Rare, multidimensional art has been discovered in a Tanzanian cave shelter. However, the ritual scenes depicted in the ancient art don’t tally up the traditions of the modern Sandawe people...
Mad emperors, fierce warriors, brutal entertainment, and lascivious lifestyles. These are the familiar images of ancient Rome, but what was it really like? Rumors abounded regarding Roman emperors...
Craig Barker / The Conversation Rarely does L.P. Hartley’s dictum that “the past is a foreign country” hold more firmly than in the area of sexuality in classical art. Classic erotic art, erotic...
“Magic preceded art, art served magic, and art was then liberated from magic.” This was among a number of sometimes controversial assertions made by Scottish anthropologist James Frazer in his 19 th...
Vatican City, known officially as the Vatican City State, is the smallest and one of the most remarkable countries in the world. It is enclaved within Rome , the capital of Italy . There are only...
In many ways this has been a difficult year, but in the realm of archaeological research some major discoveries have been made around the world. Lost cities and tombs have come to light, the...
A huge, headless religious statue has been discovered carved into the rock face under apartment buildings in China. It is of questionable age - some claim it’s from the Republican era and others...
Paleo rock art from around the world ranges in style, method, and age, and includes cave paintings, petroglyphs, pictographs, polished and engraved stones such as effigies, stone sculptures, and...
Today, bigger is widely regarded as better. But was this always the case? This article sheds some light on how the Western culture changed in its phallic preferences. Over the past few decades,...
The Panyer Boy is a mysterious relief found in London. As indicated by its name, the sculpture depicts a boy seating on what seems to be a basket. Additionally, there is a stone plaque with an...
Experts have found a giant new cat geoglyph in Peru near the world-famous Nazca Lines. They identified the huge figure of the feline on a hill that overlooks the pre-Hispanic designs and features...
Although the word ‘Mandala’ simply means “circle” or “discoid object” in Sanskrit, the significance is far more complex. Traditionally, mandalas represented the intricacy of the universe and served...
The timeworn relationship between humans and animals has been found depicted on 570 ancient paintings discovered within 87 rock shelters in Western Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. In...
For thousands of years, an art form has existed that includes works in a wide range of media, including bark painting, ceremonial clothing, painting on leaves, rock carving, watercolor painting, and...
Take a moment, and close your eyes. Breathe deeply, and inhale the salt of the air and feel the light brush of low-hanging tree branches caressing your face. Feel the rocky ground beneath your toes,...
The British Library has digitized one of the most remarkable medieval books ever made in England. The Sherborne Missal contains many paintings on a vast array of subjects. Many of the images are...
Technology has allowed researchers many more insights into the past in recent years and helped several surprising discoveries to be made. Now, experts in Japan have used infrared camera technology to...
Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a 1,300-year-old church with exceptionally well-preserved mosaics beside the famous Biblical Mount of Transfiguration. Perhaps one of the widespread...
Examination of a tiny bone object extracted from a pile of waste material from digging a well in China revealed it to be what the experts think is the oldest example of three-dimensional art ever...
Paleolithic rock art found in Siberia and Mongolia is some 7,000 years older than previously thought, with ancient artists using the same artistic style in both locations. Scientists have closely...
In Egypt, archaeologists from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities have found a mysterious and diverse collection of rock art. They were located deep in a cave in the Sinai and are not like...
Experts investigating frescoes and artworks have made some important discoveries with regard to Minoan civilization . They have found that Minoan artists realistically depicted a species of monkey...
A deity with as many attributes as arms, Saraswati (or Sarasvati) is the Hindu goddess of aesthetics. These include music, the arts, wisdom and learning. She can be compared, in many ways, to the...
According to Classical mythology, the Nine Muses are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (or Memory). The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that these goddesses granted inspiration to those involved...
