Brittunculus
@brittunculus.bsky.social
📤 497
📥 135
📝 455
History/classics MA. Living with DPDR. "The climate is wretched” - Tacitus
#RomanBritain
pinned post!
A fragment of a military intelligence report from the Roman fort at Vindolanda, on the northern frontier of
#RomanBritain
. The thin, postcard-sized wooden tablet describes the fighting style of the native Britons, disparagingly referred to as BRITTUNCULI or 'Little Brits.'
#EpigraphyTuesday
over 1 year ago
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#EpigraphyTuesday
One of the Herculaneum scrolls, preserved in charred form by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. Ever since the scrolls' discovery attempts have been made to read them. This example sits in the Papyrus Unrolling Machine designed by Fr. Antonio Piaggio c.1756: now in the MANN, Naples.
10 days ago
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Brittunculus
Dr Toby Driver
14 days ago
I'm delighted to be lecturing at Oriel Môn/Anglesey Gallery in March about the incredible Iron Age remains on the island, including about recent work with
@richardosgood.bsky.social
at Llyn Cerrig Bach & our
#RCAHMW
recording of coastal forts. See you there!
www.orielmon.org/en/events/dr...
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Druids and Furies by Dr Toby Driver
Finding the Iron Age people of Ynys Môn and north-west Wales
https://www.orielmon.org/en/events/druids-and-furies-by-dr-toby-driver
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A real treat to be back in Pompeii again. A glimpse of the House of the Vettii in the evening light. 📸 my own
15 days ago
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Brittunculus
Templum
18 days ago
Although it was built almost 300 years earlier (around 262), the temple at Pagans Hill, Somerset has a very similar layout and dimensions to the Basilica of San Vitale. Both are octagonal, east facing, an outer ambulatory with vaulted ceilings, and and inner cella defined by arched piers.
add a skeleton here at some point
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Not that dissimilar (in its sequence of Aeneas, Dido and Ascanius on galloping horses) to the same hunting scene at Low Ham in Britannia. A common model?
#mosaicmonday
add a skeleton here at some point
18 days ago
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Fighting erotes (cupids) from Bignor
#Roman
Villa in W. Sussex. One is dressed as a retarius gladiator (net and trident) and the other as a secutor (sword and shield). 3rd/4th century
#MosaicMonday
#RomanBritain
25 days ago
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Brittunculus
Among the otherwise low flint walls of Littlecote
#Roman
Villa’s residential buildings, a stepped cold plunge pool and a hypocausted hot tub bring home that real people once lived, shivered and luxuriated here. 1,700 years ago. 📷 me
#RomanSiteSaturday
#RomanBritain
27 days ago
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Among the otherwise low flint walls of Littlecote
#Roman
Villa’s residential buildings, a stepped cold plunge pool and a hypocausted hot tub bring home that real people once lived, shivered and luxuriated here. 1,700 years ago. 📷 me
#RomanSiteSaturday
#RomanBritain
27 days ago
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Brittunculus
Roman Scotland
27 days ago
A recreated Roman watchtower from Burgsalach on the German frontier. Similar structures existed across the Gask Ridge in Perthshire
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Brittunculus
buildlikearoman.bsky.social
28 days ago
Episode 5 is now available: Roman Timber: Roofs, Doors and Forgotten Walls
#romans
#rome
#history
#archaeology
#brick
#tiles
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Roman Timber: Roofs, Doors and Forgotten Walls
Podcast Episode · Build Like a Roman · 12/02/2026 · 21m
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/build-like-a-roman/id1873634566?i=1000749487993
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Brittunculus
PCA
about 1 month ago
For
#FindsFriday
we’re celebrating the Roman festival of Fornacalia, the Feast of Ovens, held each February. Baking hearths were honoured as the goddess Fornax to ensure good bread & large ovens in the City of London show how commercial baking fed Roman London, with an iron shovel found with them.
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A sinuous tinned-bronze brooch in the shape of a greyhound found at Fulbeck, Lincolnshire in 2005. His sinuous form was characteristic of Romano-British art and his eye might originally have been inlaid with enamel, a British speciality. This good boy dates from the 2nd C.
#FindsFriday
#RomanBritain
about 1 month ago
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Brittunculus
Durotriges Dig
about 1 month ago
An iron dagger (with wooden handle) and iron scabbard (with gold and silver inlay) found in the 1960s excavation of the mid 1st c AD
#Roman
fort at Waddon Hill
#Dorset
Hopefully not used on any of the Durotriges ! 😬 Now in the fantastic Bridport Museum 📷 Feb 2023
#RomanFortThursday
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Brittunculus
This partly-restored wall painting showing Cupid in an architectural fantasia is reminiscent of frescos from Pompeii. But it was found in Southwark,
#Londinium
and originally decorated a 2nd Century bathhouse. Materials included gold leaf and fancy imported red cinnabar.
#FrescoFriday
#RomanBritain
about 1 month ago
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This partly-restored wall painting showing Cupid in an architectural fantasia is reminiscent of frescos from Pompeii. But it was found in Southwark,
#Londinium
and originally decorated a 2nd Century bathhouse. Materials included gold leaf and fancy imported red cinnabar.
#FrescoFriday
#RomanBritain
about 1 month ago
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Enjoyed watching this talk tonight, from the splendidly gothic Prof. Ronald Hutton.
#Mithras
🌤️
www.youtube.com/live/Cl8_X89...
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Mithras: Master of Mystery - Ronald Hutton
YouTube video by Gresham College
https://www.youtube.com/live/Cl8_X8917OM?si=S1WCcsjTBiASU8Y2
about 1 month ago
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Brittunculus
'Victory' and inscription recording construction of a section of the Antonine Wall, AD140s. "For the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, father of his country, a detachment of the 20th Legion Valeria Victrix built 4,411 feet." RIB 2208.
#EpigraphyTuesday
#ReliefWednesday
about 1 month ago
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Brittunculus
Tony Divey
about 1 month ago
For
#TowerTuesday
here’s the tower from St Albans Cathedral. For a bonus
#TilesonTuesday
there’s also plenty of reused Roman tiles
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Paging
@wittspat.bsky.social
📢
add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 month ago
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Brittunculus
Lindsay Powell FRHistS
about 2 months ago
Come on a virtual tour of the House of the Tragic Poet (also called The Homeric House or The Iliadic House) in
#Pompeii
care of Flyover Zone's Yorescape.
#AncientBluesky
superspl.at/view?id=6431...
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House of Tragic poet - SuperSplat
The House of the Tragic Poet (also called The Homeric House or The Iliadic House) is a Roman house in Pompeii, Italy dating to the 2nd century BCE. The house...
https://superspl.at/view?id=6431c8d6&fbclid=IwY2xjawPk60VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeUjxg5V2THrVwBxvWSYTCbg2t0mfVTI2UdTjaPfaMkC0ZfRXJ5_fFhcg-FYg_aem_BVaRSWPBMHDq_wbQeWn5Sg
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'Victory' and inscription recording construction of a section of the Antonine Wall, AD140s. "For the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, father of his country, a detachment of the 20th Legion Valeria Victrix built 4,411 feet." RIB 2208.
#EpigraphyTuesday
#ReliefWednesday
about 1 month ago
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#MosaicMonday
The Orpheus mosaic from Littlecote
#Roman
Villa in Berkshire. Its obscure iconography has been seen as evidence of the pagan revival in late C.4th
#RomanBritain
, as Orpheus charms circling animals, seasons & goddesses with his music. Much restored, the floor has significant wow factor.
about 2 months ago
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A wonderful combination of Roman realism and Celtic linear decoration. And a decapitated barbarian too. 🤩
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Brittunculus
Following Hadrian
about 2 months ago
Happy 1950th birthday, Hadrian! 🎂
#Hadrian1950
followinghadrian.com/2026/01/24/f...
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Felicem diem natalem, Hadriane! 🎂 FOLLOWING HADRIAN
Happy 1950th birthday, Hadrian! In keeping with tradition, I baked Hadrian a birthday cake. This year, I chose Cato’s recipe for savillum (a kind of cheesecake), one of my favourite sweet cakes fro…
https://followinghadrian.com/2026/01/24/felicem-diem-natalem-hadriane-%f0%9f%8e%82-4/
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🤩Online tickets are free🤩
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Repost for
#FindsFriday
⚔️
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Meanwhile in Gaul...
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Brittunculus
David Roberts
about 2 months ago
Our
@antiquaries.bsky.social
Low Ham book (myself, Roger Leech and
@thepostexcox.bsky.social
) is now available OA -
library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...
- the first synthetic publication of one of Britannia's largest villas, with reports on strat, finds, & enviro remains, & fully contextualised. 1/10
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Like the cheeky gorgoneion peeking out from under her armpit
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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The Roman jackboot
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Brittunculus
Kate Sheehan-Finn
2 months ago
One of two of the Roman bath houses at Vindolanda, in the vicus, close to the fort’s west gate. This fort was occupied by Coh IV Gallorum from the early 3rd C. The baths served the soldiers and townspeople of
#Vindolanda
south of
#HadriansWall
.
#RomanFortThursday
#RomanBritain
#Archaeology
📸 my own.
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A sea-panther from the amazing Orphic mosaic at Littlecote
#Roman
Villa, Wiltshire. c.AD 350 - 365. 📸 me
#MosaicMonday
#RomanBritain
2 months ago
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Coin of iron-age King Cunobelinus depicting Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings. With one face he looks back at the past while the other peers into future. Appropriately, the month January is named after him. Early C.1st Happy new year!
#RomanBritain
#IronAge
#ReliefWednesday
2 months ago
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Brittunculus
Chapps
2 months ago
In the ancient
#Roman
world, even steelyard weights (counterbalances) could be made with first class artistry. Here, this bronze weight is shaped into the bust of a man, perhaps a Greek philosopher (or maybe the merchant!). 🏺 1/ Romano-British, 1st or 2nd c. CE, from London.
#BritishMuseum
📸 me
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Brittunculus
3 months ago
#RomanSiteSaturday
Caerwent - Venta Silurum to see the Romano-Celtic temple.
#Archaeology
#History
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Martial also suggested as
#Saturnalia
gifts a pig, an axe, a parrot and tables. Generous, but awkward to wrap. 🙄
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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Brittunculus
Colchester Museums
3 months ago
Looking for a Christmas gift that’s protective, portable and a little bit outrageous? Adopt a Roman flying phallus. Perfect for the impossible-to-buy-for friend, AND adoptions help conserve objects at Colchester Museums. Adopt:
colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/adoptanobject
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'Winter' from Caerwent, Wales (now in Newport Museum) wears a hooded cloak against the cold & wet, maybe the 'birrus Britannicus' mentioned in Diocletian's Price Edict of AD301. A birrus was worth 6,000 denarii. Price details of Winter's furry mosaic companions in the ALT texts.
#MosaicMonday
📸 me
3 months ago
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Brittunculus
Kent Archaeological Society
3 months ago
Its
#FindsFriday
! During our curator's work repacking the Trosley Roman Villa & Bathhouse excavation archive Andy came across this lovely little tile fragment with another pawprint on it. We aren't entirely sure what animal this came from; what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!
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#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
3 months ago
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Brittunculus
Following Hadrian
3 months ago
What are you doing to celebrate the start of the Saturnalia festival? I am having my traditional Saturnalia feast with some delicious ancient Roman food and wine! 🍷
#Saturnalia
🪔
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Brittunculus
Roman Military Equipment
3 months ago
Testing, testing, 1-2-3. After much fafftootling around in the guts of Wordpress and PHP, prodding of reluctant backups, and many, many very, very naughty words, you can try out our restored website here:
rme45762.live-website.com
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Roman Military Equipment – From Start to Finish
https://rme45762.live-website.com/
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Brittunculus
Deva Roman Experience
3 months ago
Io Saturnalia!
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Brittunculus
#MosaicMonday
It's Christmas party time, for mortals and mythical beings alike. Here Silenus, mentor of Bacchus, might be making his way home after a good night out on his long-suffering donkey. Wine cup still in hand. From a C.2nd mosaic now in
@coriniummuseum.bsky.social
, Cirencester. 📸 mine 2022
3 months ago
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#MosaicMonday
It's Christmas party time, for mortals and mythical beings alike. Here Silenus, mentor of Bacchus, might be making his way home after a good night out on his long-suffering donkey. Wine cup still in hand. From a C.2nd mosaic now in
@coriniummuseum.bsky.social
, Cirencester. 📸 mine 2022
3 months ago
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Brittunculus
Lindsay Powell FRHistS
3 months ago
Now the site of present-day Canterbury, Kent, Durovernum Cantiacorum was the 'civitas' capital of the Cantiaci nation in Roman Britain. (Canterbury Roman Museum)
#RomanSiteSaturday
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Brittunculus
Trimontium Trust & Museum
3 months ago
Want to explore Roman cemeteries closer to home? Join our Trimontium Talk this Thursday at 7:30 pm (UK): “Till death us do part: Roman Cemeteries and the mystery of the missing Trimontium mausolea.” — Online and in person, book through our website or link tree.
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#OnThisDay
add a skeleton here at some point
3 months ago
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Every 9th Dec. emperors would lay down their 'tribunician powers' only to be granted them again the next day: a nice legal fiction that harked back to the
#Roman
Republic. But also handy for dating. The abbreviation TRIB POT XIIII in this 😍 dedication dates it neatly to 129/130.
#EpigraphyTuesday
3 months ago
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Brittunculus
Durotriges Dig
3 months ago
Between 1828-9 Samuel Hasell excavated a villa at Pitney
#Somerset
Sheds were built to protect the villa but sadly they had gone by 1836 and so had the mosaics 😞 All we have left are lithographs like this one by Hasell of Cadmus thrashing a python* *don't Google this 😬 Happy
#MosaicMonday
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