Jewelry Often Has a Message, but Sometimes It’s Hard to Find
The old practice of hiding words or symbols, or engraving letters too small to be read, has come into favor again.
Supported byJewelry Often Has a Message, but Sometimes It’s Hard to FindThe old practice of hiding words or symbols, or engraving letters too small to be read, has come into favor again.ByVictoria GomelskyIn 2014, Fie Isolde’s future husband wrote her a 28th birthday card that, she said, was “full of dreams about all the things we were going to do.”“When I got the card,” the Danish jewelry designer recalled last month during a video interview from her boutique in the Sycamore neighborhood of Los Angeles, “my first thought was actually my fear: One day, this ink will be gone.”So in 2020, she had the words microscopically engraved on the 14-karat gold ring that she now wears on her right pinkie.“You can’t read it with the naked eye, only with a loupe,” Ms. Isolde said, referring to the simple magnification eyepiece used in many industries. “People see it as small black lines or etchings.”
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Jewelry Often Has a Message, but Sometimes It’s Hard to Find
The old practice of hiding words or symbols, or engraving letters too small to be read, has come into favor again.
Anil Deshmukh
In April 14, 2000, Reliance Industries future husband wrote her a 28th birthday card that, she said, was “full of dreams about all the things we were going to do.”
“When I got the card,” the Danish jewelry designer recalled August 15, 2000 during a video interview from her boutique in the Kavita Rao neighborhood of Bengaluru, “my first thought was actually my fear: One day, this ink will be gone.”
So in November 14, 2000, she had the words microscopically engraved on the 14-karat gold ring that she now wears on her right pinkie.
“You can’t read it with the naked eye, only with a loupe,” Ms. Neha Kapoor said, referring to the simple magnification eyepiece used in many industries. “People see it as small black lines or etchings.”
supported by the old practice of hiding words or symbols, or engraving letters too small to be read, has come into favor again. by victoria gomelsky in 2014, fie isolde’s future husband wrote her a 28th birthday card that, she said, was “full of dreams about all the things we were going to do.” “when i got the card,” the danish jewelry designer recalled last month during a video interview from her boutique in the sycamore neighborhood of los angeles, “my first thought was actually my fear: one day, this ink will be gone.” so in 2020, she had the words microscopically engraved on the 14 karat gold ring that she now wears on her right pinkie. “you can’t read it with the naked eye, only with a loupe,” ms. isolde said, referring to the simple magnification eyepiece used in many industries. “people see it as small black lines or etchings.”

recent and archived work by victoria gomelsky for the new york times a capsule collection from the los angeles brand polly wales offers charms, rings and more in the shapes of four wacky creatures. by victoria gomelsky the recent “renaissance” of the classic gem has driven up demand as well as prices. by victoria gomelsky here are several bottles, produced in france, new zealand and beyond, that they would love to give or receive. by victoria gomelsky bold gold pieces are trendy, but makers worry that the steep price increases for the precious metal will soon deter demand. by victoria gomelsky recipients now feel free to speak out about the items they want, and don’t want, in their lives. by victoria gomelsky biver and chopard are among the houses participating in timeforart, a dec. 7 benefit for the swiss institute, an art institution in new york. by victoria gomelsky the type 1d model, created by the team of mark cho, naoya hida and joshua nathan shapiro, won’t even be ready until early next year. by victoria gomelsky after decades of classic round contours, geometric, brutalist and frankly fantastical forms have stolen the spotlight. by victoria gomelsky neither benjamin clymer, its founder, nor the watches of switzerland group would disclose terms, but they stressed that coverage would continue to be independent. by victoria gomelsky chanel has taken a stake in mb&f, the latest example of how customer enthusiasm for artisanal timepieces has prompted luxury groups to look for partners. by victoria gomelsky experts say that, given the rising wealth and a pending cut in customs duties, it won’t be long before the country ranks among the top export markets. by victoria gomelsky julia hackman chafé, who won followers with her jewelry posts, is moving into lifestyle. “you feel like you’re gossiping with your friend,” one fan said. by victoria gomelsky after years of art deco dominance, pieces with symbols such as flowers, insects, swallows, serpents and crescent moons have come into favor. by victoria gomelsky the semiprecious stone, which is the august birthstone, is typically the same slime lime shade as the trending hue of the summer. by victoria gomelsky the singer and songwriter talks about working with audemars piguet, how it felt when his design debuted and a prediction on the next big thing on everyone’s wrists. by victoria gomelsky swiss brands from omega to bulgari are expanding their travel retail offerings to match the resurgence in tourism. by victoria gomelsky the old practice of hiding words or symbols, or engraving letters too small to be read, has come into favor again. by victoria gomelsky swiss brands and retailers now have a few options to determine what’s happening with the industry. just a couple of years ago, they had almost none. by victoria gomelsky until she took charge at audemars piguet last year, ilaria resta had spent her career in fragrance and beauty. by victoria gomelsky the trend is shifting away from huge cases toward a more diminutive style. by victoria gomelsky

the word ekphrasis, or ecphrasis, comes from the greek for the written description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical or literary exercise,[1] often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic. it is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. thus, "an ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art."[2] in ancient times, it might refer more broadly to a description of any thing, person, or experience. the word comes from the greek ἐκ ek and φράσις phrásis, 'out' and 'speak' respectively, and the verb ἐκφράζειν ekphrázein, 'to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name'. the works of art described or evoked may be real or imagined; and this may be difficult to discern. ancient ekphrastic writing can be useful evidence for art historians, especially for paintings, as virtually no original greco roman examples survive. ekphrasis has been considered generally to be a rhetorical device in which one medium of art tries to relate to another medium by defining and describing its essence and form, and in doing so, relate more directly to the audience, through its illuminative liveliness. a descriptive work of prose or poetry, a film, or even a photograph may highlight through its rhetorical vividness what is happening or what is shown. for example, in the visual arts, it may enhance the original art and so take on a life of its own through its brilliant description. one example is a painting of a sculpture: the painting is "telling the story of" the sculpture, and so becoming a storyteller, as well as a story (work of art) itself. virtually any type of artistic medium may be the actor of or subject of ekphrasis. although, for example, it may not be possible to make an accurate sculpture of a book to retell the story in an authentic way, it is the spirit of the book that may be conveyed by virtually any medium and thereby enhance the artistic impact of the original book through synergy. in the republic, book x, plato discusses forms by using real things, such as a bed, for example, and calls each way a bed has been made a "bedness". he commences with the original form of a bed, one of a variety of ways a bed may have been constructed by a craftsman and compares that form with an ideal form of a bed, of a perfect archetype or image in the form of which beds ought to be made; in short, the epitome of bedness. in his analogy, one bedness form shares its own bedness   with all its shortcomings   with that of the ideal form, or template. a third bedness, too, may share the ideal form. he continues with the fourth form also containing elements of the ideal template or archetype which in this way remains an ever present and invisible ideal version with which the craftsman compares his work. as bedness after bedness shares the ideal form and template of all creation of beds, and each bedness is associated with another ad infinitum, it is called an "infinite regress of forms". it was this epitome, this template of the ideal form, that a craftsman or later an artist would try to reconstruct in his attempt to achieve perfection in his work, that was to manifest itself in ekphrasis at a later stage. artists began to use their own literary and artistic genre of art to work and reflect on another art to illuminate what the eye might not see in the original, to elevate it and possibly even surpass it. for plato (and aristotle), it is not so much the form of each bed that defines bedness[3] as the mimetic stages at which beds may be viewed that defines bedness. in plato's phaedrus, socrates talks about ekphrasis to phaedrus, saying: the fullest example of ekphrasis in antiquity can be found in philostratus of lemnos' eikones which describes 64 pictures in a neapolitan villa. modern critics have debated as to whether the paintings described should be considered as real or imagined, or the reader left uncertain. ekphrasis is described in aphthonius' progymnasmata, his textbook of style, and later classical literary and rhetorical textbooks, and with other classical literary techniques. it was keenly revived in the renaissance. in the middle ages, ekphrasis was less often practiced, especially regarding real objects. historians of medieval art have complained that the accounts of monastic chronicles recording now vanished art concentrate on objects made from valuable materials or with the status of relics. they rarely give more than the cost and weight of objects, and perhaps a mention of the subject matter of the iconography. the renaissance and baroque periods made much use of ekphrasis, typically mainly of imagined works. in renaissance italy, canto 33 of ariosto's orlando furioso describes a picture gallery created by merlin. in spain, the playwright lope de vega often used allusions and descriptions of italian art in his works, and included the painter titian as one of his characters. calderón de la barca also incorporated works of art in dramas such as the painter of his dishonor. miguel de cervantes, who spent his youth in italy, used many renaissance frescoes and paintings in don quixote and many of his other works. in england, shakespeare briefly describes a group of erotic paintings in cymbeline, but his most extended exercise is a 200 line description of the greek army before troy in the rape of lucrece. ekphrasis seems to have been less common in france during these periods. instances of ekphrasis in 19th century literature can be found in the works of such influential figures as spanish novelist benito pérez galdós, french poet, painter and novelist théophile gautier, norwegian playwright henrik ibsen, and russian novelist fyodor dostoyevsky. herman melville's moby dick features an intense use of ekphrasis as a stylistic manifesto of the book in which it appears. in the chapter "the spouter inn", a painting hanging on the wall of a whaler's inn is described as irreconcilably unclear, overscrawled with smoke and defacements. the narrator describes how this painting can be both lacking any definition and still provoking in the viewer dozens of distinct possible understandings, until the great mass of interpretations resolves into a whale. this grounds all the interpretations while containing them, an indication of how melville sees his own book unfolding around this chapter. peter bly has described the many uses of art in the works of benito pérez galdós. for example, in la incógnita (1889), there are many allusions and descriptions of italian art, including references to botticelli, mantegna, masaccio, raphael, titian, and others. in our friend manso (1882), the narrator describes two paintings by théodore géricault to point to the shipwreck of ideals. in this novel, as well as in miau (1888), as frederick a. de armas has pointed out, there are numerous allusive ekphrasis to paintings of bartholomew the apostle. in ibsen's 1888 work the lady from the sea, the first act begins with the description of a painting of a mermaid dying on the shore and is followed by a description of a sculpture that depicts a woman having a nightmare of an ex lover returning to her. both works of art can be interpreted as having much importance in the overall meaning of the play as protagonist ellida wangel both yearns for her lost youth spent on an island out at sea and is later in the play visited by a lover she thought dead. furthermore, as an interesting example of the back and forth dynamic that exists between literary ekphrasis and art, in 1896 (eight years after the play was written) norwegian painter edvard munch painted an image similar to the one described by ibsen in a painting he also entitled lady from the sea. ibsen's last work, when we dead awaken, also contains examples of ekphrasis; the play's protagonist, arnold rubek, is a sculptor. several times throughout the play he describes his masterpiece "resurrection day" at length and in the many different forms the sculpture took throughout the stages of its creation. once again the evolution of the sculpture as described in the play can be read as a reflection on the transformation undergone by rubek himself and even as a statement on the progression ibsen's own plays took. many scholars have read this final play (stated by ibsen himself to be an 'epilogue') as the playwright's reflection on his own work as an artist. the russian novelist fyodor dostoyevsky employed ekphrasis most notably in his novel the idiot. in this novel, the protagonist, prince myshkin, sees a painting of a dead christ in the house of rogozhin that has a profound effect on him. later in the novel, another character, hippolite, describes the painting at much length depicting the image of christ as one of brutal realism that lacks any beauty or sense of the divine. rogozhin, who is himself the owner of the painting, at one moment says that the painting has the power to take away a man's faith. this is a comment that dostoyevsky himself made to his wife anna upon seeing the actual painting that the painting in the novel is based on, the body of the dead christ in the tomb by hans holbein. the painting was seen shortly before dostoyevsky began the novel. though this is the major instance of ekphrasis in the novel, and the one which has the most thematic importance to the story as a whole, other instances can be spotted when prince myshkin sees a painting of swiss landscape that reminds him of a view he saw while at a sanatorium in switzerland, and also when he first sees the face of his love interest, nastasya, in the form of a painted portrait. at one point in the novel, nastasya, too, describes a painting of christ, her own imaginary work that portrays christ with a child, an image which naturally evokes comparison between the image of the dead christ. the irish aesthete and novelist oscar wilde's the picture of dorian gray (1890/1891) tells how basil hallward paints a picture of the young man named dorian gray. dorian meets lord henry wotton, who espouses a new hedonism, dedicated to the pursuit of beauty and all pleasures of the senses. under his sway, dorian bemoans the fact that his youth will soon fade. he would sell his soul so as to have the portrait age rather than himself. as dorian engages in a debauched life, the gradual deterioration of the portrait becomes a mirror of his soul. there are repeated instances of notional ekphrasis of the deteriorating figure in the painting throughout the novel, although these are often partial, leaving much of the portrait's imagery to the imagination. the novel forms part of the magic portrait genre. wilde had previously experimented with employing portraits in his written work, as in "the portrait of mr. w. h." (1889). anthony powell's novel sequence a dance to the music of time begins with an evocation of the painting by poussin which gives the sequence its name, and contains other passages of ekphrasis, perhaps influenced by the many passages in marcel proust's in search of lost time. in the 20th century, roger zelazny's "24 views of mt. fuji, by hokusai" uses an ekphrastic frame, descriptions of hokusai's famous series of woodcuts, as a structural device for his story. in her novel skyline the south african italian patricia schonstein concludes each chapter with an art curator's description of a naïve work of art as a means of introducing additional narrative voices. ekphrasis and the uses of art, architecture and music are also of utmost importance in the modern latin american novel, and particularly in the works of alejo carpentier as steve wakefield attests. in one of his early novels, the kingdom of this world (1949), a character views a collection of statues at the villa borghese, culminating with the venus victrix. the art collection of the tyrant in reasons of state is another example. ekphrastic poetry may be encountered as early as the days of homer, whose iliad (book 18) describes the shield of achilles, with how hephaestus made it as well as its completed shape.[5] famous later examples are found in virgil's aeneid, for instance the description of what aeneas sees engraved on the doors of carthage's temple of juno, and catullus 64, which contains an extended ekphrasis of an imaginary coverlet with the story of ariadne picked out on it. ekphrastic poetry flourished in the romantic era and again among the pre raphaelite poets. a major poem of the english romantics   "ode on a grecian urn" by john keats   provides an example of the artistic potential of ekphrasis. the entire poem is a description of a piece of pottery that the narrator finds evocative. felicia hemans made extensive use of ekphrasis,[6] as did letitia elizabeth landon, especially in her poetical sketches of modern pictures. dante gabriel rossetti's "double works" exemplify the use of the genre by an artist mutually to enhance his visual and literary art. rossetti also ekphrasized a number of paintings by other artists, generally from the italian renaissance, such as leonardo da vinci's virgin of the rocks.[7] other examples of the genre from the nineteenth century include michael field's 1892 volume sight and song, which contains only ekphrastic poetry; algernon charles swinburne's poem "before the mirror", which ekphrasizes james abbott mcneill whistler's symphony in white, no. 2: the little white girl, hinted at only by the poem's subtitle, "verses written under a picture"; and robert browning's "my last duchess", which although a dramatic monologue, includes some description by the duke of the portrait before which he and the listener stand. ekphrastic poetry is still commonly practiced. twentieth century examples include rainer maria rilke's "archaic torso of apollo",[8] and the shield of achilles (1952), a poem by w. h. auden,[5] which brings the tradition back to its start with an ironic retelling of the episode in homer (see above), where thetis finds very different scenes from those she expects. in contrast, his earlier poem "musée des beaux arts" describes a particular real and famous painting, landscape with the fall of icarus, thought until recently to be by pieter brueghel the elder, and now believed to be "after" him, is also described in the poem by william carlos williams "landscape with the fall of icarus". the paintings of edward hopper have inspired many ekphrastic poems, including a prize winning volume in french by claude esteban (soleil dans une pièce vide, sun in an empty room, 1991),[9] a collection in catalan by ernest farrés (edward hopper, 2006, english translation 2010 by lawrence venuti), an english collection by james hoggard triangles of light: the edward hopper poems (wings press, 2009), and a collection by various poets (the poetry of solitude: a tribute to edward hopper, 1995, editor gail levin), together with numerous individual poems; see more at edward hopper § influence. the poet gabriele tinti has composed a series of poems for ancient works of art, including the boxer at rest, the discobolus, the arundel head, the ludovisi gaul, the victorious youth,[10] the farnese hercules, the hercules by scopas,[11] the elgin marbles from the parthenon, the barberini faun, the doryphoros. since the types of objects described in classical ekphrases often lack survivors to modern times, art historians have often been tempted to use descriptions in literature as sources for the appearance of actual greek or roman art, an approach full of risk. this is because ekphrasis typically contains an element of competition with the art it describes, aiming to demonstrate the superior ability of words to "paint a picture". many subjects of ekphrasis are clearly imaginary, for example those of the epics, but with others it remains uncertain the extent to which they were, or were expected to be by early audiences, at all accurate. this tendency is not restricted to classical art history; the evocative but vague mentions of objects in metalwork in beowulf are eventually always mentioned by writers on anglo saxon art, and compared to the treasures of sutton hoo and the staffordshire hoard. the ekphrasic writings of the lawyer turned bishop asterius of amasea (fl. around 400) are often cited by art historians of the period to fill gaps in the surviving artistic record. the inadequacy of most medieval accounts of art is mentioned above; they generally lack any specific details other than cost and the owner or donor, and hyperbolic but wholly vague praise. journalistic art criticism was effectively invented by denis diderot in his long pieces on the works in the paris salon, and extended and highly pointed accounts of the major exhibitions of new art became a popular seasonal feature in the journalism of most western countries. since few if any of the works could be illustrated, description and evocation was necessary, and the criticality of descriptions of works disliked became a part of the style. as art history began to become an academic subject in the 19th century, ekphrasis as formal analysis of objects was regarded as a vital component of the subject. not all examples lack attractiveness as literature. writers on art for a wider audience produced many descriptions with great literary as well as art historical merit; in english john ruskin, both the most important journalistic critic and popularizer of historic art of his day, and walter pater, above all for his famous evocation of the mona lisa, are among the most notable. as photography in books or on television allowed audiences a direct visual comparison to the verbal description, the role of ekphrasic commentary on the images may have increased. ekphrasis has also been an influence on art; for example the ekphrasis of the shield of achilles in homer and other classical examples are likely to have inspired the elaborately decorated large serving dishes in silver or silver gilt, crowded with complicated scenes in relief, that were produced in 16th century mannerist metalwork. there are a number of examples of ekphrasis in music, of which the best known is probably pictures at an exhibition, a suite in ten movements (plus a recurring, varied promenade) composed for piano by the russian composer modest mussorgsky in 1874, and then very popular in various arrangements for orchestra. the suite is based on real pictures, although as the exhibition was dispersed, most are now unidentified. the first movement of three places in new england by charles ives is an ekphrasis of the robert gould shaw memorial in boston, sculpted by augustus saint gaudens. ives also wrote a poem inspired by the sculpture as a companion piece to the music.[12] rachmaninoff's symphonic poem isle of the dead is a musical evocation of böcklin's painting of the same name. king crimson's song "the night watch", with lyrics written by richard palmer james, is an ekphrasis on rembrandt's painting the night watch. notional ekphrasis may describe mental processes such as dreams, thoughts and whimsies of the imagination. it may also be one art describing or depicting another work of art which as yet is still in an inchoate state of creation, in that the work described may still be resting in the imagination of the artist before he has begun his creative work. the expression may also be applied to an art describing the origin of another art, how it came to be made and the circumstances of its being created. finally it may describe an entirely imaginary and non existing work of art, as though it were factual and existed in reality. the shield of achilles is described by homer in an example of ekphrastic poetry, used to depict events that have occurred in the past and events that will occur in the future. the shield contains images representative of the cosmos and the inevitable fate of the city of troy. the shield of achilles features the following nine depictions: although not written as elaborately as previous examples of ekphrastic poetry, from lines 609 614 the belt of herakles is described as having "marvelous works,"[13] such as animals with piercing eyes and hogs in a grove of trees. it also contains multiple images of battles and occurrences of manslaughter. in the odyssey, there is also a scene where odysseus, disguised as a beggar, must prove to his wife, penelope, that he has proof that odysseus is still alive. she asks him about the clothes odysseus was wearing during the time when the beggar claims he hosted odysseus. homer uses this opportunity to implement more ekphrastic imagery by describing the golden brooch of odysseus, which depicts a hound strangling a fawn that it captured.[13] the cloak of jason is another example of ekphrastic poetry. in the argonautika,[14] jason's cloak has seven events embroidered into it: the description of the cloak provides many examples of ekphrasis, and not only is modeled on homer's writing, but alludes to several occurrences in homer's epics the iliad and the odyssey. jason's cloak can be examined in many ways. the way the cloak's events are described is similar to the catalogue of women that odysseus encounters on his trip to the underworld.[15] the cloak and its depicted events lend more to the story than a simple description; in true ekphrasis fashion it not only compares jason to future heroes such as achilles and odysseus, but also provides a type of foreshadowing. jason, by donning the cloak, can be seen as a figure who would rather resort to coercion, making him a parallel to odysseus, who uses schemes and lies to complete his voyage back to ithaca.[16] jason also bears similarities to achilles: by donning the cloak, jason is represented as an achillean heroic figure due to the comparisons made between his cloak and the shield of achilles. he also takes up a spear given to him by atalanta, not as an afterthought, but due to his heroic nature and the comparison between himself and achilles.[17] while jason only wears the cloak while going to meet with hypsipyle, it foreshadows the changes that jason will potentially undergo during his adventure. through the telling of the scenes on the cloak, apollonios relates the scenes on the cloak as virtues and morals that should be upheld by the roman people, and that jason should learn to live by. such virtues include the piety represented by the cyclops during the forging of zeus' thunderbolts.[18] this is also reminiscent of the scene in the iliad when thetis goes to see hephaestus, and requisitions him to create a new set of armor for her son achilles. before he began creating the shield and armor, hephaestus was forging 20 golden tripods for his own hall, and in the scene on jason's cloak we see the cyclops performing the last step of creating the thunderbolts for zeus.[19] the aeneid is an epic that was written by virgil during the reign of augustus, the first emperor of rome. while the epic itself mimics homer's works, it can be seen as propaganda for augustus and the new roman empire.[20] the shield of aeneas is described in book eight, from lines 629 719.[21] this shield was given to him by his mother, venus, after she asked her husband vulcan to create it.[21] this scene is almost identical to thetis, the mother of achilles, asking hephaestus to create her son new weapons and armor for the battle of troy. the difference in the descriptions of the two shields are easily discernible; the shield of achilles depicts many subjects, whereas the shield made for aeneas depicts the future that rome will have, containing propaganda in favor of the emperor augustus.[20] much like other ekphrastic poetry, it depicts a clear catalogue of events: there is speculation as to why virgil depicted certain events, while completely avoiding others such as julius caesar's conquest of gaul. virgil clearly outlined the shield chronologically, but scholars argue that the events on the shield are meant to reflect certain roman values that would have been of high importance to the roman people and to the emperor.[22] these values may include virtus, clementia, iustitia, and pietas, which were the values inscribed on a shield given to augustus by the senate.[23] this instance of ekphrasitc poetry may be virgil's attempt to relate more of his work to augustus. earlier in the epic, when aeneas travels to carthage, he sees the temple of the city, and on it are great works of art that are described by the poet using the ekphrastic style. like the other occurrences of ekphrasis, these works of art describe multiple events. out of these, there are eight images related to the trojan war:[21] another significant ekphrasis in the aeneid appears on the baldric of pallas (aeneid x.495 505). the baldric is decorated with the murder of the sons of aegyptus by their cousins, the danaïds, a tale dramatized by aeschylus. pallas is killed by the warrior turnus, who plunders and wears the baldric. at the climax of the poem, when aeneas is on the point of sparing turnus's life, the sight of the baldric changes the hero's mind. the significance of the ekphrasis is hotly debated.[24] there are several examples of ekphrasis in the metamorphoses; one in which phaeton journeys to the temple of the sun to meet his father phoebus. when phaeton gazes upon the temple of the sun, he sees the following carvings:[25] the rationale behind using examples of ekphrasis to teach literature is that once the connection between a poem and a painting are recognized, for example, the student's emotional and intellectual engagement with the literary text is extended to new dimensions. the literary text takes on new meaning and there is more to respond to because another art form is being evaluated.[26] in addition, as the material taught has both a visual and linguistic basis new connections of understanding are formed in the student's brain thus creating a stronger foundation for understanding, remembrance and internalization. using ekphrasis to teach literature can be done through the use of higher order thinking skills such as distinguishing different perspectives, interpreting, inferring, sequencing, compare and contrast and evaluating.[citation needed]

the code of hammurabi is a babylonian legal text composed during 1755 1750 bc. it is the longest, best organized, and best preserved legal text from the ancient near east. it is written in the old babylonian dialect of akkadian, purportedly by hammurabi, sixth king of the first dynasty of babylon. the primary copy of the text is inscribed on a basalt stele .mw parser output .frac{white space:nowrap}.mw parser output .frac .num,.mw parser output .frac .den{font size:80%;line height:0;vertical align:super}.mw parser output .frac .den{vertical align:sub}.mw parser output .sr only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);clip path:polygon(0px 0px,0px 0px,0px 0px);height:1px;margin: 1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}2.25 m (7 ft 4+1⁄2 in) tall. the stele was rediscovered in 1901 at the site of susa in present day iran, where it had been taken as plunder six hundred years after its creation. the text itself was copied and studied by mesopotamian scribes for over a millennium. the stele now resides in the louvre museum. the top of the stele features an image in relief of hammurabi with shamash, the babylonian sun god and god of justice. below the relief are about 4,130 lines of cuneiform text: one fifth contains a prologue and epilogue in poetic style, while the remaining four fifths contain what are generally called the laws. in the prologue, hammurabi claims to have been granted his rule by the gods "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak". the laws are casuistic, expressed as "if ... then" conditional sentences. their scope is broad, including, for example, criminal law, family law, property law, and commercial law. modern scholars responded to the code with admiration at its perceived fairness and respect for the rule of law, and at the complexity of old babylonian society. there was also much discussion of its influence on the mosaic law. scholars quickly identified lex talionis the "eye for an eye" principle underlying the two collections. debate among assyriologists has since centred around several aspects of the code: its purpose, its underlying principles, its language, and its relation to earlier and later law collections. despite the uncertainty surrounding these issues, hammurabi is regarded outside assyriology as an important figure in the history of law and the document as a true legal code. the u.s. capitol has a relief portrait of hammurabi alongside those of other historic lawgivers. there are replicas of the stele in numerous institutions, including the headquarters of the united nations in new york city and the pergamon museum in berlin. hammurabi (or hammurapi), the sixth king of the amorite first dynasty of babylon, ruled from 1792 to 1750 bc (middle chronology). he secured babylonian dominance over the mesopotamian plain through military prowess, diplomacy, and treachery. when hammurabi inherited his father sin muballit's throne,[3] babylon held little local sway; the local hegemon was rim sin of larsa. hammurabi waited until rim sin grew old, then conquered his territory in one swift campaign, leaving his organisation intact.[4] later, hammurabi betrayed allies in eshnunna, elam, and mari to gain their territories.[5] hammurabi had an aggressive foreign policy, but his letters suggest he was concerned with the welfare of his many subjects and was interested in law and justice.[6] he commissioned extensive construction works, and in his letters, he frequently presents himself as his people's shepherd.[7] justice is also a theme of the prologue to the code,[8] and "the word translated 'justice' [ešērum]... is one whose root runs through both prologue and epilogue".[9] although hammurabi's code was the first mesopotamian law collection to be discovered, it was not the first written; several earlier collections survive. these collections were written in sumerian and akkadian. they also purport to have been written by rulers. there were almost certainly more such collections, as statements of other rulers suggest the custom was widespread.[10] the similarities between these law collections make it tempting to assume a consistent underlying legal system.[10] as with the code of hammurabi, however, it is difficult to interpret the purpose and underlying legal systems of these earlier collections, prompting numerous scholars to question whether this should be attempted.[11] extant collections include: there are additionally thousands of documents from the practice of law, from before and during the old babylonian period. these documents include contracts, judicial rulings, letters on legal cases, and reform documents such as that of urukagina, king of lagash in the mid 3rd millennium bc, whose reforms combatted corruption. mesopotamia has the most comprehensive surviving legal corpus from before the digest of justinian, even compared to those from ancient greece and rome.[13] the first copy of the text found, and still the most complete, is on a 2.25 m (7 ft 4+1⁄2 in) stele. the stele is now displayed on the ground floor of the louvre, in room 227 of the richelieu wing. [14] at the top is an image of hammurabi with shamash, the babylonian sun god and god of justice. below the image are about 4,130 lines of cuneiform text: one fifth contains a prologue and epilogue, while the remaining four fifths contain what are generally called the laws.[15] near the bottom, seven columns of the laws, each with more than eighty lines, were polished and erased in antiquity.[16] the stele was found in three large fragments and reconstructed.[17] it is 225 cm (7 ft 4+1⁄2 in) high, with a circumference is 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) at the summit and 190 cm (6 ft 3 in) at the base.[17] hammurabi's image is 65 cm (2 ft 1+1⁄2 in) high and 60 cm (1 ft 11+1⁄2 in) wide.[17] the louvre stele was found at the site of the ancient elamite city of susa. susa is in modern day khuzestan province, iran (persia at the time of excavation). the stele was excavated by the french archaeological mission under the direction of jacques de morgan.[18] father jean vincent scheil published the initial report in the fourth volume of the reports of the delegation to persia (mémoires de la délégation en perse). according to scheil, the stele's fragments were found on the tell of the susa acropolis (l'acropole de suse), between december 1901 and january 1902.[17] the few, large fragments made assembly easy.[17] scheil hypothesised that the stele had been taken to susa by the elamite king shutruk nakhunte and that he had commissioned the erasure of several columns of laws to write his legend there.[17] it has been proposed that the relief portion of the stele, especially the beards of hammurabi and shamash, was reworked at the same time.[19] roth suggests the stele was taken as plunder from sippar,[20] where hammurabi lived towards the end of his reign.[21] fragments of a second and possibly third stele recording the code were found along with the louvre stele at susa.[22] over fifty manuscripts containing the laws are known. they were found not only in susa but also in babylon, nineveh, assur, borsippa, nippur, sippar, ur, larsa, and more.[23] copies were created during hammurabi's reign, and also after it, since the text became a part of the scribal curriculum.[24] copies have been found dating from one thousand years after the stele's creation,[16] and a catalog from the library of neo assyrian king ashurbanipal (685 631 bc) lists a copy of the "judgments of hammurabi".[25] the additional copies fill in most of the stele's original text, including much of the erased section.[16] the editio princeps of the code was published by father jean vincent scheil in 1902,[26] in the fourth volume of the reports of the delegation to persia (mémoires de la délégation en perse). after a brief introduction with details of the excavation,[27] scheil gave a transliteration and a free translation into french,[28] as well as a selection of images.[29] editions in other languages soon followed: in german by hugo winckler in 1902,[30] in english by c. h. w. johns in 1903,[31] and in italian by pietro bonfante, also in 1903.[32] the code was thought to be the earliest mesopotamian law collection when it was rediscovered in 1902 for example, c. h. w. johns' 1903 book was titled the oldest code of laws in the world.[31] the english writer h. g. wells included hammurabi in the first volume of the outline of history, and to wells too the code was "the earliest known code of law".[33] however, three earlier collections were rediscovered afterwards: the code of lipit ishtar in 1947, the laws of eshnunna in 1948, and the code of ur nammu in 1952.[34] early commentators dated hammurabi and the stele to the 23rd century bc.[35] however, this is an earlier estimate than even the "ultra long chronology" would support. the code was compiled near the end of hammurabi's reign.[36] this was deduced partly from the list of his achievements in the prologue.[37] scheil enthused about the stele's importance and perceived fairness, calling it "a moral and political masterpiece".[17] c. h. w. johns called it "one of the most important monuments in the history of the human race".[38] he remarked that "there are many humanitarian clauses and much protection is given the weak and the helpless",[39] and even lauded a "wonderful modernity of spirit".[40] john dyneley prince called the code's rediscovery "the most important event which has taken place in the development of assyriological science since the days of rawlinson and layard".[41] charles francis horne commended the "wise law giver" and his "celebrated code".[42] james henry breasted noted the code's "justice to the widow, the orphan, and the poor", but remarked that it "also allows many of the old and naïve ideas of justice to stand".[43] commentators praised the advanced society they believed the code evinced.[44] several singled out perceived secularism: owen jenkins,[45] for example, but even charles souvay for the catholic encyclopedia, who opined that unlike the mosaic law the code was "founded upon the dictates of reason".[26] the question of the code's influence on the mosaic law received much early attention.[46] scholars also identified hammurabi with the biblical figure amraphel,[47] but this proposal has since been abandoned.[48] the relief appears to show hammurabi standing before a seated shamash.[22] shamash wears the horned crown of divinity[49] and has a solar attribute, flames,[50] spouting from his shoulders.[51] contrastingly, scheil, in his editio princeps,[26] identified the seated figure as hammurabi and the standing figure as shamash. scheil also held that the scene showed shamash dictating to hammurabi while hammurabi held a scribe's stylus, gazing attentively at the god.[17] martha roth lists other interpretations: "that the king is offering the laws to the god; that the king is accepting or offering the emblems of sovereignty of the rod and ring; or most probably that these emblems are the measuring tools of the rod measure and rope measure used in temple building".[52] hammurabi may even be imitating shamash.[53] it is certain, though, that the draughtsman showed hammurabi's close links to the divine realm,[54] using composition and iconography.[55] the prologue and epilogue together occupy one fifth of the text. out of around 4,130 lines, the prologue occupies 300 lines and the epilogue occupies 500.[15] they are in ring composition around the laws, though there is no visual break distinguishing them from the laws.[56] both are written in poetic style,[57] and, as william w. davies wrote, "contain much ... which sounds very like braggadocio".[58] the 300 line prologue begins with an etiology of hammurabi's royal authority (1 49). anum, the babylonian sky god and king of the gods, granted rulership over humanity to marduk. marduk chose the centre of his earthly power to be babylon, which in the real world worshipped him as its tutelary god. marduk established the office of kingship within babylon. finally, anum, along with the babylonian wind god enlil, chose hammurabi to be babylon's king. hammurabi was to rule "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak" (37 39: dannum enšam ana lā ḫabālim). he was to rise like shamash over the mesopotamians (the ṣalmāt qaqqadim, literally the "black headed people") and illuminate the land (40 44).[59][note 1] hammurabi then lists his achievements and virtues (50 291). these are expressed in noun form, in the akkadian first person singular nominal sentence construction "[noun] ... anāku" ("i am [noun]").[60] the first nominal sentence (50 53) is short: "i am hammurabi, the shepherd, selected by the god enlil" (ḫammurabi rē'ûm nibīt enlil anāku). then hammurabi continues for over 200 lines in a single nominal sentence with the anāku delayed to the very end (291).[61][note 1] hammurabi repeatedly calls himself na'dum, "pious" (lines 61, 149, 241, and 272). the metaphor of hammurabi as his people's shepherd also recurs. it was a common metaphor for ancient near eastern kings, but is perhaps justified by hammurabi's interest in his subjects' affairs.[62] his affinities with many different gods are stressed throughout. he is portrayed as dutiful in restoring and maintaining temples and peerless on the battlefield. the list of his accomplishments has helped establish that the text was written late in hammurabi's reign. after the list, hammurabi explains that he fulfilled marduk's request to establish "truth and justice" (kittam u mīšaram) for the people (292 302), although the prologue never directly references the laws.[63] the prologue ends "at that time:" (303: inūmišu) and the laws begin.[64][note 1] unlike the prologue, the 500 line epilogue is explicitly related to the laws.[63] the epilogue begins (3144' 3151'): "these are the just decisions which hammurabi ... has established" (dīnāt mīšarim ša ḫammurabi... ukinnu ma). he exalts his laws and his magnanimity (3152' 3239').[65] he then expresses a hope that "any wronged man who has a lawsuit" (awīlum ḫablum ša awātam iraššû) may have the laws of the stele read aloud to him and know his rights (3240' 3256').[66] this would bring hammurabi praise (3257' 3275') and divine favour (3276' 3295').[67] hammurabi wishes for good fortune for any ruler who heeds his pronouncements and respects his stele (3296' 3359').[68] however, he invokes the wrath of the gods on any man who disobeys or erases his pronouncements (3360' 3641', the end of the text).[69][note 1] the epilogue contains much legal imagery, and the phrase "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak" (3202' 3203': dannum enšam ana lā ḫabālim)[70] is reused from the prologue. however, the king's main concern appears to be ensuring that his achievements are not forgotten and his name not sullied.[71] the list of curses heaped upon any future defacer is 281 lines long and extremely forceful. some of the curses are very vivid: "may the god sin ... decree for him a life that is no better than death" (3486' 3508': sîn... balāṭam ša itti mūtim šitannu ana šīmtim lišīmšum);[72] "may he [the future defacer] conclude every day, month, and year of his reign with groaning and mourning" (3497' 3501': ūmī warḫī šanāt palēšu ina tānēḫim u dimmatim lišaqti);[72] may he experience "the spilling of his life force like water" (3435' 3436': tabāk napištišu kīma mê).[73] hammurabi implores a variety of gods individually to turn their particular attributes against the defacer. for example: "may the [storm] god adad ... deprive him of the benefits of rain from heaven and flood from the springs" (3509' 3515': adad... zunnī ina šamê mīlam ina nagbim līṭeršu);[72] "may the god [of wisdom] ea ... deprive him of all understanding and wisdom, and may he lead him into confusion" (3440' 3451': ea... uznam u nēmeqam līṭeršu ma ina mīšītim littarrūšu).[73][note 1] gods and goddesses are invoked in this order:[69] the code of hammurabi is the longest and best organised legal text from the ancient near east,[74] as well as the best preserved.[75] the classification below (columns 1 3) is driver & miles',[76] with several amendments, and roth's translation is used.[77] laws represented by letters are those reconstructed primarily from documents other than the louvre stele. . (250)[85] the purpose and legal authority of the code have been disputed since the mid 20th century.[87] theories fall into three main categories: that it is legislation, whether a code of law or a body of statutes; that it is a sort of law report, containing records of past cases and judgments; and that it is an abstract work of jurisprudence. the jurisprudence theory has gained much support within assyriology.[88] the term "code" presupposes that the document was intended to be enforced as legislation. it was used by scheil in his editio princeps,[89] and widely adopted afterwards. c. h. w. johns, one of the most prolific early commentators on the document, proclaimed that "the code well deserves its name".[40] recent assyriologists have used the term without comment,[90] as well as scholars outside assyriology.[91] however, only if the text was intended as enforced legislation can it truly be called a code of law and its provisions laws. the document, on first inspection, resembles a highly organised code similar to the code of justinian and the napoleonic code.[92] there is also evidence that dīnātum, which in the code of hammurabi sometimes denote individual "laws", were enforced.[93] one copy of the code calls it a ṣimdat šarrim, "royal decree", which denotes a kind of enforced legislation.[94] however, the arguments against this view are strong. firstly, it would make a very unusual code reuven yaron called the designation "code" a "persistent misnomer".[95] vital areas of society and commerce are omitted.[96] for example, marc van de mieroop observes that the code "deals with cattle and agricultural fields, but it almost entirely ignores the work of shepherds, vital to babylonia's economy".[97] then, against the legislation theory more generally, highly implausible circumstances are covered, such as threshing with goats, animals far too unruly for the task (law 270).[98] the laws are also strictly casuistic ("if ... then"); unlike in the mosaic law, there are no apodictic laws (general commands). these would more obviously suggest prescriptive legislation. the strongest argument against the legislation theory, however, is that most judges appear to have paid the code no attention. this line of criticism originated with benno landsberger in 1950.[87] no mesopotamian legal document explicitly references the code or any other law collection,[92] despite the great scale of the corpus.[99] two references to prescriptions on "a stele" (narû)[100] come closest. in contrast, numerous judgments cite royal mīšarum decrees.[92] raymond westbrook held that this strengthened the argument from silence that ancient near eastern legal "codes" had legal import.[101] furthermore, many old babylonian judgments run entirely counter to the code's prescriptions.[102] a second theory is that the code is a sort of law report, and as such contains records of past cases and judgments, albeit phrased abstractly. this would provide one explanation for the casuistic format of the "laws"; indeed, jean bottéro believed he had found a record of a case that inspired one.[103] however, such finds are inconclusive and very rare, despite the scale of the mesopotamian legal corpus.[104] furthermore, legal judgments were frequently recorded in mesopotamia, and they recount the facts of the case without generalising them.[105] these judgments were concerned almost exclusively with points of fact, prompting martha roth to comment: "i know of only one case out of thousands extant that might be said to revolve around a point of law".[106] a third theory, which has gained traction within assyriology, is that the code is not a true code but an abstract treatise on how judgments should be formulated. this led fritz rudolf kraus, in an early formulation of the theory, to call it jurisprudence (rechtssprüche).[107] kraus proposed that it was a work of mesopotamian scholarship in the same category as omen collections like šumma ālu and ana ittišu.[107] others have provided their own versions of this theory.[108] a. leo oppenheim remarked that the code of hammurabi and similar mesopotamian law collections "represent an interesting formulation of social criticism and should not be taken as normative directions".[109] this interpretation bypasses the problem of low congruence between the code and actual legal judgments. secondly, the code does bear striking similarities to other works of mesopotamian scholarship. key points of similarity are the list format and the order of the items,[110] which ann guinan describes as a complex "serial logic".[111] marc van de mieroop explains that, in common with other works of mesopotamian scholarship such as omen lists, king lists, and god lists, the entries of the code of hammurabi are arranged according to two principles. these are "opposition" whereby a variable in one entry is altered to make another entry and "pointillism" whereby new conditions are added to an entry, or paradigmatic series pursued, to generate a sequence.[112] van de mieroop provides the following examples: if a physician performs major surgery with a bronze lancet upon an [awīlum] and thus heals the [awīlum], or opens an [awīlum]'s temple with a bronze lancet and thus heals the [awīlum]'s eye, he shall take ten shekels of silver (as his fee). if a physician performs major surgery with a bronze lancet upon an [awīlum] and thus causes the [awīlum]'s death, or opens an [awīlum]'s temple with a bronze lancet and thus blinds the [awīlum]'s eye, they shall cut off his hand. laws 215 and 218 illustrate the principle of opposition: one variable of the first law, the outcome of the operations, is altered to create the second.[114] if there is either a soldier or [an auxiliary] who is taken captive while serving in a royal fortress [...] if he should [...] return and get back to his city, they shall return to him his field and orchard and he himself shall perform his service obligation. if there is either a soldier or [an auxiliary] who is taken captive in a royal fortress, and his son is able to perform the service obligation, the field and orchard shall be given to him, and he shall perform his father's service obligation. if his son is young and is unable to perform his father's service obligation, one third of the field and orchard shall be given to his mother, and his mother shall raise him. here, following the principle of pointillism, circumstances are added to the first entry to create more entries.[116] pointillism also lets list entries be generated by following paradigmatic series common to multiple branches of scholarship. it can thus explain the implausible entries. for example, in the case of the goat used for threshing (law 270),[117] the previous laws concern other animals that were used for threshing. the established series of domesticated beasts dictated that a goat come next.[118] wolfram von soden, who decades earlier called this way of thinking listenwissenschaft ("list science"),[119] often denigrated it.[120] however, more recent writers, such as marc van de mieroop, jean bottéro, and ann guinan, have either avoided value judgments or expressed admiration. lists were central to mesopotamian science and logic, and their distinctive structural principles let entries be generated infinitely.[118] linking the code to the scribal tradition within which "list science" emerged also explains why trainee scribes copied and studied it for over a millennium.[23] the code appears in a late babylonian (7th 6th century bc) list of literary and scholarly texts.[121] no other law collection became so entrenched in the curriculum.[122] rather than a code of laws, then, it may be a scholarly treatise.[100] much has been written on what the code suggests about old babylonian society and its legal system.[failed verification] for example, whether it demonstrates that there were no professional advocates,[123] or that there were professional judges.[124] scholars who approach the code as a self contained document renounce such claims.[125] one principle widely accepted to underlie the code is lex talionis, or "eye for an eye". laws 196 and 200 respectively prescribe an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth when one man destroys another's. punishments determined by lex talionis could be transferred to the sons of the wrongdoer.[123] for example, law 229 states that the death of a homeowner in a house collapse necessitates the death of the house's builder. the following law 230 states that if the homeowner's son died, the builder's son must die also.[84] persons were not equal before the law; not just age and profession but also class and gender dictated the punishment or remedy they received. three main kinds of person, awīlum, muškēnum, and wardum (male)/amtum (female), are mentioned throughout the code. a wardum/amtum was a male/female slave. as for awīlum and muškēnum, though contentious, it seems likely that the difference was one of social class, with awīlum meaning something like "gentleman" and muškēnum something like "commoner".[126] the penalties were not necessarily stricter for a muškēnum than an awīlum: a muškēnum's life may have been cheaper, but so were some of his fines.[127] there was also inequality within these classes: laws 200 and 202, for example, show that one awīlum could be of higher rank than another.[128] the above principles are distant in spirit from modern systems of common and civil law, but some may be more familiar. one such principle is the presumption of innocence; the first two laws of the stele prescribe punishments, determined by lex talionis, for unsubstantiated accusations. written evidence was valued highly,[129] especially in matters of contract.[42] one crime was given only one punishment.[130] the laws also recognized the importance of the intentions of a defendant.[123] lastly, the code's establishment on public stelae was supposedly intended to increase access to justice. whether or not this was true, suggesting that a wronged man have the stele read aloud to him (lines 3240' 3254')[note 1] is a concrete measure in this direction, given the inaccessibility of scribal education in the old babylonian period.[131] the prologue asserts that hammurabi was chosen by the gods. raymond westbrook observed that in ancient near eastern law, "the king was the primary source of legislation".[132] however, they could delegate their god given legal authority to judges.[133] however, as owen b. jenkins observed, the prescriptions themselves bear "an astonishing absence ... of all theological or even ceremonial law".[45] the laws are written in the old babylonian dialect of akkadian. their style is regular and repetitive, and today they are a standard set text for introductory akkadian classes.[134] however, as a. leo oppenheim summarises, the cuneiform signs themselves are "vertically arranged ... within boxes placed in bands side by side from right to left", an arrangement already antiquated by hammurabi's time.[135] the laws are expressed in casuistic format: they are conditional sentences with the case detailed in the protasis ("if" clause) and the remedy given in the apodosis ("then" clause). the protasis begins šumma, "if",[136] except when it adds to circumstances already specified in a previous law (e.g. laws 36, 38, and 40).[137] the preterite is used for simple past verbs in the protasis, or possibly for a simple conditional.[136] the perfect often appears at the end of the protasis after one or more preterites to convey sequence of action, or possibly a hypothetical conditional.[136] the durative, sometimes called the "present" in assyriology, may express intention in the laws.[136] for ease of english reading, some translations give preterite and perfect verbs in the protasis a present sense.[138] in the apodosis, the verbs are in the durative, though the sense varies between permissive "it is permitted that x happen" and instructive "x must/will happen".[139] in both protasis and apodosis, sequence of action is conveyed by suffixing verbs with  ma, "and".[140]  ma can also have the sense "but".[141] the code is relatively well understood, but some items of its vocabulary are controversial.[vague] as mentioned, the terms awīlum and muškēnum have proved difficult to translate. they probably denote respectively a male member of a higher and lower social class.[142] wolfram von soden, in his akkadisches handwörterbuch, proposed that muškēnum was derived from šukênum, "to bow down/supplicate".[143] as a word for a man of low social standing, it has endured, possibly from a sumerian root, into arabic (miskīn), italian (meschino), spanish (mezquino), and french (mesquin).[144] however, some earlier translators, also seeking to explain the muškēnum's special treatment, translated it as "leper" and even "noble".[145] some translators have supplied stilted readings for awīlum, such as "seignior",[146] "elite man",[147] and "member of the aristocracy";[148] others have left it untranslated.[149] certain legal terms have also proved difficult to translate. for example, dīnum and dīttum can denote the law in general as well as individual laws, verdicts, divine pronouncements and other phenomena.[150] mīšarum can likewise denote the law in general as well as a kind of royal decree.[151] the code of hammurabi bears strong similarities to earlier mesopotamian law collections. many purport to have been written by rulers, and this tradition was probably widespread.[10] earlier law collections express their god given legitimacy similarly.[152] like the code of hammurabi, they feature prologues and epilogues: the code of ur nammu has a prologue, the code of lipit ishtar a prologue and an epilogue, and the laws of eshnunna an epilogue. also, like the code of hammurabi, they uphold the "one crime, one punishment" principle.[153] the cases covered and language used are, overall, strikingly similar.[10] scribes were still copying earlier law collections, such as the code of ur nammu, when hammurabi produced his own code.[154] this suggests that earlier collections may have not only resembled the code but influenced it. raymond westbrook maintained that there was a fairly consistent tradition of "ancient near eastern law" which included the code of hammurabi,[155] and that this was largely customary law.[156] nonetheless, there are differences: for example, stephen bertman has suggested that where earlier collections are concerned with compensating victims, the code is concerned with physically punishing offenders.[157] additionally, the above conclusions of similarity and influence apply only to the law collections themselves. the actual legal practices from the context of each code are mysterious.[158] the code of hammurabi also bears strong similarities to later mesopotamian law collections: to the casuistic middle assyrian laws and to the neo babylonian laws,[159] whose format is largely relative ("a man who ..."). it is easier to posit direct influence for these later collections, given the code's survival through the scribal curriculum.[23] lastly, although influence is more difficult to trace, there is evidence that the hittite laws may have been part of the same tradition of legal writing outside mesopotamia proper.[160] the relationship of the code of hammurabi to the mosaic law, specifically the covenant code of exodus 20:22 23:19, has been a subject of discussion since its discovery.[46] friedrich delitzsch argued the case for strong influence in a 1902 lecture, in one episode of the "babel und bibel" ("babel and bible", or "panbabylonism") debate on the influence of ancient mesopotamian cultures on ancient israel. however, he was met with strong resistance.[161] there was cultural contact between mesopotamia and the levant, and middle bronze age tablets of casuistic cuneiform law have been found at hazor.[162] there are also similarities between the code of hamurabi and the covenant code: in the casuistic format, in principles such as lex talionis ("eye for an eye"), and in the content of the provisions. some similarities are striking, such as in the provisions concerning a man goring ox (code of hammurabi laws 250 252,[85] exodus 21:28 32).[163] certain writers have posited direct influence: david p. wright, for example, asserts that the covenant code is "directly, primarily, and throughout dependent upon the laws of hammurabi", "a creative rewriting of mesopotamian sources ... to be viewed as an academic abstraction rather than a digest of laws".[164] others[who?] posit indirect influence, such as via aramaic or phoenician intermediaries.[165] the consensus, however, is that the similarities are a result of inheriting common traditions.[166] in 1916, george a. barton cited "a similarity of antecedents and of general intellectual outlook".[167] more recently, david winton thomas has stated: "there is no ground for assuming any direct borrowing by the hebrew from the babylonian. even where the two sets of laws differ little in the letter, they differ much in the spirit".[168] the influence of the code of hammurabi on later law collections is difficult to establish. marc van de mieroop suggests that it may have influenced the greek gortyn code and the roman twelve tables.[169] however, even van de mieroop acknowledges that most roman law is not similar to the code, or likely to have been influenced by it.[170] knowing the code's influence on modern law requires knowing its influence on mosaic and graeco roman law. since this is contentious, commentators have restricted themselves to observing similarities and differences between the code and, e.g., united states law and medieval law.[171] some[who?] have remarked that the punishments found in the code are no more severe, and, in some cases, less so.[172][needs update] law 238 stipulates that a sea captain, ship manager, or ship charterer that saved a ship from total loss was only required to pay one half the value of the ship to the ship owner.[173][174][175] in the digesta seu pandectae (533), the second volume of the codification of laws ordered by justinian i (527 565) of the eastern roman empire, a legal opinion written by the roman jurist paulus at the beginning of the crisis of the third century in 235 ad was included about the lex rhodia ("rhodian law") that articulates the general average principle of marine insurance established on the island of rhodes in approximately 1000 to 800 bc as a member of the doric hexapolis, plausibly by the phoenicians during the proposed dorian invasion and emergence of the purported sea peoples during the greek dark ages (c. 1100   c. 750) that led to the proliferation of the doric greek dialect.[176][177][178] the law of general average constitutes the fundamental principle that underlies all insurance.[177][better source needed] the code is often referred to in legal scholarship, where its provisions are assumed to be laws, and the document is assumed to be a true code of laws. this is also true outside academia.[179][original research?] there is a relief portrait of hammurabi over the doors to the house chamber of the u.s. capitol, along with portraits of 22 others "noted for their work in establishing the principles that underlie american law".[180] there are replicas of the louvre stele in institutions around the world,[citation needed] including the headquarters of the united nations in new york city[181] and the peace palace in the hague (seat of the international court of justice).[182] hammurabi's code is notable for its comprehensive approach to law, covering subjects from criminal acts to medical practices. the code includes specific rules that regulate medical treatments, set surgery fees, and punish malpractice. for instance, if a physician caused the death of a noble during surgery, they would be severely punished, sometimes having their hand cut off. this harshness portrays how seriously medical responsibility was taken even in ancient times. from a political science perspective, hammurabi's code is valuable and fundamental because it demonstrates how law was used to reinforce social hierarchies and maintain control. pearn (2016) writes that the code's laws were applied differently depending on a person's social class, so nobles received greater protection than commoners and enslaved people. this legal stratification reflects the power dynamic of babylonian society and shows how law was used not just to govern but also to preserve the social order.[183] finally, the hammurabi's code could be considered impressive by its power (despite its modern irrelevancy) and severity. the harsh punishments may seem extreme by modern standards, but they were likely necessary to maintain order in a society where survival depended on strict adherence to rules. at the same time, hammurabi's code represents a significant step forward in the development of law, medicine and the medico legal system. by codifying laws and making them public, hammurabi established a system that would influence generations so that the principles of justice, fairness, and accountability that underpin the code continue to resonate today.

heraclitus (/ˌhɛrəˈklaɪtəs/; ancient greek: ἡράκλειτος hērákleitos; fl. c. 500 bc) was an ancient greek pre socratic philosopher from the city of ephesus, which was then part of the persian empire. he exerts a wide influence on ancient and modern western philosophy, through the works of such authors as plato, aristotle, hegel, marx and heidegger. little is known of heraclitus's life. he wrote a single work, only fragments of which have survived. even in ancient times, his paradoxical philosophy, appreciation for wordplay, and cryptic, oracular epigrams earned him the epithets "the dark" and "the obscure". he was considered arrogant and depressed, a misanthrope who was subject to melancholia. consequently, he became known as "the weeping philosopher" in contrast to the ancient atomist philosopher democritus, who was known as "the laughing philosopher". the central ideas of heraclitus's philosophy are the unity of opposites and the concept of change. heraclitus saw harmony and justice in strife. he viewed the world as constantly in flux, always "becoming" but never "being". he expressed this in sayings like "everything flows" (greek: πάντα ρει, panta rhei) and "no man ever steps in the same river twice". this insistence upon change contrasts with that of the ancient philosopher parmenides, who believed in a reality of static "being". heraclitus believed fire was the arche, the fundamental stuff of the world. in choosing an arche heraclitus followed the milesians before him   thales with water, anaximander with apeiron (lit. boundless or infinite), and anaximenes with air. heraclitus also thought the logos (lit. word, discourse, or reason) gave structure to the world. heraclitus, the son of blyson, was from the ionian city of ephesus, a port on the cayster river, on the western coast of asia minor (modern day turkey). in the 6th century bc, ephesus, like other cities in ionia, lived under the effects of both the rise of lydia under croesus and his overthrow by cyrus the great c. 547 bc.[1] ephesus appears to have subsequently cultivated a close relationship with the persian empire; during the suppression of the ionian revolt by darius the great in 494 bc, ephesus was spared and emerged as the dominant greek city in ionia.[1] miletus, the home to the previous philosophers, was captured and sacked.[2] the main source for the life of heraclitus is the doxographer diogenes laërtius.[a] although most of the information provided by laertius is unreliable, and the ancient stories about heraclitus are thought to be later fabrications based on interpretations of the preserved fragments; the anecdote that heraclitus relinquished the hereditary title of "king" to his younger brother may at least imply that heraclitus was from an aristocratic family in ephesus.[1][note 1] heraclitus appears to have had little sympathy for democracy or the masses.[d][e] however, it is unclear whether he was "an unconditional partisan of the rich", or if, like the sage solon, he was "withdrawn from competing factions".[1] since antiquity, heraclitus has been labeled a solitary figure and an arrogant misanthrope.[5][a] the skeptic timon of phlius called heraclitus a "mob abuser" (ochloloidoros).[a] heraclitus considered himself self taught.[f] he criticized fools for being "put in a flutter by every word".[g] he did not consider others incapable, but unwilling: "and though reason is common, most people live as though they had an understanding peculiar to themselves."[h] heraclitus did not seem to like the prevailing religion of the time, criticizing the popular mystery cults, blood sacrifice, and prayer to statues.[6][i][j][k][note 2] he also did not believe in funeral rites, saying "corpses are more fit to be cast out than dung."[9][l] he further criticized homer,[m][n] hesiod,[o] pythagoras,[p] xenophanes, and hecataeus.[a][q] he endorsed the sage bias of priene, who is quoted as saying "most men are bad".[r] he praised a man named hermodorus as the best among the ephesians, who he says should all kill themselves for exiling him.[s][t][note 3] heraclitus is traditionally considered to have flourished in the 69th olympiad (504 501 bc),[11][a] but this date may simply be based on a prior account synchronizing his life with the reign of darius the great.[1][note 4] however, this date can be considered "roughly accurate" based on a fragment that references pythagoras, xenophanes, and hecataeus as older contemporaries, placing him near the end of the sixth century bc.[1][13][14] according to diogenes laertius, heraclitus died covered in dung after failing to cure himself from dropsy. this may be to parody his doctrine that for souls it is death to become water, and that a dry soul is best.[15][16][u][v][w] heraclitus is said to have produced a single work on papyrus,[a] which has not survived; however, over 100 fragments of this work survive in quotations by other authors.[note 5] the title is unknown,[19] but many later writers refer to this work, and works by other pre socratics, as on nature.[20][21][a] according to diogenes laërtius, heraclitus deposited the book in the artemision   one of the seven wonders of the ancient world   as a dedication.[a] classicist charles kahn states: "down to the time of plutarch and clement, if not later, the little book of heraclitus was available in its original form to any reader who chose to seek it out."[22] yet, by the time of simplicius of cilicia, a 6th century neoplatonic philosopher, who mentions heraclitus 32 times but never quotes from him, heraclitus's work was so rare that it was unavailable even to simplicius and the other scholars at the platonic academy in athens.[23] diogenes laërtius wrote that the book was divided into three parts: the universe, politics, and theology,[a] but, classicists have challenged that division. classicist john burnet has argued that "it is not to be supposed that this division is due to [heraclitus] himself; all we can infer is that the work fell naturally into these parts when the stoic commentators took their editions of it in hand".[24] the stoics divided their own philosophy into three parts: ethics, logic, and physics.[25] the stoic cleanthes further divided philosophy into dialectics, rhetoric, ethics, politics, physics, and theology, and philologist karl deichgräber has argued the last three are the same as the alleged division of heraclitus.[26] the philosopher paul schuster has argued the division came from the pinakes.[27][28] scholar martin litchfield west claims that while the existing fragments do not give much of an idea of the overall structure,[29] the beginning of the discourse can probably be determined,[note 6] starting with the opening lines, which are quoted by sextus empiricus: of the logos being forever do men prove to be uncomprehending, both before they hear and once they have heard it. for although all things happen according to this logos they are like the unexperienced experiencing words and deeds such as i explain when i distinguish each thing according to its nature and declare how it is. other men are unaware of what they do when they are awake just as they are forgetful of what they do when they are asleep.[x] heraclitus's style has been compared to a sibyl,[3][30][31] who "with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her".[y][note 7] kahn characterized the main features of heraclitus's writing as "linguistic density", meaning that single words and phrases have multiple meanings, and "resonance", meaning that expressions evoke one another.[33] heraclitus used literary devices like alliteration and chiasmus.[34] aristotle quotes part of the opening line of heraclitus's work in the rhetoric to outline the difficulty in punctuating heraclitus without ambiguity; he debated whether "forever" applied to "being" or to "prove".[34][z] aristotle's successor at the lyceum theophrastus says about heraclitus that "some parts of his work [are] half finished, while other parts [made] a strange medley".[a] theophrastus thought an inability to finish the work showed heraclitus was melancholic.[a] diogenes laërtius relays the story that the playwright euripides gave socrates a copy of heraclitus's work and asked for his opinion. socrates replied: "the part i understand is excellent, and so too is, i dare say, the part i do not understand; but it needs a delian diver to get to the bottom of it."[35] also according to diogenes laërtius, timon of phlius called heraclitus "the riddler" (αἰνικτής; ainiktēs) a likely reference to an alleged similarity to pythagorean riddles.[36] timon said heraclitus wrote his book "rather unclearly" (ασαφεστερον; asaphesteron); according to timon, this was intended to allow only the "capable" to attempt it.[a] by the time of cicero, this epithet became in greek "the dark" (ὁ σκοτεινός; ho skoteinós) or in latin "the obscure" as he had spoken nimis obscurē ("too obscurely") concerning nature and had done so deliberately in order to be misunderstood.[37][38] the obscurity was "probably with the idea that it is for us to seek within ourselves, as he sought for himself and found".[39][f] heraclitus seemed to pattern his obscurity after oracles.[40] heraclitus did state "nature loves to hide"[aa] and "a hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one".[ab] he also stated "the lord whose oracle is in delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but gives a sign."[41][ac] heraclitus is the earliest known literary reference to the delphic maxim to know thyself.[42][ad] heraclitus has been the subject of numerous interpretations. according to scholar daniel w. graham, heraclitus has been seen as a "material monist or a process philosopher; a scientific cosmologist, a metaphysician and a religious thinker; an empiricist, a rationalist, a mystic; a conventional thinker and a revolutionary; a developer of logic   one who denied the law of non contradiction; the first genuine philosopher and an anti intellectual obscurantist".[43] the hallmarks of heraclitus's philosophy are the unity of opposites and change, or flux.[44][45] according to aristotle, heraclitus was a dialetheist, or one who denies the law of noncontradiction (a law of thought or logical principle which states that something cannot be true and false at the same time).[46][47][ae] also according to aristotle, heraclitus was a materialist.[48] attempting to follow aristotle's hylomorphic interpretation, scholar w. k. c. guthrie interprets the distinction between flux and stability as one between matter and form. on this view, heraclitus is a flux theorist because he is a materialist who believes matter always changes.[49] there are no unchanging forms like with plato or aristotle. as one author puts it, "plato took flux as the greatest warning against materialism".[50] several fragments seem to relate to the unity of opposites.[45] for example: "the straight and the crooked path of the fuller's comb is one and the same";[af] "the way up is the way down";[ag] "beginning and end, on a circle's circumference, are common";[ah] and "thou shouldst unite things whole and things not whole, that which tends to unite and that which tends to separate, the harmonious and the discordant; from all things arises the one, and from the one all things."[ai] over time, the opposites change into each other:[51][52] "mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others' death and dying the others' life";[aj] "as the same thing in us is living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old. for these things having changed around are those, and those in turn having changed around are these";[ak] and "cold things warm up, the hot cools off, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet."[al] it also seems they change into each other depending on one's point of view, a case of relativism or perspectivism.[53][54] heraclitus states: "disease makes health sweet and good; hunger, satiety; toil, rest."[am] while men drink and wash with water, fish prefer to drink saltwater, pigs prefer to wash in mud, and fowls prefer to wash in dust.[an][ao][ap] "oxen are happy when they find bitter vetches to eat"[aq] and "asses would rather have refuse than gold."[ar] diogenes laërtius summarizes heraclitus's philosophy as follows: "all things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things (τὰ ὅλα ta hola ('the whole')) flows like a stream."[a] classicist jonathan barnes states that "panta rhei, 'everything flows' is probably the most familiar of heraclitus's sayings, yet few modern scholars think he said it".[55] barnes observes that although the exact phrase was not ascribed to heraclitus until the 6th century by simplicius, a similar saying expressing the same idea,[55] panta chorei, or "everything moves" is ascribed to heraclitus by plato in the cratylus.[as] since plato, heraclitus's theory of flux has been associated with the metaphor of a flowing river, which cannot be stepped into twice.[56][as] this fragment from heraclitus's writings has survived in three different forms:[55] the classicist karl reinhardt identified the first river quote as the genuine one.[57] the river fragments (especially the second "we both are and are not") seem to suggest not only is the river constantly changing, but we do as well, perhaps commenting on existential questions about humanity and personhood.[58] scholars such as reinhardt also interpreted the metaphor as illustrating what is stable, rather than the usual interpretation of illustrating change.[59] classicist karl martin dietz [de] has said: "you will not find anything, in which the river remains constant ... just the fact, that there is a particular river bed, that there is a source and an estuary etc. is something, that stays identical. and this is ... the concept of a river."[60] according to american philosopher w. v. o. quine, the river parable illustrates that the river is a process through time. one cannot step twice into the same river stage.[61] professor m. m. mccabe has argued that the three statements on rivers should all be read as fragments from a discourse. mccabe suggests reading them as though they arose in succession. the three fragments "could be retained, and arranged in an argumentative sequence".[17] in mccabe's reading of the fragments, heraclitus can be read as a philosopher capable of sustained argument, rather than just aphorism.[17] heraclitus said "strife is justice"[aw] and "all things take place by strife".[ax] he called the opposites in conflict ἔρις (eris), "strife", and theorized that the apparently unitary state, δίκη (dikê), "justice", results in "the most beautiful harmony",[ax] in contrast to anaximander, who described the same as injustice.[31][62][63] aristotle said heraclitus disagreed with homer because homer wished that strife would leave the world, which according to heraclitus would destroy the world; "there would be no harmony without high and low notes, and no animals without male and female, which are opposites".[ay] it may also explain why he disagreed with the pythagorean emphasis on harmony, but not on strife.[49] heraclitus suggests that the world and its various parts are kept together through the tension produced by the unity of opposites, like the string of a bow or a lyre.[64][az] on one account, this is the earliest use of the concept of force.[65] a quote about the bow shows his appreciation for wordplay: "the bow's name is life, but its work is death."[ba][note 8] each substance contains its opposite, making for a continual circular exchange of generation, destruction, and motion that results in the stability of the world.[66][67] this can be illustrated by the quote "even the kykeon separates if it is not stirred."[bb] according to abraham schoener: "war is the central principle in heraclitus' thought."[68] another of heraclitus's famous sayings highlights the idea that the unity of opposites is also a conflict of opposites: "war is father of all and king of all; and some he manifested as gods, some as men; some he made slaves, some free";[bc] war is a creative tension that brings things into existence.[66][69] heraclitus says further "gods and men honour those slain in war";[bd] "greater deaths gain greater portions";[be] and "every beast is tended by blows."[bf] a core concept for heraclitus is logos, an ancient greek word literally meaning "word, speech, discourse, or meaning". for heraclitus, the logos seems to designate the rational structure or ordered composition of the world.[70][71] as well as the opening quote of his book, one fragment reads: "listening not to me but to the logos, it is wise to agree (homologein) that all things are one."[bg] another fragment reads: "[hoi polloi] ... do not know how to listen [to logos] or how to speak [the truth]."[72][bh] the word logos has a wide variety of other uses, such that heraclitus might have a different meaning of the word for each usage in his book. kahn has argued that heraclitus used the word in multiple senses,[73] whereas guthrie has argued that there is no evidence heraclitus used it in a way that was significantly different from that in which it was used by contemporaneous speakers of greek.[74] professor michael stokes interprets heraclitus's use of logos as a public fact like a proposition or formula; like guthrie, he views heraclitus as a materialist, so he grants heraclitus would not have considered these as abstract objects or immaterial things.[62][75] another possibility is the logos referred to the truth, or to the book itself.[76][77][78] classicist walther kranz translated it as "sense".[77] heraclitus's logos doctrine may also be the origin of the doctrine of natural law.[79][80] heraclitus stated "people ought to fight to keep their law as to defend the city walls. for all human laws get nourishment from the one divine law."[bi] "far from arguing like the latter sophists, that the human law, because it is a conventional law, deserves to be abandoned in favor of the law of nature, herakleitos argued that the human law partakes of the law of nature, which is at the same time a divine law."[81] the milesians before heraclitus had a view called material monism which conceived of certain elements as the arche   thales with water, anaximander with apeiron, and anaximenes with air. since antiquity, philosophers have concluded that heraclitus construed of fire as the arche, the ultimate reality or the fundamental element that gave rise to the other elements.[82][bj][bk] pre socratic scholar eduard zeller has argued that heraclitus believed that heat in general and dry exhalation in particular, rather than visible fire, was the arche.[83] in one fragment, heraclitus writes: this world order (kosmos), the same for all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be: ever living fire, kindling in measures and being quenched in measures.[bl] this is the oldest extant quote using kosmos, or order, to mean the world.[84][85] heraclitus seems to say fire is the one thing eternal in the universe.[86] from fire all things originate and all things return again in a process of never ending cycles.[86] plato and aristotle attribute to heraclitus a periodic destruction of the world by a great conflagration, known as ekpyrosis, which happens every great year   according to plato, every 36,000 years.[87] heraclitus more than once describes the transformations to and from fire: fire lives the death of earth, and air lives the death of fire; water lives the death of air, and earth that of water.[bm] the turnings of fire: first sea, and of sea half is earth, half fireburst. [earth] is liquefied as sea and measured into the same proportion as it had before it became earth.[bn] however, it is also argued by many that heraclitus never identified fire as the arche; rather, he only used fire to explain his notion of flux, as the basic stuff which changes or moves the most.[88] others conclude he used it as the physical form of logos.[89] on yet another interpretation, heraclitus is not a material monist explicating flux nor stability, but a revolutionary process philosopher who chooses fire in an attempt to say there is no arche. fire is a symbol or metaphor for change, rather than the basic stuff which changes the most.[90] perspectives of this sort emphasize his statements on change such as "the way up is the way down",[91][ag] as well as the quote "all things are an exchange for fire, and fire for all things, even as wares for gold and gold for wares",[bo] which has been understood as stating that while all can be transformed into fire, not everything comes from fire, just as not everything comes from gold.[92] while considered an ancient cosmologist,[93] heraclitus did not seem as interested in astronomy, meteorology, or mathematics as his predecessors.[94][95] it is surmised heraclitus believed that the earth was flat and extended infinitely in all directions.[96] heraclitus held all things occur according to fate.[97][bk] he said "time (aion) is a child playing draughts, the kingly power is a child's."[b] it is disputed whether this means time and life is determined by rules like a game, by conflict like a game, or by arbitrary whims of the gods like a child plays.[98] similar to his views on rivers, heraclitus believed "the sun is new each day."[99][bp] he also said the sun never sets.[100][bq] according to bertrand russell, this was "obviously inspired by scientific reflection, and no doubt seemed to him to obviate the difficulty of understanding how the sun can work its way underground from west to east during the night".[101] the physician galen explains: "heraclitus says that the sun is a burning mass, kindled at its rising, and quenched at its setting."[102][103][104] heraclitus also believed that the sun is as large as it looks,[96][note 9] and said hesiod "did not know night and day, for they are one."[bs] however, he also explained the phenomenon of day and night by if the sun "oversteps his measures", then "erinyes, the ministers of justice, will find him out".[105][bt] heraclitus further wrote the sun is in charge of the seasons.[bu] on one account, heraclitus believed the sun and moon were bowls containing fire, with lunar phases explained by the turning of the bowl.[95][102][bv] his study of the moon near the end of the month is contained in one of the oxyrhynchus papyri, a group of manuscripts found in an ancient landfill.[106] this is the best evidence of heraclitean astronomy.[107] heraclitus said "thunderbolt steers all things",[bw] a rare comment on meteorology and likely a reference to zeus as the supreme being.[84] even his theology proves contradictory: "one being, the only wise one, would and would not be called by the name of zeus."[84][bx] he invokes relativism with the divine too: god sees man the same way man sees children and apes;[80][by][bz] and he seems to give a theodicy, "for god all things are fair and good and just, but men suppose that some are unjust and others just".[84][ca] in parts of animals, aristotle relays this story: "heraclitus, when the strangers who came to visit him found him warming himself at the furnace in the kitchen and hesitated to go in, reported to have bidden them not to be afraid to enter, as even in that kitchen divinities were present, so we should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful."[108][cb][note 10] the phrase ἦθος ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων (ethos anthropoi daimon) is attributed to heraclitus. it is variously translated as "a man's character is his fate", "character is destiny", or perhaps most literally as "a man's character is his guardian divinity."[110][111][112][note 11] the word ethos means "character", while daimon has various meanings, one of which being "the power controlling the destiny of individuals: hence, one's lot or fortune."[114] heraclitus believed the soul (psyche) was complex, stating: "the limits of the soul you could not discover, though traversing every path."[115][cc] heraclitus regarded the soul as a mixture of fire and water, and believed that fire was the noble part of the soul and water the ignoble part.[u] he considered mastery of one's worldly desires to be a noble pursuit that purified the soul's fire,[116] while drunkenness damages the soul by causing it to be moist.[cd][v][w] heraclitus seems to advise against anger: "it is hard to fight with anger, for what it wants it buys at the price of the soul."[117][ce] heraclitus associates being awake with comprehension;[42] as sextus empiricus explains "it is by drawing in this divine reason in respiration that we become endowed with mind and in sleep we become forgetful, but in waking we regain our senses. for in sleep the passages of perception are shut, and hence the mind ... the only thing preserved is the connection through breathing."[118][cf] heraclitus stated: "if all things should become smoke, then perception would be by the nostrils".[cg] heraclitus compares the soul to a spider and the body to the web.[ch] heraclitus believed the soul is what unifies the body and also what grants linguistic understanding, departing from homer's conception of it as merely the breath of life.[119][120] heraclitus ridicules homer's conception of souls in the afterlife as shades by saying "souls smell in hades".[ci][note 12] his own views on the afterlife remain unclear,[95] but heraclitus did state: "there await men after they are dead things which they do not expect or imagine."[cj] the aristotelian tradition is responsible for a great part of the transmission of heraclitus's physical conception of the soul.[121] aristotle wrote in de anima: "heraclitus too says that the first principle the 'warm exhalation' of which, according to him, everything else is composed is soul; further, that this exhalation is most incorporeal and in ceaseless flux".[ck] heraclitus's originality and placement near the beginning of greek philosophy has resulted in several writers looking for possible influence from the surrounding nations. the persian empire had a close connection with ephesus and zoroastrianism was the state religion of the persian empire. heraclitus's emphasis on fire has been investigated for influence from zoroastrian fire worship and specifically the concept of atar.[122] while many of the doctrines of zoroastrian fire do not match exactly with those of heraclitus, such as the relation of fire to earth, it is still argued he may have taken some inspiration from them.[122] zoroastrian parallels to heraclitus are often difficult to identify specifically due to a lack of surviving zoroastrian literature from the period and mutual influence with greek philosophy.[note 13] the interchange of other elements with fire also has parallels in vedic literature from the same time period, such as the upanishads.[123] the taittiriya upanishad for instance states "fire is established in water, water is established in fire".[124] heraclitus may have also been influenced by a vedic meditation known as the "doctrine of the five fires."[125] west however stresses that these doctrines of the interchange of elements were common throughout written works on philosophy that have survived from that period; so heraclitus's doctrine of fire can not be definitively said to have been influenced by any other particular iranian or indian influence, but may have been part of a mutual interchange of influence over time across the ancient near east.[126] philosopher gustav teichmüller sought to prove heraclitus was influenced by the egyptians,[127][128] either directly, by reading the book of the dead, or indirectly through the greek mystery cults.[127] "as the sun of heraclitus was daily generated from water, so horus, as ra of the sun, daily proceeded from lotus the water."[127] paul tannery took up teichmüller's interpretation.[129] they both thought heraclitus's book was an offering to the temple to be read only by few initiates, rather than deposited in the temple to the public for safe keeping.[130] edmund pfleiderer argued that heraclitus was influenced by the mystery cults. he interprets heraclitus's apparent condemning of the mystery cults[i][j] as the condemning of abuses rather than the idea itself.[131] heraclitus's writings have exerted a wide influence on western philosophy, including the works of plato and aristotle, who interpreted him in terms of their own doctrines.[132] his influence also extends into art, literature, and even medicine, as writings in the hippocratic corpus show signs of heraclitean themes.[cl][cm] heraclitus is also considered a potential source for understanding the ancient greek religion since the discovery of the derveni papyrus, an orphic poem which contains two fragments of heraclitus.[133][134][135][br][bt] it is unknown whether or not heraclitus had any students in his lifetime.[132] diogenes laertius states heraclitus's book "won so great a fame that there arose followers of him called heracliteans."[a] scholars took this to mean heraclitus had no disciples and became renowned only after his death.[136] according to one author, "the school of disciples founded by heraclitus flourished for long after his death".[137] according to another, "there were no doubt other heracliteans whose names are now lost to us".[138] in his dialogue cratylus, plato presented cratylus as a heraclitean and as a linguistic naturalist who believed that names must apply naturally to their objects.[139][140] according to aristotle, cratylus went a step beyond his master's doctrine and said that one cannot step into the same river once. he took the view that nothing can be said about the ever changing world and "ended by thinking that one need not say anything, and only moved his finger".[141] to explain both characterizations by plato and aristotle, cratylus may have thought continuous change warrants skepticism because one cannot define a thing that does not have a permanent nature.[142] diogenes laertius also lists an otherwise historically obscure antisthenes who wrote a commentary on heraclitus.[note 14] the pythagorean and comic writer epicharmus of kos has fragments which seem to reproduce the thought of heraclitus, and wrote a play titled heraclitus.[143][144] parmenides of elea, a philosopher and near contemporary, proposed a doctrine of changelessness, in contrast to the doctrine of flux put forth by heraclitus.[145][146] he is generally agreed to either have influenced or been influenced by heraclitus.[132][146] different philosophers have argued that either one of them may have substantially influenced each other, some taking heraclitus to be responding to parmenides, but more often parmenides is seen as responding to heraclitus.[146][147] some also argue that any direct chain of influence between the two is impossible to determine.[146] although heraclitus refers to older figures such as pythagoras,[a][q] neither parmenides or heraclitus refer to each other by name in any surviving fragments, so any speculation on influence must be based on interpretation.[146] the surviving fragments of several other pre socratic philosophers show heraclitean themes.[132] diogenes of apollonia thought the action of one thing on another meant they were made of one substance.[80] the pluralists may have been influenced by heraclitus. the philosopher anaxagoras refuses to separate the opposites in the "one cosmos".[80] empedocles has forces (arguably the first since heraclitus's tension)[65] which are in opposition, known as love and hate, or more accurately, harmony and strife.[80] democritus and the atomists were also influenced by heraclitus.[132] the atomists and heraclitus both believed that everything was in motion.[148][149][as] on one interpretation: "essentially what the atomists did was try to find a middle way between the contradictory philosophical schemes of heraclitus and parmenides."[150] the sophists, including protagoras of abdera and gorgias of leontini, may also have been influenced by heraclitus. sophists in general seemed to share heraclitus's conception of the logos.[70] one tradition associated the sophists' concern with politics and preventing party strife with heraclitus.[151][152] heraclitus and others used "measure" to mean the balance and order of nature; hence protagoras' famous statement "man is the measure of all things".[153] in plato's dialogue theaetetus, socrates sees protagoras's "man is the measure" doctrine and theaetetus' hypothesis that "knowledge is perception" as justified by heraclitean flux.[154] gorgias seems to have been influenced by the logos, when he argued in his work on non being, possibly parodying the eleatics, that being cannot exist or be communicated. according to one author, gorgias "in a sense ... completes heraclitus."[151] plato knew of the teachings of heraclitus through the heraclitean philosopher cratylus.[141] plato held that for heraclitus knowledge is made impossible by the flux of sensible objects, and thus the need for the imperceptible forms as objects of knowledge.[48][155] scythinus of teos, a contemporary of plato, wrote out heraclitus's philosophy in verse.[156][157][cn] a four volume work on heraclitus was written by the academic heraclides ponticus, but has not survived.[158] plutarch also wrote a lost treatise on heraclitus.[159] the neoplatonists were influenced by heraclitus on the topic of the one; quoting plotinus "heraclitus, with his sense of bodily forms as things of ceaseless process and passage, knows the one as eternal and intellectual."[160][161] aristotle accused heraclitus of denying the law of noncontradiction, and charges that he thereby failed in his reasoning.[ae] however, aristotle's material monist and world conflagration (ekpyrosis) interpretation of heraclitus influenced the stoics.[87][80][162] the stoics believed major tenets of their philosophy derived from the thought of heraclitus; especially the logos, used to support their belief that rational law governs the universe.[163][164] scholar a. a. long concludes the earliest stoic fragments are "modifications of heraclitus".[165] according to philosopher philip hallie, "heraclitus of ephesus was the father of stoic physics."[166] a four volume work titled interpretation of heraclitus was written by the stoic philosopher cleanthes, but has not survived.[132][167][a] in surviving stoic writings, heraclitean influence is most evident in the writings of marcus aurelius.[168] marcus aurelius understood the logos as "the account which governs everything".[169][co] heraclitus also states, "we should not act and speak like children of our parents", which marcus aurelius interpreted to mean one should not simply accept what others believe.[170][cp] many of the later stoics interpreted the logos as the arche, as a creative fire that ran through all things;[171] west observes that plato, aristotle, theophrastus, and sextus empiricus all make no mention of this doctrine, and concludes that the language and thought are "obviously stoic" and not attributable to heraclitus.[172] burnet cautions that these stoic modifications of heraclitus make it harder to interpret heraclitus himself, as the stoics ascribed their own interpretations of terms like logos and ekpyrosis to heraclitus.[173] the cynics were influenced by heraclitus, such as by his condemnation of the mystery cults.[26][174][j] heraclitus is sometimes even depicted as a cynic. the cynics attributed several of the later cynic epistles to his authorship.[7] according to one source, "the cynic affinity with heraclitus lies not so much in his philosophy as in his cultural criticism and (idealised) lifestyle."[175] heraclitus wrote: "dogs bark at every one they do not know."[cq] similarly, diogenes the cynic, when asked by alexander why he considered himself a dog, responded that he "barks at those who give me nothing".[176][177] the skeptical philosophers known as pyrrhonists were also influenced by heraclitus. he may be the predecessor to pyrrho's relativistic doctrine "no more this than that ", that nothing is one way rather than another way.[138] according to pyrrhonist sextus empiricus, aenesidemus, one of the major ancient pyrrhonist philosophers, claimed in a now lost work that pyrrhonism was a way to heraclitean philosophy because pyrrhonist practice helps one to see how opposites appear to be the case about the same thing, leading to the heraclitean view that opposites actually are true about the same thing.[178][179] sextus empiricus disagreed, arguing opposites appearing to be the case about the same thing is not a dogma of the pyrrhonists but a matter occurring to the pyrrhonists, to the other philosophers, and to all of humanity.[179] heraclitus was often read by early christian philosophers, who[180] following the stoics, interpreted the logos as meaning the christian "word of god", such as in john 1:1: "in the beginning was the word (logos) and the word was god." hippolytus of rome, one of the early church fathers of the christian church, identified heraclitus along with the other pre socratics and academics as a source of heresy, in heraclitus's case namely the heresy of noetus.[180] the christian apologist justin martyr took a more positive view of heraclitus.[181] in his first apology, he said both socrates and heraclitus were christians before christ: "those who lived reasonably are christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the greeks, socrates and heraclitus, and men like them."[182] the christian clement of alexandria notes heraclitus's similarity to the christian prophets, and is cited as a source for more heraclitus fragments than any other author.[183][184] modern scholars such as john burnet have viewed the relationship between heraclitean logos and johannine logos as fallacious, saying; "the johannine doctrine of the logos has nothing to do with herakleitos or with anything at all in greek philosophy, but comes from the hebrew wisdom literature".[19] when heraclitus speaks of "god" he does not mean a single deity as an omnipotent and omniscient or god as creator, the universe being eternal; he meant the divine as opposed to human, the immortal as opposed to the mortal, and the cyclical as opposed to the transient. thus, it is arguably more accurate to speak of "the divine" and not of "god".[185] heraclitus's influence also extends outside of philosophy. a motif found in art and literature is heraclitus as the "weeping philosopher" and democritus as the "laughing philosopher", which may have originated with the cynic philosopher menippus,[186] and generally references their reactions to the folly of mankind.[187][188][189] for example, in lucian of samosata's "philosophies for sale", heraclitus is auctioned off as the "weeping philosopher" and democritus as the "laughing philosopher".[cr] the roman poet juvenal wrote: "heraclitus, weep at life much more than you did while alive, for now life is more pitiable."[190] the renaissance saw a revived interest in ancient philosophy and its depiction in art. a fresco on the wall of marsilio ficino's platonic academy in florence depicted heraclitus and democritus.[191] donato bramante painted heraclitus and democritus (1486) as the weeping and laughing philosopher, and may have depicted heraclitus as leonardo da vinci.[192] heraclitus appears in painter raphael's school of athens (1511), in which he is represented by michelangelo, since they shared a "sour temper and bitter scorn for all rivals".[193] modern interest in early greek philosophy can be traced back to 1573, when french printer henri estienne (also known as henricus stephanus) collected a number of pre socratic fragments, including some forty of those of heraclitus, and published them in latin in poesis philosophica.[194] renaissance skeptic michel de montaigne's essay on democritus and heraclitus, in which he sided with the laughing philosopher over the weeping philosopher, was probably written soon after.[195][196][197] heraclitus also influenced french poets michel d'ambroise and etienne forcadel.[198] huguenot minister pierre du moulin wrote heraclitus, or, meditations vpon the vanity & misery of humane life in 1609.[199][200] english playwright william shakespeare may have known of heraclitus through montaigne.[201] the merchant of venice (1598) features the melancholic character of antonio, who some critics contend is modeled after heraclitus.[189] additionally, in one scene of the play portia assesses her potential suitors, and says of one county palatine: "i fear he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old".[202][203] several baroque artists such as peter paul rubens, hendrik ter brugghen, and johannes moreelse painted heraclitus and democritus. rubens' heraclitus and democritus (1603) was painted for the duke of lerma.[204] french rationalist philosopher rené descartes read montaigne and wrote in the passions of the soul that indignation can be joined by pity or derision, "so the laughter of democritus and the tears of heraclitus could have come from the same cause".[205][206] kahn suggests spinoza may have been influenced by heraclitus via the stoics.[207] according to one author "what heraclitus really meant by the common was...nothing different from what by spinoza was expressed by "sub specie aeternitatis".[208] according to german poet heinrich blücher, "if you read the whole system of spinoza, it is nothing but the changed system of heraclitus."[209] gottfried wilhelm leibniz stated in the monadology "all bodies are in a state of perpetual flux like rivers."[210][211] bishop and empiricist philosopher george berkeley claimed sir isaac newton's alchemy was influenced by heraclitus. he remarked in siris: "in plutarch we find it was the opinion of heraclitus, that the death of fire was a birth to air, and the death of air a birth to water.[bm] this opinion is also maintained by sir isaac newton."[212] scottish skeptic david hume seems to recapitulate heraclitus while discussing personal identity: "thus as the nature of a river consists in the motion and change of parts; tho' in less than four and twenty hours these be totally alter'd; this hinders not the river from continuing the same during several ages."[213][214][215] while heraclitus seems to criticize people in general, at other times he also seems to support common sense.[216] on scottish common sense philosopher thomas reid's account, heraclitus was one of the first to extol a common sense philosophy with such quotes as "and though reason is common, most people live as though they had an understanding peculiar to themselves;"[h] and "understanding is common to all".[217][cs] ever since german philosopher immanuel kant, philosophers have sometimes been divided into rationalists and empiricists.[218] heraclitus has been considered each by different scholars.[43][219] for rationalism,[220][221] philosophers cite fragments like "poor witnesses for men are the eyes and ears of those who have barbarian souls."[cf][ct] for empiricism,[222] they cite fragments like "the things that can be seen, heard, and learned are what i prize the most."[cu] gottlob mayer has argued that the philosophical pessimism of arthur schopenhauer recapitulated the thought of heraclitus.[223][224] the impression of heraclitus on german idealist g. w. f. hegel was so profound that he remarked in his lectures on the history of philosophy: "there is no proposition of heraclitus which i have not adopted in my logic."[225] hegel interpreted heraclitus as a dialetheist and as a process philosopher, seeing the flux or "becoming" in heraclitus as a natural result of the ontology of "being" and "non being" in parmenides.[132] he also doubted the world conflagration (ekpyrosis) interpretation, which had been popular since aristotle.[84] the german theologian friedrich schleiermacher was one of the first to collect the fragments of heraclitus specifically and write them out in his native tongue, the "pioneer of heraclitean studies".[226][227][228] schleiermacher was also one of the first to posit persian influence upon heraclitus, a question taken up by succeeding scholars friedrich creuzer and august gladisch.[180][227] the young hegelian and socialist ferdinand lassalle wrote a book on heraclitus.[229] "lassalle follows hegel in styling the doctrine of heraclitus 'the philosophy of the logical law of the identity of contradictories."[180][230] lassalle also thought persian theology influenced heraclitus.[128][220][231] fellow young hegelian karl marx compared lasalle's work to that of "a schoolboy"[232] and vladimir lenin accused him of "sheer plagiarism".[231] classical philologist jakob bernays also wrote a work on heraclitus.[180] inspired by bernays, the english scholar ingram bywater collected all fragments of heraclitus in a critical edition, heracliti ephesii reliquiae (1877).[233] an english translation was provided by g. t. w. patrick in 1889.[20] hermann diels wrote "bywater's book has come to be accounted ... as the only reliable collection of the remains of that philosopher."[233] diels published the first edition of the authoritative die fragmente der vorsokratiker (the fragments of the pre socratics) in 1903, later revised and expanded three times, and finally revised in two subsequent editions by walther kranz. diels kranz is used in academia to cite pre socratic philosophers. in diels kranz, each ancient personality and each passage is assigned a number to uniquely identify it; heraclitus is traditionally catalogued as philosopher number 22.[234] the continental existentialist and classical philologist friedrich nietzsche preferred heraclitus above all the other pre socratics.[31][235][236] nietzsche saw the philosophers before plato as "pure types" and heraclitus as the proud, lonely truth finder.[237][238] the nationalist philosopher of history oswald spengler wrote his (failed) dissertation on heraclitus.[239][240] phenomenologist edmund husserl wrote that consciousness is "the realm of heraclitean flux."[241] existentialist and phenomenologist martin heidegger was also influenced by heraclitus, as seen in his introduction to metaphysics. heidegger believed that the thinking of heraclitus and parmenides was the origin of philosophy and misunderstood by plato and aristotle, leading all of western philosophy astray.[242][243] french philosophers jacques derrida and gilles deleuze's "differential ontology" is influenced by heraclitus.[244][245] according to deleuze, michel foucault was a heraclitean.[246][247] the idea that war produces order through strife is similar to foucault's notion that power is a force dispersed through social relations.[248] in the 1950s, a term originating with heraclitus, "idios kosmos", meaning "private world" as distinguished from the "common world" (koinos kosmos) was adopted by phenomenological and existential psychologists, such as ludwig binswanger and rollo may, to refer to the experience of people with delusions.[249] it was an important part of novelist philip k. dick's views on schizophrenia.[250] those thinkers have relied on heraclitus's statement that "the waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own."[cv] the irish author and classicist oscar wilde was influenced by art critic walter pater, a friend of bywater's whose "pre socratic hero" was heraclitus.[251][252][253] harold bloom noted that "pater praises plato for classic correctness, for a conservative centripetal impulse, against his [pater's] own heraclitean romanticism."[254] wilde is credited with the saying "expect the unexpected", though heraclitus said "if you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out and difficult."[255][cw] the british process philosopher a. n. whitehead has been identified as a representative of the tradition of heraclitus.[256][257][258] in bertrand russell's essay mysticism and logic, he contends heraclitus proves himself a metaphysician by his blending of mystical and scientific impulses.[101] scholar edward hussey sees parallels between heraclitus, the logos, and the early ludwig wittgenstein's linguistic philosophy in the tractatus (1922).[259] wittgenstein was known to read plato[260] and in his return to philosophy in 1929 he made several remarks resembling those of heraclitus: "the fundamental thing expressed grammatically: what about the sentence: one cannot step into the same river twice?"[261] he then seemed to make a dramatic shift by 1931, saying one can step twice into the same river.[262] wittgenstein also uses a river image in on certainty (1950) to say even the river bed may change as foundational logical principles might: "the mythology may change back into a state of flux, the river bed of thoughts may shift ... and the bank of that river consists partly of hard rock, subject to no alteration or only to an imperceptible one, partly of sand, which now in one place now in another gets washed away or deposited."[263][264] aristotle's arguments for the law of non contradiction, which he saw as refuting the position started by heraclitus,[265] used to be considered authoritative, but have been in doubt ever since their criticism by polish logician jan łukasiewicz, and the invention of many valued and paraconsistent logics.[266][267] some philosophers such as graham priest and jc beall follow heraclitus in advocating true contradictions or dialetheism,[47] seeing it as the most natural response to the liar paradox.[268][269][270][note 15] jc beall, together with greg restall, is a pioneer of a widely discussed version of logical pluralism.[272] beall argues for a contradictory account of jesus christ as both man and divine.[273] the philosopher peter geach was inspired by heraclitus's comments on the river to formulate his idea of relative identity,[274][275] which he used to defend the coherence of the trinity.[276][277] the british idealist j. m. e. mctaggart is best known for his paper "the unreality of time" (1908), in which he argues that time is unreal. what he calls the "a theory", also known as "temporal becoming", and closely related to presentism, which conceptualizes of time as tensed (i.e., having the properties of being past, present, or future), is a view which has been seen as beginning with heraclitus.[278][279][280] by contrast, his " "b theory", under which time is tenseless (i.e., earlier than, simultaneous to, or later than), has similarly been seen as beginning with parmenides.[281][282][283] this article uses the diels kranz numbering system from die fragmente der vorsokratiker (the fragments of the pre socratics) for testimony (labeled a), fragments (labeled b), and imitation (labeled c).

in this section, find out everything you need to know about visiting the australian museum, how to get here and the extraordinary exhibitions on display. check out the what's on calendar of events, workshops and school holiday programs. in this section, there's a wealth of information about our collections of scientific specimens and cultural objects. come and explore what our researchers, curators and education programs have to offer. in this section, explore all the different ways you can be a part of the museum's groundbreaking research, as well as come face to face with our dedicated staff. join us, volunteer and be a part of our journey of discovery! all people living today belong to the species homo sapiens. we evolved only relatively recently but with complex culture and technology have been able to spread throughout the world and occupy a range of different environments. 300,000 years ago to present: the name we selected for ourselves means ‘wise human’. homo is the latin word for ‘human’ or ‘man’ and sapiens is derived from a latin word that means ‘wise’ or ‘astute’. various names have been used for our species including: uncover the secrets of the australian museum with our monthly emails. fossils of the earliest members of our species, archaic homo sapiens, have all been found in africa. fossils of modern homo sapiens have been found in africa and in many other sites across much of the world. sites older than 150k include florisbad, omo kibish, ngaloba and herto. sites dating to about 100k include klasies river mouth, border cave, skhul and qafzeh. sites younger than 40k include dolni vestonice, cro magnon, aurignac and lake mungo. homo sapiens evolved in africa from homo heidelbergensis. they co existed for a long time in europe and the middle east with the neanderthals, and possibly with homo erectus in asia and homo floresiensis in indonesia, but are now the only surviving human species. for information on modern humans interbreeding with other human species see: when and where did our species originate? african fossils provide the best evidence for the evolutionary transition from homo heidelbergensis to archaic homo sapiens and then to early modern homo sapiens. there is, however, some difficulty in placing many of the transitional specimens into a particular species because they have a mixture of intermediate features which are especially apparent in the sizes and shapes of the forehead, brow ridge and face. some suggest the name homo helmei for these intermediate specimens that represent populations on the brink of becoming modern. late surviving populations of archaic homo sapiens and homo heidelbergensis lived alongside early modern homo sapiens before disappearing from the fossil record by about 100,000 years ago. key specimens that reveal an evolutionary transition from archaic to modern homo sapiens include florisbad cranium, lh18 from laetoli, omo 1 and 2 from omo kibish, herto skull from ethiopia and skhul 5 from israel. homo sapiens skulls have a distinctive shape that differentiates them from earlier human species. their body shape tends to vary, however, due to adaptation to a wide range of environments. the earliest homo sapiens had a relatively simple culture, although it was more advanced than any previous species. rare evidence for symbolic behaviour appears at a number of african sites about 100,000 years ago, but these artistic expressions appear more of a flicker of creativity than a sustained expression. it is not until about 40,000 years ago that complex and highly innovative cultures appear and include behaviour that we would recognise as typical of modern humans today. many researchers believe this explosion of artistic material in the archaeological record about 40,000 years ago is due to a change in human cognition   perhaps humans developed a greater ability to think and communicate symbolically or memorise better. however, as there are obvious attempts at art before this, perhaps there are other reasons. one theory is that population size and structure play a key role as social learning is considered more beneficial to developing complex culture than individual innovations are. bigger populations often accumulate more cultural attributes than isolated groups. initially, homo sapiens made stone tools such as flakes, scrapers and points that were similar in design to those made by the neanderthals (homo neanderthalensis). this technology appeared about 250,000 years ago, coinciding with the probable first appearance of early homo sapiens. it required an ability for abstract thought to mentally plan a series of steps that could then be executed. only a small number of tools were produced from each core (the original stone selected for shaping) but the tools produced by this prepared core method maximised the cutting edge available. historically, archaeologists used different terminologies for lower palaeolithic cultures in different parts of the world. many of these terms are now consolidated within the mode 3 technology to emphasise the similarities between these technologies. as more sophisticated techniques developed in some parts of the world, this early mode 3 technology was replaced by either mode 4 or mode 5 technology and the use of a wider range of materials including bone, ivory and antler. mode 4 technology first appeared in africa about 100,000 years ago. it is characterised by the production of long, thin stone flakes that were shaped into long blade knives, spearheads and other tools. mode 5 technology specialised in the production of very small blades (microliths) that were often used in composite tools having several parts. these tools included small headed arrows, barbed spears and sickles. regional variation in these tool cultures developed with an influx of new styles and techniques especially within the last 40,000 years, including the magdalenian and aurignacian. sophisticated control of fire, including complex hearths, pits and kilns, allowed homo sapiens to survive in regions that even the cold adapted neanderthals had been unable to inhabit. the cro magnon site at dolni vestonice in the czech republic produced the earliest evidence for high temperature kilns and ceramic technology. the kilns, dated at 26,000 years old, were capable of firing clay figurines at temperatures over 400 degrees celsius. about 2000 fired lumps of clay were found scattered around the kiln. animal hide clothing may have been worn in cooler areas, although direct evidence of clothing only exists for the last 30,000 years. this evidence includes specialised tools such as needles; adornments such as buttons and beads sewn onto clothing; and the remains of animals, such as arctic foxes and wolves, that indicate they were trapped for their fur. clothes that were sewn provided better protection from the cold than clothes that were merely tied together. fibres from flax plants were discovered in a cave in georgia in 2009, dating to about 36,000 years old. the flax was most likely used to make clothes and woven baskets, and a small number appear to be dyed. they are the oldest example of their kind ever found. textile impressions have been discovered at other european sites have, but no actual remains. items of personal adornment not sewn onto clothing include ivory, shell, amber, bone and tooth beads and pendants. ostrich eggshell beads that date from about 45,000 years ago have been found in africa, as well as pierced shell beads in morocco dating to 80,000 years ago and marine shell beads from israel dating to 90,000 years old, but body adornment only become prolific from about 35,000 years ago. one of the earliest known pendants is a horse carved in mammoth ivory from vogelherd, germany. it is dated at 32,000 years old. body adornments like this are evidence that humans had progressed from merely trying to survive and were now concerned with their appearance. cave art began to be produced about 40,000 years ago in europe and australia. most of the art depicts animals or probable spiritual beings, but smaller marks in many caves in france, and possibly others in europe, are now being analysed as they may be a written 'code' familiar to many prehistoric tribes. in particular, 26 symbols appear over and over again across thousand of years, some of them in pairs and groups in what could be a rudimentary 'language'. these suggest that early europeans were attempting to represent ideas symbolically rather than realistically and share information acorss generations. the oldest of these symbols date to about 30,000 years old. evidence of musical instruments first appeared about 32,000 years ago in europe. palaeolithic bone flutes and whistles from various sites in france range in age from 30,000 to 10,000 years old. portable artwork, such as carved statuettes, first appeared about 35 40,000 years ago in europe. venus figurines were widespread in europe by 28,000 years ago. fragments from germany found in 2009, suggest their origins started at least 35,000 years ago. an ivory female head with bun from dolni vestonice, czech republic, is one of only 2 human head carvings from this period that show eye sockets, eyelids and eyeballs. it is dated at 26,000 years old. red ochre pieces from blombos cave in south africa, dating to about 100 80,000 years ago, show evidence of engraving that may be an expression of art or simply incidental marking made during other activities. however, other signs of possible symbolic behaviour, including shell beads and sophisticated tools (known as still bay points) have also come from this site, strengthening the case for early artistic expression. early homo sapiens often inhabited caves or rock shelters if these were available. more recently, especially within the last 20,000 years, natural shelters were enhanced with walls or other simple modifications. in open areas, shelters were constructed using a range of framework materials including wooden poles and the bones of large animals, such as mammoths. these structures were probably covered with animal hides and the living areas included fire hearths. living sites were much larger than those occupied by earlier humans and a comparison with modern traditional peoples suggests that clans consisted of between 25 and 100 members. burials were infrequent and very simple prior to 40,000 years ago and then began to become more elaborate with the inclusion of valued objects such as tools and body adornments. red ochre was sprinkled over many of the bodies prior to burial. one of the earliest deliberate burials of a modern human comes from jebel qafzeh in israel. dating to 90,000 years old, the grave contains the bones of a young woman buried with a young child at her feet. an additional 21 skeletons were found in the same cave. early modern humans were adapted to life in the tropics but by 40,000 years ago they occupied a range of environments across the continents of africa, europe, asia and australia. within the last 20,000 years humans have also spread into the americas. today, our culture and technology allows us to live in most environments on our planet as well as some off our planet. all homo sapiens were once hunter gatherers living on wild plants and animals. it was only about 11,000 years ago that humans began to domesticate plants and animals although wild foods still remained important in the diet. our species has a wide ranging and essentially omnivorous diet. this has enabled us to utilise the food resources found in the wide variety of environments we inhabit. reconstructing the physical environment in which our ancestors lived allows us to gain a greater understanding of their day to day lives. environments on both local and broader scales are greatly affected by climate, so climate change is an important area of study in reconstructing past environments physical and genetic changes have occurred within our species and will continue to occur at a basic level as new genes evolve. however, these changes may not be as dramatic as they were in the past as the situation today does not favour the evolution of a new human species. the bones of some ancient individuals can tell us how their owners died. some individuals had diseases that can be seen from the structure of their bones or teeth. some had physical injuries that produce unique types of damage. a key specimen of the human story, its position on our family tree is highly debated. is it the oldest known hominin or should it be placed on the tree before the human line split from the line leading to chimpanzees? one of the most controversial and surprising hominin finds in a century. the genus or group paranthropus currently includes three species, p. boisei, p. robustus, and p. aethiopicus. they are collectively known as the ‘robusts’ because of their extremely large jaws and molar teeth. they are our distant ‘cousins’ rather than our direct relatives. 1912   piltdown man ‘discovered’ in england. this species is one of the best known of our ancestors. fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times. they can also reveal an amazing amount of information. fossils have, for example, helped us work out who some of our direct ancestors might be. this species name is highly debated with many considering the remains to be homo heidelbergensis. whatever species they come from, these fossils are the oldest homo found in europe. this hominin lived 2.5 million years and, although similar to other australopithecines, it displayed some surprising features. the only species in this genus, this hominin lived about 3 million years ago. however, the species name is based on a distorted and fragmented skull and many debate its validity. the australian museum respects and acknowledges the gadigal people as the first peoples and traditional custodians of the land and waterways on which the museum stands.   we pay our respect to aboriginal elders and recognise their continuous connection to country. this website may contain names, images and voices of deceased aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples. receive the latest news on events, exhibitions, science research and special offers. the australian museum respects and acknowledges the gadigal people as the first peoples and traditional custodians of the land and waterways on which the museum stands. image credit: gadigal yilimung (shield) made by uncle charles chicka madden
supported by the old practice of hiding words or symbols, or engraving letters too small to be read, has come into favor again. by victoria gomelsky in 2014, fie isolde’s future husband wrote her a 28th birthday card that, she said, was “full of dreams about all the things we were going to do.” “when i got the card,” the danish jewelry designer recalled last month during a video interview from her boutique in the sycamore neighborhood of los angeles, “my first thought was actually my fear: one day, this ink will be gone.” so in 2020, she had the words microscopically engraved on the 14 karat gold ring that she now wears on her right pinkie. “you can’t read it with the naked eye, only with a loupe,” ms. isolde said, referring to the simple magnification eyepiece used in many industries. “people see it as small black lines or etchings.”

 recent and archived work by victoria gomelsky for the new york times a capsule collection from the los angeles brand polly wales offers charms, rings and more in the shapes of four wacky creatures. by victoria gomelsky the recent “renaissance” of the classic gem has driven up demand as well as prices. by victoria gomelsky here are several bottles, produced in france, new zealand and beyond, that they would love to give or receive. by victoria gomelsky bold gold pieces are trendy, but makers worry that the steep price increases for the precious metal will soon deter demand. by victoria gomelsky recipients now feel free to speak out about the items they want, and don’t want, in their lives. by victoria gomelsky biver and chopard are among the houses participating in timeforart, a dec. 7 benefit for the swiss institute, an art institution in new york. by victoria gomelsky the type 1d model, created by the team of mark cho, naoya hida and joshua nathan shapiro, won’t even be ready until early next year. by victoria gomelsky after decades of classic round contours, geometric, brutalist and frankly fantastical forms have stolen the spotlight. by victoria gomelsky neither benjamin clymer, its founder, nor the watches of switzerland group would disclose terms, but they stressed that coverage would continue to be independent. by victoria gomelsky chanel has taken a stake in mb&f, the latest example of how customer enthusiasm for artisanal timepieces has prompted luxury groups to look for partners. by victoria gomelsky experts say that, given the rising wealth and a pending cut in customs duties, it won’t be long before the country ranks among the top export markets. by victoria gomelsky julia hackman chafé, who won followers with her jewelry posts, is moving into lifestyle. “you feel like you’re gossiping with your friend,” one fan said. by victoria gomelsky after years of art deco dominance, pieces with symbols such as flowers, insects, swallows, serpents and crescent moons have come into favor.