A street in an Etruscan cemetery The Etruscans (ee-TRUSS-cans) of Northern Italy believed that it was important to keep cemeteries well separated from where people lived. You could not bury anyone inside the sacred boundary of the city (the pomerium). But they wanted their dead relatives to feel comfortable. So, beginning about 700 BC, the Etruscans [...]
Black-figure amphora by Exekias showing Achilles and Ajax playing checkers One of the most famous Greek black-figure vase painters was called Exekias (ex-EEK-ee-us). Exekias was from Athens. We know his name because he used to write it on his vases, "Exekias painted this vase." Unfortunately, we don't know anything else about him; whether [...]
Exekias: Dionysos turning a ship into vines (Athens, ca. 530 BC) When your pot is dry, you fire it in a kiln. First you give it a lot of air, so the whole pot turns red, slip and all. This is because the oxygen in the air mixes with the iron in the [...]
Black figure amphora by Exekias showing Achilles and Ajax playing checkers What does "black figure" mean? In Athens, in the Archaic period, potters kept right on making clay pots with mythological scenes on them. Gradually the scenes grew and took over more of the pot, and the geometric decoration took up less and [...]
What is rust? A rusty fence railing Oxidation reactions Fire isn't the only kind of combustion reaction. Some kinds of metal, if you leave them in contact with oxygen, will also react with the oxygen, but much more slowly, and without making a flame. Combustion reactions Lots of chemistry articles Because this reaction [...]
