Chapps
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chapps.bsky.social
Chapps
@chapps.bsky.social
3.5K followers 360 following 4.7K posts
Former tech drone, living in L.A. I now create digital reconstructions of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. No, really. 🏳️‍🌈

Flickr account (museum photos, mainly, free to use and high res): https://www.flickr.com/photos/125386285@N02/
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chapps.bsky.social
One object at the #BritishMuseum that never fails to enthrall people is this Achaemenid Persian gold model chariot, part of the Oxus Treasure. I love the guy sitting sideways on a bench wearing a kandys coat. Zoom in for the details! 🏺 1/

5th-4th c. BCE, Tajikistan. 📸 me
Model of a gold chariot drawn by four horses abreast. At the front of the cab are two diagonal bracing struts with a head of the Egyptian god Bes at the intersection. The two large wheels each have nine spokes, and the running surfaces are studded with small pellets to represent the bulbous heads of large stud-like nails which in the full-size original would have secured a tyre and felloe-sheathing of bronze. The main human figure in the cab is seated on a bench; he wears a long robe reaching to the ankles, the sleeves of which appear to be empty like those of the kandys (a three-quarter length leather or thick wool Persian coat). On his head is a hood or cap, around the front of which is a flat strip of gold, resembling a fillet, and around his neck is a gold wire torc. The driver wears a similar cap without a fillet, a short girded tunic and a wire torc; his legs are also formed of wires. The two human figures are fixed to the chariot by wires. The chariot is pulled via a pair of draught-poles fixed to four horses under a single four-bay yoke. On the yoke, above each horse, is a large loop, representing the terrets, through which the wire reins pass; alternating with these loops were originally four crescentic fan-shaped yoke ornaments. The chariot is pulled via a pair of draught-poles fixed to four horses under a single four-bay yoke. On the yoke, above each horse, is a large loop, representing the terrets, through which the wire reins pass; alternating with these loops were originally four crescentic fan-shaped yoke ornaments. The bits have large rings at the sides as rein attachments, and each animal has duplicate representations of the neck-strap and backing-element, the former with a pendant tassel, punched into the metal. Only nine of the original sixteen legs of the horses survive.
November 26, 2025 at 4:02 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Wait, wait ... you can *buy* a swan's head cap? On Amazon??

www.amazon.com/Boland-99907...
Photo of a man turned sideways, head and shoulders, and by god he's wearing a white swan hat. Yes, it has fuzzy wings, the S-shaped neck, and a stuffed toy swan's head. Like a swan sitting on this guy's head. Looks warm. Same guy, turned towards the camera, 3/4 view. He looks happy to have a swan sitting on his head.
November 25, 2025 at 6:19 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Your naked, winged #Etruscan waiter pours you some olive oil while wearing a swan's head cap. God love the Etruscans.

3rd c. BCE bronze three-nozzle hanging lamp with a statuette of a rural Dionysian Etruscan 'spirit'. Replicas needed! 🏺🦢 #BritishMuseum

📸 me
Bronze three-nozzled hanging lamp surmounted by a statuette on a plinth. This winged figure wears a swan's head cap and appears to be an Etruscan spirit connected with the rural and Dionysiac world, and links with the scene on the underside of the lamp (a drawing of which shows three women holding paterae - offering dishes - and wine vessels while dancing around a floral centerpiece with the head of a smiling horned man). British Museum, London (1824,0454.25)
November 25, 2025 at 6:19 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Don’t forget this Ptolemaic or Roman sard sealstone, in which a grasshopper plays a lyre. As we know they’re very musical. 🏺

4th c. BCE-2nd c. CE, Egypt. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
November 25, 2025 at 2:43 PM
chapps.bsky.social
I love how this and an earlier cupboard replicate architecture - columns, pediments, et al. Reminds me of the painted architectural stucco panels from the House of Meleager, displayed in the MANN. I wonder if the cabinet’s wood was originally painted? 🤔
November 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
chapps.bsky.social
We're used to seeing ancient Greek funerary stelae with gorgeous carved reliefs. However, during the Hellenistic era - particularly in Cyprus - steles were painted with the images of the deceased instead of carved. This pedimented stele shows a painted image of a youth holding a bird. 🏺 1/

📸 me
Limestone stele with pedimental top, with painted decoration showing a young boy holding a bird, probably a dove. The stele is a tall narrow slab with plain sides and a molded pedimental top, with three simple acroteria - emulating a shrine or small temple. The youth is standing in three-quarter view, facing right; he wears a sleeved red tunic and a white chlamys (short cloak), the folds of which hang over his left arm; a bird sits in his outstretched left hand, and apparently other birds were visible at his feet when the stele was first discovered in the late 19th century. The boy's short hair is painted red and his flesh now appears a pale color; the dove was also originally painted. Hellenistic, probably made in Amathus (which is also where it was found), Cyprus, ca. 320-170 BCE. Height: 69 cm (27.17 in.) Width: 34.50 cm (13.58 in.) British Museum, London (1894,1101.716)
November 24, 2025 at 3:49 AM
chapps.bsky.social
That skyphos looks mighty familiar … (potato quality photo below, from the MANN).
November 22, 2025 at 5:32 AM
chapps.bsky.social
Well, the first two pics - same tile - are fantastic. I love the wild Celt! The third pic looks like a modern reconstruction, I think. Here’s the one from Holt - very similar.
November 21, 2025 at 11:13 PM
chapps.bsky.social
On this stormy L.A. day, this ancient Roman blue glass olla (jar) brings me back to sunnier days and the beach. That effect is created by the application of large 'grains' of opaque yellow and green glass to the body of the jar. 😍 🏺 1/

From Pozzuoli, mid-1st c. CE. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
Stumpy urn-shaped transparent blue glass olla (jar) with a rim that folds out and downwards. On the body of the jar's tapering lower half are large grains of opaque yellow (with a few green) grains of glass. It gives the same effect as sand sticking to a wet glass at the beach. British Museum (1869,0624.30)
November 21, 2025 at 5:13 AM
chapps.bsky.social
Two dracos are hidden on the maddeningly complex Portonaccio and Ludovisi battle sarcophagi, as seen in the closeups below, each at top. The one on the Portonaccio sarcophagus (left) is the earliest representation of a Roman draco (as opposed to the Dacian versions shown on Trajan's Column).

📸 me
November 21, 2025 at 12:21 AM
chapps.bsky.social
Imagine seeing a Roman building in ancient Wales, the tiled roof lined with antefixes proudly proclaiming the presence of the Legio XX Valeria Victrix with their name and symbol, the wild boar. The Twentieth was among the legions involved with the construction of Hadrian's Wall. 🏺 1/

📸 me
Tall triangular-shaped orangish terracotta antefix with stamped decoration: the letters LEG XX, a running boar, and a tall pole with a shield attached at the top, lances radiating out of the top.
November 20, 2025 at 5:48 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Changing the culture, one West End play at a time …
November 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
chapps.bsky.social
This bronze lebes (for mixing water and wine) used as a cinerary urn is a favorite of mine. I love the parade of mounted Amazons around the lid, each holding a bow. Very Scythian, actually. The larger couple may be dancing or he could be abducting her; she wears an Etruscan outfit. 🏺 1/

📸 me
Closeup of the lid of a bronze lebes, which was used as a cinerary urn. The figures on the lid of the bowl include a male and female couple (either dancing or possibly showing the man abducting the woman). Four female mounted archers (Amazons) encircle the lid; some turn to shoot backwards. These figures are very much like Scythian warriors. The statuette of the woman is shown in Etruscan clothing; the man wears a cap and there's the suggestion (maybe) of a Dionysian wreath on his head, appropriate for a vessel made to mix and serve wine, and also appropriate for the funerary context. The figures have a green patina, with some of the original golden bronze peeking through, particularly on the bows of the Amazons. The bulbous body of the vessel is a patchwork of golden bronze and green patina. West Greek or Etruscan, ca. 500-480 BCE, Capua, Campania. Height: 67.31 cm (26.5 in.) British Museum, London (1855,0816.1)
November 18, 2025 at 4:28 PM
chapps.bsky.social
We’re trying our best, even if the sunsets insist on being overly dramatic. 🍹
November 11, 2025 at 4:27 PM
chapps.bsky.social
I think the ancient Romans would consider a Black Vulture sharing one’s plunge pool as a bad omen. 😳
A Black Vulture - common in Mexico and Central and South America - stands on the edge of our tiny plunge pool, with the very green rain forest in the background.
November 10, 2025 at 10:58 PM
chapps.bsky.social
I regret to inform you that I’ll be staying in this utter hellhole for the next six days (please don’t hate me). #vacay #Mexico #Compostela
View from our deck high above the rain forest on the coast of Compostela, Mexico. The view takes in the forest, the beach, and the ocean, along with the golden sun low in the sky, casting everything in a golden haze. Same location as before, but now the sun is sinking below the ocean, a riot of red, orange, and yellow, with the blue sky above and wispy clouds providing drama. The rain forest below is darkening …
November 10, 2025 at 3:19 AM
chapps.bsky.social
An idea for your Christmas tree this year - stacks of Celtic gold torcs! Known as the Ipswitch Torcs after the location where their hoard was found, the terminals are decorated in the swirly La Tène style (Tène II), save the top one which is unadorned. 🎄🏺 1/

150-50 BCE. 📸 me
#BritishMuseum
A stack of five gold torcs against a green background. All were made from two twisted solid bars, with loop terminals cast on. Four (1969,0103.2-5) have cast terminals ornamented in high relief with Tène II style curvilinear motifs of bosses and scrolls, within a border of two corded bands lying slightly apart; they can be paired but their patterns are not identical. The fifth - at top (1969,0103.1) - has plain terminals. These torcs were probably deposited together as a hoard around 75 BCE.
November 8, 2025 at 5:27 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Have you seen the Ghent Altarpiece? Sheep, man … 😬
November 7, 2025 at 2:48 PM
chapps.bsky.social
I'm surprisingly choked up about the passing of Pauline Collins, an actress who lived in your heart from the moment you saw her first performance. Wondrous in 'Upstairs Downstairs', but incandescent in 'Shirley Valentine', for which she received an Oscar nom. #RIP 😭
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
chapps.bsky.social
One of my favorite small antiquities in the BM. I was so sad that it was missing on my recent visit, as I'd hoped to photograph it using a high end camera. But all I've got is an iPhone photo ...
November 6, 2025 at 5:11 PM
chapps.bsky.social
How often can you say that you've seen a kantharos-rhyton? This cup has a bridled donkey head attachment, usually seen only on rhyta. It mirrors the donkey seen on the reverse of the cup, ridden by Dionysos. When you drank from this vessel, you looked like an ass! 🏺 1/

Greek, 520-500 BCE. 📸 me
This black-figure terracotta kantharos-rhyton has a sculpted donkey-head attachment and Dionysian figures around the body of the vessel. In fact, on the rear of the cup Dionysos is shown riding on an ithyphallic mule or donkey, so the head on the cup is Dionysos' own steed. The fun part is that when you grasp the cup by both handles and raise it to your mouth to drink, you look like you’re wearing a donkey mask, providing a great deal of chuckles from your fellow symposiasts. This appears to be the earliest preserved Attic rhyton (a vessel for wine, frequently with animal head pouring spouts), and this rhyton-kantharos as a whole is a rare preserved example of an Athenian plastic vase with black-figure decoration. In design, the donkey's tall, outward-flaring ears are echoed by the kantharos' tall looping strap handles. In order to assemble this vase, the potter cut a hole in the kantharos' bowl and precisely inserted the donkey's head, thereby forming a dual-chambered wine vessel with a large capacity. But the resulting rhyton-kantharos is overweighted toward the donkey's head, which extends down so far that the donkey's lips set the vessel off kilter, and it rests unstably on the kantharos' foot. Greek, Attic, about 520-500 BCE, possibly found in Athens. Black-figure terracotta with some pigments (purple on the Dionysian figures and red inside the donkey's mouth). Height: 21.59 cm (8.50 in.) Diameter: 13.65 cm (5.37 in.) British Museum, London (1876,0328.5)
November 6, 2025 at 4:18 PM
chapps.bsky.social
This gold spray of myrtle was found in a tomb, inside a bronze vessel, resting atop the cremains of the tomb's occupant. Gold myrtle wreaths were buried with the dead to signify the deceased’s importance or as an offering to the gods for safe passage into the next world. 🏺 1/

Greek, 400-350 BCE
A small spray of myrtle, made in gold. It has several leaves and two flowerlets.
November 4, 2025 at 4:51 PM
chapps.bsky.social
I just noticed the gorgoneion to the left of the head-in-a-box, which I suspect depicts a helmeted Minerva (with a victory wreath on the side of the box). So many details, most which would have been far easier to decipher when this was painted.
November 3, 2025 at 10:54 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Hermanubis was a syncretic Greco-Egyptian god, a fusion of Greek Hermes and the Egyptian jackal-headed god Anubis. The rites of Inventio Osiridis were timed with the receding of the Nile’s floodwaters in Oct-Nov, when farmers can sow their fields. 🏺 2/

📸 Ad Meskens and ‘Colin’, Wikimedia
Closeup of the November panel from the Roman mosaic from El Jem, depicting a priest in the guise of Hermanubis and two pterophoroi (‘feather-bearing’ priest-scribes) who may be using cymbals (difficult to see). Photo: Ad Meskens, Wikimedia Statue of the god Hermanubis, 1.55m tall in white Marble. On display in room IV of the Gregorian Egyptian Museum at the Vatican Museums in Rome. It either depicts a priest with a jackal-mask of the god, or the god himself. He wears a very short tunic with a cloak fastened at his right shoulder with a shield fibula. His right hand is raised and would have once held a sistrum (rattle) and he cradles a caduceus in his left arm. Photo: Colin, Wikimedia
November 2, 2025 at 3:10 PM
chapps.bsky.social
November is depicted in this mosaic from Sousse, Tunisia, with a priest in the guise of Hermanubis with two pterophoroi. It commemorates the Inventio Osiridis, a week-long reenactment of the death of Osiris and the quest of Isis to recover his body, held in the month of Khoiak (Oct-Nov). 🏺 1/
Part of a large Roman mosaic from El Jem, Tunisia (in the Sousse Archaeological Museum), depicting a square with the month of November, clearly written in black tesserae. On the left is a priest of Isis wearing a jackal mask and carrying a caduceus, playing the part of the syncretic Greco-Egyptian god Hermanubis (Hermes+Anubis), with two pterophoroi (priest-scribes), so named because of their feathered headdresses. Photo: Ad Meskens
November 2, 2025 at 3:10 PM