Picturing the Deep Universe Is Deeply Human
The James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning photos require extensive image processing—revealing as much about humanity as about the universe. In July 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled “Webb’s…
Tag: art
17th Century Judaeo-Persian Manuscript
This is a beautifully illustrated text, a copy of a text first written in the 14th century. You can examine it at https://smarthistory.org/the-ardashirnama-judeo-persian-manuscript/?fbclid=IwAR2H…
When Life Imitates Art in Ukraine
Photographs from Russia’s war on Ukraine dissolve an archaeologist’s fondness for a Soviet-era sculpture. ✽ On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. Counter to Russian President…
Piecing Together History From a Roman Mosaic
The 2020 discovery of an ancient villa in Britain uncovered the most important Roman mosaic found in the last century. An archaeologist explains how the mosaic offers an…
Best of SAPIENS 2022
In a year of continuing global conflagrations, anthropologists investigated a wide range of pressing and curious questions about humanity’s past, present, and future. Here are the editors’ picks…
A Whirlwind Tour of Okla Homma
New Directions: An Insider’s Look at Native American Collections SAR President’s Circle members embarked…
Confronting Xenophobia Through Food—and Comics
An anthropologist who migrated from India to the U.K. uses his research to illustrate how fellow migrants from India maintain cultural heritage through hard-to-find ingredients. ✽ Before I…
What Is Anthropological Poetry?
SAPIENS’ poetry editor and inaugural poet-in-residence break down what makes certain poems anthropological and explore how poetry has the potential to transform ways of thinking and being in…
Did Neanderthals Make Art?
Experts continue to debate whether Neanderthals were painters and jewelry-makers. A paleoanthropologist explores the evidence for Neanderthal art and the sources of people’s skepticism. ✽ As a Neande…
What Klingon and Other Constructed Languages Reveal
At a Comic-Con, or comic book convention, in Los Angeles in 2010, the trolley signs were in Klingon. Doug Kline/The Pop Culture Geek Network/Flickr This article was originally…
What Klingon and Other Constructed Languages Reveal
This article was originally published at Knowable Magazine and has been republished with Creative Commons. Most languages develop through centuries of use among groups of people. But some…
Crystal Worl’s Countermural Tells a Different History of Alaska
Her dark gray eyes scan the horizon. An iridescent golden sun and stars encircle her head, flanked on one side by a cobalt sockeye salmon and the other…
The Deep Human Story of Collecting Fossils
The Greek myth of Odysseus and the one-eyed Cyclops may have been inspired by ancient mammoth and mastodon skulls, on which the opening for the trunk looks like…
The 21st-century flaneur as a suspect?
Smith commits a crime is a tale of an everyday man trying to find his way – not in life, but – in space. This space looks essentially…
Unmasked: Illustrating COVID-19 in Okoboji
[no-caption] Aaron Gronstal These illustrations tell the story of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in a small tourist town in the Iowa Great Lakes region: my…
The Amazing Archive of First Nations Stories Written on Stone
This rock art in Australia features four of Josie Maralngurra’s hand stencils. The Pathway Project This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under…
Restaurar la cultura a la vida
Assemblea de la Makabra el desembre de 2006 a Can Ricart Article publicat al Quadern de Cultura d’El País, el 30/6/2006. Fa referència a l’atac simbòlic contra el…
Bend like a Willow Tree
‘Watch out, we’ll catch every one of you!’ Hamza’s shrill voice echoed in the stairwell, and through the opening, he saw a swarm of children scattering to hide…
Academic Fictions: A ballad of Kochi
Come oh villagers, come to the port Carry your sickles and scythes, sticks and rocks Come to the port, our city has fallen!! Our little city by the…
Academic Fictions: 2022
Last year, the Allegra Lab began a thematic thread showcasing a selection of the wonderful “academic fictions” written by students as an assignment for the course on “Cities,…
Beth Derderian takes the page 99 test
Why do some things count as art and go in museums, and other things don’t? “Exhibition organizers in the UAE often requested proof of citizenship status as part…
Heritage out of Control: Today’s utopia tomorrow’s waste?
Exploring how beliefs and spiritual dimensions of inequality turn today’s realities of waste into future heritage and (invisible) monuments Cite this article as: Fouad Asfour. January, 2022. ‘Herita…