iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 27/09/2026

Great visit to Barking’s Eastbury Manor House last weekend for Open House. The house, built 1570s, contains early examples of Arabic numbers used by the builders on site to construct the rafters. Thanks to my fellow guests who pointed this out.

The side of Eastbury Manor House facing the sun, mellow red bricks and windows (three storeys and six bays) with two gables. Very nice.

The main door of the house. It’s relatively small and discrete, but there’s a small pediment picked out by tasteful brickwork.

The rafters of the Manor House. These would have been originally covered in plaster. The floors may have been used for indoor sports like bowling.

The number 12 carved on two planks used to build the rafters. It resembles Arabic numerals.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 19/09/2026

Scarab beetle with a human head. From New Kingdom Egypt. A symbol of the deceased after the successful judgment of the dead. 🏛️ State Museum of Egyptian Art Munich 🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky

Soapstone sculpture of a scarab with a tiny human head wearing an ancient Egyptian style wig, similar to Nemes headdress.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 05/09/2026

A waterside supper with riparian entertainments. Scene from the Palestrina Mosaic depicting idealised scenes of Ptolemaic Egypt (first century BCE, Italy). 🏺 #AncientBluesky #egyptology

Feast ‘pon the waters, two benches with reclining epicurean diners, a canopy hanged o’er, set amidst the waters, bestrewn with flowers, a boat sails through.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 02/09/2026

Love this terracotta sculpture by the Nigerian artist Demas Nwoko, on display as part of the Barbican’s Project a Black Planet, Panafrica exhibition. Inspired by ancient Nok sculpture, it also has ancient Egyptian resonances.

A terracotta bust of a human head wearing a headdress.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 31/08/2026

Enjoying the holiday, a mosaic of an idealised image of the Nile Valley during the flood season, with everyone having raucous good fun. Second century CE, Rome (Museo Nazionale Romano) 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

Detail from a black and white mosaic depicting three people on a reed boat (with a donkey figurehead). One steers the craft, the middle person dances with two crossed sticks and the third person plays the flutes (aulos)

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 03/08/2026

8.8 metre kind logboat, found on the banks of the River Tay carbon-dated to 485 CE, and carved from a single tree. The indentations on the sides, suggests the boat have had seats. 🏛️ Dundee McManus

A large hallowed out tree trunk used as a medieval boat.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 30/07/2026

Little crocodile, enjoying a Mediterranean lifestyle, resting by the waters of Canopus in Hadrian’s Villa in Italy (reinforced concrete replica of a marble statue now in the museum) 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A sculpture of a crocodile looking towards still waters. An iron rod is visible in snout and front legs. Column and portico are just visible in the reflection.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 27/07/2026

Fish mosaic with seabed from the garden of the church of San Lorenzo in Panisperna in Rome 100-75 BCE. The detail is breathtaking. 🏺 #MosaicMonday #AncientBluesky

Different species of fish, crustaceans and molluscs depicted in extremely minute limestone, marble and vitreous paste tesserae.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 20/07/2026

From Verona, a tiny bronze figurine of a goddess combining attributes of different deities for extra power and good luck. 🏺 #AncientBluesky

A bronze figurine of a deity sat on a flowery throne. On her head a helmet with sphinx and feather. She holds a suggestive sceptre and globe.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 19/07/2026

Went to the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in its recently opened new location in Islington. An excellent Queer comics exhibition and a great permanent collection including this reimagining of the Cerne Abbas giant for Punch Magazine. Worth a visit.

Loose watercolour depicting the character of punch, a mature gent with prominent proboscis, sitting outside a country inn, like something from a Thomas Hardy novel, with his dog Toby. Punch points with his tankard to a hill figure of himself and said canine companion.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 15/07/2026

Lion recumbent, after victory? Reconstruction of archaic statue based on traces of red on the tongue and lips, blue on the mane and ochre on the hide. (Sculpture restored by Peter Funder, Polychromy reconstructed by Uirike Koch-Brinkmann and Vinzenz Brinkmann Munich 2003) 🏺 #AncientBluesky

Reconstructed archaic period lion statue coloured with blue main and tail tip, yellowy-brown hide, on a red base.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 25/06/2026

Good point. There are surviving images with similar details from other Isis / Serapis temples outside Egypt suggesting it was common if not universal practice.

Column from the Isis Temple in the Field of Mars (Iseum Campense) in Rome, with an image carved in relief of a man with a wreath on top of his (possibly bald) head, carrying a vase in the shape of an Isis Osiris, a drape from his hand shows he is holding the object with hands gloved in his linen robes.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 23/06/2026

Cool water of Osiris, possibly held in ‘Osiris-Canopus’ vases like this one carried by a priest from what would have been the hyper decorated Isis Temple in Benevento, Italy 🏺 #AncientBluesky #egyptology

A Roman period black diorite statue of a robed figure, with missing head, holding a vase with Egyptian patterns on it.
These normally have a small bust of Osiris on them, but this one doesn't.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 12/06/2026

Mephitis the mysterious Oscan goddess of water, liminal spaces and foul smelling spaces. Venus later took over some of her temple sites (like in Pompeii) and possibly powers. If you smell something sulphurous, it’s probably her, casting love spells about.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 08/06/2026

“I feel simply divine”. The gods I feel.

Dedication slab from the National Roman Museum with relief depicting Sol Invictus, a young man with solar rays projecting from his head, and an old man with a beard identified as Jupiter Dolichenus. The bust of a small goddess with lunar crown is between them.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 30/05/2026

Just saw two massive stag beetles in the vestibule area of my flat. Every summer we get a few, but these were even bigger than normal

A large black stage beetle with prominent ‘antlers’

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 29/05/2026

Statue identified as Osiris the Time Lord (Osiris Chronocrator), possibly from the Janiculum Sanctuary in Rome. Late 2nd century CE, now in Palazzo Massimo. The friendly snake, wrapped around the god, may symbolise the endless cycle of death and rebirth. 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology #snakes

A life sized marble statue representing a human figure in a long robe. He has the fleshy chops of a young man with a well developed appetite. On his head an Egyptian style nemes wig and on his chest a decorative pectoral. A snake writhes around his body, resting their head on the top of his belly.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 26/05/2026

Don’t forget to thank Hercules. That club is the same size as the man! Wall painting showing a man making an offering to a statue of Hercules (Ostia, Necropolis of Via Laurentina tomb 27, Second half 2nd century CE) 🏺 #AncientBluesky

A small man in a a toga pours some incense on a flame burning in a metal brazier, in front of a large bronze coloured naked man, holding a massive golden coloured club with a lion skin is draped over his arm.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 25/05/2026

Ostia Antica, the old port of Rome, is a fantastic archaeological site, comparable in size with Pompeii. This building is the remains of a mithraeum, with benches along the side and a mosaic in the middle decorated with symbols for the seven levels of initiation in the religion #MosaicMonday

Archaeological site with a black and white mosaic depicting a ladder containing different symbols associated with Mithras. At the far end, the final box contains the name of the donator (Felicissimus), after whom the building is named.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 25/05/2026

Jurassic Park: Ancient Rome I can’t not see dinosaurs in this late 1st century CE wall painting of a farmer leading a pair of giant oxen. From Ostia (building pre-dating the Baths of the Sette Sapienti)🏺 #AncientBluesky

A fragment of wall painting of a farmer leading two large oxen. Only the heads and front of one of the oxen are visible.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 24/05/2026

The Pyramid of Cestius in Rome. A first century BCE tomb inspired by the pyramids of Sudan, it was later built into the city’s fortifications. A stunning piece of Egyptian inspired architecture 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A small pyramid gleams in the sun, brick walls can be seen behind it. There is a large open road in front (the modern day Via Ostiense) riden by a classy Italian moped for two.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 20/05/2026

Enjoying the sun: crocodile, detail from a mosaic depicting the flooded Nile found in Rome, 2nd Century CE (Museo Nazionale Romana, Palazzo Massimo) 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A finely rendered mosaic of a crocodile on a river bank, with flowers in the undulating waters behind

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 17/05/2026

You know you are in trouble (or very, very grateful) when you donate something like this to the gods: Votive foot with the snake gods Isis-Thermouthis and Serapis Agathodaemon on either side and Harpocrates on the back. 2nd-3rd century CE, Egypt. Held in Turin 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A marble sculpture of a sandalled foot, either side of the ankle are two small snakes. The one on the left is a woman, her head is now missing but a headpiece is just visible. The snake to the right depicts a bearded man with a headpiece.

The same sandal from the side more clearly showing the snake’ writhing tail. A human stands at the back of the foot.

A close up of the figure at the back of the sandal, identified as Harpocrates. He is nude apart from a robe on his left shoulder. He is probably carrying a cornucopia. His head and right hand are missing.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 16/05/2026

Mummified remains of a dog from Egypt, resembling Anubis. The number of animals mummified increased rapidly during the Late and Ptolemaic Period, perhaps a demonstration of Egyptian self-identity or a sign of the times and people needing all the help they can get 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

Mummified remains of a dog or canid from Late Period to Ptolemaic Period Egypt. It is wrapped in decorative linen. The head is pained black and has large eyes and long erect ears resembling classic depictions of Anubis. From Turin’s Egyptian Museum.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 07/05/2026

The godess Isis always relevant: “I have delivered the plotter of evil against other men into the hands of the one he plotted against. I established penalties for those who practice injustice. I decreed mercy to suppliants. I protect righteous guards. With me the right prevails.” 🏺 #Egyptology

A wall painting of the godess Isis-Fortuna leaning over a man trying to defecate between two snakes.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 26/04/2026

Harpocrates: god of rebirth and the hopes of a brand new day 🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky

Copper alloy figurine of the god Harpocrates from the Roman Period, on display in the National Archaeological Museum Athens. He is a small child with his right finger to his mouth. He has cherubic curls and wears a stylised Pschent, the double crown of ancient Egypt.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 20/04/2026

A particularly ornate statue from Hadrian’s villa identified as a double sided portrait of the god Osiris and Apis. The emperor built a get away space outside Rome based on the temple and party town of Canopus in the Egyptian Delta. #AncientBluesky #Egyptology 🏛️ Vatican

A black and white grey marble bust of a bull’s head with white horns on one side and a ma wearing an Egyptian nemes wig on the other.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 18/04/2026

Vase with cylindrical neck and muzzle resembling a pig. 🏛️ National Archaeological Museum, Athens (12216)

A clay vessel in the stylised shape of a pig with lines inscribed on back. A ceramic vase is reflected in the glass just in front of the pig.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 15/04/2026

Just finished Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife. Really comes alive in the second half with vivid insights into the later years of Alice Toklas’s life.

Book cover of Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 15/04/2026

All hail King Apis. A small bronze statuette of the Apis Bull as Roman Emperor, a symbol of power: over the living, the dead, or both? Depictions of Egyptian animal gods as soldiers or emperors, like this, have been found in Egypt and beyond. Don’t mess. 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A bronze statuette of a human-shaped person with a bulls head (solar disk between his resplendent horns). He holds his left arm aloft, a pose resembling images of Augustus and Zeus. In his right hand, he holds out a bowl. He wears Roman armour and sits on a throne.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 13/04/2026

Monstrous classicism. Pablo Picasso dressed as a minotaur on the beach at Golfe-Juan, 1968. Photograph by Gjon Mili. Part of Theatre Picasso, Tate.

Photograph of a man on a beach wearing trunks. He has the bronzed godlike body of Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast. He wears a fearsome and detailed bull mask on his head.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 12/04/2026

Roman-period statue of a ‘Harpy’ found in Driffield Terrace, York. To me, it (loosely) resembles the Colchester sphinx, which is believed to have been placed on a tomb. Both items may be evidence for a taste of Egyptian style art in Roman Britain. 🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky

A weathered statue of a crouching human. Long stands of hair are visible falling in the shoulders.

The ‘harpy’ from another angle showing the top half of a crouching body which is clearly animal shaped.

The ‘harpy’ side on, the back of its body shows a piece of masonry which may be wings or even part of a building, a door arch?

The Colchester sphinx. A similarly shaped statue to the statue in the previous photos, but in much better condition clearly showing a winged Greek style sphinx with a head between their front claws.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 11/04/2026

Small bronze statuette of the Apis Bull, found in Dringhouses, York. It’s inscribed with a check pattern on its back and flanks. 🏺 #Egyptology #AncientBluesky

A small bronze statuette of a bull with an Egyptian style crown between his horns.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 09/04/2026

An inscription from a temple to Serapis in York, possibly built during the stay of the emperor Septimius Severus and family c.208-211 CE. The northern-most attested temple to an Egyptian god, the York temple may have also housed shrines to Isis, Harpocrates and Anubis. 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A Latin inscription carved on a gritstone tablet and painted with red text. The translation reads “To the holy god Serapis, Claudius Hieronymianus, legate of the Sixth Legion, Victorious, built this temple from the ground".

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 04/04/2026

April is rabbit season and this year is particularly important, marking the 300th anniversary of Mary Toft, who claimed to have given birth to rabbits in 1726, tricking several eminent doctors, until it was revealed to be a hoax.

A contemporary portrait of Mary Toft, wearing a bonnet and 18th century clothes, with a cute rabbit on her lap.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 30/03/2026

Dogs are lovely. Statuette of a friendly pooch donated by a doctor from Lagash to the goddess Ninisina, for the life of Sûmû-El, King of Larsa. Early second millennium BCE, ancient Girsu (Tell Telloh, Iraq). Held in Louvre. #AncientBluesky

A steatite black statuette of a dog of the mastiff family, resembling an XS Bully, with a light anxious mien. Covered in cuniform writing.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 07/03/2026

Her country gods, the monsters of the sky, Great Neptune, Pallas, and Love’s Queen defy: The dog Anubis barks, but barks in vain, Nor longer dares oppose th’ ethereal train. Aeneid Book 8, 696-700 John Dryden translation.

An oil painting of the Battle of Actium by Lorenzo A. Castro, depicting a stylised sea battle with early modern ships. (Public Domain)

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 05/03/2026

Reconstruction of the stern swan on a Roman period ship 🏛️ Museo della Città, Rimini

The figure head of a long necked bird, possibly a black swan or Cormorant, at the stern of a wooden ship. It’s head in upside down with a goobery look on its face.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 05/03/2026

Today (March 5) marks the Navigium Isidis, a religious festival dedicated to the goddess Isis, which officially opened sailing season. One account said it culminated with the launch of an ornately decorated ship with a swan neck like on this elegant mosaic from Rimini 🏺 #AncientBluesky #Egyptology

A black and white mosaic of a sailing ship. A swan figure can be seen at the stern of the ship.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 02/03/2026

A thousand yard stare, the sign of acute distress, deep wisdom or both? This larger than life sculpture may depict the philosopher Plutarch (350-433 CE), who sponsored the procession of the Great Panathenaia. From the Acropolis Museum, Athens 🏺

A marble statue of a bearded man. His eyes have a piercing stare emphasised by indentations where the pupils would go, possibly containing a stone or glass in antiquity.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 27/02/2026

Was this the very first Pokémon? A child tormenting and capturing a living animal for its pleasure was a popular topic in Roman art. Pliny the Elder said a sculptor called Boethos created a statue of a boy and goose. Several copies of this item have survived. 🏛️ Vatican Museum #AncientBluesky

A sculpture of a cruel self entitled boy tormenting a goose by pulling at its neck. The boy fights back with terror in its eyes.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 23/02/2026

Mercury - messenger of the gods, patron of merchants, thieves and businessmen, escort of the dead - looking pensive. Norwich Castle Collection 🏺 #AncientBluesky

A lead votive plaque with an image of Mercury wearing a winged helm and holding the caduceus, symbol of heralds.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 19/02/2026

The installation partly explores ideas of truth and transparency as totalising revelation in the Trumpist world. A small cat-shaped book, bound with Coptic stitch, at the centre of the maze could be a guide out or a guide even further in.

A small cat shaped book with an intricate pen portrait of a cheeky anthropomorphic cat surrounded by arcane scripts and scribblings.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 19/02/2026

A detail from Candice Lin’s immersive, labyrinthine g/hosti in Whitechapel Gallery. “I want a visitor to be haunted by the experience of my art”, she says “to leave with a shadow, a demon, a ghost perched in their peripheral vision, somewhere barely seen but lurking” #cat #art

A painting of a cat sat at a picnic table laden stood on grass and with glistening glasses of golden beers.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 12/02/2026

Bloomsbury’s Greek Revival Portico Building, designed by William Wilkins, lit up with ancient Egyptian art. #AncientBluesky #Egyptology #UCL200

A neo-classical portico with eau-de-nil colour illuminations of Egyptian gods taken from a funerary content, including Anubis, Isis and Nephthys. Where the god Osiris would normally be located in this kind of image there is instead an ankh, the symbol for life. This is art of great power and mystery.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 08/02/2026

Heinrich Schliemann, business man and excavator extraordinaire, translated Homer's description of the Trojan cult statue of Athena glaukopis as owl-faced. He identified these owl pots with the goddess and on this assumption concluded he had found the legendary city of Troy #SuperbOwl #AncientBluesky

A clay pot with a vaguely owl-like head with beak and eyes. It has a round body with handles which are positioned where the wings or arms would go and two domes positioned to resemble stylised breasts, which might suggest it’s not a bird or not just a bird.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 07/02/2026

Not the best photo, but this tiny figurine of the god Mercury clutching his purse was found on the banks of the River Thames, perhaps lost off board a ship or someone’s person. It may also have been intentionally dropped. Mercury protected merchants, thieves, dead souls and more 🏺 #AncientBluesky

A bronze statuette of the god Mercury wearing a winged helmet and holding a money pouch. He is mounted in a museum, part of the Museum of the Docklands Mudlarking exhibition.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 05/02/2026

The golden bull man of Sicily. A tetradrachm depicting the river-god Gelas, patron deity of Gela, Sicily. 5th century BCE. A fascinating image of one of the many animal-shaped divinities from Mediterranean antiquity 🏺 #AncientBluesky

A gold coin depicting a bull with bearded human face. Greek letters at the top of the coin spell out Gelas.

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