Property from Goucher College Mummy Portrait of a Man, Roman Egypt, Flavian Period, circa late 1st century CE. Painted with encaustic (pigmented wax) on wood (probably sycamore), his head turned to his right, and wearing a white chiton (tunic) and white himation (cloak) falling from the nape of the neck, his solemn face with full lower lip, long aquiline nose, translucent hazel eyes, bushy eyebrows, and furrowed brow, his wavy gray hair brushed forward above the forehead. 12 3⁄4 by 6 in.; 32.5 by 15.4 cm Auction page: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2026/master-paintings-sculpture-part-i/mummy-portrait-of-a-man-roman-egypt-flavian-period

This realistically rendered Flavian era mummy portrait from Roman Egypt gives us a rare look at an older person from that era. It has been on loan for over 70 years to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, but was recently sold at auction. Will it disappear into a private collection? 🏺

📸 Sotheby’s

The research shows that offloading intro classes to adjuncts makes it harder to get students to major in your discipline. Allowing AP and high-school dual enrollment classes to provide college credit doubles down on that problem.

After the rain, Chartres at Ursulines, New Orleans

1. Tablet with bite marks found during the late nineteenth-century excavations at Nippur Loaned by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, USA, N5326B

One of my favorite objects from ISAC in Chicago? A school tablet with bite marks found during the late nineteenth-century excavations at Nippur. Loaned by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology a few years ago (image by me). 🦷 School stress is universal.

Looking down Barracks street from French Market place, New Orleans

Night geometry, Dumaine and N Rampart, New Orleans

Last night's moon smiling over the lake, New Orleans

In honor of Jerry Orbach's 90th birthday, please enjoy him,along with Angela Lansbury, recording Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast.

Sumo wrestlers enjoying Stonehenge

Sumo wrestlers having fun posing with Stonehenge

Sumo wrestlers having fun posing with Stonehenge

Sumo wrestlers posing like The Beatles on Abbey Road

I am living for the sumo wrestlers having fun playing tourists while preparing for the sumo tournament in London

Architecturally trapped moon, Royal at St Philip, New Orleans

Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.

> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

Ripples in the river, New Orleans

A silent brass band enters Armstrong park after closing time, New Orleans

Arrest Warrant Says Buyer of ‘Nude Emperor’ Bronze Knew It Was Looted

NEWS: The Manhattan DA has issued an arrest warrant for a California antiquities collector, Aaron Mendelsohn, alleging he knowing bought a bronze sculpture looted from Bubon, Turkiye and conspired with prominent experts to disguise its illicit history.

A thread...

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/a...

Twilight in the Marigny, New Orleans

Pirates alley under the moon, New Orleans

Moon over Chartres street, New Orleans

Italy has lost one of its fiercest cultural guardians, and ARCA has lost a brilliant friend, mentor, and ally. "A blog about art crimes, illicit trafficking, forgery, art theft and cultural heritage protection."

Italy has lost one of its fiercest cultural guardians, and ARCA has lost a brilliant friend, mentor, and ally. art-crime.blogspot.com/2025/08/ital...

Okay I'm going to join in.

One like, one fact/opinion about portrait panels/Roman Egypt.

Man with two dogs, Bourbon street, New Orleans

bsky.app/profile/flow...

Bienville under the moon, Decatur street, New Orleans

View of the setting crescent moon from the Bywater, New Orleans

Crescent moon setting, view from Algiers, New Orleans

maybe there's still some good left in this world after all

Prominent Art Advisory Implodes After 37 Years, as Ex-Partners Fire Off Lawsuits | Artnet News Art advisors Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher are locked in a $20 million legal fight, with explosive claims of fraud, and abuse.

Allegations of fraud, tax evasion, misappropriation of funds, abuse, and exploitation shatter the polished veneer of Guggenheim-Asher, an ultra-high-end firm whose clients included celebrities like Tom Cruise and corporations such as Sony and Coca-Cola.

news.artnet.com/market/promi...

My photo shows the other side of the glossy blue faience hippopotamus statuette standing in profile with head to left. The head and body are decorated with black pigment depicting lotus plants. A butterfly rests on one of the lotus flower stems

And on the other side of the hippo there’s a little butterfly perched on a lotus flower stem! 🦛🦋 💙

My photo shows an ancient Egyptian statuette of a standing blue hippopotamus on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is made of Egyptian faience, a ceramic material coated with a bright blue glossy glaze. The hippo is viewed from the side profile with head on the right. It is decorated in black pigment with outlines of lotus plants which grow in the hippos Nile habitat. A little bird is perched on the stem of one lotus flower. Dimensions: Height 11.5 cm, length 21.5 cm. Excavated by Auguste Mariette in 1860 at the necropolis of Dra’ Abu el-Naga’, western Thebes. Dated Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty, c. 2134-1991 BC. Egyptian faience is a ceramic material made of quartz. Blue hippos are decorated with black pigment outlining depictions of Nile river plants, in particular lotus flowers. In ancient Egypt lotus flowers had religious symbolism; the flowers close at night and reopen with the rising of the sun in the morning, which was associated with regeneration and rebirth. Blue faience hippos have been found in Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate period tombs. It’s thought they were placed there to help the rebirth of the deceased. Associated with the life-giving Nile, regeneration, and Tawaret, the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth. Hippos were also seen as dangerous to humans so the legs of faience hippos have often been broken off the statuettes found in tombs, perhaps to make sure the hippo could not harm the deceased in the afterlife.

Happy weekend! 🦛💙

Here’s a wonderful c. 4,000 year-old ancient Egyptian glossy blue hippo decorated with a little bird perched on the stem of a lotus flower.

Egyptian Museum Cairo 📷 by me

#Archaeology

A contemporary drawing of an Egyptian death mask, I think, but the important bit is that the woman depicted had black and blue eye coloration, as well as a very fancy hat that looks like a vulture.

The Ancient Egyptians regularly consumed beer, but the English word "alcohol" traces to a different part of their culture: eye makeup!

Egyptians extensively used dark pigments around their eyes, called 'kohl', possibly from an earlier Akkadian term.