FInal Command Shuts Down Herschel Telescope
Controllers for the Herschel space telescope sent final commands today to put the observatory into a heliocentric parking orbit. Commands were sent at 12:25 GMT on June 17, 2013, marking the official end of operations for Herschel. But expect more news from this spacecraft’s observations, as there is still a treasure trove of data that that will keep astronomers busy for many years to come. Additionally, maneuvers done by the spacecraft allowed engineers to test out control techniques that can’t normally be tested in-flight during a mission.
You can watch a video of Herschel’s final “live” moments
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Silver vessel in shape of a kneeling bull holding a spouted vessel
Proto-Elamite culture (southwestern Iran)
Found in Iran
Proto-Elamite, 3100 – 2900 B.C.
Source: The Metropolitan Musem
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Pair of Winged Deities, c. 874-860 BC Assyrian (Iraq), Reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC).
The Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 b.c.) at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu) is the earliest of the surviving royal residences of the Assyrian kings, lavishly decorated with monumental gateway figures and reliefs, whose discovery in the mid-nineteenth century created a sensation throughout the Western world.
First uncovered by the pioneer British traveler and archaeologist Austen Henry Layard in 1845, the Northwest Palace consisted of a series of long, narrow rooms grouped around large courtyards. Seven-foot-high stone slabs that lined the walls of many of the rooms were carved with elaborate narrative, mythological, and ritual scenes in low-relief. The greatest and most original artistic achievement of the Assyrians, these images and accompanying inscriptions record the kings’ military campaigns and testify to their prowess as warriors and hunters as well as their sanctity as the representatives of the Assyrian pantheon on earth. One of the most recurrent and potent images on these reliefs is the depiction of a magic purification or protective ritual, in which winged griffin-demons (apkallu, “sages”) or winged anthropomorphic deities, holding ritual “buckets” and pinecone-shaped objects, flank a “Sacred Tree” that they sprinkle with holy water or pollen.
The Kimbell’s pair of winged deities are fragments of two such full-length figures enacting this magic ritual, sprinkling or pollinating the central tree motif. As such, each figure would originally have held a bucket in his left hand and a cone in his right. The deities, marked as divine by their wings and horned helmets, are conceived in the image of the monarch, reflecting his facial features, stance, and physical strength. Their exaggerated musculature and luxuriant, tightly curled hair and beards suggest something of the king’s vainglorious power and virility. These reliefs come from a room that may have been used by the king for ritual ablution. (x)
Courtesy & currently at the Kimbell Art Museum, Texas. Photo taken by FA2010
Fat Lady (was initially called “il-Kbiri”), neolithic figurine (Gozo, Malta)
Abraham Ortelius made this map of Ireland in the late 1500s. Happy Map Monday!
The Archaic Greek Lion of Kea, thought to date to around the 6th century BC, sculptor unknown. Ioulida, island of Kea.
Though much ambiguity still surrounds this stone carved smiling lion, it is thought relate to the mythology of Kea, which was once known as “The Water Island”
The island was considered to be inhabited by water Nymphs. Due to its exceptional beauty, the Gods were jealous of the island and sent a lion down to ravage it of its beauty. The lion drove all the Nymphs out of the island and the island dried out.
The inhabitants of Kea then asked Apollo’s son, Aristaeus for help and he built a temple to the mightiest of all Gods, Zeus. This act pleased Zeus and he brought rain to the island and the nymphs back to it, as well. (x)
Photos courtesy & taken by Phso2
A Winged Hero Pursuing Two Ostriches
Cylinder seal and impression
Mesopotamia, Middle Assyrian period
(ca. 1250–1150 B.C.)In one of the most striking of the Morgan’s Middle Assyrian seals, a hero pursues an adult ostrich, possibly representing the earthly equivalent of the griffin, the conveyor of death. The fleeing ostrich, with its head turned back in fear and fury and its feathers bristling, ranks among the greatest Mesopotamian depictions of animals. In the biblical Book of Job (39:13–17), the ostrich is considered a malevolent creature because it disdains its young, which may account for the presence of the young ostrich and enhances our understanding of this extraordinary seal.
The Morgan Library
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Weather God with Helmet Standing on Mountains, Brandishing Mace and Holding Snake, Lotus Blossom, and Rein of Kneeling Bull Surmounted by Nude Goddess Opening Veil, Suppliant Goddess Behind
Cylinder seal and impression
Syria
(ca. 1720–1650 B.C.)The Morgan Library
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Cucuruzzu, a prehistoric archaeological site in Corsica, located in the commune of Levie, France.
Archaeological excavations suggest that the site dates back to about 7,000 years BC, and was occupied until the Middle Ages. The citadel shown in the first photo is from the Bronze Age.
Photos courtesy & taken by Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
Priest-King or Diety, about 1600 BC, Hittite, North Syria, basalt with bone eyes.
Courtesy & currently located at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA. Photo taken by Daderot
