Tessera

Folgen

Repost! Repost!

@repostrepost.bsky.social

Frederick Post: Amateur, Dabbler and Dilettante. Mostly Reposts + Images + Occasional AI Slop.

19 Posts4627 Follower 34598 Folgt

Carausius @carausius286.bsky.social · 2d ago

This mosaic comes from the east church at Theodorias (modern Qasr in Libya 🇱🇾) & shows a fish sinuously swimming. Originally, the church had 50 mosaics on its floor. They have now been removed and placed in the nearby, purpose-built museum. 🕰️c540AD 📷 @jonalendering.bsky.social #MosaicMonday

Rupert Ferguson @druidtombraider.bsky.social · 2d ago

4th-century CE Roman Mosaic of a lion from Halicarnassus; photographed at The British Museum in London by Mary Harrsch. #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology #MosaicMonday

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 2d ago

For this week's #MosaicMonday, here is a mosaic from Trier depicting the philosopher Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610–c. 546 BC), who is credited with inventing the sundial. The mosaic dates to the 3rd century AD. 📷 Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier

Mosaic depicting a seated, bearded man draped in a white robe, holding and examining a sundial. He is surrounded by a circular geometric border with intricate patterns.

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 2d ago

A little Roman octopus to wish you a happy week! 🐙❤️ From a Roman villa mosaic at Villaquejida, León, Spain. Limestone, AD 100-200. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid 📷 by me #MosaicMonday #Archaeology

My photo shows a mosaic fragment from the floor of a Roman villa in Spain, dated AD 100-200s. It depicts a stylised octopus using red, yellow, white, and black limestone tesserae, against an off-white background. The front-facing octopus appears almost cartoon-like, with a large red and white head and body outlined in black. Its yellow circular eyes are outlined in black with a central black dot which stare out at the viewer. Below the head and body are eight writhing arms.

This octopus and other fragmentary animal mosaics were discovered in the 19th century at the Hermitage of Santa Colomba, Villaquejida, León, which had been built on the site of a Roman villa.

Helsbels @helenus3.bsky.social · 4d ago

Well it is #RomanSiteSaturday & passing the Conway valley #NorthWales this afternoon I just had to go & see the parch marks that have appeared at Caerhun Roman Fort (Canovium). 😍...the fort's lines & contours are clearly visible in the fields #archaeology (Aerial 📷 RCAHMW @drtobydriver.bsky.social)

Carausius @carausius286.bsky.social · 3d ago

This elaborate bronze helmet with its fantastical crest belonged to ‘North Bersted man.’ He lived in late Iron Age England though he was likely a Gaul. The helmet was buried with him. I also post a reconstruction & imagined drawing of this elite warrior 🏛️Novium Museum, Chichester 📷mine

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 3d ago

For #AncientSiteSunday let's go to my favourite #Roman site: the temple complex of #Baalbek, located in the Bekaa Valley, #Lebanon. The breathtaking site contains some of the largest Roman temples ever built. The so-called Bacchus temple is one of...🧵1/2 📷 Rami Rizk 🏺 #archaeology

Close-up aerial view of the so-called Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, Lebanon, showing its massive colonnade with well-preserved Corinthian columns, surrounding ruins with fallen stones and walls, and green fields in the background.

Carceral Abolition @carceralabolition.bsky.social · 4d ago

A Mayan seated clay boxer figure with removable helmet from Petén in Guatemala. 600-900 CE www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPo...

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 4d ago

'Spitalfields #Roman woman' grew up in 3-4C Rome. Buried in rare decorated lead coffin in limestone #SarcophagusSaturday in London cemetery, w very high status purple Chinese silk clothing w gold threads, unusual glass + jet grave goods. Surely this will return to Lon Museum in Smithfield 2026....

A simple rectangular stone sarcophagus is shown across the image. It contains a lead coffin, narrower at the foot (on the right) and elaborately decorated with scallop shell and cable pattern decorations.
On being removed from Spitalfields Roman cemetery, the sarcophagus was opened and excavated live in front of cameral and visitors (including me!) in the Museum of London in 1999.

Dr. Elle, Her Celestial Majesty ✨👑🌌@abstractica.bsky.social · 5d ago

ㅤ Paestan red figure fish plate [detail] — attributed to the Binningen Painter, third quarter of 4th century bce ㅤ

Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 4d ago

This Aswan granite sarcophagus may reflect a C3 revolution. Emperor Gallienus stripped the senatorial aristocracy of military command, rewarding talented equestrian soldiers instead. Could this imperial gift have belonged to one of these newly powerful men? #SarcophagusSaturday #AncientBluesky 🏺

RED GRANITE SARCOPHAGUS, C3 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN

Here we see a sunlit sarcophagus in the roofless Aula IX of the Baths. Carved from red Aswan granite, the bathtub-shaped box features a heavy lid with lifting bosses and has been pieced back together from large fragments. The precise findspot is unknown, but it was recovered from the Roman suburbium, possibly from the imperial estate of Ad Duas Lauros along the Via Labicana. We know nothing about the occupant, but the material allows us to guess. Because Aswan granite was an imperial monopoly, this stone was a direct gift. It may have belonged to a newly powerful equestrian soldier, someone like Aurelius Theodotus, prefect of Egypt in 262–263 CE, promoted after Gallienus removed the senatorial aristocracy from military command. Any inscription was likely displayed on a lost brick mausoleum. The unbroken lid suggests the tomb was robbed and the lid cast to the floor long before the vault collapsed and smashed the empty basin.

Richard Osgood @richardosgood.bsky.social · 5d ago

Next week the team of veterans and service personnel will return to Castlemartin Ranges with @henebtwa.bsky.social to explore the enigmatic promontory fort at Buckspool. Will we find Iron Age evidence? Or objects like this exquisite jet Roman pin? #findsfriday #archaeology #wellbeing #veterans

Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 5d ago

One for #RomanRoadsFriday! “Roman Autobahn” uncovered next to the A8 (a motorway in Southern Germany). Achaeologists have uncovered a 90m stretch of the so-called Roman Alblimes road – a key frontier route linking Rottweil (my hometown) and Heidenheim. 👉 www.tagesschau.de/inland/regio...

Excavated Roman road: large light-colored stones stretching into the distance across an open field.

Carausius @carausius286.bsky.social · 5d ago

This Roman ring, wishing good life to Senicianus, was found in Silchester. It’s now on display in The Vyne. Its fame derives from the archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler consulting Tolkien on it in the ‘20s. Tolkien was inspired by the idea of a lost cursed ring & the rest is literary history. 🕰️C4thAD

Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 5d ago

The Hallaton helmet, a #Roman cavalry helmet from the C1st AD. It is a very ornate piece, originally covered in silver sheet & gold leaf, with a female goddess on the brow guard; it is one of the earlist known Roman helmets from Roman Britain... #AncientBlueSky #Archaeology

A corroded Roman helmet with a large brow guard & two attached cheek-pieces, viewed from the front

A side view of the helmet (from the left), showing cheek guard with a female figure in relief, & an ear guard

The helmet seen from behind, with a large neck guard

Anthony Majanlahti @anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social · 5d ago

A miracle of survival in the Domus Aurea. This precarious #Ganymede floats in the darkness, painted on a narrow surviving bridge of a false ceiling that has otherwise completely fallen away. A delicate Neronian illusion suspended over a cavernous void. #FrescoFriday #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FRAGMENT OF GANYMEDE ON A DROP CEILING, 65-67 CE. DOMUS AUREA

Looking up into the dark cavernous vaults of the Domus Aurea, we see a narrow, jagged bridge of a painted false ceiling suspended across the void. The plaster is decorated with intricate geometric borders framing a central, floating figure of Ganymede holding a shallow cup. The delicate, bright fresco work contrasts sharply with the raw, heavy shadows of the unpainted structural vault looming in the background where the rest of the drop ceiling has collapsed. As the mythological cupbearer to the gods, Ganymede was a natural subject for the Oppian pavilion, a structure specifically designed as a series of lavish banqueting spaces. However, his presence here was likely no coincidence. This specific room is small, intimate, and easily curtained off. The depiction of the beautiful youth suggests the space may have been designed for a more private encounter with a flesh-and-blood Ganymede, serving as a reminder that Nero's banquets were feasts for all the pleasures.

Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 6d ago

This wonderfully wonky mosaic from Withington Roman Villa in Gloucestershire, England, depicts a sea deity displaying attributes of both Oceanus and Neptune. He holds a trident, and has crustacean claws at his temples, with two dolphins emerging from his mouth. 🏺 1/ 300-400 CE. #BritishMuseum 📸 me

Irregular rectangle floor mosaic in red, orange, dark grey, and ecru-colored tesserae, framed by a band of wave pattern and a single fillet enclosing an aquatic scene flanked by sparsely leaved trees with hollow bases. Off-center is the head and upper torso of Oceanus/Neptune with a straggling beard, a convoluted mustache and three sets of lobster claws at each temple. His trident is placed obliquely across his body. His torso is truncated by a band of small checkers, which is not quite parallel to the border. Dolphins emerge from either side of his mouth, shaded predominantly white but with some shading in grey and have red fins and streamers. Below them are two more dolphins swimming in the opposite direction, smaller than those above but with red three-fluked tails. In the space above the dolphins and flanking Oceanus/Neptune are two simple 8-petalled flowers; the space on the northern side is filled by two sea-creatures both with outstretched forelegs and coiled tails; the upper one has bold spots on a buff body to identify it as a sea-leopard, and the other is perhaps a Capricorn (a sea-goat).

Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 5d ago

#FindsFriday This beautiful, jewelled disc brooch dates from the Anglo-Saxon period and was found in Kent. It is made from gilded silver, and features seven cut garnets. Disc-style brooches set with garnets, such as this one, were popular during the early Anglo #Saxon period, 6th century.

Jewelled disc brooch, 6th century. Silver, gold, garnet, and shell, 4.5 cm diameter. AN1836.p129.213.a Ashmolean Museum Collection

Garnets were imported into Anglo-Saxon England from sources in India, Sri Lanka and Czechia.

Jon Hawke @archaeohawke.bsky.social · 7d ago

In ancient Greece, a wealthy and fashionable woman’s #jewellery box may have contained a diadem, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings.✨ These #gold earrings, just 2cm long, are decorated with tiny, ornate rosettes. They are more than 2000 years old, dating to around 400–200 BCE. ✨

Greek craftspeople perfected gold-working, gem engraving and the use of moulds to make glass inlays and vessels.

See them on display in Gallery 16, Level G. Ashmolean Museum Collection .

✨ Gold earrings with rosettes, 400–200 BCE, ANOldfield.10

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · last wk.

I am teaching my graduate seminar on Slavery & Social Death (1200 BCE-1865 CE) again in the fall. We work a lot on the archaeology of enslavement—and the most emblematic object for Roman slavery is the Zoninus collar. J. Trimble has a great article on it. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.3...

Artist
Unknown artist
Description
Bronze slave collar. The inscription on the pendant identifies the wearer as a runaway slave and offers a solidum (gold coin) as a reward for his return to Zoninus, his master.
Date Late Roman, 4th–5th century CE
Medium bronze
Dimensions Collar: diameter: 12 cm (4.7 in). Pendant: height: 5 cm (1.9 in); width: 5 cm (1.9 in).
Collection Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
Current location
Baths of Diocletian wikidata:Q836108
Accession number
65043
Object history Previously in the Museo Kircheriano; before that in the collection of Alessandro Capponi, Verona.
Inscriptions Fugi tene me / cum revoc<a>/veris me d(omino) m(eo) / Zonino accipis / solidum

Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · last wk.

Light relief for #ReliefWednesday 🏺 Structor ('master builder') Diogenes signed his limestone panel showing tools of his trade, eg trowel, plumb line, cudgel or axe/hammer, scalpel - and the essential apotropaic phallus. Clearly proud of his trade... From Casa del Marinaio, Pompeii, in Antiquarium