David
@archaeomather.bsky.social
Minnesota environmental archaeologist
15,000 years ago, in one of the the earliest settled communities in the world, a child collected fine clay from the slow-moving river by her home. She then committed an act familiar to all inveterate play-doh enthusiasts; rolling and and pinching the squishy clay into tiny round balls.
Me reading all your movie reviews aloud, aka “A Reading from Homer” by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1885). The painting was displayed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and is now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Did you know? In the Victorian era, one of the deadliest epidemics in American history swept through the Mississippi Valley, killing an estimated 20,000 people. The Yellow Fever outbreak began in New Orleans during the summer before spreading north by steamboat and rail. #Victorian #history
I was a very lucky boy today and got a tour of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota- so much fun that it didn’t occur to me to take pictures.
A Haida artist’s figure of an American or European man carved from argillite and ivory, from British Columbia circa 1840 - at the Denver Art Museum.
Photo portrait of Bella Falcon (2023) with glass & shell beads and rhinestones, by Ho-Chunk artist Tom Jones, at the Denver Art Museum.
#OTD I was at the 8/3/83 charity concert at First Avenue where Prince debuted songs that a year later appeared in the “Purple Rain” album & movie. During the song “Purple Rain" I said to myself: "Prince has gone folk." Only in retelling this recently did I realize the echo of “Dylan goes electric.”
Chris Steller@chrissteller.bsky.social · last yr.42 years ago today, on Aug. 3, 1983, Prince "and Friends" (soon to be known as The Revolution) performed songs for the first time that would appear a year later on the soundtrack album and in the movie "Purple Rain."
In the 1907 “Records of the Past,” I was quite surprised to see an account of the graves of fur trader Julien Dubuque (head displaced post mortem), his wife Potosa, and her father Chief Peosta of the Meskwaki Nation. They were buried in a mound but exposed when a stone monument was built in 1897.
A little Roman octopus to wish you a happy week! 🐙❤️ From a Roman villa mosaic at Villaquejida, León, Spain. Limestone, AD 100-200. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid 📷 by me #MosaicMonday #Archaeology
I chose this Common Yellowthroat clinging to a branch for today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme, #BestOfJuly. It has been a very dry month in #Minnesota, so I was able to work my way deep into a swamp and then just wait for the birds to fly near me. Fun day #photography #wildlife #birds
I’m watching “Evil Cat” (1987 from Hong Kong), this film is about my cat & me.
My daughter texted that she was meditating in the Neretva River earlier today and when she opened her eyes, she was surrounded by fish. This was especially good, she said, because when she meditates she imagines that she’s a fish swimming.
“Safe Passage,” a tribute to Lake Superior by Chholing Taha (2012), at The M in St. Paul.
![A Native woman praying to a thunderbird in the night sky. “Chholing Taha makes her paintings only after she receives a complete and detailed vision that is revealed by a variety of spirits at powerful moments she cannot anticipate. ‘The images are fully formed and appear almost like a slide being inserted in [my] head,’ she said. ‘I know it sounds unusual, but have come to be patient and see what will appear. I never know.’
She writes that Safe Passage is a ‘tribute to the Big Lake, Lake Superior (Gichigami). This vast body of water is still used today as a highway for ships of all sorts, as it was used for thousands of years by Indigenous Peoples from many, many Tribes and even visitors from other countries. Due to the diversity of travelers here you see a woman from the east in Naskapi Cree painted dress.
The canoe paddle is Mikmaq design, also from the east. The canoe is Ojibwe from the midwest. Gichigami is a living Spirit. The water lynx could easily sink or overturn any watercraft. The Thunderbird, the protector against evil, is beseeched so Safe Passage will be assured.’”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:a4b2iidkc3aspqvmpwyqbqgc/bafkreidmhuklgo3toimqpg6fnalpqpwp22id2floep7ywjitdbovnnzsm4)
Sipping my coffee ☕️ and thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups! They look so modern it’s incredible to think they were made by Bronze Age potters some 3,800 years ago! Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. 📷 by me #Archaeology
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
We’re almost out of chocolate covered frozen bananas at our house, don’t ask me how I know.
“General distribution of prehistoric ruins in the United States as far as known” - in the first issue of “Records of the Past” published in January 1902.
I walked through the art skyway yesterday- crossing Robert Street in St. Paul to The M.
I love the details of this mural in St. Paul: the Mississippi River, the 1st National Bank building with the big red 1, Snoopy, the loon with its own lake in a backpack pocket. “Looking Forward” (2023) by Pablo Kalaka, Dani Bianchini, and Indigenous Roots.
I was trying to remember why this painting seemed so familiar
David@archaeomather.bsky.social · last wk.“The Spirit of Morning” by Wifredo Lam (1942) in the Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100 exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I look like this every morning.
Layers of flowers: Rudbeckia and Joe Pye Weed on the Minnesota State Capitol Mall, & the Capitol dome in the background.
Joe Pye Weed swaying on the Minnesota State Capitol Mall. That’s the Centennial Office Building in the background, constructed in 1958.
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
theonion.com
Did they really need the “no touching” sign for this terrifying god of death with his liver hanging out of the bottom of his rib cage, from Mexico City’s Templo Mayor? The holes in his skull would have held locks of curly hair. Whoever touches him gets what they deserve!
