Archaeology Award-Greenlee

Diana Greenlee, Poverty Point Station Archaeologist and accessory connect professor in the School of Sciences at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, established the state's highest archaeology award.
She was named the Archaeologist of the Year at the Louisiana Culture Awards Ceremony in Baton Rouge.
"Dr. Greenlee is a well-respected professional in her field and has worked industriously to appreciate the archaeology of Poverty Point and create it available to visitors," said Eric Pani, vice president for academic dealings at ULM. "Her effort to have the site named to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage List underscores the significance Poverty Point has in our human history. We are very conceited that she is a member of our illustrious power and applaud her on this award."
Greenlee has been the Poverty Point Archaeologist since 2006, supervision the archaeological investigate at the site.
"I feel really privileged to have received this award," said Greenlee. "Developing Poverty Point's World Heritage recommendation was a long and demanding project and it's good to be renowned for that. In truth, it actually was a team effort. A lot of people, including several from the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, the Office of State Parks, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe, contributed to the scheme. It is a opportunity to work at such a extraordinary archaeological site and with such a group of committed people."
Gary Stringer, ULM professor emeritus, designated Greenlee for the award.
"Although the awards are annual, some awards, such as Archaeologist of the Year, are only given when a person has established terrific activities and allegiance in that area," he said. "This year, the Archaeologist of the Year was awarded, and it went to Dr. Diana Greenlee "I was enormously satisfied she was given the well-deserved nobility."
Greenlee received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, and has taught at ULM for more than six years.

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Spectacular 1500-Year-old Mosaic

The most surprising reimbursement from extending Israel's north-south expressway has been riches of archaeological inventions, the newest being a fabulous mosaic from the 4th-6th centuries.
Excavations on the route of a new expressway north of Be'er Sheva have exposed a fabulous 1,500-year-old mosaic in the field of a kibbutz, providing vacationers for those with an extensive Shavuot festival to view the newest detection.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Cross-Israel Highway Company, which functions "Kvish 6, or Highway 6," is opening the dig free of Charge on Thursday morning until noon, when schools and man Yom Ha'atzmaut government offices are blocked as an extra day off following Shavuot. The Jewish holiday, also known as Pentecost, is renowned only one day in Israel but two days exterior the country.
The colorful dating to the Byzantine period among the 4th and 6th centuries was uncovered in new weeks in the fields of Kibbutz Bet Kama, situated about 15 miles north of Be'er Sheva and 50 miles south of Tel Aviv.
During the Byzantine period Jewish and Christian settlements in the region were located next to each other. A synagogue and ritual bath were uncovered in two nearby olden Jewish communities.
Before road builders can start getting ready to pave the extension of the highway from north of Beit Kama to a junction only 10 miles north of Be'er Sheva, excavations are carried out to determine if there are historical treasures underground. The archaeological site covers 1.5 acres on kibbutz farmland.
Several astounding finds already have been declared by the IAA, but the mosaic is one of the most spectacular of its kind in the country.
The main building at the site was a large hall 12 meters long by 8.5 meters wide and its ceiling was apparently covered with roof tiles. The hall's impressive opening and the breathtaking mosaic that adorns its floor suggest that the structure was a public building.
The well-preserved mosaic is decorated with geometric patterns and its corners are enhanced with amphorae - jars used to transport wine - a pair of peacocks, and a pair of doves pecking at grapes on a tendril. These are common designs that are known from this period; however, what makes this mosaic unique is the large number of motifs that were incorporated in one carpet.
Pools and a system of channels and pipes between them used to convey water were discovered in front of the building. Steps were exposed in one of the pools and its walls were treated with colored plaster, known as fresco.
Archaeologists in the Antiquities Authority are still trying to determine the purpose of the impressive public building and the pools whose construction required considerable economic resources.
The site seems to have consisted of a large estate that included church, residential buildings and storerooms, a large cistern, a public building and pools surrounded by farmland. Presumably one of the structures served as an inn for travelers who visited the place.

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Two millenia old Aizanoi rousing Istanbul bourse

The proud bearer of the title of the world's first stock replace, the ancient city of Aizanoi in Kutahya has become a source of inspiration in the promotions for the Istanbul Stock Exchange, which newly became Borsa Istanbul
Turkey's newly formed Borsa Istanbul (BIST) might be experiencing a period of effervescence as it bursts onto the world financial scene, but its roots go back much further than its immediate forerunner, the Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB). The inspiration for the bourse goes all the way back to antiquity and the world's ";oldest stock exchange," Aizanoi in present-day Kutahya.

Aizanoi, which is located in the inner Aegean province's Cavdarhisar district, is now being used in the promotions for BIST, a recent amalgamation of the IMKB and the Istanbul Gold Exchange.

Archaeologists working at the site in 1971 discovered inscriptions indicating the existence of a stock exchange during the Roman era. According to the inscriptions, a slave's price was equal to a donkey, while a horse was worth three slaves.

Notably, a round-shaped structure dating back to the second century A.D. contains a copy of a paper from Emperor Diocletian that was written in 301 A.D. that outlined regulations on sales prices for goods in the market. Because of the document, many have claimed that Aizanoi possessed the world's first stock market in its Macellum building.

The head of the Aizanoi excavations, Pamukkale University Assistant Professor Elif Ozer, said the world's first stock exchange was one of the most important structures in the ancient city. She said the round structures and inscriptions in the Macellum area, known as the stock exchange building, had become a current issue during works for BIST and had drawn the attention of brokers, bankers and investors.
Dating back to 3,000 BC
Aizanoi is 57 kilometers away from the provincial center of Kutahya and is known as the second Ephesus thanks to its 20,000-person-capacity amphitheater, 13,500-person-capacity stadium, a bath, a street with pillars, a necropolis and the world's first stock exchange.

The name ";Aizanoi" comes from the mythological hero ";Azan," while the city is believed to date back to 3000 B.C. During the Hellenistic era, Aizanoi was seized by the Pergamon Kingdom and Bithynia from time to time. The city later fell under Roman rule but gradually declined in importance in the early Byzantine era.

German archaeologists had been conducting excavations in the ancient city since 1970, but the dig was transferred to the control of Denizli's Pamukkale University in 2011.

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Archaeological evidence of cannibalism

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"Romeo and Juliet" Buried Together Holding Hands

Though excavating the burials at the site of a monastery, Archaeologists in Romania have discovered the skeletons of what appears to be two lovers holding hands. Because double burials were so rare through the Middle Ages, the pair has been dubbed "Romeo and Juliet".
According to Romania Insider, the funeral was found when archaeologists were investigating a Dominican monastery in Cluj, Romania. Now a music school, the researchers have found several graves in what would have been the courtyard, the Huffington Post reports. Because the graveyard was secularized in 1550, the archaeologists believe that the pair would have needed to buried between then and 1450, when the monastery was founded.
As lead archaeologist Adrian Rusu describes, the bodies likely belong "a young couple of around 30 years of age, a man and a woman buried together, facing each other and holding hands. It's a strange case, a sort of Romeo and Juliet. The man appears to have died in an accident, as the sternum was broken by a blow from a blunt object and the woman buried with him could have had a heart attack on hearing the news, there isn't really any other explanation for her death."
According to the Daily Mail, the couple is not believed to have committed suicide. Doing so would have made them ineligible for the prime spot inside the monastery.
The History Blog reports that the couple would likely have been wealthy, or from wealthy families, in order to have been buried in such a fashion.
The pair's deaths would have occurred 50 to 150 years before William Shakespeare's famous play was written, but the story on which the drama was based had circulated in various cultures before he put it to paper.
The graves were discovered because the archaeological team, from the Institute of Archaeology and Art History in Cluj-Napoca, is in the process of restoring the monastery.

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Archeological research and discovery of knowledge & flavors in Sicily

In Sicily, between July & September 2013, at Campobello di Licata (Agrigento’s province) will take place the innovative Happening Kalat, the international youth summer camps about archaeology, history, art, music, free time & Sicilian gastronomy, promoted in the frame of QLT (Quantum Leap Trend), an exemplary project for Italy’s Southern regions, supported by Fondazione CON IL SUD.

The activities will be also carried out with the scientific advice of Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Archeologia dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo, the supervision of Assessorato BBCCAA della Regione Siciliana e della Soprintendenza ai BBCCAA di Agrigento, in collaboration with the Sicilian Coordination of Libera, Agrigento’s Direction of Slow Food® and the SOAT of Campobello di Licata & Grotte.

After the approval of an Innovative Action for Employment regarding the Ministry of Labour, Kalat is proposing an exciting new formula which joins archaeological research in lands confiscated from the mafia (in collaboration with Libera) with Sicilian food, wine & sweets tastings (in collaboration with Slow Food®). It also includes creative workshops on Prehistory, excursions & guided tours, swimming and sand sculptures at Licata’s beach, photo contests, video projections & musical evenings.

The international summer camps of archaeology, -which are reaching their XVIII edition through the Kalat project-, will include field-survey, data processing and the recovery of the Old Bronze Age necropolis called Iachinu Filì (XXII-XVI centuries BC), which contains dozens of cave tombs, some of them reused during Byzantine Age.

The results of survey activities allowed the identification of more than 170 archaeological sites ranging from the Neolithic Age to Arab Age, which turned Campobello di Licata the most archeologically investigated territory in Italy. Besides the recovery activities of the Parco antico di Iachinu Filì resulted in the creation of the Kalat project’s permanent exhibition. It will outline the initiatives, the methods & 18 years of research & discoveries, as well as faces, memories & the moments spent by more than 1000 Italian & foreign youngsters within the Kalat project.

This enriched programme is open to enthusiasts, students, volunteers, researchers & experts between 18 and 35 years old. The official languages are English and Italian.

The weekly enrolment fee varies up to a maximum of € 350 and includes meals based on typical Sicilian cuisine, accomodation, internal transfers, accidents insurance, the didactic activities indicated in the programme and the participation’s certificate (which gives the right to get from 2 to 5 university credits).

For further information about the activities, aimed to a tourist development of the territory & to foster cultural & youth entrepreneurship, you can contact the Kalat Project, Via Trieste (c/o Centro Polivalente Comunale), 92023 - Campobello di Licata (AG), Italy. Tel/Fax +39 0922883508.

site internet: http://happening.kalat.org
e-mail: info@kalat.org
Media Relations - Simona Licata
+39 3283080177
simonalicata@gmail.com

Evidence of Pottery Used for Cooking

According to a pioneering study detailed in the journal Nature, hunter-gatherers were using pots for cooking fish as early as 15,000 years ago.
An international team of scientists carried out chemical analysis of food residues in hunter-gatherer "Jomon" ceramic vessels from the late glacial period, the oldest pottery so far investigated. The samples analyzed are some of the earliest found in Japan, a country recognized to be one of the first centers for ceramic innovation, and date to the end of the Late Pleistocene - a time when humans were adjusting to changing climates and new environments.
Until quite recently ceramic container technologies have been associated with the arrival of farming, but we now know they were a much earlier hunter-gatherer adaptation, though the reasons for their emergence and subsequent widespread uptake are poorly understood. The first ceramic containers must have provided prehistoric hunter-gatherers with attractive new ways for processing and consuming foods but until now virtually nothing was known of how or for what early pots were used.
The team recovered diagnostic lipids from the charred surface deposits of the pottery with most of the compounds deriving from the processing of freshwater or marine organisms. Stable isotope data support the lipid evidence, and suggest that the majority of the 101 charred deposits, analyzed from across Japan, were derived from high trophic level aquatic foods.
"Foragers first used pottery as a revolutionary new strategy for the processing of marine and freshwater fish but perhaps most interesting is that this fundamental adaptation emerged over a period of severe climate change," said Dr Oliver Craig from the BioArCh research center, the University Of York, UK.
He said:"the reliability and high abundance of food along shorelines and river-banks may well have provided the initial impetus for an investment in producing ceramic containers, perhaps to make the most of seasonal gluts or as part of elaborate celebratory feasts and could be linked to a reduction in mobility. This initial phase of ceramic production probably paved the way for further intensification in the warmer climate of the Holocene when we see much more pottery on Japanese sites."
"This study demonstrates that it is possible to analyze organic residues from some of the world"s earliest ceramic vessels. It opens the way for further study of hunter-gatherer pottery from later periods to clarify the development of what was a revolutionary technology."

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Facts About DaVinci’s Last Supper

Maundy Thursday is entrenched in Jesus's training from John 13, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
In Jerome's Latin Vulgate bible, the word for this new power is mandato same word from which we get mandate. It's also thought to be the origins of the name Maundy. There is a new mandate signified two ways in the four gospels: the redefinition of the Passover meal as Eucharist, and the washing of feet as a sign of how the new society workings.

10 Facts about DaVinci's Last Supper:

• Why did DaVinci choose this subject matter for his painting?
• How big is it?
• Where is the painting located?
• How long did it take and when was it finished?
• Who is Jesus sharing a meal with in this picture?
• Can you name those seated at the table from left to right?
• Why is the painting in such poor condition?
• Why can we not see Jesus's feet?
• What year was the painting's major reinstatement ended?
• What is DaVinci's most famous painting?

Answers:

• The work was specially made by the Duke of Milan, and the subject matter was chosen for DaVinci.
• 15 feet tall by 29 feet wide.
• The original mural is on a wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
• It took DaVinci (a noted procrastinator with a history of leaving works unfinished), about three years to complete the mural from 1495 to 1498.
• They are the 12 disciples.
• Bartholomew, James, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Jesus, Thomas, James (brother of John), Phillip, Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon.
• The painting is in such poor condition because instead of painting in wet plaster, DaVinci chose to paint this in dry plaster. The immediate result was a much more stunning piece. The long term disaster was that it was not at all durable. It was not unlike painting on a cement wall with Tempura paint.
• Jesus did originally have feet, but in 1650 another door was added to the refectory and so the portion of the painting beneath Jesus (nobody knew how famous it would eventually be), was literally demolished. What you see there is an old doorway.
• 1999.
• Mona Lisa.

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Amalfi greenlights sarcophagus restoration

(ANSAmed) - NAPLES - Amalfi authorities’ greenlit the restoration of a 4th-century sarcophagus and two 16th-century statues found in a former Capuchin monastery, officials said Tuesday. The sarcophagus was recycled in the 13th century by local aristocracy, who decorated it with their coat of arms, then used as an altar in 1934.
Probably made by a Cistercian monk, the two tuff and polychrome plaster statues come from the Puglia region, and were discovered in a cave in Amalfi's Capuchin convent. They represent Saint Peter and Saint John the Evangelist, and are part of a group of five characters that also includes Christ, an Angel and Saint Jacob.
''This shows the administration's will to invest in preserving the city's cultural assets'', said Daniele Milano, the town council member for tourism and culture. (ANSAmed).

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Stonehenge started as enormous cemetery

British researchers have anticipated a new hypothesis for the genesis of Stonehenge: It may have started as a huge interment land for leader’s families around 3,000 B.C. New studies of cremated human leftovers excavated from the site propose that about 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today was built, a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a society graveyard, researchers said Saturday.
"These were men, women, children, so presumably family groups," University College London professor Mike Parker Pearson, who led the team, said."We'd thought that maybe it was a place where a dynasty of kings was buried, but this seemed to be much more of a community, a different kind of power structure."
Parker Pearson said archeologists premeditated the cremated bones of 63 individuals, and whispered that they were obscured around 3,000 B.C. The spot of many of the cremated bodies was initially marked by bluestones, he said. That earlier rounded field, which deliberate around 300 feet (91 meters) across, could have been the burial ground for about 200 more people, Parker Pearson said.
The team, which included intellectuals from more than a dozen British universities, also put forth some theories about the point of the second Stonehenge - the tombstone still footing in the geography in southern England today.
Assorted theories have been anticipated about Stonehenge, counting that it was a place for Druid worship, an observatory for astronomical studies, or a place of curing, built by early residents of Britain who roamed around with their herds. Parker Pearson said the latest study recommended that Stonehenge should be seen less a temple of worship than a kind of construction project that served to unite people from across Britain.
Scrutiny of the remains of a Neolithic arrangement near the monument indicated that thousands of people traveled from as far as Scotland to the site, bringing their livestock and families for huge feasts and merriment during the winter and summer solstices.
"We don't think were living there all the time. We could tell that by when they were killing the pigs - they were there for the solstices," he said. The researchers consider that the builders converged seasonally to build Stonehenge, but not for very long - likely over an era of a decade or so.
The mass tombstone construction is idea to end about the time when the"Beaker people," so called because of their typical ceramic, arrived from continental Europe, Parker Pearson said.

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Pre-Hispanic bodies found at Peru

Archaeologists cram a undersized location at Peru's main sports center have excavated up eight skeletons dating from at least 700 years ago and three others double that old. The unearthing of pre-Hispanic remains was finished at the Huaca Tupac Amaru B site at the National Sports Village. The 400-square-meter spot sits just a few meters from the pitch wherever Peru's general soccer team trains. Archaeologist Fernando Herrera, head of the project, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that three sets of vestiges were strong-minded to belong to the Lima culture, which urbanized between A.D. 200 and 700. The eight other skeletons came from the more recent Yschma culture, between A.D. 1000 and 1400, he said.
Each skeleton was found lying on a bed of wicker reeds. The bodies were joined with braided wicker and enclosed by one or more cloths. They were masked with ceramics, textiles, fruit tree leaves, and tools used for agriculture, he said. Herrera said the first skeleton was found in December and the others were improved in January. The archaeological team thinks there may be more and is still penetrating the site, he said.
There are many archaeological sites in Lima, together with the Huaca Pucllana in the Miraflores residential district that has a towering Lima civilization pyramid. Luis Felipa Villacorta, an archaeologist and historian who is executive of the private Antonio Raimondi museum, said the find at the sports center will add to "the mosaic and image of the Lima culture that is very diffuse" compared to the Nazca and Moche civilizations that urbanized concurrently in other parts of the coast of what is now Peru.
Regrettably not much is identified of the Lima culture, he said, partly "because the city, the capital, has grown over it." In addition, there has been more attention in the "pre-Hispanic cultures that are outside the metropolitan area: the Moche, Nazca, Wari," he added.

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Indian Temple-Ancient Copper Plates, Gold Coins Found

Indian Temple-Ancient copper plates, gold coins found
Archaeological Survey of India makes breakthrough in restitution toil at Pranaveswara temple in Talagunda, Karnataka.
In an amazing hit upon that may hurl more radiance on the dynasties that ruled Karnataka, two sets of copper-plate bonds and eight gold coins have been exposed at Pranaveswara temple at Talagunda in Shirkaripur taluk of Shimoga district by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Bangalore surround.
While the copper plates, datable to the 12 century CE, belong to the Kalachurya empire, the gold coins were issued by the Ganga rulers, who detained control in the State from the 4th century CE to the 12 century CE.
The gold coins belong to the "Ane Gadyana" variety, representing elephants on the face and flower designs on the overturn. They ponder around four grams each. Ganga ruler Sivamara-I (regnal years 679 CE to 726 CE) issued three of them.
The ASI originated the prize when it laid a trial pit in the south-east place of the temple's maha mandapa. The temple's base had sunk and the nature of the soil had to be calculated.
The result was pretty unpredicted with the yield of the copper plates and the coins, said Superintending Archaeologist of ASI Bangalore Circle M. Nambirajan. The coins were "beautifully made and typical of the issue of the western Gangas," he noted.
Deputy Superintending Archaeologist T.M. Keshava said, "For the first time, eight gold coins have been found in the interior of Karnataka and they belong to the Gangas' period, whose ruling domain was elsewhere at Talakadu. They are among the finest specimens of gold coins and some carry the legend 'Si Ma' in southern Brahmi script."
The copper plates were found on February 11 the gold coins on February 16 and 17.
The temple is datable to the Kadamba rulers of Banavasi, who ruled these parts between 4th century CE to the late 6th century CE. However, it has remnants of the Satavahana rulers, taking back its remains to the 2nd century CE.
The temple is simple in preparation and elevation. It has a square study, which houses a Shivalinga. As its base had sunk, resulting in the wall going out of examine, there was needed to take apart and reset it. As the structure is located in a heavy rainfall area, the soil's nature and its foundation had to be studied. For this, the ASI laid a few trial pits.
Its team, led by Dr. Nambirajan, comprised Mr. Keshava, Assistant Archaeologists P. Aravazhi and Teekam and senior Conservation Assistant Arjun Bangargi.
A copper-plate charter has five leaves, each 28 cm long and 14 cm wide, held together by a royal seal with a beautiful etching of a couchant bull. The plates carry inscriptions in Sanskrit and the script is in Devanagari. The other set has three leaves, each 24.5 cm long and 13 cm wide, with a Varaha (boar) emblem on the ring.
Dr. Nambirajan said the copper-plates recorded the donations and gift of land in specified areas, to some Brahmins who were well versed in Vedic journalism. It was issued by Kalachurya ruler Sankama-II in March, 1180 CE.
Kalachuryas were a group of itinerant rulers, who ruled from Madhya Pradesh down to Karnataka, in the 12 century CE. "The consequence of the detection of the plates is that we have got more data on the Kalachurya rulers, their function of stay at Banavasi because they were issued when they were staying at Banavasi and we get trustworthy data on the battle between the Kalachurya and the Hoysalas," said Mr. Keshava.
The ASI plans to excavate a big bundle near the temple that may reveal the vestiges of the ancient township of the Kadambas.
For More Info: Hindu

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History of Valentine's Day

Formerly the word Valentine intended someone whose name was picked from a box to be chosen as your sweetheart up in anticipation of the 1500's. Then around 1533, it meant the creased piece of paper with the sweetheart's name on it. By 1610 it then became the gift given to these elite someone and by 1824 it then became a poem, note or verse to a sweetheart.
Although Valentine's Day is renowned on February 14 every year, it instigates from the Roman celebration called Lupercalia, which was held on February 15, a fertility festival.
Roman armies invaded countries physically as well as socially. When the Romans invaded France, they introduced this festival in which Roman boys drew names of Roman girls out of an urn and then the couple exchanged gifts on the festival's day. This was measured a pagan celebration, so in 469 C.E., Pope Gelasius determined to put a Christian spin on this celebration by declaring that it was now to honor St. Valentine.
Another story goes like this. A man named Valentine witnessed to his jailor and ended up converting his entire family to Christianity. The jailor also had a blind daughter, Julia that Valentine ended up falling in love with. But love did not prevail. On the morning of Valentine's execution, he sent a message to the daughter signed, "From your Valentine."
Italy also had another spring festival during the middle Ages in which young singles gathered in the gardens to listen to love poetry and romantic music. Afterward they paired off and strolled through the trees and flowers etc. In France this pairing-off custom went on for a while, but it ended up causing a lot of jealousies and became more trouble than it was worth and was dropped. But in England the custom of young men drawing names for "Valentines" or sweethearts remained for centuries even after the Roman occupation ended. The young men in England would write down all the names of the young women on pieces of paper and then roll them up tightly and put them in a bowl. The young men would take turns drawn a name from the bowl. The girl's name that he drew meant that she would be his "valentine" for the next year. I might add: Wouldn't a guy's handwriting give away who wrote whose name on this paper? So I wondered how many guys actually drew the name of the girl they submitted.
Roman Catholic Church did their best to try to ban this pagan fertility/mating festival. However, it remained popular in the hearts of the people and so they finally decided that it was hopeless to get rid of it. Thus they decided to redefine it as a Christian Saint Day of St. Valentine as I mentioned above. And so in 1660 Charles II officially restored Valentine's Day into England's society. And it is due to this that Great Britain is the country who is given credit for starting the printing of greeting cards, especially those expressing love, admiration, infatuation and other emotions.
St. Valentine's Day did not come to America until 1629 with the Puritans and even here went against some of the church elders. But love prevails, whether openly or publically and the church could not hold back love and passion even in the New World. About 100 years passed before the first Valentine Cards appeared in the United States.
Margery Brews wrote the oldest known valentine in letter from dated 1477, sent to John Paston. For Valentine once meant "sweetheart" it grew to represent "message of love."
On 2-14-1667, Samuel Pepys in his diary described a kind of valentine that he got from his wife. It was a sheet of blue paper in which her name was written in gold letters. This became the forerunner of later valentines. But the custom didn't grow quickly. It took 100 years before it was common to leave a valentine love letter at the doorstep of your sweetheart.
As I said above, although the Catholic Church was not thrilled with Valentines per se, the custom slowly began to grow also in Catholic countries. Surprisingly, the Valentines were made by the nuns, appearing really lacy and decorated with hand-painted flowers with the center not cupid but often a saint or a sacred religious-styled heart.

Valentine's Day Symbols:

• Cupid
• Hearts and Arrows
• Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve?
• Lovebirds
• Valentine Cards
• Roses
• Daisies, Violets and Bachelor Buttons
• Sweetheart, Sugar Pie, Honey etc.
• Apples
• Chocolate
• Love Knots
• Paper Hands
• Scrimshaw & Cameos
• Valentine Lace

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