#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.

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...

A real treat to be back in Pompeii again. A glimpse of the House of the Vettii in the evening light. 📸 my own

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.

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

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

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

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

A recreated Roman watchtower from Burgsalach on the German frontier. Similar structures existed across the Gask Ridge in Perthshire

Episode 5 is now available: Roman Timber: Roofs, Doors and Forgotten Walls #romans #rome #history #archaeology #brick #tiles

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.

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

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

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

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

Enjoyed watching this talk tonight, from the splendidly gothic Prof. Ronald Hutton. #Mithras 🌤️ www.youtube.com/live/Cl8_X89...

'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

For #TowerTuesday here’s the tower from St Albans Cathedral. For a bonus #TilesonTuesday there’s also plenty of reused Roman tiles

Paging @wittspat.bsky.social 📢

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...

'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

#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.

A wonderful combination of Roman realism and Celtic linear decoration. And a decapitated barbarian too. 🤩

Happy 1950th birthday, Hadrian! 🎂 #Hadrian1950 followinghadrian.com/2026/01/24/f...

🤩Online tickets are free🤩

Repost for #FindsFriday ⚔️

Meanwhile in Gaul...

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

Like the cheeky gorgoneion peeking out from under her armpit

The Roman jackboot

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.

A sea-panther from the amazing Orphic mosaic at Littlecote #Roman Villa, Wiltshire. c.AD 350 - 365. 📸 me #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain

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

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

#RomanSiteSaturday Caerwent - Venta Silurum to see the Romano-Celtic temple. #Archaeology #History

Martial also suggested as #Saturnalia gifts a pig, an axe, a parrot and tables. Generous, but awkward to wrap. 🙄

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

'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

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!

#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

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 🪔

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

Io Saturnalia!

#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

#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

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

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.

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

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