A reminder for #FindsFriday that Lucerna, the newsletter of the Roman Finds Group, needs your finds! Research articles, site updates (finds focused), calls for parallels, mystery objects, our active community of specialists would love to read about your work! See thread below for contact details.

We have lots of student notebooks containing sketches on anatomy, diseases etc, however, this one is by far our favourite. It shows Joseph Lister, father of antiseptic surgery, disappearing through a trapdoor after his lecture in Glasgow in 1868. Now that's how to make an exit! #Museum30 #Sketchbook

"I see you are using sharp tools and creating toxic mess, how can I get involved?"

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

The mare and foal stones near Cawfields on Hadrian's Wall #StandingStoneSunday #HadriansWall

Happy Halloween!

I'm going as Making Tax Digital.

Coburn doing his best to look spooky 🐈‍⬛️🎃

Nice of the Romans to put these handy cup holders in their gateways #romanarchaeology #hadrianswall

The Andy Goldsworthy exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland is so good: endlessly creative, beautiful, thought provoking, humorous, important. Only a week or so left! Get yourself to Edinburgh!

Just entered the spoon carving phase of my life. Fought it for a while but it was inevitable.

BBC Archive just uploaded The Lonely Shore (1962), a surreal 15-minute short that takes the form of a scientific report from an abandoned and desolate future Britain. Written by Jacquetta Hawkes, an actual archaeologist, and directed by Ken Russell, an actual madman.

Do you work with Roman finds? Got a Cool Thing you want to share with the world? Found something in the ground or in the stores that puzzles you? Looking for parallels? Want to shout about your event, museum or book? Lucerna, the newsletter of the Roman Finds Group, needs you! #roman #archaeology🏺

📣 If you're into crafts and communities of practice in the Roman world, consider submitting to our TRAC session Crafting Connections: Communities, Identities, and Practices in the Roman World (TRAC1) for RAC/TRAC Aarhus 2026. CFP ends Friday. Link: www.romansocietyrac.ac.uk/ractrac-2026...

When people I don't like ask me about the process of game design, I send them this diagram from Richard Duke's 1974 book Gaming: the Future’s Language

If you were hoping to see a teenage Ben Affleck* talking to Dr Peter Reynolds @butserancientfarm.co.uk before the weekend, then don't worry: we've got you covered. 👍 www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeJj...

Chris has made more Space Dwarfs for your asteroid strongholds! And his new logo is rad. Sign up to be alerted when it lifts off later this year! 🚀⚒️🔥

Yes we have found a hologram of Denis Law in Trench 6. Total archaeology!! #KelvinWheelies

I've been looking at Roman tile kilns, and I'm sort of impressed by the one that's just a rough outline that say TILE KILN across it, like some sort of David Shrigley cartoon.

A bit of love for Nottingham Castle. In all the years I lived there, I only visited for the beer festival and to see a series of Leonardo da Vinci sketches (which is in itself pretty amazing). The town is weirdly dismissive of the whole place. Must visit the revamp next time I'm down!

"What isn't at the V&A?" — new from me in @artreview.bsky.social on enduring colonialism, art-washing working class heritage, and a museum without labels artreview.com/what-isnt-at...

Calling my thesis finds database 'The harvest of relics', after a quote by Macdonald in his 1932 note on Croy Hill.

RIP Canmore

Happy solstice youtu.be/mbyzgeee2mg?...

It's definitely a Shropshire sun pendant kind of a day. Channelling the Bronze Age as I head into the last couple of months of my (Roman) PhD.

The helmet disguises how utterly exhausted I am, but what a great three days! So many nice people to chat to, so much positivity and good vibes. @ontosgames.co.uk had a fantastic show, we love each and every one of you who stopped by, hopefully see you at the next show! 🚀⛏️🏍💫

Great Day 1 at #UKGE #UKGE2025 for Ontos. We're exhausted and happy! Come join us in the year 1994 in the corner of Hall 3, stand B1!

I'll be taking a break from frantically writing my PhD to help @ontosgames.co.uk at Games Expo this coming weekend. Come see us for tiny colourful space beards on bikes with big guns 🔫 🚀💫⛏️🏍 (includes badass warrior women too 😎)

Please consider signing this petition to support staff at Newcastle University, where compulsory redundancies are being pursued across several departments including Archaeology. It's an unnecessary step that damages our long-term standing and has a significant impact on staff and students.

Went south to a family gathering and came away with an anvil. Well, the offer of an anvil - I need to figure out how to get it from central London to rural Northumberland next...

@romanpalace.bsky.social have made a tea towel so perfect I did an actual squeal and danced towards it in the shop.

Wish I was as happy to be alive in the morning as this adorable Roman building stone from Bar Hill (From the 1899 Antonine Wall Report #romanarchaeology)

Excellent history news. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

It's great to see small museums standing up for what's right, they can be great vehicles for protest and grassroots action reflecting diverse communities. Recent events are backwards and scary and I can't imagine how unsafe a lot of people feel right now. www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...

Classic Easter gifts of hobnobs, gummy snakes and robot eggs

@ontosgames.co.uk got me this amazing Portmeirion Totem coffee pot and cups I'd been eyeing up in the charity shop for weeks as thanks for helping out with Salute. The best gift! He hates it, so it's even more meaningful that he's let it in the house.

Stopped at Soutra Aisle on my way back through the Borders from Edinburgh. Lovely little site, 17th century burial vault built from the stones of a 12th century hospital complex run by Augustinian monks. The A68 is such a lovely drive, so much to see.

A day mucking about in the archives followed by a lightning after-hours tour through the National Museum of Scotland from my lovely PhD supervisor and Keeper of Archaeology Beccy Jones. So many secret corners full of treasures!

Was so busy all day that I took only one photo, of the car INSIDE the ExCel Centre (never not cool), but luckily other lovely people took pictures of the stand! Had a brill day, @curis.bsky.social did great, saw lots of cool stuff, met so many nice people (esp @badsquiddogames.bsky.social). Rök on!

New retro McSpace Dwarf miniature from Ontos ready for pre-order for Salute 2025! See you there this weekend!

Wearing this necklace in honour of #TombTuesday - I think it's meant to be *that* henge, but I like to imagine it as a dolmen - maybe Pentre Ifan or Spinster's Rock (erected by some witches before breakfast, pictured after breakfast in 2018).

Slowly carving out my stonemasonry chapter 🪨⛏️🪦

Fantastic day at #Vapnartak in York in my other role as hired muscle for @curis.bsky.social and Ontos Games. Lots of cool models and games going on.

💅

Snow on Hadrian's Wall making for a completely different landscape #Hadrianswall #Northumberland #RomanFortThursday

A productive afternoon in the secondhand bookshop #archaeology #prehistory #Northumberland

WE'RE READY 🎄 🐈‍⬛🎅🍾

Spent this afternoon researching agricultural tools and have gone down a rabbit hole of massive farm animals watching men nervously prepare turnips for them