Category: By Amara Shorts

  • Amara Andrew

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    What happens when we’ve found all the ancient things?! 🧐

    Happy Monday! Here’s something to ponder at the start of your week: do you think we’ll ever find *all* the ancient things? 🧐

    Transcript

    What happens once we’ve found all the ancient things? Can that actually happen? Will we ever run out of ancient things to find?

    Is everything, then, in museums? Is it in the trash? This is just a random thought, but it was just something I was thinking about.

    Especially when thinking about the fact that there are more people on the planet now than there have ever been. So, does this mean that the likelihood of us being able to dig up all the ancient things is higher?

    After all, nothing lasts forever.

    Read More: What happens when we’ve found all the ancient things?! 🧐

  • Amara Andrew

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    Ancient statues found preserved underwater! 🤯

    24 bronze statues were found underwater and were almost perfectly preserved. Archaeologists believe these may have been preserved for two reasons!

    Transcript

    We’re talking about two dozen beautiful bronze statues that were found underwater in Tuscany.

    What’s amazing about these statues is, not only that they were found, but that they were found very well preserved. So, archaeologists are actually crediting the 6,000 bronze, silver and gold coins that were covering these statues for preserving them.

    I’m not a chemist, so I’m not entirely sure how this works, but apparently archaeologists are crediting these coins for the preservation of these statues!

    Read More: Ancient statues found preserved underwater! 🤯

  • Amara Andrew

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    These 5 paintings just sold for over $100 million…each! 😱 🖼️

    Not only did each of these paintings sell for over $100 million each, but they were also part of an art collection that fetched almost $2 billion cumulatively!

    Transcript

    In Episode 3, I discussed the Paul G. Allen that was going up for auction at Christie’s in November.

    There were 5 paintings in this auction that brought in over $100 million per piece. These paintings were:

    • Paul Cezanne, La Montaigne Sainte-Victoire, $130,790,000
    • Vincent van Gogh, Verger avec cyprés, $117,180,000
    • Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest, $104,585,000
    • Paul Gauguin, Maternité II, $105,730,000
    • Georges Seurat, Les Poseuses ensemble (petite version), $149,000,000+

    🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

    Read More: These 5 paintings just sold for over $100 million…each! 😱 🖼️

  • 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.

    Read More: Mystery Ancient Tunnel FOUND under Temple!

  • 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.

    Read More: Ancient Egyptian Tattooed Mummies!

  • 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.

    Read More: Most EXPENSIVE private art collection ever sold!

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

    Read More: Is AI-Generated Art Free from Copyright? 🤔

  • 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.

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