Let's give it up for those Latino lizards, @miblogestublog.bsky.social @jewyorican.bsky.social ...

Ancient #polychromy is rarely more vibrant than this type of Greek painted pottery from Centuripe, Sicily. Both vases here are funerary and have architectural elements at top, looking like small tholos-shaped temples (lion head waterspouts!). The colors are blazingly vivid. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

New research: Paleolithic artifacts hint at earliest protowriting Geometric shapes on 40,000-year-old bone and ivory suggest early European Homo sapiens long possessed cognitive tools for language. www.science.org/content/arti...

Claude's Custom Skills can turn a genealogy research-log spreadsheet into a footnoted research report. Set up a reusable skill with one prompt, upload your CSV/XLSX, and get polished prose — far faster than the chain-of-thought method from a year ago. familylocket.com/from-spreads...

Fox in the snow, 1893, by Winslow Homer. It’s his day today.

Claude Skills are the next iteration or evolution of prompt-based genealogy work. Nicole Dyer is a Jedi Master of explaining this technology in a genealogical context.

Trying out a new style in a new place: portrait of a scribe, probably by Venetian painter Gentile Bellini while visiting Constantinople in 1480. Today was his day.

2/2 Women of Alexandria gathered to hear the preaching of Saint Mark. By Gentile Bellini, 1505. Had never been to Egypt, but had been to Constantinople.

Are the wings on the hat worn by Hermes/Mercury actually cockerel wings? Article about the link between Hermes/Mercury, cockerels and (god of rain) thunder storms: oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2026/02/cock...

2/2 Marvelous geometry of windows in Gentile Bellini's street. And beyond, dawn over the hills.

Man reading a letter by candlelight, by Rembrandt Peale, 1805. Today was his day.

Rajah Ram Mohan Roy, scholar, ambassador, and reformer. Unusual portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1833.

I'll be cyber-there! And please check out my RootsTech talk on Latino genealogy on Saturday, March 7 at 5pm ET: www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech...

2/2 George Washington in 1795, looking old and a bit troubled. Is this whole USA thing going to work? We still don't know! Painted by Rembrandt Peale.

A child's #sarcophagus is always sad, even when it's part of a gigantic #spolia centrepiece at the back of the courtyard of #palazzoMattei di #Giove in #Rome. This one, from 175-200 CE, has #Erotes dancing between pilasters, evoking the innocent joys of a childhood cut short. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Eye inlays from an Egyptian coffin 👀 The frame is made of bronze, the eye of calcite and obsidian. Dating ca 1500-1200 BC. On display at Staatliches Museum für Ägyptische Kunst. 📷 me 🏺

This feels weirdly contemporary, like a mix of Remedios Varo and that Dinotopia guy...

Exuberantly fantastical palace designed in 1597 by Hans Vredeman de Vries of Leeuwarden, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Danzig, Hamburg, Prague, etc. etc.

The way Peale added that bottom stoop 😚👌 I may not have bowed before it like George Washington supposedly did, but this is a highlight of the Philly Museum of Art!

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

Saint Eustace, excellently clad for a day's hunting, encounters a talking stag with a crucifix between its antlers. Miracle! Only one of the dogs growls at the apparition, which seems unlikely. By Pisanello, whose day is today.

3/3 Pisanello's nature studies can be so engaging. I'm liking this dormouse a lot. As did he.

A fascinating thread from #HouseHistory to #FamilyHistory that’s tied up with the story of American #Abolitionism and the #UndergroundRailroad in New York. Now fighting for preservation of the story. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/n...

Roses are red, family trees are wide, #genealogy is one helluva ride!

The Tree of Gnarledge!

Nothing like Burgundian sumptuousness, @susanabernethy2.bsky.social!

Engagement brooch of Maximilian I of Austria and Mary of Burgundy, 1475. She was born on this day in 1457.

Y-DNA Tree Tops 100,000 Branches. Learn how FamilyTree DNA has traced the lineage of all human males using individual Y-DNA testers and thousands of academic and ancient results. buff.ly/ZijsjWP #DNA #DNATesting #Genealogy

Born in Brussels, on this day, in 1457: Mary of Burgundy, only child of Charles the Bold & hence heiress extraordinaire. Today is for her, her book, and her favorite painter.

Lost amid the intensity of foliage, Saint George & the dragon in 1510, as painted by Albrecht Altdorfer. It's his day.

2/2 It's time! Clockmakers, from Jan van der Straet's series of great modern inventions. Blame them for woes of modern society!

Persian king presented with a leopard. Great present! Drawn by Jan van der Straet, aka Stradanus, in 1596. Today was his day.

When #NY1 hits that local news sweet spot 😚👌

It's lovely to see Cheryl Wills, an absolutely fantastic person and reporter, break the news on #NY1 as well!!

In an unsettling #genealogy hunt through #FamilySearch, I link together an enslaved teenager, dowdy Knights of Santiago, Bad Bunny, ridiculous epic poetry, Google Maps, Diego Velázquez, and a Jewish man burned at the stake: geneticfunhouse.blogspot.com/2026/02/can-...

2/2 Artist gives us a glimpse of his Velazquez-like studio, but without Meninas and with wife and kid. Normal!

Died (alas!) on this day in 1667 Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, pupil & son-in-law of Velázquez. Here, Mazo's portrait of his family, c. 1660.

2/2 Margarita Teresa. So lovely. So doomed to die young, like most of the Spanish Habsburgs. Alas! At least immortalized in paint, here by Juan Bautista del Mazo.

Infanta Margarita Teresa, drowning in her truly astonishing pink dress, 1665. By Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, whose day is today.

Portrait of a girl with flowers. Beautiful work by Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, whose day is today.

Bigtime courtier Count-Duke Olivares gets an equestrian portrait in 1636. By Diego Velasquez & his pupil/son-in-law Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo whose day is today.

A 15,000-year-old painted limestone, from the Hohle Fels Cave, Swabian Jura. The shapes of the dots are symmetrical and executed precisely. The accuracy indicates that the dot rows were painted using a tool or stamp. On display at our branch museum urmu, Blaubeuren. 📷 me 🏺 #archaeology

During my brief correspondence with Michel Foucault between 1978-1980, we discussed piracy and life at sea. He wrote, “I intend to study the laws concerning the sea next year.” Had he done this, he would have returned to his earlier lecture, “Of Other Spaces.” It never happened; what a shame.

#MosaicMonday takes us deep into the #Vittoriano in #Rome to discover a rarely-seen and spectacular late antique #opussectile floor from an unknown building in the southern part of piazza #Venezia. #AncientBluesky 🏺

#BeninBronzes #BritishMuseum

What a superb owl! Perky pre-Colombian finial.

Moment of energetic entertainment from #SuperbOwl courtesy, of course, of Hieronymus Bosch. Go owls!

Super Bowl Piraguas 🤩

“He appeared at the right moment in the history of Latin America.” apnews.com/article/puer...

Simply amazed that 17th century dogs could be this derpy--