iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

On #MosaicMonday a pair of winged cupids dressed as gladiators face off in the dining room of Bignor Roman Villa (W Sussex). The heavily-armoured Secutor rushes forward, short-sword outstretched, to attack a Retarius desperately fending him off with a trident. Early C4th #RomanBritain Photo: 2025

The Retarius appears somewhat smaller than he is in reality as this is an oblique photo.

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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

One of the ‘Burrow Carvings’ from Roman Lancaster - a group of carved stones that were probably part of a mausoleum, temple or shrine. Now on display at Lancaster City Museum. 📸 My own. #RomanBritain #StoneworkSunday #Lancaster

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

#Standingstonesunday: the ‘Caratacus Stone’ on Exmoor dates from C5/C6 and is inscribed CARATACI NEPOS - “Of the line of Caratacus.” The N was thought lost but relocated and mortared back in place around 1906 when the little brick cover building was erected. Sub- #RomanBritain Photo: yesterday

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

A sweep round Milecastle 37 on #RomanSiteSaturday, from the south gate, across the barrack buildings to the north and barbaricum. The fortlet was one of 80 on Hadrian's Wall which secured the northernmost frontier of the Roman empire from the 2nd to 4th century. #RomanBritain 1/2

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

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Roman Military Equipment @equipmentroman.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Slinging techniques (note the mini sonic boom as a 'crack') youtube.com/shorts/EfNle...

youtube.com

Learn why it is easier to sling than you think.

YouTube video by Pan Slings

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Apparently it's #WorldElephantDay, which is sufficient excuse to recall Claudius' triumphal entry into #Colchester, Essex (Camulodunum) in AD43 with elephants. As wonderfully illustrated by Steve Noon: www.steve-noon.co.uk #RomanBritain

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

For #MosaicMonday, a restored section of C.4th Roman mosaic from Littlecote villa, Wiltshire with two big cats pawing at a cantharus overflowing with wine and vine shoots. More vines with grapes appear behind the beasts, which were traditionally associated with Bacchus god of wine🍷 #RomanBritain 📸me

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Noted and will be watching. That's the reconstructed Villa Ventorum at The Newt in Somerset, which has mosaics! (New ones but based on genuine examples.) Hope we get a glimpse ... #MosaicMonday but relevant to Tuesday

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Pete Savin @petesavin.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Fragments of a Roman face pot found at the Roman settlement at Chester Le Street in County Durham. The Roman name for the 2nd century fort was Concangis.

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romanfindsgroup.bsky.social @romanfindsgroup.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Tickets are now live for RFG members, log in to the website to register for a ticket romanfindsgroup.org.uk/event/hadria...

romanfindsgroup.org.uk

Zoom in on Roman Finds: Hadrian’s Wall & Beyond – Roman Finds Group

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marybeard @wmarybeard.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Pleased to see versions of the Odyssey in the Times/Waterstones bestsellers. But puzzled that it comes in the NON Fiction category. Do they know something we don't?

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Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I really miss the scale model of Roman Londinium in the old Museum of London. You could crouch down & peer along the streets. I wonder if there will be a similar model in the new museum? 1: Looking towards the forum from the bridge road 2: the forum 3: looking back towards bridge 4: bridge & docks

Scake model looking along road to timber London Bridge.

Scale model of Londinium bridge and docks

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

#EpigraphyTuesday Around AD 90, the cavalry decurion Masclus wrote a memo to his C.O. at #Vindolanda, the prefect Julius Verecundus. Could 5 of his men have leave, and would he please order return of his knife from Talampus of Nobilis' century, who has borrowed it? Roman paperwork. 1/4

The first page of the note, written in ink on a thin rectangle of wood c. 10cm x 6.5cm.

Tab. Vindol. 892

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

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King's Classics @kingsclassics.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

How do you make a Roman mosaic? In May, KCL students were guided by Dr Will Wootton and mosaic artist Giulia Vogrig to create the new mosaic for the Roman villa at Butser Ancient Farm! You can watch it being made here: #MosaicMonday www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIiG...

youtube.com

Making the corridor mosaic at Butser Ancient Farm

YouTube video by Art Making

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Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

/2...meanwhile in Herculaneum another #Roman woman collected pendants in bone - body parts, mini-amphorae, animals, Aphrodite. Spotted an odd connection between the assemblages while making stock from Guinea fowl carcass: carpometacarpus wing bones feature in both. But for what purpose🤔??

A selection of small bone objects are set out on a neutral display board, all with hole for hanging as pendant. They include figures of animals eg fish and rabbit, a small Aphrodite, anatomical parts, and a diamond shape.

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Roman Military Equipment @equipmentroman.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

For all your Roman military equipment terminological needs (if you want to venture beyond 'pointy end' and 'blunt end'), try our Glossary page: romanmilitaryequipment.co.uk/glossary

romanmilitaryequipment.co.uk

Glossary – Roman Military Equipment

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Colchester Museums @colmuseums.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Whether they nurtured the living or accompanied the dead, these small pots remind us how grief often lingers in the everyday objects of care. In a way, they are ghostly echoes of the roles they once played.

Photograph of a small reddish-brown Roman ceramic vessel with a rounded body, narrow neck and short side spout, shown against a plain background. Text above reads: “Some scholars suggest they were used to fill lamps, or even to feed the sick.”

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Trimontium Trust & Museum @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Happy July! 🌞Originally called Quintilis it was once the 5th month in the early #Roman calendar. After Julius Caesar’s reforms it became the 7th & was renamed Iulius. It was under Jupiter’s guardianship & featured festivals including the Ludi Apollinares for Apollo & Neptunalia for Neptune. 🏛️⚡

Sculptural head of Julius Caesar, over a blue/grey gradient background

Intaglio of Jupiter, reddish stone over a black background

photo and illustration of a Roman altar dedicated to Apollo, over a white background

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Roman Sites @romansites.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Brecon Y Gaer - a Roman fort in Wales that's not easy to visit. Here's how to find it, and what to see when you get there. Blog post at: visiting-roman-sites.blogspot.com/2026/06/brec... #RomanBritain #RomanArchaeology @romanarchaeouk.bsky.social

visiting-roman-sites.blogspot.com

Brecon Y Gaer - Fort

With surprisingly well-preserved defences and a scenic location in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park, the fort at Brecon...

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Graham Taylor @pottedhistory.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Oh I do like making a bit of replica Roman CBM Ceramic Building Material, especially a roller stamped box flue.🏺⚱️ #Archaeology

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Ed Henderson @dredhenderson.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

This statue of a household god was recovered in 1870 from a Roman house in Maryport, West Cumbria. He wears a toga and holds a patera in his right hand. Maryport Roman Museum, Cumbria. #RomanSiteSaturday

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morrismummer @morrismummer.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

The work of the finds cleaning team on Monday this week at Halberton Roman villa. (Pleased to say I've got three more volunteering days there to look forward to.) Painted wall plaster! Tesserae! Hypocaust tiles! Pottery! Nails! #FindsFriday

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

#RomanFortThursday The western section of Hadrian's Wall was originally built in turf and timber not stone. This reconstruction at Vindolanda shows how the gateways may have appeared. It was put up as an experimental archaeology project in MCMLXXIV. @vindolandatrust.bsky.social #RomanBritain 📸 me

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

#MosaicMonday Bacchus and Ariadne, his consort, and his thiasos or retinue of satyrs and maenads. Bacchus was the god of wine, wildness and ecstasy. From the badly damaged triclinium (dining room) mosaic at Chedworth, Gloucestershire. C.4th @nattrustarch.bsky.social #RomanBritain 📸 me

Bacchus and Ariadne are seen enthroned in the central panel. He holds a thyrsus (a staff usually topped with a pinecone) and a tambourine.

On either side, satyrs (goat-like men) embrace or dance with maenads (feral women). The satyrs wear cloaks of animal skin and in the right-hand panel a shephard's crook lies on the ground, indicating a rural setting.

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

"The length of the (summer) days is greater than in our world; the nights are light and in the points of Britain furthest north short, so that you can hardly distinguish dusk from daybreak." Tacitus 'Agricola' 12 #Solstice #SummerSolstice #RomanBritain

Fragment of a clepsydra found at Vindolanda fort near Hadrian's Wall. A clepsydra was a calendar in the form of a bowl, the flat rim of which was perforated by holes and marked with the months of the year. Each hole represented 2 days allowing a peg to be moved round the rim to tell the date. Each month was annotated with the Kalends, Nones, Ides and where appropriate the Equinoxes and Solstices. (The bowl had small holes in its base and was divided into 12 sections, allowing it to function as a water clock as water escaped over the day.) It's in the collection of the Vindolanda site museum.

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Dr Susan Greaney @suegreaney.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Oh it's #MosaicMonday? Well here is the one being uncovered at Halberton, Devon as part of our SHARE fieldschool and community excavation project. Next open day, when the mosaic will be fully uncovered, is 11 July!

Vertical view of an excavation trench where rubble walls define a small square room. In the centre are the partial remains of a mosaic - large chunky corridor tessarae around the edge, and a detailed pattern in the centre. Scale bars and a levelling staff show the room (and mosaic) to be c.4 metres across

Closer view of the best preserved part of the detailed mosaic. A central roundel with flower type pattern is almost all preserved, as well as part of the border. All geometric patterns. Several large roofing slates still cover parts of the mosaic.

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James_AL_Downs @magiclantern.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

While in Algeria a few years ago I went to visit the mausoleum of Quintus Lollius Urbicus and his family. A Numidian Berber, he became Roman governor of Britain (c139-142 AD) and began the building of the Antonine Wall. #Archaeology #RomanSiteSaturday

Photo of a round stone monument in a field of red earth with hills behind

Photograph of a Latin inscription on a worn plaque of earthen-coloured stone

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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Fragments of painted wall plaster from a Roman villa site at Hunsbury in Northamptonshire. Now part of the collections at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. 📸 My own. #FrescoFriday #RomanBritain #Hunsbury #Northamptonshire

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REMADE - Roman & Early Medieval Alloys Defined @remade-uor.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

We're analysing the copper alloy finds from the Roman remains right now & it's great to visit the site on our lunch break (if there's a break in the rain!).

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Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Out next year! (Once I’ve written it)

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

#ReliefWednesday On another baking hot day here in the UK, let's be thankful for nymphs and water goddesses. Here a reclining Coventina holds a water lily leaf, while water flows from a worn pitcher under her left elbow. Found in her spring near Carrawburgh Fort, Northumberland. 📸 me #RomanBritain

The relief is part of a dedication to Coventina now in Chesters Museum.
For the inscription see RIB 1534.

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Trimontium Trust & Museum @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

If you encountered a “Sold Out” message while trying to secure your place at the Roman & Iron Age Festival, the fault lies with a rogue imperial clerk who clearly skipped their abacus training. ⚔️📜 Order has been restored to the frontier now and tickets are available once more! 🎉 zurl.co/uQbsU

Roman soldier graphic with letters about the Roman Iron Age Festival and "Tickets Available"

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

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Roman Sites @romansites.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

"We built this!" Slab set up by the Legion XX Valeria Victrix marking the construction of High Rochester fort (Bremenium) north of Hadrian's Wall in Redesdale, Northumberland. Now in the Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle. (More details in ALT text.) #EpigraphyTuesday 📷my own 2025

The slab probably dates from the Antonine period (early 2nd cent.) and is decorated with Mars (on the left) and Hercules (on the right with the big club). The small boar at the base is the symbol of the twentieth legion.

The text reads:

VEXILLATIO
LEG XX V V
FECIT

Translation (from RIB 1284) reads:

A detachment of the Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix built this.

(A vexillatio was a temporary detachment from a legion, set up to carry out a specific task.)

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Tony Divey @tonydivey.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Curators talk… that’ll be me, tomorrow!

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Brittunculus @brittunculus.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Bede describing Hadrian's Wall: "It is eight feet in breadth, and twelve in height, in a straight line from east to west, as is still evident to beholders".

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