Two terracotta tiles with white slip design. The design of the two adjacent tiles forms half of a circle. Half a small circle in the centre is surrounded by top half of an 8 pointed star form. Between the points of the stars can be seen 4 small 5 petal flowers. On the visible corners of each tile, at the top left and right are fleur de lis designs. Eltham Palace would have been in countryside during its royal habitation, but now in greater London south of Greenwich / Woolwich. Much later in 20th C converted by Courtaulds to stylish Art Deco residence.

#TilesOnTuesday
From decorative pavement of 1290s Great Hall, the earliest building at Eltham Palace, built for Bishop Bek of Durham.
Bek presented Eltham to Edward II in 1305, and it remained a royal residence, enhanced, altered and used by monarchs through to Charles I. Henry VIII grew up here.

Ruins of ‘unique’, circular water temple discovered in Egypt Built during the 2nd century, the circular building found in northern Sinai may have been dedicated to the god Pelusius

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/16/r...

Mosaic with blue/red/white guilloche borders top and bottom. Silenus caped in panther skin cloak behind a panther on the left, following Dionysus holding a wine vessel on the right, his arm around a young satyr.

#MosaicMonday
How to make an entrance: bring a panther to the party. Dionysiac scene of Silenus, a panther, Dionysus and Ampelos, a young satyr.
One of impressive #Roman mosaics at Musée départemental Arles antique, excavated 1914 in Trinquetaille area of Arles, thriving port area C1 BC-C3 AD. 🏺

Advocacy | CBA London

Our vacancy for a Vice Chair is still open. If you are interested or would like to know more, please get in touch via a DM or on our website: www.archaeologyinlondon.com/contact-8

Poor students haven't a chance as Texas becomes intellectual wasteland. Get out now.

Love that museum!

Recently restored castle in Norwich among five institutions shortlisted for UK's top museum prize Spaces in Norwich, Plymouth and Cambridge will be considered alongside London heavyweights for the £120,000 award

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/20/r...

Mosaic with blue/red/white guilloche borders top and bottom. Silenus caped in panther skin cloak behind a panther on the left, following Dionysus holding a wine vessel on the right, his arm around a young satyr.

#MosaicMonday
How to make an entrance: bring a panther to the party. Dionysiac scene of Silenus, a panther, Dionysus and Ampelos, a young satyr.
One of impressive #Roman mosaics at Musée départemental Arles antique, excavated 1914 in Trinquetaille area of Arles, thriving port area C1 BC-C3 AD. 🏺

A stained glass window commissioned by the parents of Sarah d'Avigdor Goldsmid who was drowned aged 21 with two friends. When he revisited for the installation of the window, Chagall said, 'It's magnificent. I will do them all.' He went on to complete another 11 windows there. Sarah lies dead in the sea with grieving figures looking on, her mother to the left, holding her 2 daughters. Another grieving figure is lower right. Sarah is floating in a sea of brilliant deep blue, and is borne to the shore on the right. Above her a red horse (symbol of joy for Chagall) carries her to a ladder leading to a benevolent Christ figure on the cross, surrounded by angels. The window is in shades of deep to pale blue, with areas highlighted with glowing yellow, eg, angel wings and behind a ladder leading to crucified Christ, plus the red horse and ladder.

#StainedGlassSunday
Marc Chagall designed all 12 windows in All Saints Church, Tudeley Kent working w his glassworker in Reims 1962-85.
A Russian Jew, he initially agreed commission for only this memorial for Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, from her Jewish father+Anglican mother.
ALT for story+symbolism.

More than 200 cultural figures sign statement criticising international response to destruction of Iran’s heritage A joint letter, published by the Society for Iranian Archaeology, condemns the “irreversible damage” to cultural sites caused by US-Israeli missile strikes

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/15/m...

How did a 16th-century European basin end up as a sacred object in West Africa? Mystery surrounds where the ‘Aya Kese’ was made and how it reached the West African kingdom of the Asante centuries ago

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/17/h...

Lebanon appeals to Unesco to intervene amid fears protected citadel has been destroyed The country’s ministry of culture has written to the UN body for “immediate and swift intervention to protect” the Chama' Citadel after reports of damage by Israeli forces

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/17/l...

A stained glass window commissioned by the parents of Sarah d'Avigdor Goldsmid who was drowned aged 21 with two friends. When he revisited for the installation of the window, Chagall said, 'It's magnificent. I will do them all.' He went on to complete another 11 windows there. Sarah lies dead in the sea with grieving figures looking on, her mother to the left, holding her 2 daughters. Another grieving figure is lower right. Sarah is floating in a sea of brilliant deep blue, and is borne to the shore on the right. Above her a red horse (symbol of joy for Chagall) carries her to a ladder leading to a benevolent Christ figure on the cross, surrounded by angels. The window is in shades of deep to pale blue, with areas highlighted with glowing yellow, eg, angel wings and behind a ladder leading to crucified Christ, plus the red horse and ladder.

#StainedGlassSunday
Marc Chagall designed all 12 windows in All Saints Church, Tudeley Kent working w his glassworker in Reims 1962-85.
A Russian Jew, he initially agreed commission for only this memorial for Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, from her Jewish father+Anglican mother.
ALT for story+symbolism.

View along a curving underground feature with 7 light wells open above, 8 arches to the right and 3 to the left. Pieces of architectural spolia (eg a Corinthian capital) are placed along the passageway and under some arches. The structure's surfaces are of thin terracotta brickwork.

View looking across the width of the amphitheatre underground showing a complex of interlocking arched passageways. Pieces of architectural stonework are on the floor, including decorative Corinthian capitals and fluted columns. As with other view, light floods in from above and numerous arches are in evidence.

#RomanSiteSaturday 🏺
Flavian amphitheatre in Pozzuoli, #Roman port of Puteoli west of Naples, is 3rd largest in Italy w spectacular underground structures surviving.
3 storeys high w wide passages + complexes for moving/lifting scenic effects. Animals were housed on 2 levels w 40 cages on each.

The forest floor is flooded with spring colour, a massive of bluebells with oak standards. I love the spring time on the edge of the Weald. Here just north of Steyning.
#Spring
#Bluebells
#Forest
www.instagram.com/reel/DXRnUBi...

View along a curving underground feature with 7 light wells open above, 8 arches to the right and 3 to the left. Pieces of architectural spolia (eg a Corinthian capital) are placed along the passageway and under some arches. The structure's surfaces are of thin terracotta brickwork.

View looking across the width of the amphitheatre underground showing a complex of interlocking arched passageways. Pieces of architectural stonework are on the floor, including decorative Corinthian capitals and fluted columns. As with other view, light floods in from above and numerous arches are in evidence.

#RomanSiteSaturday 🏺
Flavian amphitheatre in Pozzuoli, #Roman port of Puteoli west of Naples, is 3rd largest in Italy w spectacular underground structures surviving.
3 storeys high w wide passages + complexes for moving/lifting scenic effects. Animals were housed on 2 levels w 40 cages on each.

Museum's had an upgrade or two since then....! Lucky enough to have friends with a house near Lucca so can catch up on new acquisitions and displays every once in a while. Lucca does have some pretty amazing churches too of course. And archaeology. And walls. And festivals.

Gosh! My earliest one is a print from 1990s sometime. They do keep moving it around a bit, but it always attracts attention, I think.

Hidden treasures: Spanish archaeologists discover trove of ancient shipwrecks in Bay of Gibraltar Researchers identify wrecks at the bottom of the sea from as far back as fifth century BC, from Europe and beyond

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

‘A fresh look at contemporary culture’: Gus Casely-Hayford, director of V&A East, takes us inside the new London museum The Stratford-based museum, opening this month, aims to build on the success of V&A East Storehouse, which has attracted 500,000 visitors since it opened in May last year

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/15/a...

A square-ish marble panel in two sections, once part of a pluteus - a solid partition eg between two sections of a church. Under a guilloche border at the top, two fantail doves face the higher section of a cross, also with guilloche decoration. At each side of the top arm of the cross are discs with a floral motif within, and at the ends of each arm of the cross are larger discs with concentric circles. Facing each other either side of the lower section of the cross, with tongues out licking it, are a unicorn with a horn on the left and a lion with a mane on the right. Under the unicorn's neck is a tree, representing the myth of such an animal getting its horn stuck in a tree when fighting a lion.

#ReliefWednesday
One of my all-time favourite reliefs from Tuscany.
Beneath pair of fantail doves, lion and unicorn w lovely feet are licking a cross.
C 8-9 pluteus (dividing structure made of large slabs).
Originally in church of San Concordio, Lucca, now in city's Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi.

Rose Robin (Petroica rosea): 11cm (4.3in). This is a small passerine bird native to Australia. The male has a distinctive reddish-pink breast. Its upperparts are dark grey with white frons, and its tail black with white tips. Lovely photo taken by Neil McLeod in Australia. #robin #roserobin #nature

Interior space of Camposanto of Pisa Cathedral, showing parts of one long side on the right and a short side in the distance. Each side featurers a doorway arch, and more than 20 very high openings visible around the two sides of the structure. Each opening has three slender columns with delicate tracery at the top. Beyond the far, shorter, section is a domed structure. Extending from the doorway on the right is a walkway to the opposite long side. Several bases of former columns are also set in the lawned interior of the building.

A more detailed look at one corner of the Pisa Camposanto from inside looking up, and obliquely across a corner. One of the arched entries is shown with other delicately traceried archways to either side of it. Through these openings can be seen a further expanse of arches along the passageway around the corner to the left. Tracery is outlined against a blue sky, and the roof timbers and a small section of interior wall are also visible.

#TraceryTuesday
The 1277 Camposanto of Pisa Cathedral is vast: monumental in scale and impact. And very beautiful.
Built to provide a “large and dignified, secluded and enclosed place” for then scattered graves. Over time, it accrued huge frescos, monuments, memorials + bits of #Roman archaeology.

Interior space of Camposanto of Pisa Cathedral, showing parts of one long side on the right and a short side in the distance. Each side featurers a doorway arch, and more than 20 very high openings visible around the two sides of the structure. Each opening has three slender columns with delicate tracery at the top. Beyond the far, shorter, section is a domed structure. Extending from the doorway on the right is a walkway to the opposite long side. Several bases of former columns are also set in the lawned interior of the building.

A more detailed look at one corner of the Pisa Camposanto from inside looking up, and obliquely across a corner. One of the arched entries is shown with other delicately traceried archways to either side of it. Through these openings can be seen a further expanse of arches along the passageway around the corner to the left. Tracery is outlined against a blue sky, and the roof timbers and a small section of interior wall are also visible.

#TraceryTuesday
The 1277 Camposanto of Pisa Cathedral is vast: monumental in scale and impact. And very beautiful.
Built to provide a “large and dignified, secluded and enclosed place” for then scattered graves. Over time, it accrued huge frescos, monuments, memorials + bits of #Roman archaeology.

France’s new restitution law passes final vote Procedures for returning objects will be “strictly supervised” and the law applies only to items illegally taken between June 1815 and April 1972

www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/14/f...

An illustration by Time Team of a young boy with a sword in a grave and a young woman behind him with a workbox

Sketch of two skeletons in a grave cut on an archaeological site

A Saxon sword in a find’s box

An Anglo Saxon workbox encased in soil and wrapped with consolidation bandages from site

***Stop Press***
A rather incredible piece of news just in. The Crick has examined the DNA of the two individuals in a Saxon burial at Cherington in our dig with @timeteam.bsky.social & @cotswoldarch.bsky.social & found that they were BROTHER & SISTER. Astonishing what science can do now.

Moulded pot from Corbridge showing a smith (god?) at work

View of the site at Corbridge, with the museum building in the background

Durham and English Heritage are now recruiting for a fully-funded PhD on Roman Corbridge 🥳🥳🥳

This is a fantastic opportunity to work on one of our most important and understudied finds assemblages from Roman Britain. Deadline 1st June. Please share widely!

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

And surely the BBC reporter/interviewer must have asked her why she's not donating her stash to somewhere others can appreciate it?

In the foreground, one of 4 columns that supported a pergola at House of Mosaic Columns in Pompeii, with a section of geometric designs at the bottom, followed by a floral design over that and a band with a Dionysiac scene featuring deer and erotes. On the wall behind the column is a large lararium - a focus for worship of household gods. A niche in the centre is framed with stage like design and panels of geometric designs around the top three edges. At the bottom below the niche is a panel with a hen and chicks. To the right of the lararium can be seen a portion of another mosaic panel with a guilloche border and candellabra, plus a red panel near the top with erotes.

#MosaicMonday in overdrive at C1AD Villa of the Mosaic Columns, one of grandest in Pompeii.
1 of 4 great columns w Dionysiac scenes, eg cupids+deer, that supported pergola by a mosaic nymphaeum.
In adjoining garden was mosaic lararium (w chicken panel) for display of household gods.
MANN #Roman 🏺

In the foreground, one of 4 columns that supported a pergola at House of Mosaic Columns in Pompeii, with a section of geometric designs at the bottom, followed by a floral design over that and a band with a Dionysiac scene featuring deer and erotes. On the wall behind the column is a large lararium - a focus for worship of household gods. A niche in the centre is framed with stage like design and panels of geometric designs around the top three edges. At the bottom below the niche is a panel with a hen and chicks. To the right of the lararium can be seen a portion of another mosaic panel with a guilloche border and candellabra, plus a red panel near the top with erotes.

#MosaicMonday in overdrive at C1AD Villa of the Mosaic Columns, one of grandest in Pompeii.
1 of 4 great columns w Dionysiac scenes, eg cupids+deer, that supported pergola by a mosaic nymphaeum.
In adjoining garden was mosaic lararium (w chicken panel) for display of household gods.
MANN #Roman 🏺