In the 19th century, electricity held life in the balance, with the power to execute – or reanimate. By Ruth Garde / 04.20.2017 Curator, Creative Producer, Writer The devastating power of electricity gave good cause for the unease and fear it evoked. And yet the risk of lethal injury was what made it so fascinating and its[…]
Electrified humans brought education and performance together with a spark in the 18th century. By Ruth Garde / 04.12.2017 Curator, Creative Producer, Writer Eels had become unwitting performers in demonstrations of natural electricity after the 1770s, but the human body had been an indispensable element in public displays of artificial electricity since the 1730s. Enthusiasm for such[…]
The Kingdom of Guatemala within the wider Spanish Americas, c.1600 (click image to enlarge) / Image by Giggette, Wikimedia Commons Colonization of the area that became the Captaincy General began in 1524. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 11.27.2018 Public Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Introduction The Captaincy General of Guatemala (Spanish: Capitanía General de Guatemala), also known as the Kingdom[…]
Mayan architecture, Tikal, Guatemala Maya civilization developed in a territory the size of Germany and Denmark together. By Dr. Genner Llanes Ortiz / 08.15.2014 Professor of Anthropology University of Leiden Pic 1: Map showing the main regions of Maya culture (Click on image to enlarge Obscured by the fame of the Aztec empire or shrouded by a[…]
Fragment of an inscripted clay cone of Urukagina (or Uruinimgina), lugal (prince) of Lagash. The inscription reads: “He [Uruinimgina] dug (…) the canal to the town-of-NINA. At its beginning, he built the Eninnu-(E-ninnu or Temple-Ninnu); at its ending, he built the Esiraran”. / Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Louvre Museum, Wikimedia Commons When secular governors supported by the armies appeared[…]
The “Burney Relief,” which is believed to represent either Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war, or her older sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the underworld (c. 19th or 18th century BC) / BabelStone Sex was central to life in ancient Mesopotamia, reflected even in their mythology. By Dr. Louise Pryke / 04.22.2018 Lecturer, Languages and Literature of Ancient Israel Macquarie University[…]