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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 4h

Castle an Dinas at St Columb Major. It dates from around the second and third centuries BC and consists of three ditch and rampart concentric rings, 850ft in diameter and standing 700ft above sea level.

#HillfortsWednesday
#Archaeology
#AncientBlueSky

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 4h

#HillfortsWednesday

Ladle Hill
The hillfort on the top of the hill has never been excavated, but the land and ditch are sharply defined and well preserved. This Iron Age fort is roughly rectangular and enclosed seven acres within an embankment and ditch.

#Archaeology #History

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Dr Alan Montgomery @classicalalan.bsky.social · 1d

This is my watercolour of Nether Largie South Cairn in magical Kilmartin Glen. Constructed around 5000 years ago to house multiple burials, it was later enlarged to to accommodate two secondary cists.
The original artwork is now available on my Etsy shop here: shorturl.at/HDzSI
#TombTuesday #Art

A black and white watercolour painting of the entrance to a Neolithic cairn, with stones and pebbles piled around it.

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romanbritain.bsky.social @romanbritain.bsky.social · 1d

#TombTuesday

Archaeologists discover rare liquid gypsum burial of 'high-status individual' from #RomanBritain.

The newfound stone coffin that had gypsum poured over it in #Roman times in what is now England. (See Alt )

#History

(Image credit: Courtesy of Headland Archaeology)

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/archaeologists-discover-rare-liquid-gypsum-burial-of-high-status-individual-from-roman-britain

This practice is known from Roman times, but archaeologists still don't fully understand it. The mineral was made into a cement or plaster and then poured over the deceased person to make a hard cast. This process sometimes preserved organic remnants such as clothing or a burial shroud. The gypsum from the newfound burial is fragmentary, but it retains impressions of the individual's shroud and preserved a small piece of fabric.

This type of burial is largely known from Roman urban centers — such as York in England, which has 45 documented gypsum burials — but it's rare to find them in rural regions, as this one was. In this case, "we do believe this would have been an expensive endeavour and is therefore indicative of a high-status individual," said Jessica Lowther, community archaeologist for Headland Archaeology, the company that did the excavation.

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 23h

#EpigraphyTuesday offers us a shattered and recomposed slab of Luni marble from the #Forum of #Augustus in #Rome. Its #inscription has been somewhat devoured by the human termites who ran the lime kilns but is easily legible as a statue dedication to #Drusus #Germanicus. #AncientBluesky 🏺

STATUE BASE FROM THE FORUM OF AUGUSTUS, 2 BCE. TRAJAN'S MARKETS

[Nero] Cl[a]udiu[s], Ti(beri) f(ilius), /
[Dru]sus German[i]cus, / [co(n)s(ul)], pr(aetor) urb(anus), q(uaestor), aug(ur), imp(erator)/[app]ellatus in Germania

"Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, son of Tiberius, consul, urban praetor, quaestor, augur, acclaimed as commander in Germany". This is the fragmented statue base of a member of the Claudian gens absorbed into the family of Augustus, the great military hero Drusus, second son of Livia, wife of Augustus, by her first marriage to Tiberius Claudius. Drusus had a hugely successful military career and held civil office. He was acclaimed as imperator by his troops after they defeated the German tribe of the Cherusci in 11 BCE. He died two years later and was commemorated in the part of the Forum of Augustus dedicated to his family.

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Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · 5h

It's #HillfortsWednesday 🥳

Here's Cadbury Castle #Somerset, one of the most famous of British hillforts thanks to its impressive form, glorious views and extensive folklore associations

Today its grass covered ramparts are patrolled by inquisitive bovine quadrupeds

📷 July 2021

Cows chewing their way across the grass covered ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort with tree covered hills in the distance

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Dr Toby Driver @drtobydriver.bsky.social · 5h

For #HillfortsWednesday the absolutely whopping ramparts of Tredegar hillfort in Newport, partly hemmed in by the Gaer housing estate & re-used for an historic golf course

331m top to bottom 😮

Stunning vegetation-stripped LiDAR DTM from National Library Scotland 👌

👉 coflein.gov.uk/en/site/93429

A hillshaded orange & silver Lidar map of a substantial polygonal hillfort

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Dr Toby Driver @drtobydriver.bsky.social · 14h

Nothing prepares you for the enormous scale of this monument! If you haven't been - go & see it

Tuatha @tuatha.ie · 18h

Browneshill Dolmen • Carlow

Ireland has around 170 recorded portal tombs, also known as dolmens. They were constructed during the Neolithic period, from around 3800 BC onwards.

The capstone at Browneshill is enormous! It is estimated to weigh well in excess of 100 tonnes.

#Ireland #SpéirGhorm

The large portal tomb at Browneshill, Carlow, Ireland. It consists of a giant capstone supported by upright stones. The capstone leans at a dramatic angle, but still stands after 5,000 years.

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 16h

😬

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

#TombTuesday
Carrowmore Listoghil central Chamber tomb in County Sligo in #Ireland.

#Archaeology #History

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

#TombTuesday

Loughcrew Cairns is a passage tomb cemetery located near the village of Oldcastle in County Meath. The most striking features of the #archaeological landscape of Loughcrew are the three large cairns that dominate the summit of three steep hills.

#Ireland #Archaeology

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 17h

What an odd little bronze model. It's a Roman galley's prow *and* stern? The usual goose-swan neck from the stern is at top, while a dog-headed ram, which would be affixed to the prow, is at bottom. The inscription reads: AMMILLA AUG FELIX, 'Amilla Augusta the Fortunate'. @sdecasien.bsky.social 🏺🤔

Bronze prow or stern of an ancient Roman ship. The goose or swan neck and head is at the top, which would normally be on the stern of a galley - the rear. But at the bottom, projecting out from the keel, is a dog-headed ram, which should be at the prow - the front - of the galley. A mashup, perhaps, of an actual galley, perhaps one that plied the Mediterranean as a trading ship? In niello - a composite black metal - are letters at the top which read, in Latin, 'Amilla Augusta, the Fortunate'. Niello decorations are at the bottom, difficult to make out against the corroded metal, but it seems to be a victory palm, a bird, and something else ...

British Museum, no date given (1856,0701.29)

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

#TombTuesday

Loughcrew Cairns is a passage tomb cemetery located near the village of Oldcastle in County Meath. The most striking features of the #archaeological landscape of Loughcrew are the three large cairns that dominate the summit of three steep hills.

#Ireland #Archaeology

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

#TombTuesday
Carrowmore Listoghil central Chamber tomb in County Sligo in #Ireland.

#Archaeology #History

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

About a 2 pence piece 👀🕸️🕷️

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Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 1d

#MosaicMonday presents us with a #floor #mosaic from a #tomb of the "middling sort", which is the class below the rich but above the artisanate, a significant commissioner of funerary art in #Rome and the provinces. Here we are in a #necropolis along the ancient #viaPortuensis. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC FLOOR, TOMB A, 130-170 CE. DRUGSTORE MUSEUM

This black and white mosaic pavement shows a broad black band around the exterior, then a frame of guilloches and two narrow black bands on either side against a white background. The mosaic is not especially sophisticated and the subject is familiar from other middle-class tombs of the C2 CE. Four kantharoi in the corners sprout grapevines, and four figures, one per side, are harvesting the grapes. The vines overlap a central circular frame containing a male figure with a double axe, about to hack at a separate vine. This is Lycurgus, king of Thrace, who is attacking what had been, a moment before, the nymph Ambrosia, but she had been compassionately turned into a vine by Dionysus and is about to wrap around the frustrated Lycurgus and trap him. This transformation represents the consoling rebirth of the natural world, and the circular frame evokes Aeon, god of cyclical time.

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Fishbourne Roman Palace @romanpalace.bsky.social · 1d

There's a lot going on here. Not least the cameo appearance of Captain Blackadder.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 1d

Following last week's #MosaicMonday post, this is another modern mosaic I enjoyed on a recent trip. It repays close looking and should raise a smile! By the late Maggy Howarth, with design input from local schoolchildren, decorating the small Millennium Garden at Ravenglass in Cumbria.

A modern mosaic made of cobbles. It is circular and shows an anchor in the centre with its shank placed vertically and its arms curving out at the bottom, like a nose and smiling mouth. To the left is a ship and to the right a castle, both on the horizon; they serve as the eyes. Behind the shank of the anchor is a small setting sun. The background cobbles radiate from this to form the sky, the lines distinct from the zig-zag shapes of the sea. The border is of wave pattern and there is an outer border of two rows of rectangular stones. The mosaic is black and white throughout except for the ship's sails, which include red. To the rear is a bright blue bench placed amid foliage.

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

#Nature
Just love the droplets of dew on this #web 🕸️🕷️

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 1d

A stunning 2,000 year-old Roman blue glass amphoriskos.

📷 Getty Museum www.getty.edu/art/collecti...

#Archaeology

Getty Museum photo of a translucent, dark blue, two-handled, glass flask (amphoriskos) against a grey background. The free-blown body is bulbous in shape, with a narrow neck with a flattened rim. The two handles were added afterwards and attach to the body and mouth. The handle on the right has been attached slightly higher up on the body than the other side. Height 10.5 cm. There is some incrustation on the interior of the glass.

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 2d

A rather grisly #MosaicMonday

Villa de Noheda, Villar de Domingo García #Spain
During the #Roman occupation of Spain, there lived a man who was so wealthy that he could have his wine shipped all the way from Syria. One of the largest mosaics ever found.

#Archaeology #art #History #artwork

The Roman villa: The villa itself is immense, covering about 24 acres, and belonged to a wealthy aristocrat, potentially connected to Emperor Theodosius I.
The mosaic: The mosaic is the largest figurative one discovered in the entire Roman Empire, spanning over 291 square meters in the dining room. It is rich with mythological and daily life scenes, including the abduction of Helen of Troy and the chariot race between Pelops and Hippodamia.
Discovery: The site was discovered by accident in 2005 when a tractor hit a hard spot in a field.
Current status: The site is an active archaeological excavation, and while only a small portion has been explored, it is considered one of Spain's most important Roman sites.

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

Quite a theme for your guests over dinner...

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 1d

Learn something new everyday.

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 2d

A rather grisly #MosaicMonday

Villa de Noheda, Villar de Domingo García #Spain
During the #Roman occupation of Spain, there lived a man who was so wealthy that he could have his wine shipped all the way from Syria. One of the largest mosaics ever found.

#Archaeology #art #History #artwork

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Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · Jul 6

A "chain-link" column on the south portal of the western facade of the church of Saint-Lazare D'Avallon, in north-central #France. c.1160.

#architecture #art #History #medieval

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