The remains of a Neolithic chambered cairn at Stockie Muir in Stirlingshire. The ‘Clyde type’ cairn is some 20m in length and 11m across, and probably built between 4000 to 3000 BC. 📸 My own. #TombTuesday #Prehistory #Archaeology

Roman milestone from the reign of Hadrian (AD 117-138). It was found at Caton in 1803, some four miles from Lancaster. The stone is now part of the collections at Lancaster Museum. 📸 My own. #EpigraphyTuesday #RomanBritain #LancasterMuseum

Medieval floor tiles from Cleeve Abbey in Somerset. 📸 My own.#TilesOnTuesday #CleeveAbbey #Somerset

Inscription, “Jesus, son of Mary,” was found in Jezreel, in Israel. The inscription was engraved in Greek into a stone originally from the lintel of a Byzantine church, dated to the 5th century AD. Merry Christmas, all! 🎄🎍✨️ #EpigraphyTuesday

It's Monday, Latin dies Lunae - day of Luna, goddess of the #Moon. Therefore, for #MosaicMonday a detail of a mosaic from the #Roman villa at Orbe-Boscéaz, Yverdon-les-Bains region, Switzerland, depicting Luna in a two-horse chariot. Happy Monday to all of you!

#MosaicMonday - Mosaic panel from Hadrian's Villa depicting a rocky landscape with goats by a stream and a statue of Dionysus. Musei Vaticani, Gabinetto delle Maschere.

The black and white geometric mosaic in the tepidarium of the women's bathhouse at #Roman #Herculaneum / #Ercolano We're not sure what's depicted in the panel closest to the camera but we have a nasty feeling it's a *thingy* 😬 A thingy with a bell on it 😬😬 📷 Sept 2023 #MosaicMonday

Cynesige, archbishop of York, died #OTD in 1060. He joined Earl Tostig and Æthelwine, bishop of Dunholm (Durham), in conducting Máel Coluim III into England to meet Edward the Confessor in 1059. Ealdred succeeded him. 📸Paul Lakin #medievalsky

Fragments from Fortingall

📣Now Available📣 The Bamburgh Bowl Hole Anglian-period Cemetery is the full publication of the sixth- to eighth-century burials excavated between 1999 and 2007. It integrates archaeological, osteological and isotopic data into a comprehensive account of the cemetery. 🏺 @brparchaeology.bsky.social

A page from an 8th century Irish ‘Pocket’ Gospel showing St. Luke holding a copy of his Gospel. Part of the collections at The British Library. 📷 My own. #ManuscriptMonday #BritishLibrary

Remains of the 12th century monastic church at Roche Abbey in South Yorkshire. The Cistercian abbey was founded in 1147 as a daughter house of Newminster Abbey in Northumberland. 📸 My own. #MedievalMonday #RocheAbbey #Yorkshire

1st century mosaic niche found at Baiae, near Naples. The niche would have been located in a garden or courtyard. Now part of the collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. 📷 My own. #MosaicMonday #Roman #FitzwilliamMuseum

An 'extraordinary' wind at Tarbat, Easter Ross, broke an 'obelisk' #OTD in 1674, according to local Sir George MacKenzie. Research by Sally Foster suggests this was the Hilton of Cadboll Pictish cross-slab, whose break left its lower section buried. 📸National Museums Scotland #medievalsky

Astronomical #winter starts today. It's the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight with the sun starting to set later each day until Summer Solstice. The mosaic depicts the dancing Genii (protective spirits) of the four seasons. The Genius of winter is wrapped in a heavy cloak.🧵1/2 #Solstice

The Mare and Foal Standing Stones - the only visible remains of a Bronze Age stone circle which is located close to Hadrians Wall, just off the B6318 in Northumberland. 📸 My own. #StandingStoneSunday #Prehistory #Archaeology #Northumberland

Stone face originally carved into the wall of Sewingshields Milecastle on Hardrian’s Wall in Northumberland. Now part of the collections at the Great North Museum (Hancock) in Newcastle. 📸 My own. #StoneworkSunday #RomanBritain #Hancock #Northumberland

15th century angel. Made in Norwich, the stained glass is now part of the collections at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. 📸 My own. #StainedGlassSunday #AdventAngels #BurrellCollection

#StandingStoneSunday The Bone Stone at Drizzlecombe, #Dartmoor. A mere human for scale

Around the winter #solstice #IronAge communities would have been keenly aware of the year’s shortest day & longest night. At places like Eildon North daily life was shaped by the seasons, the land, & the steady return of light, long before the Roman fort of Trimontium was established below.

People have been marking winter solstice for a very long time. Some 7,000 years ago, the people who built Goseck in Germany aligned the site's entrances to face sunrise and sunset at this darkest time of year. An ancient honouring of the return of the light. (Pic © LDA Sachsen-Anhalt, Gert Pie)

For the last Saturday before #Christmas, the awesome, breathtaking ceiling of medieval angels which soar high above you in Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, Suffolk - the 'Cathedral of the Marshes' The angels still retain some of their paint colour - incredible 🥰😮 📷 My own, 2020

Suffolk sunrise over Billingford windmill, Suffolk, this morning - a day off the shortest day 🤩🌞 #Flatlands 📷My own

Two finely crafted bone combs from the early 6th c. AD, found in a grave at Dittigheim. To protect their delicate tines, they were carefully kept in a custom-made case. In the Early Middle Ages, long, well-groomed hair was more than a fashion choice, it was a symbol of status and identity. 1/2 📷me

Something lovely for the weekend! A 1,800 year-old Roman glass flask shaped like a mouse! Squeak squeak! 🐭❤️ 📷 by me www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... #Archaeology

On Dasher, on Prancer … sorry, I’ve got Christmas on the mind. This is actually a late 2nd-early 3rd c. imperial cameo (once owned by Rubens) which may depict the deified Empress Julia Domna as the goddess Luna or Dea Syria. Note how the horns of the bulls form crescents. 🏺 1/ #BritishMuseum 📸 me

A terrible storm which devastated the country closed in #OTD in 1052. Symeon of Durham says it was so great ‘as to destroy many churches and houses, and to break or tear up by the roots innumerable trees’. 📸Mike Pennington #medievalsky

The remains of a butcher’s shop and house - part of the town (vicus) that developed around the Roman Fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland. 📸 My own. #RomanSiteSaturday #RomanBritain #Vindolanda #Northumberland

15th century angel - originally part of the west front of Wells Cathedral, but now on display at the Wells & Mendip Museum in Wells. 📸 My own. #AdventAngels #Wells

A wintery St Michael and All Angels' Church at Kniveton in Derbyshire. The church is mostly 12th century in date, with the west tower added in the 13th century. The windows were renewed in c.1663, and the church restored in 1870. 📸 My own #SteepleSaturday #Kniveton #Derbyshire

The remarkably well-preserved York Helmet, dated AD 770-775, is one of only six surviving helmets from Anglo-Saxon Britain. A Latin inscription bears the name ‘Oshere’. Discovered by a digger operator in York in 1982. Iron and copper-alloy. Yorkshire Museum 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

#FindsFriday: A 'dragonesque' brooch from the British Museum. Its belly is inlaid with coloured enamel, and the pin (missing) would have fitted on the back between the two necks. These wonderfully sinuous brooches were popular in the decades after the Roman invasion. #RomanBritain 📸 me

Today's #IronAge #coin for #FindsFriday is a little scrap of silver, 12mm diameter, probably produced somewhere in eastern Armorica in the first century BC - found in the Le Câtillon hoard in Jersey in 2012 #numismatics #archaeology 🏺

It was found in a bog at Coggalbeg, Roscommon in 1945, and consists of a #gold lunula (a crescent shaped "little moon") and two small gold discs, of a type known from other examples, decorated with a cross motif within two circles. #Ireland #Archaeology #History #FindsFriday

✨Saturnalia Season✨ Bring out the fancy lounges and the best crockery, it’s time to feast! May your festivities look something like this with drinking horns (rhytons), fabulous hair nets, and delightful tripod tables. #FrescoFriday

Possibly the most sublime Roman fresco of a temple. The architectural detail of the spiky-topped wooden barrier, the painted relief in the pediment, & the offerings burning on the altar; it’s a symphony of observations. Archaeological Museum of Capri (no provenance) #FrescoFriday

It's #Saturnalia ! Here's the satyr Silenus, companion to Bacchus the god of wine, who's inebriated face appears on this 3rd century AD #Roman copper alloy wine jug Found beneath Dorchester Marks and Spencers in 1936 and now @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social 📷 May 2021 Happy #FindsFriday #FridayFeeling

Ahead of Christmas, it feels fitting to share this Roman fibula - a decorative pin once used to fasten garments - shaped like a stag. In my Christmas-influenced imagination, it looks rather reindeerish! 🎄 Is it Dasher, Dancer, or maybe Rudolph? 🎅 From the Roman Villa at Borg, 2nd c. AD 📷Villa Borg

Squeeze down Peter lane to the medieval house of Richard Warry #York

‘Buddo’ - a rare representation of a human figure from the British Neolithic, dating to around 2900-2400 BC. Discovered at Skara Brae in the mid-C19th, it was re-discovered amongst the archaeological collections at Stromness Museum in 2016. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #Archaeology

A baptismal scene from the Norman font of All Saints’ Church at West Haddon in Northamptonshire. 📸 My own. #FontsOnFriday #WestHaddon #Northamptonshire

From salt to... sanitation! 🧂➡️💩 This 15th-century salt-trade barrel was repurposed as a latrine lining in #Constance. A good example of #MedievalRecycling and resourcefulness in everyday life. 📷 @almbawue.bsky.social 🏺 #archaeology

Stunning new discovery in Italy: Thousands of dinosaur footprints were discovered more than 2,000 meters above sea level, providing new insights into life 200 million years ago. www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/itali...

I’m increasingly uneasy about the flood of AI images on social media. They are mostly absurd and frustrating. They may sometimes be creative experiments, but the fact that so many users take them at face value says a lot about our collective loss of visual literacy. www.facebook.com/groups/ancie...

Chester book argues Wirral is site of historic battle www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/2570506...

The late #Roman stone and red tile courses in a projecting tower of PORTVS ADVRNI (Portchester) coastal fort #Hampshire emerging from behind medieval repair Built in the late AD 280s when Britain had temporarily left the Roman Empire, the walls survive to over 6m 📷 May 2023 #RomanFortThursday

IO SATURNALIA! It’s time to celebrate this Roman winter festival. Here’s our special episode all about it 🥂🎩 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Lilia pits at Rough Castle Roman Fort on the Antonine Wall, near Bonnybridge in central Scotland. The pits were a defensive measure (each containing a sharpened stake) that would have helped defend the northern approach to the fort. 📸 My own #RomanFortThursday #RomanScotland

The Norman south door of St Gregory's Church at Tredington in Warwickshire. 📸 My own. #AdoorableThursday #StGregorysChurch #Tredington

🔔 Silver bells, silver bells — The #Romans celebrated #Saturnalia 17–23 Dec, a major festival honouring Saturn, god of agriculture, abundance, & renewal. Marked by feasting, gift-giving, role reversal, & public merriment —Many Saturnalia traditions influenced midwinter celebrations across Europe.