{"id":7484,"date":"2015-09-02T11:53:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T17:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7484"},"modified":"2015-09-02T11:53:58","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T17:53:58","slug":"new-paintings-found-in-petra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7484","title":{"rendered":"New Paintings Found in Petra"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Detail

Detail of a winged child playing the flute, before and after cleaning. Photograph: Courtesy of the Courtauld Institute<\/p><\/div>\n

Some exceptional paintings from the Hellenistic era<\/a> have been found at the ancient city of Petra.<\/p>\n

Virtually no Hellenistic paintings survive today, and fragments only hint at antiquity’s lost masterpieces, while revealing little about their colours and composition, so the revelation of these wall paintings in Jordan is all the more significant. They were created by the Nabataeans<\/a>, who traded extensively with the Greek, Roman and Egyptian empires and whose dominion once stretched from Damascus to the Red Sea, and from Sinai to the Arabian desert.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They are full of flowers, insects, and human figures, all of which qualifies as “idolatry” to the fanatical Muslims, so let’s hope that the Islamic State does not roll over Jordan at any time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some exceptional paintings from the Hellenistic era have been found at the ancient city of Petra. Virtually no Hellenistic paintings survive today, and fragments only hint at antiquity’s lost masterpieces, while revealing little about their colours and composition, so the revelation of these wall paintings in Jordan is all the more significant. They were created […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,202],"class_list":["post-7484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archaeology","tag-middle-east"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1WI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":325,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=325","url_meta":{"origin":7484,"position":0},"title":"Fun with Visitor Logs This\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Fun with Visitor Logs This blog entry was the first hit when someone typed the search terms \"Hellenistic VW bus\" into Google. Someone else managed a convoluted scriptural exegesis involving VW buses, hippes, and the apostle Paul on a Segway human transporter.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6248,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6248","url_meta":{"origin":7484,"position":1},"title":"New Poems by Sappho Discovered","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my fondest fantasies is that some archaeologist working in Greece or Italy will find a jar of scrolls that when read turn out to be the complete works of the poet Sappho \u2014 and just to continue the fantasy, packed in with them are the commentaries of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1249,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1249","url_meta":{"origin":7484,"position":2},"title":"Montr\u00e9al Magical Mercantile Tour","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A group of Pagan Studies scholars started Friday at the big John Waterhouse exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It offered the largest selection of his paintings ever, plus sketches, drawings, and letters. When the docent suggested that \"The Magic Circle\" was not really about religion, she was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=247","url_meta":{"origin":7484,"position":3},"title":"Another Pagan Classic","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been re-reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History, the leading entry in the literary genre of \"when Classics majors go bad.\" It was first published in 1992, and I did my part for her royalty payments by sending at least three hardcover copies as Christmas presents in 1993. Sales\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":113,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=113","url_meta":{"origin":7484,"position":4},"title":"Weapons of Singing Destruction","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Since Google sends some readers seeking news and photos about such new Arab singing stars as Haifa Wehbe and Nancy Ajram to this blog, here are two articles by Charles Paul Freund that might interest you. \"Look Who's Rocking the Casbah: The Revolutionary Implications of Arab Music Videos,\" Reason magazine,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Aphrodite\"","block_context":{"text":"Aphrodite","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=aphrodite"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4856,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4856","url_meta":{"origin":7484,"position":5},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: Eat It Back in the Cave","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 You knew this was coming: the zombie Tarot deck. \u2022 On cave paintings, art, and cognition. \u2022 More old stuff: were those ancient figurines of voluptuous women goddesses . . . or toys? Don't suggest the latter to the idol-makers of today. \u2022 Have beautiful handwriting by Christmas. You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"pentagram pizza\"","block_context":{"text":"pentagram pizza","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=pentagram-pizza"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/pentagrampizza1-126x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7487,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions\/7487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}