With Facebook’s public offering now a thing of the past, it seems like a good time to look at a much older version of social networking…petroglyphs. What was the Bronze Age Facebook? Ancient Petroglyphs = An Ancient Facebook? Starting around 4000 BC, semi-nomadic people began to carve petroglyphs on granite rocks in western Russia and…
Nearly 400 years after his death, mystery continues to surround William Shakespeare. What did he look like? What religion did he practice? And did he really write all those plays? So many questions, so few answers. The Mysterious Shakespeare Signature? Recently, scholars at The Lazarus Project discovered a bit of writing in an old legal text…
Around 800 AD, the ancient Mayas started to use a strange blue pigment in their artwork. What was Maya Blue? The Mysterious Origin of Maya Blue? Maya Blue was a unique, weather resistant, blue pigment used by ancient pre-Columbian cultures such as the Maya. For many years, we’ve known Maya Blue consisted of indigo and…
On June 6, 1505, Leonardo da Vinci began to paint The Battle of Anghiari in the Palazzo Vecchio. Over fifty years later, Giorgio Vasari was hired to remodel the room where da Vinci’s mural was located. In the process, da Vinci’s mural vanished into thin air. New evidence suggests that not only does it still exist but that it…
The Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting. Yet, it remains cloaked in secrecy to this day. Who was she? Is it even the original painting? Why was it painted? And how did da Vinci create that strange smile of hers? Mysteries of the Mona Lisa? Many of those mysteries aren’t going away…
On June 6, 1505, Leonardo da Vinci began to paint the Battle of Anghiari in the Palazzo Vecchio. The 12 by 15 foot mural depicted a Florentine victory over the Milanese. According to the famous Italian painter Giorgio Vasari, da Vinci never finished the project. New evidence suggests that not only was the painting completed…