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Tlaltecuhtli
Tlaltecuhtli, 'Earth Lord/Lady,' was a Mesoamerican earth goddess associated with fertility. Envisioned as a terrible toad monster, her dismembered body gave rise to the world in the Aztec creation myth of the 5th and final cosmos. As a source...
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Powhatan Stone
The Powhatan Stone, a historical marker erected by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in Chimborazo Park, Richmond, Virginia, USA. It was placed by the Mayo family of Richmond who once owned the property where the...
Definition
Ancient Scotland
Scotland is a country which, today, comprises the northern part of Great Britain and includes the islands known as the Hebrides and the Orkneys. The name derives from the Roman word "Scotti" which designated an Irish tribe who invaded the...
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Al-Balu' Stele
Al-Balu's stele is a Moabite document. This stele found in Al-Balu'a, north of Kark, in 1930 CE contains an illegible hieroglyphic inscription. There are three figures depicted on the stele, which may represent a king and two deities. It...
Definition
Aztec Art
The Aztec culture, centred at the capital of Tenochtitlan, dominated most of Mesoamerica in the 15th-16th centuries. With military conquest and trade expansion, the art of the Aztecs also spread, helping the Aztec civilization achieve a cultural...
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The Snaptun Stone
The Viking Age Snaptun stone was carved around 1000 CE and shows a face with stitched-up lips, which reminds of a story preserved in the Prose Edda where the Norse god's Loki’s lips are sewn up. As such, it is usually thought to be one of...
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Boundary Stone from Mesopotamia
This boundary stone, or kudurru, records a gift of land made by Eanna-shum-iddina, governor of the Sea-Land in Southern Babylonia. The receiver's name is Gula-Eresh. The text ends with a series of curses on anyone questioning the gift or...
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The Jelling Stone's Great Beast (Mammen Style)
Image showing one face of the Viking Age Jelling stone (standing at Jelling, Denmark) dating to c. 970 CE. The stone's three sides are covered, on one side with an inscription and on its other two with large pictures of Christ and a great...
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Inca 12 Angle Stone
The famous stone from an Inca wall in Cuzco, Peru. The stone has 12 angles and illustrates the great precision Inca masons employed in ensuring their stone blocks fitted so well together that no mortar was needed. (15th century CE).
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Nutting Stone
Nutting stone from the Hatchie River Region in West Tennessee, Early Archaic Period, c. 8,000 BCE. Hatchie River Museum at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center. Nutting stones such as this were used to harvest mast, or the fruit of...