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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

Mosaic of a gorgon's head from the bathhouse at Bignor Roman Villa in Sussex. This strategically placed emblem averted the evil eye when bathers were naked in the changing room, vulnerable to malign influence. Her snaky hair has been writhing since the early C.4th. 📸 mygf #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain

A reminder that the Romans knew a thing or two about hydraulic engineering 👇

#RomanSiteSaturday From the first century the Great Bath at Bath (Somerset) caught the outflow from Britain's only hot spring for Roman bathers to enjoy. Water still enters through the original stone culvert and although the vaulted roof has gone, lead pipes remain in situ in the pavement 👀. 📸 me

Copper alloy figurine of Capricorn, found in 2012 by a metal detectorist in the Mendips. The goat/fish collision was the emblem of Legio II Augusta which had its fortress first at Exeter and then Caerleon across the Severn. Now in @museumofsomerset.bsky.social. #RomanFortThursday #FindsFriday 1/2

Copper alloy figurine of Capricorn, found in 2012 by a metal detectorist in the Mendips. The goat/fish collision was the emblem of Legio II Augusta which had its fortress first at Exeter and then Caerleon across the Severn. Now in @museumofsomerset.bsky.social. #RomanFortThursday #FindsFriday 1/2

A Roman funerary monument found at the fort of Verbeia (Ilkley) and now in the local museum. I wonder if they thought their images would still be gazed upon over 1800 years later

Have you ever tasted medlar fruits? They are ancient sweet tasting fruits, that need to soften before eating. Not as popular nowadays, they were brought to Britain by the Romans. This medlar fruit stone was discovered at the Roman town near Silchester. 1934.114.3.586 Reading Museum #FridayFinds

Recently learned that during the Roman conquest of Britain the Romans would refer to us as 'Brittunculi' (derogatory), meaning, 'fucking little Britons'. As in, "These fucking little Britons do not know they are conquered". And ever since I've been tempted to add 'proud brittunculi' to my bio 😂

#AshmoleanAdvent Day 2: A Bronze Stag 🦌 This Roman bronze brooch in the shape of a stag would have been used to fasten a shawl or cloak. This brooch was once decorated with bright multi-coloured enamel which was very popular in Britain and France during the Roman period. 🦌 AN1927.418

Relief from Aphrodisias in Turkey. A heroically nude Claudius dominates a pleading woman, captioned below in Greek as BPETANNIA. The relief commemorates the emperor's invasion of Britain in 43, and was found in 1980. (Now in Aphrodisias Archaeological Museum.) #EpigraphyTuesday #ReliefWednesday

#MosaicMonday #Neptune #Oceanus #Carausius #AncientBlueSky 🏺

Reposting for #FindsFriday

Outrageous!

A 'low-budget' but rather charming mosaic from Abbots Ann, Hampshire. It would have welcomed guests to a small villa, which was the final phase of a farmstead originating in an Iron Age ‘banjo enclosure’. C.3/4, now in the British Museum. #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain #IronAge #BecomingRoman My 📸

How about this?

On a chilly morning such as this, let’s imagine ourselves as a Hadrian’s Wall soldier starting his shift in one of the turrets, checking his section of wall, & then upwards on watch duty. Filmed Tuesday morning, at fabulous @vindolandatrust.bsky.social before the snow! #RomanFortThursday

Tile plaque with female face from the legionary bathhouse at Exeter. A line of these plaques would have decorated the eaves of a tiled roof; helping ward off bad luck and pigeons! Made by the 2nd Legion Augusta around AD60 and now in the @rammuseum.bsky.social. #ReliefWednesday #RomanFortThursday

@ArchaeologyPeeps, is this very limited excavation approach normal when the area of interest will be 'designed out' of the development? (It's now been backfilled.)

#MosaicMonday A new mosaic discovered just a few months ago, down the road from where my partner's sister lives. It came to light as part of a housing development in Newnham, Glos. But there's no intention to clear and record it fully, which is a crying shame! Details in Alt text. #RomanBritain

Don’t miss Prof Alex Mullen’s free webinar on November 26th at 7pm! She’ll be presenting the Joan Pye lecture on ‘Tales from the Tablets: recovering the voices of Roman Britain’. #archaeology #classics #roman 🏺 Book your tickets here: tinyurl.com/Romanvoices

Ok - its #RomanSiteSaturday & a couple of weeks on I can finally sit down at do a thread on the Antonine Wall & all the Roman goodies around Glasgow This is a massively underated set of sites & it was really exciting to explore! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🧵👇

Thursday 13 Nov is our next talk. This one is a bit special because our Chair, Mike Haken, is talking about A New Digital Map of Roman Britain: how to access it, how to use it and what comes next. It's a huge step forward that's taken a decade to develop

Fragment of 4th century mosaic from the #Roman bathhouse of Lydney #Gloucestershire Beautifully captured in watercolour by the great archaeologist, Tessa Verney Wheeler in 1929 🤩 Original painting held by @antiquaries.bsky.social #MosaicMonday

Today I'll be mostly decorating "en Barbotine' #AncientBluesky 🏺Soon to be heading for our online shop potted-history.co.uk.