Certainly one of my very favorite places to visit in Italy is the hilltop town in Umbria, known as Orvieto which has one the most spectacular cathedrals anywhere in the world. This post will focus on the cathedral itself. Notice in the picture above the bronze (now green in color), just like the bronze doors on St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. Here you see on the side of the cathedral why it has been called the zebra cathedral– the black... Read more
Apart from the bird stele above, it is not clear to me that any of this is grave art. It is more like permanent advertisements for the animal contests in the Roman arenas in which gladiators would fight animals in various places in the Empire, including in the province of Asia where these steles were found. The last one is probably meant to be Asclepius, since that is his symbol in the right part of the stone. Read more
There were three sorts of stones referred to in the Bible that were of significance— a cornerstone, which in antiquity was not some showy thing at the corner of a building with the name of donors on it, or the founding date of the building. A second sort was ‘the head of the corner’ which was an L shaped stone which joined togerther two walls at the top, keeping them together and solid at the top. Finally there were keystones... Read more
The discussion of how this archaeological project came about is in itself worth studying. Here is a chart outside the slope houses chronicling things. Surprisingly, there is a high vaulted meeting or dining room on the ground floor of these apartments as seen above, which set this set of apartments apart from any other set from antiquity that I know of. Were these residents such snobs that they couldn’t be bothered to go out to dine or have public meetings?... Read more
The slope houses are the amazing high rise apartment that the Austrian have unearthed at Ephesus. And the floors and walls there deserve to be highlighted in and of themselves. So check this out…. One of the stranger things that one did not expect to find in the plaster on the walls of these ultra expensive apartments is graffiti of any type, never mind the sort you see below. Rich people did not decorate their walls this way…. Besides the... Read more
It’s not just the technology that’s speeding up, everything seems to be in a world of fast food, fast tech, fast wifi, and of course fast cars. And none are faster than Formula One cars, sometimes doing actual road races, some doing races on a track. This movie has received some good reviews, and surprisingly the movie itself is not fast— 2 hours and 38 minutes, though the content makes it seem much faster. I saw it in HD and... Read more
Considering how vast the archaeological site at Ephesus is, it is shocking that there is not a proper sized museum in Kushadasi. But at least there are some fine things worth seeing in the little museum, which has a lot of busts and gladiator monuments. There is also a model of the temple of Artemis, and two statues of her. Since Artemis was a goddess of fertility those lobes on her breast are probably eggs, though some have thought they... Read more
Who was it that thought that was a safe angle to put rows of seats on a hill. Imagine drinking a little meade at the top and then trying to climb down to your seats half way down the slope. Yikes! The stage down below had to be moved around lest,it fall off the hill!! The temple of Dionysius was also right next to the stage, and here are the ruins. At least there are ruins to see of this... Read more
As history tells us, the reign of Trajan was involved the apex of the expansion of the Roman Empire. The emperor himself was flush with resources and all about honoring himself, by numerous building projects, in this case the giant temple built on top of the acropolis at Pergamon. To give you an idea of how egocentric this project was, there were already historically famous temples to no less than Zeus down below the acropolis top, and the temple of... Read more
The tourist visiting the site of the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, will be sadly disappointed. Only one meagre column still stands in a swampy field. Much more impressive is the remains of the temple of Artemis in Sardis. Artemis was not merely a one city deity, she was a regional deity of fertility among other things. The ruins at Sardis, which are apart from the main site one visits at Sardis are well worth exploring. For one thing, the... Read more
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