By Dimitra Mylona Amber colored, transparent and fragrant garos or garum, in all its different varieties and names, was born through transformation and has survived for millennia (image from https://silkroadgourmet.com/umami-in-a-bottle/). In May 968 a diplomat from the Kingdom of Pavia in northern Italy, Liutprand of Cremona, arrived in Constantinople to meet Emperor Nicephorus Phocas. The…… Continue reading Garum: Fishy transformations (1)
From Tortoiseshell and the Turtle Eaters to the Beastly Turtle Island: Transformations of a Lovable Marine Reptilian
By Roxani Margariti. In a class on Indian Ocean commodities, economy, and materiality, every year my students and I come across this scribe’s desk at the British Museum. It is one of several other similarly inlaid Ottoman-period objects that we study. We note that the desk’s inlays are made of ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell, which…… Continue reading From Tortoiseshell and the Turtle Eaters to the Beastly Turtle Island: Transformations of a Lovable Marine Reptilian
Showing off the exotic, the bizarre and the marvelous in your sitting room: marine life in cabinets of curiosities and their precursors
By Dimitra Mylona. Roxani and I have often reflected on the nature of our fascination with marine creatures and the people of the sea. Our wonder permeates our posts taking the form of strange stories, bizarre images, wondrous narratives and what, we think, are fascinating topics! We do not always travel far, in a physical…… Continue reading Showing off the exotic, the bizarre and the marvelous in your sitting room: marine life in cabinets of curiosities and their precursors
Dangers of the Deep: marine “man-eaters” and the humans who fear them
By Dimitra Mylona and Roxani Margariti. A comic character in Alexis’s play Hellenis (Greek Woman) at the turn of the 4th c. BCE says it clearly: “Alive or dead, the fish are at war with us, for anyone who falls overboard will be eaten, and, even when dead, they (the fish) eat up our wealth,…… Continue reading Dangers of the Deep: marine “man-eaters” and the humans who fear them
Glimpses of sharks’ fins around Arabia
By Roxani Margariti. My first encounter with detached sharks’ fins was at a fishing village near Ra’s al-Khaymah in the homonymous emirate on the Persian Gulf. The sight left me perplexed and curious. Hanging from a line like laundered clothes drying in the sun and piled up in a wheelbarrow, amid a jumble of fishing…… Continue reading Glimpses of sharks’ fins around Arabia
Bogue, the underdog of fishes
By Dimitra Mylona. This post is about a fish with a funny scientific name: Boops boops. In English it is known as bogue, a name that embodies lots of cultural loans and linguistic transformations spanning more than 2.000 years of Mediterranean and global history! A small school of bogues in the shallow, transparent waters of…… Continue reading Bogue, the underdog of fishes
Fish that became drums, shields, pouches, shoes, and dazzling garments
By Roxani Margariti and Dimitra Mylona. In a nightmarish scene from Saudi director Shahad Ameen’s remarkable short film Eye and Mermaid, a group of fishermen have entrapped a merwoman and are extracting black pearls from her scaly skin; the protagonist, the young daughter of one of those participating in the savaging, secretly looks on in…… Continue reading Fish that became drums, shields, pouches, shoes, and dazzling garments
Seagoing ships, tunas, and tassels in the Aegean Sea of the 3rd millennium BCE
By Dimitra Mylona. As the 19th century was coming to a close, Christos Tsountas, a charismatic and dynamic curator of antiquities in Athens, excavated the cemetery of Chalandriani in Syros on behalf of the Archaeological Society of Athens. This excavation was part of a wider research program in the Cyclades that pioneered the systematic definition…… Continue reading Seagoing ships, tunas, and tassels in the Aegean Sea of the 3rd millennium BCE
Dogs, Boats, Shells, and Goats: Musings on the Decorations of the Musandam battil
By Roxani Margariti. Many years ago, as an archaeology student in the early 1990s, I had the amazing luck and privilege of participating in a project entitled Traditional Boats of Oman Project and headed by Indian Ocean boatbuilding specialist Tom Vosmer. Of the many remarkable things I witnessed during the two seasons of working for…… Continue reading Dogs, Boats, Shells, and Goats: Musings on the Decorations of the Musandam battil
Pinna Goldilocks and the philosopher’s stone
By Dimitra Mylona. In the past, when people snorkeled in the Mediterranean, in its shallow protected coves, chances were that they would see colonies of noble pen shells among patches of emerald Poseidonia oceanica plants. These are large bivalve shellfish that stand erect, well-rooted in sandy or muddy seabeds. Today, this spectacle is rare and…… Continue reading Pinna Goldilocks and the philosopher’s stone