Traditional Europe

A Roman canteen from the 4th century AD. discovered at Seynod, Haute-Savoie, France.

Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) were excavating the site near a future commercial area when they unearthed the remains of a Roman-era sacred precinct with at least two, perhaps three small temples and 42 pits in which religious offerings were deposited. The canteen was found in one of them.

It is an iron and copper alloy flask called a laguncula that was part of the standard gear of the Roman legionary. It is one of only three ever discovered in Gaul one of very few complete ones ever found anywhere.

The canteen had a padlock, suggesting that it was used to carry something more meaningful than the water or oil that legionaries carried with them on campaigns. By an extreme stroke of archaeological good fortune, the flask contains organic residue. Researchers were able to draw four samples of it during the conservation process. Analysis revealed that it was mostly millet with small quantities of blackberries and dairy. There are also traces of pitch from a conifer and plant material with high levels of oleanolic acid (olive or olive oil, I’d guess). All the ingredients had been heated or cooked together. This was almost certainly a food offering.

"The Days of Creation: The Sixth Day", Edward Burne-Jones, British

For the ancient Romans, January was significant because it was the month dedicated to the god Janus (hence Ianuarius, which means January in Latin).

According to Roman mythology, Janus is the two-faced god, associated with beginnings and endings, as well as transitions and passages.

Sainte-Chappelle, Paris, France

Situated in the Ile-de-la-Cité, the Sainte-Chapelle is part of the Palais de la Cite, the residence of the royalty during the 10th to the 14th century.

Farmer and farmer's wife working in the hayloft, 1960 - by W.L. Stuifbergen, Dutch

Anglo-Saxon glass drinking-horn, VII c. Excavated in Rainham, London

Drinking horns are attested from Viking Age Scandinavia. In the Prose Edda, Thor drank from a horn that unbeknown to him contained all the seas. They also feature in Beowulf, and fittings for drinking horns were also found at the Sutton Hoo burial site. Carved horns are mentioned in Guðrúnarkviða II, a poem composed about 1000 AD and preserved in the Poetic Edda.



📸 The British Museum

"The very purpose of a knight is to fight on behalf of a lady."

— Thomas Malory

Wahnfried House, Bayreuth, Germany

Wahnfried was the name given by Richard Wagner to his villa in Bayreuth. The name is a German compound of Wahn (delusion, madness) and Fried(e) (peace, freedom).

Cenomani gold coin 5 to 1st century BCE French Gaul

The Cenomani was an ancient tribe of the Cisalpine Gauls, who occupied the tract north of the Padus (modern Po River), between the Insubres on the west and the Veneti on the east.

Their territory appears to have extended from the river Addua (or perhaps the Ollius, the modern Oglio) to the Athesis (modern Adige).

"The Magdalen Holding the Crown of Thorns" by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)


📸 The Schorr Collection

Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols Bolsena Italy 700 BCE to 650 BCE.

Florentine Cabinet, Favorite Schloss, Rastatt, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany,

“Theseus and the Minotaur“ by Edward Burne-Jones

“Victory“, 1861, by Christian Daniel Rauch.

Placed in Osborne House, the family house of Queen Victoria in the Isle of Wight, UK.

Stained glass with Imperial coat of arms for the City of Nuremburg, Germany, dated 1508


📸 The State Museums of Berlin

Kaiser Wilhelm II parade, Berlin, 1914.

"Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided but by iron and blood"

— Otto Von Bismarck


📸 Pic: bearded Otto Von Bismarck, 1880’s-90’s

"Sapho of Lesbos" — Enrique Simonet Lombardo

The Gold bust of Septimius Severus (194–197 AD)


It was found in 1965 in Greece and it is now kept in the Archaeological Museum of Komotini, in the town of Komotini. It is one of the only two surviving gold busts of a Roman Emperor today, the other being the Golden Bust of Marcus Aurelius.


📸 Archaeological Museum of Komotin, Greece

A bracteate discovered on the island of Funen, Denmark features incomprehensible and meaningful text. The bracteate is housed with many others at the National Museum of Denmark. The transcription reads:

ᚺᛟᚢᚨᛉ

houaz

ᛚᚨᚦᚢ

laþu

ᚨᚨᛞᚢᚫᚫᚫᛚᛁᛁᚨ

aaduaaaliia

ᚨ--

a--

What is transcribed as a-- above has been tentatively read as alu. The word houaz has been interpreted as corresponding to Old Norse hávi "the high one", a name of Odin.

"The Two Crowns" — Sir Frank Dicksee (1900).

Bacharach on the Rhine River, Germany

Number of castles in european countries.

“I do what is mine to do; the rest does not disturb me.”

— Marcus Aurelius