A papyrus containing spells and scenes from the Book of the Dead, created during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt (304-30 BCE). The Book of the Dead contains 192 spells, which were intended to help deceased people understand the universe or to protect them from harm in the afterlife.
Tourists and black bears mingle in Yellowstone National Park, ca. 1930. Yellowstone became America’s first national park in 1872. Between its founding and the 1940s, it was common practice to feed the bears. Bleachers were even set up so that tourists could watch the bears forage in the trash piles; rangers would give talks as people would watch the “bear show.” This practice was discontinued during World War II, as it became clear that these practices were unhealthy for both bears and humans.
Tarantella dancers, 1828. The tarantella was a rollicking dance that supposedly cured people of tarantula bites. People in medieval early modern Italy believed that being bitten by a tarantula was deadly, and its effects could only be warded off by wild dancing. Outbreaks of the “dancing plague” broke out fairly frequently in medieval Europe – perhaps a form of mass psychosis.
The olive tree of Vouves, on Crete. This tree, which has a trunk 15 feet in diameter, is at least 2,000 years old, and likely 2,900 years old, based on the graveyard found nearby. This tree likely lived through the writing of the Iliad, the golden age of Athens, the rise of the Roman Empire, and the birth of Christ – and then lived for 2,000 years after that. It still produces olives, as well!
Gold Hittite pendant featuring a goddess and child, ca. 1300 BCE. The disc behind her head suggests that this is Arinna, the sun goddess. She was married to the storm god Tarhunna. Sources differ over whether Arinna or her husband was the most important god in the Hittite pantheon.
“Letts’s bird’s eye view of the approaches to India,” published in the early 1900s. Here, two British soldiers look north from the colony of India over Afghanistan. Persia lies beyond the red border to the west; Russia is to the north. This area was the subject of constant colonial competition between the British and Russians; it was sometimes referred to as the “Great Game.”
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