Europeans

In the Afghan city of Herat, the young are restless as war grinds on

HERAT, Afghanistan — Near the heart of this traffic-clogged western city stands a fortress almost as long as three football fields, with battlements that rise 10 stories above the swarming streets.

The Citadel of Herat traces to the Timurid dynasty of the 15th century. The Sunni Muslim tribe declared Herat the capital of its vast Persian Empire, and the brick stronghold was the crown jewel for ensuing regimes that seized the city.

In the 1970s, the Afghan government converted the imposing structure into a museum. The Taliban were less civic-minded, bolting artillery guns on the parapets and torturing political prisoners in the dirt courtyards.

With the help of $1.2 million in U.S. aid, the ravages of time and the Taliban have been repaired. Earlier this month, Afghan and U.S. officials presided over a ceremony celebrating the citadel’s restoration.

On a recent afternoon, Omid Mojaddidy, 30, a Herat native, ascended the steep, curling stairs inside a corner tower, stepping from shadows into sunlight when he reached the top.

Source: Stars and Stripes

The History Blog » Blog Archive » 17th c. Chinese coin found in ...

by livius drusus

Archaeologists doing a heritage impact assessment on the site of a future gold mine northwest of Carmacks, Yukon, have unearthed a Chinese coin from the 17th century . Although old Chinese coins are fairly common finds along the northwest coast of Canada and the United States, this is only the third one ever found in the interior Yukon. It was discovered in July but only announced publicly a couple of days ago after months of fact-checking and research.

According to James Mooney, cultural resource specialist with Ecofor Consulting Limited, the archaeological firm hired by Western Copper and Gold Corporation to do the heritage impact assessment, all three of the Yukon Chinese coins were found in an archaeological setting. No later historical materials were found along with them, indicating that the coins were traded into the interior before the Klondike Gold Rush via the First Nations coastal trade with Europeans rather than by Europeans traipsing into the interior themselves....

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Denise Kingsmill: Renaissance money men - Leadership, business ...

Burn the bankers! was the cry of the 15th-century Florentine crowd protesting against the excesses of the profession at the original Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497, when there was a symbolic burning of 'vain, lascivious, or dishonest' things. This followed the fall of the Medici, the great ruling house of the Italian Renaissance, and the failure of their bank. The similarity to the placards and shouts of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in New York is striking, as the impact of the banking crash of 2008 is felt by people who have lost their jobs, their homes and their businesses through the excesses of bankers.

Antipathy towards banks and bankers has persisted through the centuries and periodically manifests itself in popular and sometimes violent expression in times of economic and political uncertainty and fragility.

In a brilliant and illuminating exhibition in the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, entitled Money and Beauty (to 22 January), the story of the birth of the modern banking system, the alignment of the bankers with the ruling elite and the relationship between art and money is beautifully told and illustrated with some of the most magnificent artworks of the Renaissance.

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European Clothing 15th century News

Love Leonardo? Then don't neglect the National Gallery's permanent collection

The Guardian (blog) - Dec 31, 1969

In the 15th century, artists across Europe looked at the living world with new sharpness and clarity. Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, in Room 56, is as good a place as any to begin a journey through the Renaissance. The work depicts an interior

In the Afghan city of Herat, the young are restless as war grinds on

Stars and Stripes - Dec 31, 1969

The Citadel of Herat, built in the 15th century during the Timurid dynasty and recently restored with the help of $1.2 million in US aid, overlooks the city of 400000 people in western Afghanistan. HERAT, Afghanistan — Near the heart of

Preview calendar: Dance, galleries and museums for Nov. 3-9

North County Times - Dec 31, 1969

San Diego Museum of Art ---- The museum's permanent holdings include a collection of Italian Renaissance, Dutch and Spanish Old Masters; Asian art, South Asian paintings, as well as comprehensive examples of American art, 19th-century European

Milla Jovovich revels in 17th-century action

Reading Eagle - Dec 31, 1969

"I don't think I ever told Paul about my feelings for Milady," Jovovich said, "but he's always known about my partiality toward European history." Jovovich has brought feminism to a period saga before, playing Joan of Arc as a 15th-century warrior in