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Valerie

@valerieadventures.bsky.social
33 followers 45 following 36 posts

Archaeologist. PhD in Classics. Adjunct professor. Museum worker. I love coffee, archaeology, Disney, the Aeolian Islands, & the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Penn Museum has this great late 2nd-3rd cent CE papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt featuring Odyssey 10.26-50. I love it because it mentions Aeolus (connected to my beloved Aeolian islands).
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Public has until June 15 to comment on Trump's proposed arch in DC
wjla.com
Public has until June 15 to comment on Trump's proposed arch in DC
The National Park Service (NPS) is asking the public to weigh in on a report examining the potential effects of President Trump's proposed Triumphal Arch.
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I was devastated to learn of the passing of Professor Stephen Dyson, one of my professors and diss. committee members. He made such an impact on the field of Roman archaeology and was such a wonderful mentor to grad students. He will be deeply missed.
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Isabel Picornell Garcia @picornell.eurosky.social · 16/05/2026
A doctor caught while trying to flee the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, carrying the tools of his profession. The finding is the latest extraordinary discovery at the Archaeological Park of #Pompeii, made more than sixty years after the excavation of the Orto dei Fuggiaschi. #Archaeology
euronews.com
Pompeii: A doctor identified thanks to his instruments
Interdisciplinary work made it possible to identify the body of a doctor among the victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The plaster cast held a case with the instruments used by doctors at the time
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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Since today is National Barbecue Day, 🔥 remember to give a nod to the patron saint of Barbequers, Saint Lawrence, who—when being persecuted on a hot gridiron under Valerian in 258 CE—noted: “Assum est, versa et manduca.” “This side is done, turn (me) over & eat.” csla.history.ox.ac.uk
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna with the apse of Saint Lawrence
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Personally I find the Arch of Constantine to be the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL triumphal arch. I mean come on, look at that purple porphyry (my fav).
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
“For because spring opens all things now, cold's binding Sharpness goes, and the teeming earth unlocks, They say the time of aperture gives us April, Which gentle Venus seizes and claims.” (Ovid, Fasti, 4.87-90. Trans. Boyle & Woodard 2000)
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
At the Colosseum, New Marble Slabs Mark Where Towering Columns Stood Thousands of Years Ago
smithsonianmag.com
At the Colosseum, New Marble Slabs Mark Where Towering Columns Stood Thousands of Years Ago
Crowds once mingled below two tall arcades supported by 164-foot-tall columns. But due to earthquakes and unstable foundations, these architectural elements collapsed long ago
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I just took the PWHL Personality Quiz and got Minnesota Frost! ✨ 365hockeygirl.github.io/pwhl-quiz/pw...
365hockeygirl.github.io
PWHL Team Personality Test ✨
Which PWHL team are you? Take the quiz to find out!
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Fishbourne Roman Palace @romanpalace.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Anything the Met Museum can do, we can do.... (and we're going to be honest here)... ...broken-er. 😬
Two absolutely stunning pieces of Roman glass. The colour is mainly blue, with swirls and dashes of white. Remarkably, there are sections of gold where the artisan has incorporated pure gold leaf into their manufacture. Perhaps most notable is that these would both be even more impressive if they weren't tiny fragments of a once-complete vessel.
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
One of my favs!!
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Fishbourne Roman Palace @romanpalace.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Happy New Year! This is how Janus works. Good luck. 🤞♥️
A black and white line drawing of the head of the double-faced God Janus. The drawing is terrible but it's the only one that imgflip had to offer. The left (backward looking) face is captioned "The horror that was 2025". The right (forward looking) face is captioned "The horror that will be 2026".
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
“Look, Germanicus, Janus proclaims a happy year for you and is present to start my song.” (Ovid, Fasti 1.63-64. Trans. Woodard) [image not mine]
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. (image: evergreen tree from the Painted Garden fresco in the villa of Livia, early 1st c. CE, Rome)
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Trimontium Trust & Museum @trimontiumtrust.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Fancy a #grasshoppers on a ring? The #Romans did. Between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, grasshoppers seem to have been pretty fashionable amongst the subjects carved on #intaglios.
A grasshopper driving a chariot; credits:https://bertolamifineart.bidinside.com/en/lot/158949/a-roman-carnelian-intaglio-grasshopper-/A grasshopper driving a chariot; credits:https://bertolamifineart.bidinside.com/en/lot/158949/a-roman-carnelian-intaglio-grasshopper-/A grasshopper driving a chariot; credits:https://bertolamifineart.bidinside.com/en/lot/158949/a-roman-carnelian-intaglio-grasshopper-/
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
If you’re watching the Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution, last night’s episode mentioned York, PA. York was where Second Continental Congress fled to when the British captured Philadelphia in the fall of 1777. This portrait is from the York County History Center’s collection!
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Happy Sunday! 🦛 💙 Adorable ancient Egyptian blue faience hippos made by artisans some 4,000 years ago! 📷 by me #Archaeology
My photo collage shows four hippo statuettes made of Egytian blue faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. Their bright-blue shiny bodies are decorated in black with depictions of Nile river plants such as water weed and lotus flowers. This decoration depicts their marsh habitat as well as having various layers of symbolism associated with regeneration. For example lotus flowers open in the morning and close at night, symbolising rebirth. Blue faience hippos have been found in Middle Kingdom tombs of high ranking officials. It’s thought they were placed in the tombs to aid the rebirth of the deceased.

Hippo top left - Walking hippo shown in profile facing right. Height 11.5 cm, Length 21 cm. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Top right - Roaring hippo (looks like the hippo is smiling), seated, with head at left and turned inwards to front. Height 7.5 cm, length 12.5 cm. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. 

Bottom left - Standing hippo in profile facing right. This hippo is part of the Met Museum’s collections and is popularly known as ‘William’. Height 11.2 cm, Length 20 cm

Bottom Right - Reclining hippo with head on the right, facing front, and tilted down. Egyptian Museum, Cairo
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
This is so depressing to me www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
theatlantic.com
America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy
Declining standards and low expectations are destroying American education.
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Steph Halmhofer @cultarchaeo.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Once again urging archaeologists to critically assess the AI push into archaeology. There is a huge swath of problematic ethical issues that come with the AI tech & tech lords & we don't have to make it easier for them to insert themselves in archaeology by welcoming them in. Don't be complicit. 🏺
thetimes.com
Elon Musk says AI research into ancient Rome will ‘rewrite history’
The world’s richest man is financing a new age of archaeological projects that seek to use artificial intelligence to fill in knowledge gaps
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Day 25 of #Classicstober is Tartarus! Sisyphus, Ixion, & Tantalus, seen on this 2nd c CE marble sarcophagus in the Vatican, suffered their punishments in Tartarus. #Classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Day24 of #Classicstober is Phlegathon, the flaming river of the underworld. This river also makes it into Canto XII of Dante’s inferno (seen here) digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine... #Classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Day 23 of #Classicstober is the Lamia. Lamia were beautiful women with the body of snake who lured men (maybe children) in order to drink their blood/feast on their flesh. Companions to Hekate. (The only historic image I could find was a 17th century woodcut) #classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Day 22 of #Classicstober is Judge. Here is a 4th century BCE red figure vase featuring the 3 judges of the underworld: Rhadamanthys, Minos, &Aeakos. (P.S. I love late Sicilian vases) #classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Day 10 of #Classicstober is Hekate. Here is a beautiful marble statuette of Hekate dating to the 1st-2nd c. CE found at the Met. #classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Day 7 of #classicstober is pharmakis (witch, sorceress). I am sharing a book I have on my October stack and that I will be starting this weekend! The First Witches: Women of Classical Power in the Classical World by Alexis Hannah Prescott #Classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
Love slow mornings with coffee and archaeology. Watching the @PBS.org new documentary Pompeii: the new dig. www.pbs.org/show/pompeii... Finding joy when and where I can. #Archaeology #Pompeii
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
Day 5 of #Classicstober is Hermes Psychopompos. (Hermes as the transporter of souls). Here he is on the tondo (interior) of a kylix found in an Anatolian grave. If you have AJA access, read more about it and see more great photos www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #Classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Day 4 of #Classicstober is the Shroud. This red figure skyphos c. 430 BCE depicts Penelope at her loom weaving her father-in-law’s burial shroud. “…postpone requests for marriage till I finish weaving this sheet to shroud Laertes when he dies.” (Odyssey 19.142-144 Wilson trans.) #Classicstober25
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Day 3 of #Classicstober25 is the Graiai. Not a lot of images of them but did find a Pyxis from Athens c. 430 BCE which feature the Graiai and Perseus. The Graiai feature in Perseus’ quest to find Medusa. #Classicstober #archaeology
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
For Day 1 & 2 of #Classicstober #Classicstober25 Hypnos & Thanatos I’m sharing one of my favorite vessels, the Euphronios krater (c. 515 BCE) depicting the death of Sarpedon in the Ilaid. “…then send Death and gentle Sleep to take him to his spacious Lycian homeland…” (16.578-579 Wilson trans.)
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The Classics Library @theclassicslibrary.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Being Odysseus classicalstudies.support/2025/09/08/b...
classicalstudies.support
Being Odysseus
Last week I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of a book I’ve been looking forward to for years – and I’m glad to report that it didn’t disappoint! You are Odysseus isn’t a regular book,…
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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 06/09/2025
Authoritarianism is on the rise across the globe, including in the United States. Might the historical rise of authoritarianism in the ancient world help us understand its rapid expansion today?
hyperallergic.com
An Ancient Roman Guide to Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook
The authors of a new anthology argue that we can understand and counter authoritarianism’s rapid expansion today by looking at culture in the time of Julius Caesar.
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Finished this book for Labor Day weekend! I enjoyed it over all. I loved looking at history I know relatively well from a new angle along with learning some new things. Definitely would recommend it!
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Under pressure from the White House, Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit at the National Museum of American History
washingtonpost.com
Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American history museum
A temporary placard, on display since 2021, described the president's historic impeachments. Officials said the exhibit was restored to an earlier version following a review of legacy content.
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
I love this little dog from @pennmuseum.bsky.social
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Stromboli ❤️
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Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
New issue of Journal of Classics Teaching: Vol. 26 , No. 51 (2025) www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #openaccess @cambridgeup.bsky.social @stevenhuntclass.bsky.social @corabeth.bsky.social
journal cover
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rogueclassicist ~ david meadows @rogueclassicist.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
Identity of the Occupants of the Tomb of Persephone in Vergina Revealed: They Are Not Philip II and His Wife www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/04/i...
labrujulaverde.com
Identity of the Occupants of the Tomb of Persephone in Vergina Revealed: They Are Not Philip II and His Wife
An international team of scientists has unveiled new findings about the enigmatic Tomb I, known as the Tomb of Persephone, located in the Great Tumulus of Vergina, Greece. This monument, considered pa...
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Dr Sarah Bremner @brummieclassicist.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
📣 Calling all little Ancient Historians and their grown ups! The BMCA’s Athena’s Owls 🦉 will be a Greek Myth Forest School for May, June and July! Oonagh has created a brilliant set of sessions to explore ancient myths in Birmingham’s Cotteridge Park #teachancient #myth #greekmyth #forestschool
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
On April 18, the Old North Church—where two lanterns once sparked the American revolution—will ring its bells for democracy. I hope houses of worship across the country will join them in this nationwide call to protect our freedom. Learn how your congregation can take part.
letfreedomring.live
Join the Movement — Let Freedom Ring
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Hoping to see this over the summer "A trove of artifacts recovered from the black market goes on display in Naples" apnews.com/article/napl...
apnews.com
A trove of artifacts recovered from the black market goes on display in Naples
Hundreds of once-missing artifacts, hunted down over decades by a special Italian police unit, have been unveiled for the first time in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
This is false. There are earlier law codes than the 10 commandments. Law code of Ur-Nammu. Hammurabi’s law.
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Valerie @valerieadventures.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
It’s so wild to be teaching about the fall of the Roman Republic right now. So many parallels.
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Fishbourne Roman Palace @romanpalace.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
We're celebrating, as ever, the start of Super Bowl 2025 with this Superb Owl. 🦉
A mosaic of an owl, with part of the black and white corner of the mosaic border above him. The owl is a mess. He honestly looks like he hasn't slept for days.
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