#national museum of afghanistan

[viajeroseneltiempo]

(EN) Historical item of the week⌛️

The Foot of Zeus

This fragment of a colossal statue of the Greek god Zeus sculpted around the 3rd century BC, may have belonged to a copy of the famous statue at Olympia. The foot was found in the temple of the god located in the archaeological site of Ai Khanoum, present-day Afghanistan. Alexandria Oxiana, was located there, one of the cities founded in the Greek expansion through Asia after the conquest of the Persian empire. Today it can be seen in the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul.

(Es) Objeto histórico de la semana⌛️

El pie de Zeus

Este fragmento de una estatua colosal del dios griego Zeus creada sobre el siglo III AC, quizá pertenecía a una copia de la famosa estatua de Olimpia. El pie fue encontrado en el templo del dios ubicado en el sitio arqueológico de Ai Janum, actual Afganistán. Allí se ubicaba Alejandría de Oxo, una de las ciudades fundadas en la en la expansión griega por Asia tras la conquista del imperio persa. Hoy puede verse en el Museo Nacional de Afganistán, en Kabul.

#history #historia #zeus #foot of zeus #ai khanoum #alexandria oxiana #afghanistan #national museum of afghanistan #kabul #3rd century bce #asian history #afghanistan history #greek history

[reportwire]

Biden to honor 9/11 victims as shadow of Afghan war looms

Biden to honor 9/11 victims as shadow of Afghan war looms

2022-09-11 06:18:33 WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden marked the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, laying a wreath at the Pentagon in a somber commemoration held under a steady rain. Sunday’s ceremony occurred a little more than a year after Biden ended the long and costly war in Afghanistan that the U.S. and allies launched in response to the terror attacks. In ending the Afghanistan…

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#21 years since terrorist attack #9/11 anniversary #9/11 memorial #Afghanistan war #honoring victims September 11 #Joe Biden #new york city attack #The National September 11 Memorial Museum

[readingsquotes]

" Despite all this, PEN America has declined to join other leading human rights organizations and United Nations officials in the demands for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

This failure is particularly striking in light of the extraordinary toll this catastrophe has taken in the cultural sphere. Israel has killed, and at times deliberately targeted and assassinated journalists, poets, novelists, and writers of all kinds. It has destroyed almost all forms of cultural infrastructure that support the practice of literature, art, intellectual exchange, and free speech through the bombing and demolition of universities, cultural centers, museums, libraries, and printing presses. By disrupting access to digital communication, Israel has also been blocking Palestinians from sharing what they have witnessed and experienced and telling the truth of what is happening to them. Everyone who uses the power of the pen and free speech to appeal to the conscience of the world is at risk.

In less than five months, Israel has killed nearly one hundred journalists and media workers, more than in the two-decade war in Afghanistan, and more than in the deadliest year of the Iraq War. Israel has also killed nearly one hundred academics and writers. If organizations like PEN America cling to the illusion of political neutrality in the face of a clear effort to destroy Palestinian lives and culture, one can only wonder whether there will be any writers left in Gaza to tell the story of their apocalypse, or to trust words and speech, when the killing finally ends. Or any record left of the history they have lived.

Scholars are increasingly reaching for novel words to describe the scope of Israel’s cultural genocide. Words like “scholasticide” are invoked to describe the elimination of systems of education and “epistemicide” to describe the erasure of systems of knowledge. In contrast, PEN America, took four and half months to utter the word “ceasefire,” then only with a vague “hope” for one that is “mutually agreed,” rather than a clear call. We expect more from an organization that exists for the express purpose of protecting freedom of speech and thought, and advancing a vision of our common humanity."

Equally concerning is PEN America’s history of condemning authors who choose to honor the Palestinian call for a cultural and academic boycott of Israeli institutions complicit in their oppression, accusing them of impeding “the free flow of ideas.” It seems to us that this violates several principles at the heart of PEN’s mission. To begin with, the idea that BDS, which does not boycott individual writers or scholars, can impede the “free flow of ideas” in Israel-Palestine assumes that such a thing exists there. In fact, it is a cruel fantasy so long as Palestinians live under a rule reliant on racial segregation and the implementation of ethnic hierarchies, siege and collective punishment, the very conditions BDS seeks to end.

Second, condemning authors who choose to support BDS contradicts PEN’s own mandate to protect freedom of expression, as it contributes to a neo-McCarthyite environment in North America and Europe, in which the growing support for BDS is increasingly criminalized. Third, opposition to BDS overlooks the long and proud history of the boycott as an effective, nonviolent tool of collective liberation. Just as boycott was a principal tool used to successfully end political apartheid in South Africa, so it should be accepted that some are free to adopt it as a vital tool in the nonviolent resistance movement against Israeli impunity today."

#palestine #free palestine #isreal #gaza #apartheid #genocide #colonization #us politics #american imperialism #pen america

[dnickels]

The​ Imperial War Museum was established in 1917, while the fighting was still going on, ‘as a record of the toil and sacrifice of those who had served in uniform’ during the Great War. It was first called the National War Museum; the change to ‘Imperial’ was made after India and the Dominions complained that the name did not reflect their sacrifices. Today it describes itself as a ‘global authority on conflict’. It is a subdued and serious place, eager to point out that it does not celebrate war or victory; it was never supposed to be a frozen military parade, even if the suspended Spitfire in the main atrium – the military equivalent of the Natural History Museum’s Diplodocus – appeals directly to Britain’s neurotic Second World War triumphalism. Toil and sacrifice remain the watchwords. (Only in the gift shop does discipline break down, with poppy-spattered kitchenware and Churchill cult icons playing to a less reconstructed wartime imaginary.) The museum’s commemorative ethos presents war as a kind of social paroxysm, which from time to time afflicts ordinary men and women. A carefully weighted combination of historical exactitude and apolitical detachment can be maintained for the world wars, as they were joined in defence against aggression and fought by conscript armies; with 9/11 and ‘terrorism’ emerging as the pivot point, the museum also shows ambiguous signs of trying to construe 21st-century engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan as similar tragedies of necessity. There is some justice in this approach. Soldiers do not start or choose the conflicts they are shipped off to fight. But many of Britain’s 20th-century conflicts would not respond well to the same treatment: the Kenyan torture camps, the Special Night Squads of Palestine, the beheaders of the Malayan Emergency and Britain’s other dirty wars of colonial counterinsurgency are not easily transformed into neutral objects of genuflection. Castrating prisoners with pliers is the wrong kind of toil and sacrifice.

#short and extremely worthwhile piece

[paganimagevault]

Ivory griffin and rider from Begram 1st-2nd C. CE. I wasn't sure exactly what civilization to attribute this to. The MET says likely "Indian" origin, but parts of India were owned by the Saka-Scythians at the time. This was located in Begram when it was owned by the Kushans. Afghanistan, Begram. Ivory; 11 7/8 in. (30 cm). National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul, 04.1.116. Photo: © Thierry Ollivier / Musée Guimet.

"Rearing dramatically, the composite creature that forms this bracket has the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the beak of a bird of prey. Known as a sardula in Indian art, this beast may be derived from the griffin of Greek and Roman art. While either tradition could have contributed this powerful animal to the repertory of the Begram ivories, the treatment of the female rider clearly points to India. Artistic traditions from India are also seen in the small figure supporting the front paws of the beast, one of the earth spirits known as yakshas, while the crocodile-like figure with the yawning mouth is the makara, which is symbolic of the powers of water."

-taken from MET Museum

#scythian #indian #kushan #afghanistan #pagan #paganism #antiquities #art #museums #sculpture #statue #ivory #griffin #1st century #2nd century

[mybeingthere]

Jewelry from the exhibition , Afghanistan - Hidden Treasures from the National Museum , Kabul. Part of the Bactrian Hoard, 2,000 years old.

[feckcops]

The hidden racism that turned a Nazi concentration camp into a detention centre for Muslims

“Today, a national memorial exists at the site of the Vught concentration camp. The main building is a museum with exhibits on the history of the camp and Nazism in Europe. Outside are life-size reconstructions of the camp’s living quarters, watchtowers, and barbed-wire fences. Various components of the memorial commemorate those killed at Vught or murdered after passing through it. The final part of the memorial is a reflection room where several short films convey the message that you should not be a bystander when you see others needing help ...

“It is impossible not to notice that alongside one of the memorial’s walls is a much taller wall, topped with barbed wire and closed-circuit TV cameras. On the other side of that wall are prison buildings, their arrangement mirroring that of the memorial’s reconstructed camp buildings. The memorial, in fact, takes up only a small part of the original concentration camp site. A larger part is occupied by a functioning prison. If you look left from the memorial’s main entrance, the tall metal doors of the prison entrance are visible, flanked by lines of people waiting to visit inmates. Many are women wearing hijabs and niqabs, a result of the fact that the Vught prison includes a high-security unit where anyone suspected or convicted of being a terrorist or ‘Islamic radicaliser’ is automatically separated from other prisoners and held under especially punitive conditions. Because almost all of those imprisoned there are Muslims, the unit has come to be known informally as a ‘Muslim detention centre’.

“Dutch prison authorities opened the high-security unit in 2006. Prisoners held there are isolated and confined for up to 22 hours per day. One woman imprisoned there, who was eventually acquitted of all charges, spent two full stretches – one for ten consecutive weeks and the other for three – cut off from anyone else. This kind of isolation has been a focus of research for Craig Haney, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who writes that prisoners held in long-term solitary confinement suffer effects that ‘are analogous to the acute reactions suffered by torture and trauma victims’. Former United Nations special rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez has said that, based on the medical evidence, solitary confinement for longer than 15 days can amount to torture ...

“What happened at Vught in 1943 and 1944 and what happens there today are, of course, not equivalent. Yet neither are the uses to which the camp has been put in these two periods entirely separable. The Nazis sought the complete elimination of European Jewry; incarceration was a means to this end. The European and US governments that implemented a global ‘war on terror’ have a different aim. Their goal is the integration of Muslims into what they call ‘liberal’ society. What is regarded as the cultural identity of moderate Muslims is celebrated within a framework of diversity and inclusion. Extremist Muslims, on the other hand, have their mosques and community organisations closed down, their speech criminalised, their bank accounts frozen, their clothing regulated (as with the Dutch ban on wearing a niqab or burka in certain public spaces, introduced in 2019), even their citizenship cancelled. In the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq, entire countries were invaded, occupied, and destroyed.”

#concentration camp #detention centre #prisons #incarceration #war on terror #torture #human rights #terrorism #nazis #fascists #fascism #antisemitism #islamophobia #racism #afghanistan #iraq #illegal wars #muslims #netherlands #europe

[atotaltaitaitale]

.

Warsaw feels like a very new city by European standard and it is.

80–90% of Warsaw's buildings were razed during WWII. Almost a million inhabitants lost all of their possessions. The exact losses of private and public property, including pieces of art, other cultural artifacts and scientific artifacts, is unknown but must be considered substantial.

The German razing of the city had long been planned. Warsaw had been selected for destruction and major reconstruction as part of the Nazis' planned Germanization of Central Europe, under the Nazi Generalplan Ost. However, by late 1944, with the war clearly lost, the Germans had abandoned their plans of colonizing the East. Thus, the destruction of Warsaw did not serve any military or colonial purpose; it was carried out solely as an act of reprisal.

When you think about all that is lost during a war. I was reading recently the lost of most of the artifacts in Afghanistan destroyed by the taliban (the National Museum of Afghanistan resulted in a loss of 70% of the 100,000 artifacts of Afghan culture and history) or the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha. But it’s also happening in Ukraine.

#CelineIsNotAnExpatAnymore #France life #c&jWarsaw #Warsaw #Poland

[panicinthestudio]

Buddha statue in schist, 3rd-4th century

Ancient Gandhara

Schist

147.5 cm (58 1/8 in.) high

Supporting numerous publications on the art of ancient Gandhara, Claude de Marteau was perhaps best known for his expertise in Gandharan sculpture. His connoisseurship is epitomized by this almost life-size statue of the Buddha, which excels for its naturalism, grace, and contemplative attitude.

The ancient region of Gandhara, which spanned modern-day northwest Pakistan and southern Afghanistan, was home to a vibrant, cosmopolitan civilization situated at the crossroads of international trade networks linking South Asia, Central Asia, China, and the Mediterranean. Because of its verdant terrain and lucrative trade position, the region fell repeatedly to foreign raids and invaders. The Kushans, originally from Central Asia and already having incorporated elements of Greek culture, established themselves in Gandhara in the early first century CE. Under the Kushan ruler Kanishka (127-151 CE), Gandharan Buddhist art and architecture flourished, resulting in the creation of some of the earliest iconic images of the historical Buddha, such as the present statue.

Indicative of Gandharan art's appealing multiculturalism, the stone carver who created the present image of the Buddha was clearly as well-versed in Buddhist iconography as he was in the Greco-Roman aesthetic tradition of naturalism. He succeeds in realistically modelling the figure's stance with a gentle, understated contrapposto, lightly bending the right knee and placing more weight on the left leg—imbuing movement within his creation. He effortlessly conveys the Buddha's supple physique, suggested under the sweeping pleats of his heavy monastic robe. To this, the sculptor has added certain physiological features, rooted in Indic religions, that distinguish an enlightened being (mahalakshana). A raised circular dot in the middle of his brow represents his urna, from which in many sutras, the Buddha emits a ray of light to illuminate distant worlds. Crisp, wavy locks are pulled over an ushnisha, a cranial protuberance endowed with a variety of magical powers. Another prominent symbol of his enlightened consciousness is the large halo backing his head and shoulders. But perhaps most profound is the arresting quietude evoked by his heart-shaped, mustachioed visage, whose heavy-lidded downward expression conveys a solemn detachment from the world.

The present sculpture's torso and stance are portrayed with a higher degree of naturalism than a representative example in the British Museum (1947,0511.1). The soft treatment of the robes compares well with Gandharan sculptures of the Buddha held in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (F.1975.04.2.S), and sold at Christie's, New York, 21 March 2008, lot 527. A Gandharan Buddha with a similar cordate facial type is in the Tokyo National Museum (C0097675). Depicting Maitreya, the Future Buddha, venerated in the pedestal below Shakyamuni's feet, the present sculpture belongs to an iconic trope in Gandharan art also represented by a Buddha in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2014.188), and reflected in examples sold at Christie's, New York, 25 March 2004, lot 18, and Bonhams, Hong Kong, 2 December 2021, lot 1036.

Bonhams

#schist #stone #figure #3rd century #4th century #Buddhism #cultural amalgam #Gandhara #art #art history #Bonhams #religion #iconography

[olympia3000]

Detail of the Court of Gayumars from the Shahnameh - the national epic of Iran and Afghanistan. 

(Image from the Royal Ontario Museum)

#illuminated manuscript #shahnameh #shahnama #manuscript #ferdowsi #iran #afghanistan #iraq #history #Iranian history #afghan history #Persian history #art #art history #gayumars #court #farsi #dari #persian #book of kings #majlis #luxury #oppulence #islamic art #islamic tradition #afghan art #Iranian art #Persian art #Iraqi art #greater iran

[tenebrobscuro]

Statue of Buddha, monastery of Tapa Kalan, Afghanistan, found in 1923. This photograph is from Paris’s Musée Guimet - Musée National des Arts Asiatiques as part of the French Museum Collection. Les archéologues en Asie Centrale by Svetlana Gorshenina.

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

{{ History asks! 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 23, 24, and 29? I've seen a lot of historical fashion and photography on your blog, but I don't know if that's a Passion^tm or a passing appreciation.

4. Favourite historical era?

Tough call, but in recent years I've been very interested in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, particularly the social/cultural history aspects that most ~WWII historians~ give short shrift.

7. Historical dressing, uniform, or costume?

I do like 30s/40s/50s dress, as well as Victorian dress and certain stages in the development of traditional Japanese dress (although unfortunately Heian court wear does very little for me to look at even though the concepts behind it are really interesting). I wouldn't say it's my main focus as an historian--that's religious history--but I'm passionate enough about it to more or less keep up conversations with my friends @absynthe--minded and @marzipanandminutiae, both of whom do specialize in fashion history.

8. What is the last thing you have read, listened to, or spoken of with historical reference?

I'm reading a book as we speak (The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik) where the narrator recently discussed the contemporary-history fun fact that Dubai is built on indentured labor.

10. What pieces of art (i.e. paintings, sculpures, lithographies, etc.) related to history do you like the most?

Ooh, extremely broad question. There's a painting in the Vatican museums called "The Triumph of History over Time" whose title I love, but the picture itself isn't anything particularly special. There's also a bust of Emperor Vespasian at the archeological museum in Naples that I'm especially fond of because he looks exactly like an aging, chubby, glad-handing "retail politician" today. Some things never change!

11. Have you ever participated in reenactment? What it was like?

Not yet!

12. Would you take part in reenactment? In what era and as whom?

Watch this space.

14. Why are you are interested in history?

I have a nostalgic temperament and grew up in a very history-rich area by American standards. It's also an interest that my late grandfather had and I was very close to him; part of my semi-focus on WWII is that he was a Pacific Theater veteran.

16. Do you own some historical item (e.g. coin, clothing, weapons, books, etc.) If yes, which one is your favourite?

I own quite a few antiques, yes. My favorite is an honest-to-goodness piece of eight (Spanish milled dollar) that I found at an antique shop in Ship Bottom, New Jersey for twenty or thirty dollars, a steal even then, when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. I misplaced it somewhere in my parents' house years ago, though, so my favorite antique of whose whereabouts I'm currently certain is a 1940s rayon crepe dress that I bought from a vintage clothing dealer I know.

23. What’s your favourite historical song or song containing historical references?

I'm not sure how to interpret this question; sorry!

24. Who do you consider to be one of the most underrated historical figures?

Emperor Antoku is underrated among Japanese rulers because he's one of the very few who never did anything reprehensible, seeing as he was killed by his grandmother to avoid capture at the Battle of Dan-no-ura when he was six years old.

29. Are there any great historical mysteries that you are interested in?

Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam. We know nothing about him for certain before or after his work setting up the religion in Great Depression-era Detroit, and what's known inconclusively, or suspected, has a ton of inconsistencies. He was born in Oregon, or Afghanistan, or New Zealand, or somewhere else; he lived in North Carolina, or California, or both, before showing up in Detroit; he was a restaurant manager, or a carny, or both, by occupation...you get the idea.

I’ve seen plenty of “Tumblr Ask Challenges”, but none involving history. What a shame…

#history #give me love give me memes #beyondthetemples

[kobithedragon]

www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/the-afghanistan-national-museum

#afghanistan

[secretsummernextgen]

[FEMALE, SHE/HER]. Hey, is that [GEMMA ARTERTON] , no that is just [LUCY MORRISON] around Baberton. I heard they are [41] years old, and their birthday is [JUNE 12] and they’re [STRAIGHT]. They can mainly be found working as [MUSEUM CURATOR] and they have been in town [15 YEARS]. Some say they are [FLEXIBLE, INTELLIGENT, CLEVER] and can be [INDECISIVE, NOSY, IMPULSIVE]. If you see them around town, clearly they have survived or maybe they are just barely surviving. Either way, Baberton welcomes you! Enjoy your stay.

Bio:

Grew up in Glasgow with her sister, Amelia.  Her sister was a few years older than her but they were always very close and Lucy idolized her.  After she graduated, her sister joined up as an army nurse and a few years later she met William McArthur while in Afghanistan.  They quickly fell in love and got married and had a son.

Lucy thought about following in her sister's footsteps but decided that she would rather study history, then make it and went to university, getting a double major in art history and archaeology before getting her masters in museum studies.

She moved to Baberton when her sister got sick to help out around the house.  After Amelia died. she contemplated going back to Glasgow but decided to stay after Rory was hospitalized.

Works at museum as curator and while she loves her job, she has thought about getting hr PhD and trying to get a job at the National Museum.

Secrets:

Has always had feelings for her brother-in-law, William.  She was sixteen when he and Amelia moved to Baberton and she was convinced it was just a childish crush.  But after she moved to Baberton to help raise Rory the feelings returned.  She knows its wrong to imagine them having a future together but she can't help it and hopes that someday he'll feel the same.

#takenf #gemma arterton #lucy

[mishalogic]

Unusual buildings of the World!

National museum ... Afghanistan

#buildings #architecture #Afghanistan #nature #australia #tumblr #tumblrites

[mybeingthere]

Statue of Buddha, monastery of Tapa Kalan, Afghanistan, found in 1923. This photograph is from Paris’s Musée Guimet - Musée National des Arts Asiatiques as part of the French Museum Collection. It’s also on the cover of De Kaboul à Samarcande. Les archéologues en Asie Centrale by Svetlana Gorshenina.