An #AncientGreek chicken on wheels - a child's toy made & first played with at least 2400 years ago in ancient Athens. If it wasn't made of terracotta it could probably pass for a modern toy; apparently the things kids find fun has not changed that much in over two millennia! AncientBlueSky

A #Roman ribbed glass bowl, in a pale shade of bluey-green. It is in beautiful condition despite being about 2000 years old; this type of glass vessel was very popular in the early Imperial period. AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

Like a scene from "Ben Hur": For #ReliefWednesday a terracotta relief depicting an accident at a chariot-race at the Circus Maximus. The famous circus in #Rome can be recognised due to the seven movable dolphins on the central dividing barrier, the... 🧵1/2 🏺 #archaeology

For #EpigraphyTuesday an amazing #Roman gold fibula (a decorative pin for fastening garments/a brooch) carrying the Latin inscription VTERE FELIX - use this happily, one of the most common inscriptions on Roman finger rings and fibulae. From Ostrovany, Slovakia, late 3rd c. AD 📷 KHM Wien 🏺

Everybody likes a sailor. #MosaicMonday takes us to the Porto Fluviale or port of the #Tiber riverbank on the #Trastevere side across from #SanPaolofuorileMura. This #mosaic may have been part of a bath complex for the use of sailors and dock workers. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Got a craving to learn something completely new? Looking to explore the latest research on a period, theme or area of the world? Check out our online collections, with free and #OpenAccess #archaeology on all this and more! 🏺 antiquity.ac.uk/collections

A #Roman tile, stamped with the maker's mark of the infamous & somewhat mysterious 9th Legion Hispana #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology AncientBlueSky

A wild tortoise wandering through the ruins of the Library of Hadrian in Athens... wonderful that these ancient sites are still lived in! #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #RomanSiteSaturday 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

A #Roman leather child's shoe, a miniature version of the shoes worn by adults. It was found at the #Vindolanda (Britain), & may once have belonged to one of the fort commander's children 🏺 AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanFortThursday

A #Roman glass vessel in the shape of a fish - it has an adorable little face on what is technically the side/bottom of the vessel (it is shown in the museum lying horizontally). A bit impractical though, yes...

"If you go into the woods today....." There was certainly a surprise for Rome in the Teutoburg Forest around this time in AD 9. Listen to @drjeball.bsky.social talk all about it. #ancientrome #teutoburg open.spotify.com/episode/32Ki...

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!

An... interesting attempt at an elephant from one ancient #Roman mosaic maker - not sure in this case that they had ever actually seen one before though! 🐘 #MosaicMonday #Archaeology AncientBlueSky

A #Roman mosaic panel showing Achilles dragging the body of the defeated Hector behind his two-horse chariot; it was laid in #Rome about 1800 years ago #MosaicMonday #Archaeology AncientBlueSky

A #Roman glass vessel in a bluey-green-aqua colour, with a large bulbous body & elaborately-curled handles. Such a beautiful piece of ancient glass!

#InternationalDogDay The interior of the House of Paquius Proculus, #Pompeii, #Italy, with its splendid 'cave canem' ('beware of the #dog') mosaic. 📷 My own 2019. #Archaeology #History #art #artwork #ancientbluesky

A bit late, but apparently, it's #InternationalDogDay - We all know: A life without #dogs is possible but pointless! A tiny yet marvellous #Celtic figurine of a #dog (height 1.6 cm) made of blue glass and decorated with yellow and white threads. The unique figurine...🧵1/2 🏺 #archaeology

Today is International Dog Day, here at Jewry Wall Marcellus and Ferrox take you on an immersive tour of Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum), there is also evidence of their antics in the exhibition from nearly 2,000 years ago. #InternationalDogDay

Apparently it is #InternationalDogDay today, which is a perfect excuse to post this little chap - a small metal #Roman dog figurine, found on #HadriansWall, & looking remarkably like a Monopoly piece (but made more than 1500 years before the game was created!) 🐶 🏺AncientBlueSky

Good to see a #Roman soldier still guarding #HadriansWall on #RomanSiteSaturday...

I'm not sure how happy these two individuals would be to sit alongside each other on a bookshelf, even 2000 years after their deaths. Varus probably didn't know Tacfarinas, but Tacfarinas certainly knew who Varus was - there are a fair few connections between the two... A short #Roman🧵

Happy Vinalia Rustica! The #Roman festival took place #OnThisDay every year to celebrate the annual grape harvest (or maybe to ensure good weather just before it took place). The harvest is depicted in this mosaic from Cherchell, present-day Algeria #MosaicMonday 🏺 1/3

A cute little bronze #Roman fish, complete with scales & line details on the fins 🐟 #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

A #Roman gladiator helmet, found in #Pompeii, designed to be worn by a heavily-armed fighter. The head is entirely covered apart from the eye-holes (& even they are covered!) - it is easy to see why gladiators could only fight in these for a very short time! #Archaeology AncientBlueSky

I'm not sure how happy these two individuals would be to sit alongside each other on a bookshelf, even 2000 years after their deaths. Varus probably didn't know Tacfarinas, but Tacfarinas certainly knew who Varus was - there are a fair few connections between the two... A short #Roman🧵

This mummy portrait from #Roman Egypt depicts a young woman who (based on her clothing & hair) lived & died about 1900 years ago. She was presumably part of a family of some wealth, as she is shown wearing some gilded jewellery, including earrings, a necklace, & a wreath in her hair 🏺AncientBlueSky

#OnThisDay - 8 August - in AD 117 the emperor Trajan died. As both builder and military commander (notably his campaign in Dacia) he excelled, accepting the title 'optimus princeps'. #AncientHistory 🏺 Image: RIC II Trajan 367; Münzkabinett Wien (RÖ 88278). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

A piece of stone from Chesters fort (Britain) incised with a #Roman-era graffito of a hunting scene - a hunter (with a disproportionately big head!) wields a trident as he approaches his four-legged prey (maybe a wild boar..?) 🏺AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

For #RomanFortThursday let’s go to Qasr Bashir, #Jordan, located 15km northwest of Lejjun. An inscription dates the construction of the Castra Praetorium Mobeni to AD 293-305. It was occupied throughout the 4th and into the 5th century. Umayyad pottery...🧵1/2 📷 taken by me in 2000 🏺 #archaeology

#GlassObjectThursday 🏺 Knobbed #Roman beaker of blue glass blown into silver case, possibly from Brindisi, 1st C. May represent special, apparently fashionable, technique described by elder Pliny where openwork designs were cut out of silver casings for glass, 50-100AD. A British Museum favourite.

Fascinating - excavations at #Roman #Pompeii reveal that people reoccupied the ruins after the AD 79 eruption, in an informal settlement largely without the facilities you'd expect Romans in Italy to have. It may have lasted for centuries! AncientBlueSky www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Stairway to premier seating in the #Roman amphitheatre of #Caerleon legionary fortress #Gwent Here the officers and guests of the Legio II Augusta would ascend to watch *entertainment* in the arena 😱 📷 2015 #RomanFortThursday

A #Roman glass bowl, in a lovely shade of green, with ridges decorating the outside of the bowl. It was made about 2000 years ago, & was found in #Pompeii

A #Roman tile fragment with some dog pawprints, impressed into the clay while it dried before firing #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

For #EpigraphyTuesday a wooden barrel found in a well in the #Roman settlement at Aalen with the name GAIVS COTTIVS FLORENTINVS branded in, probably the merchant or owner of the barrel. Barrels were used for the transport and the storage of wine. This one...🧵1/2 📷 me 🏺 #Archaeology

A metal #Roman flask, with very vivid remnants of its original enamel decoration. It was found in a grave in Pinguentum (modern Buzet, Croatia), but made in either Britain or Gaul in the C2nd AD #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology AncientBlueSky

#MosaicMonday 👀 #Roman mosaic unearthed in the Villa di Negrar di Valpolicella, near Verona, #Italy in 2022. #Archaeology #History #AncientBlueSky🏺

A charming #Roman silver brooch in the form of a horse - a popular design among the Romans, who seem to have liked animal-shaped brooches more generally as well. 1800-1900 years ago it may have belonged to a cavalry soldier, or someone who liked horses..? 🐴 #Archaeology AncientBlueSky

A beautiful #Roman glass bowl, with four main quarters in cobalt blue, plum purple, bright yellow, & colourless, with a fused-on garland decoration in each section. Almost hard to believe that it is more than 2000 years old! AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

An #AncientGreek terracotta vessel with painted decoration giving it what seems to be an owl face... amazingly, it was made more than 2600 years ago! 🦉 🏺AncientBlueSky #Archaeology

A sweet (if a little corroded) #Roman figurine of a Pegasus, with front legs raised as if it is about to take flight #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology AncientBlueSky

Wear marks on trilobite fossil found in archaeological context suggest that the Romans may have used it as ornament. Very cool find, and a good excuse to bring back this thread on antique palaeontology ! bsky.app/profile/jfcu... #PaleoSky 🏺 ⚒️ 🦑

A #Roman mosaic from which 1800 years ago decorated the dining room of a luxurious house in Antioch (Antakya, Turkey). It depicts 3 erotes riding on the back of dolphins, from where they're fishing into a sea containing 25 marine creatures (📷 MFA Boston) 🏺 AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #MosaicMonday

A lovely little bronze #Roman mouse figurine, shown holding a morsel of food in his little front paws (a nut or seed maybe?), perhaps about to take a little nibble from it. It is about 1900-2000 years old 🐭 (📷 Christie's) 🏺 AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

A new AI tool developed to fill in the blanks on partial #Roman inscriptions - used properly this could be great for the field, but I hope it doesn't mean that we stop exploring the inscriptions ourselves... 🏺 AncientBlueSky www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

A beautiful #Roman ridged glass bowl, made from cobalt blue with an irregular marbled white swirling pattern. It was made about 2000 years ago, & is a stunning piece of Roman glass that I really wish I owned... (📷MFA Boston) AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientGlass

A small wooden #Roman sword - from the size of it, probably a toy rather than a practice weapon, maybe something given to a soldier's child. Found in London, it is easy to imagine a child playing with it some 1600-2000 years ago 🏺AncientBlueSky #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology

A #Roman glass bowl, in a beautiful shade of cobalt blue, with vertical ridges all around the outside. It was made about 2000 years ago & ended up in Nijmegen (Netherlands); it was excavated a few years ago in pristine condition #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology #AncientGlass

A glimpse into the more gruesome side of #Roman warfare on Trajan's Column (#Rome), as a Roman soldier in the midst of battle carries the decapitated head of an enemy by his teeth. The scene is set during the First Dacian War (AD 101-2), which became a very brutal conflict 🏺AncientBlueSky