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Lime pot in the shape of a cat, Thailand, 11th-12th century

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Archaeologists discovered 168 geoglyphs near the arid Nazca plain in Southern Peru. The new findings, which encompass images of humans, birds, snakes, cats, and killer whales, date between 100 BCE and 300 CE, when the pre-Incan Nazca civilization lived in the region. The discovery adds to nearly 1,000 straight lines and hundreds of figurative drawings that have so far been identified as part of the vast Nazca lines.

Professor Masato Sakai of Yamagata University in Japan and Peruvian archaeologist Jorge Olano led the recent survey. The team used aerial photographs, some captured by drones, to decipher the figures. Most of the newly discovered figures are relatively small — less than 32 feet wide — and many were drawn on hillsides.

Elaine Velie reports.

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Roman Pendants and Figurines, Corinium Museum, Cirencester

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16th c. alphabet for fingerspelling & fingercounting

from a copy of a text attributed to bede the venerable (7-8th c.), included in a miscellany manuscript written and illustrated by wilhelm werner von zimmern, speyer (?), c. 1539-62

source: Stuttgart, Landesbibl., Cod. Donaueschingen 704, fol. 163r-164r

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Mystery Box (organ/poly/string synth, origin unknown)

via

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'Omnibot 2000', ''Omni'', #12, Dec. 1985

We use to be a proper country that understood the craft of good Japanese merchandise. Sure, there was also a wave of xenophobic and racist reactionary politics aimed at the Japanese (see 'Gung-Ho' from 1986 for a mild example of this kind of "cultural anxiety"). When is America NOT racist? I mean, have you MET America? It's a pretty confused country. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to digress here, I just wanted to show you a 25'' toy robot that you could once own. It was also relatively useless if the remote for it broke (or got lost). It ran on two AA batteries. It probably didn't run that long. But robots right? We once lived with the promise of robots in our homes. Now the taste of that promise is bitter on our tongue, the memory of that promise sour. We live in the echo of its lie. We live under the dictatorship of the algorithm.

#lgr did a video on one of these #it spilled the pepsi

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Flintlock sporting gun from the armory of Tipu Sutlan, Kingdom of Mysore, India, dated 1793-1794

from Bonhams

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This axe is perfectly crafted out of a single piece of stone!  From the Late Mississippian culture, around 1300 to 1500 CE.

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Abbey Lincoln - Long as You're Living (1959) Sit down and give this lady two and a half minutes of your time. It's the length of a longish television commercial but you won't feel like Capitalism is trying to colonize your mind with nonsense. You'll want to snap your fingers, start using beatnik slang and become one of those tuned-in cats. Beats being a cube man.

#takes a while to get going but it made me smile by the end

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the björketorp runestone, created in about 500-700CE, is one of the runestones to bestow a curse on all those who may attempt to destroy the stone. it is inscribed in elder futhark during its transitional period to younger futhark, a newer version of the language. it is read from the bottom up, left to right.

transcription: ᚺᚼᛁᛞᛉᚱᚢᚾᛟᚱᛟᚾᚢᚠᚼᛚᚼᚺᚼᚴᚺᚼᛁᛞᛖᚱᚼᚷᛁᚾᚼᚱᚢᚾᚼᛉᚼᚱᚼᚷᛖᚢ ᚺᚼᛖᚱᚼᛗᚼᛚᚼᚢᛊᛉᚢᛏᛁᚼᛉᚹᛖᛚᚼᛞᚼᚢᛞᛖᛊᚼᛉᚦᚼᛏᛒᚼᚱᚢᛏᛉ

transliteration: hAidz runo ronu fAlAhak hAiderA ginArunAz ArAgeu hAerAmAlAusz utiAz welAdAude sAz þAt bArutz

translation: I, master of the runes(?) conceal here runes of power. Incessantly (plagued by) maleficence, (doomed to) insidious death (is) he who breaks this (monument).

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Microsoft Oceans (1995) Marine Mosaic