The TVC15

through-bein-cool:

Franks Casket, Weyland the Smith and the Adoration of the Magi, 8th cent, Early Medieval Art, whalebone, purpose is unknown, England.

• decorated with scenes from different sources.  There is a Germanic tale of Weyland the Smith (which you should read about), and a Christian scene of the Adoration of the Magi, a scene of Remus and Romulus, and scenes that have not yet been identified.
• The inscription in runic script that is a riddle about the casket itself.  ”The fish beat up the seas on to the mountainous cliff; the King of terror became sad when he swam onto the shingle”  The answer is “whale bone”.

I love whalebone.

ancientart:

The Etruscan painted terracotta sarcophagus of Seainti Hanunia Tlesnasa, dates to about 150-130 BCE, from Poggio Cantarello, near Chiusi in Tuscany. The skeleton from the sarcophagus was found to belong to a woman who was about fifty years old at the time of her death.

Courtesy & currently located at the British Museum, London. Photo taken by sailko