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betancur . n

@nelbeu.bsky.social
29K followers 135K following 9 posts

art & architectural historian / visual, material & religious culture

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
It has been quite a week! We all need a timeline cleanse. Have a great weekend, everyone! An Egyptian relief plaque with a face of an #owl 🦉. The owl hieroglyph represents the sound m. Late Period–Ptolemaic Period. From Egypt, 400–30 BC. 📷 Metropolitan Museum
A detailed close-up photograph of a limestone relief plaque featuring an owl face. The owl has large, circular eyes with intricate dotted borders, a prominent curved beak, and decorative patterns around the eyes and neck, set against a plain gray background.
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Tynesiders, 1950, photo by Bert Hardy (1913-95).
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Mythical Britain @mythicalbritain.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Everyone loves a standing stone! Sheep communing with the ancestors at the Stones of Stenness on Orkney a couple of years back. #StandingStoneSunday
Small flock of sheep cowering behind a standing stone in a stone circle in windy wet weather.
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Rome and Beyond @romebeyond.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Villa Farnesina Cubiculum B fresco depicting the Nymphs of Mount Nysa caring for the infant Dionysus. The baby is shown being nursed or tended to by female figures in a lush setting. It is painted in a "Neo-Attic" or "lekythos" style, which mimics the look of 5th-c. BCE Greek pottery. #FrescoFriday
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Des @desdelboy.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Morning all. Photographer Martin Parr ‘Spending Time.’ Salford, Greater Manchester 1986.
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 21/01/2026
Archaeologists have uncovered one of the first instances of interaction between #Neolithic farmers and #Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in central Europe, indicating a level of technology transfer not observed before. 🏺A communicative #AntiquityThread 1/10 🧵
Smooth, Neolithic stone axes, knapped flint tools and two awls made from bone.
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Sue Wilkes @suewilkesauthor.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
This special roof tile, also on display at the Grosvenor museum in Chester, bears the marks of the 20th Legion and their symbol, a wild boar.
Symbols of the XX legion Valeria Victrix.
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Tuatha @tuatha.ie · 23/01/2026
Jadeitite Axehead • Donegal This beautiful axe tells a story of trade, travel, and value in Neolithic Ireland. Analysis revealed that it came from the Italian Alps, over 1500km away from where it was found in Donegal. On display in @nmireland.bsky.social #Ireland #SpéirGhorm #Archaeology 🏺
A gleaming greyish-green polished stone axehead, lying on a pink baise background on display in the National Museum of Ireland.
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Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
🌳The Crowhurst Yew, thought to be 4,000 years old, predates Christianity itself. A living portal through time. 🕰️It’s one of the locations in my Ultimate Guide to Time Travel: 👉 www.digest.andymarsh...
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Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
The heavily ploughed interior of Hod Hill #Roman fort, early September 1949 Built in the NW corner of Lydsbury Rings Iron Age hillfort #Dorset Roman roads and buildings showing up clearly as crop marks © Historic England see: britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW... #RomanFortThursday
Black and white aerial photo looking down on a ploughed white field set within the ramparts of a roughly rectangular Roman fort with trees in the background
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Dr Alan Montgomery @classicalalan.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
A fragment of Roman terracotta tile with the imprints of a dog's paw that was discovered at Rochester in Kent. #FindsFriday
A fragment of terracotta tile with the footprint of a dog towards the lower edge and another to the right.
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
A beautiful early medieval cobalt blue glass beaker. dating late 7th century AD. Found in a burial in Lauchheim. This type of vessel has no foot and will not stand upright, it had to be emptied before it could be put down. 📷 @almbawue.bsky.social
A blue glass beaker lying on its side on a reflective surface, its slightly flared rim and curved body showing numerous fine cracks and bubbles in the translucent glass against a dark gradient background.
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Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
#FindsFriday 🏺 #Roman dogs along Hadrian's wall: copper alloy figure of pup lifting a friendly paw, + 2 enamelled copper alloy brooches of hunting dogs. In galleries @tulliecarlisle.bsky.social considering life along farthest frontier of empire. British dogs were highly rated, and very good boys.
Three small copper alloy figures of dogs. Larger one is 3D, with tail curling over its rear, head raised and right paw extended as if to shake 'hands'. Two smaller ones are flatter, to serve as brooches. Both have long ears, pointed noses and are in running position. Top one has gold coloured spots enamelled on body and a greenish enamel eye. Bottom one has some surviving blue enamel that coloured the body, and a blue eye.
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Walking into a field with erected stones – whether menhir, circle or portal tomb – is to cross into a territory of wonder. Archaeologist, ley-hunter, stone botherer or pagan pilgrim, we all feel a sense of marvel rippling across our psychic skin. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday
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Malcolm Stoneman @malcolmstoneman.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Painted tile - 1564-8 Made by Jasper Andries & Jacob Jansen, in #Antwerp or #Norwich The wild boar with a crescent was used by Sir Francis Bacon to show he was his father’s second son. Made for Old Gorhambury House, near St Albans, #Hertfordshire Now V & A Museum #London #TilesOnTuesday
Painted tile with shields at the corners. Ring with “Mediocria Firma”. Wild boar in centre with crescent on its flank.
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Jean-Étienne Liotard, Girl Singing into a Mirror, oil on canvas (Springfield Museum of Fine Arts). The Swiss pastellist and painter, especially famed for his portraits, also did a number of charming pictures of his family members such as this of his daughter
A young girl dressed in fancy clothing practices singing into a mirror
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Hedley Thorne @hedleythorne.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Wayland’s Smithy looking particularly moody in the cold today. There’s a specific kind of magic in these stones when the colors are muted.
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Kate U @kateullman.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Looking out from within the Cairn de Gavrinis last July on the last #TombTuesday of 2025. Time to start planning where 2026 will take me.
Photo taken from within the cairn, engraved stones are visible on the left and the entrance at the end of the passage.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Volunteers created blankets for elephants during a cold spell in Myanmar, Winga Baw Elephant camp #WomensArt
Photo of an elephant facing right wearing a checked knitted blanket while on sandy outdoor ground under a chill bright blue sky
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Gunta Stölzl (1897-983) German textile artist fundamental to development of the Bauhaus weaving workshop #WomensArt
Two images of colourful woven pieces, both with distinct patterning, the first has a symmetrical design with lines and diamond motifs, the other has a more fluid style with waves and arcs
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Isabelle Marie @isabellemarie.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Ice age architecture: How mammoth bones reveal human ingenuity. phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org
Ice age architecture: How mammoth bones reveal human ingenuity
What do you build with when trees are scarce and winters are brutal? For hunter-gatherers living in current-day Ukraine some 18,000 years ago, the answer was simple: mammoth bones.
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
A late medieval pocket sundial from Freiburg. The portable sundial once contained a small compass in the circular recess, helping to align the sundial along the north–south axis so the correct time could be determined. 📷 @aws-almbarak.bsky.social
A small, rectangular, weathered wooden pocket sundial with finely carved concentric circles and hour markings surrounding a deep circular recess in the center, where a compass once sat, all shown against a black background.
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Kate Sheehan-Finn @katesfwriter.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
A relief sculpture of a blacksmith at work in his workshop. He’s surrounded by the tools of his trade. It was found in Tomb 29 at the Necropolis of Portus on the Isola Sacra. AD 160-180. ‘What we do in life echoes in eternity.’ 😊 📸 my own, #OstiaAntica. #ReliefWednesday #AncientRome #Archaeology
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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Tile fragment from Roman Cirencester with graffiti depicting a house. The fragment is part of the collections at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester. 📸 My own. #TilesOnTuesday #RomanBritain #CoriniumMuseum #Cirecenster
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 18/11/2025
Archaeologists have unearthed a Bronze Age metropolis in the heart of the Eurasian steppe: an early form of city as complex as those of contemporary, more traditionally 'urban' civilisations, showing how steppe polities were just as sophisticated. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology
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Graham Taylor @pottedhistory.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Testing clay from the Roman pottery production site at Highgate Wood, North London and using Munsell colour charts to record the results. Same clay, different temperatures and kiln atmosphere. 🏺#Archaeology #AncientBluesky
Bars of clay that have been fired at various temperatures and under different atmospheric conditions. Ranging in colour from red terracotta to very dark chocolate brown. Along with some Munsell soil colour charts used to record the test results.
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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Following last week's monochrome elephant, this is another common type of depiction in Roman mosaics. From the Great Pavement at Woodchester, moving around Orpheus. 1/2 #MosaicMonday @classicalalan.bsky.social
Part of a coloured engraving of a Roman mosaic showing an elephant moving towards the left. There are crossed lines on the animal's body.
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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Everyone’s favourite - the ‘Wolf and Twins’ mosaic from Roman Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum) depicting the legend of Romulus and Remus. Dating to the 4th century AD, the mosaic is now part of the collections at Leeds City Museum. 📷 My own. #MosaicMonday #RomanBritain
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Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Want to walk into and through an actual Iron Age house…and UP THE STAIRS? Of course you bloody do. Come with me. Carn Liath broch, just sitting quietly beside the A9 as thousands whizz by without stopping. Their mistake. Far too excited to wait for #HillfortsWednesday
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Clint Smith @clintsmithiii.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
I spent October traveling to schools throughout the South talking to students about American history. What I found were young people who understand we can tell a story that includes both the positive and the negative. As one 8th grader in Memphis said, “Doesn’t seem that hard, just say both things.”
theatlantic.com
Tell Students the Truth About American History
We owe it to Americans of all ages to be honest about the country’s past, including its contradictions.
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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
This bronze head of a goddess with her spooky, hypnotic inlaid silver eyes, will be roaming the shadows tonight on All Hallows Eve! Still looking for her body, 2,000 years later … 😱 🏺 1/ Hellenistic, 150-100 BCE, Mersin, Turkey. #BritishMuseum 📸 me
Bronze head of a woman or goddess, torn from a full-sized statue. She wears a lunette diadem with inlaid silver patterns, with a star in the middle. Her wavy hair is center parted and pulled back into a bun. She looks directly into the camera with inlaid silver eyes, set beneath shadowed brows. With her mottled brown and green patina, the effect is frightening! 

British Museum (1928,0416.1)
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James Wright @jpwarchaeology.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Cruck frame barn, dated c 1550, from Llanerch Banna (Flint) and now at St Fagans National Museum of History. Such curved timbers known as crucks will feature a fair bit in my upcoming online talk on 25 Nov, Dating Ancient Buildings. Booking is now open. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dating-anc...
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
ICYMI: Drop everything and spend 13 minutes with Amy Sherald--with her singular vision and talent, with her clarity about her central place in the jagged American story. You will be stirred by it all. www.cbsnews.com/video/amy-sh...
cbsnews.com
Artist Amy Sherald: The 60 Minutes Interview
Amy Sherald spent years painting in obscurity, and almost died from a rare heart condition. Now 52, the artist behind Michelle Obama's official portrait is one of America's most celebrated painters.
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Ulla Rajala @ullamr.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Mên-an-Tol is probably from the Bronze Age, making it around 3,500 years old (little evidence has been found). It consists of four stones, the most unusual being the circular and pierced upright stone. The other three stones are more regular granite pillars. #StandingStoneSunday
The stones
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Children loved to play with toys in #Roman times too: some 1,800 years ago, a child in Cologne was buried with a terracotta horse with a rider on wheels. It was certainly a much-loved which the child was also supposed to play with in the afterlife. 📷 Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln 🏺 #archaeology
The picture shows a terracotta horse with a rider on four wheels.
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betancur . n @nelbeu.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Radiolarians are still largely unknown, but it is believed that they hold information about the evolution of life on Earth and how climatic conditions have changed over time. lithub.com/how-the-disc...
lithub.com
How the Discovery of Single-Celled Marine Organisms Resulted in One of the Most Influential Illustrated Books Ever Published
No creatures from the microscopic world have managed to captivate the human imagination as authoritatively as radiolarians. Since the late nineteenth century, they’ve made their existence known in …
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Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
"To be human is to be emotional. And if we strip that when we tell our story, we’re doing ourselves a disservice." Paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi, who hosts the BBC and NOVA PBS docuseries “Human,” leans into the complex and dramatic sides of early humans' history: buff.ly/9nWuXng
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Dr Sophie Hay @pompei79.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
I particular like the colours of Vesuvius looking as though someone has fashioned it out of a lump of smooshed-together-different-coloured Play-Doh.
View from up high looking down into Pompeii with the via Nocera gently winding its way up the slope under the arch of the Nocera Gate. Beyond Vesuvius looms with its peak in shadow and its foothills are speckled greens and browns.
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
It's time for a timeline cleanse! A small Corinthian aryballos in the shape of an owl (circa 630 BC). It served as a perfume container. On display at Antikensammlung München A lovely Sunday to all of you 🌞 📷 me
A pottery owl figurine displayed on a transparent pedestal. The figurine is intricately painted in black, red, and beige, with finely detailed feathers, large round eyes, and a slightly tilted head.
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David KC @davidmuttering.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
It is a little known fact that tonight's clock re-adjustment was pioneered by German-British artist Frank Auerbach, to the great dismay of the proponent of the original change, politician Konrad Adenauer
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Dr Sophie Hay @pompei79.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
That magical moment when the pumice is gently cleared away revealing, for the first time in nearly 2000 years, a white mosaic. #MosaicMonday #Pompeii
Most of the image is of a white mosaic and the top part is small pumice stones
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Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
#TerracottaTuesday Two little baby feeders c. 320 BC, both made in Sicily, then Magna Graecia. One Gnathian (style from Apulia) w ivy chain decoration; one w hippocamp figures. And who wouldn't want to feed their baby through a mouse's tail?? #Ancient #Greek #Pottery 🏺 BM
Two mouse shaped terracotta pieces, each with a filling spout on the top of the body, hollow tails at one end and ears on the head.
Left is coloured black with a vine decoration in white and red around its body, white eyes and whiskers. Right is pale beige with a leaf painted behind its head and a hippocampus on each side.
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Eric Lagadec @ericlagadec.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Un paysage sur Mars, capturé par le rover Perseverance ! ©NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T
Un paysage sur Mars, capturé par le rover Perseverance !
©NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T
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Dr Alan Montgomery @classicalalan.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Here are three wonderfully preserved Roman shoes that were discovered at Bar Hill Roman fort on the Antonine Wall in Scotland in the early 1900s. Shoes made for men, women and children have been found there, reminding us that frontier zones were not an exclusively military environment. #FindsFriday
Three ancient roman shoes with pierced decoration displayed on dummy feet.
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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
The engraved entrance stone to the famous Neolithic passage tomb of Newgrange at County Meath in Ireland. 📸 My own. #TombTuesday #Newgrange #Prehistory #Ireland
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Simon Coupland @scoupland.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
For #FindsFriday just a few of the fabulous Viking age beads discovered at Haithabu/ Hedeby - 📷 Schloss Gottorf Museum.
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Kath Page @orkat3.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Broch-tastic news. Taking experimental #archaeology to the extreme! Such a fantastic project, great news for #Caithness and Scottish archaeology. #IronAge #Broch #Scotland www.northern-times.co.uk/news/scotlan...
northern-times.co.uk
Scotland’s first new broch for 2000 years wins planning approval
The approval of the Caithness Broch Project’s plans represents a major milestone for their bid to build a “faithful replica” on a site near Latheron.
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betancur . n @nelbeu.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Helen Levitt adopted children's play as her leitmotif, the imaginative play of children taking over city spaces. N.Y.C. Masked Children 1942 Gelatin silver print 6 1/2 × 8 7/8" Holden Luntz Gallery #helenlevitt #streetphotography #nmbetancur #halloween www.holdenluntz.com/artists/hele...
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
For #MosaicMonday this fantastic photo of a mosaic (and a lovely fish 🐟) that was discovered in the submerged ruins of #Roman Baiae. Photo: Parco Archeologico Campi Flegrei
The photo was taken underwater. It shows a partially uncovered mosaic on the ground of the sea and a fish swimming above it.
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