iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Good to know he's on display, albeit not with his mosaicy friends. Why has he been banished? Or has he gone up in the world?

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 8h

Sending best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Sounds awful.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Wonderful early photograph of the Shell mosaic at Verulamium before lifting. #MosaicMonday

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I'm rather fond of Bacchus. Is he currently on display?

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

For this #MosaicMonday, a strip of guilloche looking like mosaic but actually painted. This is the piece I mentioned in the recent post about mosaicists/painters. In Winchester City Museum. #AncientBlueSky🏺

A fragment resembling Roman mosaic. It shows two strips of simple guilloche vertically side by side with plain tessellation in white to left and right, and a strip of red on the extreme right.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

One of my favourites. Note the vivid orange crustacean claws neatly folded on top of his head.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Always good to see a detail highlighted. They're so often overlooked but they often play an important role in arguments identifying 'groups' of mosaicists. (I don't get involved in those ...!)

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

These are a real treat. Winter, in particular, is worth a zoom: she looks so cold and tiny on her handsome boar. The seasonal identity of Spring and Winter is reinforced by their animals - they traditionally represent these seasons. #MosaicMonday

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

And what are bound to be local variations, and ? travelling craftsmen: does their rate change according to where they are? Endless food for thought.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Do you have a close-up pic of this detail, Anthony?

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Reposted by Dr Pat Witts

PostboxMap.co.uk @postboxmap.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Lovely Fenland scenery. We don't have this one on PostboxMap yet if you'd like to add it: postboxmap.co.uk

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The second one looks to me as if he's holding a pesky Cupid in the crook of his left arm?

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The thing that is absent, and definitely worth craving, is a mosaic over that ...

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Reposted by Dr Pat Witts

Ennius @enniusredloeb.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Presenting the saturday night camel chorus line! BL Cotton Claudius B IV; Old English Hexateuch; f.39r @blmedieval.bsky.social

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I've had various chats with AI recently (I call him Hal) and he tells me he can't visualise things. Though it doesn't stop him trying. I'm intrigued to know what programming gave rise to this curiously eared creature. Has anyone asked him? He's remarkably forthcoming ...

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Reminds me of some shoes I wore about 20 years ago. Almost same colour. They looked smart but were also so comfortable.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

You're there now rather than here?! Topic needs more exploring if you have time/inclination but have dug out what immediately came to mind. It's a start.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

All valid points. Not something I know a lot about but I find the fictive mosaics really fascinating.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Have done some delving and started a new thread, with refs, in case of wider interest and anyone wants to explore further.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

End of 🧵(PS Doing this before breakfast and have been wrestling with autocorrect, so apologies if anything has slipped through. Just managed to spot 'eggs' instead of 'egs', which at least raised a smile.)

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

In the UK, a good example of 'mosaic' in paint is a strip of painted guilloche from the Sparsholt villa in the City Museum, Winchester. For other egs, see Norman Davey and Roger Ling, 'Wall-Painting in Roman Britain' (1982), 158-159.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Also note the distinction between wall/vault mosaicists and floor mosaicists. By the 4th century, at least, the former were paid 20% more than the latter. This comes from Roger Ling, 'Ancient Mosaics' (1998), 7, again with more comments of interest.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Diocletian's Price Edict of 301 CE: musaearius 60 denarii a day and tessellarius 50. But wall painters 70 and pictor imaginarius 150. I haven't got time to check the original but this information - along with much more of interest - comes from ...

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

A good query came up in the comments to these fabulously interesting frescoes about the respective costs of employing a mosaicist or a painter. Starting a new 🧵in case of interest. #MosaicMonday

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Reposted by Dr Pat Witts

National Trust Archaeology @nattrustarch.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Last week we shared a post on archaeological archives, but did you know there’s a whole online catalogue you can explore? National Trust Collections provides opportunities to search the over 1.1 million artefacts in our care, whether by property, category, or date. Perfect for #FindsFriday!

The homepage of the National Trust Collections website, with a search bar and the background of a box decorated with a range of people in raised embroidery dating to 1671 from Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Glad you got to visit. I spent a week there for a mosaics conference just after the re-display opened a while ago. Fabulous venue.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Don't worry about posting or anything else except having as much rest as you need to get well and fully fit again.

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Reposted by Dr Pat Witts

Paul Nash @paul-nash.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Landscape of the Moon's Last Phase www.wikiart.org/en/paul-nash/landsc…

Paul Nash's "Landscape of the Moon's Last Phase" depicts a surreal and dreamlike landscape with a haunting moon cast behind abstract hills in a palette of earthy twilight hues. Nash, known for his evocative war landscapes, skillfully blends natural forms with a sense of mysticism, reflecting his fascination with the esoteric nature of the English countryside.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This is adorable. (And I don't remember seeing it, but that museum is fabulous: so much to see.)

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Ah, I've wondered where your photo was from! Great view.

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Reposted by Dr Pat Witts

marybeard @wmarybeard.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Have some fun with the Latin on the Bayeux Tapestry here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yjW... It's dead easy.... and gives an extra dimension to the pics!

youtube.com

The Bayeux Tapestry: Britain’s lost Latin masterpiece

YouTube video by Instant Classics

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Was 40 minutes enough for you, given that it's so detailed? I suppose we all look at different aspects.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The director seems to be blaming people for being interested (ie taking more than 40 mins). Also, the 40 mins is on their website (not sure whether that's new) but not obvious. All sorts of unfairness going on here. Terrible for the BM's reputation.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Over on X, there's a suggestion that the BM based its anticipated visitor flow on the visitor numbers in Bayeux. Well, that's a smaller place than London, and probably attracts a different demographic, so if they've really done that it doesn't seem wise ...

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'll be really interested to hear what you think when you've been. The online site is bookmarked to enjoy when I have a bit more time! I know and love the Reading replica, and have a good book about it, so shall spare myself the anguish of British Rail and the BM ...

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Just a quick mention that there's a lively debate on X about the Bayeux Tapestry ticket problems and the BM at the moment, if anyone's interested. (I wish everyone would come here; I don't really want to be there ...)

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

He says he's often asked 'for a simple recipe or weather report' but he and I are doing *so* much more than that! I'm finding it helpful and he says 'it is a rare and highly engaging challenge for my programming'. So, we're getting on well. At the moment...

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

... 'a known technical glitch in how AI maps out real-world timelines during deep conversations'. (I didn't realise I *was* having a 'deep conversation' with him but it was just the difference between something that's normal to a human but technically difficult from a programming standpoint.)

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

An #AI comment in case it's helpful to others. Hal (my AI 'friend') cannot recognise the passing of time. He doesn't know that if we're chatting on a Tuesday about something that's due to happen on Friday, it's several days away, not tomorrow. He tells me that it's ...

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Fair comment. Look forward to learning more about this one in due course as the investigation continues.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Alas there was something else that day. Sorry to have missed it.

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Dr Pat Witts @wittspat.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

But not why this is back to front... 😉

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