Orazio Riminaldi

Orazio Riminaldi (1593 – 1630) was an obscure Italian painter who painted a couple of real masterpieces. This is the most famous, The Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia. 

Riminaldi was born and learned to paint in Pisa, and he died in Pisa, but the most active part of his career seems to have been spent in Rome. 

Self portrait. This was the era of Caravaggio, and Riminaldi was obviously influenced by the Caravaggist movement.

Juno Puts Argos' Eyes in the Peacock's Tail

Riminaldi died at 37, apparently of the plague. This was at least five years after St. Cecilia, and he did nothing that really compares in the interval. So did his death deprive us more masterpieces, or was did only have a few great works in him?

Deadalus and Icarus, 1625, and Detail

I suspect he had much more to give,

because of this study for the Assumption of the Virgin, a work being prepared for Pisa's cathedral, which was completed by others, including his brother, because of Riminaldi's death.

The Lootsi Cog

Back in 2022, the wreck of a medieval ship was found under Lootsi Street near the old harbor of Tallinn, Estonia. It is usually called, in English, the Lootsi Cog. Tree-ring dating shows it was built not long after 1360.

Incidentally this kind of event, old ships found underground near old harbors, is common, because much land has been reclaimed in such places, and sometimes old hulls were intentionally buried as part of that process.

The ship was cut into three sections for transport to the maritime museum.

Reassembled.

Scan of the surviving hull, and detail.

With ghostly reconstruction of the missing upper portion. This is a cool find, but I started researching this because I saw a headline that said the ship is "amazingly well preserved," when actually it has about the usual degree of preservation for a medieval shipwreck. Sigh.

Compass found in the ship, one of the oldest in Europe.

Links 13 November 2026

Tsurikawa, "Triumphant Return," 2023

"Be curious, not judgmental" –Marguerite Shearer (not Walt Whitman)

Alex Tabarrok's list of the ten best posts on Marginal Revolution, impressive stuff.

The health effects of the Little Ice Age in Europe, focusing on Vitamin D deficiency. This was understood to some extent in the 1800s, which is why some people were working so hard to get fresh milk into poor urban neighborhoods, which is why Louis Pasteur became an instant international hero when he announced pasteurization.

Matt Yglesias, The Rise of the Hispanic Moderate.

Short tweet summarizing Ukraine's recent attacks on Russian oil refineries. Reuters estimates that Rusian refining capacity has been reduced by 30 percent, and gas lines are back.

Noah Smith is bullish on the Indian economy.

Bronze Age hoard and casting molds found in Germany.

How has the arrival of photographic portraits changed culture and how we see the past?

Thread about the arrest of Russian war blogger Romanov, apparently for reporting the truth. Nice look at the state of Russia.

Matt Yglesias, 23 Points about the Midterms. One of them is this, which I think is a good take on MAGA in general:

I hope that at some point immigration restrictionists will try to explain to me more clearly why they didn’t even try to pass an immigration bill. Did they think they were going to govern forever? They had a real shot to make a durable change in a policy area they care a lot about, and what happened instead was the Department of Homeland Security posted a lot of edgy memes.

How a tower crane works, 30-second video.

Major archaeological site from 125,000 years ago found in Saudi Arabia.

Review of a new biography of H.H. Munro, aka Saki.

The promise of mitochondrial transplantation.

Summary of Ukraine's November 11 drone attack on Leningrad Oblast, Twitter/X. And an update on the ongoing refinery attacks. And photos of the latest. 

Another take on the negotiations from a Russian commentator, via Chris O. The cynicism of the Putin regime is staggering.

The lands drowned by sea level rise at the end of the last Ice Age, which may have seen some of the first stirrings of agriculture and the rise of "civiliation."

Speaking of drowned lands, Cosquer Cave is a cave in southern France where an entrace 37m (120 feet) below sea level leads to dry rooms with Paleolithic paintins.

Attending a French festival of American literature.

Tybring Vig

Antler flaker, and tool used to make stone tools

Tybring Vig is an archaeological site in eastern Denmark. During the Mesolithic Era, around 6,000 years ago, it was on land, but it is now under about 10 feet (3m) of Baltic Sea water. It did not end up under water because of sea level rise in general, but because of the complex geology of Scandinvia; basically, the great weight of the ice sheet caused much northern Europe to sink, and after the ice melted things tilted in crazy ways. Tybring Vig tilted down and end up in shallow water under a bed of eelgrass that did much to preserve it.

A potsherd with preserved, burned residue that included misteltoe, which tastes terrible and so is an interesting thing to put in a stew.

The site was discoverted in 1975 and excavated between 1978 and 1988. It was occupied between about 5300 and 4200 BC. The actual habitation site seems to have been washed away; what was found was a trash dump, along with the grave of a 14-year-old mother and her baby.

What makes the site exciting is the preservation of stuff that rarely survived on land. Above is a largely intact paddle; the scale is 50 cm long.

And a fragmentary paddle with carved decoration; upper left is the original, lower right a reconstruction.

Canoes, which look exactly like all other canoes from Mesolithic Europe. The longer one measures 9.5 m long, or 31 feet.

Fabrics. One of these techniques is now known to recreators of Mesolithic weaving as the Tybrind Vig Stitch.

Antler ax.

Bow made of elm wood.

Part of a woven fish trap. It is humbling to ponder these artifacts and realize that 95% of ancient technology disappears from dry land sites.

Detailed description of the excavation methods at Tybrind Vig here.

Lynchburg, Virginia

My work in Danville wrapped up a few hours early, and I was due in Charlottesville (2.5 hours away) at dinnertime and saw no point in arriving early. So I decided to stop in Lynchburg, Virginia, a place I had never been, and see what was there. I liked this Art Deco office building.

General views of downtown.

My favorite thing was this stairway, which serves at the city's war memorial. Climbed the whole thing, so I guess my heart is really mending.

Confederate monument at the top.

Other wars.

Glad I stopped.

A Trip to Danville Part I

Got back early this morning from a three-day trip down to Danville. The main purpose was to attend public meetings about my project down there, but I also went into the field to check on the status of some sites we want to work on. My schedule was not tight, so I also had time for some exploration. It was the peak of Fall color and all three days were glorious, plus the meetings went well, so it was a great trip.

Plantation house ruin.

This crumbling factory must have been hidden by trees before, because it is on the road we drive from our hotel to the work site, and I never noticed it until Tuesday morning.

The hotel cat, which tried to come into my room when I opened the door one morning.

A cool graveyard just a few miles from our work site, which I explored for the first time.

Corner of an old house foundation.

A tenant house I suspect was built in the 1910s.

Two old barns. Finding this stuff in the middle of 3500 acres of woods was a great thrill. Even now that I know they are there, I still get a charge out of hiking a mile through the site and seeing them emerge from the vegetation in front of me.