Sum of the Arts: Lost Civilizations
Number of large-scale bronzes that survive from ancient Greece = ~200
Sum of the Arts is a periodic tabulation of numbers floating around the art world and beyond. In a special edition inspired by the recent discovery of a Mycenaean palace in Greece, we’re exploring the numerical relics of lost civilizations of the ancient world.
- Number of times a year a snake-shaped shadow appears to slither on the steps of the Maya El Castillo pyramid = 2 (at each equinox)
- Number of men who drowned when their boat capsized during the first effort to bring Cleopatra’s Needle to London, in 1877 (although the drifting 1460 BCE obelisk was later found at sea) = 6
- Number of Nazca Plateau geoglyphs possibly depicting llamas, newly identified through 3D scanning = 24
- Number of skulls visible in the layers of an Aztec sacrificial skull rack, discovered last month in Mexico City = 35
- Percentage of construction at Machu Picchu estimated to be underground = 60
- Feet below the water a 10,000-year-old monolith was recently found off the coast of Sicily (it was submerged in a flood 9,500 years ago) = 131
- Number of large-scale bronzes that survive from ancient Greece = ~200
- Years two forgotten cities in the jungle of Honduras appear to have gone undisturbed until their recent “rediscovery” = 600
- Age in years that customs officials listed for a Peruvian mummy, described as “an immigrant,” when it came through New York in 1949 = 3,000
- Estimated number of discarded items in Monte Testaccio, the garbage dump of Rome = 53,000,000
