2nd Century AD bust looks like Elvis

Neatorama found this photo of a 2nd Century AD bust that bears a resemblance to The Hillbilly Cat.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

bubba hotep?
Hentosz

Lemme guess: it was from Caesar’s Palace — right?
Anonymous

This is not a true “bust”, obviously since it’s just a head, but it’s also not even a free standing piece of statuary. It looks like an Acroterion, an architectural ornament. Acroteria were usually in the form of palmettes. It looks like the sculptor kept the traditional shape by giving this guy the flamboyant hair so reminiscent of Elvis.
insect_hooves

“Tedere me ama”

I tenere me, suaviter
Ama intime
Me beasti dulciter
Et nunc amo te
Tenere me adama
Vero somnio
Amo te, o lux mea: Fiat unio.

(from this)
Antinous

De Elvibus non disputandum.
dbarak

>>#4 posted by Hentosz , July 23, 2008 4:47 PM
>>
>>Lemme guess: it was from Caesar’s Palace — right?

Nope, it’s a crouton from a Caesar salad. Hard on the teeth though…
Anonymous

http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2008/07/ancient-egyptian-woman-or-michael-jackson.html
local_variable

Well, this inspired me to create an account to just include this photo from Flickr (an even better Elvis on a sarcophagus):

Elvis on a sarcophagus

(I sure hope I put the link in correctly…)
dbarak

“Elvis has LEFT the foundation of the building…”
FutureNerd

Did I forget to mention
Did I forget to mention Memphis?
Home of Elvis and the
Ancient Greeks
Orchestra Spy

#9 hahaha that’s priceless. No, the fat elvis head.
How about a hunka-hunka-burning love?
Frank_in_Virginia

Isn’t it technically “Elvis looks like 2nd Century AD bust”
Rummager

Elvis is everywhen!
Contrasoma

Wise men say only fools rush to blame the Great Fire on the Christian minority.
takeshi

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the Amphitheatrum Flavium.

Eh, it’s jut not the same.
- Antinous
  
  Elvis has left the Amphitheatrum Flavium. Eh, it’s just not the same.
  
  But it’s a good point, because it was during the Flavian dynasty that Roman bust portraiture took a turn toward the grotesque. I’m not sure what political considerations drove Elvis to take a turn toward the grotesque, but I’m glad that he did. My only regret is that James Dean didn’t live long enough to wear a white, rhinestone-studded sausage casing.
mdhatter

Looks like Mojo Nixon to me.
mdhatter

For those of you who don’t know him, Mojo Nixon
planettom

Actually he looks a bit like the Safety Not Guaranteed Time Traveler.

http://timetraveler.ytmnd.com/
Anonymous

It looks like an Oompa-Loompa king!
Anonymous

Two great Kings of the modern world have appeared, sculpted by two great empires of the ancient world. When the third King is revealed, he will take his place beside He of Pop and He of Rock to welcome our returning savior.
Jo_Mullins

In a similar vein, this bust from the Met in NYC is the spitting image of Voldemort (or at least the Ralph Fiennes version):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annarchy1/2093371361/in/set-72157603398210460/
konshuss

if elvis had lived a bit longer i think all the coke would’ve done that to his nose too.
Chocolatey Shatner

Sort of reminds me of a plot point from The Suburban Book of the Dead: Armageddon III: The Remake by Robert Rankin.
dbarak

I gotta’ say, you commenters make me laugh like crazy. Thanks.
ladouceur78

Not so much the hair, but this fellow has got the sideburns down:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phil_ladouceur/449315195/
Anonymous

Antonious, that rocked! Personally, I suspect the Flavian busts were fairly accurate representations of the hairstyles and fashions of the day, and the advances in drilling technique simply allowed more lifelike replication of the absurdity of period style.

I like the republican era stuff best. Lookit this guy -

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ropo/ho_12.233.htm

(He looks just like me, only without pupils or a mohawk.)

–Charlie
takeshi

James Dean took an early exit via the vomitorium. Elvis was known to vomit opium. Coincidence? I think not.

That said, did anybody else read Elvis and Me? In it, Priscilla mentions Elvis taking LSD, and talking to angels on Graceland’s roof.
Xopher

I thought James Dean died in a car (or was it motorcycle?) accident.
GonzoMultiverse

Does everyone finally see? Elvis isn’t dead; he’s always been alive. And in about 100 years he’ll make yet another “comeback”.
minTphresh

james dean wrapped his porche spider around a telephone pole(or a tree..i forget).
eustace

He’s hanging out in Hollow Mars; he’s better appreciated there. But yeah, he’ll be back.
Steiny

Elvis my foot! It’s this dude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORfkh0OojxY
MarlboroTestMonkey7

Just showed it to the real Elvis. He shrugged and left.
jennybean42

Not one single bubba ho-tep comment yet? For shame!
Dean

I’m starting to wonder if BB should absorb Neatorama or the other way around… Maybe we could have a contest to decide…
minTphresh

check #43.
farrellmcgovern

I’ll see your Michael Jackson Egyption, and raise you a bat man!

http://pics.livejournal.com/allah_sulu/pic/0008q6d9
GeekMan

#9 – A hunka-hunka burnin’ stone?
Ugly Canuck

Funny I’ve always felt that my bust of Elvis looks very 2nd Century…(you know the bust I mean…)
Bren

Don’t you … step on my blue suede sandals?

C’mon and be my little … good ankh charm?

We could go all night with these.
takeshi

Wikipedia:

“A vomitorium (plural: vomitoria) is a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre, through which crowds can “spew out” at the end of a performance.”

And later:

“A commonly held, but false, belief is that Ancient Romans designated spaces called vomitoria for the purpose of actual vomiting, as part of a binge and purge cycle.”

James Dean exiting the stage. Just referencing “Are You Lonesome Tonight.”
Takuan

yes, quite.The true Latin name for the purge area was the “horkatorium”,later changed by Claudius to the “Hwalpitia”
Falcon_Seven

And just when I was beginning to lose interest… Djambi, the chocolate icing!
takeshi

Or the “inner spewtum.”

Yuck.
eustace

Strange that these anachronisms are showing up just as I’ve powered up my chronoapollumic generator… perhaps I should turn it back off just in case.
LightningCrash

would be cooler if he was a steampunk elvis sculpture
Cowicide

2nd Century AD bust looks like Elvis

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, July 23, 2008 4:20 PM

Hmmm…. does this explain the lack of posts today beyond this one?
tl

OMG…Elvis is THE HIGHLANDER!
dbarak

Come on and be my little good luck charm
Uh-huh huh, you sweet delight…

Thank yuh thank yuh verymooch.
minTphresh

IT’S FROM THE PROPHECY! (nice d.a., by the way!)
noen

Elvis lives!!