A poster for my talk at the Boswell Book Festival on 10 May, which features a photo of me and the cover of my book The Road to Mons Graupius

I am excited to announce that I will be talking about my adventures in search of Roman Scotland at the Boswell Book Festival @bozzybookfest.bsky.social at Dumfries House on Sunday 10th May. In person or online tickets available here:
shorturl.at/qjcGm
#RomanFortThursday

It's 3 yrs now since my husband @pottedhistory.bsky.social and I visited the replica Roman "Villa Ventorum" at The Newt in Somerset. We went to see how his replica pots fitted into the villa and museum. It's always great to see items displayed in the context for which they were originally intended.

Roman Glass - Sand, Soda, and Empire Podcast Episode · Build Like a Roman · 26 March · 16min

Episode 10 is now available:

Roman Glass: Roman Glass, Sand, Soda and Sunlight

or...

Roman Glass: One Lump or Two?

Apple
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/r...

Spotify
open.spotify.com/episode/6DsA...

#romans #rome #history #archaeology #glass #romanbluesky

Excellent! Glad to help.

An artists impression of the temple and the hill-fort beyond. Art by Steve Smith

#HillfortsWednesday
Uley Bury is an multi-vallate, hill fort dating from around 300 B.C. It uses the Cotswold scarp to enhance its defences. A Romano-British temple was nearby and excavations in the 1970s revealed many wondrous objects such as a head of Mercury & several curse tablets.

On the road in the Western Roman Empire, by Prof. Tony King Tony King takes a look at some of the settlements that developed along Roman roads from Italy, through Gaul, and finally to Britain.

It's our last talk of the season this coming Thursday (March 26) evening. We've now caught up a bit so all the previous talks are available on YouTbe as well.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/on-the-roa...

"Amazon take the James Bond series in an unexpected direction."

#FindsFriday
Two scenes from the amphitheatre on Samian sherds. In one a man spears a lion during a staged beast hunt ('venatio'). In the other 2 gladiators face off. The pieces are now in @coriniummuseum.bsky.social in Cirencester, just round the corner from the old amphitheatre.
📸 me
#RomanBritain

#FrescoFriday
Venus Pompeiana, patron goddess of Pompeii, arriving in a chariot drawn by 4 elephants. She holds a sceptre and rudder and is accompanied by Cupid, holding a mirror. But it's the elephants that steal the show with their oddly modern pencil-sketch quality.
📸 me
C.1, Pompeii Antiquarium

#FindsFriday
Two scenes from the amphitheatre on Samian sherds. In one a man spears a lion during a staged beast hunt ('venatio'). In the other 2 gladiators face off. The pieces are now in @coriniummuseum.bsky.social in Cirencester, just round the corner from the old amphitheatre.
📸 me
#RomanBritain

#FrescoFriday
Venus Pompeiana, patron goddess of Pompeii, arriving in a chariot drawn by 4 elephants. She holds a sceptre and rudder and is accompanied by Cupid, holding a mirror. But it's the elephants that steal the show with their oddly modern pencil-sketch quality.
📸 me
C.1, Pompeii Antiquarium

I thought you'd probably have it in mind! 🗡️😵

And also increased threat from other Romans. Dendro has given a construction start in 293, the very year Allectus (sorry to bring it up) came to power. I suspect his agenda was to fight the tetrarchy on the beaches, on the landing grounds and never surrender.

Those Romans did like a water feature in the garden! Good for keeping newts happy (felix).

Terracotta panel from a water tank shows columns supporting an arched area with water flowing in the bottom and a tree/plant on the left. In the centre is Venus on one knee with her hands around two long strands of her hair. A large jar behind her leg has water running out of it. On the left is an attendant holding something cloth-like, and on the right is another attendant, with a narrow jug.

#ReliefWednesday from water tank, featuring rather grumpy Venus bathing in a stream attended by nymphs holding fluffy towel + water jug.
From High Rochester Fort, #Roman Bremenium: place of the roaring stream. Built on Hadrian's wall/Dere St for border control.
Gt North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle 🏺

Red kite with sausage roll snapped by Banbury photographer Mark Hopkins managed to get some pictures of the bird from his back garden.

Moments like these are why I think we need to reinstitute a college of augurs.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Eboracum Roman Festival is a biennial event in York celebrating the city's ancient Roman history. While the poster indicates dates from May 16–31, 2026, the main public festival activities are typically concentrated on a core weekend.

Romans will once again descend on York as the Eboracum Roman Festival returns from 16–31 May 2026, with events across the city and in York Museum Gardens. The festival’s highlight, the Living History Encampment on 23–24 May, will transform the gardens into a bustling Roman

<<Or something else?>> Barking out the warning "Starboard!" in accordance with the laws of the sea. That sea-feline is on a collision course!

Prof. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill has done a lot of work on this. I've not read it, but his 'Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum' is probably a good place to start.

Could the fire / fluke coming from the horse's mouth be misplaced too? I don't recall seeing that before.

A view from the entrance hall across the atrium, with an impluvium pool at its centre, to a sunlit reception hall behind. The buckling of the atrium floor is well shown by the black and white chequerboard pattern of the mosaic.

#MosaicMonday
The House of the Mosaic Atrium where the deformation of the floor caused by the eruption of Vesuvius which buried Herculaneum is strikingly apparent. The house was one of the most opulent in the town with a sweeping sea view.
📸 me

Birds and plants with a herm in a garden depicted on a wallpainting from Herculaneum, Italy, C1st. In the collections of National Archaeological Museum of Naples, inv. 8763. Photo is my own. #FrescoFriday

Birds and plants with a herm in a garden depicted on a wallpainting from Herculaneum, Italy, C1st. In the collections of National Archaeological Museum of Naples, inv. 8763.
Photo is my own.
#FrescoFriday

😍

A new supreme leader, you say?

Roman Britain's most wanted man, Caratacus, presumably.

The charred papyrus scroll rests in a metal cradle at the bottom of a glass fronted cabinet. Part of the scroll has been unrolled and hangs, in large fragments, from supporting wires.

A close up of the scroll in its metal cradle at the bottom of the cabinet. (Apologies for the glass reflections.)

The cabinet containing the mechanism. It sits in a corner of the Museum, unlabelled and easily overlooked!

#EpigraphyTuesday
One of the Herculaneum scrolls, preserved in charred form by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. Ever since the scrolls' discovery attempts have been made to read them. This example sits in the Papyrus Unrolling Machine designed by Fr. Antonio Piaggio c.1756: now in the MANN, Naples.

@drtobydriver.bsky.social created this nice explainer:

Yay, got it! The hideous large erotes are a major tell.

Druids and Furies by Dr Toby Driver Finding the Iron Age people of Ynys Môn and north-west Wales

I'm delighted to be lecturing at Oriel Môn/Anglesey Gallery in March about the incredible Iron Age remains on the island, including about recent work with @richardosgood.bsky.social at Llyn Cerrig Bach & our #RCAHMW recording of coastal forts.

See you there!

www.orielmon.org/en/events/dr...

Even roof tiles and writing tablets could get stamped if made for official use. Items ‘disappearing’ seems to have been a common problem.