#larnax
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oregonthedm.bsky.social
Part 130 of 200 in historically interesting things to inspire your ttrpg

The golden larnax (chest with the remains) and crown of Alexander's father, Philip II of Macedon
Leafed crown and gold chest
November 15, 2025 at 10:00 PM
carausius286.bsky.social
This larnax (or terracotta chest-shaped coffin) was found in a Minoan tomb. They were designed to look like domestic wooden storage containers, an echo of life in death. This one has painted decoration (albeit faded) but an octopus is clearly visible - a common Minoan motif.
🕰️1400-1200BC
🏛️BM
📷mine
October 4, 2026 at 5:57 AM
zbcy.bsky.social
Larnax (a small coffin that would contain either human remains or ashes), Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete, Greece

#photography #travel #Hellas #island #archaeology #Minoan
November 2, 2025 at 1:39 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday at the #BritishMuseum finds us in front of this terracotta #larnax or cinerary urn from #Chiusi, dating from 150-100 BCE. A stoutish blond youth reclines on the lid, above a battle scene on the front, but the inscription names a woman, Thana Ancarui Thelesa. #AncientBluesky 🏺
TERRACOTTA LARNAX, 150-100 BCE. BRITISH MUSEUM The curious thing about Etruscan terracotta cinerary urns or larnakes of this kind is that though they were made of an inexpensive material, they were often lavishly painted to a very high standard, like this one. They were even mass produced. This example from Chiusi has a lid with a young man in a loose tunic, blond and clean-shaven, holding a phiale or libation bowl, leaning on his left elbow atop a kline or couch. The box of the larnax has a battle scene with five warriors, which could be one of many mythological episodes. It too is richly painted. The painted inscription on the lid names a woman, Thana Ancarui Thelesa, which testifies to the "pre-need" nature of these urns. Maybe a woman's larnax wasn't available, or maybe this one was just the most beautiful vessel to accompany the deceased into eternity.
May 2, 2026 at 10:35 AM
evanka.eurosky.social
Minoan #stunday
(More about it in reply)
Minoan clay chest-shaped larnax, dating to the 13th or 12th centuries BCΕ, from Crete, octopus decoration, from Unseen Museum at National Archeological Museum, Athens.
February 8, 2026 at 12:47 PM
ellamaillart.bsky.social
With fifteen to twenty workers, they excavated pre-palatial and proto-palatial houses of Quartier Gamma and discovered a Late Minoan III tomb with a larnax to the west of the beach of Hagia Varvara.

#Photography #Crete #Travel #EllaMaillart #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin #ECK
A team of workers clearing earth and rubble on a dig using shovels, baskets for moving dirt and pickaxes.
June 5, 2026 at 7:59 AM
missjonestravel.bsky.social
Ein #Larnax mit Octopusbemalung🐙
Auf dem Bild sehr ihr ein Grabgefäß aus der #Bronzezeit. Es handelt sich um eine typische Darstellung bei den Minoern. In dieser #Kultur gab es viele Darstellungen von Octopoden:

www.miss-jones.de/2021/03/12/o...
June 30, 2024 at 4:47 PM
sufridasafo.bsky.social
Lo más antiguo que sea parecido a una caja en el ámbito mediterráneo es el larnax que es una caja funeraria. Se usaban para guardar muertos, no otras cosas.
November 24, 2025 at 2:42 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #SarcophagusSaturday we're back one last time at the #MuseodellArteSalvata at the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome, to see a strange #Etruscan #cinerary #urn or #larnax saved from the clandestine antiquities market by the #Carabinieri. #AncientBluesky 🏺
LARNAX WITH FEMALE FACE, 240-220 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA, BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This third cinerary urn found in an illicit excavation in the locality of S. Donnino outside the Umbrian town of Città della Pieve is much simpler than the other two from the same tomb belonging to the women of the aristocratic Pulfna family. It's a quite simple box in a local tufo whose lid has no effigy of the deceased but is a simple flat slab, on the front of which is a long inscription both incised and painted in red. I can't find a translation of this, but I can make out the name Pulfna on it. The corners of this box are carved like pilasters, and extend below it to make short legs. At centre is a strange female face, carved in an almost childlike way, with bulging eyes, triangular nose, and irregular mouth. She is probably a Medusa, with brown painted hair below an unpainted and jagged crown (?). Two symmetrical S-volutes flank the head, on a painted brown background.
July 26, 2025 at 10:58 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
This #Etruscan #larnax was recovered in 2024 from a site near Città della Pieve in #Umbria, a splendid example for #SarcophagusSaturday. The scene on the box of these larnakes is always a rather generic #Greek mythical episode, like a decorated base for the #portrait above. 🧵
LARNAX WITH THE HUNT FOR THE CALYDONIAN BOAR, 210-150 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA This larnax or Etruscan cinerary urn comes from the same place as last week's, the tomb of the women of the powerful gens Pufna. Here the lid shows a reclining woman in painted alabastrine gypsum, with golden jewelry, leaning on her elbow, a ring on the finger of one hand, a patera or offering plate in her other hand, resting on her knee. Her beautiful face, still rich with polychromy, is tilted upward as if awaiting the dawn. The box itself shows the scene of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, reduced to its essentials to fit the small space: Meleager is driving a spear into the boar, Atalanta with her bow stands behind the boar, and at right a nude hunter is flashing the boar, while favouring the viewer with some truly solid gluteal muscles.
July 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
beefy-knees.xyz
Yer mom’s a golden larnax
August 16, 2024 at 3:05 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday takes us to the #VillaGiulia where we find this lovely cinerary urn or #larnax with a male figure on the lid and fratricide on the front. Some #polychromy survives, as well. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺
LARNAX WITH THE COMBAT BETWEEN ETEOCLES AND POLYNICES, 200-150 BCE. VILLA GIULIA This urn, which shows traces of the original polychromy, belongs to a group of terracotta urns made from moulds produced by workshops in the area of the Etruscan city of Chiusi. They were mass produced for customers who could not afford the more expensive alabaster or travertine urns. The lid is in the shape of a semi-recumbent male figure holding a votive plate (patera) in his right hand. The scene depicted on the front of the case, framed by two winged female genii (Vanth) holding torches, shows the duel to the death between Oedipus' sons, Eteocles and Polynices. who, after the death of their father, were vying for the government of the city of Thebes. This legend, set in the heroic age, is part of the saga of the Seven Against Thebes, which the great Greek tragedian Aeschylus staged in Athens in 467 BCE. The name "Eteocles" may be an authentic survival from the Bronze Age. It appears in royal genealogies at both Thebes and Orchomenos, and an Assyrian tablet (the language of international diplomacy in the Bronze Age) from about 1260 BCE found in the archives of Pylos mentions an "Etewokleweios" (full of the archaic digamma "w" that disappears with classical Greek) as harassing Hittite allies on the western coast of Anatolia.
March 22, 2025 at 11:08 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday at the #BritishMuseum surprises us with quite the little collection of #Minoan funerary furniture, like this terracotta #larnax or #ossuary from 1400-1200 BCE, found at Palaikastro in northeastern #Crete. This one has traces of painted decoration. #AncientBluesky 🏺
TERRACOTTA LARNAX, 1400-1200 BCE, FROM CRETE. BRITISH MUSEUM This terracotta ossuary has rounded loop handles on both lid and box, and shows decoration in black paint that can still be barely made out. The front of the box (and presumably the back) has two recessed panels with quatrefoil and scale designs, while the lid has a pattern of tentacles. This comes from a British excavation at Rousolakkos, a Bronze Age city on the coast of Palaikastro near Mount Dicte, the legendary birthplace of Zeus. The larnax comes from toward the very end of the Bronze Age in Crete, when the island was ruled by Mycenaean Greeks facing the invading Sea Peoples, who would close out the period in chaos and destruction.
December 6, 2025 at 9:13 PM
andrewhaglington.bsky.social
Amazing golden LARNAX - watching "Ancient Greece by Train with Alice Roberts" on #Channel4 #TV...
March 16, 2025 at 8:47 PM
missjonestravel.bsky.social
Dies ist ein Bestattungsgefäß aus der #Bronzezeit Kretas.

Was die Gedanken sind hier einen #octopus zu zeigen, ist heute unklar. Und trotzdem kann man bei der Betrachtung der Bilder von achtarmigen Tieren aus dieser Zeit, die #Kultur ein bisschen besser verstehen:

www.miss-jones.de/2021/03/12/o...
Larnax mit octopus Bemalung
September 6, 2026 at 8:57 PM
wimvanhaecke.eurosky.social
Eigenlijk is het ongelooflijk dat graf van Phillippus II, de vader van Alexander de Grote, ongeschonden werd teruggevonden in de jaren 1970.
De vondsten zijn dan spectaculair. Dit is de larnax (een tussenvorm tussen doodskist en urne) en de grafkroon.
November 9, 2023 at 11:09 AM
ellamaillart.bsky.social
Marthe Oulié - the dynamic, enthusiastic, meticulous, resourceful and ambitious apprentice archaeologist - writing in her logbook at the bow of the Bonita, 1925.

#Photography #Archaeology #Archaeologist #Sailing #Greece #EllaMaillart #MartheOulié #ArtOfBlueSky #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin
Marthe Oulié writing in her logbook at the bow of the Bonita. Once in Piraeus, Marthe Oulié, Hermine de Saussure, Ella Maillart and Mariel Jean-Brunhes took the ferry to Crete, to work at Malia from 14 September to 18 October 1925. With fifteen to twenty workers, they continued to excavate the late pre-palatial and proto-palatial houses of Quartier Gamma, discovered a Late Minoan III tomb with a larnax to the west of the beach of Hagia Varvara and explored the islet of Afendis Christos. This islet, located ca. 3 km to the west of the Palace of Malia and ca. 200 m offshore, yielded pithos and earth burials dated to the Middle Minoan and Geometric periods.
June 4, 2026 at 6:25 AM
kathstravels.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekGforGold

So much #gold! 24-carat golden larnax (11kg) & wreath of oak leaves & acorns (717g)

Contents of Philips tomb, discovered unlooted in 1977, can be seen beautifully displayed at the UNESCO museum site of Vergina in #Macedonia, #Greece #AncientHistory

Such detail 👇🏻
A gold casket and an intricate gold wreath, made of oak leaves and acorns, displayed in a cabinet at the site of Vergina, northern Greece. The museum also contains many other artefacts from the tombs which had not been looted and all are beautifully lit and displayed.
February 10, 2025 at 8:16 AM
zimjay.bsky.social
🤐 off topic
I laughed so hard at the use of the 3D mummy larnax sound. So funny - Perfect timing. 💙
December 21, 2024 at 3:34 PM
lemoustier.bsky.social
🏺 🕊️ 🐦‍⬛ Having just seen this famous Mycenean larnax (funerary container) from Hagia Triada and debated with my guide & archaeologist Kostas Georgakopoulos about the bird species depicted on top of the double-axe posts - I think they're hooded crows, he said doves - this is v interesting!
Image of painted scène showing women and men bearing containers and musical instruments towards a large container between two posts on stone bases, with double-headed axes on top, and dark coloured birds on top of that. Another scene of a woman placing hands towards a probable altar, on which is a container and above a rhyton jug, in front is a poat or column with double axes and another dark bird. Close up of black bird on axes, which are painted yellow and probably bronze. Close up of birds on top of axes, they are dark grey.
May 28, 2026 at 7:32 AM
heraklescitharede.bsky.social
Un coffret funéraire, un larnax
January 29, 2025 at 2:42 PM
justrena.bsky.social
Hip-Hip and and neigh! It's Epona's day! If you were Roman.
This is a long thread, but hopefully shimmies in and out of history to inform and have fun.
I’ll start with a bit of a weird story, when I was deciding what dissertation to do as a UG ( I was torn between Minoan larnax and what I did!
December 18, 2023 at 10:22 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday takes us to the Octagonal Hall of the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome, where a fresh catch of repatriated and captured #antiquities has reopened the #MuseodellArteSalvata. The traces of #polychromy on this #Etruscan #cinerary #urn add to the beauty of the work. #AncientBluesky 🏺
LARNAX WITH THE KILLING OF TROILUS, C. 210 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA In 2015, news of the discovery of a hypogeum in the territory of Città della Pieve in Umbria, in the agrarian zone of San Donnino, began to filter out, as photos of objects from inside the tomb came to the attention of the Carabinieri. A raid on buildings of the owner of the land in question in April 2024 discovered an astonishingly rich haul: this was the tomb of the women of the powerful gens Pufna. All the grave-robbed property was taken into custody by October 2024. Here the lid shows a reclining woman in painted alabastrine gypsum, with golden jewelry, leaning on her elbow, a patera or offering plate in her other hand, resting on her knee. The box itself shows a violent scene from the Trojan War, the death of Troilus at the hands of Achilles, the one-man murder machine of the Iliad.
July 5, 2025 at 9:01 PM
kathstravels.bsky.social
I’m compiling a photobook of the ‘Best of our 2024 travels’. This has to be in it.

A larnax & #gold funeral wreath found in the undisturbed tomb of Philip II, now on display at the underground Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai #Vergina #Greece

🏺 #AncientBluesky #Archeology
#TravelAddict #VanLife
Gold box which contained the bones of Phillip II. Above the box is a gold funeral wreath fashioned from delicate leaves and acorns Funeral wreath made from intricate gold leaves and acorns
January 6, 2025 at 8:42 AM
roaringmeg.bsky.social
There’s been lots in the news about an Iron Age carnyx. Meet a Minoan larnax #Museums #Oxford #MinoanArt
January 15, 2026 at 9:22 AM