Archaeo Store

Designs by @archaeologyart . Inspired by antiquity

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Cave Canem (Beware of dog) - 2nd Version

https://t.co/gpTzhRB0eS

"Cave Canem" means "Beware of the dog" in Latin. This design is inspired by the Roman mosaic at the Casa di Orfeo, Pompeii, Italy.

In Pompeii, dog mosaics of this kind were typically placed at the entrances of houses. Before even reaching the atrium, a visitor would see the homeowner's boundary marked on the floor.

One of the most famous examples of this tradition is the dog mosaic bearing the inscription "Cave Canem" at the entrance of the House of the Tragic Poet. This Latin phrase translates to "Beware of the dog." The piece from the House of Orpheus, however, is an uninscribed example of this same tradition.

There is an interesting detail I would like to share with you regarding this mosaic: the House of Orpheus did not merely feature a dog in mosaic form. On November 20, 1874, the remains of a real, chained dog were discovered at the entrance of the house; shortly thereafter, a plaster cast of the animal was made.

During the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, this dog had been left tethered in the entranceway. Traces of its leather collar and two bronze rings, indicating that it was chained, have been preserved in the plaster cast.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Tondo Hound

https://t.co/g9quQhFZBn

Around 510 BC, an Athenian painter drew this right in the center of a vessel people would drink wine from for decades: a dog scratching its ear with its hind leg. No gods, no heroes, no battles. Just an itch.

The cup is currently on display in Gallery 16 at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. It's a red-figure kylix produced in Kerameikos, the potters' quarter of Athens - a wide, shallow wine cup passed from hand to hand at banquets.

The painter is a master scholars call the Euergides Painter. He's named after the signature of the potter he worked with, Euergides. He was active from 515 to 500 BC. That means he worked right in the middle of the transition years when the red-figure technique dethroned the black-figure style.

The dog's appearance is no accident. A long, slender body, pointed snout, thin legs, and erect ears: this is the breed ancient sources call the Laconian (Spartan) hound. The Athenian sportsman and writer Xenophon describes this exact animal in his 4th-century BC treatise on hunting.

The scene's placement is no coincidence either. At a symposium, guests drink from a kylix while reclining. As a guest tilts the cup and finishes the wine, the black background recedes first, then the tondo's circle appears, and finally, the figure at the bottom reveals itself. So, this dog was designed as a surprise visual punchline.

What's truly fascinating is the choice of subject: During those same years, other Athenian painters - most notably Euphronios and Euthymides - were competing to see who could paint the most audacious mythological scenes. Euthymides even wrote on one of his vases, 'Euphronios never could have done this.' The Euergides Painter, on the other hand, drew a scratching dog.

For an Athenian, a hound was both a status symbol and a household member. Dog skeletons have been found in the Kerameikos cemetery. Among the surviving epitaphs is this one: 'This stone holds the white dog from Melita, the most faithful guard of Eumelos. While he lived, they called him Bull.'

According to the Beazley Archive, there are over 237 recorded depictions of dogs in Athenian vase painting. Most are beside their owners, chasing prey, or under the table at a symposium. Yet, very few are depicted completely alone, busy with their own bodily needs. This scratching dog, emerging as the wine drains, is one of those rare moments when an Athenian painter chose to see an animal simply as itself.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

The Hittite Sun Disk or Hittite Sun Course is an ancient Anatolian symbol dating back to the 20th century BC.

https://t.co/KtqxMzhbTd

The symbol belongs to the Hattis from the pre-Hittite period. The Sun Disk was used in ceremonies by Hattians about 4.250 years ago from today.

Round sphere forming the Sun Disk symbolizes the earth or the sun. At the bottom, there are two horn-like protrusions but what they represent is not clear. The protrusions at the top represent fertility, and the procreation of nature.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Oracle of Delphi Pythia: King Aegeus Consulting the Oracle - Ultra Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/ClRBDZu2Ua

This design is based on a drawing on a 2500 year-old ancient Greek kylix. The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was one of the most famous oracles in the ancient world.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Owl of Athena: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/H4spd80ufm

Athena; Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Courage, Civilization and Justice, of Artisanal Skill and Strategic Warfare. The patron Goddess of Athens and her virtues were often represented with the Owl, for its ability to pierce through the gloam of night allows it the vision and perception to see well beyond those who are blinded by the darkness around them.

In Athena the Athenians saw the virtues they sought to aspire to, and commemorated her by painting the Owl into their pottery and vases, and would even mint the unblinking and ever-vigilant Owl into their coinage.

[Archaeology & Art @archaeologyart]

Byzantine Empress Eirene: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/akDg9avKHS

[Archaeology & Art @archaeologyart]

Gorgoneion (2nd Version): Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/V9CfKYJVRa

[Archaeology & Art @archaeologyart]

The most mysterious voice of Delphi: Pythia, Oracle of Apollo.

[Archaeology & Art @archaeologyart]

Around eight thousand years ago, someone painted a small human figure on the back of a wild bull.That was more than four millennia before the famous bull-leaping fresco of Knossos in Crete.

The scene comes from the decorated Level V structure at Çatalhöyük often called the “Shrine of the Hunters.”

Çatalhöyük was a large Neolithic settlement near Cumra, Konya, in modern-day Turkey. Its East Mound was occupied from about 7400 to 6200 BC, while the West Mound continued into the Chalcolithic from about 6200 to 5200 BC.

It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012. Its houses were packed tightly together in a streetless layout; people moved across roofs and entered interior spaces through roof openings by ladder.

The mural was part of the richly decorated structure F.V.I, excavated during Mellaart’s 1960s campaigns. The room’s walls carried a sequence of animal-and-human scenes, among the most dynamic images known from Çatalhöyük.

The “bull” is best understood as an aurochs, the extinct wild ancestor of domestic cattle. Male aurochsen could stand close to two metres at the shoulder, with long legs, heavy horns, and a more athletic build than many modern cattle.

The last known aurochs died in 1627 in Poland’s Jaktorów Forest. Royal protection kept the remnant herd alive for a time, but it could not save the species.

The fascinating part is that this may not be a straightforward kill scene.

The human figures seem to be surrounding, teasing, or baiting the animal. Some carry objects such as bows, sticks, or axes, while others reach toward tails, tongues, horns, or bodies. There is no clear scene of slaughter, and the action feels closer to a dangerous spectacle, ritual, or game than to a simple hunt.

At Çatalhöyük, wild bulls were more than meat. Their size, danger, and difficulty made them powerful social and symbolic animals.

At Çatalhöyük, walls and floors were repeatedly renewed. Some floors were replastered dozens of times, and some walls hundreds of times over the life of a house. Each coat sealed the surface beneath it, and some phases carried new painted images.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Medieval Scene: Dog vs. Rabbit fight (2nd version): Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/wOrRdZnAf8

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Mimbres-Bat Motif from Native Pottery: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/fBF5S76iK6

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Tóg Go Bog É Medieval Dance: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/DFCV8UXYvT

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Viking Raven: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/hYlO8Gko3Z

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Citharode Seated at the Kithara: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/72HkmjPbvq

[Archaeology & Art @archaeologyart]

Peruvian Cat: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton T-Shirt

https://t.co/UKwXJlkLPv

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Vase with Twelve Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh, 1888.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Both the god and his attendants soon became intoxicated with its juice ; after which, crowned with wreaths of laurel and ivy, and accompanied by a crowd of nymphs, satyrs, and fauns, he ranged the woods, which resounded with the loud and joyful cries of his inspired worshippers.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Dionysos riding on a panther. Floor mosaic. Date: ca. 120—80 BC. Delos, Greece, House of the Masks.

[Archaeo Store @ArchaeoStore]

Dionysus, after growing up amidst the solitude of the forest and strengthening himself by his contests with its wild beasts, at length planted the vine.