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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Carausius @carausius286.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

This magnificent rhyton is in the shape of a lioness’s head. It was found at the palace of Knossos & is made from a very fine limestone that can appear - in certain light - as somewhat translucent. It is craftsmanship of the highest order. 🕰️C17th-16thBC 🏛️📷 Heraklion Archaeological Museum

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 27/08/2026

Been thinking about my first job in a library when the manager arrived to work really excited that Dolly Parton was supporting libraries and asked us to post about it immediately on our Twitter account. A sparkle of joy and goodwill.

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

In the Egyptian language the word for Cat is pronounced similar to miaow. This and more historical facts in article below for #InternationalCatDay

rhakotis.com

Bubastis and other cats in the Ancient World

Why cats have been so Popular till now.

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Dr Alex Fitzpatrick @animalarchaeology.com · 08/08/2026

🏺 Unsurprisingly taking advantage of it being International Cat Day to post some of my favourite cats I’ve come across during my research of ancient Egyptian collections 📜 Like this Late Period faience amulet of a cat and kittens, now at the Met Museum. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

A beige coloured amulet depicting a cat and three kittens stood next to each other.

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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Pictish carving of a dog-headed man, known as the ‘Mail Stone’. Possibly dating to the late C7th or early C8th, the carving was found by a grave digger at Mail cemetery, Cunningsburgh, Shetland in 1992. Part of the collections at Shetland Museum & Archives 📸 My own #FindsFriday

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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 · 02/08/2026

Beautiful article by Jenny Diski, worth it for the story of a late antique sea journey, captained by the Jewish Amarantus Navicularius, and recorded by christian Bishop Sinesius, which surely deserves film treatment 🏺 #AncientBluesky

lrb.co.uk

Jenny Diski · Did Jesus walk on water because he couldn’t swim? Jewish Seafarers

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David Mihalyfy @mihalyfy.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

"[T]wo distinct ways of representing the animal and human worlds existed in prehistoric rock art... the coexistence of humans and wildlife [versus] hunting... [Perhaps] these scenes articulated a mythical reality or were metaphorical." #Egyptology #AncientBlueSky scienceinpoland.pl/en/news/news...

scienceinpoland.pl

Ancient Egyptian rock art reveals two very different relationships between humans and animals

For thousands of years, prehistoric artists in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis carved humans and animals into desert rocks — but they did not always tell the same story. Some images show people and wildlife exi...

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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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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

WOW, new finds from the Ice Age! Two absolutely stunning Ice Age figurines from the Swabian Jura were found, dating back around 40,000 years. The tiny carvings, about the size of a thumbnail, depict two birds, rendered with remarkable attention to detail. Snow grouse, buzzard, or...🧵1/2

A close-up photo of the two tiny figurines.

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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 · 25/07/2026

Was interested to read Orwell’s description of Romford in Down and Out. Not a fan. But I didn’t realise the town was home to a small Irvingite chapel, a victorian apocalyptic and prophetic sect 📚

orwellsociety.com

Romford Re-visited – The Orwell Society

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Nicolas Robert @robertsnickc.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Head of a goat. Bronze #sculpture, Hellenistic period (c. 3rd century BC) #art #Greece

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 23/07/2026

Large statues of sphinges, falcons and baboons were found in Benvento, Italy, originally from a temple to the goddess Isis set up in the town during the reign of the emperor Domitian.

rhakotis.com

A temple of magic in the middle of Italy

What is the secret of a town haunted for centuries by witches?

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A Roman terracotta oil lamp shaped like a sandaled foot. A small but beautiful object from the 2nd/3rd century AD. 📷 Landesmuseum Württemberg 🏺

Roman terracotta oil lamp shaped like a sandaled foot, with a rounded fill hole near the top, a second opening at the toe end for the wick, and molded strap details across the instep, shown against a plain light background.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 21/07/2026

New museum opened on the route of the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) walk with rooms dedicated to the uber chic Sir Philip Sassoon and war-time spying. Perfect day out.

bbc.co.uk

'Colourful and turbulent': Enfield's secret wartime base revealed

The house played a key role in Britain's intelligence battle with Germany during World War Two.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 21/07/2026

Penguin have just republished Glastobury Romance by John Cowper Powys, a very long and slightly baggy book, but definitely worth a revival, especially within the current context of both climate and political crisis and folk/myth resurgence. 📚

penguin.co.uk

A Glastonbury Romance

One of the great cult novels, a book that can be read and re-read throughout a lifetime, A Glastonbury Romance is John Cowper Powys' masterpiece. Set in a beautifully imagined fictional version of the...

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

I initially thought it was a sphinx like on the helmet of Athena Parthenos, but I think you could be right. It’s very worn.

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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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Miguel Clavero @chikichanka.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Natural history on canvas: Brueghel knew about bird-eating noctule bats Just published in @pnas.org, OA for all eyes Led by the one-and-only @romero-vidal.bsky.social, with the amazing @elena-tena.bsky.social and Sonia Sánchez-Navarro @ebdonana.bsky.social LINK: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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

Two important discoveries: Fourth century city with residential and religious structures, including church, plus Ostraca (records written on clay pots) excavated in the Dakhla oasis and 18 ancient tombs found at Marina el-Alamein, identified as Roman-period port of Leukaspis on Mediterranean coast.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 04/07/2026

For me, Pete Seeger is one of the archetypal Americans. His introduction to Oh Mary Don’t You Weep from Rainbow Quest has always stayed with me: “right now, some of these pharaohs may get drowned too”. Power is no protection and justice will always win out.

m.youtube.com

Pete Seeger, Bernice Reagon & Jean Ritchie "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (1965)

YouTube video by Gospel World

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

That’s a good point. Some Roman authors certainly thought the priests weren’t so moral! I think it was likely ordinary water unless temples kept small amounts like some people today have flasks of water from Lourdes or the River Jordan. This practice could be linked to the New Year Festival.

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Anfor @anforsorrow.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

This painting, from the Mughal Empire, depicts five animal headed demons (jinns) dancing and playing musical instruments amidst the clouds. From the British Museum collection.

Album painting depicting five animal headed demons (jinns) dancing and playing musical instruments among the clouds. The dog headed jinn at the top right holds castanets (kath-tala) in both hands, while the demon below him shakes a tambourine (daf). To his left, the bird headed figure plays a tambourine-like drum (daire), and the kneeling jinn at the far left plays a rabab, a stringed instrument highly valued by the Mughal court. The donkey headed jinn with a fan is the only figure without a musical instrument. Mughal dynasty (1590-1600). India.
British Museum.

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 26/06/2026

These vases may have contained ‘Nile water’, which is intriguing when you consider how prosaic river water is. There was a shrine to Hydreios in Delos (late second century BCE) but I suspect the hand covering is Roman, when we see another flowering of the Egyptian cults across the Empire.

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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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🏛️ Roma Aeterna 🏛️ @romaaeterna.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

« Le chien d’Assiout » : sculpture datant de la fin de l’époque ptolémaïque ou du début de l’époque romaine (Ier s. av. J.-C.-ler s. ap. J.-C.). Provenant d’Assiout en Égypte, elle pourrait provenir des abords du cimetière d’animaux sacrés et appartient aux collections du Louvre.

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Dr Alex Fitzpatrick @animalarchaeology.com · 16/06/2026

🏺 Fell into a bit of a rabbit hole at work today after finding some mummified crocodiles in my research. Big fan of this one, currently at the Louvre. 📜

The ‘head’ part of a mummified crocodile, showing a crocodile face painted on top of the bandages.

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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 · 11/06/2026

Great article. Another interesting piece of evidence, similar to the Berenike Buddha, is the so called Pompeii Lakshmi, an ivory figurine possibly from Bhokardan in India

en.wikipedia.org

Pompeii Lakshmi - Wikipedia

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Bad Ancient/ Owen Rees @badancient.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I have been giving talks on my book for over a year now and the one thing that is guaranteed to get an audience reaction is the Berenike Buddha in Egypt. People seem amazed it exists and then what it tells us about the ancient world. So I wrote the whole thing up as a Bad Ancient article:

badancient.com

Were there Buddhists in ancient Egypt?

With the growth of Buddhism in ancient India, there were claims that the religion spread out towards the Mediterranean; but is there any clear proof this was the case?

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Au Louvre, j'aime @aulouvrejaime.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Isis Pharia Musée du Louvre

Description : Isis (chignon, calathos, chitôn à rabat, himation, tenant une corne d'abondance) base (rectangulaire, moulure)
État de l’œuvre : incomplet, il manque le gouvernail rapporté dans la main droite. Doigts de la main droite brisés.
Langue : grecque
Nature du texte : dédicace (contenu du texte->inscription religieuse) (sur la base : Isis Pharia)
Dimensions : Hauteur 24,2 cm ; Largeur 8,4 cm ; Profondeur 7 cm
Matériau : bronze
Matériau secondaire : argent
Technique : fonte en creux (coulé = fondu = fonte), incrustation = incrusté (sur la base : inscription incrustée d’argent)
Précision technique : baudrier rapporté
Époque / période : romain impérial
Date de création/fabrication : IIe s. ap. J.-C. (?) (100 - 200)
Lieu de création / fabrication / exécution : Proche-Orient
Lieu de découverte : Banias = Balanea

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Simon Bralee @simonbralee.com · 10/06/2026

Graffiti from Indian visitors to the Valley of the Kings from the Roman period when the two countries had direct trade links via the Red Sea #AncientBluesky

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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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Liv Mariah Yarrow (pronounced "leave") @profyarrow.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

A medal of Julian the Philosopher (Apostate) with imagery of the cult of Isis c.361-363 CE. Not the coin I was looking for but too good not to share! [RIC VIII Rome 494]

Obverse

Legend: D N FL CL IVLI-ANVS P F AVG
Type: Bust of Julian, pearl-diademed, cuirassed, left, holding Victory on globe in right hand and shield decorated with Wolf and Twins on left shoulder
Portrait: Julian the Apostate

Reverse

Legend: VOTA - PVBLICA
Type: Isis, draped, and Serapis, draped, their bodies ending in snakes, facing one another, supporting between them a vase containing a serpent
Deity: Isis
Deity: Serapis

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

A Roman horse terracotta figurine found in Rottweil, dating 2nd or 3rd century AD. Horse figurines served as offerings in sanctuaries or domestic shrines and occasionally as grave goods. Their use and meaning shift depending on context but reflect associations with status/wealth or...🧵1/2 📷 me 🐎

A close-up of a Roman horse figurine made of clay

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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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Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Nothing to see here, just an ancient British hare chasing a Roman hunting dog 😏 At the Roman Army Museum, @vindolandatrust.bsky.social

Sculpture detail of hare hunting, but the surviving fragments just show a hare behind the hunting dog.

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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 26/05/2026

A Snake Sculpture 6th-11th Century AD, from U Thong Thailand.

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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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