hinducosmos:

Ritual Water Vessel Conch shell
c. 11th century or earlier. Bengali or Orissan

The god Vishnu uses a conch shell as a war trumpet and it is one of his identifying attributes. Within the rondel on this shell Vishnu is represented in his martial role as protector of the universe. He flies through the sky on his mount, the bird-man Garuda, holding his weapons—the shell-trumpet, the mace, and the discus.
(via Philadelphia Museum of Art)

yama-bato:

Persian Astrolab

This early Persian astrolabe with a geared calendar movement is the oldest geared machine in existence in a complete state. It illustrates an important stage in the development of the various complex astronomical machines from which the mechanical clock derives.
Islamic scholars learned of this design from a text by one of the greatest Islamic scientists, al-Bîrûnî (973-1048), who explained how gearing might be used to show the revolutions of the sun and moon at their relative rates, and to demonstrate the changing phase of the moon. These phenomena were of fundamental importance in the lunar calendar used in Islam.

Inventory no. 48213
Astrolabe with Geared Calendar, by Muhammad b. Abi Bakr, Isfahan

(via)

tolkienianos:

tolkienianos:

But when the devouring wave rolled over the land and Númenor toppled to its fall, then [Elendil] would have deemed it the lesser grief to perish, for no wrench of death could be more bitter than the loss and agony of that day; but the great wind took him, wilder than any wind that Men had known, roaring from the west, and it swept his ships far away; and it rent their sails and snapped their masts, hunting the unhappy men like straws upon the water.

“Akallabêth” – The Silmarillion – J.R.R. Tolkien

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started