Some Early Plant Depictions in Prehistoric Art

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Although I’m interested in early art, formal art history either as books or lectures typically bores me to tears. Thankfully the Internet and open access allow me to dip in and out where and when my interests take me. Recently an article on some of the earliest plant images in prehistoric art caught my eye.

In their article “The Earliest Vegetal Motifs in Prehistoric Art” (in the December 05, 2025, issue of Journal of World Prehistory), authors Yosef Garfinkel and Sarah Krulwich note that systematic depictions first appear on painted pottery of the Halafian culture of northern Mesopotamia (roughly around the headwaters of Tigris and Euphrates) c. 6200-5500 BCE.

(They do later modify this statement with “this is one of the world’s earliest extensive uses of vegetal motifs, and the earliest in the Near East”, so I guess the jury is still out as to what is considered the earliest find we know of.)

Garfinkel and Krulwich analyzed 29 Halafian sites and surveyed of one of the regions, for a total of several tens of thousands of painted pottery sherds with various motifs. The sherds mainly included geometric patterns, but also had depictions of animals, human figures, and plants.

Garfinkel Krulwich Map of Halafian Sites Sm
Map of the Near East showing the location of prehistoric Halafian sites, c. 6200-5500 BCE, in ancient Mesopotamia, as examined in Garfinkel and Krulwich’s survey (2025) of the earliest plant depictions in prehistoric art of the area.

Among the plant imagery, Garfinkel and Krulwich focused on the ones identifiable “without hesitation”. They were able to classify the motifs into four basic categories: flowers, shrubs, branches, and trees.

Garfinkel Krulwich Classification of Plant Imagery Orig Sm
The classification of the Halafian vegetal motifs into four basic categories according to Garfinkel and Krulwich (2025): 1–2 flowers, 3–4 shrubs, 5–6 branches, 7–8 trees.

Apparently, botanical motifs were used in almost all sites and were fairly popular.

Garfinkel Krulwich Imgs 3and5 Mashup
Collage of images 3 and 5 in Garfinkel and Krulwich (2025): examples of flowers.

Despite the fact that each site only contained a small number of sherds with botanic imagery, a meta-analysis yields interesting results. Presumably the average frequency of plant motifs on decorated sherds is around 4-6 %, and they could perhaps relate to aesthetics (instead of religious rites, for example) and to the advance of mathematical knowledge, Garfinkel and Krulwich suggest.

Garfinkel Krulwich Imgs 14and18 Mashup
Collage of images 14 and 18 in Garfinkel and Krulwich (2025): examples of shrubs and branches.

Whole trees are apparently the least common motif among this sample. (I suspect I would initially be hard-pressed to recognize some of these trees as trees, having grown up with very different flora.)

Garfinkel Krulwich Img20
Image 20 in Garfinkel and Krulwich (2025): examples of trees.

Some items came with two different types of plant designs, while others were decorated with plant and zoomorphic images (i.e., animals).

Garfinkel Krulwich Imgs22and23 Mashup
Collage of images 22 and 23 in Garfinkel and Krulwich (2025): examples of combinations of plant and animal images.

(Garfinkel and Krulwich also analyze the sherds from the point of view of mathematical knowledge and counting in the Halafian culture. I’m not interested in ethnomathematics, but if you are, I urge you to visit the article for their finds.)

It seems clear that these sherds from 8,000(!) years ago indicate not just a long history of competent pottery-making but also an established visual language. Considering how random overall the survival of pottery (and glass) remains over the millenia can be, it’s nice to see such a variety and richness in the decorated vessels, especially from an era we tend to (erroneously!) consider backward and dull.

Found via Pottery by Osa on Mastodon.

Images by Yosef Garfinkel and Sarah Krulwich (CC BY 4.0), mashups by Eppu Jensen

Out There highlights intriguing art, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.

The Second Trailer for The Latest Odyssey Adaptation

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There’s now a second trailer for Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey.

The Odyssey | Official New Trailer by Universal Pictures on YouTube

This trailer does address some of my complaints after the first trailer: firstly, it contains more hints of color. Secondly, we see sunny scenes and/or daylight. And thirdly, there is a much more coherent picture of the story. All right, not bad.

New actors are also revealed. Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son Telemachus is a pleasant surprise (with no unnecessary buckles, it seems, which is another source of joy). He plays young people quite well, as far as I can tell; I do hope he won’t be typecast as a bumbly youth forever. Robert Pattinson’s Antinous—one of Penelope’s suitors—seems to be as smily a ball as he is in the original. It’s also nice to see Charlize Theron as Calypso.

That’s not all, however. According to IMDB, Zendaya plays the goddess Athena and Lupita Nyong’o Helen of Troy. Very nice! It should be interesting to see Mia Goth as Melantho, but how small or large they will make the role remains to be seen.

And there’s a puppy! Whether the puppy, the women, and the increased color will be enough to offset all of the angsty, dark, toxic angst and tempt me into the theater after all will still remain to be seen. There’s so much ugly in the world at the moment I don’t need or want it in my escapism, please and thank you.

The Odyssey will release on July 17, 2026.

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Third Trailer for Masters of the Universe Reboot

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Here’s the third trailer for the Masters of the Universe reboot:

Masters of The Universe – Official Final Trailer by Amazon MGM Studios on YouTube

There is a little more plot, a glimpse of fighting on Earth, and definite comedic promise in this trailer. Also more side characters are introduced. Sounds like nostalgia is going to be a big part of the draw of this reboot, so for me the theatrical release is a miss.

There is a question, however, which I haven’t yet seen addressed: where is Orko? Are the clips and effects with copy-pasted look a hint that the production has, indeed, gone over where the fence is lowest and not even tried to include him?

MotU officially opens today, June 05, 2026.

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To Come: Shadow of the Past, Another New Movie Set in Middle-earth

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The news has been our for a while that Tolkien mega fan Stephen Colbert is working on a Middle-earth-themed movie script. The working title is The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, and it will be written by Stephen Colbert, Peter McGee (Colbert’s son), and Philippa Boyens.

The project was confirmed well before April 01, which is good—I’ve seen some comments that it sounds like an April Fool’s prank.

The story is set 14 years after the passing of Frodo and has “Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.”

Unsplash T L Dark Hobbiton Movie Set Sm

Apparently Colbert has said that the plot is “basically the chapter ‘Three is Company’ through ‘Fog on the Barrow-Downs'” and wondered whether “that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story? Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys [Peter Jackson et al.] had already made?'”

Hmm…! If the writing team is allowed to write (and capable of producing) a script faithful enough to the book, it might be really interesting. I’m looking forward to hearing more, at the least.

Image: dark Hobbiton movie set by T L via Unsplash

Trailers for The Other Bennet Sister

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Apparently, The Other Bennet Sister is out already! The series is a tweak on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the dowdy middle sister, Mary, based on Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel.

The teasers and trailers give you a rough idea of the production, from the short clips…

Your first look at The Other Bennet Sister | OFFICIAL TEASER – BBC on YouTube

The Other Bennet Sister | BritBox Original Teaser by BritBix on YouTube

…to one with a little more length:

The Other Bennet Sister | BritBox Original Trailer by BritBox on YouTube

Okay, then! Lydia is as horrible thoughtless as ever, Jane as thoughtful and kind. I’m having the darnest time telling who’s Lizzy on the basis of these clips; very obviously, the focus is elsewhere.

I remember reading The Other Bennett Sister and liking it; I hope the script is as good. The cast looks wonderful as far as I can tell: Ella Bruccoleri as Mary, Richard E. Grant as Mr. Bennett, Indira Varma as Mrs. Gardiner, and Tanya Reynolds as the shudder-inducing Caroline Bingley. Production values and locations look lovely as well. According to Wikipedia, location shots were pricipally done in Bristol and Wales, so refreshingly new scenery should be in store. I’ll have to look up how to get access!

Have you seen The Other Bennett Sister yet? Any thoughts?

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Quotes: Illogical Does not Mean Inexplicable

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The old Star Trek novel How Much for Just the Planet? is an odd book: an original-series Star Trek musical comedy farce in novel form. It concerns a planet called Direidi, where the eccentric local population reacts to the arrival of a Federation diplomatic mission and a rival Klingon deputation by putting both delegations through a series of increasingly wacky and nonsensical dramatic adventures (wacky and nonsensical even by the standards of original-series Star Trek, which is saying something).

In the midst of the general absurdity, though, the book delivers a poignant observation on life:

Spock sat alone on the bridge, contemplating the Direidi situation. He had been following the movements of the Enterprise crew to the best of his ability, given the effects of the background radiation. Terribly illogical things were happening on the planetary surface.

Spock had known for a long time, however, that when reasoning beings were involved, “illogical” by no means meant “inexplicable.” In fact, a great number of societal explanations required the suspension of logic, and sometimes working entirely outside its strictures.

– How Much for Just the Planet? by John M. Ford

What’s true of a planet of theatrical interstellar weirdos is true of life in general. Things don’t always make sense in the way we think they ought to make sense, but they always make sense in some way. There is wisdom in learning to respect other people’s sense, even when it seems like nonsense to us.

Ford, John M. How Much for Just the Planet? New York: Pocket Books, 1987, 172.

Serving exactly what it sounds like, the Quotes feature excerpts other people’s thoughts.

Plant Jams, as in Music

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Bionic and the Wires is an art project by Jon Ross and Andy Kidd that combines art, nature, and tech. They say they want to “celebrat[e] the inherent rhythms of non-human life forms”.

To create music, electrical fluctuations in the plants trigger bionic arms to play instruments. In other words, the plant essentially generates mallet strikes that, when appropriately placed, hit keyboard keys, cymbals, or the like to make sounds.

Three Plants Having a Jam by BionicandtheWires on YouTube

You can even plug mushrooms into the same setup:

Mushroom and Plant Jamming by BionicandtheWires on YouTube

The resulting music is quite hypnotic in a way and truly fascinating.

I wonder what it would sound like if the plants were plugged into traditional instruments like hardanger fiddles or zithers. This is definitely a feature I’d love to see in a SFFnal story, especially if there already are sentient plants or fungi.

An occasional feature on music and sound-related notions.

The Hunt for Gollum Update

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By all appearances, the Tolkien adaptation project The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is chugging steadily along. As publicized earlier, Andy Serkis directs. The writing team consists of Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Phoebe Gittins, and Arty Papageorgiou.

The latest big news are threefold: the casting of Kate Winslet, the recasting of Aragorn, and the return of Lee Pace as Thranduil. (Please share if you have other tidbits!)

IMDB Winslet A Little Chaos

At this writing, according to IMDB, returning to their previous Middle-earth roles are Elijah Wood (Frodo), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Lee Pace (Thranduil), and Andy Serkis (Gollum); new actors and/or roles include Kate Winslet as Marigol, Jamie Dornan as Strider, and Leo Woodall as Halvard.

It’s not surprising that a new role was created for Winslet, since female characters are few and far between in that section of Tolkien’s writing. However, there’s as of yet no indication what kinds of characters Marigol and Halvard might be or even which cultures or races they might come from.

Neither does it surprise me that Viggo Mortensen isn’t returning as Aragorn, as he’s getting on in years (and computer-aided de-aging is never very good anyway). Once the recasting was confirmed, there were a lot of speculation and rumors flying around. Apparently Dornan doesn’t yet have many big-name roles under his belt. I did see somewhere that the production was looking for someone who looks like a younger Viggo Mortensen; whether that’s true I have no idea, but it at least appears plausible.

IMDB Dornan New Worlds Cropped

Casting Lee Pace as Thranduil is nice; he did a fantastic job earlier and he’s still young enough to plausibly appear in the role. And, of course, seeing his character would be completely logical given Tolkien’s original references to Mirkwood and Mirkwood Elves around this plot element.

Apparently the start of production is happening this month. Actual progress! Reactor Mag also reports that filming will continue until October, and that HfG is the first planned movie in a duology. The production just might turn out to be more interesting than I thought earlier.

The release has been pushed forwards by a year (earlier info mentioned 2026). At this writing, HfG is slated to hit the theaters on Dec 17, 2027.

Images: Winslet in A Little Chaos, photo by Alex Bailey via IMDB. Dornan in New Worlds via IMDB (cropped).

Pompeii Reconstructed

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Here’s a fascinating project: a digital reconstruction of the Roman city of Pompeii that lets us walk through the streets and wander the houses of the ancient city when it was still a living town. This video shows some highlights of the work produced by Altair 4.

Pompei Then and now [sic] by Altair4 Multimedia Archaeo3D Production via Youtube

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