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We tend to think of things that stand the test of time as being very durable, but this isnt necessarily

the case. Last year, a group of former Boy Scout leaders exploring Utahs Goblin Valley State Park
decided to topple over a 200-million-year-old natural rock formation. (They were later sentenced to
probation.) While they claimed that they destroyed the formation to prevent children from being
crushed by a falling boulder, their behavior provoked international outrage and reminded us all that
something 1,000 times older than humanity can be destroyed in a matter of seconds, and often
without very much thought or difficulty. In 2012, an 80-year-old parishioners attempt to restore Elias
Garcia Martinezs fresco Ecce Homo, depicting Jesus, famously turned it into a gruesome mess. What
was lost in this story was the relatively recent vintage of the paintingdating back to 1930, it was
about the same age as the parishioner who painted over itbut, much like the Boy Scout leaders
destruction of the natural rock formation, it was a reminder of how fragile objects can be, even in the
hands of people who care about them. It would be a shame if any harm came to the 32,000-year-old
paintings of the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-dArc in southern France, which is home to some of the worlds
oldest human drawings. Last weeks decision by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has placed
the cave on the organizations World Heritage List where it joins Spains Cave of El Castillo, which
contains the worlds oldest known cave art (dating back back over 40,000 years). The French
government has been very protective of the Chauvet Cave, prohibiting foot traffic and directing
tourists to a nearby replica instead, but the caves addition to the UNESCO list acknowledges the most
beautiful thing about artifacts of the ancient world: that there were vast periods of time during which
these fragile things could have been destroyed, and they were not
The Chauvet 'Venus':
The last and deepest of the Cave chambers, the Salle du Fond, is the home of the Chauvet Venus. From
the ceiling of the chamber, which is nearly 7 m [20 feet] high, a vertical cone of limestone hangs down
ending in a point 1.10 m [3ft 6 ins] off the floor. It is on this hanging outcrop that the Venus was drawn
in black charcoal. The black pubic triangle of the Venus is at eye level and seems to be the heart of the
composition. It is shaded in with black pigment. The white vulva slit appears to have been done later
with a pointed tool and is clearly indicated by a vertical line incised strongly enough to cut through
both the black pigment and the yellow surface film of the rock. The legs, with plump thighs, finish in a
point with the feet not shown. This Venus is absolutely classical and her proportions, the stylistic
elements, the selection of the anatomical elements shown are all characteristically Aurignacian or
Gravettian, as known from the small Venus statues of Central and Eastern Europe. The Venus is not
isolated. Other lines and realistic representations are associated with her, directly on the outcrop.
Higher and to the left of the Venus are two felines, a mammoth and a small musk ox. To the right of the
Venus is the "Sorcerer" or man-bison. The relation of the Venus to the Sorcerer cannot be simply
fortuitous. The Venus is the earliest of the designs. The feline on the left, the Sorcerer, and the multiple
lines on the right, are all painted or engraved later. Their creation entailed a voluntary and selective
local destruction of parts of the body of the Venus, the most obvious spot being at one of the upper
extremities of the pubic triangle. Even more surprising is the voluntary absence of any super
imposition. Neither the Sorcerer nor the large feline on the left cut across the Venus.The Venus and the
composition in which she occupies a privileged place are in a central topographic situation in the Salle
du Fond. However, she is paradoxically peripheral in the over all design that seems centred on a
beautiful horse lodged in a small chapel like niche to the left in the middle of the main panel of cave
paintings. Perhaps the female representation relates directly to the corridor to the chamber, which
opens just behind her. Four other female representations limited to just the pubic triangle are in the
cave; they are all in the system including the Galerie des Megaceros and the Salle du Fond, indicating
each time the entrance to the adjacent cavities.
Background
The Huluga Site is located about 7 kilometers south of the city poblacion of Cagayan de Oro, in the
sitio of Taguanao, barangay Indahag. By the term Huluga Site is meant the composite area

comprised of two caves and an open site on the eastern bank of the Cagayan River just a little off the
southern tip of Puntod Island. However, there are also other component areas comprised of four other
caves and three open sites. These areas were first explored by field researchers of the National
Museum in the years 1970-1971. One of the foremost Filipino anthropologists, Dr. Jesus T. Peralta,
subsequently made a report about the survey study. Also, it is important to note that one of the field
anthropologists sent by the National Museum at that time, Dr. Erlinda M. Burton, has stayed behind in
Cagayan de Oro since then and has continued to make important scholarly studies of the local culture
of Mindanao. Among the numerous artifacts uncovered at Huluga were human skeletal remains,
fragments of which were eventually sent to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of
California at San Diego near La Jolla, California where amino acid racemization dating technique dated
it as belonging to 350 AD. The scientist who conducted the dating test was the world famous Dr. Jeffrey
Bada who was the prime developer of the amino acid racemization. Today, both caves at Huluga have
been left in their primordial conditions. Each cave is marked with a National Museum code number. The
first cave is marked with the code NM X-91-R2. The Open Site is code numbered X-91-Q2. Many
artifacts, on the other hand, are presently part of the Museo de Oro collection at Xavier University.
Moreover, the archeological records division of the National Museum in Manila continue to keep the
records of the site for continuing scholarly studies. Meanwhile, local historians continue to monitor the
Huluga area. The last surface scans conducted at the site took place last March 4, 2001, April 25,
2001, May 1, 2001, and May 11, 2001, all of which continued to yield prehistoric potsherds and
volcanic obsidian flakes or stone tools. Lately, some of these flakes were analyzed by UP archeologists
who concluded that they bore signs of having been used as stone tools in prehistoric times. How
important is the Huluga Site to Cagayan de Oro? Aside from its continuing archeological yields, the
Huluga Site is believed to have been the site of prehistoric Cagayan known in written historical
documents as Himologan. When the Augustinian Recollect friars arrived in Cagayan in the year 1622,
there was as yet no Cagayan town in the present area that exists today. There was only a fortified cave
fortress called Himologan. It was only in the years 1626 thereabouts that Himologan chief Datu
Salangsang and his people were persuaded by Fray Agustin de San Pedro to move the town site to the
present Gaston Park St. Augustine Cathedral complex. Huluga, therefore, is prehistoric Cagayan.
The Problem
In 1999, the city administration of Mayor Vicente Y. Emano started pursuing plans for a bridge to span
across the Cagayan River, from Taguanao to Upper Balulang. However, it was found out by local
historians that the bridge would, in fact, demolish the very site of the Huluga Caves. This brought to
the fore two things: that apparently, city officials were ignorant of Huluga, and that planning largescale infrastructures without proper consultations was a modus operandi of the Emano administration.
A hasty survey trip was organized by Councilor Maryanne Enteria in June of 1999 and Dr. Burton herself
was invited to join the trip. Staff from the City Engineers Office, City Planning and Development Office,
City Tourism Office, and the City Historical and Cultural Commission were also part of the team, and it
was they who verified to the councilor and to Dr. Burton that indeed the site faced the danger of
destruction. Immediately, Councilor Enteria made a verbal recommendation to Mayor Emano to order
the diversion of the bridge so as to avoid the Huluga area. At the same time, Dr. Burton also expressed
the recommendation that what was also important was to avoid any heavy construction within a radius
of 2000 meters within the Huluga area. In the afternoon of the same day, Councilor Enteria verbally
relayed the news that Mayor Emano has promised to divert the construction. At that point, that was
the best assurance obtained, indirect and verbal. In the ensuing time, bidding was supposedly
conducted and initial groundbreaking activities were done by the awarded construction company. In
the light of the Emano promise, it was assumed that the Huluga area was to be preserved for posterity
and respected by city hall. The contrary is, however, true. Recent inquiries made by local historians as
well as field works in situ uncovered so many situations anomalous to the preservation of this prime
patrimony of Cagayan de Oro.

Aphrodite, according to the Greek poet Hesiod, was born from sea-foam gathered around the
dismembered genitals of Ouranos, the god of the heavens, who was castrated by his son Kronos. The
goddess arose from the sea and came ashore on the island of Cyprus (or Kythera). As she walked along
the beach, flowers sprang forth in her footsteps. Awestruck by her beauty, the gods were consumed by
love and adoration for the goddess, and at once received her into Mt. Olympus. She awoke within them

a passion and desire never felt before. Her ability to excite this feeling gave her the power to rule over
the hearts of gods and men alike, and she thus became the goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality.In
the late Hellenistic Period, the demand for Greek art in the growing Roman Republic was tremendous.
Fascinated and awed by the Greek past, Romans eagerly collected Classical sculpture or copies and
variants of it. To satisfy the growing market, Greek sculptors often produced works that incorporated
Classical traits into more recent styles. Artists offered a variety of subjects, including the new and
popular theme of eroticism and female beauty. Images of the goddess Aphrodite abounded.In 1820,
French archaeologists unearthed the Aphrodite on the island of Melos in the southern Aegean. The
goddess stands with her drapery loosely clinging to her hips, her body somewhat twisted as she gazes
off into the distance. Her garment, with deep folds, threatens to fall; her knee juts out and throws the
body askew. The now-missing arms undoubtedly balanced the composition. They probably held a
shield supported on the goddesses knee, which would explain its protruding position. The shield would
have been that of the war god Ares, Aphrodites most famous lover. In this context, she uses the shield
as a mirror. Representing the union of love and war, the adulterous relationship of Aphrodite and Ares
was probably a humorous paradox to ancient Greek viewers. Using an implement of war as a beauty
aid added further humor to the story.The Aphrodite represents a mixture of Classical and Hellenistic
traits, which create a unique and alluring visual experience befitting the goddess of beauty and grace.
The bodys twisting pose and jagged, deeply carved drapery is indicative of Hellenistic styles, but the
soft, flowing musculature is similar to the Praxitelean S-curve associated with Late Classical art. The
proportions of the body are also Classical, and the face is sculpted with the restrained and idealized
Classical demeanor. This amalgam of styles was much sought after by Roman patrons of art. Today, the
original stands in the Louvre Museum of Paris, where it continues to attract much attention.
The Discobolus of Myron ("discus thrower", Greek: , Diskoblos) is a Greek sculpture that
was completed towards the end of the Severe period, circa 460-450 BC. The original Greek bronze is
lost but the work is known through numerous Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble, which was
cheaper than bronze,[1] such as the first to be recovered, the Palombara Discobolus, or smaller scaled
versions in bronze.A discus thrower is depicted about to release his throw: "by sheer intelligence",
Kenneth Clark observed in The Nude, "Myron has created the enduring pattern of athletic energy. He
has taken a moment of action so transitory that students of athletics still debate if it is feasible, and he
has given it the completeness of a cameo."[2] The moment thus captured in the statue is an example of
rhythmos, harmony and balance. Myron is often credited with being the first sculptor to master this
style. Naturally, as always in Greek athletics, the Discobolus is completely nude. His pose is said to be
unnatural to a human, and today considered a rather inefficient way to throw the discus. [3] Also there is
very little emotion shown in the discus thrower's face, and "to a modern eye, it may seem that Myron's
desire for perfection has made him suppress too rigorously the sense of strain in the individual
muscles,"[2] Clark observes. The other trademark of Myron embodied in this sculpture is how well the
body is proportioned, the symmetria.The potential energy expressed in this sculpture's tightly-wound
pose, expressing the moment of stasis just before the release, is an example of the advancement of
Classical sculpture from Archaic. The torso shows no muscular strain, however, even though the limbs
are outflung.
The Parthenon was destroyed by a Venetian bomb, on the night between the 26th and 27th of
September 1687 (read full story in my previous post).People often think that the bomb which blew up
the Parthenon in 1687 was shot by cannon placed on the nearby Philopappou hill. As a theory it is
attractive, but it is also untrue.The aim of this post is to prove that the fateful bomb was shot by a
mortar, not cannon, placed much closer to the Acropolis. I will try to prove that the popular
theory contradicts not only eye-witness testimonies and other sources of the time, but also the laws of
physics (ballistics).
In a canyon, in 340 BC, an Argos architect Polykleitos the Younger, built, according to Pausanias, the
theatre of Epidaurus.Among all the ancient theatres, Epidaurus theatre is the most beautiful and best
preserved. Destined for the fun of the patients of Asklipieio, it had a capacity of 13,000 spectators. It
was divided into two parts: A 21-rows of seats part, aimed for the citizens and a 34-rows of seats part
aimed for the priests and rulers. The superb acoustics as well as the very well preserved construction,

contributed to the creation of Epidaurus Festival S.A., an institution that contributed to the cultural
revival of the theatre. Great actors have acted at such as Alexis Minotis, Thanos Kotsopoulos, Anna
Synodinou, Thanasis Vengos and the famous Greek soprano Maria Kallas.

The clay (keramos) to produce pottery (kerameikos) was readily available throughout Greece, although
the finest was Attic clay, with its high iron content giving an orange-red colour with a slight sheen
when fired and the pale buff of Corinth. Clay was generally prepared and refined in settling tanks so
that different consistencies of material could be achieved depending on the vessel types to be made
with it.Greek pottery was invariably made on the potters wheel and usually made in separate
horizontal sections: the foot, the lower and upper body, the neck, and finally the handles, if necessary.
These sections were then joined together with a clay slip after drying and it is possible in many cases
to see the prints of the potter impressed on the inside of the vessel. The piece was then put back on
the wheel to smooth the join marks and add the final shaping. Therefore, all vases were unique and
the small variations in dimensions reveal that the use of simple tools and not cut-out templates was
the norm.Next, the pot was decorated. This process depended on the decorative style in vogue at the
time, but popular methods included painting the whole or parts of the vase with a thin black adhesive
paint which was added with a brush, the marks of which remain visible in many cases. This black paint
was a mix of alkali potash or soda, clay with silicon content, and black ferrous oxide of iron. The paint
was affixed to the pot by using a fixative of urine or vinegar which burned away in the heat of the kiln,
binding the paint to the clay. Another technique, used more rarely, was to cover the vessel with a white
clay paint. Alternatively, only lines or figures were added in black using a thicker version of the black
paint mentioned above and applied with a stiff brush or feather; in consequence, a slight relief effect
was achieved. Minor details were often added with a thinned black paint giving a yellow-brown colour,
a white pipe-clay, and a dark red of ochre and manganese. The latter two colours tended to flake off
over time. The finished pot was then ready to be put in the kiln and fired at a temperature of around
960 C, which is relatively low and explains the softness of Greek pottery (in comparison to, for
example, Chinese porcelain). Pots were fired several times (in the same kiln) in order to achieve the
required finish and colouring. First, the pot was fired in an oxidising fire where good ventilation to the
kiln ensured that the orange/red of the clay came to the fore. Then the pot was re-fired in a kiln
starved of oxygen (reduction process) by adding water or damp wood inside the kiln. This ensured that
the painted colours, particularly the black, darkened in colour. A third firing, again with good
ventilation, re-reddened the clay of the pot whilst the painted areas, now protected by a thin wash,
kept their original colouring. This complicated process obviously required excellent timing from the
potter so as not to spoil the vase with unseemly discolouring.
The Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was
built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.Today the Parthenon, which functions as
an art museum, stands as the centerpiece of Centennial Park, a large public park just west of
downtown Nashville. Alan LeQuire's 1990 re-creation of the Athena Parthenos statue is the focus of the
Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building is a full-scale replica of the Athenian original;
and the statue of Athena Parthenos within is a reconstruction of the long lost original to careful
scholarly standards: she is cuirassed and helmeted, carries a shield on her left arm and a small (6 ft)
statue of Nike (Victory) in her right palm, and stands 42 feet (13 m) high, gilt with more than eight
pounds of gold leaf; an equally colossal serpent rears its head between her and her shield. Since the
building is complete and its decorations were polychromed (painted in colors) as close to the
presumed original as possible, this replica of the original Parthenon in Athens serves as a monument to
what is considered the pinnacle of classical architecture. The plaster replicas of the Parthenon Marbles
found in the Naos (the east room of the main hall) are direct casts of the original sculptures which
adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon, dating back to 438 BC. Many fragments of the
originals are housed in the British Museum in London. Others are at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
Roman aqueducts are the sophisticated water systems created by the ancient Mediterranean
civilization of Rome and used throughout its empire. These aqueducts took the form of long stone

channels. The Romans built the first aqueduct in 312 B.C. These water systems had two main
purposes.
The Colosseum or Coliseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum
Flavium; Italian: Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo) is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of
Rome, Italy. Built of concrete and stone,[1] it was the largest amphitheatre of the Roman Empire, and is
considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering. It is the largest
amphitheatre in the world.[2]The Colosseum is situated just east of the Roman Forum. Construction
began under the emperor Vespasian in 70 AD,[3] and was completed in 80 AD under his successor and
heir Titus.[4] Further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian (8196).[5] These three
emperors are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named in Latin for its
association with their family name (Flavius).The Colosseum could hold, it is estimated, between 50,000
and 80,000 spectators,[6][7] and was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock
sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical
mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later
reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry,
and a Christian shrine.Although in the 21st century it stays partially ruined because of damage caused
by devastating earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome. It
is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions and has close connections with the Roman Catholic
Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit "Way of the Cross" procession that starts in the
area around the Colosseum.[8]In 2007 the complex was included among the New7Wonders of the
World, following a competition organized by New Open World Corporation (NOWC).The Colosseum is
also depicted on the Italian version of the five-cent euro coin
The content of this article provides interesting history, facts and information about Gladiators at the
Colosseum. Gladiators who fought at the Colosseum were enlisted from slaves captured as prisoners of
war. Gladiators fought against each other, wild animals and condemned criminals, sometimes to the
death, for the entertainment of spectators. Gladiators at the Colosseum - Matched Pairs
Gladiators were designated a particular fighting style which suited their physique and were trained
with the relevant armor and weapons. There were strict rules and protocol surrounding the fights of
gladiators at the Roman Colosseum. A gladiatorial fight involved a matched pair. Gladiators were
always clothed to resemble barbarians conquered by the Romans. They were armed with unusual and
exotic weapons and their fights depicted famous victories which illustrated the power of the Roman
Empire
The Colosseum in Rome, Italy was initially constructed in 72 A.D. When complete, it was capable of
holding 50,000 spectators for mock battles, executions and dramas. Over time the Colosseum was
destroyed by earthquakes and stone-robbers.
The Roman Pantheon is the most preserved and influential building of ancient Rome. It is a Roman
temple dedicated to all the gods of pagan Rome. As the brick stamps on the side of the building reveal
it was built and dedicated between A.D 118 and 125.

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