museum

It had been listed as “scrap” in a museum for 100 years. Now we know that it is the piece that advanced Egyptian engineering by 2,000 years.

by

If we think about the ancient egyptian technologythe images that come to mind are the monumental ones pyramids of giza or the great obelisks of the New Kingdom. However, the foundations of this technological feat were forged long before, as pointed out by a new archaeological study that has identified the oldest rotating metal drill in Egypt, a discovery that advances the mastery of this tool by more than two millennia and that rewrites the history of the technology in the Nile Valley. Where was it found? The story of this discovery, the truth is, could fit into a series called “Archaeological CSI”, since it all started with an identified object like a tiny piece of metal that measures just 63 millimeters and weighs 1.5 grams. This was excavated a century ago in tomb 3932 of the Badari cemetery in Upper Egypt, and had lain forgotten ever since. Literally ignored in a drawer at the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, was this object that caught the attention of a research team that decided to follow his trail using the most modern technology. A drill. What was initially classified as a simple and insignificant punch was actually a bow drill. This is the conclusion of this new exhaustive analysis of the piece, where they have been able to see unmistakable marks of its mechanical use such as rotational grooves, a specific curvature for tension and microscopic remains of leather rope. How it worked. What today is a drill that works connected to electricity, in ancient times, the bow drill worked by winding the string of a bow around an axle that held the drill bit. In this way, by moving the bow back and forth, the drill bit rotated at high speed. Its importance. As the researcher points out, the Egyptians had the ability to master this rotation technology more than two millennia before the first sets of drills that humanity knew today. This once again shows us how advanced it could be in its context in the art of construction. Unusual alloy. The big question here is how such an ancient tool could drill hard materials without deforming. And the answer is in chemistry. In this case, the researchers they used portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and saw that the drill was not made of just copper, but was an alloy of arsenic, nickel, lead and silver. A combination that is not coincidental, since the presence of arsenic gave the copper a much higher hardness, transforming the metal into a high-performance tool capable of resisting continuous friction. The trade. Beyond the mechanical value, for historians this mixture of metals is also really important because it points to strong commercial connections with the eastern Mediterranean, revealing that predynastic Egypt was not only innovating technologically, but was connected to a global network of exchange of exotic materials long before the unification of the pharaohs. The technological history. Until now, the official narrative placed the perfection of these rotating metal tools much later in the Egyptian timeline. But now, this tiny forgotten object forces us to recalibrate our understanding of human ingenuity. Images | Martin Odler Osama Elsayed In Xataka | To transport us to Ancient Egypt, researchers have been doing one thing for months: smelling mummies from 5,000 years ago

Of course there is a museum with more than 900 rocks with the “face” of a human being. And of course it’s in Japan.

by

Japan is a country that seems taken from another dimension, where the craziest and strangest things (for us Westerners) can happen. The only place where we can find beautiful manhole coversmajestic snow sculptures, very strange contestsbizarre television seriesas well as restaurants with robots and a few other wonders that leave us with our mouths open. Rocks with human faces. Today’s protagonist is another gem that can only be in Japan, since it is the only museum in the world that exhibits more than 1,700 rocks, of which 900 have one characteristic in common: they all have the appearance of a human face, well, or at least a face with eyes and a mouth. It is about from the Chinsekikan museum. Where. In Chichibutwo hours northwest of Tokyo, we will find a very peculiar and unique place in the world, a museum with an impressive collection of rocks, which were collected for more than 50 years by its founder Shozo Hayama, and where we will find rocks that resemble everything from the face of Jesus to Elvis Presley. Its origin. The museum, which means ‘The Hall of Curious Rocks‘, is currently managed and curated by Yoshiko Hayama, the wife of the founder who died in 2010, and it is she who maintains the museum as her husband left it, since she wanted to pay tribute to him after dedicating much of her life to collecting ‘jinmenseki’ (rocks with a human face). All stones are like this, they occur as is in nature, and do not have any type of modification. The names. Mr. Hayama not only collected the rocks, but also named them according to their features, which is why we will find rocks named in honor of Boris Yeltsin and even fictional characters such as Donkey Kong, ET, Nemo, and many more. However, there are still several unnamed rocks, so occasionally Mrs. Hayama comes out to welcome visitors and takes the opportunity to ask opinions about possible names for the rocks that have not been named. In Xataka | Japan depends too much on Tokyo. So you are already thinking about a “reserve” capital just in case In Xataka | In Tokyo, schools are threatening to use lawyers and police. The reason: “monster parents” In Xataka | The tea that was born to stop time now runs against it: the matcha crisis in Japan Image | Chinsekikan Museum

The most German museum in Germany laughs at its visitors. And it is triumphing

by

Imagine booking a guided tour of a museum and the guide being an arrogant, resentful and rude know-it-all. It certainly sounds very unpleasant, but there is a museum in Germany where people are lining up and paying to live the experience. Grumpy guide. This is how the museum Kunstpalastlocated in Dusseldorf, advertises this curious guided tour format, which they describe on their website as a “highly unpleasant” experience. During the visit, which lasts 70 minutes, the guide challenges visitors to name works, and then ridicules their knowledge. He does not insult the visitors directly or comment on their physique, but he does ridicule them as a group. He also scolds them if they use their cell phones or sit down and criticizes artists who, in his opinion, should not be on the walls of the museum. Waiting list. They count in Guardian that the grumpy guide’s visits have been a complete success and the waiting list extends until 2026. It is true that this guided tour format only takes place twice a month, so it is not that there are many tickets, but the museum claims that they have managed to sell them all out since they launched it in May of this year. Tickets cost 7 euros. Pay to be insulted. The museum director admits that he was inspired by Karen’s Dineran Australian restaurant chain where the waiters are very unfriendly and unpleasant to customers. There are more restaurants of this type in which you pay for an experience beyond the food, like a kind of dinner-show in which the fun is being treated badly. There are even more extreme cases such as This Japanese restaurant where waitresses slap customers in exchange for 3 euros. There is a goal behind it. The visits with ‘grumpy guide’ have not been a mere occurrence, but are part of a European initiative to attract young audiences and look for fresher and less elitist formats. The Kunstpalast museum has its unfriendly guide, but there are other curious initiatives such as Stuggart History Museum Nudist Tours or the sock tours of the Vooorlinden museum in Holland. Image | Pexels, Unsplash In Xataka | No wonder the theft of jewels from the Louvre has been so easy: the museum’s security has been a disaster for more than a century

I have played the ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Welcomme Tour’ thinking that it was a payment manual. It turns out that it is a science museum

by

The presentation of Nintendo Switch 2 In April it was curious. In the event they revealed a lot of details and interesting games that excited the players, but after it, the Batacazo arrived. The console prices, of games and accessories. The monetary hangover lasted a few days and the lace was the ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Welcomo Tour’. This collection of mini -games was like the “manual” of switch 2 … of payment. 9.99 euros, specifically. It is not something I like in the community, but after trying it, I am clear that it is much more than a Nintendo Switch 2 user guide. 1-2 switch. When a console arrives with innovative characteristics, the best way to test them is through demos. With the launch of Switch in 2017Nintendo came up to launch a game that, for 19.99 euros, allowed to experiment with the control infrared sensor, with the HD vibration or with the movement sensors. Called ‘1-2 switch‘, it was curious, but nothing more, and accompanied in the launch of the machine by’ The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ‘, because little attention was going to monopolize beyond the one granted by curious eyes. Welcome to Switch 2. literally. Nintendo Switch 2 is not that it is the pinnacle of innovation. It is a rather continuous console, than It is just what Nintendo needs After the resounding success of the predecessor, but as they know that many people may want to get on the train of the new switch, they have prepared something similar to ‘1-2 Switch’: ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour’. The problem? That since it was announced, this collection of mini -games to know the technical details of the machine was more like a manual than as a video game. And, worse: a payment manual. I’m already Testing Nintendo Switch 2 for analysisI have mine on the way and what was clear was that this game did not call me or the least. Luckily I had to play it to see how wrong I was. A Science Museum. Because … yes and no. ‘Welcomome Tour’ is the console manual as long as it teaches us all the details of it. We review the command, we review the screen, all the buttons of the Joy-Con and every millimeter of the system and some of its peripherals, but we do it as if we were in a museum. As a child, the museums bored me, but when my parents took me to a Science Museumthe thing changed. That of pulling levers, moving a giant wave, seeing gears and ‘moves’ in motion was something that excited me. And, precisely, that is this game. We chose an avatar, we queue to enter a Nintendo Switch 2 giant and Ale, to explore. Each piece of the system has an information panel that rewards us if we find it, there are mini -games that allow us to explore how certain buttons and modes and also informative panels are used on hardware elements. If we want, we can spend a kind of exam to get prizes and move on the virtual console, and it really is fun. Cheat. At this point, I know how haptic vibration works, I know how the optical sensor allows the joy-with in mouse mode (very precise, by the waybut incompatible with some hands) and they will not discover anything at the technical level of the machine, but without being the target user of this, I have fun collecting the collectibles, and beyond for this test, I will continue playing. I think that, in addition, it can be a very didactic title for all types of audiences that buy the console and want to learn more about it and about technology in general. In addition to enjoying seeing how they explain one thing and, to the second, you can put that into practice. The problem is that … well, there are two problems. And it comes with controversy. One is that you cannot get 100% of the game only with the console and the Joy-Con. There are some mini -games and demonstrations that require a 4K television that can be common in homesbut … there are also those who need the Pro command (90 euros) and the camera (another 60 euros). Nintendo already specifies it in the game website With a “for certain technical demonstrations, additional accessories are required, for sale separately”, but it is curious. Minigame to test the mouse mode And another to experience vibration Oh, the precedents … And the second controversy comes with the price. Not so much for having to pay those 10 euros, but because it will mean a barrier for many people to enjoy this title. With the launch of PlayStation 5Sony included a demo, that of ‘Astro’s Playroom‘. Not only was it a precious tribute to the history of PlayStation, but a really fun platform video game. Liked that their developers had green light to develop a complete game, ‘Astro Bot‘, who ended up taking the award to’ Best Game ‘in the’The Game Awards‘of 2024. ‘Nintendo Switch 2: Welcome Tour’ would have been not only a perfect gift for Nintendo Switch 2 buyers to have something to play as soon as the console should turn on, but also the opportunity for more people to discover this game so curious and ‘cuckoo’ in which a few developers have been working. Because it shows that there is a lot of love in this “payment manual”, but precisely that it is paid and that it looks like a manual is what can be a wall for many users. And it’s not just ‘Asto’s Playroom’: Wii had ‘Wii Sports‘Included, and it was a huge pilar on which The success of the console was cemented. Images | Xataka In Xataka | The Switch 2 comes with a protector that many would remove without thinking. Nintendo has a warning for users

The Prado Museum closed its doors so that Dua Lipa could create content. That has generated a furious debate

by

Even the most venerable institutions are taking notes of the latest trends in communication, and that is why dean museums (but not necessarily anchored in the past and the analog) undertake promotion and communication strategies that come out of the normal. The latest: Pop influencers and stars visit Museums. Often, with the buildings closed for them alone. Dua Lipa likes Bosco. This happened with Dua Lipa, who, taking advantage of the fact that he was going through Madrid with the Radical Optimism tour, published some of his leisure plans through the city. One of them was look at the one who affirms that it is his favorite picture‘The Garden of Delights’. Of course, he did it with the closed building, in a promotional maneuver that was conveniently redifested by The Prado Museum account. Dua Lipa is not the first or the only one. What can be done. These types of actions are a content very desired by museums, since they give them a lot of visibility between an audience that is not the usual of their social networks. Among the activities that are usually carried out and that are analyzed in studies like this company Evespecialized in innovative museum projects, highlights private visits with the closed museum, advertising campaigns in which celebrities lend their image, special events and, as is the case, mutual creation of content for networks, disputed in struggle for every second of attention. More cases. As we say, the case of Dua Lipa is not the only one. In 2020 the influencer Italian Chiara Ferragni visited the Uffizi gallery of Florence, in a session for the magazine ‘Vogue Hong Kong’ and with a guided tour of the director of the Pinacoteca. The museum knew how to make good use of the influence of the influencer when comparing its physique with the Renaissance muse Simonetta Vespucci. The photos of other celebrities of high turns, Jay Z and Beyoncé are also controversial, when they are photographed by eclipsing works of art Like Nefertiti’s headimage for which they needed a special permit of the Berlin Museum Neues. Museums are modernized. Actions such as these obey a task of modernization of museums, which of course affect their contents in social networks. El Prado, in fact, has been Very praised for its studied mixture of entertainment and dissemination with a relaxed tone. They started with house experts that explained the intrígulis of the Great works and his restorationbut they currently have a very varied content, with all kinds of disseminators expanding the meaning of the works. It is one New form of art criticism. International tendency. It is a modernization of networks that other museums, such as Carnegie Museum of Art wave Tate GalleryThey have also put into practice. Pioneer was the New York Metone of the first artistic institutions with a Tiktok account and that reached a remarkable impact before the pandemic with initiatives such as #Metgalastyle, where they asked users to create their own content inspired by the famous annual gala. The complaints. Of course, sometimes so isolated proposals from your consumer-type as some of these can collide with the usual ones. For example, Dua Lipa’s videos have been Very criticized In networks because they see how he takes photos in the museum, something that is prohibited for normal users. But there is more: there is talk of a Banalization of artif the Influencers And your concern for Figure in the foreground and ahead of the works (as Beyoncé does) is the correct form to disseminate this type of contentand if This type of digital strategies They end up damaging institutions rather than spreading their catalogs. In any case, it is another symptom of the popularization of culture and how after a while, Art molar again. Much of the fault is the trends that dictate Influencers And superstar, but also, let’s not take me out of merit, that the Instagram account of El Museo del Prado is frankly well. Header | The day we understood a Goya picture thanks to an old photograph

It is an authentic time museum

by

Prehistoric caves have given us many archaeological joys in Spain. They keep giving them and They help us unravel mysteries. In this sense, Altamira’s are Peninsula archaeological crown jewelbut there is Many other caves that have served different purposes for millennia and that today They have become a tourist claim for its natural beauty forged over thousands of years. However, there are some that have not been at the mercy of nature and, until recently, they remained enclaves in which human activity was present. One of them is that of Eye Guareña, which is also the second karst complex bigger of the Iberian Peninsula, only behind the Mortillano system. Karst complexes. They are the result of a process of dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestones and dolomites, as well as minerals such as plaster, due to water action. Over the centuries, this process of chemical weathering generates caves and a drain that reduces the amount of surface water, so galleries are generated in which humanity has been able to enter. They are very characteristic caves due to the presence of formations such as stalactites and stalagmites, which also gives a mystical aura to these places. And, due to their own condition of caves, many of these karst complexes have served as a refuge in prehistory, so they have become valuable archaeological and paleontological sites. The aforementioned Altamira, without going any further. Guareña eye. To the north of the province of Burgos there is another of these formations, a very special for several reasons. One is that of its dimensions, since the Cuevas de Eye Guareña have more than 110 kilometers of galleries and it is estimated that they are composed of about 400 cavities. It has a few awards (natural monument, well of cultural interest and place of community importance), and it is not for less. It stands out for its biodiversity with 16 species of endemic invertebrates, their own dimensions and for the archaeological findings that have occurred. And it is fascinating that 14 caves are communicated among them in a complex equivalent to about six floors. Time Museum. My intention is not to remove merit from the archaeological remains found in the place, but it was still one more cave, a shelter, for the inhabitants of the Paleolithic. They were, therefore, cave paintings, weapons, bones, Neanderthal teeth, fossilized traces of barefoot and ceramics. When humanity evolved and began to found towns and cities, the caves were abandoned and used in cases counted as a sporadic warehouse or refuge (in a war situation, for example). However, in the case of Eye Guareña, it was not so much like that. These archaeological remains correspond to the different cultures that have been happening in the Peninsula, to the point that there are paintings of the Paleolithic, postpaleolithic, bronze and iron age. This report from Castilla y León Televisión is fantastic Sanctuary. One of the findings was relatively recent, in 2019. It was a skeleton of someone who, we estimate, was lost in the caves. He died there because the caves are labyrinthine and carried their trousseau, which allowed date To this person as an individual of the VI AC and it is also estimated that several of the caves did the functions of ‘sanctuaries’ or centers of cult for populations. And this function is not something that will be anchored in the past. Next to the main entrance of Eye Guareña, they built the San Bernabé hermitage. It is not known for sure when it occurred, driving dates between the 5th and XIII centuries. What is known is that, during a millennium, and until 1924the hermitage was the meeting point of the Council of Merindad -the Burgos Municipality Merindad de Sotoscueva. Apart from the building itself, integrated in the rock as if it were a decoration of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, something worth seeing are the frescoes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with scenes of Christianity. And tourism. It is a place where prehistoric art coexists with that of just 200 years ago, as if an encyclopedia of the artistic history of humanity was. And currently still has its importance. On Saturday, June 11, the pilgrimage is celebrated, with the hermitage as the protagonist. And, of course, the tourism It is also something present in such a area, with options ranging from three to six euros, depending on age. There are several types of excursions. The quietest is that of the hermitage, which includes a visit to 400 meters of galleries. For the most adventurers, and for a higher price, there are longer tours of Palomera and Sima Cueva ailments, a cave that is not conditioned and in which the entry to children under 12 years is not allowed. And if you have less than 18, you must also go with an adult. In the end, Eye Guareña is not only an imposing karst complex or an archaeological site, but a sample of the passage of time and how the same space has served as similar to humanity for thousands of years. Images | Televisión Castilla y León, Roberto Lumbreras, Eliana Alvoz In Xataka | Spanish tourism faces the real risk of dying of success. There are already guides that advise three of its great destinations

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.