The House of Cleopatra and Dioscorides. Located on the island of Delos, Greece.

 ”Cleopatra, daughter of Adrastus of Myrrhinous, set up this image of her husband Dioscorides…” So reads the Greek inscription written on the state-base. As you may have already noted, these statues, and the house which contained them, were not owned by the famous Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII. Rather, an Athenian couple, offering us insight into residential life on Delos during the 2nd century BC. ‘Cleopatra’, after all, is a name of Greek origin.

The house itself is fairly typical of the larger homes in the town’s Theatre Quarter district, with 12 rooms arranged around 2 open courtyards. The placement of these statues within the house may have been significant in relation to visibility from the streets outside, for the pleasure of their owners, or for impact on visitors to the household.

Recommended reading: Lisa Nevett’s Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity (2010). Photos courtesy of and taken by: Bernard Gagnon, Heiko Gorski, and Geraki. 

39 people were shot in Chicago this weekend, and the media barely covered it

Skeletons of foetus, heavily pregnant woman and crammed men found at York church

The bones of a foetus and its heavily pregnant mother have been found in a chamber of All Saints church in York, where three men were found “shoved” into a tomb with grave markings designed to ward off evil spirits during the early 13th century.

Ancient serviceable drains, pottery fragments dating from Roman times to the 18th century, entrenched Viking pottery and Anglian pieces with possible links to the baptism of St Edwin, the 7th century King of Northumbria, have also been discovered in the Lady Chapel, where a medieval-style tile pavement has been laid in an English parish church for the first time in 500 years. Read more.

We should really fund the science side of tumblr

Yes please, give me money

Yes

*holds out hands*

Alms. Alms for the poor grad students.

HALLELUJAH

fund my field work and I’ll give you all the adorable primate gifs you want

If you give me money I won’t have to sell my sexy excavation photos, and trust me NO ONE wants to see those.

Working with Primatologists.

Bloody souvenir not from decapitated French king: DNA

Two centuries after the French people beheaded King Louis XVI and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, DNA analysis has thrown new doubt on the authenticity of one such rag kept as a morbid souvenir.

The contents of an ornately-decorated gourd alleged to hold traces of the king’s dried blood has long been the subject of scientific disagreement, with tests throwing up contradictory results.

On Thursday, a team from Europe and the United States said they had sequenced the full genome of the DNA in the squash, and found it was unlikely to be from someone tall or blue-eyed—both features ascribed to the 18th century monarch. Read more.

Meet Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old ancestor of ours. Though she looks like an ape, her knees were close together, just like a human’s! That positioned her feet directly under her body and made walking easier. 

See the final installment of Your Inner Fish tomorrow night (4/23) on PBS at 10/9c.

Look at that strut

Get it, Lucy.

Damn dats fabulous you sexy girl lol no homo tho (teehee)

Dam you'se a sexy hominid

Pathology museum, Vienna. 

Filming with anthropologist Dr. Robert Martin, talking about the biological imperatives of breastfeeding for human mothers and babes. Gotta have those long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids for yo’ brain. (at The Field Museum)

The reconstructed face of an archbishop who was beheaded in the 14th century

pre-columbian peruvian skulls (owned by the DoD…) at the nmhm, silver spring, MD. 

Favourite quotes by person: Neil deGrasse Tyson

So cute :)

My friend Daniel - photographer, biologist, artist, friendliest person ever - is working on a photo project that highlights staff and volunteers of The Field Museum along with their favorite collections items.

Posing with artifacts and specimens brings a certain ingenuity to the object; perhaps it would otherwise be something easily overlooked in a drawer, its history buried in comparative numbers. Singling out individual articles stresses their inherent uniqueness, and we’re drawn in with a curiosity trying to puzzle out why, out of 27 million items in this museum, these particular people chose the specimens in their hands.

There’s a visceral connection between Laura’s gaze and that agave lace: she’s looking at it so lovingly and holding it so carefully, as if she’s imagining herself sitting in awe at the foot of the person who painstakingly knit the fibers together and watching the entire process come together. Having seen her knit her own scarves on our way home one evening I can fathom the respect she has for not only the collections but also the people responsible for their creation and care.

Throughout Daniel’s portraits he’s been able to capture so well a humbling sense of gratification and pride, a mood that reflects our joy of being here because of the love we have for this world and its achievements. We’re all bursting with the same sense of wonder. 

Check out more portraits in his series, including questions answered by the featured scientists.