#FindsFriday: A #Roman amber flask, from Aquileia, dating 1st/2nd c. AD. Aquileia's position at the end of a main amber trade route resulted in its becoming a centre for the carving and distribution of Baltic amber across the Roman Empire. 📷: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Aquileia

Turning up like a bad penny, I made another appearance on @norsebysw.bsky.social's channel, in which Jackson graciously gives me the space and questions to unpack ideas and info in 'Why Q Needs U'! Also watch me struggle to accept his very nice words about the book. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQMo...

Breaking news: The new, revised, updated Ogham in 3D website is now live: ogham.celt.dias.ie Choose "inscriptions" in the menu.

The series of positive news doesn't seem to end today. @bernhardbaver.bsky.social (©📷) informs me that he discovered another brand-new book at the European Celtic Congress in Bonn: Cisalpine Celtic Literacy edited by Corinna Salomon @lexiconleponticum.bsky.social and myself. /1

Dazzling 2,000 year-old Roman bowl made of translucent amber-coloured glass. Like a bowl full of sunshine! ☀️ Fabulous example of the skill of ancient glassmakers! British Museum 📷 by me www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o... #Archaeology

🏺 The two names ⟨oletu⟩ Ol(l)edū and ⟨amaśilu⟩ Amaśillū are inscribed on the shoulder of a well-preserved flask from the Ornavasso necropolis (Piemonte), dated to 100–50 BC. Both names are etymologically Celtic – Ol(l)edū maybe from ollo- 'great', Amaśillū possibly amb(i)-ađ-illo- (meaning unclear).

A special class today in my Ancient Celtic course at the Leiden Summer School. Instead of a lecturing hall, we were welcomed in the sacred halls of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Antiquities Museum @rmoudheden.bsky.social) where the students were allowed to view the Lepontic inscription TI·6. /1

🏺 This pretty terra sigillata cup from the Giubiasco necropolis (Ticino), dated to 25–50 AD, is inscribed with the sequence ⟨atiss⟩ in the Latin alphabet. This is likely an abbreviation of a Celtic personal name like CIL XIII 7553 atisso, RIG M-56 atisios, though it is not quite clear ...

Major Celtic Settlement Discovered in Czech Republic. archaeology.org/news/2025/07...

🚨 NEW podcast episode out now! 🎙️ "Mind, Language and Law in Medieval Ireland" with Dr Viktoriia Krivoshchekova, an O’Donovan postdoctoral scholar in the School of Celtic Studies. 🎧 Watch on YouTube + listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or on browser: www.dias.ie/series/ni-ha... ✨

Just published "Foundational approaches to Celtic linguistics" edited by Andrew Carnie, Diane Ohala, Dee Hunter, Samantha Prins, Mike Hammond & Luis A. Irizarry #openaccess #cicl langsci-press.org/catalog/book...

'Quoth', although archaic, is better known nowadays than its present-tense counterpart: 'queath'. The two go back to Old English cweþan 'to say'. From this, Old English derived becweþan 'to assert'. While obsolete on its own, you can still find 'queath' in the modern form of becweþan: 'bequeath'.

🏺 The name ⟨rupelos⟩ or ⟨runelos⟩ is inscribed in the Lepontic alphabet on the shoulder of a pot from the Giubiasco necropolis (CH), dated to the late 2nd or 1st c. BC. The third letter features a short vertical scratch which may not be intentional, so that it could be pi or nu. In either case, ...

Something lovely for the weekend! 🩵 A stunning 2,000 year old Roman bowl made of translucent blue-green mosaic glass. Looks like it contains the turquoise blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea! 🌊 Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 📷 by me #Archaeology

A Runestone That May Be North America’s Oldest Turns Up in a Canada Forest www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/w...

🚨 Celtica is now available open-access! This is the result of painstaking work going on behind the scenes since 2022. Issues 33 to 36 (2021–24) are now online, and future issues will appear online & in print. We will also digitize the back issues of the journal. 🔗 journals.dias.ie/index.php/ce...

"Designing sustainable Digital Editions." This is a lightly revised version of a talk I gave at the Digital Epigraphy Workshop in Maynooth on 26 May 2025. Many thanks to Nora White for the invitation and to the audience for discussion and feedback. www.pmoran.ie/posts/sustai...

Day 1 of the Cisalpine Celtic Colloquium is over. We had talks about the non-equation of genes, archaeology and languages, local theonyms and and a lot about morphology and syntax. [sorry, not 📷] The inscriptions from Carona (lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/Carona) continued to be THE hot topic. /1

🏺 Pictured below is the potentially oldest Celtic inscription we currently know. It is written on a ceramic bowl from 650–625 BC from the Golasecca necropolis near Lago Maggiore. Maras, who published it in 2023, read a personal name in the genitive ⟨iatuini⟩ i̯antu-u̯ind-ī 'of Iantuuindos'.

The final preliminary programme for the 2nd Cisalpine Celtic Colloquium in @ceilteachomn.bsky.social @maynoothuniversity.ie @muahi.bsky.social coming Thursday and Friday. More info: lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/Colloqu...

2nd Cisalpine Celtic Colloquium 29-30 May 2025 Room 1.33, Iontas Building @muahi.bsky.social Dept.of Early Irish @ceilteachomn.bsky.social Maynooth University All welcome; zoom available More info: lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/Colloqu...

The 50th anniversary volume of Études Celtiques (2024) has appeared! 🎺🎶 Congratulations to the editor Pierre-Yves Lambert! The volume contains the edition of the new Gaulish magical tablet from Orléans, Hôpital Porte-Madeleine F 2199, incl. a short contribution with comments by me.

The 2nd Cisalpine Celtic Colloquium will take place next week, on May 29th and 30th, at Maynooth University, with talks by Emmanuel Dupraz, Joe Eska, and many others! Programme: lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/Colloqu.... All talks will be broadcast via Zoom, so if you're interested, send us an email!

🏺 This gravestone from Stresa on Lago Maggiore (1st c. BC) is inscribed with the name of the deceased: ⟨exobna | diuconis | f⟩ 'Exobna, daughter of Diuco'. While the inscription is alphabetically and grammatically Latin, both personal names are Celtic. Exobna is derived from eχs-obno- 'fearless' ...

🏺 The short sequence ⟨uini⟩ is inscribed in the Lepontic alphabet on the bottom of a black-glazed patera from a necropolis in Arsago Seprio (Varese), dated to the late 2nd/1st c. BC. The writing direction is sinistroverse, but the large angle of N could be due to influence from the Latin alphabet.

A box containing two dice, made from ivory, the sliding lid is missing. Acquired from a private collector, its precise age—whether #Roman or #Greek - remains unfortunately uncertain. That's why the archaeological context is critically important! 📷 MFA Boston 🏺 #archaeology

For #RomanRoadsFriday a section of the 'Via delle Gallie' in Donnas, Val d’Aosta, Italy. The wheel ruts are still visible. The arch was carved into the rock. The road that was built under Augustus. It began at Mediolanum, present-day Milan, and passed ...🧵1/2 🏺#archaeology

"Designing sustainable Digital Editions", Dr Pádraic Moran, University of Galway. 17.00-18.00, Tuesday 27 May 2025. Iontas seminar room 1.33, Maynooth University. All welcome - no booking required.

Reasons recorded for worker absence on this 3,200 year-old ancient Egyptian attendance register include ‘brewing beer’, ‘stung by a scorpion’, and ‘embalming brother’! 🤯 From Deir el-Medina worker’s village. Written in Hieratic script. 📷 by me #Archaeology🏺

Exciting news from Silvia Ferrara - a new project, SAPIENCE, looking at the emergence of symbol systems and writing. www.sapience-fis.com?fbclid=IwZXh...

Peter Schrijver will give the Zenobia Lecture at the @rmoudheden.bsky.social on May 22! He will discuss cultural fusion among the Lepontic and Celtiberian peoples www.rmo.nl/uw-bezoek/ac...

🏺 This particularly badly legible Celtic funerary inscription on the fragment of a gravestone was found in secondary context in a Roman temple for Jupiter in Bioggio (Ticino), but dates from the 4th or 3rd c. BC. Under raking light, it reads ⟨]ọni : klanalui : p̣ala⟩ 'pala for °u, son of Klanos'.

Stunning 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic cast glass bowl. A wonderful example of the skill of ancient glassmakers! 📷 Getty Museum www.getty.edu/art/collecti... #Archaeology

Digital Epigraphy Workshop coming soon in Dublin (TCD) and Maynooth (MU)! #Photogrammetry #RTI and #EpiDoc hands-on training over 3 days. Booking essential for workshop as limited places (note: keynotes do not require booking). Programme & Eventbrite link: ahi.maynoothuniversity.ie/mind-materia...

Enjoyed this example of Venetic in the Padua Museum, especially the archaic shapes of its letters. You can see how the old shape of the letter pi in "pupone" (first and third letters from the top right) could easily become either Greek Π or Latin P.

The OG(H)AM project just about made it, on the last day of the month, to publish Katherine Forsyth's Og(h)am of the Month, about a - once - mysterious small object from Moynagh Lough (Meath) with og(h)am on it: ogham.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/og... While the object as such is mysterious no more... /1

! The Gaulish personal name ⟨eripoχios⟩ is (or was) written on the foot of a ceramic bowl from the area of Pavia, dated to the late 2nd c. BC – now sadly lost. The execution of the letters on the leather-hard clay is imprecise, but practised, almost cursive.

GlossIT is hiring a Digital Humanities postdoctoral researcher for 4 years (75% FTE). Candidates should have experience with digital editions and philological/linguistical projects: jobs.uni-graz.at/en/jobs/9a9b... Position from 1 June 2025 (starting date negotiable). Deadline is 12 May 2025.

Remains of the Roman floating bridge – more specifically the bridgehead fort – across the Danube near Carnuntum, which was used in the Marcomannic Wars 172 AD as depicted on the Column of Marcus Aurelius, was discovered in the Nationalpark Donau-Auen near Stopfenreuth. noe.orf.at/stories/3300...

The significance of archaeobotanical research! The first discovery of a vanilla pod in Europe: A multidisciplinary record from the early modern period of the Prague Castle www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🏺 One of twenty known coin legends written in the Lepontic alphabet, the legend ⟨prikou⟩ is attested on only two specimens of a gold stater which was common in the Valais and Aosta regions, and is thought to have been issued by the Celtic Salassi or Uberi in the 2nd or 1st century BC.

Wondrous Minoan artistry from Bronze Age Crete! Small luxury rhyton carved from rock crystal. The artisan who created this vessel some 3,500 years ago, had an eye for beauty as well as immense technical skill! Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 me heraklionmuseum.gr/en/exhibit/r... #Archaeology🏺

The Keshcarrigan Bowl • Leitrim • c.1st Century AD This bronze bowl was discovered in a tributary of the River Shannon in Leitrim. If you look closely at its handle, you can see it is shaped to look like a bird's head with a curving neck, like a swan or duck. #SpéirGhorm #Ireland #archaeology

🏺 The Vergiate stela, dated to the late 6th c. BC, bears the probably earliest Cisalpine Celtic inscription which contains a complete sentence. The text ⟨pelkui : pruiam : teu : karite : iṣ́os : kaṛite : palaṃ⟩ records that 'for Belgos Deu set up the pruia; the same set up the pala [grave(stone)]'.

🏺 The name ⟨ilauki⟩ is inscribed on the bottom of a patera, dated to the 1st c. BC, from a necropolis in Arsago Seprio (Lombardia), which has yielded numerous inscriptions in the Lepontic alphabet. ⟨ilauki⟩ is a personal name in the genitive: 'of Il(l)auk(i)os', probably an owner's inscription.

🏺 This large fragment of a Celtic gravestone from Cureggio (Piemonte), used as building material for a church, represents the remains of what must have been a stela of considerable size. The preserved text reads ]ṭọ[ ]ịkṇọṣ | ṃatopokios | sola | nimoniknạ, viz. one personal name element per line.

Boats are highly important in Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age belief. There are numerous depictions of the sun boat guided by water birds, but this is special: Seven of originally >100 gold foil ships found in 1885 near a grave mound at Nors, Denmark. National Museum Copenhagen. #Archaeology

The "Og(h)am of the Month" March 2025 by Nora White (@ndefaoite.bsky.social) is one of the two stones on public display in @nmireland.bsky.social: I-COR-069 (CIIC 118) from Monataggart (Móin an tSagairt), Co. Cork ogham.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/og...

#Fascinating world of ancient #glass: a #Roman jug made of blue glass with splashed decoration in white, yellow and brown. The decoration was created by applying fragments of coloured glass to the surface of the vessel before it was fully blown. The technique was fashionable...🧵1/2 📷 me 🏺

Monumental three-volume Handbook of Epigraphic Cultures to be published by De Gruyter, early next year hopefully. Open Access eBook! Includes chapters on Khitan and Tangut epigraphy.