Ancient Drawings Research Articles

14,000 Years Old Atlas of Heaven and Earth: Andean Panel in Inca Sun Temple of South America and Its Root in Paleolithic East Asia

New findings indicated that the Andean panel in the Inca Sun Temple was a relic of an ancient drawing now dated 13,000–15,000 years old. The drawing was an Atlas of Heaven and Earth that contained astronomy, geography, weathering, calendars, and a stratified society. The atlas was seamlessly integrated with dualistic cosmology, religion, ideology, and philosophy. The atlas contained the “Five Divine Stars” of the Sun, the Moon, Rising Venus, Setting Venus, and Polar Star Vega in 12,000 BC. Its “Four Sacred Asterisms” on the ecliptic were the southern Bird, the northern Snake/Turtle, the western Big Cat, and the eastern Dragon. Since the atlas was created, the North Pole has turned 180 degrees on the circle of precession. In the east, there were mountains, monsoon, and thunder. In the west, an easterly running river drained a lake or lagoon into the sea. The atlas had several metaphors. Examples were Genesis of Seven Days Creation, Life Cycles, Andean Cross, later Mayan Eight-Sided Cross, and Chinese Yin Yang Eight Gua. Heaven was round, Earth was square, and the stratification of mankind was a mandate of the Creator. The two calendars had 13 months and four seasons. One of them was a Sidereal calendar with 365 days a year and used Antares for the start of a year and conjunctions with the moon. The other Solar Lunar Calendar had three Leap “Back” Months for alignment with the solar circle. Fu Xi (ca 5,324 BC) composed Chinese dualistic religion presumably based on its drawing. Its contents were also found in China, Japan, Korea, Incans, Mayans, etc., and to some degree in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, India, and Egypt. Its birthplace was assumed to be Paleolithic East Asia, but its exact location was unknown.

«Красный плафон» в дальнем зале Игнатиевской пещеры: новая документация

In 1980, V.T. Petrin, S.E. Chairkin and V.N. Shirokov discovered Upper Paleolithic images in Ignatievskaya Cave. Valery Petrin's expedition was exploring the site from 1980 to 1986. Since 1995, Vladimir Shirokov has been continuously researching the cave. The final monograph by Valery Petrin was issued in Russian in 1992 and displayed only black & white photographs, contact copies and sketches of ancient drawings made with a scale grid. Later in 1997, this monograph was published overseas in French and complemented with several additional color photographs. Since 1995, shooting color negative and positive films has become more affordable. A selection of a significant number of frame-by-frame slides by V.N. Shirokov and V.E. Shchelinsky from Ignatievskaya, Kapova and Muradymovskaya 2 caves was published in Germany in 1999 as a book about Paleolithic rock art of the Southern Urals. In Russia in 2013, a monograph with color illustrations was published to tell about the decorated Southern Ural caves of the Upper Paleolithic. However, it displayed only the results of time-lapse photography. Significant sections, such as the Red Panel and the Black Panel (names given by V.T. Petrin) from the Far Hall of the cave, were copied from the sketches using a scale grid. Currently, the shortcomings of these copies can be corrected by combining time-lapse mosaic and photogrammetric surveys of the ceiling sections in Far Hall of Ignatievskaya Cave. The ‘panel’ on the ceiling should be names ‘plafond’, therefore the article suggests changing the name of the Red Panel to the Red Plafond. Graphic patterns and graphic units were counted in this location of the ceiling of the Far Hall. In total, according to the new documentation, there are 163 graphic units on the Red Plafond. In 2018 a Canon D6 camera with a Tokina 16-28/F2,8 lens was used to make photographs. The interior and drawings in the Far Hall were illuminated by LED panels that do not emit thermal radiation. Better visualization of the pictorial patterns and their color filtering was ensured with Adobe Photoshop® and ImageJ with the DStretch® plugin.

Novel Paradigms in the Cultural Heritage Digitization with Self and Custom-Built Equipment

In the field of the Cultural Heritage (CH), image-based 2D and 3D digital acquisition is today the most common technique used to create digital replicas of existing artifacts. This is carried out for many reasons, such as the following: research, analysis, preservation, conservation, communication, and valorization. These activities usually require complementary specialized equipment, tailored to specific purposes in order to achieve the desired results. This equipment is not easy-to-find on the market, it is not always affordable for museums operators; it is sometimes expensive, and it usually needs tricky customizations. However, the development in recent years of more generalized, versatile, and affordable instruments and technologies has led to new approaches, leveraging a new generation of low-cost, adaptable equipment. This paper presents custom-made equipment following this new path, designed to provide optimized results through calibrated tools alongside the software to make it work. The essay focuses specifically on the self-production of instruments for the digital reproduction of ancient drawings, manuscripts, paintings, and other museum artifacts and their transformative impact on digitization techniques. The outcomes of self and custom-built equipment specifically produced for the contexts described in this paper highlight their potential to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, facilitate scholarly research, enhance conservation efforts, and promote cultural exchange. The final goal is to propose inexpensive equipment that is easy to use (even by not specifically trained operators) and that provides remarkable quality.

НОВЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ НАСКАЛЬНОГО ИСКУССТВА НА ЗАПАДЕ ХРЕБТА ЦАГАН-ДАБАН (ЗАПАДНОЕ ЗАБАЙКАЛЬЕ)

The western spurs of the Tsagan-Daban mountain range (Western Transbaikalia), fringing the right bank of the Selenga river valley from the mouth of the Khilka to the mouth of the small river Zhirimka, are poorly studied in archaeological terms. Only in the last decade, objects of ancient rock art have become known here, most of which are difficult to access — removed from the Selenga coast, and located high above the river level, which makes it difficult to find them. All currently discovered rock carvings in this area and the immediate vicinity are painted with ocher of various shades. Many of the rock paintings are poorly preserved and are visible on the reddish surface of syenite and granite rocks in the form of indistinguishable spots, which makes their simple visual examination impossible. To study such rock carvings, the method of digital processing of their photographs was used, which makes it possible to reveal the contours of ancient drawings. One of these objects is an archaeological site, called Kamennaya Baba, after the name of the rocky peak located nearby. More than half of the drawings of this locality are not visually distinguishable, and the general layout of the entire rock panel, without special research methods, cannot be traced. While studying the archaeological object, an opinion was proposed about the appearance of individual drawings on the surface of the rock at different times. This opinion is confirmed by various stylistic features of the drawings, as well as their varying degrees of preservation. The drawings found on the surface of the rock belong to the Selenga type of ancient images, among which anthropomorphic and ornithomorphic images form the basis.

ARCHEOLOGY OF THE LOWER AMUR RIVER: TO THE STUDY OF THE SUKPAI ARTISTIC STYLE AMONG THE PETROGLYPHS OF THE AMUR AND USSURI

Among the hundreds of archaeological sites in the lower reaches of the Amur basin, a special place belongs to the stones and rocks with ancient drawings. The rock art of the Lower Amur region has been studied since the sixties of the nineteenth century. Among the discoverers and researchers are the names of local historians and scientists. Systematic academic scientific research of petroglyphs monuments was carried out only 100 years later, in the sixties of the twentieth century, by Soviet archaeologists. The research source base (topography, description, tracing, scientific interpretation and publication of materials) was prepared by a team of employees of the Far Eastern Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the leadership of A. P. Okladnikov. Pisanitsa on the Sukpai River in the Ussuri River basin is one of the new sites of rock art in the region, it was discovered in the 1980s by archaeologist V. I. Dyakov, an employee of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article offers the experience of studying the stylistic diversity of the Lower Amur rock art monuments, namely, the drawings of the Sukpai petroglyph, which predetermines its relevance. The novelty of the study is due to the fact that the article highlights the signs of the Sukpai artistic style, the extent of its distribution among the petroglyphs of the region and adjacent territories. To write the work, a wide range of research methods was used, including the method of analyzing scientific literature, the sources were scientific papers on the topic of the study. The result of the research: a) the distinctive features of the style of plots on the rock of the Sukpai River are highlighted; b) similar images were traced on the stones and rocks of the Sikachi-Alyan-Malyshevo site; c) substantiation of the identification of the Sukpai artistic style among the petroglyphs of the Lower Amur; d) the similarity of the drawings of the sukpai style with the plots of the shamanic thematic direction of the rock art monuments of the adjacent territories of Eastern Siberia, Yakutia, the Upper and Middle Amur Region, and Transbaikalia was traced.

Restoration of Dimensions for Ancient Drawing Recognition

This study aims to investigate and determine the actual size of the “cheok” scale—The traditional weights and measures of Korea—To aid in data construction on the recognition of ancient drawings in the field of artificial intelligence. The cheok scale can be divided into Yeongjocheok, Jucheok, Pobaekcheok, and Joryegicheok. This study calculated the actual dimensions used in the drawings of Tonga and Eonjo contained in Jaseungcha Dohae by Gyunam Ha BaeckWon, which helped us analyze the scale used in the southern region of Korea in the 1800s. The scales of 1/15 cheok and 1/10 cheok were used in the Tonga and Eonjo sections in Jaseungcha Dohae, and the actual dimensions in the drawing were converted to the scale used at the time. Owing to the conversion, the dimensions in the drawings of Tonga were converted to 30.658 cm per cheok, and ~31.84 cm per cheok for Eonjo. In this manner, the actual dimensions used in the southern region of Korea around the year 1800 were restored. Through this study, the reference values for drawing recognition of machinery drawings in Korea around 1800 were derived.

Animals in Human Situations in Ancient Egyptian Ostraca and Papyri

It has been said that the ancient Egyptians were raised to tolerate all kinds of toil and hardship; they nevertheless also liked to amuse themselves with comic relief in their everyday life. For example, ancient Egyptian drawing can be quite accurate and at times even spirited. What scholars have described as caricatures are as informative and artistic as supposed serious works of art. Ancient Egyptians have left countless images representing religious, political, economic, and/or social aspects of their life. Scenes in Egyptian tombs could be imitated on ostraca (potsherds) that portray animals as characters performing what would normally be human roles, behaviors, or occupations. These scenes reveal the artists’ sense of comedy and humor and demonstrate their freedom of thought and expression to reproduce such lighthearted imitations of religious or funeral scenes. This paper will focus on a selection of drawings on ostraca as well as three papyri that show animals—often dressed in human garb and posing with human gestures—performing parodies of human pursuits (such as scribes, servants, musicians, dancers, leaders, and herdsmen).

KCS Paniker’s Painterly Deflections

In 1963, the Chennai-based artist KCS Paniker shifted his mode of painting from ethereal, floating, sketchy bodies to a series entitled Words and Symbols that occupied him until his death in 1977. These paintings combine writing, symbols, geometry, equations, charts, rivers, trees, and a multitude of birds and animals. The text – in English, Malayalam, and Sanskrit – cannot be read beyond a word or two, the diagrams hint at astrology and birth charts, and the symbols echo ancient linear drawings and math textbooks. Paniker’s use of paint enhances the experience of nearly understanding: he works in layers, ending with a thin cream of pigment, painting over symbols or even his own signature. The invitation to gaze, only to deflect it elsewhere into a fragmented and shifting experience of looking, is perhaps most pointed in the works he paints on anodized aluminum. In these, the surface of the metal peeks through, not enough to provide a clear reflection, but enough to create productive misreadings, confounding surface and ground, color and light, or line and unmarked space. Paniker’s Words and Symbols works allow entry only through a sideways glance; they deflect the gaze, thereby questioning the solidity of seeing, reading, and knowing.

Prehistoric charcoal drawings in the caves in the Slovak Republic, Central Europe: Successful radiocarbon dating by a micro-sample 14C AMS

In Central Europe, only a few caves with ancient drawings on the walls are known. During the past years, simple lines and sketches made of charcoal or smearing traces from torches are found mainly in less accessible locations in some caves of the Slovak Karst. Previous attempts to date these findings were unsuccessful since the painted layers were too thin to allow sampling and enable routine AMS dating. Now the application of the small mass radiocarbon accelerator mass-spectrometry (AMS) technique developed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) made possible successful 14C determinations for a set of cave drawings and markings from the Slovak Karst. This research confirmed the prehistoric/protohistoric nature of the drawings/sketches in Čikova Diera, Silická Ľadnica, Ardovská and Domica Caves. Moreover, this research widens the scope for prehistoric rock art dating, one of the major constrains in rock art studies.

Prehistorical attempts of accounting in the Magura Cave, present day Bulgaria

The history of accounting can be traced back to thousands of years B.C. In this paper we argue that recently found drawings in an ancient cave called Magura near the city of Vidin in Bulgaria, could also be included as part of the prehistorical uses of accounting. In the past, this cave has been subject to many explorations and some of the ancient drawings found there have been dated back to almost 40 thousand years B.C. Based on our analysis, we believe with a certain level of confidence that some of the drawings found in the cave Magura are depiction economic events and subsequently a stock owned by people at a certain time. As a result of these findings, we assert that prehistorical attempts of accounting existed at the time of the drawings were made and therefore these findings should have significant inclusion into the history of accounting.

Jews, Ships, and Death: A Consideration of Nautical Images in Jewish Mortuary Contexts

AbstractRecurrences of ancient ship carvings and drawings in Jewish burial caves are curious phenomena, which rarely capture the attention of scholars. Few narrative Jewish texts, which might otherwise illuminate this pattern, explicitly describe any link between ships and death. The ubiquity of nautical images in graffiti and monumental art throughout the ancient Mediterranean, moreover, obscures their particular significance in any mortuary context, whether associated with Jews or their neighbors. This article suggests that consistent appearances of ship imagery in Jewish burial contexts throughout time and across distant regions, attest to the varied iconographic and ideational significances of ships to Jews within mortuary settings. Cross-cultural similarities between acts of drawing, carving, and commissioning ship images inside and around commemorative spaces, this article argues further, document corresponding continuities between the mortuary activities and beliefs of Jews and their Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Christian neighbors throughout the ancient Mediterranean.

Restoration of paper artworks with microemulsions confined in hydrogels for safe and efficient removal of adhesive tapes

The presence of pressure-sensitive tapes (PSTs) on paper artworks, either fortuitous or specifically applied for conservation purposes, is one of the most frequent and difficult issues encountered during restoration. Aged PSTs can damage or disfigure artworks, compromising structural integrity, readability, and enjoyment. Current procedures are often inherently hazardous for artistic media and paper support. Challenged by the necessity to remove PSTs from a contemporary and an ancient drawing (20th century, by artists da Silva and Hayter, and a 16th-century drawing of one figure from the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo), we addressed this issue from a physicochemical perspective, leveraging colloid and interface science. After a characterization of the specific PSTs present on the artifact, we selected a highly water-retentive hydrogel as the host of 23% wt/wt of "green" organic solvents uniformly dispersed within the gel in the form of nanosized droplets. The double confinement of the organic solvent in the nanodroplets and into the gel network promotes a tailored, controlled removal of PSTs of different natures, with virtually no interaction with the solvent-sensitive artwork. This noninvasive procedure allows complete retrieval of artwork readability. For instance, in the ancient drawing, the PST totally concealed the inscription, "di mano di Michelangelo" ("from Michelangelo's hand"), a possibly false attribution hidden by a collector, which is now perfectly visible and whose origin is currently under investigation. Remarkably, the same methodology was successful for the removal of aged PST adhesive penetrated inside paper fibers of a drawing from the celebrated artist Lucio Fontana.

Conservation of paleolithic cave art in the Capova cave

The Kapova Cave Shulgan Tash is located in Bashkortostan the Southern Urals in the Shulgan Tash Reserve This is the only cave in Eastern Europe where Paleolithic drawings of about years old are preserved To date about images are known in the cave including realistic zoomorphic drawings abstract geometric figures and ochre spots The paper is devoted to the conservation of ancient drawings and their peculiar features The cave art resembles West European analogues but it has specific features This suggests the existence of a kind of a center of ancient culture in the Southern Urals in the Paleolithic

The Botica or Apothecary in the Monastery of San Lorenzo el Real de El Escorial (Madrid, Spain): Written Sources, Historic Drawings, and New Surveys Applied to Architectural Analysis

Though there are a great number of studies of the Monastery of El Escorial, the surrounding buildings built in the 16th century have gone almost unnoticed. Among them, the Botica or Apothecary was designed by a disciple of Juan de Herrera and still arouses interest for several reasons. Firstly, because it composes an outstanding closure to the Monastery’s main building and the surrounding Lonja, while at the same time it connects other neighbouring buildings; secondly, because the surviving documents about its history, uses, and construction processes had not then been studied; and thirdly, because there was no accurate survey permitting an in-depth study of its materials, construction methods, and techniques. We based our research on the information in archive documents, on the study of an outstanding set of ancient drawings, and on the production of a new survey. As a first step, we drew the first set of accurate plans of the building. From this base we undertook the essential formal, functional, and constructive analysis. We also put forward and confirmed the main hypotheses about the building’s chronology and the stages of its construction. Finally, we analysed the conservation works that were carried out facing the two main risks of termite attacks and weathering.

Introduction & General

Introduction & General Isaac Kalimi, Joseph E. Jensen, David A. Bosworth, Andrew W. Litke, Lesley R. DiFrancisco, Edward M. Cook, and Richard A. Taylor 1532. Shmuel Aḥituv, Esther Eshel, Zeʾev Meshel, and Tallay Oman, To Yhwh of Teman and His ashera: The Inscriptions and Drawings from Kuntillet ʿAjrud ("Ḥorvat Teman") in Sinai (Treasures of the Past; Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press and Israel Exploration Society, 2015). Pp. 151 (Hebrew). N.I.S. 142. ISBN 978-965-217-385-0. This book presents the inscriptions and drawings that were found during archaeological excavations at Kuntillet ʿAjrud in 1975–1976 conducted under the supervision of Zeʾev Meshel from Tel Aviv University. This First Temple period archaeological site is situated in the northwestern part of the Sinai Peninsula. According to the evidence of the artifacts, the settlement was founded at the initiative of the Kingdom of Israel. The significance [End Page 516] of this settlement was highlighted by the discovery there of drawings and written sources in Hebrew and Phoenician. Chap. 1 discusses the structure, special features and archaeological finds from the site. Chap. 2 focuses on the ancient drawings. Chap. 3 presents the written sources and their interpretation. Chap. 4 includes a synthetic discussion and summation. The volume contains numerous illustrations. A bibliography, index of sources, and a table of contents in English conclude the volume.—I.K. 1533. David Alexander and Pat Alexander (eds.), Zondervan Handbook to the Bible (5th ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017). Pp. 816 + Col. Illus. $44.99. ISBN 978-0-310-53794-6. This edition of the Handbook consists of 127 articles by 70 international scholars offering background and guidance for better understanding of the histories, lands, cultures, artifacts, rituals, events, peoples, and individuals that appear within the Bible, accompanied by more than 700 color photographs and illustrations. A section-by-section guide to the Bible includes notes on key words, and questions about interpretation. A "Rapid Fact-finder" locates key people, places, events, and teachings both within the Bible and within the Handbook itself.—J.E.J. 1534. Noga Ayali-Darshan, Treading on the Back of Sea: The Combat between the Storm-god and the Sea in Ancient Near Eastern Literature (Biblical Encyclopaedia Library 33; Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2016). Pp. 406 (Hebrew) + viii (English). N.I.S. 111. ISBN 978-965-536-203-9. This book is a collection of all versions of the narrative of the combat between the Storm-god and the Sea as it appears in different ANE texts. A.-D. examines various literary sources in order to discover the origin of this myth, as well as to trace changes of detail that reflect the source's location and the influence of a specific culture on the plot. Each chapter consists of the presentation of different texts, according to their geographic location, and a summary of its content. In chap. 1, A.-D. surveys the traces of the motif in Egyptian literary texts, such as The Astarte Papyrus, incantations, Hymn to Ramesses III and Tale of the Two Brothers. Chap. 2 features the Hurro-Hittite Song of the Sea, The Pišaiša Myth, The Release of the Goddess from the Sea, The Song of Hedammu, and The Song of Ullikummi. In chap. 3, A.-D. reviews the motif in Ugaritic literature as represented by Baal's Struggle Against the Sea in the Baal Cycle and Baal and Anat's Fight Against the Sea Creatures. Chap. 4 focuses on Mesopotamian literature, in particular the Babylonian myth of Enūma Eliš. Chap. 5 concerns the traces of the motif in biblical literature, with special attention to instances of the Lord's Conflict with the Sea. Chap. 6 treats the motif as it appears in the Letter from the Mari Envoy at Aleppo and in the Sea and Astarte at Emar. Finally, in chap. 7, A.-D. discusses the transformations of the myth in terms of their locations. An epilogue, bibliography, indexes of sources, personal and geographical names, and a table of contents for the volume in English conclude the whole.—I.K. 1535. Katell Bertholet...

A high-precision chronological model for the decorated Upper Paleolithic cave of Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, Ardèche, France

Radiocarbon dates for the ancient drawings in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave revealed ages much older than expected. These early ages and nature of this Paleolithic art make this United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) site indisputably unique. A large, multidisciplinary dating program has recently mapped the anthropological evolution associated with the cave. More than 350 dates (by (14)C, U-Th, TL and (36)Cl) were obtained over the last 15 y. They include 259 radiocarbon dates, mainly related to the rock art and human activity in the cave. We present here more than 80 previously unpublished dates. All of the dates were integrated into a high-precision Bayesian model based on archaeological evidence to securely reconstruct the complete history of the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave on an absolute timescale. It shows that there were two distinct periods of human activity in the cave, one from 37 to 33,500 y ago, and the other from 31 to 28,000 y ago. Cave bears also took refuge in the cave until 33,000 y ago.

POETIC AND PICTURESQUE IMAGINATION IN THE ART OF THE CHINESE CLASSICAL GARDEN

The formation and development of any form of art do not occur in isolation and are certain to connect with similar things in its surroundings. Uncovering the hidden universality of different arts is a critical approach to recognizing and understanding the essence of arts which certainly include the art of gardening. The high artistic level Chinese classical gardens achieved are mainly accredited to the nurture of traditional Chinese culture. Poetry, prose and drawings in particular have provided inspirations for landscape gardeners. Through applying the connections among different arts and integrating poetic and pictorial arts in its creation, the romance of ancient poetry and drawings can be felt not only from the garden as a whole but also its parts. Different arts can be traced back to the same origin. Creating a garden is similar to drawing a painting or writing a poem in the sense that drawing arts can provide direct reference in techniques for landscape gardeners while poetic arts may help improve the layout and design of gardens and supply the inspiration for the conception of the garden. Therefore, the Chinese classical garden is said to be a painting with three dimensions and a poem without words, which suggest that without certain understandings in paintings, poetry and prose, a landscape gardener would not be able to create a garden with poetic and picturesque imagination. Studies on gardening from the perspective of the universality of poetic and drawing art as well as the perspective of the integrity of Chinese arts and culture will bring us new thinking and enlightenments, which is of practical significance in studying many issues such as modern environmental art, tradition and innovation, development and inheritance.

DIGITAL RECONSTRUCTION OF AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE BASED ON THE INTEGRATION OF 3D DATA AND HISTORICAL SOURCES

Abstract. The methodology proposed in this paper in based on an integrated approach for creating a 3D digital reconstruction of an archaeological site, using extensively the 3D documentation of the site in its current state, followed by an iterative interaction between archaeologists and digital modelers, leading to a progressive refinement of the reconstructive hypotheses. The starting point of the method is the reality-based model, which, together with ancient drawings and documents, is used for generating the first reconstructive step. Such rough approximation of a possible architectural structure can be annotated through archaeological considerations that has to be confronted with geometrical constraints, producing a reduction of the reconstructive hypotheses to a limited set, each one to be archaeologically evaluated. This refinement loop on the reconstructive choices is iterated until the result become convincing by both points of view, integrating in the best way all the available sources. The proposed method has been verified on the ruins of five temples in the My Son site, a wide archaeological area located in central Vietnam. The integration of 3D surveyed data and historical documentation has allowed to support a digital reconstruction of not existing architectures, developing their three-dimensional digital models step by step, from rough shapes to highly sophisticate virtual prototypes.

WUJUD VISUAL GAMBAR - ILUSTRASI PADA NASKAH NASKAH TUA NUSANTARA SEBAGAI REFLEKSI INTELEKTUALITAS LELUHUR BANGSA INDONESIA

Manuscript is a cultural product belongs to every civilized community that understands letters and words. Visual communication, before script and writing were established, such as ancient drawings, has been used by people since thousands years ago. The discovery of picture in prehistoric caves is considered as the beginning of drawing tradition towards the modern illustration. The discovery of scripts and writing shifted the tradition of drawing, although the simplest and the most effective communication is still the visual language.  It explains why an illustrative drawing in the old manuscript was used as a communication device which reflects the cultural development and the way of thinking from the society who created it. The tradition of writing and drawing in illustration was found in the Javanese and Balinese old manuscripts. The visual illustration, theme, and media of manuscripts shown similar in diversity, depend on their role in social life. Some parts of those old manuscripts show unique illustrations as well as the local identity of the society. The illustration on manuscript reflects the society culture of thinking and aesthetic achievement of visual art.    Key Words: Illustration, old Indonesian manuscript, visual language.Â

Cover Picture: Efficient Macrocyclization by a Novel Oxy‐Oxonia‐Cope Reaction: Synthesis and Olfactory Properties of New Macrocyclic Musks (Chem. Eur. J. 23/2012)

No More Musk Suicides! A poem by Shangyin Li (813–858) from the late Tang Dynasty reported the tragic case of a musk deer that committed suicide rather than let his hunters have his musk pods. In the Communication on page 7010 ff., P. Kraft and co-workers report a versatile macrocyclization, which utilizes an unprecedented oxy-oxonia-Cope reaction. This novel macrocyclization can also be employed for a new synthesis of muscone, with which the cover picture is scented. The book featuring the ancient drawing is held by a Tibetan Alchi Lama Monk.