Lichtgedanken 05

Rubrik 61 05 | LICHT GEDANKEN Sketch of a radiolarian Ernst Haeckel completed this pencil drawing in 1859, whilst on a research and educational journey through Italy. In the gulf of Messina, he devoted himself intensively to radiolarians. Within just a few weeks, Haeckel collected over 100 hitherto unknown species. In a letter to his father from 15th December 1859, he reports on his work with these tiny animals: »These extremely strange and interesting creatures are the lowest form of animal life and are thus worth studying extremely carefully.« The 23-by-18-centimetre drawing from the Ernst Haeckel Archive shows an example of the Stylodictya arachnia and was on display for several months in the spring of 2016 in the »Architecture of Life« exhibition in Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (USA) along with seven other radiolarian sketches. Clay tablet with cuneiform script This cuneiform script tablet dates back to the Ancient Babylonian period (18th/17th century BC) and is part of the Hilprecht Collection. The tablet is approximately 20-by-15 centimetres in size and contains an epic poem in the Sumerian language. Sumerian literature is the oldest surviving written language: literary cuneiform texts in the Sumerian language have been preserved from approximately 2600 BC. The text tells how Lugalbanda—a legendary king of the city of Uruk—fell ill during a military campaign against Aratta, which lies in the eastern highlands (present-day Iran), and was left behind, helpless, in a cave, but was saved thanks to divine intervention. This tablet was on display with other cuneiform tablets containing mathematical, medical, and legal content in the exhibition »WorldKnowledge. 300 years of science in Berlin« from September 2010 to January 2011 in the Martin-Gropius-Bau.