M_1_13 — Lycurgus Cup and Ancient Nanotechnology: Dichroic Glass

The Lycurgus Cup is a 4th-century CE Roman cage cup (diatretum) made of dichroic glass, currently in the collection of the British Museum (accession no. 1958,1202.1). It is the most complete surviving example, and one of

M_1_00 — Anomalous Artifacts OOParts: Subfolder Summary

M_1_06 — Roman Dodecahedra — Hundreds of Mysterious Artifacts

Roman dodecahedra are small hollow bronze (occasionally stone or lead) objects with 12 pentagonal faces, each containing a circular hole of varying diameter, with knobs or protuberances at each of the 20 vertices.

M_1_19 — Bog Bodies, Ritual Preservation, and Wetland Sacrifice

Bog bodies — human remains naturally preserved in the acidic, oxygen-poor, tannic environment of Northern European peat bogs — constitute one of archaeology's most dramatic categories of evidence. Over 1,000 bog bodies h

A_1_17 — The Gilgamesh Epic: Complete Analysis and Legacy

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest substantial work of literature in human history, composed across approximately 1,500 years in multiple Sumerian and Akkadian recensions — from independent Sumerian poems (c. 2100 BCE)

A_2_05 — The Hermetic Tradition: Thoth, Hermes Trismegistus, and the Emerald Tablet

This document examines The Hermetic Tradition: Thoth, Hermes Trismegistus, and the Emerald Tablet, a topic within the Foundations research area. Notable findings include: Ancient Egyptian tradition describes a Book of Th

A_4_26 — Aztec Codices: Borgia Group and Mesoamerican Ritual Manuscripts

The Aztec codices — particularly the Borgia Group — are a set of pre-Columbian and early colonial-period painted manuscripts from central Mexico, produced on deerskin or bark paper (amatl) in screenfold format. The Borgi

A_4_12 — Pali Canon (Tipitaka) — Earliest Buddhist Scriptures

The Pali Canon (Tipiṭaka, "Three Baskets") is the oldest complete collection of Buddhist scriptures, preserved in the Pali language by the Theravada tradition of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Transmitted orally for appro

A_4_09 — Avestan Texts — Gathas, Vendidad, and Yasna

The Avesta is the primary scripture of Zoroastrianism, the religion founded by the prophet Zarathushtra (Greek: Zoroaster) in ancient Iran. The surviving Avesta — a fraction of a much larger corpus reportedly destroyed d

A_3_06 — Orphic Hymns, Tablets, and the Orphic Tradition

The Orphic tradition represents one of the most influential yet enigmatic religious movements of the ancient Greek world, centered on the mythical poet-musician Orpheus, who was believed to have descended to the underwor

U_1_12 — Hip-Hop Culture: MCing, DJing, Breaking, and Graffiti as Art Form

Hip-hop — originating in the South Bronx, New York City, in the early-to-mid-1970s — is among the most culturally consequential artistic movements of the 20th century, growing from block-party culture in economically dev

U_1_00 — Music Sound Performance: Subfolder Summary

U_0_00 — Art, Music & Culture: Section Summary

U_5_12 — Art Patronage: Medici, Mughal Courts, and the Economics of Culture

Art patronage — the financial, institutional, or social support of artistic production by individuals, courts, religious bodies, states, or corporations — has been the primary economic engine of art creation for most of

U_5_31 — Chauvet Cave: Paleolithic Art and the Origins of Human Visual Expression

The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave (Grotte Chauvet), discovered on December 18, 1994, by speleologists Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel, and Christian Hillaire in the Ardèche gorge of southern France, contains some of the old

U_5_00 — Art Society Analysis: Subfolder Summary

U_5_02 — Propaganda Art & Political Visual Culture

Art has served as an instrument of political power throughout history, but the 20th century witnessed the industrialization of propaganda aesthetics on an unprecedented scale.

U_2_02 — Cave Art — Lascaux, Chauvet & World's Oldest Paintings

Cave art constitutes the oldest known evidence of symbolic visual expression by Homo sapiens (and possibly Neanderthals), with the earliest confirmed figurative painting — a narrative hunting scene at Leang Karampuang, S

U_2_00 — Visual Arts: Subfolder Summary

U_2_01 — Color Symbolism and Chromatic Traditions Across Cultures

Color is both a physical phenomenon (wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation) and a cultural construction, with different societies dividing the visible spectrum in strikingly different ways. Berlin and Kay's landmark 1