Britain's economy thrived after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire. We had thought industries collapsed when the Romans left Britain, but archaeological evidence tells a different story.

#RomanSiteSaturday 🏺 From this year's visit to Volterra here are both C1 BC #Roman theatre cut into slope of hill and 3C bath complex built when theatre out of use. Discovered in 1950s, theatre featured fantastic views, 16m high stage, statues of Augustus+Livia. Some seats bear local family names.

A goddess for #FindsFriday In 1882 antiquary Edward Cunnington dug at the #Roman temple at Maiden Castle hillfort in #Dorset Sadly his excavations were never published although one important find was this copper alloy plaque with repoussée figure, possibly Minerva Now in @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social

The amazing Roman pharos (lighthouse) at Dover, still standing after almost 2,000 years! 🤩 The tallest surviving Roman structure in Britain, and one of only three surviving lighthouses from the former Roman Empire! Dated 1st-2nd century AD. 📷 by me #RomanSiteSaturday #Archaeology

The remains of the south-west range of North Leigh Roman Villa in Oxfordshire. The villa went through various stages of construction between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, and was probably the centre of a large agricultural estate. 📸 My own. #RomanSiteSaturday #RomanBritain

The magnificent altar-shaped tomb of C. Iulius Alpinus Classicianus with its precision-cut lettering. Originally set up in Londinium, it is now in the collections of The British Museum (1852,0806.2). Photo is my own, taken January 2023. #EpigraphyTuesday #archaeology

Relief from Aquae Sulis (Roman Bath) depicting the Roman god Mercury and Rosmerta - a Celtic goddess known at the ‘great provider’. Now part of the museum collections at The Roman Baths in Bath. #ReliefWednesday #RomanBritain #Bath

There isn't much evidence of Alaric's sack of the city of Rome in 410 CE, but I taught the moneychangers in the Basilica Aemilia in the Forum yesterday & hundreds of melted and destroyed coins were found in the destruction level dating to 410 CE. warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cla...

#ReliefWednesday - Panel from an ivory diptych showing the personification of Constantinople standing within an aedicule. Traces of wax on the reverse of the panel indicate that they once served as writing tablets. 🏺 Image: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (X 38). Link - www.khm.at/en/artworks/...

The #Manchester Word Square: a piece of Roman pottery with a Latin inscription that is part puzzle and potential Christian symbol. (See the Alt text for more.) Made circa 180, found in the city centre in 1978, now on display in Manchester Museum. #RomanBritain #MuseumMonday #Lancashire 📷 My own.

We don't know why, but we can't help thinking this bird is on its way to a nightclub. We also think it might have taken something. 😬 #MosaicMonday

Its #MosaicMonday & since i've been making a series based in the South Downs recently, seems we're overdue a Bignor Roman Villa thread 🧵👇 🏺AncientBluesky

A #Roman terracotta oil lamp, decorated with a four-horse chariot racing scene. A piece of merchandise for a fan of the races, perhaps..? #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology AncientBlueSky

Today I learned something amazingly new to me. Lightning strikes visible in magnetometry ⚡⚡⚡😲 Great presentation from Archaeological Management Solutions on work near Sligo

A striking bust thought to show the face of a priest of Isis who lived in 2nd Cent CE & now in @LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art Isis was an Egyptian goddess believed to help the dead into the afterlife - she became a popular goddess among the #Romans & her worship spread across the Empire.

A magnificent copper alloy #Roman wine jug with the goddess Minerva and owl Recovered during gravel extraction in the early 1980s with over 1000 other items Loot from a raid accidentally lost in the Rhine or deliberately deposited as an offering? 📷 December 2024 Neues Museum, Berlin #FindsFriday

On Sept AD70 #EmperorTitus completed the conquest of #Jerusalem. His daughter Julia Flavia was born in Sept AD61, and on the Ides of Sept AD81 he died of fever at 41. The #Colosseum, #Vesuvius eruption & the founding of #Trimontium all happened under his reign.

It's #RomanSiteSaturday & we've had a pretty great summer of getting around Roman Britian, with that in mind - think it might be time for a bit of a thread-of-threads 🧵👇 🏺AncientBluesky

Ratae Corieltauvorum was Leicester in the Roman times. It was originally an Iron Age tribal centre, founded in the 2nd or 1st centuries BC. It started to flourish in the early 2nd century. Jewry Wall was part of the bath complex of the town. #RomanSiteSaturday

The remains of the Roman amphitheater at Chester (Deva). Dating to the early 3rd century, the amphitheater could seat 7000 spectators, and is the largest known in Britain. 📸 My own. #RomanSiteSaturday #RomanBritain #Chester

#RomanSiteSaturday The great baths of Mactaris, a old Phoenician town in Tunisia that eventually became a Roman colony These baths are some of the best preserved in all of North Africa. Walls rise to 15m and #mosaics still line the floors! 📸 Mine #archaeology #romanempire #photooftheday 🏺

This cute (and anatomically correct) little pipe clay Roman dog was discovered in Bath close to the temple of Sulis Minerva. In Roman religion, dogs were associated with the deities Diana and Aesculapius. #FindsFriday

✨Perseus and Andromeda, the villa at Boscotrecase✨ This fresco captures moments from the myth of Andromeda and Perseus. Perseus swoops in stage left to rescue Andromeda—trapped on a crag at centre stage—from the sea monster Kêtus. The monster takes up most of the lower left of the fresco panel.

A splendid early entry for #MosaicMonday: the gorgeous Verulamium shell mosaic (with distracting archaeologist who wears - 😱 - rather robust shoes for standing on delicate tessellation).

Reposting this for #RomanFortThursday - and the event is tonight, so come along or register to watch online, the link is below...

The latrines at the south east corner of Housesteads Roman Fort. #RomanFortThursday #hadrianswall #followtheacorn

#RomanFortThursday On the edge of an East Manchester modern housing estate, on a prominence overlooking the valley below, stands the well defined outline of a Flavian Roman fort. It was on a road out of Mamucium #Roman fort, heading eastwards. (See.Alt) #Archaeology #History

#RomanFortThursday Reconstructed east gate of a Castrum Stativum, a more permanent base, at Welzheim, Germany #Roman #Archaeology #History

The impressive defensive stone wall of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum (known today as Silchester) in Hampshire. #WallsonWednesday

A #Roman two-handled glass cup, in a beautiful cobalt blue with white chips on the outside for extra decoration. Those Romans really knew a thing or two about glassware!

#OTD 9 Sept 🎂 Happy Birthday to Emperors Aurelian (AD 214) & Honorius (AD 384)! ✨ Aurelian (r. 270–275) reunited the empire & ended the Third Century Crisis. ⚔️ Honorius (r. 393–423) saw Rome sacked by Visigoths in 410—the first in 800+ years.

#Woodensday! Wooden votive offerings in the shape of parts of the human body, from the spring sanctuary near the #Roman settlement at Dambach, Bavaria. Objects like this were given to healing deities. They were intended either to indicate the part of the body that...🧵1/2 📷 me 🏺 #archaeology

Oh my word the newly displayed Lucanian tombs in Paestum Museum! @davidebb.bsky.social @alexharvv.bsky.social @petesavin.bsky.social @romanarchaeouk.bsky.social @wittspat.bsky.social

🌱Spring🌿 Today was the first real sign of spring in Sydney with a beautifully warm 29 degree sunny day. We’re celebrating with this wonderfully detailed mosaic from the The Late Antique Roman villa at La Olmeda (Pedrosa de la Vega, Spain). #MosaicMonday #AncientRome

#MosaicMonday - Mosaic of incredible intricacy from the Roman Villa at Noheda: ca. 4th Century AD. A doubtless wealthy couple attend a pantomime performance, complete with a bellows-operated organ! #Archaeology #Art 🏺 Image: Villa Romana de Noheda. Link - cultura.castillalamancha.es/patrimonio/y...

A milestone that was on the Fosse Way. It may have been erected in 120 AD when Hadrian visited Leicester. The stone records the full name of Emperor, his titles and the stone being 2 miles from Ratae. Now in the Jewry Wall Experience. #EpigraphyTuesday

Now that it’s in Italian news, I can share: a new inscription has been found on Egadi Ram 25. It reads SER SOLPICIO C F QUAISTOR PROBAVE[T] — “Servius Sulpicius, son of Caius, Quaestor, approved (this).” This likely refers to the son of Caius Sulpicius Galus, Roman consul in 243 BCE.

Remains of a hypocaust system from the West Baths - part of the Roman bathing complex at Bath. 📸 My own. #RomanSiteSaturday #RomanBritain #RomanBath

The #Horses of Saint Mark, also known as Triumphal Quadriga, 2nd or 3rd century CE 👀, via Basilica di San Marco. See (Alt) for the fascinating history of this masterpiece of #ancient #artwork #Venice #Art #History #AncientBlueSky🏺

#GlassObjectThursday 🏺 #Roman blown glass flask with polychrome snake-thread decoration. 3rd C AD. Made in Rhineland, Cologne area. In British Museum

Matilo or Matilone was a Roman fort (castellum) on the southern banks of the Oude Rijn in modern Leiden. It served lied on the Roman borders in the province of Germania Inferior (Limes Germanicus). The fort was built at around 70 AD and used to up to 196–198. #RomanFortThursday

West gate of Housesteads Roman Fort. #RomanFortThursday #hadrianswall #followtheacorn

The remains of the granary building at Ambleside Roman Fort in Cumbria. The fort was probably built during the reign of Hadrian (AD 117-138) and remained in use into the 4th century. 📸 My own. #RomanFortThursday #RomanBritain #Ambleside

A 2000-year-old Roman bridge has been discovered in Aegerten, Switzerland. Over 300 oak piles were unearthed. Based on current dendrochronological analysis, the earliest construction dates back to approximately 40 BC, while the most recent parts are from 369 AD. www.be.ch/de/start/die... 🏺

Live from Vicus Caprarius in #Rome! Visitors can explore the remnants of an ancient Roman residential complex, including a luxurious mansion (a domus) and an apartment building (insula). It includes a massive water reservoir, or castellum aquae, which was part of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct (1st c. CE)

A Roman altar dedicated to the god Hercules - a popular focus of veneration in Roman Britain. Now part of the collections at the Museum of Archaeology at Palace Green Library in Durham. 📸 My own. #EpigraphyTuesday #RomanBritain #Durham

Here we go, gang! All 12 books of The Aeneid in 27 minutes. In one take. If I managed it. Let's find out... Tune into BBC Radio 4 at 9am today 😬 Catch up any time on BBC Sounds: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

#EpigraphyTuesday – The tombstone of the military tribune Lucius Pompeius Marcellinus, discovered at Ephesos in 1866: ca. 2nd Century AD. #Latin 🏺🧵 Image: Ashmolean Museum (ANMichaelis.214; AshLI 168). Link - latininscriptions.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/xml/AN_Micha...

Gaze into the extraordinary face of Sulis Minerva - the hybrid goddess who presided over the cult site of Aquae Sulis - Roman Bath 🤩 Discovered in 1727 this is thought to be the head from the original cult statue from the foundation of the site: www.romanbaths.co.uk/minervas-head 🎥 My own