19th century. Bernd Brunner looks at how a trip to Sri Lanka sowed the[…]
Henricus de Alemannia with students in a medieval university, by Laurentius de Voltolina, second half 14th century / Kupferstichkabinett Berlin By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Bonaventure and Aquinas St. Bonaventure receives the envoys of the Byzantine Emperor at the Second Council of Lyon, by Francisco de Zurbarán / Louvre Museum, Paris Reviving the West[…]
Jean Fee shows photos from her time as a nurse midwife for the Frontier Nursing Service. / Photo by Melissa Hellmann In Kentucky, these health care professionals still struggle for acceptance—even in areas that need them most. By Melissa Hellmann / 09.07.2017 Carrie Hall was in the middle of a hair-coloring appointment when she received[…]
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (original), photographed by Alfred Stieglitz in 1917 after its rejection by the Society of Independent Artists By Dr. Stephanie Chadwick / 09.04.2017 Assistant Professor of Art History Lamar University Art as provocation When you look at Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, a factory-produced urinal he submitted as a sculpture to the 1917 exhibition of the Society of Independent[…]
A line drawing of Epictetus writing at a table with a crutch draped across his lap and shoulder. Frontispiece drawn by “Sonnem” and engraved by “MB”. / Boston Public Library By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages The Hellenistic World The great golden age of Athenian philosophy, encompassing Socrates,Plato, and Aristotle only lasted for about[…]
At the time of his inauguration, George Washington was described in almost universally glorified terms by the national presses. However, by the end of the President’s first term, hostile newspaper writers were attacking the administration’s domestic and foreign policy. These attacks escalated in Washington’s second term into personal attacks questioning his integrity, republican principles, and even military[…]
By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Logical Methods The greatest and most influential of Plato’s students was Aristotle, who established his own school at Athens. Although his writing career probably began with the production of quasi-Platonic dialogues, none of them have survived. Instead, our knowledge of Aristotle’s doctrines must be derived from[…]
Nukuoro Atoll, Micronesia / Archive: NASA, International Space Station By Dr. Fanny Wonu Veys / 09.08.2017 Anthropologist of Material Culture Curator of Oceania National Museum of World Cultures At the crossroads of cultures Nukuoro is a small isolated atoll in the archipelago of the Caroline Islands. It is located in Micronesia, a region in the[…]
Plato statue / Photo by lentina_x, Creative Commons By Dr. Garth Kemerling / 11.12.2011 Professor of Philosophy Capella University Philosophy Pages Plato: Immortality and the Forms William Blake, The Spirit of Plato unfolds his Worlds to Milton in Contemplation / Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art A Faithful Student The most illustrious student Socrates had in philosophy was Plato, whose beautifully written dialogues not only offered[…]
Plato, Confucius and Aristotle. Ancient Greek philosophy is widely taught in American universities, but classes in Chinese philosophy are few and far between. Public domain By Dr. Bryan W. Van Norden / 07.19.2017 Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor of Philosophy Yale-NUS College Part of what U.S. diplomats and informed citizens need to know is[…]