Latest news with #Scythian
Otago Daily Times
08-08-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Cold shoulder tells story of people's past
A reconstruction of the burial of Princess Ukok. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES One of my most memorable cruises as a guest speaker took us to Kerch, where today Putin's infamous bridge links Russia to the Ukraine. We were there to visit a remarkable archaeological site, the 4th century BC Royal Kurgan. This is a Russian term for a grave covered by a mound or tumulus, the grave chamber being constructed of timber capped by boulders. Usually, they contain the remains of elite members of their community but they are such obvious features on the landscape that most were looted long ago for their opulent offerings. The Scythian ice mummies of the Russia Altai, 2300 years old, had remarkable tattoos on the arms and shoulders. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Kurgans are found from Ukraine right across the Russian steppes as far as the Altai uplands, and are usually linked with people known to history as the Scythians. Now infra-red technology has been used to obtain detailed images of the tattoos on the body of a 50-year-old woman from an Altai kurgan. There, permafrost in the tombs has preserved bodies that are more than 2000 years old. These mummified remains have made it possible to recreate very precisely what those nomadic horse-riding warriors looked like, and warriors they were — one man had been scalped and killed with an axe. They certainly decorated their shoulders and arms with richly detailed works from the hands of outstanding tattoo artists. Animal scenes dominate, particularly antlered deer being attacked by predators that include real animals, such as the snow leopard, and fictitious beasts. Hunting scenes were also carved on to the wooden headdress of this man, showing a bird of prey, probably an eagle, devouring the head of a deer. 2300 year old carpet from an Altai kurgan. Women too were interred with great wealth. In 1993 at the Site of Ukok, Russian archaeologists opened the kurgan of the so-called Ice Maiden. Her coffin was extended to make room for her felt hat, which was decorated with images of swans and cats covered in gold. Six horses were buried with her and one can admire their richly decorated harnesses. One kurgan contained a four-wheeled cart, another a superb pile carpet that would have taken a single weaver at least 18 months to complete. The exterior panel is decorated with horse riders, and an interior panel with deer. There are also Chinese silks, one of which was embroidered with images of birds and flowers, and incorporated into a saddle cloth. We are indeed fortunate that these artistic and vibrant people's graves have been deep frozen for at least 2000 years.
Epoch Times
13-07-2025
- Science
- Epoch Times
‘Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets'
Weaving fiber into cloth is one of the world's oldest technologies, and one of its most important. Cloth provides clothing, shelter (in the form of tents), and floor coverings (carpet and rugs). Cloth is functional, but it's also decorative as an outlet for creativity. Among the most enduring examples of cloth's ability to combine function and beauty are carpets. They have filled both roles for thousands of years. 'Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets' by Dorothy Armstrong is a spellbinding history of carpets. Armstrong looks at 12 carpets, examining how and when they were manufactured, and the impact each had. She looks at their role as a marker of status, the culture in which they were created, and how different societies interpreted each featured carpet. Historic Rugs The book opens with the oldest carpet, a 3rd or 4th-century carpet manufactured for a Scythian chieftain. It's possibly the oldest in existence, preserved because it was buried as a grave gift in the frozen Altai uplands (a mountain range where Russia, China, and Mongolia converge).
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Yahoo
Ukrainian sculptor Taras Shevchenko killed in action
Taras Shevchenko, a 25-year-old Ukrainian sculptor, was killed in action on Sunday, 9 March. He was an employee of the Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park. Source: park's staff member Ivan Rusiev on Facebook Quote from Rusiev: "A young, incredibly bright person, an outstanding sculptor of Ukrainian Bessarabia, is no longer with us. He was killed by the war, which he went to fight alongside his father, Oleksandr, as soon as Russia's invasion of Ukraine began. Some years ago, a majestic pelican named Daedalus appeared in the Tuzly Amazonia recreation area of the Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park." The sculpture of the pelican. Photo: Ivan Rusiev on Facebook The sculpture of the pelican. Photo: Ivan Rusiev on Facebook Photo: Ivan Rusiev on Facebook Details: The pelican sculpture was installed at the site of a former military training ground. Made of gypsum, it is life-sized. Quote from Rusiev: "Concrete pedestals remained at the site, and the park's creative staff decided to use them as bases for art installations. The first to be placed there was the symbol of Tuzly Amazonia – the Dalmatian pelican, a vulnerable species listed in Ukraine's Red Data Book. The monument was created by the young sculptor and park employee Taras Shevchenko." Details: Later, Taras also created thematic sculptures of a marmot and a Scythian stone statue. Read also: "A man of great heart": veterinarian and soldier Zakhar Palii killed in action Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Friends of Eaton fire victim mourn a Renaissance woman with a generous streak
You should have seen the bookcases in Patricia McKenna's Altadena home. It was an astonishing personal library, her friends recalled: a collection on art, fashion, history and design tomes that bowed even the sturdiest shelving. When a friend developed an interest in Scythian culture, McKenna handed over her library's entire section of ancient Central Asian design books — not a book, mind you, but close to a dozen academic works on Bactrian and Thracian art, dress and culture. She'd acquire books and give them away, then buy more books to fill the space. The shelves would sag, her husband would cheerfully hammer up more reinforcements, and the cycle continued from there. 'That's the way she operated. She loved introducing people to other sources of information and giving things that she knew would be meaningful to them,' said Cat Winesburg, a longtime friend of McKenna's and the beneficiary of her Scythian bequest. Her voice grew quiet. 'The library is now ash,' she said. On Monday, the county medical examiner confirmed that McKenna, a longtime Altadena resident, perished in her Punahou Street home during the Eaton fire that consumed more than 9,400 structures in an area of nearly 22 square miles. She was 77. McKenna is one of 17 people known to have died in the Eaton fire, all of them west of Lake Avenue. Read more: Altadena had soul, solitude and community. Can those qualities survive devastating firestorm? The news was a blow to communities who recalled McKenna at her creative best: former students and faculty at Los Angeles City College, where she worked for years in the theater department, and fellow members of the Queen Medb Encampment, a Celtic historical reenactment group. 'The world, and our Encampment, lost a grand lady in the Eaton fire,' said Robert Seutter, a member of the group. 'She was a classy lady [with] a wry, dry wit, and was a keen observer.' McKenna grew up in Whittier with her brother and two sisters, Winesburg said. She became interested early on in historical costumes, a passion she put to use in her personal and professional life. As costume shop forewoman at LACC, McKenna pulled together technically impeccable and historically accurate costumes for everything from Neil Simon's 'Lost in Yonkers' to the midcentury French drama 'Cher Antoine.' She helped Winesburg construct her wedding dress, a historically faithful reproduction of Elizabethan garb. McKenna drew from an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion from the medieval age onward, said her friend Jenny, who asked to withhold her last name for privacy concerns. 'If somebody needed to know something about costuming, Pat was the one they could go to,' she said. 'She had a generous nature and a generous spirit like no one I've ever known.' Around 1985 McKenna married Tom Wellbaum. Decades later, few friends can recall the precise nature of Wellbaum's work — something in engineering? — but all remember vividly his impish sense of humor, and his devotion to McKenna. She moved with him into the 1923 Sears, Roebuck and Co. kit house on Punahou Street that Wellbaum had purchased as a teenager and fixed up with his father. For nearly two decades the couple traveled, went to Renaissance fairs and historic festivals, and hosted friends and family, even after Wellbaum was disabled in a workplace accident. McKenna stood a regal 6 feet tall, and could be snippy and imperious when annoyed, friends said. Yet she was also consistently generous — giving nearly-new clothes and jewelry to friends she thought better suited for them; keeping a petty cash fund just for veterinary bills for loved ones' ailing pets. In the early 2000s, Wellbaum was struck by a car while crossing the road in his mobility scooter. He died soon afterward. By her friends' reckoning, a piece of McKenna went with him. Her health began to falter. She went out far less often than she used to. A few years after Wellbaum's death, a heart attack sent her to the hospital. She left with a defibrillator and a diagnosis of broken heart syndrome, a colloquial term for rapid weakening of the heart muscle. 'But we could have told him that,' Jenny said of the doctor. 'When Tom passed ... it took her whole heart.' A series of falls left McKenna with injuries that made it difficult to get around. When Winesburg visited in July, McKenna was starting to talk about cleaning her place out, and the eventual possibility of moving to an assisted living facility. Read more: Fire victims seek answers about rebuilding, cleanup timeline The two women wept together over the realization that it was almost certainly the last time they would see one another, given their mounting health issues, Winesburg said. A friend spoke to McKenna on the evening of Jan. 7, about an hour after the Eaton fire began, Winesburg said. McKenna said she had a go bag packed and would sit tight until the evacuation order came. It never did. Her home was in an area west of Lake Avenue that did not receive evacuation warnings until the early hours of Jan. 8, when the fire was already threatening the neighborhood. For days, friends called emergency shelters, hospitals and the Red Cross looking for her. A week later, family learned that human remains were found at the site where her house once stood. It took nearly a month for forensic testing to confirm that they were McKenna's. Her loved ones hope she slept through it all, Winesburg said. They find some comfort knowing that McKenna did not have to see her beloved home in ashes. 'She would not have been happy at all, or interested in rebuilding a house she loved,' Winesburg said. 'The house she lived with Tom in was gone.' Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
12-02-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Friends of Eaton fire victim mourn a Renaissance woman with a generous streak
You should have seen the bookcases in Patricia McKenna's Altadena home. It was an astonishing personal library, her friends recalled: a collection on art, fashion, history and design tomes that bowed even the sturdiest shelving. When a friend developed an interest in Scythian culture, McKenna handed over her library's entire section of ancient Central Asian design books — not a book, mind you, but close to a dozen academic works on Bactrian and Thracian art, dress and culture. She'd acquire books and give them away, then buy more books to fill the space. The shelves would sag, her husband would cheerfully hammer up more reinforcements, and the cycle continued from there. 'That's the way she operated. She loved introducing people to other sources of information and giving things that she knew would be meaningful to them,' said Cat Winesburg, a longtime friend of McKenna's and the beneficiary of her Scythian bequest. Her voice grew quiet. 'The library is now ash,' she said. On Monday, the county medical examiner confirmed that McKenna, a longtime Altadena resident, perished in her Punahou Street home during the Eaton fire that consumed more than 9,400 structures in an area of nearly 22 square miles. She was 77. McKenna is one of 17 people known to have died in the Eaton fire, all of them west of Lake Avenue. The news was a blow to communities who recalled McKenna at her creative best: former students and faculty at Los Angeles City College, where she worked for years in the theater department, and fellow members of the Queen Medb Encampment, a Celtic historical reenactment group. 'The world, and our Encampment, lost a grand lady in the Eaton fire,' said Robert Seutter, a member of the group. 'She was a classy lady [with] a wry, dry wit, and was a keen observer.' McKenna grew up in Whittier with her brother and two sisters, Winesburg said. She became interested early on in historical costumes, a passion she put to use in her personal and professional life. As costume shop forewoman at LACC, McKenna pulled together technically impeccable and historically accurate costumes for everything from Neil Simon's 'Lost in Yonkers' to the midcentury French drama 'Cher Antoine.' She helped Winesburg construct her wedding dress, a historically faithful reproduction of Elizabethan garb. McKenna drew from an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion from the medieval age onward, said her friend Jenny, who asked to withhold her last name for privacy concerns. 'If somebody needed to know something about costuming, Pat was the one they could go to,' she said. 'She had a generous nature and a generous spirit like no one I've ever known.' Around 1985 McKenna married Tom Wellbaum. Decades later, few friends can recall the precise nature of Wellbaum's work — something in engineering? — but all remember vividly his impish sense of humor, and his devotion to McKenna. She moved with him into the 1923 Sears, Roebuck and Co. kit house on Punahou Street that Wellbaum had purchased as a teenager and fixed up with his father. For nearly two decades the couple traveled, went to Renaissance fairs and historic festivals, and hosted friends and family, even after Wellbaum was disabled in a workplace accident. McKenna stood a regal 6 feet tall, and could be snippy and imperious when annoyed, friends said. Yet she was also consistently generous — giving nearly-new clothes and jewelry to friends she thought better suited for them; keeping a petty cash fund just for veterinary bills for loved ones' ailing pets. In the early 2000s, Wellbaum was struck by a car while crossing the road in his mobility scooter. He died soon afterward. By her friends' reckoning, a piece of McKenna went with him. Her health began to falter. She went out far less often than she used to. A few years after Wellbaum's death, a heart attack sent her to the hospital. She left with a defibrillator and a diagnosis of broken heart syndrome, a colloquial term for rapid weakening of the heart muscle. 'But we could have told him that,' Jenny said of the doctor. 'When Tom passed ... it took her whole heart.' A series of falls left McKenna with injuries that made it difficult to get around. When Winesburg visited in July, McKenna was starting to talk about cleaning her place out, and the eventual possibility of moving to an assisted living facility. The two women wept together over the realization that it was almost certainly the last time they would see one another, given their mounting health issues, Winesburg said. A friend spoke to McKenna on the evening of Jan. 7, about an hour after the Eaton fire began, Winesburg said. McKenna said she had a go bag packed and would sit tight until the evacuation order came. It never did. Her home was in an area west of Lake Avenue that did not receive evacuation warnings until the early hours of Jan. 8, when the fire was already threatening the neighborhood. For days, friends called emergency shelters, hospitals and the Red Cross looking for her. A week later, family learned that human remains were found at the site where her house once stood. It took nearly a month for forensic testing to confirm that they were McKenna's. Her loved ones hope she slept through it all, Winesburg said. They find some comfort knowing that McKenna did not have to see her beloved home in ashes. 'She would not have been happy at all, or interested in rebuilding a house she loved,' Winesburg said. 'The house she lived with Tom in was gone.'
