Head of Hercules

An archaeologist assesses the possible Hercules head. (photo by Nikos Giannoulakis, 

courtesy the Return to Antikythera Project)

On Monday, marine archaeologists and researchers at the site of the famed Antikythera shipwreck announced the discovery of a number of ancient artifacts recovered from the seafloor. These included a colossal marble head of a statue, a marble plinth for a statue along with remaining portions of its lower legs, nails, a lead collar for an anchor, and two human teeth. The findings reveal that there are many archaeological treasures yet to be discovered off the coast of Greece — and at dozens of other underwater sites across the Mediterranean.

Especially noteworthy among the artifacts is the massive marble head, not the bust of just any mythological hero but likely that of the headless statue of Hercules housed at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, also made of Parian marble.

The new excavations are part of a multi-year (2021–2025) project led by the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Euboea, and the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities under the direction of Angeliki Simosi and Lorenz Baumer. The site of the Antikythera wreck is off the coast of the eponymous island, which sits between the Peloponnese of mainland Greece and the island of Crete and in antiquity was often referred to as Aigila.

Dating to around 60 BCE (roughly the same time Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus created the First Triumvirate in Rome), the Antikythera wreck is perhaps the most famous Mediterranean shipwreck known today. This is due in large part to the discovery of a Hellenistic-era astronomical machine known as the Antikythera Mechanism, often referred to as the world’s first analog computer in terms of its use of numerous bronze gears to track the Sun, Moon, Zodiac, and many other astronomical and astrological features.  READ MORE...

Visit a Museum to Eliminate Stress

It turns out that visiting a museum is good for your health: New research from the University of Pennsylvania found reductions in anxiety and depression and increases in cognitive function and empathy, among a number of other promising outcomes.

“Art museums have great potential to positively impact people, including reducing their stress, enhancing positive emotional experiences, and helping people to feel less lonely and more connected,” researcher Katherine Cotter told Hyperallergic.

The study, titled “Art Museums As Institutions for Human Flourishing,” was published in the Journal of Positive Psychology by Cotter and James O. Pawelski of the University of Pennsylvania.

Their work is encompassed in the burgeoning field of positive psychology, which studies “the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive.”

Drawing on research from different academic disciplines, the study is part of an initiative that examines how the arts and humanities affect “human flourishing” — a comprehensive framework that takes into account both “ill-being” (living with disease, disorders, or in negative states) and “well-being” (practicing positive health habits).

“We believe our collaborative and interdisciplinary work is all the more vital at a time when so many individuals and communities lack the levels of well-being they need to thrive,” Pawelski said.  READ MORE...

Life Flashes Before the Eyes

A new study suggests that life flashes before the eyes upon death (via Wikimedia Commons)

It’s been an age-old trope in works of literature, poetry, and art for ages, but now science confirms it’s true: Life does indeed flash before your eyes when you die.

When an 87-year-old epilepsy patient unexpectedly passed away during a brain scan, the scan found that his brain seemed to replay memories in the 30 seconds before and after his heart stopped beating, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

The patient, whose name was kept private, suffered a heart attack, and due to his do-not-resuscitate status, the scientists were able to track his brain waves throughout the final moments of his life. The scan was conducted by an international team of 13 neuroscientists led by Raul Vicente of the University of Tartu in Estonia.

The scientists were originally conducting electroencephalography (EEG) scans on the patient to detect and treat seizures. When he unexpectedly died, the EEG machine kept running, providing the scientists a first-of-its-kind glimpse into the brain activity of a dying human.

“This is why it’s so rare, because you can’t plan this,” Ajmal Zemmar, one of the co-authors of the study, told Insider. “No healthy human is gonna go and have an EEG before they die, and in no sick patient are we going to know when they’re gonna die to record these signals.”

The EEG brain scan found an oscillatory brain wave pattern in which activity in the brain’s alpha, beta, and theta bands relatively decreased and activity in the gamma band relatively increased. It’s thought that these oscillatory patterns, and an increase in gamma waves, suggest memory recall (the gamma band decreases external interference, allowing for deep inward concentration like recalling memories). Similar brain oscillations occur during meditation and dreaming.

This is the first time this has been proven in a human, although the concept looms large in our collective imagination. It comes back to us from people who have experienced near-death experiences, defined as when the brain has transitioned into preparing for death. Research into these experiences has reported intense memory recall and a panoramic review of one’s life. They have also reported a hallucinatory and meditative state and a sense of transcendence and bliss. These accounts cross cultures and religions.  READ MORE...

Hallucinogens Used As A Tactic

Depictions of Anadenanthera colubrina use in the Middle Horizon: (l.) the Ponce Stele at Tiahuanaco portrays an elite individual holding a drinking cup and snuff tablet (photograph courtesy A. Roddick); (r.) a vessel from the Wari site of Conchopata features the tree and its tell-tale seed pods sprouting from the head of the Staff God (illustration courtesy J. Ochatoma Paravicino) (images by A. Roddick and J. Ochatoma, provided by Cambridge University Press)

It’s easy to imagine that dosing followers with hallucinogens is a practice invented by contemporary cult leaders like Charles Manson (or the United States government), but recent archeological findings indicate at least one example that dates back more than a thousand years.

Excavation at a site in the southern Peruvian town of Quilcapampa (a place where the Wari people settled in the Sihuas Valley) uncovered artifacts related to hallucinogenic beverages, in an area with buildings that were likely used for feasting. The findings included 16 vilca seeds and remains of a fermented fruit drink referred to as “chicha de molle.” As the team of researchers wrote in a paper published by the journal Antiquity, the drink would have created a strong psychotropic effect, and: “The resulting psychotropic experience reinforced the power of the Wari state.”

The hallucinogenic powers of the vilca seeds, amplified by delivery within chicha de molle, would have been taken as a spiritual experience by the consumer. Researchers label this discover as particularly significant, because it helps contextualize the social practices of the Wari with respect to the use of hallucinogens during the Formative period (900–300 BCE) — associated with political strategies defined as “exclusionary” — versus during the Late  Horizon (approximately 1450–1532 CE), when Inca leaders implemented “corporate” strategies via the mass consumption of alcohol. 

The paper’s authors argue that findings from Quilcapampa locate the shift between these two practices during the Middle Horizon (600–1000 CE), when beer made from Schinus molle was combined with the hallucinogen Anadenanthera colubrina, and represent an intermediate step between exclusionary and corporate political strategies.

“Almost certainly, it would have been a spiritual experience,” wrote study co-author Justin Jennings, a curator of new world archaeology at the Royal Ontario Museum, as quoted in Live Science. Since vilca seeds were not naturally proximate to Quilcapampa, a certain amount of effort must have been expended to gather them, indicating their importance to the social fabric.  READ MORE...