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Some random facts about everything in the world that you want to share with your friends!
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00:01Today we're going to an art history trip.
00:05Our main focus is to unravel the mystery of whether or not ancient statues has always been white.
00:12We'll visit museums and even time travel to try and get a glimpse of what these statues were really like
00:19back in the day.
00:21To kick off our tour, we land in New York.
00:24We climb the famous Steps of the Met, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and walk inside this enormous museum.
00:33You walk down the aisle and get to the room, where one of the world's biggest collections of ancient Greek
00:39and Roman statues is held.
00:42Admiring the large array of statues, one thing seems evident.
00:46They are mainly white. It makes sense since their primary material is white marble.
00:51For centuries, historians, archaeologists and researchers in general have always taken this fact for granted.
00:59Weren't these statues always white?
01:02Until recent decades, this wasn't something that people discussed.
01:06But in the 1980s, researchers unearthed an ancient Greek statue that was clearly pigmented.
01:13This new discovery made them wonder, where are all ancient statues painted?
01:19Let's take a close look at this work of art.
01:22This third century before the common era, Greek statue was discovered to be almost entirely painted, still in its original
01:30form.
01:31You don't have to look too hard to notice that the statue still carries some of these original pink colors,
01:37with some shades of blue and red paint as well.
01:40The thing is, this statue is not an exception. It's the norm.
01:46As it turns out, ancient civilizations did paint their sculptures with bright and vivid colors.
01:52But somewhere along our historic timeline, this information got lost.
01:57According to researchers, pigmented sculptures was a way of bringing their representations closer to real life.
02:04We live in bright colors, so art might as well reflect that, right?
02:10Right!
02:11So let's take a few steps back to understand what happened.
02:15So why are our museum's galleries filled with white statues as far as the eye could see?
02:22You might have heard of Michelangelo.
02:25It's a famous Italian sculptor who carved the iconic David and painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
02:33Michelangelo was one of the most emblematic painters of the Renaissance.
02:38The Renaissance was a historical period when European artists, philosophers and scientists developed a renewed interest in the creations of
02:47ancient Greece and Rome.
02:49Artists like Michelangelo started a series of Roman sculptures, like this one, the Leo Cologne and his sons.
02:57They fell in love with their lifelike figures and pristine white marble.
03:02The one thing they didn't know, and didn't have the technology to know, was if the colored pigments from those
03:09sculptures had faded.
03:10After all, they were found after years of being buried or left in the open air.
03:16It's speculated that this statue, the Leo Cologne, had colored snakes and mantles, for example.
03:22When the Renaissance artists set out to pay homage to ancient artists, they left their masterpieces bare too.
03:29They carved directly onto the marble and left them white, without pigmentation.
03:35Probably because that's the way they thought things were done in the old days.
03:40The works of Michelangelo and his peers influenced a whole generation of sculptors after that.
03:47So this way of doing art traveled to modern times without much questioning.
03:51However, evidence of color pigments in ancient statues is abandoned.
03:57Some researchers show that scholars have known for at least a century that ancient sculptures weren't originally all white.
04:06Other studies suggest that this discovery might have happened even earlier.
04:10In early 1980s, archaeologist Vincent Brinkmann made a huge discovery.
04:17During his time as a student at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, he developed a technology that was able
04:24to detect polychromy in ancient samples of Greek statues.
04:28Polychromy is an art of painting in several colors.
04:32Anyways, he was taken aback by his discovery and confused as to why and how other researchers and archaeologists weren't
04:41talking about this.
04:42As it happens, the first discovery that ancient statues weren't all that white happened a long time ago, way before
04:50Vincent was born.
04:52It happened during the unearthing of Pompeii back in the 1700s.
04:58As you may know, the city of Pompeii in southern Italy was completely covered with lava after the sudden eruption
05:04of Mount Vesuvius.
05:06The city was destroyed, but the clouds of ashes that arose from the lava managed to preserve a lot of
05:12the city's structure through time.
05:15Thankfully for art historians and archaeologists, Pompeii became a digging ground for understanding ancient Rome.
05:22Researchers found several concert frescoes that depicted scenes of daily Roman life.
05:28In one of these paintings, an artist is seen painting a sculpture.
05:33This fact was recorded by a very famous art historian, known as Johann Joachim Winckelmann.
05:39He is also considered the father of art history.
05:44Now let's take a closer look at another famous statue.
05:48To see this one in person, you'll have to fly all the way to Rome and visit the Vatican Museums.
05:55The statue you're looking at is a classic representation of Caesar Augustus.
06:01In case you didn't know, he was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first emperor of Rome.
06:07He is important.
06:09The sculpture you're seeing is called the Augustus of Prima Porta.
06:14You may have seen this before, probably in a history textbook.
06:18The thing is, it's always depicted in its white marble form.
06:22But according to an archaeological finding from the 1860s, the original statue was way much more colorful than that.
06:31According to archaeologists, the statue of Augustus de Prima Porta has a crimson tunic, yellow armor and a purple mantle.
06:40It's important to keep in mind that colors weren't made artificially as they are today.
06:46Artists could only produce color from natural resources.
06:49So purple, for example, was an extremely difficult color to make.
06:54Back in the day, they derived purple from the mucus of a rare species of snail.
06:59Meaning that anyone who used the color purple to pigment their art and clothes was powerful and wealthy.
07:07Well, this looked like enough proof for me that ancient statues weren't always white.
07:13But as we can judge by the look of our modern museums, there didn't seem to exist enough interest in
07:20the art community to further explore polychromy on the ancient statues.
07:24But remember that archaeologist we talked about, Brinkman?
07:30Well, he has been collecting data on polychromy since the 1980s.
07:35At a certain point, he even began making colored replicas of such statues.
07:41The technology used is far from simple.
07:45To reconstitute these ancient works of art, Brinkman makes a 3D plaster copy of them.
07:51Then he paints them by hand with the help of his wife.
07:56To find out which color were used in the original sculptures, Brinkman uses UV light.
08:02Certain pigments glow under UV light, exposing traces that would otherwise be invisible.
08:09Take this colorful archer as an example.
08:11Look at these colors.
08:13This piece is the reconstruction of a marble archer in the costume of a horseman.
08:18To accurately depict the archer, restorers had to research a lot about the history of the region, where the arpies
08:26was originally found, since colors have a cultural meaning.
08:30That, together with UV technology, allowed for the reconstruction you can now see.
08:35It seems very far from the idea we have of what the Greeks would make, but this is supposed to
08:41look exactly like the original one.
08:44According to Brinkman, we shouldn't be so surprised that ancient Western civilizations used bright colors to depict their realities.
08:53After all, the Romans and Greeks were heavily inspired by the works of art of Egyptian civilization, Old Mesopotamia and
09:01Asia.
09:02For example, if you look at the famous Egyptian Sphinx, you might be led to believe that it always looked
09:08that way.
09:09But that wasn't at all the case.
09:11Modern studies and virtual reconstructions of the monument show us that the monument was very colorful.
09:19The body of the statue is believed to have been painted terracotta, while the regal headdress that circles the head
09:25is meant to have been golden blue.
09:28All of these were considered important colors in Egyptian times, and it was only suitable to use them to depict
09:35a pharaoh.
09:36Ah, a thermal spa is not a fancy modern way to relax.
09:41I'd say it's a fancy old-fashioned way to relax.
09:44The city of Bath in South England has its name, yep, you guessed it right, because it had baths.
09:51In the first century AD, the Romans started using natural hot springs there as a thermal spa.
09:57In the Middle Ages, Bath became an important wool industry center that had those famous hot springs,
10:03and by the 18th century, the whole city became an elegant spa resort.
10:09Even though there's the city of Bath in England, it's not the place where Roman baths originated.
10:15Roman baths are from Rome, yeah, sounds quite logical.
10:18There was also a tradition behind those baths.
10:21Some people threw various objects into them.
10:24There could be brooches, bracelets, or even vases or vases.
10:28These were gifts to the goddess Minerva, thrown to honor her.
10:32So, a whopping amount of coins was once found in one Roman bath, about 12,000.
10:39Sounds impressive, but another attraction in Rome easily beats even this crazy number.
10:44I'm talking about the Trevi Fountain.
10:47On average, people toss over $3,000 there.
10:50Nope, it's not a monthly or even weekly amount.
10:54That's what travelers toss there per day.
10:56I'd rather not calculate that, but there's one thing I know for sure.
11:00The Trevi Fountain earns way more than I do.
11:03By the way, one guy named Roberto Churchella has been fishing those coins out with a magnet for 34 years
11:10and could get up to $1,000 per night.
11:13He was only arrested in 2002 when the city authorities stopped turning a blind eye to him.
11:20Today, the money is collected by the city workers and sent to charity.
11:24It's not that the Roman baths only had a sort of a pool to swim in.
11:28They featured some hot rooms sometimes, so they resembled modern saunas in a way.
11:33There was one super hot room heated by a special system located underground.
11:38This room was called the calderium, and those who wanted to sweat a lot would head right there.
11:44As it was heated from beneath, the floors were scorching hot.
11:48To protect their feet, people needed to wear wooden, I don't want to call them slippers, so let's call them
11:54wooden shoes.
11:54Another type of room was called tepidarium.
11:58It was cooler than calderium, and people could have a massage with oil there.
12:03Yeah, back in old times, there wasn't a large range of hot rooms, and today, it's all quite different.
12:09Some modern spa centers can host up to 8,000 people a day.
12:13Like, there's a spa center near Munich, with almost 2 million square feet of space, and 26 different hot rooms.
12:21This spa center is considered to be the largest in the world.
12:25Now, it's not that the ancient Roman baths only had two rooms, and both of them were hot.
12:30There was also a special changing room, called a podetarium.
12:34There were no lockers back then, and historians claim thefts in Roman baths were quite common.
12:40There was also a gym in those baths.
12:42The room was called palestra, and people could exercise there.
12:46For example, weight lifting was pretty popular.
12:49There were also such rooms as sudatoria and laconica, super dry rooms where people sweated a lot, and nataccio, which
12:57was basically an open-air pool.
13:00Once people had relaxed, bathed, and exercised enough, they headed to the frigidarium at the end of the day.
13:07Frigidarium sounds like fridge, huh?
13:09Right, it was a cold room with cold baths where the bathers would cool down after hot procedures.
13:16We're back to English Roman baths, and sorry to break it to you, but you aren't allowed to swim here,
13:22at least now.
13:23The problem is that back in the 1970s, dangerous bacteria were found there, and they even caused a fatal disease
13:30in a girl who swam there.
13:32After that tragic event, everyone was forbidden to swim in those Roman baths.
13:37The water was then thoroughly inspected, and it turned out that it was polluted, plus there lives a particular species
13:44of dangerous amoeba.
13:45What's weirder is that the very same baths had been previously used to provide water cure treatments.
13:52Those treatments had even been prescribed by the NHS for over 30 years, from 1948 to 1976.
14:01Those who want to enjoy safe thermal baths, you've got plenty of options to pick from.
14:06For example, you may want to consider traveling to Hungary.
14:10This country may be landlocked, but it has an incredible amount of thermal water sources, about 1,300.
14:17It's capital, Budapest, alone has 123 sources.
14:22And when it comes to bathing, the season doesn't matter.
14:25Soaking in thermal waters is a part of the national culture there, and this culture dates back to Roman times.
14:32The Hungarian baths are as stunning as the Roman ones.
14:35Look here, it's Gallertfurter, and it's believed to be one of the most elegant baths out there.
14:41Tile mosaics, yes please.
14:44Intricate column, there you have it.
14:46Fresh goat seedlings, sure thing.
14:49What's curious about Hungarian thermal waters is not only are there hot water springs, but there's even an entire thermal
14:57lake.
14:57It's called Lake Hivis, and the water there is warm enough to have baths even in winter.
15:03Yeah, you won't spend an hour there swimming, but you'll definitely be able to at least dip in.
15:08Also, lotuses are growing on its surface.
15:11The medicinal water lake is about 10 acres, so no wonder you can even see some boaters there.
15:17The lake's pretty large.
15:20Anyway, Roman baths aren't only about getting clean, swimming, and relaxing.
15:24They're also about feasting, social interactions, and fun.
15:28So, when Romans went to those baths, they would have various snacks, for example, fruit and cakes.
15:35But some people would eat even oysters.
15:38Also, it was quite typical to play games, such as tabula, which is an ancient board game.
15:44Also, there was enough room for ball games.
15:47The Romans loved a game called Trigon.
15:50The game of catch was played by three people with three balls.
15:53All those activities were held in Palaistra, the exercise room, remember?
15:59As for getting clean and getting a rub down, sure thing the Romans didn't have the fancy body washes we
16:05have today.
16:06One of the best loved products was, surprisingly, oil.
16:09Now, look here. See that quaintly shaped piece of metal?
16:13It's called a strigil, and it's a sort of ancient washcloth.
16:18Yeah, the washing procedure was quite different back then.
16:21Today, we'd lather the shower gel and rub the body with a washcloth.
16:25But in ancient times, people had another approach.
16:28The Romans would cover their bodies with oil, which would soften up the dirt on the skin,
16:33and then they would scrape the oil and all the dirt off.
16:38Want to learn one more crazy fact about ancient hygiene?
16:42Ancient Romans didn't bother much about privacy.
16:45Their toilets consisted of stone slabs with holes without any dividers.
16:50So, people would come there to do their business and maybe casually talk.
16:55They would also share a sea sponge used for wiping.
16:59Ooh, too much sharing.
17:00To make the whole process even more comfortable, the Romans would fix the sponge at the end of a stick.
17:06It was usually soaked in a container filled with vinegar or salty water.
17:11Well, when in Rome, I ain't doing that.
17:15Even though the fact about a shared sponge may sound gross, it seems like the Romans did care about hygiene.
17:22The Roman baths were accessible to everyone, both the rich and the poor.
17:27The baths would normally open at lunchtime and would close at dusk.
17:31The entrance fee was small.
17:33It only cost two denarii.
17:35Denarii was one of the smallest denominations back then.
17:38It's hard to say how much it's worth in today's dollars, because it has no monetary value now.
17:44But historians claim it wasn't much.
17:47More so, on some occasions, for instance, on public holidays, there was no entrance fee.
17:52So, anyone could hang out in the Roman baths for free.
17:57Alright, let's go on a world tour.
17:59I'll show you the most curious things internet users have found across the globe.
18:04Little things light up cultures like nothing else.
18:07Let's start in a wonderland world, Asia.
18:10First stop, India.
18:12The country that will soon surpass China and will become the most populated country in the world.
18:17This right here is a street where many training and coaching centers are located.
18:22Now, in some states of India, people still widely follow a sustainable tradition of serving meals on banana leaves.
18:30A kind Redditor shared what a typical meal looks like.
18:33Another user commented that it is also common across the world, in Puerto Rico.
18:39This right here is a regular day in Sri Lanka fishing.
18:43Tic Tacs are so expensive in Sri Lanka that little packs of eight pieces are a thing.
18:48In China, some malls have a husband's storage.
18:52Women can leave their husbands there so that the boys can enjoy video games while their wives are shopping.
18:58It spares women from a lot of whining.
19:01Now, this is a McDonald's located in an old newspaper stand.
19:05Even manholes are a work of art in Asia.
19:08Here's one example, a dragon art spotted by a user in Wuxi, China.
19:13Turns out, in China, eggs are sold in mesh bags.
19:17And, of course, Asia has a bunch of snacks with unusual flavors.
19:21They even have cucumber-flavored chips.
19:24This guy went to get a coffee in Singapore and got it in a bag.
19:28Turns out, it's quite common in Southeast Asia.
19:31Also, they take ice cream sandwiches there quite literally in Singapore.
19:36Thing is, they put ice cream between actual toasts.
19:39The Redditor confirms that it's weirdly delicious.
19:43Would you dare to try?
19:45Here's a first look at a city in Japan.
19:48A Redditor shared a beautiful photo made at night in Yokohama.
19:52Other Internet users shared that they felt very safe there, even when walking at night.
19:57And this is a photo of a snowfall.
20:00I didn't know that in Japan they get that much snow.
20:03Turns out, many toilets there have sinks on top of them.
20:07The dirty water after you've washed your hands is used to flush,
20:11which saves Japan millions of gallons of water.
20:14They also collect rainwater and then use it to wash the roads.
20:18The water in the street canal in Japan is so clean that fish swim there.
20:23In Japan, many manholes are beautifully ornated, too.
20:27And several users shared some of them.
20:30These are Japanese rice fields.
20:32And this is one of the designs in their cans.
20:35A Redditor spotted a tiny house somewhere in Japan.
20:39I wish I could have had the tour.
20:41They have driverless KFC trucks roaming the street and selling you food.
20:46Turns out, the Japanese don't have signatures.
20:49Instead, each person has a personal stamp that they use to sign documents.
20:54And this is a photo of a night bus.
20:56I wish every country's public transport was this cozy and comfortable.
21:01One Redditor went to see the White Temple in Thailand.
21:05You see, the buildings there are so stunning that even the toilet looks like this.
21:10This is a mobile 7-Eleven in Thailand.
21:14In Vietnam, tour guides can row with their feet only.
21:18This Redditor has proof.
21:19And now we're off to Australia.
21:22Some buses there have special stands for the passengers' surfboards.
21:26Since we like traffic lights today, I can't but show you this one.
21:31It features Mary Poppins.
21:33And it's installed in Queensland, the hometown of P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins.
21:39The next country on today's tour is New Zealand.
21:42Look at this urban wonder.
21:44A new apartment building built over an older house.
21:48Also, the citizens of New Zealand enjoy a unique lemonade drink Coca-Cola produces just for them.
21:54What a VIP treatment!
21:57Now, let's move across the Pacific Ocean to North America.
22:01We start in the second biggest country in the world, Canada.
22:04One of the most common stereotypes about Canada is that they are very polite.
22:10Well, a Redditor posted a photo of a Canadian bus saying sorry for being full.
22:15Even the buses are polite there.
22:18Another user found an outdoor toilet.
22:20But, of course, dressed for cold weather.
22:23And one more user shared this photo.
22:26It was so windy in the town that the grass got blown off.
22:30As some Redditor commented,
22:31I can't own anything.
22:33The wind tried stealing my grass.
22:36One more unusual occurrence.
22:38A Redditor shared a photo of a huge iceberg passing by.
22:43Now, let's move to the US and start in the northern state, Alaska.
22:48These light pillars are reflections of the ice crystals in the sky.
22:52A resident of Alaska opened the front door after a snowstorm.
22:56Did you know that the US is the homeland of skyscrapers?
23:00Yep, the first skyscraper in the world was built in 1885 in Chicago.
23:06The home insurance building had 10 stories.
23:09Now, it's not even close to a skyscraper.
23:11But that was the start.
23:13And look what this Redditor found in Seattle.
23:16It's not unfinished work.
23:18It's a skyscraper built on top of an 11-story pedestal called Rainier Tower.
23:23This is an abandoned diner somewhere in the California desert.
23:28Here's another interesting photo from a Redditor.
23:31A Mexican restaurant moved to a building where KFC had been.
23:35Instead of removing the logo, they just added a sombrero, a mustache, and a poncho.
23:41I say, genius!
23:44Since we talked about Mexico, let's move there.
23:47One user shared a pack of toast bread without any crusts.
23:51And another Redditor showed that potato chips go with a small packet of salsa there.
23:57Here's a Mexican crosswalk.
23:59The man on it has a dog and a hat.
24:01And this user shared photos of how his grandma hand-painted a toilet in Mexico.
24:08And this toilet brush holder gives me chills.
24:10Mexico is a whole different world.
24:14Cenotas are caused by erosion in the limestone bedrock.
24:17And they hold ground and rainwater.
24:20But this Redditor probably didn't expect to see this wonder right by a Costco store.
24:26The award for the stadium with the most mesmerizing view probably goes to this one.
24:31Turns out, the Bahamas are home to the biggest underwater statue in the world, which is called Ocean Atlas.
24:39Here's a photo from a Redditor.
24:41It's magnificent!
24:42You can even see a woman sitting on its hand for comparison.
24:47And here's a curiosity from Belize.
24:49Apparently, they sell bagged drinking water there.
24:53It's very common in Central and South America.
24:56And this user met a grasshopper in Costa Rica.
24:59The hand is for comparison.
25:02Now, I have a question.
25:03What do Costa Rica and Australia have in common?
25:07Central America is hot.
25:09The average annual temperature there is 81 degrees Fahrenheit.
25:13No wonder this taxi in Panama only has controls for cold air.
25:17Okay, let's say buy to Central America and see what South America has in store for us.
25:23And the first store is in Colombia.
25:26A Redditor shared that in Bogota, people are paid for dressing as traffic cones and shaming drivers for parking on
25:33the street, which makes them move somewhere else.
25:36Having a stroll down the stairs of Brazil doesn't seem easy.
25:41You can run into trees like this one.
25:44Asia is well known for crazy chocolate flavors.
25:47But look what this Redditor found in Brazil.
25:49Snickers bars with coconut flavors, passion fruit, and even caramel and bacon.
25:55Here's a 20 peso bill from Argentina.
25:58It has Guanaco on it.
26:00We still have to move across the Atlantic and visit Europe and Africa.
26:04See you in the next video!
26:06See you out!