Ancient Temples Research Articles

Differentiation of Late Bronze Age Nubian- and Egyptian-style ceramics from northern Sudan by manufacturing firing temperatures using Raman spectroscopy

Ceramic samples of Nubian and Egyptian traditions dating to the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period (1550–1290 BCE) from the ancient temple towns of Sai Island and Dukki Gel were analyzed using optical light microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy to identify the relative maximum firing temperatures reached during their manufacturing process. Our data demonstrate that Egyptian-style ceramics experienced slightly higher maximum firing temperatures than Nubian-style ceramics based on measurements of carbonized plant residues and sub-µm-scale carbon within the matrices, which were likely added as ash to temper the clay. Although no absolute values can be given for the different traditions, maximum firing temperatures likely ranged from 700 °C to 800 °C. Alteration due to oxidative weathering over time after the deposition of the ceramics affected all samples, although more so the specimens from Dukki Gel than from Sai Island. Raman spectroscopy gives new insights to characterize firing conditions during Nubian and Egyptian ceramics manufacture, especially when using a 532 nm measuring laser wavelength on sub-µm-scale carbon within the matrix.

Visual Sculpture of Erotic and Sexual Acts of Khajuraho Temples

As such, there is no dearth of temples in India and every temple has some different characteristics attached to them. Some are known for their special rituals, some are known for the creation of temples, some are known for the mythology associated with them, and others for something special in those temples. Similarly, if you see such idols made in many temples here, where sexuality is being displayed, then it will not be surprising. These are also part of those temples. There are many ancient temples in India in which many erotic idols are displayed in stones. Some people see it from a progressive point of view, some sexuality, some people even consider it rude. It is true that these carvings are very bold, incorporating many ancient ideologies which have seen sex as a way to reach the 'spirituality of spirituality'. Most of these temples follow the tradition of Tantric learning, according to which sensual pleasure acts as a divine energy and it forms the spiritual path to reach God. If you have ever inspected such a temple, you will see that such idols are only on the outer walls of the temple. According to some researchers, these mean that any man should put an end to all his lustful desires before entering the temple and he can only do so when he has experienced it. There is no doubt that these idols, these signs have that charm! Khajuraho Temple Chandravarman chose Khajuraho to build such temples. Making it his capital, he performed a huge yagna of 85 altars here. Later 85 temples were built in place of these altars, which were continued by the kings of the Chandel dynasty. Today, out of 85, there are only 22 temples left. The period of creation came to an end with the departure of the Chandelas from Khajuraho in the 14th century. The Khajuraho temple is primarily known as a temple in India that has carved many erotic sculptures, meaning that the temples of Khajuraho bear their erotic idols. Are most famous for According to some researchers, the concepts of Kama Sutra are depicted by these idols, and according to some researchers, it is a tradition to practice Tantric learning by sexual behavior. Like the Kamasutra, the temples of Khajuraho are also world famous, as many of the captivating and seductive sculptures in their outer walls depict various postures of Kamakriya. Kamasutra has studied and analyzed kamabhakna and kamkala from the point of view of a scientist, and its basic feelings have been depicted in Khajuraho.

Inventory of geotouristic routes along the southern hills of the Kathmandu Valley

An inventory map of geotouristic sites was prepared on the scale of 1 : 5 000 along the Chandragiri-Chitlang Range, southwestern part of the Kathmandu Valley of central Nepal. From the ridges and peaks of the Chandragiri-Chitlang range, visitors can witness breathtaking views of the surrounding hills, modern buildings, and ancient temples of the Kathmandu Valley from a distance. The objective of the study was to explore the geotouristic sites around the Kathmandu Valley. For this purpose, all the available information related to geology, environment, geography, culture, religion, and other touristic components was reviewed thoroughly, and extensive fieldwork was carried out with the purpose of geological mapping and data collection. The Chandragiri-Chitlang range is a renowned place and open book not only for geologis ts but also for the nature lover, climbers, trekkers, photographers, videographers, cultural tourists, biologists, and ayurvedic and it has a great prospect for tourism due to its geomorphological variation, unique geological features, beautiful natural scene, unique trekking trails, culture, biodiversity, adventurous way, heritage, and historical sites. Major geotouristic sites, which attract tourists throughout the year in this range are the lush green Chandragiri Hill, Chandragiri Temple with children’s playground and exciting recreational equipment, snowfall, on the winter season, Chitlang Homestay, Chobhar Hill, Taudaha natural pond, Pharping Hill, Champadevi Temple, Gupteshwor cave, Chobhar cave, Thankot, and Matatirtha Temple, etc. Geologically, the study area comprises the lower four geological units of the Phulchoki Group of the Kathmandu Complex from older to younger sequences i.e. the Tistung Formation, the Sopyang Formation, the Chandragiri Limestone, and the Chitlang Formation along with alluvial fan deposits and Kathmandu Lake sediments. The basin of Kathmandu is filled with the lacustrine-fluvial deposits of ancient lakes followed by river deposits. The Chandragiri Thrust, Chitlang Syncline, Kirtipur Anticline are the major regional-scale geological structures within the study area. Unique old-fashioned footrail attracts tourists and increased the charm of traveling in this place. The homestays in Chitlang village, joyful of culture and environment, provide a tranquil retreat away from the bustling crowds of Kathmandu. Preparation of a tourist guidebook and planning and development from the perspective of a geotouristic approach is recommended after this research. Reconstruction and establishment of trekking foot trails and tourist information centers based on currently available natural and human resources without investing high costs can be carried out for sustainable tourism development in this range.

Quantitative Estimation of the Internal Spatio–Temporal Characteristics of Ancient Temple Heritage Space with Space Syntax Models: A Case Study of Daming Temple

Ancient temple heritage space is a subcategory of integrated spaces with profound religious architecture, culture, and landscape. The temporal and spatial characteristics, spatial layouts, and functionalities of ancient temples are gradually transformed during different periods in their development. However, quantitative topological estimation tools, e.g., space syntax and detailed digital spatial models, have seldom been adopted in related studies on ancient temples. Daming Temple is a typical representative of the revitalization of Buddhism monastic building heritage in China. This research studies the spaces of Daming Temple, Yangzhou City, in three different periods and explores its spatio–temporal characteristics based on two space syntax models, i.e., the angle segment analysis (ASA) model and the visibility map analysis (VGA) model. By multi-step quantitative estimation, changes in the mean depth (MD), mean connectivity, and intelligibility of the temple have been observed. The global spatial structure is thoroughly revealed, which indicates the changes in the ‘temple-residence-garden’ inter-relationship. It is indicated that dynamic spatio–temporal characteristics of the temple have been undergoing changes chronically. Some phenomena are found to be effective in offering reasonable explanations for these changes, i.e., the changes in relationships among spaces, visitors’ pathfinding difficulties, and spatial design techniques. It also found that there are certain correlations between temporal–spatial changes and spatial conservation strategies for building heritages. The case study can provide some valuable references for the conservation, reactivation, and redesign of related historical and cultural building heritage in East Asia.

The Architectural Style of Ancient Buddhist Temples between China and Thailand: The Baima Temple in Luoyang, China, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, Thailand

Baima Temple is the earliest one which was established after the time of the first introduction of Buddhism. It transforms and integrates Tianzhu Buddhist thought into Chinese traditional characteristics. It is known as ' the first ancient temple in China '. As one of Thailand's three national treasures, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha shows the unique artistic characteristics of Thailand's ancient architecture and is known as the artistic treasure of Thailand's Buddhist architecture, sculpture, and painting. Starting from the influencing factors of the two temples, this paper takes color as the main research object to study the differences between the architectural styles of the two temples and the cultural differences behind them.

रोगव्याधि, दोष निवारण र लामो आयुका देवता कुम्भेश्वर {Kumbesheswor the Deity of Long-life, Remover of Illness and Defects}

Kumbheshwar Temple of Patan has been famous since ancient times, but it has not been thoroughly studied. A study has been done to highlight the cultural significance of this temple. In it, the history, architecture and worship methods of the temple have been studied. A qualitative method has been adopted in this. Qualitative data is collected from observation, Interview, group discusses, key informant and published and unpublished book, Journal, Report. The data has been analyzed through inductive method. This temple was famous since ancient times. Inside the temple there is a big Sarveshwar image of small five-faced Shivlinga Kumbheshwar. This is a Nepali style temple has five floors built on a three-level plinth. There are 108 Bhairavas on the Tundals (struts). The roof of the temple is supported by 6-6 struts in all four directions of the temple and four struts at the four corners. Nitya Puja (everyday worship) and other regular pujas are performed withen the temple every day. On Mukhashtami, it is customary to crown the Panchabuddha created by Tamadhara on the Kumbheshwar Shivling. On Guru Purnima, Nagainag is seen wearing the crown of Vere. Those who become new Jhakris (Shaman) offer water from Gosai Kund to Kumbheshwar. Sage Agastya (saint) is believed to have founded Kumbheshwar. People go to Kumbheshwar to get long-life, diseases and defects. The study brings to light that Kumbheshwar is an ancient temple.

IMPACT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF BACKWARD CLASSES: A CASE STUDY IN CHITTOOR DISTRICT ANDHRA PRADESH

In traditional India different castes formed a hierarchy of social precedence. Each position in the caste structure was dened in terms of in purity or pollution relative to others, whilst those who are least pure i.e. the Panchamas, sometimes called the 'out castes' or 'Untouchables' are inferior to all other castes. In the traditional system is generally conceptualized in terms of the four-fold Varnas, which in addition to the Brahmins at the top included the Kshatriyas, or warriors, the Vaishyas, or traders, and the Shudras, or servants and labourers, in that order. Thus, in a class society members typically believe that mobility is easily available and secured on merit. Andhra Pradesh (AP) is a relatively newly formed state; it was carved out of an erstwhile statewith the same name that was divided into AP and Telangana in 2014. The participation of educationally disadvantaged communities such as Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), has been increasing over the years at all stages except senior secondary. This could be attributed to several factors, one of which is the lack of accessibility to the seinstitutions, especially for students from disadvantaged. India is one the oldest societies on earth. Also known as Bharat and Hindustan and condently termed as the 'Republic of India', it is the largest liberal social equality of the world. India is divided into 29 states and 7 union territories. India is also the land of the Vedas the oldest scriptures in the world. It is divided in four-volumes and is gaze at as the storehouse of coast-to-coast thoughts. Today, India is the world's seventh largest country in terms of area and second in terms of populaces. The sights, the ancient temples and the lush paddy elds make the country unique and amazing. It has 22 major languages with 844 dialects, making this country and its people culturally diverse. The secular nature of India has attracted philosophers and researchers from across the globe to explore India

PEMANFAATAN QR CODE PADA PURA BATURGANGSIAN SEBAGAI MEDIA PENDIDIKAN AGAMA HINDU DI DESA TINGGARSARI KECAMATAN BUSUNGBIU KABUPATEN BULELENG

The important role of technology in human life is of course very large, technology can be used in all fields, one of which is in educational media. The use of technology in educational media is a progressive step in an effort to keep up with the times. In accordance with the jargon that is often raised, the function of technology is to lighten what is heavy, bring what is far away. Likewise, the use of technology in education, the presence of technology is to help students more easily access learning materials. One of the technological media that can be utilized in the educational process is the QR Code media. QR Code itself stands for Quick Response Code, which is a two-dimensional barcode introduced by the Japanese company Denso Wave in 1994. One of the problems currently being faced by the Tinggarsari Village Community is the lack of public knowledge about the Bebaturan temple in the village. Bebaturan temple itself is a very ancient temple and has differences from the temples that are currently developing, so that the information data is still very minimal and is only known by a handful of people. So that the scattered data needs to be collected and presented in writing. The final data is then presented in the form of a QR Code so that people can easily access it. The problem solving method used is the data triangulation method.

Results of Archaeological Research in the Acropolis of Falasarna, Crete

Finds mainly from the Archaic period were brought to light by the excavation of the central area of the ancient temple of Demeter in the acropolis of Falasarna in Crete. Among the finds was an abundance of terracotta figurines.

Between Past and Present: Twombly at Boston’s MFA

Between Past and Present: Twombly at Boston’s MFA Brandon Jones (bio) Roughly twenty years ago during my time as a high school teacher in Boston’s southern suburbs, I spent many summer days wandering around the Museum of Fine Arts—to different galleries, but never without a visit to those showcasing masterpieces of classical antiquity. I always commenced the procession through a dark, narrow hallway, detouring on a rightward loop through the Egyptian funerary collection, and then rejoining the narrow passage to another dark room with Greek vases, where I would check on red-figured Aktaion and on bilingual Achilles and Ajax playing board games before I angled into an almost hidden corner room with an Etruscan couple in tufa calmly laying at rest in a cool, quiet setting. I still recall vividly the change in temperature, humidity, even the scent of the air as I opened each door to each successive gallery. Some years later, the company for which my father worked was commissioned by the MFA to install new doors within most of its galleries. With some acknowledged irony, my brother and I have since made holiday visits to the MFA during which we admire the glass doors, especially those that open smoothly almost as if a motor were propelling us into a world of ancient art; we also playfully grimace at those that slow our passage with a squeak or hinder our view with a fingerprinted film. Of course, my father’s art was different from that of the sculptors, painters, weavers, and many others who are responsible for so much of what gives the MFA its true raison d’être. Yet, this unusual connection to the museum helps me appreciate the many ways that modern hands bear on our way of experiencing ancient art. They construct the doors which help preserve and provide access to the ancient past. Sometimes the passage or view through those doors is clear; sometimes it takes an extra umph or squint. [End Page 91] While most of the doors my father built remain throughout the MFA, my previous route through the Behrakis Wing yields a very different display of the museum’s antiquities collections after renovations completed in 2009 and 2021, both of which brought an emphasis on explicit connections between the present and the ancient past. Themed galleries from the 2009 renovation included didactics on such timeless topics as daily life, drama, and drinking parties. The most recent renovation expanded the didactic mission, especially in the new Early Greek Art Gallery which includes themed sections on the body, burial, local identities, storytelling, and trade. In the same gallery, video of the seaside cliffs at modern-day Behramkale, Turkey projects against a wall, opposite reliefs of Herakles chasing centaurs and sphinxes facing one another from the architrave of the ancient Temple of Athena at Assos, or modern Behramkale. Throughout the Behrakis Wing, interactive video monitors focusing on pigment in sculpture and vase painting techniques, along with a looping video of student testimonials on antiquity’s allure, aim to connect present and future visitors to the ancient past. Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1a. Untitled (Odalisca), August 1988 (1 of 6) Collection Cy Twombly Foundation. © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photograph by Mimmo Capone. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1b. Untitled (Toilet of Venere), August 1988 (3 of 6) Collection Cy Twombly Foundation. © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photograph by Mimmo Capone. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Just beyond the Early Greek Art Gallery’s architrave from Behramkale, the Lubin Family Gallery now serves as a space for a rotating display of modern artistic interactions with the ancient world—the boldest instantiation of the MFA’s mission to show past and present [End Page 92] together. The gallery currently features three sculptures by Cy Twombly surrounded by Sally Mann’s photographs of Twombly’s studio in Lexington, Virginia. It serves as a teaser to the massive, temporary exhibition, Making Past Present: Cy Twombly, which has crossed the country from the J. Paul Getty Museum and will reside in the Linde Family Wing galleries at the MFA through May 7, 2023. Click...

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЙ О ХРАМЕ КАК ОБЪЕКТЕ ИСТОРИКО-КУЛЬТУРНОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ ВО ВТОРОЙ ПОЛОВИНЫ XIX — НАЧАЛЕ XX В. (НА МАТЕРИАЛАХ ЕНИСЕЙСКОЙ ГУБЕРНИИ)

On the basis of published and unpublished archival documents, publications in local periodicals, works of church researchers, the article shows the process of forming ideas of the scientific and church circles about the preservation of monuments of temple architecture in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries. (on the materials of the Yenisei province). At that time, the temple was perceived not only as a sacred material object, but also as part of the spiritual heritage of many generations. The mechanism of inheritance was based on the collective responsibility of the inhabitants to their descendants. The idea is being formed that the temple, like other objects of cultural heritage, has universal significance and historical value, and therefore should be protected by the joint efforts of the state and the parish. The authors emphasize that before the revolution in the Yenisei province, as elsewhere, there appeared representatives of the church and scientific intelligentsia, who were actively involved in the collection, description, systematization and museumification of monuments of church antiquity. The article concludes that this process was significant not only for the local community, but was also part of the global and Russian trend of preserving the cultural heritage of mankind. At the same time, the interests of the state and the church, while preserving religious objects, largely intersected, which was reflected in the activities of church-archaeological societies and museums. Through the efforts of such devotees as I.V. Figurovsky, D.I. Evtikhiev and others in the Yenisei Siberia collected information about ancient temples, artifacts, documents, prepared a number of publications. This information is relevant even today, as it is often the only evidence of objects and sacristies lost during the Soviet period of history.

The Zri-Rab: A New String Instrument from the Ancient Frescos of Sri Lanka

Inside the ancient temple of Thivanka Pilimage (Thivanka Image House), which was built in Polonnaruwa between the 12th-13th centuries AD, several frescoes were depicted based on Buddha’s life events and the Jataka tales. Before all these frescoes faded, draftsmen working for the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon copied them. Among the frescoes the draftsman P. G. Perera copied is one that depicts a man or woman holding a long-necked lute. The purpose of the present research is to interpret this string instrument and reconstruct a physical string instrument that is consistent in form. This study involves experimental research and falls under the music discipline of organology. The study uses iconographic analyses and morphological analogues to discover how to organize the structure and elements needed to design and build a musical instrument that is consistent with the ancient form of the long-necked lute. The tar (long-necked lute) and sgra-snyan (7-string long-necked lute, also known as dramyin) are string instruments used in modern times that have also been identified as morphologically similar to the string instrument depicted in the Thivanka Pilimage. The tar used in the Middle East provides information on how to organize the structure and elements needed to reconstruct a string instrument that can be used in modern music without changing the ancient form. In this way, the merging of antiquity and modernism has led to the revival of the string instrument called the zri-rab.

Remembering Benares: How a city inspired a novel

Remembering BenaresHow a city inspired a novel Pankaj Mishra (bio) More than twenty years ago, I published my first novel, The Romantics. The book was based partly on my own experience in the city of Benares, which I moved to in the winter of 1988 for a few months. I remember that when I arrived one early morning, the city seemed, from the last ghat in the south, to roll away on one side of the Ganges, old and bleached and smothered by mist, the only sign of life coming from the flicker and glow of the perennially burning funeral pyres. Then, as I stood there, marveling at what was more apparition than city, there came a strange sound—the hollow boom of a train invisibly crossing a bridge over the river in the north. I was nineteen years old, three years out of home, a few months out of university, and trying to get further away from the incessant [End Page 62] whispers around me: "Apply for jobs, marry and settle down." Benares was like no place I had known or read about, and it seemed to offer exactly what I wanted: a chance to live alone in a place that had no memories and associations for me and to look out at a world I did not understand but could perhaps begin to grasp. Writing these sentences today, I can feel the damp of the city's stone alleys, hear the creak of the waterwheel over the well in the courtyard of my decrepit house, smell the woodsmoke at the street-side dive where I ate a masala omelet every morning, and these memories of a dignified poverty give me a pang—not only a melancholy sense of the vanished years and the deepening confrontation with mortality that lay ahead but also bafflement over how a city whose crumbling buildings had persisted for so long—enshrining decay as the main principle of history—could be so quickly ruined. The ruination began not long after I left Benares. Criminal gangs specializing in kidnapping and extortion had already filled the vacuum created by failed industrialization in the region. In the 1990s, mafia dons from nearby districts began to shape local politics and to build shopping malls of glass and steel near the river. More recently, Narendra Modi, the city's elected member of the Indian parliament and the country's current prime minister, demolished ancient temples and alleys in order to plant his insecurely grand and ultra-modern monuments of Hindu supremacism. I, of course, had no hint of a future tainted by the promise of affluence and chauvinism. It seemed that I had all the time to spend. What would I have given then to know that I didn't, and to not have the misconception that makes the evanescence of youth seem so tragic in retrospect. My room on the roof of an old sitar player's house had a bed, a chair, a barred window—and nothing else. The rest of the house was similarly bare, equipped with the minimum of things necessary for eating, sleeping, dying, and making music. I had little money and ate only one full meal a day in order to economize. The electricity failed often, especially at night, and I had to read by the light of a kerosene lantern. But it was the first time I had a room of [End Page 63] my own, and the boon of privacy and solitude seemed to make up for my material deprivations. I also had my books—a carefully curated selection of European literature—and a romantic idea of myself as a thinker and writer. Indeed, the ambition to write, though timidly concealed and never shared with anyone, licensed this unconventional life I had chosen. Yet a black hole opened in my mind whenever I thought about what I could write. And the fear I felt then—the fear that I probably had no talent—deepened my loneliness. If writing seemed something I could not do, reading was no different. Books were to somehow open up the larger world; whatever I grasped of their richness, their meanings and beauty, was a...

Restoration of ancient temple murals using cGAN and PConv networks

India is a fountainhead of several art forms like paintings, inscriptions, sculptures, pottery, textile arts, and so on. Mural paintings are one in all of them and are usually seen on the walls of temples and caves. A redeeming feature of temple murals is that the architectural elements of the given space are simultaneously incorporated into the paintings. The majority of these paintings have faded with time, and a select handful have cracks and dirt stains on top of them. Understanding the nuances of the paintings become difficult as they deteriorate further. These paintings need to be restored by qualified craftsmen, who are difficult to find today. Therefore, a powerful image restoration method is needed to meet the requirements of the mural paintings. Thus an efficient inpainting technique for the reconstruction of ancient temple murals that ignores these multiple random irregularities is being proposed. The proposed method makes use of cGAN for both the automatic development of masks and the identification of degraded sections. A mask is an example of a black and white image where the white pixels require some editing while the black pixels do not. These masks are used by the algorithm as a hyper-parameter to forecast which patch has to be filled in next. The deteriorated murals are rebuilt using a sliding window-based Deep Convolutional Network, where the convolution is masked and renormalized to be conditioned on only valid pixels. As part of the forward pass, the proposed work automatically creates a changed mask for the following layer. The performance of our combined cGAN-Deepconv inpainting technique has been compared with six state-of-the-art inpainting methods. The experimental reconstruction results confirmed that our Sliding-window-Deepconv inpainting is more adaptable and better suited for mural restoration. Further, the proposed method achieved the best reconstruction results with the absolute best values of several performance parameters, i.e. Peak Signal to Noise Ratio, Mean Squared Error, and Structural Similarity Index.

Pelatihan Kepemimpinan dan Peranan Pokdarwis Dalam Pengembangan Wisata Pulau Putri di Kabupaten Karawang

The Tourism Awareness Group (POKDARWIS) needs to be formed in SegarjayaVillage, Batujaya District, Karawang Regency, West Java with the aim of optimizing thepotential of the village. In Pokdarwis, leadership is needed that can move all members, so thatall people realize the magnitude of the tourism potential which in the future can increaseresidents' income. This group can be a forum for residents to develop their area as a touristvillage. can be an implementation method to foster a leadership spirit and move Pokdarwiscarried out by gathering community leaders and especially young people to be givenunderstanding and to be able to create creative things in their villages which have the naturalpotential of Pulau Putri beach, ancient temples, and typical processed products. JembretTerasi. Another thing to do is work with the Tourism Community in Karawang Regency tointroduce and help promote tourism in Segarjaya Village. The result of the activities carriedout was the growing awareness of the importance of empowering tourism potential inSegarjaya Village. In addition, the tourism community presented can introduce tourism inKarawang more broadly through its media. As a result, tourists on the Putri Island beach haveincreased. Putri Island Tourism Beach and Educational Tourism (Making Jembret Terasi)which can be packaged into attractive tour packages in the future. Tourism is stretched, thepeople's standard of living increases.

Automatic calibration of crack and flaking diseases in ancient temple murals

Many precious ancient murals are seriously deteriorated due to long-term environmental influences and man-made destructions. How to effectively protect ancient murals and restore these murals’ original appearance has become an urgent problem for field experts. Modern computer technology makes it possible to virtually restore the deteriorated areas in ancient murals. However, most existing mural restoration approaches require manual calibration of the deteriorated areas, which is very difficult and time-consuming. It has been noticed that the earth layer flaking and cracks are the most common problems of ancient temple murals. This paper proposes an automatic calibration method for the earth layer flaking and cracking deterioration of murals by taking temple murals from the Ming Dynasty in Zhilin Temple as the study object. First, we extract the texture and line features of the deteriorated murals by using multi-dimensional gradient detection in the HSV space. Then, a guided filter operation is employed to highlight the disease (deteriorated) areas and meanwhile suppress other unwanted areas, which helps to extract the flaked areas or cracked lines from the digital murals. The filtered images are segmented by using an automatic threshold to obtain the initial masks of the mural disease areas. Next, we use a two-dimensional tensor voting technique to connect the discontinuous edge curves of the extracted disease areas. Afterwards, the masks of flaking and cracking areas can be generated after morphological processing. Finally, we obtained the calibration results by adding the masks to the original digital murals. Experimental results show that our method can rapidly and accurately calibrate the cracks and the earth layer flaking diseases in the ancient murals. As compared to existing calibration approaches, our method can achieve better performance in subjective visual quality and objective evaluation metrics. Moreover, the method does not need human-computer interaction. This research work provides a solid foundation for the following virtual and practical restoration of ancient murals.

Opening Kailasanatha: The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space

Opening Kailasanatha: The Temple in Kanchipuram Revealed in Time and Space

Active and Passive Radon Measurements inside Dendera Ancient Temple, Egypt.

Active and Passive Radon Measurements inside Dendera Ancient Temple, Egypt.

Temples and bats in a homogeneous agriculture landscape: Importance of microhabitat availability, disturbance and land use for bat conservation.

Cave-dwelling bats widely use anthropogenic structures such as temples in south Asia as roosting and nursery sites. Such roosts are constantly under threat, even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the importance of such roosts, there is no detailed understanding of what makes temples favorable for bats and the critical factors for their persistence. Here we relate temple microhabitat characteristics and land use around ancient temples (>400 years) to bat species richness and abundance in the Tamiraparani river basin of south India. Temples were selected for sampling along the river basin based on logistics and permission to access them. We counted bats at the roost in the mornings and late afternoons from inside the temples. Temple characteristics such as dark rooms, walkways, crevices, towers, and disturbances to the roosts were recorded. Based on European Space Agency land use classifications, we recorded land use such as crops, trees, scrub, grassland, urban areas, and water availability within a 5 km radius of the temple. Generalized Linear Mixed Models were used to relate the counts in temples with microhabitats and land use. We sampled 59 temples repeatedly across 5 years which yielded a sample of 246 survey events. The total number of bats counted was 20,211, of which Hipposideros speoris was the most common (9,715), followed by Rousettus leschenaultii (5,306), Taphozous melanopogon (3,196), Megaderma lyra (1,497), Tadarida aegyptiaca (303), Pipistrellus sp. (144) and Rhinopoma hardwickii (50). About 39% of the total bats occurred in dark rooms and 51% along walkways. Species richness and total abundance were related to the availability of dark rooms and the number of buildings in the temple. Land use elements only had a weak effect, but scrub and grassland, even though they were few, are critical for bats. We conclude that retaining undisturbed dark rooms with small exits in temples and other dimly lit areas and having natural areas around temples are vital for bat conservation.

Down from the roof: reframing plants in Augustan art

AbstractThe Augustan marble “revolution” marked more than the substitution of one building material for another. It changed Rome's color, texture, and light, and visually redefined its sacred architecture. For centuries, temples in and around Rome had been decorated with brightly painted architectural terracottas, which typically featured a swirling array of plants and flowers. Terracotta was the material of sacred tradition, and the vegetal motifs employed on temples evoked a pious Italic past. The lush array of plant life present in Augustan art has not been adequately considered against this background. This paper explores the use of traditional plant motifs in Augustan art and architecture, with an emphasis on viewer response. It considers the so-called Campana reliefs before turning to a more detailed analysis of the Ara Pacis's vegetal panels. These, I argue, consciously evoked ancient temple decoration and drew it into the new visual language of the Augustan Principate.