Fifteenth century bedroom at Burg Eltz castle, Germany.
I adore the bed. Bed curtains served multiple purposes. They allowed privacy — consider that many people, even rich people, shared their bedrooms with other people, such as guests or servants. Medieval structures often lacked hallways as we think of them; one went through one room to get to the next. So people (guests, servants, children, etc) might walk through one’s bedroom to get somewhere else. And bed curtains helped (in theory) to keep vermin away.
Notice, too, how sparse the room is — there’s a bed, some benches, a table. Now, we can’t see the whole room in this picture, but there’s probably not much else. A fireplace, perhaps, a wardrobe.
Painted walls were very common in the late Gothic period; the paint mimics expensive tapestries. I was lucky enough to visit a small castle like this when I was in German (Burg Trausnitz in Landshut) and it also featured painted walls.
(Source: mirousworlds, via medievalwitch)
She was once the a beautiful virgin shadow maden of Athean. After Poseidon rapes Medusa in Athena’s temple, Athena punishes Medusa….making her the embodiement of death and damning her to a life of solitude.
What does this say about society then, and now?
(via captain-sonic)
Columbine Massacre victim John Tomlin Jr.’s pick-up truck in the school parking lot. He parked his truck the morning of April 20, 1999, and never returned to pick it up. The following day people began to lay flowers and notes on it. In the days following the tragedy the family visited the truck, and sat in the cab and cried, and left their own flowers and messages, trying to make sense of their sudden and unexpected loss. It was still there ten days later, piled high with wilting flowers.
Thirteen small crosses and one large cross stand April 20, 2004, as a memorial to the twelve students and one teacher killed in the Columbine High School Massacre in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. These are the original thirteen crosses that were put in Clements Park next to Columbine after after the shooting in 1999.
Trepanation is the oldest form of neurosurgery known to man and the procedure involved the removal of a piece of bone from the skull. Practiced since the Stone Age, trepanning was common well into the 19th century, and a few iconoclasts are attempting to revive it today.
Archaeological evidence of trepanning has turned up all over the world, in the form of skulls with holes bored into them up to two inches in diameter. Amazingly, say researchers, judging from signs of bone grown, perhaps two-thirds of the patients survived. The operation wasn’t usually what killed the patient, but the infection afterwards. These surgeries would cure headaches, treat brain disorders, release evil spirits or treat insanity.
The trepanation was done without anaesthesia, probably while the patient was fully awake. In the old days, it was necessary:
- a sharp knife to slice the skin of the skull and pull back the flaps
- a burin or tool like that used by engravers on wood and metal to cut through the bone
- files, brushes and other materials to dress up the job when done
The procedure took a long time and pieces of bone cut from the skull were carried as good luck charms for doctors. Today, with the advent of the electric drill, anyone can do it in an afternoon.
The Utica Crib was named for the New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica where it was heavily used in the 19th century to confine patients who refused to stay in their beds. Based on a French design, the structure was modified to incorporated slats and rungs that gave it an appearance similar to a child’s crib. While use of the Utica Crib was widely criticized and infamous among patients, some found it to have important therapeutic value. A patient who slept in the Utica crib for several days commented that he had rested better and found it useful for “all crazy fellows as I, whose spirit is willing, but whose flesh is weak.”
In an opposing view, Daniel Tuke, a noted British alienist (an early term for a psychology expert) writes that, “it inevitably suggests, when occupied, that you are looking at an animal in a cage. At the celebrated Utica Asylum… where a suicidal woman was preserved from harm by this wooden enclosure… Dr. Baker of the New York Retreat allowed himself to be shut up in one of these beds, but preferred not remaining there.”
Gangrene is caused by infection or ischemia, such as by the bacteria Clostridium perfringens or by a blocked blood vessel. It is usually the result of critically insufficient blood supply and is often associated with diabetes and long-term tobacco smoking. This condition is most common in the lower extremities. The best treatment for gangrene is revascularization of the affected organ, which can reverse some of the effects of necrosis and allow healing. Other treatments include debridement and surgical amputation.
That is the actual size of the Haast eagle.
The Haast eagle is an extinct bird that was native to New Zealand. Their primary food source was the moa,
They were the largest eagles EVER to exist.
They only went extinct because the native people of New Zealand, the Maori, hunted their food source the moa into extinction.
(Source: spankmethorin, via your-average-serial-killer)