Figure with “moon animal” headdress and llama, Peru, c. 700. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Camilla Chandler Frost.
• “The ars moriendi, art of dying, formed a medieval literary genre. Death could come suddenly at any time, so it was important to be prepared. Fifteenth-century tracts instructed the imperiled soul to repent, make a good confession, and detach from worldly goods, including wife and children.” (London Review of Books)
• On the photography of Dorothea Lange: “Lange herself never adhered to such a fixed set of aesthetic principles; she favored matter-of-factness.” (The New York Review of Books)
• The history of the Jane Fonda workout tape. (Decoder Ring)
• On Jean César Legallois’ decapitation experiments. (JSTOR Daily)
• “The final pagan generation’s shortsightedness still stands out. They acquiesced to the rule of Christian emperors pursuing the elimination of paganism in exchange for a few decades of government salaries and fancy titles. These men could have fought against a change they fundamentally disagreed with. They got rich instead.” (Aeon)
• “How did the British become so blinkered about their nation’s imperial history?” (The New Yorker)
• “Why Baseball Fans Stopped Rushing the Field.” (Slate)
• The history of monsters around the world. (Atlas Obscura)
• “The Great British Bake Off Exists Thanks to Coal-Fired Ovens.” (Jezebel)
• Studying shellfish to learn something about the mobility and unlikely cooperative habits of early humans. (Archaeology)
• Found: sacrificed llama mummies. (Science News)
• On the Wickersham Commission. (Mother Jones)
• “Between 1947 and 1956, there were seventy-seven recorded trials that involved accusations of witchcraft in West Germany, a number that does not account for the scores more accusations of witchcraft that never ended up in court. At the time of West Germany’s founding in 1949, the new country’s newspapers and tabloids were full of reports of witches and medicine men roaming the countryside.” (Boston Review)
• This week in obituaries: Jerry Jeff Walker, Julia O’Faolain, Jill Paton Walsh, Cecilia Chiang, Dr. Joyce Wallace, Daniel Menaker, Robert E. Murray, Lee Kun-hee, Juan R. Torruella, Christiane Eda-Pierre, and Diane di Prima.