Rick Lithan | Ancient History Originals 🏺

Single most memorable painting I've ever encountered was in the streets of Oia, Santorini 🇬🇷

@capcutapp @PaigePiskin Plain ugly

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@occamsrazor22 Haven't learned much about it yet tbh, if I am not mistaken it is about Mediterranean <-> NA connection based on copper trade around 2-3 millenia BC?

@ricklithan They were ancient seafarers to America.

Djoser's collection is fascinating, but we're sleeping on the Minoans: veined marble, dark limestone, spotted obsidian, rock crystal... Each one required different tools, different tolerances, different ways to fail. Minoan stoneworkers were operating across all of them. Zakros, 1500-1450 BC. 📍 Heraklion Archaeological 🏛️

@visualsancients Along with the island! I'd like to spend there a month with a car 🤤

@ricklithan Nice shot! What an amazing museum.

@pcmathematician Thank you for the hint 🙌 Timing couldn't be better as I was planning to batch view some of Luke's videos anyway, curious to see what he is cooking

@ricklithan Luke Caverns made a wonderful video recently comparing the Minoans to Atlantis. Worth a watch. x.com/lukecaverns/st…

“No human thing is of serious importance.” Livin' a little this weekend, shall we?

@AHC_Channel @yazidihimyari Wild! Apparently there are a handful of alabaster ones, but not a single one identified as Nabatean betyl, just as per OP's title - "South Arabian Alabaster Anthropomorphic Stele" How's that I wonder Very peculiar

@yazidihimyari @ricklithan

South Arabian Alabaster Anthropomorphic Stele

Each time I see a Bodhisattva, I get the feeling I wasn't supposed to. Enlightened Ones who reached the finish line and walked back. Chose to stay until every sentient being makes it across first. This is Avalokiteshvara, "Lord of the World who looks down full of compassion". This piece is 20cm tall, holds eleven heads, dozens of hands, and hundreds of details that literally hypnotise you. Seen in Cologne museum.

@CultureExploreX Deluge by Aivazovsky

What painting first made you stop, stare, and never forget it? I will go first: Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli at the Uffizi

@visualsancients I’m telling you we have a shot at that Colossus puzzle 😂😂😂

@AHC_Channel @Dan__Stevens @history_rev @plastolithic Man that’s exactly what I was thinking wandering around Petra - the whole place is helluva statement. It’s not about the facades even.

@Dan__Stevens @ricklithan @history_rev @plastolithic Farhad Tarash, I think, makes one helluva a statement.

Stoa of Attalos, Athens, Greece. #nubs Photos: L. Fawzy

@AHC_Channel @Dan__Stevens @history_rev @plastolithic This is mindblowing

@DanB64479572 My pleasure! Glad you liked it 🌹

@ricklithan Nice thread Rick! I never knew that about the roses being the dragon’s blood. Thanks for sharing. 👏

Today is one of my favourite days of the year - Catalonia celebrates Sant Jordi ✨️ Streets flood with book stalls and roses. Museums open their doors. People smile brighter than the sun. Here is how this tradition came to be 🧵

@Dan__Stevens @AHC_Channel @history_rev Agree

@AHC_Channel @ricklithan @history_rev This is a really valid point here.

@AHC_Channel @Dan__Stevens @history_rev Appreciate the lengths you’ve gone to lay all that out, AHC 🙌As usual, learning so much from you.

@Dan__Stevens @ricklithan @history_rev Similar to rituals where ancient relics are brought out of archives and sanctuaries to be publicly displayed, as proof of legitimacy / authority. ...Which would go back to Dan's statement about branding.

Go find a book for someone. Buy a rose. Visit a museum if one is open near you. Catalonians say Sant Jordi is their Valentine's Day. This is when they say I love you. But not only to each other. To Beauty and Knowledge as well.

Catalonia took a Roman soldier, a medieval dragon legend, and a bookseller's commercial idea — and built something worth celebrating every year.