Category: History

  • Amara Andrew

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    Mystery Ancient Tunnel FOUND under Temple!

    This secret ancient tunnel was found 43 feet under the Earth…what was it for?! 🤔

    Transcript

    This secret tunnel was found under the Taposiris Magna, which was a temple dedicated to Osiris, the god of the dead.

    So, the tunnel that was found underneath this temple is 13 meters (~43 feet) below the surface of the earth. It’s, supposedly, 1300 meters long, which is about a mile. It’s also supposed to measure 2 meters high or about seven feet.

    The architectural style is similar to one in Greece called the Eupalinos tunnel. This tunnel actually served as an aqueduct, so this might provide context to this other tunnel that was just found.

    Apparently, there were at least 23 different earthquakes that hit Egypt between 320CE and 1303 CE. So, because of this, the temple collapsed and then part of the aqueduct underneath flooded with the Mediterranean Sea.

    What’s really cool about this tunnel is that a bunch of pottery was found along the tunnel route as well as a bunch of gold coins depicting Cleopatra VII and Alexander the Great.

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

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  • Amara Andrew

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    Ancient Egyptian Tattooed Mummies!

    While not 100% confirmed, researchers believe they know the meaning behind the tattoos of two ancient Egyptian mummies!

    Transcript

    These two ancient Egyptian mummies were found in the ancient town called Deir el-Medina, located near the Nile in Egypt.

    One had already been looted and unwrapped. While looking at the exposed skin, researchers found evidence of a tattoo. And they didn’t just find one, they found a whole set!

    They found a purification ritual and a depiction of Bes, an ancient god who protected women and children, particularly during childbirth.

    The second mummy, thankfully, was still wrapped, so researchers used infrared photography to see the body within the wrappings. And they found another tattoo!

    Her tattoo was a wedjat and she also showed Bes. There was also a zigzag line beneath these figures which likely represented a marsh.

    So, apparently, in parts of ancient Egypt, women would go give birth by the marsh because it was cooler.

    Given these context clues, it’s believed these women got these tattoos to protect them during childbirth. We should bring that back!

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

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  • Amara Andrew

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    Most EXPENSIVE private art collection ever sold!

    This has been called the most expensive private art collection ever sold and for good reason 🤯

    Transcript

    In Episode 3, I discussed the Paul G. Allen collection that was going up for auction at Christie’s in November. The estimate was that everything that was sold would all fetch $1 billion cumulatively.

    Well, the auction was split into two separate parts: November 9th and November 10th. On the 9th, it surpassed the $1 billion mark. The total total for the day was $1,506,386,000.

    So, on the second and final day of the auction, the total from that day was $115,863,500.

    For both parts of the auction, all sales totaled $1,622,249,500.

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

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  • Amara Andrew

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    Ancient underwater statues/Happy repatriation story/AI-generated art banned/How to piss off Banksy

    Ancient underwater statues/Happy repatriation story/AI-generated art banned/How to piss off Banksy

    By Amara is a weekly art and history podcast hosted by Amara Andrew. Each week, we’ll take a quick look at the goings on in the art and history world.

    This week, we’re looking at ancient underwater statues, a repatriation story with a happy ending, AI-generated art is banned from largest anime conventions in the U.S., and how to piss off Banksy.

    🎧 Subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

    MY MINIMALIST PODCAST KIT

    For links to all the tools I use to make my podcast happen, check out the post here!

    Who is Amara Andrew?

    Hi there! My name’s Amara and I’m a videographer, historian, illustrator, and creator living in Chicago.

    Read More: Ancient underwater statues/Happy repatriation story/AI-generated art banned/How to piss off Banksy

  • Amara Andrew

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    Piet Mondrian Piece has been Upside Down for over 70 years! 🙃🖼️

    Even though it’s been identified as being hung upside down, curators are hesitant to turn “New York City I” by Piet Mondrian right side up…but why? 🤔

    And, is there *actually* a right and wrong way to hang this piece?

    Transcript

    A museum curator at Germany’s Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K20 museum announced that the exhibition’s highlight piece, “New York City I,” has been displayed upside down since it was first seen in public in the 1940s.

    There are actually two versions of “New York City I.” One of them is painted and it hangs in the Pompidou in Paris. That one, apparently, is proper side up.

    The other one, though, was made of adhesive tape and is the one that’s seemingly upside down.

    The curator saw a photo of the artists’ studio taken in 1944 that showed “New York City I” on an easel in the background with the tightly grouped yellow, blue, and black stripes at the top.

    Now, knowing this, you’d think they’d turn it upright, right? It’s a little more complicated than that.

    Turning it over to the correct side up could actually damage the artwork because it’s made of adhesive tape. Turning it upside down, the gravity would, essentially, just pull it apart.

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

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  • Amara Andrew

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    Google is Releasing an AI-Generated Art App!

    Google hasn’t yet confirmed when the Wonder app will be released. I’m curious, though, if there’s a big enough need for it. Is this app actually something you would want?

    Transcript

    Within the last year, you may have heard about AI-generated art. Google just announced they’re launching a new app called Wonder to create AI-generated artwork.

    They have a few different key features in this app, so it’s going to be the same thing where you can type a prompt into their prompt area.

    Not only are they doing that, but they’re also, apparently, building cities with it’s City Dream feature. And then you can also create cartoon monsters with its Wobble feature.

    There isn’t a release date for the app yet. It was just announced. I’ll let you know as soon as I know!

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

    Read More: Google is Releasing an AI-Generated Art App!

  • Amara Andrew

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    Is AI-Generated Art Free from Copyright? 🤔

    This is going to be a very tricky copyright case because whatever’s decided will set the precedent for how content creators get paid for their work!

    Transcript

    So, within the last year, you may have heard about AI-generated art, especially with OpenAI’s platform, DALL-E.

    AI image generators scrape publicly available pictures across the web to train their algorithm. These images that are sampled are typically copyrighted works that come from a variety of websites, most namely Getty Images.

    Getty Images actually just banned AI-generated art due to these copyright issues. So, where the issue comes from is that there is no credit or compensation for content creators who make these original images.

    Like I said, Getty is banning AI-generated artwork. They’re using the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, which is a project that was just formed in February 2021 by Adobe, Sony, BBC, Microsoft, Twitter, and a bunch of other companies, in order to filter out AI-generated content.

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

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  • Amara Andrew

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    How you can buy your very own copy of the U.S. Constitution

    And, yes, I’m talking about the *actual* United States Constitution! I honestly had no idea there were this many copies! 😱

    Transcript

    On November 13th, Sotheby’s is gong to be auctioning off the U.S. Constitution. And, yes, it’s the paper document, the Constitution.

    But before you get too up in arms or if you even care, I should tell you that this is only one copy of 13 that exist. Oh, 13, spooky!

    So, there are 13 first printings of the U.S. Constitution that exist today. Originally, there were about 500 that existed.

    Last year, in November 2021, Sotheby’s actually auctioned off a separate copy of the Constitution and this one sold for $43.2 million.

    So, the copy that’s going for sale this month was last traded 125 years ago. This copy is slated to sell for $20-30 million.

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

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  • Amara Andrew

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    $77 million Museum Cover-up!

    How does a museum not have knowledge or at least footage of the people who broke over $77 million worth of priceless artifacts?!

    Transcript

    Imagine breaking about $77 million worth of stuff that isn’t yours.

    This is a really strange kind of story. Over the past 18 months, a bowl, a teacup, and a plate from the Ming and Qing dynasties were broken in 3 separate incidences at Taiwan’s National Palace Museum.

    The director of the museum has been accused of instructing the staff to cover up the incidences and to treat all paper work of these as classified. They deny covering things up. They just say it’s kind of been a “process.”

    What’s also sketchy about this, though, is that even though they’ve allegedly checked all their CCTV footage, they were unable to idenitfy who was responsible for 2 out of the three accidents.

    They were able to identify who was responsible for one incident, though!

    It was apparently a senior staff member who placed an artifact on a 3-foot high desk and it fell off of it. So, there’s one mystery solved!

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

    Read More: $77 million Museum Cover-up!

  • Amara Andrew

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    Ancient Egyptian tattoos/Secret ancient tunnel/4,000-year-old petroglyph vandals/Art spending high!

    Ancient Egyptian tattoos/Secret ancient tunnel/4,000-year-old petroglyph vandals/Art spending high!

    By Amara is a weekly art and history podcast hosted by Amara Andrew. Each week, we’ll take a quick look at the goings on in the art and history world.

    This week, we’re looking at a pair of ancient Egyptian mummies with mysterious tattoos; a secret underground ancient tunnel; 4,000-year-old petroglyphs that were vandalized; and art spending is at an all new high!

    🎧 Subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

    MY MINIMALIST PODCAST KIT

    For links to all the tools I use to make my podcast happen, check out the post here!

    Who is Amara Andrew?

    Hi there! My name’s Amara and I’m a videographer, historian, illustrator, and creator living in Chicago.

    Read More: Ancient Egyptian tattoos/Secret ancient tunnel/4,000-year-old petroglyph vandals/Art spending high!