Beauty has many faces – Violins

Violins are beautiful instruments. This is a Stradivarius, the gold standard of violins. This one in the photo, is called The Messiah, and is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in as new state. It is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.  Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644, and …

Celebrating Martin Luther King jr

I look at the world BY LANGSTON HUGHES I look at the world From awakening eyes in a black face— And this is what I see: This fenced-off narrow space    Assigned to me. I look then at the silly walls Through dark eyes in a dark face— And this is what I know: That all these …

The Ancient Egypt’s Fascination

          It happens to you that certain places or objects make your soul jumps as if someone is calling you by your name?  It started one clear night at the countryside in the Dominican Republic. At the age of seven (learning to read?) I was visiting friends with my family – in that occasion, I …

Assyrians – A mighty kingdom

I had the time of my life in the Assyrian galleries at The British Museum. The collection is remarkable and as expected conveys the sense of power and strategy of this great civilization. The Assyrian empire stretched from Babylonia to the Mediterranean Sea and into Egypt. Parts of Iran and Anatolia were subject to the …

Ithaka – C. P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them: you’ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and …

Mental Health Day

Today is the mental health awareness day. Do you now that Vincent Van Gogh produced superb paintings and drawing after days of being dismissed from the hospital due to his first known mental instability episode in December 1888? Vincent never lost the faith in his talent as a painter.  Van Gogh’s quality, color, mastery remained …

The Summer Day | Mary Oliver

Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- who is …

Underwater Archaeology

In 1982 a shipwreck was found in the Mediterranean sea close to the south Turkish coast- called the Uluburun wreck. Dating of the objects on the cargo yielded a date around 1300BC. The discovery of the wreck provided important evidence about a dynamic trade network during the Bronze Age. Thousand of objects in bronze, tin, …

The Benin Bronzes

The Benin Bronzes were elaborated and stylized objectd from the Court of Benin (currently Edo State, Nigeria).  This type of work has to be comissioned by the ruler, called Oba, or on behalf of him. The craftmen used the technique lost-wax casting bronze(cire perdue) that they learnt from the Ife tribu in the north. The …

Alabaster | Egyptian gems

Alabaster a hard calcite or aragonite sedimentary rock hat is translucent and sometimes banded. Alabaster has been used through history for carving decorative artifacts.The material used in antiquity by the Egyptian was a fine-grained banded type of calcite, called Oriental Alabaster.  The name may be derived further from Ancient Egyptian "a-labaste", which refers to vessels of the Egyptian goddess Bast.© 2019 …

A perfect love | Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And …