I don't really talk about it much, because there's not much presence in the card world...but ancient history is actually my favorite thing. Not cards, not sports, not even cars.
Yesterday, my brother took me on a trip that turned out to be one of the greatest days ever.
It's not really well known, but Fordham University in the Bronx has a small museum called the "Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Artifacts", which I had no idea existed. Now I know...I hated to leave even though I saw literally everything in there at least twice. Nothing in the museum is newer than around 400 AD.
I can't really put into words what this all meant to me...I put it to my brother on the ride home, that if I had to choose between this museum and the Adirondack Nationals (my favorite day of the year), the Daytona 500, or the NNL East- THIS would win. THAT's how important to me this is. I would give up things I would never miss for this.
I've seen Roman and Greek artifacts before. Truth be told, I have some in my collection. (You can find Roman coins for under $10 if you are willing to accept pieces in extremely low grades. I am!) I've never seen Etruscan artifacts. When I found out the name of the museum I was already on a historical high. I knew it would be incredibly spectacular...it was more than I could have imagined. And it was more than just Roman, Greek and Etruscan, although they made up the vast majority. There was also Egyptian, Byzantine, and...what I think may have impressed me most...a Cuneiform tablet from ancient Babylon, dating to 2100-2000 BC, which is more than 4000 years ago! It's now the oldest object I've ever seen. Cuneiform is the earliest form of writing known. Everything we know...everything we do...even the concept of words in this very post...all of it begins with Cuneiform writing. It's funny too, because it's one of the smallest and least adorned items in the entire museum. It's just a small clay square that would easily fit in the palm of your hand!
Of course, while that was the most shocking...I can't say it was my favorite thing in there. There's just so many to choose from. The artistry of the ancients is mind-boggling. Every item in there was my favorite.
Unfortunately for my posting them, the ancient Greeks really did not like pants. Most of them aren't wearing any. So I can't really show most of the work on Facebook or here. (Well, I COULD show it here, but...). I am, however, posting them to my website, which I will provide a link to at the bottom, so if you want to see them, you can. Almost all of it is male nudity, but not all, by the way.
I didn't even touch on the fact that this was my first time in NYC since 1995, and this was the first time my brother has ever driven to the City! It won't be the last. We will be attending this museum on a regular basis, and it's literally just across the street from the Bronx Zoo, which is where we went the last time my family was in the City, and will be the destination on a future adventure.
Although I still don't feel like I properly conveyed how amazing this all is, it's time for some photos! Remember, you can see them larger by clicking on them.
This is what you see when you first walk in. That's the head of Caracalla, Emperor of Rome from 188-217 AD. Note the cases in the background. I was so blown away but what I was seeing that I didn't really take any overview shots, which I am now slapping my head over.
Some of the coins on display. Marcus Aurelius is one of my favorite people in all of history. Commodus, his son, is really the cause of the fall of Rome, or at least the start of it. Each of the coins is photographed close up in the album, although some came out blurry. A good excuse to go back!
Imagine seeing that bracelet when it was new. In the 8th century BC. How it must have shined! The Urn is also 8th century, and both hale from pre-Roman Italy. Note the coin display on the right wall adjacent.
A gigantic example of mosaic. To us in today's time it's an amazing piece of artistry. To ancient Romans, this was their
floor. The size of this is hard to describe, but it's taller and wider than our car. And it's only a
fraction of a larger mosaic! It's Byzantine, presumably what is now Syria. (The Byzantines considered themselves Romans- the name Byzantine Empire is a later creation by antiquarians. Even though it's not correct, it's easier and more understood to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire as Byzantine)
An Etruscan kylix showing a Hippocamp. Supposedly ancient folks believed that these and other fantastical beasts actually existed, although I'm not so sure if I believe that, or if more modern scholars have just assumed that.
One of the things that really surprised me was the scale of things.
It's hard to judge scale when you only see them in photos, in books, magazines, the internet, etc. Seeing them in person for the first time, it surprised me. And It left me even more in awe that these items have survived for more than 2000 years. This is roughly 4 feet tall! It's also one of my favorite items in the collection. The comedic masks, which are in the album, they are much smaller than I expected. I assumed that they were full human face sized, likely due to reading them described as being "held in front of the face during performances". Knowing, too, that they also had eye and mouth holes for the performers. Yet, they were smaller than I expected, being only about half the size of a normal adult's face.
One of the very few overview shots I took, unfortunately.
Hadrian, also a favorite of mine. This marble head was originally on a building. His eyes would have been painted on, as well.
A full size Roman Imperial era statue! Subject unknown, unfortunately.
Birds are a common theme in Roman mosaics, the Museum has nearly a half dozen on display. This one probably photographed the best.
One of the more disturbing artifacts on display, a casket for a two year old that lived during the time of Augustus.
Roman glass. Most are 3rd century AD. That these survived is incredible in and of itself.
Painted pottery with clothing! I'm taking my opportunity to show it even though in scale and design this is one of the lesser impressive artifacts.
Other than the coins there is not much in the way of metal artifacts in this museum. These, however, are solid gold and are necklace pendants, and are presented here on blue felt. The orange and white striping is a reflection of my shirt. The shields are Macedonian, and this dates to the 4th-3rd century BC. It's Greek. That puts these contemporary with or slightly before the most famous Macedonian in history, Alexander the Great.
A hand held mirror. When I turned the corner and saw this I knew instantly what it was, but I'm glad they have the drawing of the design as well, because it's quite hard to discern at this late date. In antiquity, this would have been polished to a mirror shine. It depicts Athena, Aphrodite and Hera. They are labeled in the Etruscan language!
Another overview shot.
The tablet I discussed above. I was so surprised by it's presence that this is the only photo of it I took!
Roman oil lamps are the third most common ancient artifact, behind only coinage and nails. That's because they made so many of them. I've heard estimates that the Romans made their coins in the
billions, with as many as 30 different mints operating around the clock on a daily basis. (especially during the era of Constantine and his sons) Nails were used for everything, from building buildings and ships to the sandals they wore. Both are ubiquitous. Oil lamps were not as highly produced, perhaps, but they were literally everywhere. Every home in the ancient Roman empire had multiple lamps, it's how they lit their homes, their temples, and everything that they wanted to see at night. Unfortunately they also caused more than a few fires, because of lit lamps tipping over and the oil catching fire. In antiquity, the tiny hole on the end held a wick, that was lighted. The larger holes in the middle or offset were for pouring in more oil. They may have been as abundant originally, but unlike coins and nails they are generally made of terra cotta, not metal, and thus are more easily damaged, leading to a lower survival rate.
The museum does not have much in the way of ancient weaponry, which is surprising because they aren't that uncommon. (They are usually not very artistic, though, which may be why they were barely present, and none were from Greece or Italy. You don't need to be pretty if you are going to be stabbing into somebody, just pointy). These spearheads are Persian, and they are the only Persian artifacts I saw in the museum. My pictures of them are terrible, and this is the better of the two. I didn't even get all of the sword from Mohenjo-Daro in a photo! As I said above, a good reason to go back.
They didn't always stick to standardized shapes when making things back then.
The amount of original painting that survives is rather astounding. This dates to 500-480 BC!
I now use this image as the wallpaper on my smart phone.
This may be the first ancient Egyptian artifact I've ever seen. I think it is, but my trip to the American Museum of Natural History in 1994 may have had Egyptian there. I don't recall.
This woman appears to be holding a flying birthday cake with flying candles in her right hand, while playing a tambourine in her left hand. They had a lot of talents back then that are lost to history today. Note that even though fully clothed, the artist all those years ago still felt the need to include her nipples. Some things truly never change!
Almost surely Alexander the Great's head. This sculpture is one of the three used in the official artistry/iconography of the museum.
The woman on this piece looks annoyed. I did not catch the provenance of this one on film.
Unfortunately more ancient artifacts are found in this condition than the perfect or near-perfect preservation the majority if items on exhibit in this museum display. This depicts a Thracian warrior, and is attributed to Makron. It dates to circa 490 BC.
Here's one last image from the Museum- taken by my brother, who brought his actual camera. I only took my smart phone, which, in retrospect, was a mistake, even though my smart phone takes higher quality photos than most of my cameras. This is me going on about the cuneiform tablet. You can see the small brown square on the glass shelf. It's so tiny...but it packs a big historical punch. And a correction to what I said earlier, above. The tall black vase (alabastron, technically) behind it- barely visible, almost looking ethereal, but not that different from a modern drinking glass, is actually older than the tablet is by about 100 years. My picture did not come out good enough to post, unfortunately, though it is in the album.
If you'd like to see all the pictures- I took more than 400- you can find them by clicking here:
Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art. Remember that there is full frontal nudity, in painting and statue form, so only click on it if you don't mind seeing that. I don't have any qualms about seeing or photographing it, so there's no attempt to hide it.
I also took a video of the museum. I did upload it to YouTube but it's hidden, only available with this link. It's short, there's no talking, but you can see some of the amazing things I saw, and it does give you a bit of the scale of things as I mentioned above, as well.
YouTube walkthrough
Now, beyond the museum, there are a couple of other pictures I want to show. Since it was our first time driving to NYC ever, I had to photodocument it...I am me, after all!
Here is the first place we saw that actually looked like the city! (Immediately after getting off the highway, you see the New York Botanical Garden on your right. I did photograph it, but it's just trees. This...this is city! If you look close, you can see that they have already begun decorating for Christmas.
After many years of watching NYC based TV programming, I had to get a shot of the P.C. Richard sign! Note that on the facing sign for Dr. Jay's, there is a pigeon on top of every single letter, and the apostrophe! I didn't notice that at the time.
Butt Boosting Jeans? OK...maybe the Greeks could have used them 2300 years ago? The tall building on the right that looks unfinished is where we're going.
A black squirrel on the Fordham campus! I've never seen a black one before. If you've been reading here a while you may remember that I love squirrels. My absolute favorite animals. I took more pictures of this squirrel than I did of the Fordham campus itself.
A bus that bends in the middle! Common in the city, but not to me.
A high point on the Taconic looking north towards the Hudson Valley, home again. The colors of the trees were a lot brighter to my eyes than they appear on camera, although it does seem like we may be past peak already,
I also have an album for the pictures of the trip and in the Bronx. It's not as impressive as the museum, but it's still cool.
Bronx Trip #1
Before stopping for dinner, we stopped at my favorite vintage dealer. I picked up three hockey cards including my first from 1959-60, 62-63 and 64-65. I'm on such a high from this trip though that cards just aren't interesting me right now, so no scans. This may be a card based website, but today the History aspect of "Cardboard History" gets full focus. Next post will hopefully be the reveal of the mystery project I've been teasing for the last month, but getting that off the ground is proving to be a little more challenging than I thought it would be.
Thank you for reading.
