iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

#FindsFriday 🏺 Superb bronze chimera: likely emblem (episema) on C6 BC warrior's shield w lion's head on flame-like mane + scaly fierce snake striking from centre. From high status tomb w arms, tools, ceramics + iron wheels of chariot excavated in Melfi, Basilicata. Melfi Nat Archaeological Museum.

A large thin bronze decoration probably displayed on a 6th C BC warrior's shield. At the top the head of a beast with a stylised lion's head and snout, on a long neck with incised flame-like mane, emerges from a scaly circle. This serves as the body of a fierce snake (which probably wrapped round the lion's body), which extends to the top right with a long head and open mouth, with wing below lower jaw.
The culture in Melfi at the time was in flux, with native Daunian cultures interacting with Lucanians from the north.

124955

There's a bit in the ALT text: The culture in Melfi at the time was in flux, with indigenous Daunian cultures interacting with Peucetian from the north, later Lucanian. There was much interaction, with each group introducing traditions and cultures from their own peripheries, eg to east or south.

030

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

124955

Reposted by Becky Wallower

#GlassObjectThursday 🏺 Delicate #Roman blown glass flask with polychrome snake-thread decoration. 3rd C AD. Made in Rhineland, Cologne area. In British Museum

Translucent glass vase with fine rounded body, and remains of small foot. An elegant narrow neck bows out slightly at the top, and is flanked by delicate handles either side, together forming a heart shape. The body is decorated with gold and light blue coloured threads of glass, in irregular swirly patterns

427053

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It is brilliant! Found it really compelling - and telling - on scope and impact of mining. And Ashington Group exhibition is just super.

000

#GlassObjectThursday 🏺 Delicate #Roman blown glass flask with polychrome snake-thread decoration. 3rd C AD. Made in Rhineland, Cologne area. In British Museum

427053

Reposted by Becky Wallower

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#WallsOnWednesday 🏺 Quite a few sections of #Roman / #medieval wall survive in City of London - sometimes more than first appears. Along street called London Wall is view on left. But much more is to be seen behind in the rather hidden Salters Company garden - a view both impressive and evocative.

View looking down from walkway above London Wall on Roman, Medieval and later remains of London City wall. In front of the wall are chairs set out on a paved public garden area. Behind is modern Salters Hall.

An oblique view along a substantial portion of the Roman, Medieval and later wall. The Roman stonework is visible at the bottom, with a red brick section at the top.

1317

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

1317

Reposted by Becky Wallower

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Going v large for #Michaelmas On top of precipitous 13th C façade of San Michele in Foro in Lucca, 4m high Archangel Michael slays evil dragon flanked by 2 fellow angels. As name suggests, church was built over the Roman forum, from 8th C. 🏺

St Michael, a huge saintly angel with a large head, wings with rows of feathery copper scales and a halo disc behind his head. He wears a robe and cloak, decorated in metal at hem, sleeves and waist, plus down the centre. He holds an orb topped with a cross in his left hand, and in his right a spear. which is calmly placed in the mouth of a writhing dragon at his feet.

The facade of San Michele in Foro in Lucca, with four galleries with ranges of highly decorated arches, columns and capitals along the upper section.

1152

Reposted by Becky Wallower

The Rose Playhouse @roseplayhouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

EXTENDED UNTIL 26 NOV Our new Thursday guided tours of the archaeological site of The Rose are proving so popular that we are continuing them until the end of November! And they are FREE to Southwark residents and children aged 15-and-under. More info & book: www.trybooking.com/uk/event/118972

The Rose in 1587, 1989 & 2025.
Image credit: © De Montfort University & Roger Clegg / Andrew Fulgoni © Fulgoni Copyrights Ltd / The Rose Theatre Trust.

075

Reposted by Becky Wallower

Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Elizabethan playhouses were supplied by a network of tailors, merchants & craftswomen. Their names survive in records, but little is known about their lives. I’m working on new research that brings the stories of these makers & traders centre stage. Here is the project in biscuit (cookie) form. 🍪

A photograph of eight rectangular biscuits (cookies) arranged in two rows on a square white plate. The plate is framed on all sides by a trailing vine pattern in green with pops of red. The biscuits are mostly in shades of ivory, cream, yellow, and grey, with a burst of vivid red and blue in one corner of the arrangement. Moving across the top row of biscuits from left to right, the designs include: neat lines of handwritten names in an early modern parish register; a section of a hand-drawn map from 1561 featuring St Paul’s Cathedral, with street names like ‘Carter Lane’ visible in a tiny spiky font; an extract of text from a funerary monument printed in an early modern book, ending ‘So transitory is our glory’; a section of embroidery from a funeral pall featuring metallic silver armour, crossed gold keys, and two hands holding up a crown. The biscuit designs on the bottom row include: horses prancing past shopfronts on Cheapside in the mid-sixteenth century; a receipt written in early modern secretary hand, which is difficult to read; a portrait of a stern-looking women dressed in a ruff, pearls, and sober dark clothing; swirling calligraphy and dense secretary hand featuring on a will dating from 1638.

15612179

Reposted by Becky Wallower

Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Orcadian Gothic A Neolithic couple stand before the chambered cairn of Wideford Hill #Orkney Painting by Brian Lee, spotted on the Historic Scotland site interpretation board, in homage to Grant Wood's famous 1930 painting Well played 👏 📷 Aug 2024 #TombTuesday #Archaeology

A woman with yellow hair and man with grey, both dressed in Neolithic textiles and furs, the man holding a shovel, stand infront of a stone built structure with thatched roof. Neither look happy

729068

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

1152

Reposted by Becky Wallower

Lively #MosaicMonday from posh C4 #Roman villa at Horkstow Lincs once featured wheel w Orpheus in centre enchanting animals including this bear, elephant (yes really) + 6 others in panels around him. Now over Humber in Hull Museum of Archaeology 🏺 For painting of mosaics after 1797 discovery see 2/.

A partial survival of an interesting mosaic of Orpheus (who would have been in now missing centre of wheel like device) and 8 animals, 2 of which remain. In left remaining section is a part of a bear pouncing forward from hind legs. On right is an elephant, missing its trunk, with long legs. Below the wheel to the left a figure can be seen in the corner of the mosaic.
Two wide bands that would have bounded the mosaic are seen - one guilloche and one floral vault variation - with rows of triangles pointing up and down on a white line between them. Colours throughout the mosaic are shades of red/brown plus black, white and grey.

111932

Yes - I've seen plates from a book. Haven't compared them in any detail though. Lysons has left more gaps than Fowler I think? Still, with such an indeterminate life over so many years before getting to Hull, the paintings are handy (and pretty!), even with artistic licence/interpretation in play.

120

William Fowler painting of the full Horkstow villa #mosaic discovered in 1797 by labourers making a kitchen garden at Horkstow Hall in Lincolnshire. It would have graced a large hall at a very wealthy and sophisticated 4th century #Roman villa. 🏺

Painting of mosaic found in Horkstow, Lincolnshire by labourers clearing area for kitchen garden of Horkstow Hall. It is brightly painted, and shows all three panels discovered at the site. The Orpheus section with animals as shown in post 1/, plus others. Medallions possibly on a Bacchic theme in the centre and the chariot race below (mosaic also in Hull Museum).
The mosaic was left in situ until its removal to the British Museum in 1927. The mosaics, which were transferred to Hull Museum in 1976, are similar in design to those excavated at Brantingham and Winterton and are believed to have been laid by mosaicists from a workshop based at Brough.

1265

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

111932

Reposted by Becky Wallower

2 x #SaxonSunday from Essex 🏺 Paglesham great square headed brooch is bronze, once gilded, c. 550 AD: v ornate type typically worn by wealthy females, w faces on head, arms + foot. Smaller, simpler but chunky gold Prittlewell buckle likely made for burial of the 'prince' c. 580-605. Southend Museums

Paglesham brooch w cruciform top section, decorated with faces at head and arms, and at foot overlapping rectangular base section. Base has four heads with eyes/noses along the bottom. Proliffic scrolled, intertwining and animal decoration throughout.

Simple but heavy gold buckle, shown with buckle at top on short side of triangular fitting below. Three domed circular features decorate the triangle with a rather shield shaped fitting for the buckle at the top. Said to be the most spectacular of items buried at Prittlewell.

17719

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#StoneworkSunday #SundayStonework #Roman 🏺 The Venus fountain in Decumanus Maximus of Herculaneum. It's been suggested that it features a bonus apotropaic eye to keep you safe, but it's probably just a spout, as Venus has enough going for her as symbol of love, beauty, fertility...

Narrow end of the stone tank of a public water fountain on the Decumanus Maximus of Herculaneum. At the end is a section protruding upwards with a relief of the goddess Venus, her hands near her head as if she's washing her hair. Beside her left thigh is an eye-shaped figure with a round hole at the left side. Some have interpreted this as apotropaic, but it's probably just spout for water to flow into tank from pipework.
The road is visible to the right and behind the Venus figure - it leads to a brick-built arch over the street. This is the edge of the currently excavated sections of Herculaneum, with a high wall separating it from modern town.

0343

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

17719

Reposted by Becky Wallower

#FrescoFriday Noticed more English apples hitting the market and supermarkets now, so here's a basket of not so early ones from Casa dei Cervi in Herculaneum.

A fresco of a woven basket with a handle, tipped over spilling apples in shades of red and gold along the floor.
The image is on a light blue background with a dark red border along the bottom, with a base panel of dark pink.

06513

Reposted by Becky Wallower

#FindsFriday Among star finds from #Saxon Prittlewell Prince burial in Essex were #glass beakers w trailed lattice decoration. Beautiful and rare, so similar they were likely made as a pair, in Kent. Few other examples are known, almost all in high status burials. Southend Museums #Ancientbluesky 🏺

Two small deep-blue round glass vessels with a squat shape and trailed glass lattice decoration, forming diamond shapes around the body. They have a broad low rim at the top. Burial dated 580-605 AD and thought to be of Sæxa, brother of King Sæberht of Essex.

25318

Definitely recommended - a brilliant, super insightful and revelatory lecture.

010

How great - and unexpeced? - is that!

110

PCA @pcaarchaeology.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

25318

Reposted by Becky Wallower

Today we have a very special #FindsFriday ... a timelapse of the micro-excavation of the Iron Age Norfolk Carnyx Hoard. It’s pretty amazing to see the micro-excavation process and get a glimpse of the carnyx, boar standard and shield bosses as they're revealed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI9L...

youtube.com

Micro-excavation of the Iron Age Norfolk Carnyx Hoard

YouTube video by PCA archaeology

310334