A gold ring engraved with the face of Christ dating to the early 15th century has been discovered in a wide-scale excavation in Kalmar, Sweden. The ring was found in a waste disposal context but it is in almost untouched condition, suggesting it was accidentally lost rather than deliberately discarded at the end of its […]
The Rijksmuseum has acquired four silver and gilded salt cellars by 17th century Amsterdam silversmith Johannes Lutma after they were returned to the heirs of German Jewish collector Emma Budge. They are two matched pairs, one pair made in 1639, the other in 1643. The design features a cupid sitting on a dolphin with the
Two 800-year-old gravestone slabs that went down with the ship transporting them in the 13th century have been recovered. One slab is intact and in excellent condition; the other is much larger but broken into two pieces. The slabs were brought to the surface in a complex operation requiring a barge anchored to the seabed,
Michelangelo’s first two sculptures, marble reliefs the Madonna of the Steps and the Battle of the Centaurs carved when he was a teenager, have been restored and are on display at the Casa Buonarotti museum in Florence. Michelangelo was just 15 years old when he moved to Florence in 1490 and joined the informal art
Sixteen heavy tomes that document 425 years of official business by the archbishops of York are being thoroughly read, translated and indexed for the first time. From the 13th century through the 17th, the registers of the archbishops were carried around wherever they traveled and clerks recorded every act, letter and order in them. After
Where were we? Right. The Aurelian Walls south where the Appia Antica begins. Today it’s known as the Porta San Sebastiano after the Christian soldier martyred by Diocletian whose remains are interred in the basilica that bears his name a couple of miles down the Appia, but its original name when it was built by
