Artemis Potter
@artemis20five.bsky.social
27. Professional history nerd. Part time professional performer. Photographer, Lego builder and makeup artist. Enjoyer of music, video games, theatre and film. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Neurodivergent. Wheelchair user. Transgender. Non-Binary Transfemme.
Pinned
On #DressInBlueDay2025, I don't suit blue, but if I had the outfit worn by this exquisite Tanagra figurine c. 320 BCE in the Louvre I'd certainly make an exception. Just gorgeous #textileporn
Completely off-topic but tying into my dissertation area of Classical interpretation in Sci-fi, this figure reminds me of an interesting connection between Star Trek and the ancient world. There is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called 'Darmok' (cont. 1/9)
Reposted by Artemis Potter
A very good boy! 🐾🐕😍
An amazing c. 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian dog carved from ivory. This leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest.
The Met 📷 by me
#Archaeology
An amazing c. 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian dog carved from ivory. This leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest.
The Met 📷 by me
#Archaeology
November 22, 2025 at 9:37 AM
A very good boy! 🐾🐕😍
An amazing c. 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian dog carved from ivory. This leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest.
The Met 📷 by me
#Archaeology
An amazing c. 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian dog carved from ivory. This leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest.
The Met 📷 by me
#Archaeology
These are fantastic!
'Ancient mask reliefs unearthed at Roman-era theater in southern Türkiye'
#archaeologynews 🏺
www.aa.com.tr/en/culture/a...
#archaeologynews 🏺
www.aa.com.tr/en/culture/a...
Ancient mask reliefs unearthed at Roman-era theater in southern Türkiye
Ongoing excavations in 2,700-year-old ancient settlement in Kastabala, Osmaniye, currently focus on theater area, believed to have been built in 1st century AD during Roman Empire - Anadolu Ajansı
www.aa.com.tr
November 20, 2025 at 5:50 AM
These are fantastic!
Good to know my prescribed painkillers (morphine) have a long track record of efficacy. Longer than any of the rest of my medications by a couple of millennia!
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Analysis of the residues revealed definitive evidence for noscapine, hydrocotarnine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine—well-known diagnostic biomarkers for opium.
Analysis of the residues revealed definitive evidence for noscapine, hydrocotarnine, morphine, thebaine, and papaverine—well-known diagnostic biomarkers for opium.
Opium use in ancient Egypt: Alabaster vase residue points to widespread use
Examination of an ancient alabaster vase in the Yale Peabody Museum's Babylonian Collection has revealed traces of opiates, providing the clearest evidence to date of broad opium use in ancient Egypti...
phys.org
November 19, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Good to know my prescribed painkillers (morphine) have a long track record of efficacy. Longer than any of the rest of my medications by a couple of millennia!
Seconded!
The bastards will have to pry my beloved em dash from my cold, autistic hands when I'm dead.
November 18, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Seconded!
Roman doggo book!
The cover of my forthcoming book, out in February/March. #dogs #Roman-Britain #animalturm #archaeology
November 18, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Roman doggo book!
Reposted by Artemis Potter
It’s transgender awareness week, so if you weren’t already aware, you are transgender
November 16, 2025 at 10:04 PM
It’s transgender awareness week, so if you weren’t already aware, you are transgender
Reposted by Artemis Potter
The Obelisk and Tomb of Antinous.
Barbara Gai explores the history of this important monument and the clues that might lead to the location of Antinous’ tomb.
the-past.com/feature/the-...
Barbara Gai explores the history of this important monument and the clues that might lead to the location of Antinous’ tomb.
the-past.com/feature/the-...
The Obelisk and Tomb of Antinous | The Past
Barbara Gai explores the history of this important monument and the clues that might lead to the location of Antinous’ tomb.
the-past.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:59 AM
The Obelisk and Tomb of Antinous.
Barbara Gai explores the history of this important monument and the clues that might lead to the location of Antinous’ tomb.
the-past.com/feature/the-...
Barbara Gai explores the history of this important monument and the clues that might lead to the location of Antinous’ tomb.
the-past.com/feature/the-...
Reposted by Artemis Potter
If you are thinking, "wow, I wish a resource like this existed for office holders in the Roman Republic" - it does, albeit in book form, as T.R.S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1951, 1952, 1960) in two volumes, both hosted online: onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/...
November 10, 2025 at 8:59 PM
If you are thinking, "wow, I wish a resource like this existed for office holders in the Roman Republic" - it does, albeit in book form, as T.R.S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1951, 1952, 1960) in two volumes, both hosted online: onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/...
Reposted by Artemis Potter
Students & researchers have a tough time keeping the names of Roman emperors and elites straight. But we do have a database to help name and number each. It is called the Prospographia Imperii Romani (=PIR) and has 15061 persons, of which 1932 are women. Please use the database! pir.bbaw.de#/search
Prosopographia Imperii Romani
pir.bbaw.de
November 10, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Students & researchers have a tough time keeping the names of Roman emperors and elites straight. But we do have a database to help name and number each. It is called the Prospographia Imperii Romani (=PIR) and has 15061 persons, of which 1932 are women. Please use the database! pir.bbaw.de#/search
Reposting to remind myself to see this
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
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
November 11, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Reposting to remind myself to see this
Reposted by Artemis Potter
November 6, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Artemis Potter
Reposted by Artemis Potter
omg I stand corrected the ancient greeks did have crossbows (though I should have known this considering Roman seige weaponry)! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrap...
Gastraphetes - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 3, 2025 at 6:17 PM
omg I stand corrected the ancient greeks did have crossbows (though I should have known this considering Roman seige weaponry)! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrap...
I can't quite put into words the sheer awe I felt standing in an empty gallery in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, just me and this huge mosaic, all that history and artistry hanging in the room. I was truly so lucky to be able to visit before my disability worsened.
#MosaicMonday - Discovered on 24 October in 1831, one of the best known Roman mosaics: the stupendous 'Alexander Mosaic' from Pompeii's House of the Faun (VI.12.2). #Pompeii #Archaeology 🏺
Image: National Archaeological Museum, Naples (10020). Link - www.museoarcheologiconapoli.it/portfolio-it...
Image: National Archaeological Museum, Naples (10020). Link - www.museoarcheologiconapoli.it/portfolio-it...
October 27, 2025 at 10:27 PM
I can't quite put into words the sheer awe I felt standing in an empty gallery in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, just me and this huge mosaic, all that history and artistry hanging in the room. I was truly so lucky to be able to visit before my disability worsened.
Reposted by Artemis Potter
Ahistorical nonsense. Trek survived past the first couple seasons because of a very dedicated audience of somewhat horny women. The famous letter writing campaigns were led by women, zine culture and slash fiction were where the franchise lived in decade long gaps.
October 25, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Ahistorical nonsense. Trek survived past the first couple seasons because of a very dedicated audience of somewhat horny women. The famous letter writing campaigns were led by women, zine culture and slash fiction were where the franchise lived in decade long gaps.
Ooh, this one will be good for future reference
Most histories of hoodies go with 12th century monks as the originator, but I like to show my students this one from 5th-7th century Egypt.
October 26, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Ooh, this one will be good for future reference
Following my previous post, I can only conclude that the way to defeat Nvidia and thus the tidal wave of so-called 'AI' is to throw a bunch of giant decorative comedic dicks at them somehow.
In particular, the ridiculousness of having a giant phallic object is part of the function: the humor itself defuses the evil eye because it replaces invidia (in the sense of envy), which is required for invidia (in the sense of evil magic).
You chuckle at the giant phallus and so cannot curse. 8/
You chuckle at the giant phallus and so cannot curse. 8/
October 26, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Following my previous post, I can only conclude that the way to defeat Nvidia and thus the tidal wave of so-called 'AI' is to throw a bunch of giant decorative comedic dicks at them somehow.
And this explains why the company making processors to power "AI" is called Nvidia*, they are actively telling us that they are a curse upon this world, creating a hostile machine glaring at humanity.
*I do not actually know where Nvidia got their name from and no I am not going to check.
*I do not actually know where Nvidia got their name from and no I am not going to check.
The Romans had the concept of the 'evil eye' - the idea that a hostile glare could create a kind of curse - common in many medieval cultures. In Latin, the word for this is 'invidia' from in+videre (video, videre, 'to see').
Literally "to look against," from which it comes to mean "envy." 2/
Literally "to look against," from which it comes to mean "envy." 2/
October 26, 2025 at 5:32 AM
And this explains why the company making processors to power "AI" is called Nvidia*, they are actively telling us that they are a curse upon this world, creating a hostile machine glaring at humanity.
*I do not actually know where Nvidia got their name from and no I am not going to check.
*I do not actually know where Nvidia got their name from and no I am not going to check.
A succinct thread exploring one of my favourite Roman things! Penises absolutely everywhere, all the time. Dicks-a-plenty. Drowning in cock.
Ok, so let's talk a little bit about how the Romans understand magic and why they think putting phallus-shaped objects (fascina, sing. fascinum) are witch-craft related and how that connects to our word 'fascinate.' 1/
Hmmm: Borrowed from Latin fascinātus (“to enchant, bewitch, fascinate”) [makes sense so far] from fascinum (“a phallus-shaped [lol wut] amulet [wait what] worn around the neck [WHAT THE TARPEIAN FUCK] in Ancient Rome; witchcraft”) ... itself of obscure origin.
October 26, 2025 at 5:28 AM
A succinct thread exploring one of my favourite Roman things! Penises absolutely everywhere, all the time. Dicks-a-plenty. Drowning in cock.
Reposted by Artemis Potter
The sun is shining (though not sure for how long ...) and it's #PhallusThursday 😀, so here's an exceptional example in the wonderful Chesters Museum on Hadrian's Wall - a favourite collection for many of us. 1/2
October 23, 2025 at 9:35 AM
The sun is shining (though not sure for how long ...) and it's #PhallusThursday 😀, so here's an exceptional example in the wonderful Chesters Museum on Hadrian's Wall - a favourite collection for many of us. 1/2
Reposted by Artemis Potter
Reposting for #SundaySheep.
Carrawburgh Mithraeum, Hadrian’s Wall; the shyest member of the contu-baaa-nium
#RomanFortThursday
#RomanFortThursday
October 12, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposting for #SundaySheep.
Reposted by Artemis Potter
A little researching and writing about Roman York today, so have a bit of 3rd/4th century Multangular tower Playmobil action.
#PlaymobilInfestation
#PlaymobilInfestation
October 10, 2025 at 11:40 AM
A little researching and writing about Roman York today, so have a bit of 3rd/4th century Multangular tower Playmobil action.
#PlaymobilInfestation
#PlaymobilInfestation
Reposted by Artemis Potter
Thunderbirds (1965-1966): The Fireflash, art by Derek Meddings
October 10, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Thunderbirds (1965-1966): The Fireflash, art by Derek Meddings
Reposted by Artemis Potter
A good start to Friday: #hedgehog alert! (With thanks as ever to @arthistoryanimalia.bsky.social for bringing this to my attention.)
Hedgehog, c. 1650 (Rijksmuseum)
I love its expression.
I love its expression.
October 10, 2025 at 9:32 AM
A good start to Friday: #hedgehog alert! (With thanks as ever to @arthistoryanimalia.bsky.social for bringing this to my attention.)