interests, as seen at the british museum.

after popping into the british museum for a couple of hours and only three rooms, i realized that all the pictures i took fall into four categories. who wants a crappy reflected picture of the rosetta stone anyway when you could have a crappy reflected picture of stuff no one finds interesting and you're the only one photographing it? no one.

this means that none of your friends will want to look at your british museum pictures because they are "boring". oh well.

me, i like fiber working.

that, sir, is a fine-looking warp-weighted loom.

also, i enjoy spinning.


on to clothing, #2

the musem had dozens of these - intricate diadems and headdresses. very inspiring.

another interesting motif that was spread out over clothing depictions and silverware was the swaztika. i had no idea that the classical world used it - i was aware of the indus use - but emma told me that they discussed the motif in a beck class once. interesting.

the original gladiator sandal.
interest #3. geeky classical stuff. above, a stele involving a mithraic sentator. i quoted this stele in my honors thesis and got a little giddy in the museum. again, not interesting to most.


this is fucking neat. it's the second oldest surviving piece of virgil, and scholars think it was written as either a practice piece or in a repetitive way for memory. the piece quoted is 2.601,

"non tibi Tyndaridis facies inuisa Lacaenae
culpatusue Paris, diuum inclementia, diuum
has euertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam."

or, as fairclough translates,

"Know that it is not the hated face of the Laconian woman, daughter of Tyndareus, it is not Paris that is to blame; but the gods, the relentless gods, overturn this wealth and make Troy topple from her pinnacle."

neat!

4. food. [tangentially, mosaics.] [and apparently, just mollusks and the like]

what a nice thing to have on your kitchen floor.

this i like too, because you could just look down and be all like hey! those are tasty animals.

this is fucking neat! it's a colander. a strainer, from roman gaul. NEAT.


COMING UP: we go to an old crow medicine show, hyde gardens and have friends for dinner. THRILLING.