Intact, Packed Etruscan Tomb Found

Discovery News ^ | December 4, 2015 | Rossella Lorenzi

[nopardons]

Okay, that’s funny ! LOL

[nopardons]

It’s really difficult to tell...isn’t it? LOL

[nopardons]

I first learned about the Etruscans in first year Latin and have been fascinated by these ancient peoples ever since.

We were told, in school, that they were indigenous, but other than that, I really don't know.

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What exquisite workmanship !

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What exquisite workmanship !

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LOL....Don Draper, is that who is really buried there ?

[nopardons]

The first appearance of J. Michigan Frog? LOL

[Daffynition]

Gold Disc with Bees, 700-600 BC. Collection of Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

[SunkenCiv]

I love the MFA. Between my first visit (hmm, probably late 1970s?) and my second visit (hmm, probably mid-1980s) all those marvelous colossal 4th dynasty statues and sculptures from Giza had been surrounded by those thick velvet ropes. It didn’t stop the feral larvae from climbing all over them, of course.

[SunkenCiv]

It was one war after another in the Precolumbian Americas — in Central America one town would make a sneak attack on another, then torture the members of the captured ruling family to death, taking their time about it. One archaeologist who has nothing bad to say about the anti-scientific NAGPRA law, related an anecdote in his book, regarding the find of a precolumbian ossuary (that was news to me); he contacted the local tribal council, talked to someone he’d had a number of contacts with over the years, and was told, no, not ours, that’s some other tribe (he named it, I’m runnin’ on fumes here), “we’ve been killing them for generations”.

[Daffynition]

It was fun to view Monet's haystacks in different lights and seasons... I swear they had a life all their own

Ahh, the good-ole-days...times have changed.

Did you have a chance to visit the Garner [down the Fens a couple of blocks]?

We would go on Sunday afternoons to the Gardner and study near the courtyard, to the sound of live chamber music. Enchanting. ;)

[Daffynition]

Garner = Gardner

[SunkenCiv]

Nope. I didn’t and still don’t like impressionists’ stuff, although they look spectacularly better when viewed in person rather than as a print. As a print they have all the impact of grasspaper wall treatments.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

later

[eartrumpet]

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Love Kliban.

[Daffynition]

I understand.

The Impressionists ability to be rebels and try to capture the essense of the moment in time. That touched the farmgirl in me. Always attuned to what a change in the weather and the subtle differences between a chill in the morning air and a frost that could mean the difference between blossoms setting, and bees coming out of the hive, to do their thing. Geeze.....what am I trying to say?

Never mind ....just another brain f@rt. I'm not making any sense. ;)

Independence; That's it! Independence. >8-0

[SunkenCiv]

One of my big favorites is Guisepppe Arcimboldo "the Marvelous", the often ignored precursor to the impressionists, also to most of the 20th century art movements, including those poker-playing dogs:

[Bernard Marx]

The gold disc with bees is a fine example of a goldsmithing technique called granulation. Tiny gold beads of uniform size are used to make intricate decorations on a gold base. The Etruscans were unparalled masters at it. They created some amazing works of art using it, with what we'd call primitive furnaces and tools.

The question that remains today is how did they do it? In very recent years modern smiths have been able to duplicate the technique using cutting-edge technology but we still have no idea how the Etruscans accomplished it. How were they able to make the beads of such uniform size? How were they able to bond them to gold objects using no flux (a method called eutectic bonding) using ancient technology? No one knows.

[Daffynition]

Whoever the artisan was, they had to have small fingers. Perhaps a woman? The work is stunning.

I didn't know that the Capitoline Wolf, was considered an Etruscan bronze, feeding the twins Romulus and Remus.